Out of Place by Shane Scollins

me. And I don’t want to lose it.”
    “You won’t.” He slid a little closer to her. “Look, Emily. We’re smart, we’re strong. We can beat this guy. You hear me?”
    She nodded. “I hear you.”
    “Okay.” He patted her on the shoulder and slid away to the other side to keep an eye on the trail. “Try and get some sleep.” He watched her close her eyes.
    She was a very cute girl. Why was it that girls with those smile-dimples were always so cute? Was there something in dimple DNA that also created great facial symmetry? If she were a few years older, and under different circumstances, he could definitely see himself making a play for her.
    In general , he usually preferred brunettes. He also liked girls to have a little bit of extra padding. He wasn’t into the hard bodies. Even though he was a bit of a gym-rat himself, he liked his women a bit softer. Of course, his friends would joke a lot at his expense and call him a chubby chaser, but he would always laugh it off. He just liked his women to have curves. He’d rather have a size twelve than a size two any day of the week. Those skinny fashion models that looked like thirteen-year-olds were disgusting and he still didn’t understand how any man found that attractive.
    Zack looked up to the stars and waited for another meteor to streak by.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 13
     
     
    Emily felt the tickle in her nose and sneezed. Her neck popped and crunched from having slept at an impossible angle. The sun was creaking up over the edge of the horizon. The sky was a thick purple. She looked to her left and Zack was asleep, too. At first, she didn’t realize the significance of this, but this was supposed to be his shift to stay awake, clearly no one was watching.
    “Hey .” She touched his shoulder. “You fell asleep.”
    He sat up quickly and got to his feet. “Crap, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” Scanning the trail, he said, “You didn’t hear anything, did you?”
    “I would have been a little more urgent if I had.”
    He nodded. “Good point. Dammit, I’m so sorry.”
    Emily stretched. “It’s okay.”
    “I was awake most of the time. I couldn’t have slept for long. How could I have been so careless?”
    “Hey, don’t worry. We’re okay.”
    He looked up to the sky. “We have to go.”
    Tracking up the trail, Emily was starting to feel the hunger pangs hit hard. She could feel her energy draining much faster than it should. Usually , this time of morning was when she hit the road for her run, but that was after her morning breakfast smoothie. She was starting to lag behind.
    Zack stopped and waited a few seconds for her to catch up. “You okay?”
    She nodded. “I’m just hungry and dehydrated.”
    “Me too , but a couple more hours and we’ll be at the ranger station. I know there’s fresh water there.” Zack reached into his pocket. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about these.” He pulled out a small bag of almonds. “It’s all I have, but here you go.”
    She took hold of the bag and poured a small handful into her mouth. “Thank you.”
    Zack poured the rest into his mouth and crumpled the empty bag back into his pocket.
    “I love almonds ,” she said. “I can’t believe it. No one ever buys the raw ones like this.”
    “I know. I like them in the raw , too. Sometimes I’ll roast them myself in the toaster oven.”
    Emily nodded and dug deep to push herself as the grade of the hill increased. The fact that they hadn’t seen Harry was encouraging. Maybe he would just give up and go back home or on the run somewhere.
    They finally crested the hill and it leveled out a bit. It was a welcome change to be on level ground. Her thighs were starting to get sore from going up hill for so long without rest. The almonds picked her up, but she needed some water.
    Just as the relief of the flat ground hit her, her left leg cramped up wickedly. “Oww—hold up.”
    Zack turned. “What’s wrong?”
    “My leg, it’s cramping