Capture My Heart

“This here is the Rio Coca River,” Jay was remembering, pointing to a thin line not far from where Poppy and I had determined we were.

“This map isn’t very wide scale, but good enough. This part that you don’t see…” his finger shaped an outline in the dirt. “…is the rest of Brazil. The closest town in any direction is Coca...or something similarly named. Roughly forty to sixty miles away.”

Everyone huddled around together, we were afraid to even make a fire for the thought it might draw attention to us, but right now we were mostly just trying to see.

“So we head in…which direction…?” Violet asked, tucked up beside me. After her and Poppy had walked off they had returned like nothing had even happened. I didn’t understand it, but it wasn’t like I could ask what happened.

“South, then we should turn east for a little bit here…” Jay pointed to another section of the map.

“Well what are we waiting for?” Beck demanded while Poppy smacked him in the arm. “We need an actual plan here, I mean, for all we know this town could be vampire infested. Not to mention we’d be strangers in the area, no cash, and no explanations. Kinda suspicious if you ask me…”

I frowned at Poppy’s answer. She was right, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

“So we need a plan,” Briana concocted, deep in thought. Everyone else was the same way, besides Beck, who was already on his feet.

“Let’s think of something on the way,” he said aggressively and impatiently. “I cant spend whatever may be left of my life waiting around to die.”

Without another word he stalked off, but we knew he would wait for us to catch up.

“Might as well,” Violet mumbled being the first to get up to follow him. If she was going then me and Poppy were most definitely going, and that also led to De’Andre, Joana and Jerome and eventually everyone else.

Also, Beck would be complaining again it about ten minutes, so it might be nice to just end this argument and do things his way; for once.

XxX

We took out about ten or less miles a day, eating whatever the jungle had to offer, which wasn’t always very good, or very easy to get, but at least it was food. And at least it tasted better than the food at the camp.

We walked most of the way to reserve energy, in case we’d need it later and also that we wouldn’t have to eat as much.

My stomach was still as muscled as it had been when I’d first transformed, but I could feel it flattening and softening with lack of food. I had never been so deprived of nutrition in my life.

We’d been moving for three days, eliminating almost half of our miles we needed to go.

Now, we were all stopping for a long overdue and well deserved rest. We had a system going where we would sleep in shifts, but whenever we rested just about everyone nearly passed out, but they were still conscious.

“Do you think anyone has realized we left yet,” Briana mumbled, and I wasn’t sure who she was directing it too. She was sprawled down next to Joana and Jerome but her gaze was to the bright canopy of lush green leaves above us.

The jungle was alive today, an after effect of the rain that had come and gone yesterday.

Somewhere overheard a bird was screeching an unfamiliar sound, and bugs were swarming as animals I could still hear as far away as they were played and hunted and went about their business.

“I honestly don’t know,” Violet answered for her. She was curled up against me, as she often was whenever we paused. We had been inseparable since the escape, but we hadn’t really talked much.

I liked to think that we were going back to the way things used to be, but I knew with her memory gone that things would never be the same. At least for her.

I mean, it wasn’t like we had been together before, but there was something there. Or else Violet wouldn’t have kissed me when we were on the cliffs…how long ago was that now?

I was distracted for a moment, thinking about just how long it had actually been since my birthday.

It was probably around late July now, I think. I hadn’t been keeping track of the days. They all blurred together too much.

Poppy was the one to snap me out of my thoughts, suddenly sitting next to me, her face and movements so tired that she was hard to look at.

She stayed up most of the nights we stopped, because her hearing was the best and she felt like she was entitled to help.

I frowned disapprovingly at her, and she looked up to meet my gaze. She smiled a little, in her cute little half grin but she neither said anything to me nor attempted to sleep.

“Poppy…” I mumbled, but she shook her head, knowing the next words out of my mouth. “Jake, I’ll be fine,” she muttered, and patted my knee. “Really,” she added when I didn’t seem convinced.

Violet muttered something unintelligible, curled up against me with her eyes half closed and distant. It kinda sounded like she wanted us to be quiet and I sighed at her before giving Poppy a pleading look that I knew she would ignore.

She was too stubborn for her own good and barely even blinked while everyone took their rest and Jay finally suggested that we get going.

He looked especially rabid with the lack of sleep and personal hygiene, but then again the rest of us probably looked pretty bad to, to an outsider.

We hadn’t showered in who knows how long, and used rivers to get cleaned. We were always walking and it was always hot here, even when it rained so we were all almost always overheated.

Since we’d left the main camp, all the girls’ hair had been growing out again, and so had the guys, although not as much. We didn’t have access to scissors or anything so we basically looked like cave people, the jungle taking root in our heads.

It didn’t bother me very much and it wasn’t like I could do anything about it, but it was still kind of inconvenient not to have access to shampoo, or a brush. I hoped things would get better when we hit civilization.

But then again, they might get worse. You never knew. Maybe our good luck had been going on for too long and was about to expire.

I hated thinking like that but the doubt was always there obviously. There was always something that could go wrong, and usually something did. It was best to be expecting it instead of letting it catch you off guard.

Everyone rose up off the ground and continued walking. There were chorused complaints and then everyone was mostly silent for the walk, except for the occasional talking to each other.

We had a few more miles we had to make today, and if we were lucky tomorrow it would still be sunny so we could make a little more than that. It was always easier to travel when it was dry and plus, it would be good once we got to civilization that the vampires couldn’t come out in the light.

Jay walked ahead of everyone, as did Kyle and Poppy; all three were trying to figure out how much we had eliminated on the map, and how much we had left to travel.

It looked a bit more complicated to me than they were making it, but then again Geography was never my best subject.

Hell, I think the only subject I wasn’t just barely passing was Mechanics, and it wasn’t like to program at the Rez school was all that hard to pass.

“How much further?” I interrogated the guys and Poppy.

“Maybe three or four days’ worth of travel, less if we hustle.” De’Andre answered, not looking at me while he grabbed Poppy’s elbow to help her up over a fallen tree trunk that seemed to stretch on for miles. I was surprised she didn’t protest but she took De’Andre’s assistance easily.

I tried the same with Violet but she stubbornly clambered over on her own, not letting anyone start in on the short jokes.

I wished silently that she would let me take care of her, just once, but it had been the same way back before she lost her memory and she hadn’t changed despite that.
I was used to it though I guess.

Jerome passed by me and Violet, a sleeping Joana in his arms and I grinned at him while he grinned back.

He didn’t take any chances with Joana, although he wasn’t as protective of her as, say, Edward Cullen was; that was something I respected about him.

Briana and Kyle were the only ones behind me and Violet, who were usually at the back of the group anyways. The pair was talking quietly and I didn’t bother listening to their conversation.

Only a few more days…a few dozen hours…and then what?