Footprints In The Sand - Michelle Horst Page 0,70

I ask the question because my nerves are tattered threads after the jump and now they expect me to do it again. I need to catch my breath before having to attempt the next jump. My legs feel too numb to move.

“Trackers. They know you come through the gate on the seventh day of the seventh month. They’ll come looking for you. It’s what they are trained to do. There’s no reward if they don’t deliver.”

“Deliver what?” I ask, but Chance is already running again.

“They need to deliver every single one of us,” Ethan says.

First rebels and now trackers? What kind of world have I been sent into where a Dissolute has to keep me from being killed by people who calls themselves rebels and trackers?

~*~

The second jump goes better, I don’t miss the building entirely, but Chance still has to help me up. I also manage to not grab hold of him like a scared wimp. I consider that a good thing. I don’t want him to see me as a nuisance.

By the fourth jump I think I’m getting the hang of how I should stretch my body and hold my arms. The landing part not so much. My hands are chafed, and I’m sure my right knee is bleeding from banging it into the rooftop with the last jump. Although the men say nothing, I feel proud of myself. I know that’s wrong, to feel proud, it’s a vice but I can’t help it.

“We have to jump into that building,” Chance says, pointing downward, slightly to the right.

My pride disappears when I see the hole he is pointing at. It’s big, but even when I turn my head sideways I can’t see a way for me to make the jump.

I scan the building for another way. I could jump to the rooftop and climb down. I could try and manage that. I’ll just have to do it that way.

“I know I won’t make the jump. I’m going to jump to the roof and climb down.” I’m surprised at how steady my voice sounds. Last night I was staring at my glofish and now I’m jumping buildings. It all feels so surreal.

We go in the same order, Chance, and then Aaron. Aaron almost doesn’t make it and I hold my breath as Chance grabs his shirt and yanks him forward. Ethan takes a deep breath and sprints. I hold mine until he lands and rolls into the hole. No one is on the roof to catch me or help me this time.

I walk back further than the previous times, to get a better start. For a second I close my eyes and breathe in and out. It can’t be worse than the first jump. I sprint and launch myself off the roof. My heart beats the seconds until I slam down on the other rooftop, hard and shoulder first. I did it, how doesn’t matter right now. It just matters that I did it. Heat rushes through my body, setting every nerve alive. I’ve done it on my own.

I move to the edge of the roof and look down. It’s really high and my sight warps. For a moment it feels as if the building is swaying and it makes my insides feel like jello.

“Jasper, lower yourself.” Chance calls me back to my present predicament.

The distance to the hole is too far for me to just hang myself down and swing into it.

“Jai,” he says in a much softer tone. I see Chance hanging out of the hole, like he did when he was hanging from the ladder, only holding on by his right arm. What does one have to do to become so courageous and so strong? “Just lower yourself. Trust me. I will catch you.”

No one has ever asked me to trust them before. I can’t see his eyes. My dad said you can see a person’s integrity in their eyes.

I roll onto my stomach and maneuver myself over inch by inch, until I’m hanging on by my elbows. My weight is pulling me down and the bones of my elbows dig into the concrete. My feet are desperately looking for a foothold, but the building doesn’t have any. It’s cold against the bare skin of my stomach as my shirt has inched up from sliding over the edge.

“Trust me and let go. I’ll catch you, Jai.” His voice is kind, really kind for the first time.

He helped me up a ladder. He pulled me up the