The Hider

Chapter Twelve

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" she yelled at me.I shrugged my shoulders and then heard something else crack. It was the egg behind Steph's shoulder. Oh no. Not right now. This egg can not be hatching, not right now. I then crawled over to the edge of the nest and saw a river underneath us. We need to jump. Steph then joins me there at the edge, then sees the river and pulls back.

"No way. You barely made it to the nest. What happens if you miss the river?" Steph warned.

"We can't be certain, but we have a better chance living if we jump rather than staying-" I started to tell her, but then the egg cracked even more and saw a giant bird pop out of the egg. Steph and I started at it in terror.

"We need to go," I whispered. The bird then slowly started to walk towards us as we backed up to the edge of the nest. I started to think about another thing as we were crawling to the jump. We can't have these birds turn into their parent. We need to find a way to kill them, so they don't kill anyone else. 

Steph and I then hit the edge of the nest and we swung over the edge to jump, but I just jumped and grabbed the edge of the nest.

"What are you doing?" Steph asked me.

"Just jump. Jump and then get out of the way," I told her. Without hesitation, she then jumped and I swung my legs onto one of the branches holding the nest up. I pulled the pocketknife out of my pocket that I forgot was there, and started to cut the branch. I heard a tiny splash of water, and looked down, faintly seeing Steph down there. 

I continued to cut the branch when I heard something walking above me. I looked up and saw the tiny Wastebird through the nest. Its claws were right above me, standing still. I stopped cutting, knowing that is was making noise. I sat there still when the beak smashed through the nest, smashing into the piece of the branch right in front of me, where I was cutting.

The bird pulled the beak out, and I looked at the branch. It was taken halfway out by the beak. I then grew another idea. If the bird takes the branch out...

My thought was cut off by the beak slamming in the branch again. This time I felt the branch getting loose, so I quickly moved over to the part of the branch connected to the cliff. The beak came back down right has I got my foot across. Once the beak hit the branch, I instantly felt the branch loose all of the extra weight from the nest. I held hard onto the branch I was on, as the nest tilted downwards. Part of the nest had hit me, so I slipped off of the branch, but since I was holding onto it, I was still sort of safe.

As I held on, I saw nest fall to the river. The baby bird had found a way to get to the bottom of the nest, which was now facing me. It started to caw, and as it did, the parent Wastebird flew down, causing me to lose my grasp and started to fall towards the river. I saw the parent Wastebird grab the baby right before it hit the water and then they flew off. Before I could even blink, I was in the water and I passed out.

++++++

I woke up with an excessive amount of heat was heating up the left side of my face. I pulled myself up to see Lizre and Trech looking at me.

"Look, he's up. The soup for you is in the tin above the fire," Lizre said to me. I looked around and didn't see Steph or Gretchen around.

"Where are Steph and Gretchen?" I asked them. Trech sighed.

"Your welcome for the soup," Lizre replied sarcastically.

"Thank you, Liz. Where are they?" I asked again. Lizre then stood up and gestured me to stand up as well, so I did. She pointed at a place full of lights. It looked like a village.

"Is that-" I started to ask, but it was like she knew what I was going to say.

"A village, yes. We saw it while you were unconscious so we only sent those two to go check it out. If it's okay, they will come back later tonight to get us. If not, Steph said to head the opposite way at dawn," Lizre explained to me. I nodded, understanding it. 

I then walked over to the fire and grabbed the tin with the soup. I grabbed one of our four spoons (we had five but one was lost during the first Wastebird battle) and started to eat it. As I did, I asked the two to tell me what happened at the top of the cliff.

"Well, at first Liz and Gretchen were terrified about you jumping off of the cliff, so when the bird dived down to get you, we knew that you were still alive, so we ran faster than life to be honest. Soon enough though, it was chasing us again," Trech explained. To be honest, he always loved to tell stories. Every day, when we were younger, he would have these bizarre dreams and he would always repeat them to me. He loved to tell them and I loved to listen to them.

"Then, the Wastebird trapped us. It was either get eaten or jump off of the cliff, but then he saw the nest start to topple over so then he flew away and went to go save his baby. We thought you were dead then, but then we saw Steph set a small fire to signal us and then we found our way here," Trech finished. I was finished with the soup by the time he finished his story. Lizre then yawned, and I looked over to her and saw giant bags under her eyes.

"Um, how about you two get some sleep while I wait for them," I told them. Right after I said that Lizre was basically out. Trech then sat down besides me.

"Thanks, and um, I'm sorry. For everything that I did in the City. I didn't know. I just did what they wanted me to, and, it's just, I want us to be friends again. Can we do that?" He asked me. I took in a deep breath.

"Baby, steps, ok?" I told him. He then nodded his head and fell to the ground and fell asleep. I stayed awake, looking towards the lights where the village was and where Stepharie and Gretchen were. Hopefully, they would be back soon and we could go there. I could use a change of clothes and even possibly a shower.

++++++

As I dreamed about what the new village would bring, I started to doze off, but I kept myself mostly awake, not wanting to fall onto Trech or into the fire. Right before I got lost in the dream, I could see two figures walking towards us. I stood up and woke up the other two.

"Guys, they're back. Wake up," I tried to wake them up but they wouldn't wake up. I then stood up and walked over to the two girls. I almost embraced them with a hug, but I could see that something was wrong with them. I started to slow down, but I didn't notice what was wrong until they face planted into the ground.

I quickly checked them to see what was wrong, but I couldn't exactly tell. All I knew is that they were covered in blood. I then heard a helicopter fly over my head. Gretchen then shot her arms out and grabbed my legs.

"Wake up, Jordy!" She shouted, and then I did.

++++++

I woke up to Gretchen grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. I then got up and saw a helicopter that was placed right next to the fire, which was now blown out. I then stood up and Gretchen guided me towards the helicopter.

"What's happening?" I asked her, but she just ignored me. I stepped onto the copter and saw that Trech, Lizre, and Stepharie were already on it. I sat in a seat next to Steph, and buckled myself up. Two guys then shut the door that I walked through, and we started to lift off of the ground.

"What's happeing?" I asked again, and this time Steph put her hand on my shoulder.

"We're safe."