Firebomb (The Jewel Project #2)

08.1|| Monsters

Sam crawled out of his tent before sunset, his head buzzing, his throat dry. Everything was still. They hadn't even assigned anyone to guard duty. Snitch Gravel could've murdered them all in their sleep.

Cursing himself for his lack of judgment, he headed for William's tent to check up on him. He was fast asleep. Sam studied William's face carefully, but still couldn't see any resemblance between him and Kay. As far as he was concerned, William could have been any stranger.

He fleetingly wondered why Herrison had told them that William was Kay's brother. They could have completed their mission without knowing, and it would have been much easier for Kyle. Herrison only made sure that... they wouldn't leave William to die in the desert. Because Sam was very tempted. Kyle would probably kill him for simply suggesting it.

Shaking his head, Sam left William to his nap and started scavenging around the luggage for some food. As he ate the stale sandwich Jerry had prepared for him, he wondered why he couldn't sleep anymore. He hadn't managed to sleep more than four hours, and since he hadn't had much sleep the previous night either, he was bound to feel exhaustion soon. But he couldn't help not sleeping. It's not like he was doing it on purpose.

"Hey, Sam," Tom said, sitting next to Sam and scaring him half to death. "You're up early."

"I couldn't sleep," Sam mumbled, stuffing his mouth with as much bread as possible.

"Hey, don't choke on that." Tom laughed taking the rest of the sandwich out of his hand. "Why can't you sleep? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm..." Sam shut his mouth. He didn't see the point in lying to Tom. "I feel strange."

"You look strange. I've never seen you this pale."

"Don't overdo it," Sam warned. Tom only managed to make him feel worse. So much for sharing your feelings being therapeutic. He couldn't afford to appear weak before the others. He had to keep it together. "Go wake the others up. We should move out," he ordered.

"Sure boss," Tom said, his eyebrows raised, but got up and headed for the tents to fulfill the order.

Sam glared after him, glad to be alone, but it didn't last long. Ron shuffled towards him, the annoying grin still on his face. He sat next to Sam, morphing his expression into a fatherly one that pissed Sam off even more.

"What's going on Sam? Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry. Gees, there's nothing wrong with me. Why won't you all give it a rest?" Sam snarled, gathering up the food.

"I know how to cheer you up," Ron said, searching for something in his pockets.

"How?" Sam asked surprised.

"We can play a little game," Ron said brightly, taking out a sound recorder. "You guys must be pretty famous, so let's play reporter. After all, you didn't tell me anything about your girlfriends."

"We don't have any girlfriends," Billy answered upset, joining the two.

The rest of the group gathered around them, but after seeing the recorder in Ron's hand, they all scattered and busied themselves with packing up their stuff.

"Speaking only for yourself, aren't you, Billy?" Ron answered without even looking at Billy and turned back to Sam. "Come on, Sam."

"Turn that blasted thing off!" Sam said sitting up and walking away from Ron, but the latter followed.

"Come on, I'm a girl admirer of yours..." Ron insisted.

"I don't care about any blasted girl! Now turn that damn thing off!" Sam yelled and strutted away.