Going Underwater

Chapter 9 - 1 Down; 14 To Go

"Are you ready?" Theo asked Ben.

"Sure are! Come on guys!" he replied gesturing slowly with his hand to follow us. Then he swam towards the entrance of the maze. Ella, Nathan, Carl, Theo and I followed. I was scared and nervous, but also a tiny bit excited. Just a tiny bit. The closer and closer we got to the 'official' entrance, a tiny hole, but not the hole we had come across a couple of days ago, I felt it was harder and harder to swim towards it. It was easy enough for me to reach it though.

"I'm so nervous and excited!" exclaimed Ella.

"Same!" Carl said.

"I'll go first, then you guys can go. Once everyone else has gone in, then you go in. Okay?" explained Ben, looking directly at Theo. He took a deep breath and stuck his foot in the hole, just big enough for someone's body. His foot disappeared and he took one last glance at us. "See you on the other side!" he said before leaning backwards, and pushing himself through the hole. His whole body had disappeared.

"You next." Theo said, pointing to Ella. She slipped through, the same way Ben did, and then Carl and Nathan did. It was my turn. I hesitated, but made myself do it. At one point, it felt like I was slipping through a wall of jelly. Or a big bubble, and it had popped as my whole body had slipped through.

"Woah, that felt weird." I said to Ella, standing up. I took a step closer to Carl, Nathan and Ben. Nathan smirked at me and I blushed back.

Since the 'asking out' business, Nathan and I hadn't had any alone time, or "couple time" as some people say. We had talked, but the conversations hadn't really changed since we started going out.

Ella nudged me and I glared at her.

"What?" I asked. She just giggled at me.

Can she tell we're going out?

"How was it?" asked Ben, interrupting my thoughts about Nathan. At that moment I was about to answer, but Theo appeared and interrupted me.

"That was so cool!" he said loudly.

"I know right!" replied Carl.

"How was it? Everything okay?" Ben asked again, but to everyone this time.

"Yep!

"Yes!"

"Sure!"

"Everything is okay!"

"Good! Now, let's just keep walking until we find a place where we have to choose which direction we have to go in." said Ben as he started swimming down a wide path, with tall brick walls on either side, plus a brick roof. I looked down the foggy path, and only saw a straight line. I saw some shadows moving towards us in the distance, and my heart dropped.

"Hey!" I hissed. "What are those things moving in the distance over there? It looks like they're moving closer to us!"

"It looks like the mermaids! That's not good. Quick everyone, get your weapons!" Ben shouted. He was a really good leader. I grabbed the bow off my back and slipped open the pouch filled with arrows. Nathan and Carl swung out their swords, Ella pulled a slingshot and stones out of her pockets and Theo and Ben had bows, arrows and swords, but they picked up their bows and arrows. I glanced up and saw the mermaids coming closer.

"Quick! They're gaining on us!" I shouted. We ended up gathering in a weird formation. Carl and Nathan in the middle, Theo and Ben at the front and Ella and I hiding at the back. I guess you could say we were the chickens.

"Shit! They're getting closer! I'm so scared." whispered Ella. As they were about 20m away, I decided to prepare an arrow and aimed.

"Not yet Tara!" Theo said harshly, but it scared me and I accidentally let go, firing the arrow. It completely missed, but it must have aggravated the mermaids, because they charged at us, and within a few seconds they were in front of us. There were a few more of them than us, about 15. They looked just like the mermaids on TV shows, but they had an evil look about them. Especially their red eyes. I stepped back a few seconds as both of our groups just stood still, staring each other down. Suddenly, Theo shot one out of nowhere and it hit her right in the neck. I flinched as she jerked back, knocking out 2 other mermen in the process.