Sudden

Chapter 8

VINA'S POV

I'm sorry if Maran left you hanging there. She didn't want to describe the next parts. And I don't blame her. No one else wants to tell these next few parts because everyone else is done with their point of view. So here I am. Forgive me if I take a while. It's time for my perspective.

We headed into the cave. We walked for like 5 minutes, then came to our first challenge. A choice of which tunnel to take.

"So, umm. Which one?" Jill asked in a small voice. "Well, let's see. There's some light down the middle tunnel, a loud noise from the left, ad a creepy silence from the right. I vote middle." Shelly said. It was 6 to 2 for those who voted the middle path, and so we walked on.

"Umm, should we use flashlights?" Reyna asked Shelly and Sammy who were in the front. "No. We need to save the batteries for something darker. There's a bit of light here and our eyes adjust anyway. Come on." Shelly said. Encouraged, we walked on for what seemed like an hour.

"Finally!" Sammy yelled after we emerged from the cave. After an hour of darkness, spider webs, holes in the ground, and rats, it felt good to see open space. The sun was hidden behind the clouds telling us that the weather would change soon. Bad thing was, it was colder because the sun was "gone."

But we were prepared. We stood at the cave's mouth, taking in the view. From up in the sky, it's like we were looking down on a beautiful landscape. Here, it was like we were being tortured in a dream scenery. The forest towered above us and animals roamed around. Foxes, deer, and even birds were there. We walked along admiring everything.

"Maybe this is a nice experience." Maran said.

We walked for like a mile before our next challenge came. Actually, the first challenge wasn't really a challenge.

We were facing a huge bear. We weren't sure if it was real or not. We waited. It stood on its hind legs and growled. We waited.

It growled and lunged. Sammy threw her knife at it and hit its hind leg. Blood came out and we knew it was a real animal.

"So much for not harming animals." Isabella muttered. The bear got mad and clawed at the ground. We all took the hint and ran. We ran in different directions by two.

"Vina? A little help please?" Maran asked and yelled at the same time. "Coming!" I yelled as I ran to her. Seemed like we were the unlucky pair. Since I had traps and stuff, i got out a bottle from the belt around my waist, which carried all my containers, and I read the label. Poisonous gas. Helpful. But I can't. I looked at all the bottles. But none of them were right.

"Any time would be good, Vina. Now would be better though." Maran yelled as she slashed at the bear. The bear eyed Maran as she scrambled up a tree. The bear kept swiping at the branch she was on and she was holding on so very tight. I couldn't find anything else, and I couldn't make a trap. So i got out my dagger and ran to help Maran. Unfortunately, the branch fell and so did Maran. The bear towered over her and its claws swiped at her chest, leaving 4 long bloody claw marks across her chest.

I was standing like an idiot. I was holding my dagger in my right hand while watching the bear tear at Maran's chest. I was horrified. Trust me. You don't want to see your friend, one of your closest friends being clawed at by a bear. I ran towards the bear shouting not really knowing what I was doing. The bear turned at me and I guessed I looked freaky, because it lumbered back into the forest like nothing happened.

I approached the unconscious Maran. I knelt beside her. Her shirt was ripped. At least her jacket was intact. I wanted to run back to the lake, but I forgot where it was. "Help!" I yelled as loud as I could. "Help!"

"Vina! Vina!" I heard Reyna yelling. "Here! Over here!" I yelled. Reyna and Sammy appeared and boy was I glad to see them.

"Do you guys remember the way back to the lake?" I asked them. "We do." Shelly and Angel came out of the trees along with Jill and Isabella. "Thank goodness. Could you get some water? Maran is unconscious and she has 4 claw marks on her chest." I told them. "Already? We haven't really started yet. It's still the first day." Jill said. "You never know what might happen. We'll be right back." Shelly said as she and Angel ran to the lake to fill an empty bottle with water.

When they came back, I got the bottle and poured some water on Maran's face, and wet a cloth from our medical kit and washed her wounds. She flinched.

"Maran!" I yelled. She sat up slowly and smiled at us. "Maran! Why? It's still the first day! Why did you have to get hurt!" Sammy said as she hugged her. "Yeah I know. But I had to defend myself." She said. "We know. We're glad you're okay." Isabella said.

We helped Maran stand. "Okay. Now what?" Jill asked. "Let's follow the river." Reyna said. We all decided we should since there was no other way. We didn't have a GPS. Just a pair of binoculars, goggles, and our watches. Sorry for repeating.

"So we'll just be walking, running and surviving right?" Maran asked us. We were all sort of gloomy so we just stayed quiet. "Okay. Fine! Don't answer! It's fun to talk to myself anyway." Maran said. This time we giggled a bit.

We walked for another hour following the river. We stopped for a snack underneath a tall pine tree.

"You know, being kidnapped may not be good, but being here in Alaska is. I think we should be thankful that we were brought here instead of in a dark alley." Jill said. We all thought about it.

"You're right, Jill." Shelly said. We all continued to eat our sandwiches. It was probably around 11am or 12n.

Suddenly the sky became darker. The clouds were dark gray and seemed like it would rain. Wait. Let me rephrase that. We're in Alaska. It will probably "snow."

We zipped up or buttoned our jackets because it was getting colder.

"Umm, did you guys notice the snow?" I asked them. "Of course Vina." Reyna said. "Whew. I thought that you guys didn't because I'm the only one shivering." I said. "What? Oh. That snow. Like it's snowing. I thought you meant the snow on the ground." Reyna told me. I did a facepalm. "Do you seriously think I'm THAT DUMB?" I asked. "Whoa Vina. Calm down. I'm sorry. It was just a misunderstanding." She said. Mhmmm. Yeah right. Misunderstanding? Every time I say something that's obvious, or so they think it's obvious, they either criticize me or laugh at me. Well usually it's just Maran, and Sammy.

Anyway, we walked until dusk. We "made camp". It was already snowing hard. We had put our hoods up, and made a fire under the leaves of a willow tree. Funny. Willow trees aren't really found in cold places. Oh, well. It's probably like the Ice Age movie.

The next morning, we hit off. We washed ourselves first, (but we didn't strip our clothes off) then we went on our way.

We walked or should I say, staggered for another hour before resting again.

"I'm tired. We're only like 1/5 of 1/5 of the whole thing." Sammy said in exasperation as she sat down. We all sat down. It was tiring. "Could nothing getting any worse than this?" Maran asked us. She spoke to soon.

A huge mechanical creature came out. Then another. We had to fight two. Ugh. "Eventually it can, Maran." Reyna said. We stood up, got our weapons, and prepared to fight.