ℂ𝕆ℕ𝔽𝕀ℕ𝔼𝔻 ~ 𝔸ℕ 𝕆ℝ𝕀𝔾𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕃 𝔸ℙℙ𝕃𝕐𝔽𝕀ℂ

ℂℍ𝔸ℙ𝕋𝔼ℝ 𝔼𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋

Anyone would've liked to say that they looked very cool trudging through the forest, but lying was wrong. 

By just the second day of walking, everyone was exhausted; they had sweat all over them and were breathing very, very heavily. 

"Are we absolutely sure what direction we're going?" Aiden asked Isaiah, who still held the map. James smirked at the reference to the old TikTok audio, and Celeste smiled faintly, thinking of One Direction, but Isaiah paid it no mind as he continued studying the map. 

"I'm sure," the ginger boy answered. "But there's still a long way." 

Kenji squinted. "I see water." 

"That's ridiculous," Isaiah snapped. "There's no water on the map." 

"No, he's right," Cherry piped up. "I see it too. Up ahead– just endless water." 

Everyone looked up to see what they were looking at; indeed, what looked like an ocean was stretched out a bit away. 

"What is that?" Aiden asked. 

"What do you think it could be, Aiden? It's a fucking beach," Aurora shot back. The heat combined with the exhaustion and the red rat's nest on her head seemed to have completely ruin her mood. 

"It could be another lake," Aiden retorted. 

"No, that's a beach," Cora confirmed. "I see sand." 

"How could that be? There's no beach on the map!" Isaiah was sounding very frustrated, examining every corner of the map. 

"Maybe you're holding it wrong," Yvonne said, reaching for the map. 

"I'm sure I'm not holding it wrong," Isaiah answered, holding it out of her reach. 

Celeste grabbed it from behind Isaiah's back and examined it. "No, he's right. I can see all the turns in the path we took before, but there's no beach on the map. It just continues into more forest from where we are." 

Evidently no one had any response to this, so they continued walking until they were struggling through the sand. 

Something tall was silhouetted at the water– Aiden, who watched far too many movies for his own good, took one look at it and turned around to the rest. "Well, that's a ship." 

"What's a ship?" Josiah asked, looking up from his shoelaces that he was tying. 

"There." Aiden pointed to the figure. It was big, bulky, and had several other figures jutting out of it like towers. 

"If that's a pirate ship, I'm going to throw myself into the water and not come out," Aster said plainly. 

"Me too," Isabel agreed. "I don't fancy getting kidnapped by pirates– or by men in general." 

They watched as the ship started getting closer, then Aurora breathed a sigh of relief. 

"What?" Wyatt asked. 

"Those are women on there," she answered. 

Indeed, as the ship came closer, they could make out that there was not a single man but several women on the ship. 

"So what? They're still pirates, aren't they?" Isaiah said. 

"Better than men," Yvonne said darkly. 

"Not so Minecrafty anymore, is it?" James smirked, looking at Aiden. His bass was still strapped on his back, despite Aiden's constant attempts to relieve him of it. 

"Shut up," Aiden muttered. 

They made awkward small talk as the ship got closer. They couldn't do much else; the beach stretched endlessly on both sides, so there wasn't much they could do but wait for the ship to come and accept whatever fate awaited them with these pirates.