MORE THAN NATURE

Chapter 7

Diana

We found a huge cave under a hill, almost hidden by the tall trees surrounding it. We've been running for ages till we finally stumbled upon this place. Rain was falling hard and lightening bolt repeatedly zapped across the sky, not failing to startle me every few seconds. We took cover underneath the huge rock and nearly collapsed with exhaustion. I slowly sat down on the smooth rock surface that serves as floor under our feet, and swing my backpack in front of me and unzipped it. My phone was not only dead, but soaked through with rain water as well, except my camera, I think it's sort of waterproof since it's working just fine. I took out my water bottle and quickly took a long sip before placing it next to me and then I grabbed the two energy bars from inside as well. It's not much but they will have to do for dinner tonight.

"Here, you mind sharing with Mia?" I asked Corey while holding one packet out to him.

He slowly smiled at me while shaking his head and taking the energy bar from my hand. I passed my half filled water bottle to mia and she took it while smiling gratefully at me. Parker was sitting right in front of the opening of the cave, just staring straight ahead. I know he's feeling worse right now for what we have to do about Kimberly back there, but what else can we do? We had no other option.

I stood up and slowly walk up to him and then sat down by his side.

"Here, it's all I have and it will last us through the night." I passed him the energy bar, but he just glanced at it and looked away again.

Without a second thought, I grabbed his hand and place the energy bar in his hand instead. He looked at me in surprise.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I knew it was hard for you to leave Kimberly behind just like that but believe me, I felt worse too that we had to do that-"

"It's fine." He suddenly cut me off. "I understand that's it's what we had to do so, don't sweat it. It wasn't your fault anyway."

I knew he was trying to hold it in, but I can easily tell that he was struggling to move past about everything that just happened to us. We lost two people already, and the fact that we had to see how they died right in front of our eyes, was something that we're all trying to erase from our minds. Parker snapped the crunchy bar into half and he passed one to me. I smiled at him and took it from his hand before devouring it. It wasn't much to satisfy our growing hunger but it will at least gives us some energy for another endless journey tomorrow of looking for an impossible way to get out of here.

Someone started to cough repeatedly from the back, and we both turned around to see who it was, with concern. It was Corey, he was leaning down on one side of the cave, his eyes closed and one of his arm wrapped across his stomach.

"Corey, you okay buddy?" Parker called out to him and he slowly looked up at us and nod his head.

"I'm fine, just feeling a bit colder I guess." He replied weakly.

Parker and I glanced at each other with worry, and we both stood up and walked over to him. Mia was sitting on the other side, her book which was half soaked was sprawled across her lap and she was looking at Corey with a blank look on her face. I'm starting to wonder about what's so interesting in that book that she just won't let go of it. It's not even important to take around in situations like this so why won't she just throw the thing away?

Parker started to walk further in the cave and he came back a few minutes later, with an armful or twigs, branches and dry leaves and gathered them in a pile on the ground near where Corey was sitting. I helped him build it up in a pile and he took the lighter from his pocket and thank god that it still works because the minute I saw that the leaves and branches started up in a fire, I was more than relieved. The fire started to become bigger and we all sat down around it, rubbing our arms and hands together to get warmer. Corey slowly shifted towards the fire and he sighed out loud and started to rub both his arms, quickly.

"What else do you know about this place mia? Aside from the fact that things happening here are literally supernatural crap that we only see in the movies?"

Parker suddenly asked, and we all looked at mia who was staring idly at the fire.

"Not much, but the things I said before about the landowners haunting this woods, it's all true believe it or not. Everything that has already happened, they all happen for a reason." She glanced at each of us before staring back at the flame.

"So you mean, that Kim and Lloyd also died for a reason?" Parker asked again and this time, his tone had risen up a notch. I was starting to feel afraid that this conversation will not end so well.

"It seems that way." She replied with a shrug off tone.

"What do you mean, 'it seems that way'?! You think they died because of some freaky unexplainable shit going on in here?! Is that what you're saying? Some dead and evil landowner of this forest is behind all of this?!"

Mia flinched away immediately when Parker turned all angry on her. He was starting to get really mad, so I quickly grabbed his arm to try and stop him. He turned his angry glare on me now and angrily glance at my hand around his arm as well.

"Can you please just try and calm down? Fighting about this won't solve any problem. Please parker, she doesn't know anything she's just stating out random things she found on the website. So just, chill okay?"

His eyes slowly soften and he nod his head and looked back at mia.

"I'm sorry mia, i didn't mean to get angry at you. I'm just, getting really worked up about all this." He apologized with a genuine tone.

Mia nodded and looked away. He looks back at me and I smiled appreciatively at him and moved my hand away, although a small part of me didn't want to. The mere skin contact between us made me feel something that I haven't  felt towards any guy before in my entire life. Parker is just undeniably attractive which is a problem but right now, I forced myself to stop thinking that way about him because we have much bigger things to think about like, ways to keep surviving through the rest of the day we're gonna be stuck here while looking for our way out without any one dying again.

It took us a while to finally get some sleep, the fire managed to keep us warm despite our drenched clothes but it did little help in drying some parts of our clothes too.

The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was seeing mia staring blankly at Corey who was slightly shaking in his sleep.