The Last Strike

Chapter 1

Grace

Grace scrambled down the rocks after her friends, Samantha and Julia.
"We better not go to the far tunnel." Sam complined, her blackish brown hair was streaked with sweat.
"Well I want to see the train tunnels," Julia replied.
    "Shure, but that doesn't mean we have to walk an extra mile to see the farthest one," Sam answered.
    "But if it's better-" Julia started.  "No," Sam snapped, "I don't wanna walk an extra mile for no reason, whatsoever".
    As they argued, Grace observed her friends. 
Sam had brown eyes that matched her short, almost  black hair.  Her black hair lay on her shoulders flatly, and her olive skin perfected the picture.  She had on a plain black T-shirt as well as jean shorts.  Sam had black glasses on, the same color as her shirt.  Whenever Grace pictured Sam, Sam looked like an average fifteen year old nerd which Sam was.         
Then there was Julia who had light brown hair and brown eyes that seemed to say "This is beyond awesome, I wish I could do this all the time!"  She had tan skin that went with her outfit nicely, for she wore hiking boots, and a pair of jean shorts.  She wore a blue shirt that said "EGHS SWIM" on it.  Like Sam and Grace, Julia was fifteen years old.
Grace couldn't help notice how much of a California girl she herself looked like.              
While Sam and Julia both had different shades of brown hair Grace had blond.  She had deep blue eyes, pale skin, and a very firm exprson.  That day she was wearing hiking boots, sweatpants, a shirt, and around her waist was an Adidas jacket.  Like Sam and Julia she was fifteen.
Grace and her two best friend's families, the Dewantis, the Smedbergs and the Smithe's were all on a hike in the middle of the mountains.  Sam obviously disliked hiking but her family had made her come, while Julia on the other hand had been the one to beg her parents to go. They had already finished the hard part of the hike, the summit, and now they were on their way back down.  Sam's mom wanted them to add an extra mile or so to look at some old, abandoned, train tunnels.
The hike had sounded hard and exciting that morning, but now that Grace and her friends had actually done the hike, it seemed like a piece of cake.
Something heavy plowed into her, stopping Grace's train of thought.  "Oops sorry," said Adeline, Sam's younger sister.  Addie was an unusual girl, Grace knew that, everybody did. Anyone who met Addline Dewanti knew they'd never meet another like her, and of course Grace knew that as well.  "Don't walk in front of me anymore," Grace said, a little annoyed, "walk behind me instead."  "There's a problem with that," answered Addie with a matter of fact glint in her eyes.  "You walk slower than me." It was true, there was no denying it.  As well as unusual, Addie was smart.  Grace sighed, "You can walk in front of me...if you stay at least a few feet ahead that way we won't run into one another again."
Addie had light brown hair, and eyes that seemed to change from brown to hazel to stormy grey.  She was wearing hiking boots (of course), with indigo shorts, a sky blue shirt, and a indigo colored jacket was wrapped around her waist.  She was ten years old but she looked like she was nine or maybe even eight.
They hiked on.  "You know Sam you got one unusual sister, Julia whispered so Addie couldn't hear.  "I know," Sam said flatly, "Do you know how many people have told me that?"  "I lost count about two years ago."  For a moment nobody spoke.  Grace was surprised that she had not known this before now; for she, Julia, and Sam had used to alway tell each other everything.  "Why haven't you told us this before," Grace questioned.  Sam said nothing for a second; "she is probably thinking," Grace thought.  "We haven't really had much time together this summer...so I guess with the virus and all going on I haven't had time to tell you quite a few things."  "Oh," Grace thought.  Since practically the whole world was shut down Grace couldn't see her friends that often anymore.  Which meant no talking, and no talking meant no telling one another things going on.         
    2020 kind of sucked, mainly because of COVID-19.  It was a dangerous illness that hit the U.S.A. in March.  Now it was September and California was still quarantining.  Grace, Julia, and Sam's families were semi-relaxed about the quarantine rules, allowing everyone on the hike not wearing masks because they were outside.  They were not staying six feet apart though. 
To Grace the pandemic wasn't that alarming.  As long as you didn't get sick it didn't really matter to her.
    They stopped, and in front of Grace was a ginormous tunnel that was as tall as a two story building.  There was so much graphite that there wasn't a bare wall in sight.
    "It's huge," Julia said, her eyes were gleaming with delight.  Grace couldn't help gawking at the tunnel herself.  When Grace was at the top of the mountain she saw the train tunnels, from up there the tunnels looked small but now-just wow.  The tunnel was ginormous.
Just then Addie ran into the tunnels with a big smile on her face.  "Let's beat the grown ups to the end," she said, and sped off.  Sam and Julia followed her with Grace and the other tees and kids jogging behind them.  When anyone tried to catch up to Addie she just sped up and left them in the dust.
Glory, Grace's sister was suddenly right next to Grace.  "I bet you can run faster than Noah," Glory told Addie.  "You think so," Addie answered with a playful grin.  She went over to Noah.
Noah was one of Grace's two siblings; he was eighteen years old; three years older than Grace.  He had sandy blond hair, with blue eyes, just like Grace.  He was tall and fast too.
"I challenge you to a race," Addie said.  With a mysterious grin on his face he said, "You're on."
"To the end of the tunnel and back to-hmm, how about where the stone walls start."
"Where are there rock walls," thought Grace.  Then she saw that a few feet away the walls became hard stone.  Sam said smartly, "The tunnel must hit a mountain here."
All the kids stopped as Hannah drew a line with her walking stick.  "It has to be fair," she smiled.
Hannah was Julia's younger sister; she was thirteen years old.  She had short, light, brown hair, and brown eyes.  She was thirteen years old; best friends with Glory and Johnathan. 
"On your mark," Addie and Noah got into position, "get set, go," shoughted Johnathon, Sam's brother.
Noah sprinted off, as Addie joged.  "What kind of competition is this," Noah laughed. Addie just called back, "The element of surprise."  Grace didn't notice it till Noah was at the end of the tunnel but Addie was running faster and faster every second.  "She's gaining on you," called Sam from above.
Grace looked up and there was Sam on a little ledge, it was built into the wall.  If you wanted to you could walk up onto a little rock ledge.  The ledge was about eight feet in the air. There were rocks below the ledge that she must have climbed up.  Julia seemed to be trying to climb up-having no luck.
Addie must have heard Sam too because she looked up.  She too must have seen Sam up there and figured out a plan, for she now had a devious smile on her face.  She stopped and said loudly, "THREE, TWO, ONE GO."  Surprising everyone (especially Noah), she sprinted onward with amazing speed.  Grace had never before seen someone look so determined.  None of them would have guessed that someone so short and at the age of ten could run so fast.  By now both Noah and Addie were almost back to the start of the stone walls.  Addie was still gaining speed.  "Was she fast enough to beat him?" Grace wondered. She was ten feet away-no seven, four feet-, Addie zipped past Noah.  She did this so fast he slowed down from confusion.  She was about five feet away from Noah and about fifthteen feet away from the finish line Hannah had drawn.
The little ledge was about five feet away from the finish line.
"And the winner is-," Jonathan started.  Addie raced on; she crossed the line in the rocks and quickly rolled onto the ledge after she climbed up.  "-Addie,"Johnny finished, using his hands as a fake microphone.  Addie had a mischievous expression on her face; she gave a little bow. Noah crossed his arms and said, "That's not fair she-."  "The element of surprise," Addie said again, cutting him off.
By then the grown ups had caught up with them.  "Look at this ledge-thing Sam found," Addie told her parents.
The next thing Grace knew was that Addie and Sam were putting their arms around each other like they were best friends.  Their mom was taking a picture of them to remember the moment.  Mrs. Dewanti told her husband something that Grace couldn't quite hear and then she climbed onto the ledge (like it wasn't hard at all).  Mrs. Dewanti put her arms around her daughters and they got their picture taken.
This made Grace think of herself, Glory and her own mom taking the same picture.  "It could never happen", she told herself.  Grace's mom wasn't even there; Grace thought "besides we would never be able to climb up there."
Mrs. Smedberg (Grace, Glory, and Noah's mom) was at home because she had to do something for her job that day-even though it was Saturday.
The Smedbergs were more of the ambitious, perky type of family.  Then there were the Smithe's who were the swimming, clever, curious type of family.  The Dewanti's however were the advenchers, sporty, athletic, type of family except for well-Sam.  Sam kind of had her own category.
She was a mixture of the three families; she was clever, ambitious, a bookworm, and adventurous.    
Mrs. Dewanti had just climbed down when the tunnel unexpectedly shook, stopping Grace's train of thought.  Mrs. Dewanti helped Addie down as the tunnel shook again; this time it shook harder.  Sam was just about to climb down when suddenly something odd happened. The darkness of the tunnel  turned bright as a flash of light streaked across the room blinding everyone for a moment.
Grace fell to the floor not knowing what had just occurred.

Thanks for reading everyone!
This chapter was written by: Lana