Meet Me Halfway (EDITING)

Chapter 22: Half Gone

Jay helped Sarah up, settling her into a good balance to stand straight.

"Oh my...God! Is that..." Jay whispered, leaning his head closer inside their group.

"Chuck?!" Vince called out, finishing off the sentence. All at once they registered that it was Chuck. They all ran from the tree, one in front of the other. Water had splashed everywhere once Vince had jumped in, half of his body getting wet when not realising the depth of the river again. Nate fell behind too, watching as Vince in the lead took off for Chuck.

"He's back!" Sarah leapt to her feet, in hope that everything could go back to normal in time.

"He's probably drowned though," Nate squeaked, lowering everyone's happiness. He jogged over to the side of the river, leaning over the edge too watch Vince.

"But he got in the river alright, which means he got up and probably tried to find us," Jay's anticipation scared everybody, to the fact that they had no idea how Chuck could have survived. He knelt down beside Nate, watching as Sarah's face resolved by the minute.

This was their only chance to see if they had really lost Chuck or not. A worrying feeling came to Jay's stomach. He had no idea what the future could lead him to. It was bad enough just to think about when they get home (well, if they ever did) and how his parents would react.

One, he would be totally screwed. Two, he wouldn't ever want to camp out again. Three, he would have to walk to school the next year with two friends missing. Three, he just simply didn't know how to cope without his two best friends by his side for when they graduated to when they would get jobs and become adults.

The body floated ever so lightly on the water's surface, unrevealing its face. Its fingers curled slightly, twitching a little as if chemistry connected between itself with the others.

"His fingers are moving!" Vince pointed and tried too move in the flowing water, trying to defeat the difficulties in dragging his jeans with himself. Everybody's face lit. They all moved in closer, waiting for that revealing moment when either Chuck would wake up or fall in Vince's arms as if he had limps and had every bone inside crushed.

"Chuck!" Vince leapt past one last rock in the river and firmly grabbed hold of the body, turning it over on the shoulder. What they realised, was the body didn't have the regular spikes that Chuck had. It didn't have a bandage and it was so much taller, not to mention plumpy. It didn't have Chuck's handsome cheekbones and soft lips. Instead, it was a rather ugly, much older man with greasy blonde, short spikes with a rough beard/stubble and a gold tooth.

The body jumped up aggressively, fiercely dragging his heavy weight out of the river. Water splashed and flew everywhere, making everyone in the scene drenched. Sarah screamed, and took a lead in front of everyone, being the furthest away from the body itself.

He chased Vince in front of him, as Vince ran for a rescue to the rest of the group. They sprinted with all their might, trying not to look behind themselves or get distracted by anything.

"Oh my God, guys, run!" Vince released his grip from the body at last, watching as Sarah, Nate and Jay already had a head start. Sarah stepped over ragged leaves and pointy rocks til she noticed they had all caught up to her lead, with the kidnapper not too far behind. Vince, as the slowest runner of the group, steadied his way over to them, his pace become more rapid by the second.

"Come on, Vince! Run!" Nate screamed, taken aback with the whole idea of what was going on. What was going on?

Nate took a second to slow down, continuously looking back to see if Vince was maintaining his speed. Jerry had been drooling out of the water, dragging his weight and drenched clothes out of the water after them as if he was ready to eat them. He had torn the left edge of Chuck's shirt and the darker stain of Chuck's blood showed on the left side of the chest.