Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,35

weighing heavily on me.

“Oh come on Lea—”

Ziva is cut off by a loud screeching sound. My blood runs cold. Rakstan spreads his wings, moving between us and the sound with his weapon held across his body. I turn in what feels like slow motion, looking towards the cave where the sound came from.

Nothing follows except quiet. I don’t hear anyone even breathe. The raindrops are loud as they slam against the leaves, trees, and ground. A steady patter setting a rhythm that my heart drops into matching.

“Are th—”

“SHHH!” Riley hushes Michael, stopping him from saying more.

I strain my ears for any sound. Any hint of what’s happening, but nothing. The silence hurts. Pressure builds in my head. He has to be okay, both of them.

Rakstan takes a step forward, then something explodes out of the cave opening. Rakstan growls, and the rest of us scream. My ears are ringing but something is screeching and flapping. Struggling in front of us.

I’m frozen in place. Too scared to move, to breathe, even my heart has stopped. Muscles are locked in place as I stare in terror at the blackness fighting before me. Rakstan hesitates, the shaft in his hand moves up and around, the point of the blade aiming at the darkness.

He pauses, holding his position, then he’s a blur. The blade whistles through the air, and a new screech tears at my ears. I cover them with both hands, screaming in pain. The screech hits a pitch that slices through my brain. It’s impossible to think, I drop to my knees, begging for it to stop as tears stream down my face.

Abruptly, it’s silent.

Sobbing, I look up and around. All of my fellow humans are on their knees, tentatively lowering their hands from their ears. Thankfully, I’m not the only one down here hurting. Rakstan, Angota, and Urukol stand in a huddle in front of the cave. Something large and dark lies on the ground before them.

I climb to my feet, knees shaking so much it’s hard to stand. I brace myself against a tree until I’m steady, then push off and walk ahead. Angota and Urukol draw knives and begin skinning the thing they killed. Rakstan motions for us to come and leads us into the cave.

As I pass the thing my stomach ties itself into knots. A glassy green eye stares at me above a snarl-shaped mouth that’s so full of teeth I couldn’t begin to count them all. I know it’s dead, but I still make a wide berth around it.

Inside, the cave is utter darkness, but we link hands and follow the black shape of Rakstan until we’re far enough in that the rain isn’t running in. We group up around him and wait for what to do next.

“Sleep here,” Rakstan says, motioning around.

Great. Sleep, here, wet, cold and a hard, stone floor. A low mutter runs around the room, but then we do what we’ve done since the crash. We survive, doing what we must do in order to achieve that simple goal. Sleeping wet on a hard floor is by far not the worst thing we’ve been through.

“If we untie the clothes we used for the rope, we can have some pillows from them,” Asia says.

“Good idea,” Ziva says as she sets about untying the knots in hers.

We all do our parts, and it isn’t long before each of us is holding a wadded-up piece of clothing and staring at each other.

“Sleep,” Rakstan says, motioning with his hand. “I watch.”

He motions pointing at his eyes with two fingers then outside the cave. He walks away as Angota and Urukol walk up. It’s obvious I’m not the only one feeling awkward because we all stare at each other, shifting our weight, but no one moves to lie down.

“Screw it, I’m exhausted,” Riley says.

She takes Angota’s hand, picks a spot close to the rough wall of the cave and lies down. Angota doesn’t hesitate in joining her.

“We should cuddle up,” Michael says. I stare at his shadow in the dark wondering if he’s being a perv or what. “For warmth!” His voice cracks. “That’s all. Warmth, jeez.”

“He’s right,” Mick says.

“I agree,” Ziva says. “I’m freezing.”

I don’t have an argument against it, and apparently no one else does either. We move and shift around each other, picking spots as if any one place is going to be better than the other. As I lie down, somehow Urukol has managed to end up next to me. He scoots close,