Won't you follow me into the jungle
Ain't no god on my streets in the heart of the jungle

They spent the first few hours of the drive going over the plan again Ams again like it was a song on the aux that was playing on repeat, making sure that they had thought of every single possibility of it going wrong. Making sure that they knew the steps they had to follow like the back of their hands. Amelia drifted of to sleep after the 8th hour of driving, she tried to stop it but sleep felt so heavy on her shoulders she couldn’t carry it. She laid her head on the window, looking at the trees and the jungle before surrendering in the heaviness.

Steve watched the scenery out of his window as well, the green plants that hid the sky and in them dangers and ghosts he wasn’t yet prepared to face. Everything looked terrifying on this part of the world, like this part of the world was in position to steal everything for him in the darkness of the jungle, he had to be brave but who wouldn’t be scared at this sight, at the possibility of loss. All these hours of doing nothing were eating him up, creating thoughts he didn’t want to think about. He looked at the driver-
“you’ve been driving for 10 hours straight, you wanna switch out?”
Diaz laughed and shook his head “I’m fine, thank you.”
Steve twisted his body a little so he'd look at Amelia. It crossed his mind to just leave her in the car, move on without her- to be completely honest that’s all he thoughts about after he saw her falling asleep and its not that he was afraid of doing this alone, he’d figure out a way to make it work but he kept remembering her little speech, there was going to be hell to pay if he left her.
“how long have you been together?” asked Diaz. Steve glanced at him and sat back on his chair.
“hm?”
“the girl and you, how long have you dated?”
Steve stared at him, confused. Diaz laughed “oh come on man. I’ve had loyal partners too, she’s not just your partner. Otherwise you wouldn’t keep looking at her, debating whether you should wake her and she wouldn’t have come on a suicide mission with you”
“why does everyone keep calling it a suicide mission? A little optimism wouldn’t hurt.”
Diaz laughed and smiled “with all due respect commander, you and I know well that it won't be a field trip.”
“it'd be nice not to hear it all the time" he mumbled
“so you and the girl-"
“its complicated- we’re not exactly- we never were-" he struggled a lot to get the right words out, he scoffed looking down “we met 5 years ago.”
“that’s a long time.”
“well" he shrugged “she was away for four years so not so much.”
“she’s a runner?”
“The fastest you'll meet.” He smiled and glanced at her again “are you married?”
Diaz nodded “I got two kids, one beautiful wife. 20 years.”
“I’m sorry-" Steve looked very surprised “you’re a cop and you’ve had a wife for 20 years? How?”
“you just have to meet the right person. She knows my work, she understands that one day I might not return but we love each other and I do everything in my power to get back home and she does everything in her power to accept the dangers of my work.”

Steve smiled “sometimes wish I had that.”
He grinned “looks to me like you do. Let me give you a piece of advice son, she might have ran away from you in past but she’s back now and if she didn’t plan on staying she wouldn’t be here today. It makes sense you’re scared to let her all in again but I think you'll find you’ll just save yourself the time.” He paused “some of us are so used to losing , we think it’s what humans ought to do all their lives. Until someone comes along and teaches us that ‘hey you don’t have to be so lonely and upset all the time. I'm here'.” He sighed “after being on this job so long you realize how much time humans waste on pride or finding the right time, we forget how easily time can be taken away from us. Time doesn’t ask for permission and he certainly doesn’t wait for you to get comfortable. If you have something you wanna say you say it.”
Steve contemplated on all his words. He looked our the window again, the scenery looked exactly the same as before. “We ought to be getting close.”
“we are. Run me through the plan one more time would you?”
“again with this Diaz?”
“humor me Commander.”
Steve sighed and began- “you’re gonna drop us at a small fishing port at the southern edge of Turbo where a boat, the Juarez, is gonna take us through Panama city." He rubbed his eyes “I’m gonna ask the captain one question: “¿qué pescan?” and if he doesn’t respond with ‘Black Marlin’, we will walk away.”
“that’s all good until now, what’s next?”
“after we arrive to Panama, we will board a small cargo plane, which is gonna take us through Mexico City and from there we are on our own.”
Diaz nodded proudly and grabbed an envelope with money from under his seat “good. Here give this to the pilot at the airstrip in Panama.”
Steve looked at envelope, checking the money “you trust these coyotes?”
“with my blood. Don’t worry, they'll take good care of you.”

Steve nodded and looked at the street again. This time there was a difference in the scenery and it wasn’t a good one. There was Mexican police , standing in front of them, in bullet proof jackets and big guns. They weren’t there for them but it still didn’t look good at Steve, he stretched his hand at Amelia, shaking her to wake up “Ams! Wake up!”
She yawned like a kid on a school day and sat better on her seat “we're there yet?”
“we got company.” Steve looked at Diaz “Diaz are we good here?”
He smirked “this is Colombia my friend.” He said, while opening one of the cupboards in the front of the car and handing Steve a gun.
“hold up I want one too" said Amelia
“there’s one under your seat.”
She grabbed it immediately and kept it low so the police wouldn’t see it from the windows as they stopped in front of them. Steve and Amelia took their safety of the guns. Diaz lowered the window, Steve glanced quickly at Amelia and she gave him a reassuring look.
One of the policeman smiled at Diaz “Buenas tardes, caballeros. Identificación, Por favor.”
Diaz reached calmly for his badge and showed it to them. One of the other policeman kept staring at Amelia like she was an alien. Amelia tried to keep her eyes off him. Steve noticed him and his entire body was on Alarm mode. This wasn’t going to end well.
“one moment please.” Said the officer with Diaz's badge and distanced himself from the car. Amelia leaned closer to the two man.
“do we have a plan?” she asked
“can you do me a favor and keep your head down.” Mumbled Steve
“sure because that wont be at all suspicious Sherlock”
“you think this is the time for your jokes?”
“you two were always likes this?” asked Diaz, staying the calmest of the three while he watched the officers discuss. Steve watched then closely too, his heart beating faster by every second until he saw one of them take off the safety in his gun-

“DRIVE DIAZ! DRIVE!” Diaz started the engine and stepped on it “AMELIA LAY DOWN!”
Amelia lowered her body nut kept shooting at them while Diaz drove away. They passed them without anyone getting hurt and everything seemed to be alright until one of the bullets hit Diaz on the neck. “DIAZ!” Yelled Steve. Amelia leaned forward and placed her hand on his wound trying to stop the bleeding but it was worthless. The policemen shoot at them with bigger bullets, breaking the window and almost getting Amelia on the back “SHIT!” She yelled while trying to take cover and help Diaz Simultaneously. “Steve he's going to lose consciousness-"
“keep your head down!” he ordered while trying to keep the wheel steady but it was hard fi di while they bullets fell around them like rain. Steve tried to control the car while looking behind to make sure Amelia was ok, it was too late when they both noticed another car, driving toward them, Steve didn’t have any time to move the car- they crashed.

It was 20 seconds. 20 seconds of everything and nothing. The same as when soldiers get prepared for a fight. The engine of the other car exploded and the car they were in spun around for 20 seconds and fell of a tiny cliff. They both closed their eyes of instinct, they couldn’t see anything, couldn’t move. Perhaps you’ve felt it too, that helplessness we sometimes feel in dreams, when you wanna run but you can't. When you wanna scream but you have no voice and there is absolutely  nothing you can do. You just stand still while the world around you moves and you wait ahead wait and then- Snap, you’re awake. In your bed gasping for air, screaming in agony. Moving every bone in your body just to make sure you’re alive. Snap, the car had landed upside down on the mud, they gasped for air, calling each other's names. Reassuring them they were ok. Moving every bone in their bodies just to make sure they were alive-

“UUGH!” she screamed while trying to slip out of the car “my arm-" it was caught under the broken seat. Steve who was already out, helped her move away and get out. He could barely stand himself, when he dragged her he lost balance and fell. They tried to stand together again.
“are you ok?” she asked, checking all his freshly made scars. Steve tried to moved her left hand again and she flinched- “shit”
“I’m fine” he said and He took of his t-shirt and tore a part of it, tying the big cut on her palm. She screamed in pain, her had was Broken. “come on we have to run! Let's go!” they rushed in the jungle, with all the plants and all the ghosts. The car behind them exploded in flames and they ran like hell.

It was by luck that they found the fishing port. Steve followed Diaz’s instructions and met with the right captain, he told Amelia to wait behind him while he talked with him. After he was done, he walked over to her, taking a deep breath. “he's ready to go"
“what are we waiting for then?”
“I want you to stay here.”
Amelia laughed “ok soldier. Now that you did your best can we go in-"
“Amelia I’m serious-"
“we made an agreement Steven!”
“you saw what happened Ams! We haven’t even reached Mexico yet, they are already shooting at us like animals."
“I don’t care if the whole jungle is chasing us I’m not staying behind because you wanna play hero with me-“
“that’s not what I’m trying to do and I’m not going to take no for an answer-“ he raised his voice
“how about a kick in the nuts will you take that-?”
“AMS ENOUGH-"
“LISTEN TO ME CAPTAIN AMERICA I DID NOT JUST SURVIVE THAT SO YOU CAN PUT ME ON THE BENCH-“
“THAT WAS A WAKE UP CALL AMELIA! THIS IS A SUICIDE MISSION-“
“NOW YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?”
“WHAT I UNDERSTAND IS THAT I DON’T WANT TO SEE THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO DIAZ HAPPEN TO YOU-"
“OH REALLY? Because I am so emotionally prepared to see you bleed out in front of my eyes- please don’t forget to do that while we're here-"
“your sarcasm-"
“you should be grateful my sarcasm is the only thing I’m hitting you with right now.” She took a breath, calming herself “now unless you wanna waste more time, I say we get on the boat.”

He licked his lips, looking away from her and back at her again and again “Amelia.. “ his voice came out weaker now, he gulped “please- I’m begging you-"
“I'm not leaving you Steve.” She insisted “yes we might die or get tortured or whatever- but I’m not letting you go through this alone because I wont be able to live with myself if I do.”
She walked away from him and got on the ship, ignoring all his worries. It took a few hours from them to reach Panama. When they were on board Steve took a better look on Amelia’s left hand. She cupped his face with her right one, forcing him to look at her.
“I’m fine" he said, answering a question she hadn’t even asked. “we're gonna have to tie this up with something better when we get to Mexico.”
“Steve.” She said his name in a calming way. He stared in her eyes. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
“he had two kids.” He whispered
“it’s not your fault.”
“he was here because of me-“
“Steve its not your fault. You hear me? Don’t blame yourself.”
He stroked her cheekbone with his thumb, forcing himself to smile.

From Panama the captain drove them to a cargo plane. When they got in they sat side by side. There is no way to describe the darkness that surrounded them after they closed the door. They couldn’t see anything,. Then suddenly-
“I love you.” He said. Taking Diaz’s advice, he didn’t waste time. He just whispered all that had been stuck in his lips for so long. Amelia moved her body as close to him as she could and they leaned on each other. Keeping each other warm on what was about to be the coldest trip of their life.
“I love you too.” She said with no hesitation and with her right hand held on his.

♤
WASHINGTON
KATE HARPER’S HOUSE

Kate picked up the ringing phone “hello?”
“Ms. Harper, its Margaret. I know you said not to bother you today but I’m afraid I have some news.”
“what is it?”
“captain Diaz never returned. They fear he's dead.”
Kate sat on her couch, letting her body fall on the pillows. If Diaz was dead, than what were the chances that Amelia had survived? “did they tell you anything else?”
“They don’t think anyone on the car survived.”
“thank you Margaret.”
Kate hanged up the phone and left it on the coffee table. Regret started raising in her chest from her feet, like little ants were biting her repeatedly. She rubbed the top of her head and hair, feeling like the best thing to do was pull it all out. There were two scenarios, either Steve and Amelia were running alone in a jungle that even God himself couldn’t save them from or they were dead and their families would never know. No one would know the heroes that they were. She couldn’t let the second one happen. She had to do everything in her power to find them and so she started working on it.

Are you still reading and enjoying the story? Please let me know. What do you think Kate will do? Comment your thoughts.