Jump | Zach Mitchell

twenty-six

"DO you still have those matches?" 

"Yeah, of course," Gray says. He pulls up his shirt tail to access his survivor pouch.

"Look who appreciates the 'dork pouch' now?" I smirk, causing Zach to roll his eyes. "Hey, Gray, are you sure those will work after they got wet?"

He nods, brow furrowed intently as he digs around in the fanny pack. "They should. The bag is water-proof."

Zach wrinkles his nose at me. "Doubting the power of the survivor pouch, Jonelle?"

Now I roll my eyes. "Shut up."

---

ZACH decided to create a torch out of the banner I discovered and the bone he found. He leads the way as we walk through the haunting ruins of the former park.

"This is so cool," Gray says. Though his voice is hardly higher than a whisper, the sound carries in the stillness, making it sound like he shouted.

"Yeah," Zach agrees. "Really cool." He swings the light source around, checking out everything in his path.

I stray from our column, roaming the edges where the light reaches. There's a wall covered in intricate paintings of different dinosaurs. I'm drawn to one in particular, with an all-seeing eye that seems a little too real. My fingers drag across the rough surface, little paint chips breaking off.

"Gray," I call softly. "What kind of dinosaur is this one?"

I hear his footsteps and then feel his curly mane brush my arm as he leans around me to look.

"Velociraptor," he answers easily.

I cock my head to the side. "It's kind of cute."

He gives me an incredulous look. "Try extremely deadly."

"Enough of the history lesson. Keep up, guys," Zach scolds.

---

ZACH leads us into a room that looks like a massive garage – and I'm not just saying that because of the Jeeps parked inside. The place is cluttered with all kinds of junk, like it was used as a storage room. There are two doors at the very back, slightly cracked open, letting in a limited amount of sunlight.

We all spread out. I pick up a weird-looking set of binoculars, then scream and drop them when the lens groan and move.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zach sighs, sauntering over to me. "Binoculars? Really? What, was there a bug on them or something?"

"You pick them up," I dare.

He does and nothing happens. He stares at me, an eyebrow raised.

My mouth drops open. "I swear, those zooming-things moved. All by themselves. It was freaky."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He throws an arm over my shoulder.

"This is a nineteen-ninety-two Jeep Wrangler Sahara," Gray recites from somewhere behind us. "Sand beige."

I raise an eyebrow as we walk over to where he's standing. "You would think they would buy it in a prettier color if they were getting so many."

Zach snorts. "Pink doesn't exactly camouflage well."

"No, really?"

"Okay, smartass-"

"You're such a hypocrite! You're just bitter because Gray is a freakin' genius-"

Gray shuts us both up. "Amazing how you two still find things to argue about when we're in a place like this." He runs his hand along the dirty hood of the vehicle.

Zach swings his arm off me and pops the hood of the Jeep open. He peers inside, thinking intently. "Gray," he starts. "Come here." The two boys stoop over the engine. "Do you remember when we fixed up Grandpa's old Malibu?"

"Yeah, why?" Gray asks. A beat later, it clicks in his head. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

---

"THIS sucks. I feel useless."

"That's because you are."

I roll my eyes. "Very funny, Zach."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think that I was joking?"

I kick my leg, narrowly missing his thigh. "Stop being a dick."

"Don't tell me what to do. It's not my fault you don't know anything about cars."

We've been here for about an hour, sitting in the near-dark. Well, I'm sitting. The guys are working on the Jeep, trying to get it to start with tools they found. Their job could possibly get us back to civilization. I'm in charge of holding the torch, so my job isn't very important.

Gray sighs and wipes at his forehead. "Jonelle, if you want to help-"

"Yeah? What? What do you want me to do?" I hop off my perch on the edge of a tool table, almost bouncing on the balls of my feet.

"Can you open those doors?" He nods his head to the back of the garage. "It's hard to see."

"Oh." My shoulders slump. "Yeah, all right." I prop the torch up carefully and make my way to the garage doors.

"Please," Zach snickers. "Like she can do that by herself."

"Bitch, watch me."

"Jonelle, you're, like, two feet tall."

I stare at him blankly. "...how have you made it this far in school?"

He huffs and rolls his eyes. "You know what I mean, okay? You're tiny and you're going to hurt yourself."

I take a deep breath. "Zach," I snap. My voice is cold and sharp. "Look. I can do it. Despite what you might think, I am not helpless and I am more than capable of doing shit on my own. Thank you for the concern, but shut the fuck up."

Zach grimaces. "You know I'm not trying to be a sexist shithead, so don't get-"

"I thought I told you to shut the fuck up." I turn away from him then, ignoring whatever snide comment he makes in response.

Without hesitating, I place my shoulder against one door and shove as hard as I can. My feet slip slightly in the overgrowth, but I quickly regain balance. Gritting my teeth, I push as hard as I possibly can.

There's a grinding noise, and then suddenly, slowly, the door starts to move beneath me. I press forward, walking it open at the gradual pace. Sunlight begins to stream in; I have to squint my eyes because I was used to the dark.

When I finally get the right door in position, I switch to the left. It takes the same amount of sluggish manipulation, but I'm able to get it.

I turn to the boys once I'm finished. "Better?" I ask, beaming.

"Yes, thank you," Gray says. Zach keeps his head down.

I prance over to his side and throw my arms around his bent frame, placing a quick kiss on his cheek. Although I'm sure he would deny it if I asked about it, I'm almost positive that he blushes.

I pull away then, rubbing his back slightly, deciding to let him get back to work.

...but not before smacking his ass and then scurrying out of the way.