Island Rush (Sample)

Chapter 17

The nothingness disappeared, and I was pulled from my sleep. Mr. Rush was leaning over me, shaking my arms. "What happened? Was I dreaming and woke you?" I asked though I didn't remember any dream. Staring up at where he was, it was so dark I could hardly make him out.

"No," came his voice quickly. Along with that, there was another noise as well as a strange feeling over my body. "We need to move!" He stood and pulled me up, lifting me until I was standing with him.

"What?" I groggily asked. I noticed my body was freezing. The fire was out, but a crackling remained. The crackling noise of water hitting leaves. It was raining.

Mr. Rush pulled me along with him and next thing I know, we are jogging. It made me nervous considering he was towing me in the dark, through the trees and wet grass. The moonlight showed itself more as we moved at least. It allowed me to see his face after we came out from under the shadows.

"What are we doing?!" I yelled to him as the rain picked up harder, drenching us.

"We need to stay dry." He stopped and pulled me over to a large tree he spotted. The branches expanded further out than usual on a tree. Plus, many of those branches were only a few feet above us. It was good cover.

He crouched down, huddling against the tree trunk that was guarded by the shielding branches. He pulled me down with him, holding me against him and the tree, trying hard to avoid the freezing air and rain, which did help a bit. We were not getting soaked like before, but we still were getting a little drizzle. It didn't matter much since we were still wet and cold.

Though dark like before, I could still make out his face with how close I was. I could see that his teeth were clashing together like mine were. His hair was dripping with water down to his chest, which shook with the rest of his body. His hands moved up to cover his mouth, trying to keep his hands warm.

"Do you th-th-think we should save some of this?" I asked him. Though freezing, I was forcing myself to lick up the water around my mouth.

"Not w-worth it. Too c-c-cold."

"A-Are we going to be okay?" I asked over the rain. I didn't need to yell anymore at least.

He shifted slightly and looked at me with wide awake eyes. He looked around, but we couldn't see farther than our own faces. "I don't kn-know," he answered honestly. I knew we should not be this cold, especially with how wet we were. At least we were out of the rain I guess.

He moved his hands down to his knees where he drew them up to his chest. I did the same. We both shivered with the little protection we had. It didn't help much. Soon, we realized there was no point keeping ourselves pressed against the tree. We weren't warming ourselves up enough. That's why with our gasping and shivering breaths, we sagged down from our leaning positions to the grass where we laid down on our sides.

My eyes grew as they focused on his face. I could make out that he was pale with a tint of blue to his skin. He looked numb!

"M-Mr. R-R-Rush. Y-You are b-blue," I stuttered.

"S-S-So are you."

His breath brushed over my face and warmed my skin for a second. It was enough to make me inch closer until he was forced to breathe straight in my face. I closed my eyes as I took in the slight warmth that made me exhale in relief. Opening my eyes, seeing him grow, he noticed my reason for coming closer. I moved my hand up to his chest, which made me want to melt. It felt like my hand was warming! It made me softly moan. It also made me inch even closer, sliding both hands up and down his chest, taking that warmth greedily without thinking.