One by One

by Freida McFadden

I can tell you my secret right now: At the end of this week, only one of us will make it home alive.

But she’s not married. So she gets to do whatever she wants without another person criticizing her every move.

If this man were my surgeon, I would feel like I was in very capable hands. He could suck fat out of my love handles any day of the week.

Heat causes molecules to disperse, so each breath takes in less oxygen.

Belladonna berries look very much like blueberries. They’re shiny black, about half an inch in size, and they’re sweet. The berries are highly toxic. They cause delirium and hallucinations, and they disrupt the body’s ability to regulate its sweating, heart rate, and breathing. Eventually, seizures and cardiovascular failure will occur. Early humans made poisonous arrows using belladonna. In an adult, fifteen to twenty berries are enough to kill you. A child could die from two or three.

Thanks to my mom, I know everything there is to know about poison berries.

Noah has his phone in his hand. My eyes light up when I notice he has a single bar. But then he shakes his head. “No service,” he says.

At least I’m not the sitting duck. If I were Michelle, I’d be terrified right now—the coyote would definitely get her first. Eventually, we all settle down around the fire.

“That’s why mosquitoes bite you so often,” Warner says. “Mosquitoes love type O blood.”

He could’ve proposed to me with an onion ring and I would have said yes.

“As a teacher. I’m a surgeon, Claire. There’s no comparison.”

“I’m sure babysitting a bunch of grade-schoolers all day is life and death.”

“You’re going to kill a bunny?” Killing Thumper would be almost as bad as killing Bambi’s mother.

We’re never going to get out of here. We’re going to run out of clean water. We’re going to have to eat bugs. I’m never going to see my children again. We’re going to die here in the forest and the animals will eat our bodies.

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should live another day I pray the Lord to guide my way. Amen.

“The night Michelle disappeared,” Noah says, “Warner saw him go into the forest with Michelle.”

I turn on my heels and run back in the direction of the cabin before Jack can say another word. It turns out that I might’ve been right about us being hunted. But it wasn’t an animal hunting us.

“Two people can’t keep a secret,” she says. “Not unless one of them is dead. It’s just a fact. I always work alone.”