Chapter 2

I struggled to reach into my pack for dehydration meds, which I hoped might stabilize my condition.

However, the moment I pulled out an oral rehydration packet, Amy slapped me and ripped it from my hand.

“You had this the whole time and didn’t share it? Were you trying to make Ben suffer? How could you be so cruel?”

‘I was cruel?’ I thought as anger and despair boiled inside me.

When we first hit the uninhabited stretch of desert and the heat spiked, they had been too afraid of sunstroke to step out of the car and do the work.

I braved the searing heat—nearly 160 °F—to scout potential resource sites and collect samples and data.

That was how I ended up dehydrated.

Yet, my own wife took away every single thing that might keep me alive, as if my survival meant nothing to her.

I lunged at Ben and punched him.

“You have no right to touch my supplies! You’re out of this team!”

Amy, wedged between us, shrieked as she yanked open the car door behind me and kicked me out.

“Just because you’re the captain doesn’t mean you can do that, Roy!”

The others in the car, startled by the fight, finally spoke up.

However, they were on her side.

“Captain Garner, we all work together! You shouldn’t resort to violence.”

“If you’ve got enough energy to hit someone, you clearly aren’t that dehydrated. Did you really have to snatch things from Ben?”

‘Unbelievable!’ I thought.

I was just taking back my own things. How was I snatching anything away from him?

Unfortunately, I could not even argue.

The sand beneath me was searing, as if I had been tossed into a frying pan.

My vision blurred. My throat was so parched that it felt like it was bleeding.

Behind Amy’s back, Ben shot me a taunting look.

“Maybe I should just return everything to Roy. I don’t mind. As part of the national expedition team, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for the mission.”

Amy slammed the car door shut and sealed most of the blistering heat outside.

“Don’t say that! I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I was left to roast under the desert sun.

I cried out. My throat was so dry that each word felt like shards of glass cutting into it. “That’s rich coming from someone who doesn’t even care if his teammates die! Is this a joke to you?”

Amy rolled the window down and fixed me with a vicious glare.

“Stop insulting Ben! We’re childhood friends! I know exactly what kind of person he is.”

Childhood friends?

That was the same excuse Amy had used when she bent the rules to slip Ben into the expedition team.

Like a fool, I had believed her.

Since when did being a “childhood friend” justify favoring him so much that she would rather let her own husband die?

A ringing filled my ears. I could feel my thoughts slipping away.

Pure survival instinct made me grab for the car window, and I tried to haul myself up.

Amy, however, rolled the window up. My hand was caught between the glass and the frame.

A bolt of pain ripped out a stifled groan from me.

Through the glass, the others watched my misery as if it were entertaining.

“I have to hand it to him. That’s such good acting! The captain should’ve been an actor instead.”

Amy kept rolling the window up.

“Since you love faking dehydration so much, you can stay out there and see what real heatstroke feels like. I don’t buy for a second that a man with special forces training can’t handle this a little more than the rest of us.”

I could not even yell out a plea for help. The pain sent a jolt through me, and I did not want to risk breaking a bone, so I yanked my hand free.

Then I crawled into the sliver of shade cast by the SUV.

However, there was no relief.

The scorching heat was cooking me alive. The fear of death wrapped itself suffocatingly around me.