lost in the rainforest.
“Hello,” she shouted, her voice shrill with panic. “Can anyone hear me?” She couldn’t possibly have wandered too far away. She’d been following Janice’s muddy boot prints, stepping into the same spot her friend had taken. Looking down, she realized that it wasn’t a boot print she’d been blindly tracking—it was a bare footprint.
“Help,” she tried again, but she could barely hear her own voice above the sound of the pounding rain. She stood under the shelter of what could well have been a banana tree until she remembered Asher’s talk about the wandering spider. One could easily be hiding in the leaves. She preferred getting drenched over being bitten by a murdering spider.
Frozen, she was almost afraid to breathe. The downpour had returned to a mist, but by this point her clothes were sopping wet and clung to her.
“Why is this happening?” she cried out to the universe. If Annette had sought revenge, she’d gotten it in spades. She could see the headlines now: “Chicago Executive Lost in Amazon Rainforest.”
The leaves rustled behind her and for a moment she was convinced she’d been found. Quickly she surmised that the movement might not be human but that of a wild animal. Asher had said that the jaguar made the rainforest its home. The jaguar was the third-largest big cat in the world, he’d said. He’d also mentioned they were killing machines.
“Nice kitty,” she whispered.
The bush moved again. Her breathing stopped entirely as fear gripped her lungs. Never had she been more afraid in her life. She thought about her mother and siblings and regretted every holiday she’d missed with her family. Silently she pleaded with God that if He let her survive, she’d make it up to her family if it took her the rest of her life, which she sincerely hoped would last many years.
The brush parted. Everly’s eyes widened. This was it. Either she was being rescued or she would be left for dead on the muddy floor of this jungle.
Only, it wasn’t a jaguar that was behind the vegetation. It was a short man with a dark face smeared with red paint. He wore a loincloth and carried a spear.
Everly immediately relaxed. One of the Caribs, the indigenous people they were meeting, had found her. He would take her to the others.
“Oh, thank heavens,” she said, smiling at him. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you finding me. I don’t know what happened. I was right behind Janice and then I wasn’t.”
He stared at her and remained silent.
“It must have been your footprint that I followed. How that happened is a mystery to me. Maybe not, as there was that fork in the path. I must have chosen the wrong one. Thankfully, Asher noticed and sent you to find me.”
Again, he remained silent.
“I can’t imagine where Jimmy is. Have you seen him?” She was grateful when the sun broke through the canopy of trees, providing enough light for her to see.
The little man, who was no taller than five foot three, turned and indicated that she should follow him. He was amazingly agile and quickly made his way through the foliage. Everly blindly followed and did her best to keep pace.
After several minutes at this grueling pace, she badly needed to rest. Asher must have forgotten to tell him she had only recently recovered from a lengthy illness. “Would it be possible…for you…to slow down?” she asked, in a desperate effort to catch her breath. She was eager to join the others, but she wasn’t sure how long she could maintain this killing pace.
The man made a grumbling sound. It amazed her how adept he was at walking through the rainforest. He might be small in stature, but he was quick and strong. Keeping up with him was difficult.
After thirty minutes, Everly found it nearly impossible to move at the same rate as her rescuer, and once more, she began to slow down. She’d assumed the village, where Asher planned to take them, would be relatively close.
How had she really gotten so far turned around?
Breathless, she stopped and planted her hands on her knees, hoping to even out her breathing. If she’d had the wherewithal, she would have explained her circumstances, but it didn’t seem like the man understood a word she’d said. Every time she tried to communicate, he cocked his head to one side and gave her the strangest look.
“I need to rest,” she said calmly,