for the climb, when Declan suddenly changed direction, running parallel to the slope instead of up it.
“What are we doing?” she demanded as he hustled her through the jungle.
“Change of plans.” He pushed her ahead of him. “Keep running straight ahead.”
She didn’t have a clue what he was up to, but she liked any plan that didn’t involve running up the side of a mountain. She started rethinking that idea a few minutes later, when their route led straight to a swiftly moving stream and Declan dragged her into it with him.
God, it’s cold!
Biting her lip, she lifted her weapon high and let Declan lead the way upstream through the freezing, knee-deep water. The stream was moving fast, and the bottom was filled with big rocks that rolled out from under her feet as she moved. Hitting them at a stumbling run made it hard to keep upright. If Declan hadn’t been holding her hand, she would have fallen a dozen times.
Kendra was so numb from the cold, she barely realized the tree-lined banks had transitioned into steep, rocky cliffs. Her eyes went wide. If the hybrids followed them in here, there’d be nowhere to go but up those cliffs, and she’d never be able to climb them. She and Declan would be trapped. Her panic kicked up a notch when he abruptly changed direction and headed for the nearly vertical cliff on their right. What the hell was he thinking?
But when they got to the stone wall, Declan didn’t order her to climb as if her life depended on it. Instead, he shoved some hanging vines out of the way to reveal a wide diagonal gash in the rock that was almost four feet wide and ten feet high.
A cave?
“How did you know this was here?” she asked.
His mouth quirked. “I’m a bear, remember? Finding caves is in my nature.”
Kendra would have marveled at that if hybrids hadn’t been on their tail. She dropped to her hands and knees and crawled into the cave. The opening was jagged and rough, but within a few feet, it leveled out. Loose dirt covered much of the floor, making the place feel almost…cozy.
As soon as Declan climbed in, the vines fell back into position, cloaking the cave in shadows. Kendra was about to head deeper into the cavern, but Declan stopped her with a touch on the shoulder.
“Stay here and cover the entrance while I go check out the rest of the cave,” he said. “I want to make sure we’re the only ones who thought this was a great place to hide.”
She hadn’t even thought of that. The cold water had obviously frozen more than her legs—her head was pretty numb, too.
While Declan looked around, she took up position just inside the mouth of the cave and aimed her M4 toward the rapids. She waited, tense and nervous, expecting to see a pack of hybrids stomping their way up the stream toward them at any second. Would they be able to see the cave? She hadn’t seen it even when Declan had been leading her toward it, so she hoped the hybrids wouldn’t be able to either.
She almost jumped out of her skin when Declan came up beside her. “We have the place to ourselves. You see anything yet?”
“Nothing. Can you hear anything?”
“Not over the sound of the water.”
“Do you think they followed us up the stream?” she asked.
After the sprint over the ridge, then the slog up the rapids, she was beat, and crouching there in her wet clothes was exhausting her even more. If she took off her boots right then, her toes would probably be blue.
“I don’t think so. If they had, they would’ve gotten here already. I think we’re okay for now,” he said. “Come on. The cave opens up a little back here. We can get dry and warm.”
Kendra wasn’t sure she remembered what being dry and warm felt like. Between the almost-constant rain and the frequent treks through one body of water or another, she’d been wet and cold for almost a week.
As Declan promised, the cave opened up into an area that was fairly spacious. There wasn’t much light, but she couldn’t have cared less. It wasn’t dark enough to worry about pulling out the NVGs. Besides, she was so tired, all she felt like doing was throwing herself on the stone floor and sleeping for a week. But there was no way she could sleep in these soaking wet clothes. She’d wake up