Project: Socialize (Chapters 198-Continued) [Hiatus]

217. Trapped

The trek through the mountains after crossing the suspension bridge to the flower fields didn't take long. After walking about three minutes, we made it to the small clearing where the glowing flowers were located. The flower field was extremely beautiful, filled with a wide collection of flowers glowing different hues and shades of azure. Small particles, maybe pollen? floated about the buds of the beautiful flowers. In all honesty, this was an extremely beautiful scene, one that justified the long hike here.

"It's so beautiful," Irina exclaimed.

"It's beautiful and all," Zaksus shivered as he commented. "Can we head back now? It's getting quite cold."

"It sure is," Mura frowned as she felt the air with her hands. "Everyone ready to go back?"

"Wait a minute," Luna said as she took out her phone. "Let me take a picture first."

"Send it to me," Irina asked of her.

"Of course," Luna nodded. However, a frown soon appeared on her face. "No service here as well..."

"We're in the middle of the mountains," Noah said with his hands clasped behind his head.

"Let's head back," Mura then announced.

Without any further objections, the entire group started moving in the direction we had walked here from. As we walked back, I noticed that the others had also started shivering somewhat. In addition, when I breathed with my mouth, I could see a white cloud forming.

"It's getting quite cold," Erith said as she hugged her arms and shivered.

"The weather on the mountain changes without warning," Loyd frowned. "We need to head back fast."

Loyd was right. The temperature change is surprisingly fast, one that will surely endanger us. The air around us seemed to be getting colder every second with no signs of stopping. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the drop in temperature will continue. We must head back to our tents fast to escape the cold.

"The bridge is just ahead!" Zaksus announced with a joyful expression on his face as he rushed out ahead of us, making his way past the covers of the trees. However, he soon stopped dead in his tracks and dropped to his knees. On his face, there was a look of despair. "T-the bridge..."

"The bridge collapsed..." Irina covered her mouth with both hands and muttered.

"Wait wait wait..." Noah shook his head in disbelief as he stared at the dark chasm before us with wide eyes. "What? This gotta be a joke!"

Without saying anything, I looked around the two wooden post that had supported the suspension bridge on this end of the mountain. I walked over, squatted down, and peered at the broken rope. I squinted my eyes to see past the obscuring darkness and at the broken edge of the rope. The break was rather clean, almost as if it had been cut with something sharp...

"What do we do now?" Zaksus cried in despair.

"It's getting cold," Luna frowned and muttered. She leaned against Erith as the two bunched together for warmth.

Alvelyn approached me and also huddled close to me. With her hood on, she kept her head down, resting it on my chest and kept her hands in the pocket of her hoodie. She seemed to be wanting to escape the cold wind, so who's better than the male version of yourself?

I glanced around at everyone to see their reaction, wondering if this gesture of ours would be considered weird. However, it would appear that everyone else was too distraught to even care about us. The only person who paid attention was Loyd, but it would appear that he was quite accepting of it, probably because I'm technically her "twin brother".