Chapter 27

C HAPTER 27

"Victoria! Wren! Comet!" Brooke's face appears at the mouth of the cave-in. "Can you hear me?" Comet barks at the sound of her voice.

"We're okay. You guys?" I call.

"Um. We're alive." Her voice is strained beyond anything I've heard before. I break out in a cold sweat.

"Where's Theo?" Victoria and I demand in unison.

"He's coming," Brooke says, her eyes now fixed on something we can't see.

"Did you find the key?" Victoria asks.

"No. Not yet…" Her attention drifts away from us again.

"Brooke!" I clap my hands. "What's going on? Where is everyone else?"

It's hard to tell from so far away, but she looks terrified.

"Just tell us what happened!" My mind races through a hundred horrible scenes, each one worse than the last.

"The earthquake triggered a… a…" She trails off, eyes wide with fear. I pick up the sharp rock with my slick palm and slam it into the handcuffs again. Pain radiates from my shoulder to my fingertips.

"Snap out of it, Brooke!" Victoria shrieks.

My sister breaks out of her trance and looks down at us. "The volcano is erupting."

Blood rushes in my ears. I blink to get the black spots out of my vision. I think I'm hallucinating a worst-case scenario, until I see the terror on Victoria's face and realize I heard correctly. We're trapped in a lava tube during a volcanic eruption.

I'm too horrified to move.

If I'm about to die, I don't want to be racked with guilt when I go.

"I lost your insulin," I tell Victoria.

Her face freezes in shock, but then her eyes keep roving the walls, looking for a way out. "Apologize later. We have to get out of here."

The rumble within the earth is growing; I can feel it in the soles of my feet, and I have to get this off my chest in case I don't get another chance. "I found your purse after the crash. I wrapped it around me, but it was too hard to swim. I felt like it was dragging me underwater, which doesn't make sense because it was so small, but that's just an excuse because I did bring it to shore, but then you made a snarky comment about sharks so… I let it sink."

Victoria wrenches the rock from my hand and slams it into the metal. On her sixth strike, the handcuffs break in half.

"Remind me to speak to Winston about his crap handcuffs," she says, tossing the rock to the side.

"Hurry!" Brooke shouts. "I'll grab your hand!" She leans into the tube and stretches her hands as far as they'll go.

I brace myself against the stone wall and lace my fingers together to give Victoria a boost. She puts her hands on my shoulders and brings her face close to mine. "Don't tell Theo about the bag." Her breath smells alarmingly fruity.

"Why not?"

"It won't change anything. It'll just be another fact he uses to torture himself, and your guilt isn't more important than his peace of mind." She places her foot in my palms and climbs onto my shoulders. She pushes onto her tiptoes and I think there's no way Brooke is going to be strong enough to pull her out, but then Henry and Theo appear, each stretching a long arm to haul Victoria up and out of the lava tube. The moment her feet hit solid ground, Theo jumps down next to me.

"What the hell are you doing?" I scream.

"Getting you out of here," he shouts. "On my shoulders, now!"

"What about you?"

"I swear to God, Wren, if you don't get on my shoulders, now —"

I place my foot in his laced fingers and he quickly lifts me up. Henry grabs my hands and drags me out of the lava tube, the rough stone wall scraping across my body, stitches stretching and tearing in my arm. I roll onto the ground and shield my eyes against falling ash and debris. Brooke throws her arms over me. A thick column of white steam spews from the volcano above us. The heat is unbearable, and if we were any closer to the top, the steam would be burning us alive. It still might, if we don't get out of here ASAP. The earth around the crater is cracking, and red-hot, bubbling lava is seeping through the fissures and sliding in our direction. Brooke may have told us that the volcano was erupting, but nothing could have prepared me for this. I choke on the rancid, sulfuric smell.

"Run!" Theo screams from down below.

"Run now," Henry agrees. "I'll stay with Theo."

Victoria hesitates.

"RUN!" I scream, and she listens, stumbling across the rocks as she sprints away from us.

"Wren!" Brooke grabs my hand and tries to tug me away.

"Go!"

"Not without you."

I glance back down in the lava tube, where Theo's trying to scale the wall. A tremor rolls through my body. He'll never make it. The stone is too smooth, and there are no footholds or rocks for him to grab. Next to him, Comet is on his hind legs with his paws extended toward me, his big, trusting eyes begging to be rescued.

"I can't." I blink away tears.

She glances down at Theo and then pulls me close. "Don't be a hero, and don't be an idiot."

"I'll never forgive myself if I don't try. Go without me." My eyes burn from the ash and steam, and my skin feels like it's on fire.

She takes my hand in hers and squeezes hard enough to bruise. "Promise me that you won't wait until it's too late."

"I can't—" My voice breaks off as fear claws its way up my throat. I don't know if that's a promise that I can keep.

Henry pulls Brooke aside and whispers something into her ear. She glances at me again and then nods. She gives my hand one final squeeze. "I'll meet you at the beach."

When she's gone, Henry and I stare up at the flowing lava. It's moving quickly over the steep terrain, and I doubt we have more than a couple of minutes. I look back at Theo. His shoes slide against hardened magma as he drops back to the ground.

He growls in frustration. "You need to go, Wren."

I grind my molars. "No. We're getting you out." I look at Henry. "Hold my feet."

He digs his heels into the ground and braces himself, wrapping his wrists around my ankles and holding tightly to my calves. I crawl over the edge of the hole and dangle against the side of the wall, arms outstretched. My head swims.

I close my eyes. "Send him up!"

My hands close around two small, hairy paws. Comet thrashes against the wall, his back paws scrambling for impossible purchase. I look down. Theo has his hands under Comet's butt, pushing him up toward me.

"Got him?" Theo asks.

"I think so."

Henry starts to pull us up, but gravity immediately drags Comet back down. He's whining and twisting and so, so heavy in my arms. "Be still, boy. Please be still," I beg as his nails dig into my palms. My heart throbs painfully against my rib cage. "He's slipping."

Comet whines, his brown eyes wide with fear.

"You've got this," Theo says, but I don't feel like I do. I'm so tired, and everything hurts so bad.

"I don't," I sob. One of Comet's paws slips from my sweaty hands, and all ninety pounds of him transfer to my injured arm. My second hand gives out, and Comet falls into Theo's waiting grasp. Blood trickles out of my torn stitches.

"Listen to me, Wheeler," Theo yells as he secures my thrash ing dog. The steam and ash are so thick in the air that I can barely see, and breathing feels impossible. "Can you hear me?"

"I'm sorry," I cry, and I can't believe it's come to this. All we've been through, and this is how it ends. Caught in a freaking volcano, and I'm not strong enough to save the person (and pup) I fell in love with. I was so stupid to ever even daydream a happy ending for us.

"What did you say in your wedding vows?" he asks.

The blood rushing to my head makes it hard to think. "All dogs are worth saving?" I sob harder.

"No. Well, yes, but no. You said you owe me one, and I'm cashing in the favor. And what did I say in my vows?"

This one is easy; the words are burned in my mind. "You said we were fate." I don't know if he even hears me over Henry screaming and Comet barking and the world ripping apart.

"I said I won't give up on you. You are the strongest person I know, and you can do this. Now save your dog."

His voice cuts through the chaos and I hear every word clearly. Theo pushes Comet up into my arms and with Henry pulling on my legs, I summon every ounce of strength left in my body and drag him over the edge. He flops on top of me, his weight knocking the breath from my chest, and licks the tears off my face.

"Ready to go again?" Henry asks. I nudge Comet off my belly and pull myself back over the edge. Theo's hands reach for mine, the tips of his fingers just barely grazing.

"I can't reach," he says.

"Try again," I insist.

"The lava is coming," Henry warns from above. "We're running out of time."

Theo freezes, and even through the ash and steam, I can see panic in his eyes. "You have to go." His voice is pure rasp.

" Try again! "

He walks back as far as he can in the cramped space and then runs forward, placing his foot on the wall. He scrambles up and I reach out, grabbing his hands like a flash of lightning. Gravity drags him down, pulling me with him and nearly dislocating my shoulder. Henry shouts as he slides forward, feet slamming into the dirt and stopping all three of us from crashing back into the lava tube. Slowly but surely, Theo uses my hands as an anchor as he walks his way up the wall.

I scream as my sutures tug against swollen skin. Theo releases my injured arm and grips the edge of the lava tube with his free hand. He pulls himself up, his biceps straining with the effort. We collapse next to each other on our backs, gasping for fresh air that doesn't exist. Theo looks at me and places a scratched and bloody hand on my cheek. He leans in and kisses me. I don't realize I'm crying until I taste salt on my tongue, but I don't care. I'll kiss him while the world burns around us.

Henry clears his throat. "We really don't have time for this."

Theo and I pull apart and stare at Henry, who looks at us like we've lost our minds.

"Lava, remember?" He nods in the direction of the crater.

Theo and I look up. A stream of lava as wide as the length of a semitruck gushes toward us, devouring everything in its path. Theo yanks me up and we run, Comet leading the way, down the side of the volcano and away from certain death.

I run until my vision blurs and my windpipe feels like it's collapsing. I've lost track of how many times I've fallen and scraped my knees, my shins, my palms, but we keep moving forward, and we're faster than the lava. We're outrunning it.

"Can we stop?" I gasp.

Theo and Henry slow down; I don't so much slow as I come to a crashing, fumbling stop. I trip over my own feet and land on my bad arm, a shock of pain reverberating all the way to my bones, and I realize this is how I'm going to die. Not from the volcano, but from the pain in my arm. "It was nice knowing you both. Theo a little more than Henry, no offense."

Theo kneels next to me. "You all right, Wheeler?"

Wheel-a. I'm obsessed with the way my name sounds in his mouth. He was right. I am half in love with my new nickname, and I'm fully in love with him.

I push his hair out of his eyes. "I can't move. I'm leaving this world Pompeii-style."

"It's hardly a Pompeii-level volcano."

"Donate my GoFundMe money to Comet, and make sure he knows it's from me and not Victoria."

Theo's sigh is long-suffering. "When we're rescued, you and Victoria are going to have to figure out this Comet issue on your own. Maybe work out shared custody."

"Between countries?"

He tucks an errant strand of hair behind my ear and trails his hand along my neck. "Sometimes I like to pretend it's possible."

I don't think we're talking about my dog anymore, and suddenly I can't move for completely different reasons. I'm paralyzed by fear. The closer we get to the bottom of the volcano, the closer we are to rescue.

Ahead of us, Comet barks, and a voice calls my name.

"That's Brooke," Theo says. His hand is in mine, and I don't know how long it's been there, but it strikes me as important that we keep reaching for each other. He helps me to my feet. "Just a little further."

"Do we have to?" I sag against his body. "We could build ourselves a tree house and learn how to fish."

He smiles sadly at me, and I wonder when I'll stop wanting things I can't have. "Victoria needs us to keep going," he says, and I know he's right. She's what matters right now.

At the bottom of the volcano, we enter a forest like the one on the other side of the island, where Naomi, Winston, and Reggie are hopefully safe from the eruption. The trees filter out some of the ash, and it's easier to breathe under their cover. We catch up to Brooke and Victoria, who are both covered in so much ash it's hard to see anything but the whites of their eyes.

"You look awful," I say, because it's the only thing that won't have me bawling on Brooke's shoulder.

"So do you," she agrees. She leads me away from the group so they can't hear us. "You're really in love with him, aren't you?"

I glance over her shoulder at Theo, who is almost strangling his siblings in a hug, and it's hard to breathe. "Yeah," I sigh.

It's gut-wrenching that the only part of my future that I'm sure about is the one thing I'll never have.

We find another stream and take a minute to scrub the ash off our faces in hopeful silence. We've almost made it. Rescue is imminent.

"How close are we to the beach?" Victoria asks, her eyes bright with anticipation.

"I can hear the waves again. I think we're close," Brooke says.

"Let's get moving," Theo says.

We're coughing, wheezing, and limping as we push through the forest. The sun sets, but we don't stop. We get closer and closer to the water, the salty air providing a welcome relief from the oppressive smell of sulfur and ash as the volcano continues to emit a column of steam into the atmosphere.

We walk until we hit sand. This beach doesn't have the same cliffs that we left behind on the other side of the island, but otherwise, it looks the same.

No roads, no homes, no businesses, no cars, no people. I look left and right at the dark empty shoreline unfurling in both directions.

We're surrounded by nothing but salt, and sand, and an ash-blackened sky.

"How will we find the people who live here?" Victoria asks. It's the question I've been dreading in my bones.

Brooke gives me an uneasy look that says everything I've tried not to dwell on. It's what gave me pause looking over the island at our highest point.

There's no one here.

We trekked this entire island in two days, and if people lived here, we would have seen evidence of it.

The village Reggie promised us doesn't exist. We've made it as far as we can go, and we're alone.