No Room for Error: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Seven Page 20

  As I got closer, the water rose to my chest. I held the arm with the branch above my head. Panic kept bubbling, but I gritted my teeth and moved forward.

  Suddenly I felt a tug on the rope.

  “What happened?” I shouted.

  “End of the rope. See if you can reach the case with the branch.”

  I leaned forward as far as the rope would permit and stretched the branch out, trying to slide it under the strap, which was swaying in the current.

  I tried several times to no avail. My back and shoulders were aching and water kept splashing in my face, which I really hated.

  “I’ve given you a little more reach, Lexi.”

  I assumed he’d moved a bit into the water to get me closer. I took another step and slid the branch under the strap. Holding my breath, I pulled the strap toward me, reaching out my other hand to grab it.

  I almost had it when the branch snapped. I dropped the branch and threw myself forward and off my feet, grabbing for the strap of the bag with the tips of my fingers. I felt it brush my fingertips and then my hand closed over it. I went under the water face first, but when I came back up, I had the strap.

  “Lexi,” Finn shouted. “Are you okay?”

  Water had gone up my nose. But I had it.

  “Yes.” I yanked hard on the strap until the bag finally popped free, then slid it over my head and shoulder and turned around. “Get me the heck out of here.”

  Finn stepped backward, pulling. I walked to shore, fighting against the current with every step. Finally I made it, collapsing onto the shore. I was completely spent.

  Finn leaned down and untied the rope around my waist, heaving a sigh of relief. “Good work. I’m going back for Basia and the rest of our supplies.”

  I nodded, not able to speak yet.

  After a few minutes Basia and Finn returned. She was dry, so I assumed all had gone well as she crossed the stream.

  She sat down beside me, putting her head on my shoulder. “You’re my hero. Finn told me what you did.”

  “I did what had to be done. We’re all doing what has to be done. But this survival thing is a lot harder than it looks in the movies.”

  Basia hugged me. “True. And they never mention the bugs in the movies. I would trade half of my shoe collection for a fourteen-ounce can of insect repellent and a banana split right now. So what now?”

  I glanced up at Finn waiting for his response, but he didn’t answer. I understood what he was doing. He wanted us to all share in the leadership of our survival.

  I turned to Basia. “So, what do you think we should do?”

  She cocked her head. “Now we move on. What other choice do we have?”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Holy jumping spider!” I yelped.

  I backed into Finn, almost knocking him over trying to get away from a fist-sized brown, yellow and red monster with multiple eyes that had just jumped onto a nearby vine exactly at my eye-level. My heart was pounding so hard I could hardly breathe.

  Finn rolled his eyes and swept past me. He leaned in to take a closer look at it. “Fascinating. It looks like it has six eyes...no eight. Cool.”

  “Cool?” Basia repeated huddled behind me. “That is not cool. It’s probably a two-stepper. You know, it bites and we get to walk two steps before we’re dead. How far do you think it can jump? Do you think it can it reach us from here?”

  By this time Basia and I were a good eighteen feet away from it, but my brain feverishly calculated how quickly it could reach us if it were able to jump a foot every two seconds. It was too close for comfort, so I backed up, with Basia in tow, another two feet just in case.

  Finn herded us around the spider and we walked for several more hours. Finn led the way with me holding up the rear. I got sort of dry before it rained twice more, soaking us to the skin and then steaming us when it stopped. We managed to refill our bottles with a little with rainwater each time, but the rain was fast and we were slow to stop and get the bottles out of our pack in time. We were red-faced and sweating by the time Finn called a stop for the day.

  Basia let out a sigh of relief and dropped right where she was. “Oh, my God. I think I sleepwalked those last few miles.”

  Finn sat beside her. He was hardly recognizable with his beard and banged-up face. I pulled out the water bottles and tossed one to each of them. We were going through water fast with all the heat and exertion, but I estimated we still had about another half’s day worth of water left at the current rate.

  “I’m totally starving.” Basia took a drink. “It’s been three years since I’ve had a hamburger, but I’d eat four in one sitting right now.”

  Finn handed her the tin of Hawaiian Premium Shortbread and Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies. “Your meal is served, Madame.”

  She sighed and opened the tin, taking out a cookie and delicately biting a corner. “Why do you think it’s taking them so long to find us?”

  She offered me a cookie. I took one and passed the tin on to Finn. “The good guys or the bad guys?”

  “Either.”

  “Well, in terms of the bad guys, we’re on the move and trying to evade detection. We’re amateurs, so we don’t know what we’re doing, which makes us predictably unpredictable. I also presume there is a learning curve for them in this terrain. For the good guys, it’s probably the same. We’re all over the place and hiding. We don’t know who is good or bad, so we have to avoid both until we can be sure who is who. I’m hoping that the good guys know we can’t distinguish between them and think to broadcast by loudspeaker that they are the good guys and for us to come out.” I paused. “Of course, the bad guys could think of the same idea and use it to trick us into revealing ourselves. I guess we just have to keep moving and trust they’ll find us first.”

  Finn handed me pretzels and I ripped open the bag and put one in my mouth. The salt tasted awesome, but I worried it would make me thirstier. Finn ate a couple of bags of peanuts and then leaned back on his hands.

  “I don’t want to be the one to break it to you girls, but this meal marks the end of my role as expedition chef. That was the last of our food.”

  Basia sighed. “Maybe we’ll find a village soon that has a phone.”

  “I sincerely doubt that.” I ate another pretzel and then smashed a mosquito that landed on the back of my muddied hand. “Did you know Papua New Guinea is home to over three hundred different native tribes? Many of them have never had direct contact with people outside their tribe. So the odds of finding a phone or internet service is pretty small.”

  “God, I hate those odds.” She stood, stretching her back. “You know, I could really use some good news for a change, but first I have to go to the bathroom.”

  “Want me to come with you?” I offered.

  “No. I’ve got this.”

  “Okay, but don’t go far,” Finn warned.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t. I have no intention of getting left behind.” She disappeared into the trees.

  She hadn’t been gone for more than two minutes when I heard a scream and thrashing sounds behind a screen of nearby trees. Finn and I scrambled to our feet, picking our way through the underbrush the best we could.

  We found Basia on her knees, bent over something.

  “Basia?” I said.

  She stood slowly. I took a step back, my mouth dropping open.

  Finn gasped. “Holy Mother of God.”

  Lying on the ground, impaled through the head by the heel of one of her precious shoes, was a long, fat snake. Other wounds around its neck and body implied that she had stabbed it repeatedly before it expired.

  My gaze shifted between her and the snake. “What happened?”

  “It tried to bite my ass. I used the only weapon I had.”

 
I stared at her in fascination. “You stabbed a snake with your shoe?”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to kill it with my hands.”

  Finn squinted at it. “Damn it, woman. Remind me to give you plenty of room at a party.”

  “Was it poisonous?” I asked.

  “How the heck would I know? It wasn’t like I was going to ask.”

  Basia bent down and tried to shake it off her shoe, but it wasn’t budging. Neither Finn nor I moved forward to help her pull it off.

  For a minute the two of us stood there staring at Basia and the snake, trying to wrap our heads around it. Finally Finn stepped forward and did the man thing. Using a stick, he stepped on the snake behind the head and pulled the heel out of the snake and then used a wide leaf to wipe the snake guts off the shoe as best as possible.

  “Here,” he said gallantly, handing the shoe back to her as a last couple of drops of blood trickled from the underside of the shoe and down the heel to ground.

  She stared at it, still in shock, then shook her head. “I can’t. I just can’t. Damn it, I could kill that snake again for making me say this, but Lexi, can I have Wendy’s shoes?”

  “Of course.”

  We returned to our supplies, and I pulled Wendy’s shoes out of my pack. They were actually a bit too big for Basia, so I cut another couple of squares from the blanket and we stuffed it in the toes. She walked around a bit and seemed satisfied. Still, I didn’t want to waste anything and, given the remarkably high statistical probability we would come across more snakes, I put the heels in my bag.

  Finn took out the tarp. “It’s time to call it a day. Lexi, you and I have to take off our clothes. All of them. They are still damp and we need to lay them out to dry. Basia, you need to check Lexi for leeches.”

  My eyes widened. “Leeches? On me? You are kidding, right?”

  “I never kid about leeches. There’s a chance we picked some up in the river.”

  I started to hyperventilate and scratch at my jeans. “Okay, Basia can check me, but who’s going to check you?”

  He smiled. “Flip a coin, ladies. Or fight it out. No worries.”

  I rolled my eyes. “We’ll both do it.”

  “Excellent suggestion.” His smile widened as he pulled off his shirt. He held his arms out to each side. “Have at me, girls.”

  Basia and I walked around him and began pulling slimy, sucking leeches off his back, shoulders and scalp. I tried not to be grossed out, but after yanking the first three off, I wasn’t feeling so good.

  Basia on the other hand, was acting as if she did this all the time. “I only found nine so far,” she said cheerfully.

  I freaking couldn’t believe this was the same Basia I’d always known. The Basia who was on a first-name basis with several French designers, drove her trash to the Dumpster at the end of her condo building because the walk was too far and never, ever wore white after Labor Day. My stomach was churning as I squeezed each little body off, especially knowing these same blood-sucking creatures were attached to me as well.

  “Now take off your shoes, socks and pants, Finn.” Basia marched in front of Finn with her hands on her hips. “But leave your underwear on. Lexi and I will check your bum—again—but we’ll let you handle your private area yourself.”

  “Damn.” Finn snorted. “You sure know how to take the fun out of leeching.”

  Doing as he was told, Finn stripped to his undies while we pulled a dozen more leeches from his legs and bum. At last he was leech-free. He was shivering and swarmed by mosquitos by the time he slid under the blankets. I hung his clothes on some tree branches and then it was my turn.

  I endured the same treatment, then stood by the tarp, shivering in my underwear and covering my boobs with my hands.

  “Finn, this may well be the most embarrassing moment of my life.” Then I remembered the time I had knocked Father Murphy’s toupee in his soup, danced on a stripper pole and tipped two beers down the back of a patron at a sushi restaurant and I amended my statement. “Well, at least it makes my top ten list. But right now I’m just too tired and miserable to be awkward about it. I’m coming in.” My teeth chattered so hard I could hardly talk.

  Finn patted the spot next to him under the blanket. “Shut up and get in, lass. No embarrassment necessary. I warmed a spot for you.”

  A shiver shook me. “Fine. But you have to swear we’ll never, ever speak of this once we’re rescued.”

  Finn held up a hand, his eyes dancing with amusement. “I do so solemnly swear. Is that legal enough for you?”

  I scooted under the blankets and Basia joined us after laying out my wet clothes. She gave Finn the eye across the blanket. “Don’t enjoy this too much, okay?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s all in the name of survival, I swear. Plus, I’ve seen you in action twice with those heels. I can assure you I will be a perfect gentleman.”

  Despite the awkwardness of the situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  As we lay huddled together for warmth, my stomach growled. “Does anyone know what else there is to eat in the jungle?”

  “What about coconuts and mangoes?” Basia offered. “I always see survivors eating those in the movies.”

  I tried to think back if I’d seen anything that resembled a coconut palm during our walk. Actually the only place I had seen them were on beautiful movie beaches or along the streets of Hollywood. And I wasn’t even sure if those were coconut or date palms.

  “Okay, Basia, you let us know as soon as you spot one,” I said. “We can use Finn’s head to crack them open.”

  “Are you kidding?” Basia snorted. “We don’t find the coconuts. They find us. In the movies they fall down and brain someone on the head. Get serious. I wouldn’t know a coconut tree unless I found coconuts on the ground underneath it.”

  “There’s fish,” Finn offered. He rested his head on his arm. “My da and I used to go fishing, but I always had bait and a pole. Don’t know how well I’d do with a spear, but I could always give it a try. The water here is pretty muddy, so I’m not sure I could spot a fish. What we really need to know is what the most edible berries or plants are in the region.”

  Dang, he was right. Berries were easy to spot, easy to eat and could sustain us. At this moment, I would have sold all my earthly possessions for fifteen minutes on a laptop with wi-fi. “I really miss Google. A lot.”

  Everyone laughed.

  I rolled to my side, propping my head on the palm of my hand. “You know, it’s a good thing we’re so tuned in to nature. A lawyer, a geek and a city girl. It sounds like the start to a bad joke.”

  “It’s totally embarrassing.” Basia yawned. “I’d be the first to die in a zombie apocalypse.”

  “Not true,” Finn said. “You’d stab it in the eye with your shoe. Never knew you had it in you, lass.”

  Basia paused and then heard the smile in her voice. “Neither did I. But I do now.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The odds that I would trip and break my leg increased with every mile we walked. Given my klutziness combined with a head injury, dehydration and fatigue, I calculated the odds to be seven hundred and sixty-seven to one that I’d suffer a bad fall within the next few steps. The footing seemed to get more uneven, the foliage thicker and harder to traverse with every step.

  Miraculously, I beat the odds and didn’t fall. Yet. Meanwhile I kept my eyes open for paths that might lead to a village. We were past our physical limits and were continuing solely on a shared determination not to quit. We were out of food and nearly out of water. After a particularly rough traverse around a small waterfall that I would have described as scenic and gorgeous under other circumstances, I watched Basia and Finn lurching, holding each other up as we started to leave the pool at the base of the falls. I worried about Basia’s
arm and Finn’s head injury. My nose, left cheek and forehead still hurt, but my brain had either turned off the pain receptors or I’d become more adept at ignoring it. Perhaps I was too exhausted to notice.

  I decided we were overdue for a break and this seemed like a nice spot. It was also probably time to talk about what to do if we stumbled upon the local villagers.

  Finn studied me as I mentioned the villagers. “Why do you bring that up, Lexi?”

  “Before we started down from the falls, I could see smoke on the horizon through the trees. I’m unable to accurately judge the distance. So, it could be the bad guys or it could be the good guys. Or, more likely, it’s just a native village. We know what to do with the good or bad guys, but we haven’t formed a plan for interacting with the villagers.”

  “We could throw ourselves on their mercy,” Basia offered.

  I started to tie my shoe and a piece of the shoelace snapped in my hand. I tossed it aside and tied a lopsided bow. “The bad guys might have been there before us. If they offered the villagers a reward, we could be in real trouble.”

  Finn scratched his chin. “I hadn’t thought of that. But I think I’ve seen a glimpse of a few natives slipping past us through the trees.”

  Basia looked at him in astonishment. “You did? Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Because I wasn’t sure and, so far, they’ve left us alone.”

  I wasn’t surprised. Although I hadn’t spotted anyone, I’d suspected we were being watched as soon as I saw the fires.

  “Well, my thinking is that unless they make first contact, we should avoid them until we can observe them and determine if they’re on our side.”

  “How can we determine that?” Basia asked.

  “I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out somehow.” I said that more confidently than I felt.