Hissers by Ryan C. Thomas Page A

okay?” Connor asked, his breath coming back to him. He could feel Nicole’s lips just about touching his.
    She pushed off of him and brushed her hair out of her face. She was shaking, and had a superficial cut above her eye, but otherwise looked in one piece. “Yeah. Thanks.”
    “No problem.” Connor stood up and took note of his own injuries. Twigs had lacerated his shin pretty badly, cutting through his jeans. Blood was running into his sock from a deep gouge. The entire area felt numb, but it didn’t hurt to stand on. He could feel a bruise forming on his shoulder. “Seth? Amanita?”
    “Over here.” Seth’s hand stuck up from a mound of broken branches.
    Connor and Nicole rushed over and pulled the larger ones off of him. He emerged covered in dirt and bleeding from his nose. “What the hell was that?”
    “I think it was the wing of the plane.”
    “I felt the air from it.”
    “Yeah, it was close.”
    Nicole stepped over a fallen tree and picked up the broken bottle of Jack Daniels. “Where’s Am?”
    Both boys spun in a circle, kicking aside the piles of branches now littering the ground. Amanita was nowhere to be found. They found Nicole’s purse and handed it back to her. She accepted it with a thanks, too concerned about Amanita to bother checking inside.
    “She’s got to be around here somewhere,” Seth said.
    Nicole put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God, she wasn’t standing when that thing…when it…”
    Nobody dared finish the sentence for her, the thought was too horrible. If Amanita had been standing when the wing flew over them it would have crushed her instantly and sent her flying through the air like a ragdoll. She would be nothing but a lump of broken bones deep in the woods.
    Nicole began to cry, which prompted Seth and Connor to start overturning branches at a frantic rate. They called out for Amanita but got no response. Connor started to think Nicole might be right. Amanita must have gotten hit by the—
    “She’s here!” Seth exclaimed.
    Nicole and Connor rushed over and found Seth lifting up one of the pallets from the fort. It must have ricocheted away from the fort when the wing did its damage. Amanita was lying under it, her eyes closed. She looked dead.
    “Oh no, Am. No, please be okay.” Nicole bent down and lifted Amanita’s head, put two fingers against the girl’s throat. “I…I don’t know how to check for a pulse. I mean I do, but I’ve never done it. Not for real. I don’t feel anything. Oh my God, she’s dead!”
    Connor knelt down beside her. “Is she breathing? Feel her chest.”
    Nicole put her head on Amanita’s chest. She actually cried harder. “Yeah, she’s breathing. She’s alive.” She wiped her tears away and sniffled.
    Connor shook the unconscious girl and gave her a little slap in the face—the same kind of medical treatment he’d seen in so many bad movies—hoping to jar her awake.
    Amanita’s eyelids began to flutter. Shit, it actually worked.
    “She’s coming to!” Nicole yelled.
    “I’m to already,” Amanita said. “For fuck’s sake stop yelling in my ear.”
    “Sounds like her,” Seth said.
    “Can you walk?” Connor asked.
    Amanita rolled herself onto her knees and then steadily got to her feet. She moved all her joints and didn’t scream out in pain. Like the others, she had cuts on her bare skin, and her shirt was torn near her right hip, but she was fine to travel. “Something hit the back of my head,” she said, rubbing the spot in question. She pulled her hand away but there was no blood.
    “You might have a concussion,” Nicole said. “Do you feel dizzy or is your vision wobbly?”
    “I’m fine, McDreamy. Really. Except my fucking shoes are gone. I just bought those shoes. Damn!”
    “So we’re all okay, then?” Connor asked.
    “McDreamy is a guy,” Seth added. This generated looks of disbelief. “What, it’s a good show.”
    For the next few seconds everyone checked themselves over once