The eight remaining kids continued their journey in search of the city, but they had all but lost hope of ever finding it. Chris was determined not to fail his group, not so much from compassion tho as pride.
I'm never wrong, I never am, Chris encouraged himself. I'll find that city if it kills me.
"Ally?" Sky said suddenly after a long period of quietness.
"Yeah?"
"I'm hungry."
"Me too."
"If I was home, I would be eating waffles with syrup all over them."
"That sounds good..."
"A juicy steak sounds pretty good 'bout now," Jason joined the conversation.
"I'm feeling like more of a Big Mac," Jackson added.
"Can we stop talking about food?" Lola snapped.
"'Can we stop talking about food? I don't ever eat anything so I'm jealous that everyone else does'," Jason did a mockery of Lola, and Jackson, Sky, Ally, and Alex started laughing.
"Stop laughing!" Lola complained, "I do eat!"
"Yeah Jason!" Jackson said as he stood beside Lola. "Lola does eat! Everyday she eats her homework so that she doesn't have to do it!" Another torrent of laughter.
"You're so mean!" Lola whined at Jackson. She stomped away to Chris, who had listened to the conversation with a grin on his face. "Why don't you say something?" Lola asked him, obviously annoyed.
"Okay than," Chris said to her before turning to the group, "Guys, stop bothering Lola...it's so much nicer not having to hear her voice." The kids, excluding Lola and Stephan, start laughing all over again. Lola let out a frustrated sigh and walked ahead of the group. Eventually, once their laughter had died down, they continued on after her.
The kids had stopped at the edge of a river. It was around fifty or so feet across, and the water was moving at a fairly fast pace. The kids didn't have to feel the water to know it was freezing.
"What do we do now Mr. Waldren?" Jason asked. Chris was walking up and down alongside the water, trying to figure out just that.
I don't remember this, Chris thought as he remembered first seeing the city, there wasn't any river near the city. Are we going the wrong way? No, of course we're not. I just must've missed it.
Chris thought for a moment longer before replying. "We'll have to cross it."
"Are you crazy?!" Jason exclaimed. "We can't cross that thing! We'll freeze to death!"
"Not if you cross it quickly," Chris replied, "If you do your body will heat up."
"Whatever, I'm not crossing. If you wanna freeze to death than fine, but I'm not crossing," Jason decided. Chris looked at the others to see who else wasn't going to come. None of them looked all that eager, but he was sure that once he jumped in they would follow.
"Okay than, we'll just go without you," Chris told Jason.
"Chris, I don't think this is a good idea," Stephan spoke up for the first time since that morning.
"Finally decided to talk again huh?" Chris said rather harshly. "We need to cross over, that's the way to the city. Unless you'd rather we stay here and eat berries." Stephan opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. Chris' sharp words had cut him deep, and he couldn't find the courage to say anything. Chris gave him a curt nod, as though telling him he was smart to not have spoken.
Alex watched the two with approaching uncertainty. He had been best friends with Stephan for the longest time, but the last several days had created a drift between them. Instead of siding with Stephan on matters, he was usually agreeing with Chris. Crossing a river didn't sound like the best idea, but if that was the only way they would be able to reach the city, than he decided it was a risk worth taking.
Chris moved toward the river's edge carefully. He stood there for some time, before turning to the group.
"I think it will be best if we-if we remove our shoes and clothes," Chris told the group, remembering something he had heard about the matter on a TV show.
"Uh, I'm not skinny-dipping...with you guys," Sky said.
"If you wear your clothes, you'll definitely freeze once you reach the other side," Chris warned her. "You either take your clothes off here, swim across, and put them on and be all nice and warm on the other side, or swim across, get them all wet, and have to take your clothes off over there till they dry." Sky crossed her arms, not wanting to choose either option.
Chris, hoping the others would follow suit, tentatively began to remove his clothing. Jackson looked at Jason with a hopeful glance, and soon started to take off his own clothes. Jason was unmoved by his friend's decision to swim across the river, and stand firmly in his spot. Ally and Sky looked at each other, neither wanting to stay, but neither wanting to remove their clothes to cross the river. With seemingly no choice, they slowly were taking off their clothes. They had barely removed their shoes by the time Lola had stripped down to her underclothing.
"Alex," Chris called the boy over, "Keep your clothes on. I'll take over half the group, and you can take over the other half once I make it across. That way, if someone starts to get swept away you can follow them on foot."
Trying not to show his relief, Alex quickly replied, "Who you taking?"
"I'll take Lola, Sky, and Jackson."
"Okay."
"You hear that guys?" Chris asked the group. None of them said anything. "Lola, Jackson, Sky, you're all coming with me. Once we get to the other side, Alex will lead everyone else across." Sky grumbled, giving Ally an upset glance.
"Why'd he break us up?" Sky asked. "He knows we're always together." Ally shrugged.
"I don't know, just try to stay near him or Jackson. They'll be able to help you if you get into trouble," Ally said. Sky nodded, still upset.
Chris stood at the water's border, holding his clothes and shoes in one hand. He had on his boxers, but that was all. Jackson had also kept his shorts on, and Sky decided to keep on her underclothes as well. The three kids who Chris had chosen to swim across with him stood at the edge of the river, waiting for someone to make the first move. Chris took a deep breath. As leader, he knew it should be him who jumped in first. But before he could, there was a splash as Jackson leaped into the water. He broke the surface, gasping with shock at the coldness of the water. He had kept one hand in the air, holding his clothes above the water in an effort to keep them dry. If the water had been warmer, he wouldn't have really minded the swim. The water wasn't so fast that he had to struggle to swim, but it was using up his draining energy.
Remembering what Ally had told her, Sky lunged into the water after Jackson. The water felt like it was stabbing her skin, and she couldn't remember a time in her life when she had been in such numb pain. Chris, annoyed that Jackson had taken his position at the head of the line, jumped in after Sky. He wasn't as bothered by the water as Jackson and Sky had been, but not even he could deny the coldness of the water. It was worse than any pain he had ever felt in his life. He would much rather break his leg two times over than this, and he knew what it felt like to break a leg.
Lola was the last to jump in, and she wished she hadn't the moment she hit the water. She immediately dropped her clothes as she huddled herself together. The water was quickly moving her downstream.
"Chris!" Lola's teeth chattered violently in-between shouts, "Chris!" The boy turned around.
"You...gotta...swim!" Chris shouted between breaths. The water seemed to get a little warmer as he swam, but it was little help since his strength was ebbing away. Lola slowly unraveled her arms and began to swim across to the other border. On land, Alex and his group watched their friends with anxiousness.
Jackson was nearly twenty feet across by the time he felt he couldn't stand it any longer. I'm not even halfway there! I can't do it, I can't do it... Jackson's strength was gone, and he was being drifted away with the water.
"Jackson! Jackson!" Jason shouted, his voice filled with terror for his best friend. But Jackson could only barely hear his friend; his senses were becoming more and more dull as the water swept him away. The only relief he could find was that, as his senses dulled, the pain dulled with them. He managed to keep his head above the water, but that was becoming an epic struggle. He kept his vision centered on his friend, as Jason ran along the water's border, obviously deciding on whether to jump in or to stay on land.
"Don't," Jackson manage to say. Somehow Jason heard, and he obeyed his friend's last wishes.
"Bye Jackson," Jason mouthed the words. Jackson kept his mind focused on those last two words, before his head dropped underneath the waterline, and the pain was, at last, gone.
Back with the main group, more drama was unfolding. This time it was Lola. She could barely stand the water, and was making little progress in reaching the other side. She had drifted fairly far away from Chris and Sky, and as much as she wanted to scream, to cry out for help, she couldn't find the energy to do so. And the only one watching her was Stephan.
"Ch-Chris," Lola sputtered out his name, though he didn't hear her. Panic began to seize her as she realized how desperate her situation was. "He-he-he-help," the word was barely understandable, much less audible. Stephan knew what she was trying to say, though, and was preparing himself to jump into the water, clothes and all. Ally saw him and poked Alex, pointing at the boy.
"Stephan, what you doing?!" Alex exclaimed, rushing in to stop his friend from making a potentially fatal mistake.
"We gotta help Lola!" Stephan told Alex, pointing at the struggling girl.
"We can't Stephan," Alex said softly, still holding on tightly to Stephan's arm. Stephan tried to pry Alex's hands off his arm, but he knew Alex was right. If he jumped in, he would only achieve in killing himself. Only Lola could decide whether or not she lived, and she was choosing death.
The girl, believing someone would come to her aid, made little attempt to save herself. She tried to shout out for Chris a few more times, but it was useless. Once she understood that he wasn't coming to help her, she looked over at Stephan and Alex for help. When he saw her looking at him, Alex looked away. Stephan looked down for a moment, than looked back up at her, straight into her eyes.
"Stephan, help me!" Lola used a sudden burst of energy to shout out. He slowly shook his head, his eyes showing his deep pain. But Lola didn't see it; she only saw his denial to help her. Any affection she had for him, any thought that maybe somewhere deep within she liked him, was instantly replaced by a burning hatred, which showed in her own eyes. Stephan, startled, stepped back a couple feet from the border. For the first time, he realized that she had never liked him. She had never cared for him, and she never would for anyone. The only person she had cared about was herself.
But when Lola disappeared below the water, Stephan still felt pain.
Only Sky and Chris were still alive, and Chris was seriously beginning to rethink his plan. They were still over fifteen feet away, and he could see that Sky was only barely holding on. He wanted to turn around, but his pride, and the distance, kept him from doing so.
Sky didn't feel alive, and she couldn't really even think. Somehow, though, her arms continued to move in repeated circles, bringer her slowly closer and closer to the other side. Her only thought was swim, swim, swim...
They were now fifteen feet away. Chris felt his hopes get up, knowing it was only a little distance away. That's when he saw the bear.
"Sk-sk," Chris tried to call out to Sky, who was some ten feet ahead of him. The giant grizzly was thin from the winter, but it was still a breathtaking sight. Only, Sky didn't see it, too concentrated in reaching the other side. Chris stopped and, deciding he would rather swim back the thirty feet to the other side than take his chances with a bear, turned around and headed back to Alex and the others.
"Sky!" Ally shouted as loud as she dared. She wasn't sure whether or not the bear would swim across the river to them, but she wasn't taking chances. Sky didn't hear her, and continued onward.
With one last paddle, Sky had finally reached the other side. She grabbed hold of a rock on the shore, and tried to lift herself up onto land. She only managed to get up to her chest on land, before she collapsed.
"Sky!" Ally shouted again. Sky didn't hear her friend though, her hearing all but fuzzed out. She blinked a couple times to try to wake herself up from her nearly dead state, but the coldness was taking over. She had abandoned her clothes to the river, and she was gravely cold. A low grunting sound caught her attention, and she looked up. Only ten or so feet away stood the grizzly. The bear looked at her with unsure curiosity, made another grunting sound, and lumbered away. Sky, her body tired from using energy it didn't have, closed her eyes and allowed the sweet feeling of sleep take over. She was the only one to make it across the river, and she had paid with her life.