Look where getting lost got me – Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings and its awesomeness.
AN: So, this is my first LOTR fic, please be gentle. Haha.
"When I die, I will come back and haunt all of you!" I yelled down the three storey high platform that I was perched on while clinging for my life to a pole.
"You won't die Zincky." My friend and camp teammate Su Wei or Suay shouted back from the ground.
"How do you know I won't! I'm too young to die!" I argued back.
" You are wearing a harness." Suay answered.
"I will fall Suay! Do you not see how thin and narrow that plank is!" I exclaimed, pointing hard at the wooden plank that was placed in between the tower that I was perched on and another similar tower at the other end.
"What do you think we are standing here and holding a rope for? We will catch you." Suay said.
"Come on Zinc, it is all part of the camp exercise. We all did it already. You are the last one." A guy said coming up to stand next to Suay.
"Shut up Chris! None of you are going to make me take one step onto that death trap! I'm coming down!" I screamed, inching my way to the ladder.
"Hey! What is going on here? Why aren't you all reporting for the briefing?" a gruff looking camp instructor demanded as he marched over.
"Sorry Ian, I still have one more camper who has not finished the exercise." The camp instructor for the group explained.
"Hurry up and finish, your campers need to attend the briefing so that that they can prepare for tomorrow." Ian ordered before turning to head back to the briefing spot.
"Well, come on Zhi Ying. We have to move on now. Just take a deep breath and go across the obstacle. Even if you fall, I will consider it done." The camp instructor pleaded but I refused to budge and inch.
"Zinc. If you don't get your butt across that plank and down here in the next 3 minutes, I will burn your collection of Naruto ninja crap the minute, no second we return back to civilization." Christopher threatened.
"You wouldn't" I snarled but the promising glint in Chris's eye told me that he would hold true to his promise.
"Fine! I will do it."I relented, fearing for my precious Naruto collection. What kind I say, I am big fan for anything ninja! Taking a deep breath and clutching the harness rope tightly between my hands, I took my first step onto the wooden plank and surprisingly dashed all to the other end side before scrambling down the ladder.
" Wow… you were like a ninja on that thing Zincky." Su Wei or Suay exclaimed.
"Really! Awesome! I'm going to be a nin.. Omph." I grunted after tripping on a tree root.
"Yea, wow… a klutz ninja with a fear of heights. I'm so scared." Christopher cried mockingly. I got up and was about to engage him in a verbal banter when our camp instructor hurriedly herded us towards the briefing spot.
"Tomorrow, in your groups we will all be hiking or kayaking from base camp to camp site 3 which is on the other side of the island. If anyone of you forgot, we are currently in base camp. Now, we will be at campsite 3 for three days and 2 nights so pack accordingly. Dismiss!" Ian barked.
"I hope we get kayaking first." Su Wei prayed, as we all stood around, waiting for our camp instructor Leila to appear.
"Alright everybody, gather around," Leila called, " Tomorrow we will be hiking to campsite 3 and we leave at 8 am sharp
"Boo!" We all cried.
"We will be kayaking back on the third day." Leila said making us all cheer in joy. After that she dismissed us to go prepare our dinner, pack and rest.
"AH! Zincky!" Shanna, another girl from my group screamed, grabbing the can opener out of my hand.
"What?!" I yelped. Damn! She scared the shit out of me. Not literally of course.
" You opened all the canned food that we were given!" Shanna cried.
"I thought these were all for tonight's dinner?" I questioned, looking around for Leila or any other camp instructor.
"What's going on? We heard Shanna scream." Su Wei asked walking up with the rest of the their camp group.
"Shanna said I opened all the canned rations that we were given for the whole camp." I answered, " Did any of the camp instructors say anything about this?"
"No, they did not." Claudia another girl from their group replied.
"I'll go ask a instructor." Colonel said, before he walked of to go find someone.
"Crap! What will we do if this was all we had for the next week? I doomed us all!" I cried.
"Haha. As glad as I am that the you all did consider such a thing, you all have nothing to worry, this is for tonight's dinner only." Leila consoled us with Colonel behind her. Together as a group, we all sighed in relief.
"Thank god. At least we now know that we won't have to starve thanks to Zinc." Christopher slumped onto the ground in front of the our little camp fire.
"Childhood friend tolerance has a limit you know." I growled with a warning glare.
"Now now children, let's all settle down for dinner before we have to start packing." Su Wei being the oldest took control of the situation. So finally, the whole camp group of us started on our dinner before leaving to our tents to prepare for the next day and rest up.
Next day
" Morning my dear Kirbies!" Leila cheerfully greeted her camp group where they waited for her at their group supply shed.
"Morning Leila!" we greeted her back, all packed and ready to go.
"Alright! I can see that everybody has packed. We will take turns to carry these two canisters of shared water. Well before we leave, I want everyone to have a map of the island." Leila said while passing out the said item.
"Why do we need maps? You ain't going to throw us out there by ourselves, I mean even though this is a survival camp. We would all get lost!" Dora asked.
"The maps are just for you all to use to track our progress. We will not just throw you all out there." Leila chuckled.
"Are we leaving already Leila?" Claudia asked.
"Yep. Lets get started Kirbies!" Leila said making the whole team get up and shoulder their bags. Together, we started on our 6 to 7 hour hike to camp site 3.
Somewhere in the forest on the island, about 3 hours into the hike
"Argh!" I yelped having tripped on a tree root as we made our way over a grassy clearing, unfortunately my stuff from my backpack came tumbling out as I tumbled on the ground.
"Zincky! Are you okay?" Su Wei and Dora cried as they stopped and went to help me gather my stuff. The three of us were at the back of the group so no one really noticed that little accident.
"I'm alright! I can handle this by myself, you girls go ahead first." I replied, scrambling to gather my fallen items.
"Are you sure Zincky?" Dora asked, looking concerned at leaving her friend behind.
"I'm sure. We are in an open field, there is no way I can lose sight of you all." I assured them.
"Okay, if you say so. Hurry up okay." Su Wei said before she and Dora went to catch up with the rest of the group, leaving me to pack back my junk into the bag.
I spent a whole ten minutes cramming things into my bag pack before heaving it back across my back. The sucker weighed 15 kilograms to be exact, trust me I know because for fun we all weighed our bags before leaving at base camp. Hey, what can I say, we were all curious and bored.
After assuring everything was in order I started to brisk walk in the direction that everyone else had gone, in hopes of catching up with them. After walking for about
Crap! How can this be? I started to sprint praying that I would find my group; I really did not want to be lost on this island. I would never hear the end of Christopher's teasing when and if I was found.
Let me tell you, running with 15 Kg on your back is not easy, I did not make it very far before I had to stop for breath. As I tried to catch my breath, I scanned the horizon and spotted my group not far away, I quickly stared walking, trying to catch up.
Suddenly, I came to a forked path and I have no idea which one did my friends take. What do I do now? Ah! I could toss a coin! I searched my person and bag for my plastic container used to store the little bit of cash I brought for the camp. I pulled out a 50 cents coin and was about to toss it when I remembered that Leila had given each of us a map.
Once I had taken out the map and looked at it, I immediately regretted all the times I did not pay attention to the map-reading and geography lessons I had in school.
"Well, looks like my fate rests in you." I said, tossing the coin. It landed on heads so I took the right path. Hopefully it will lead me to my group.
1 hour later
"I think it is safe to say that I am confirm guarantee chop lost." I announced to no one in particular. Now, I could not even spot my group at all! How had I gotten lost you ask? Well, 10 minutes after I had taken the right path from the forked path I realized that it was the wrong path and had backtracked but somehow got lost on the way and ended up in the forest.
"Suay! Chris! Leila! Guys!" I yelled, hoping that someone, anyone could hear me. I have been just wandering around in a randomly chosen direction in hopes that it was the right one. My water bottle was half full and I was thirsty but I did not dare to take to big a gulp as who knows for how long would I have to ration my water supply!
"Hello! Anyone!" I started to shout as I walked, but it did not seem to be working. This sucks big time! It was getting darker and I was stuck out in the wild. I suppose it was time to make use of what we have been taught after one week of survival camp. I first had to set up a fire and to do that I had to gather firewood.
I took out my torchlight and scanned the forest ground for usable dry sticks and twigs, once I had gathered a fair amount; it took me several tries to set them in the same formation that we were thought. After that, I used my lighter and I had my fire. It was getting darker and colder and all I was wearing was a pair of jean shorts as well as a thin shirt. I dug into my bag and pulled out my hoodie before pulling it on in hopes of staving off some of the cold wind.
I was hungry and all I had were some snacks that I had packed prior to reporting for the camp. I ate a packet of Oreos and kept the rest for the next meal time after that I settled down in my sleeping bag for the night and tried to sleep.
Two days later
My whole body was aching after another night of sleeping on the cold hard ground making me stretch after getting up. My fire had died during the night and though I was hungry I only took a sip of water before starting my journey to find my camp group. Okay… if I found by anyone I would be happy already.
"Claudia! Colonel! Dora! Guys!" I shouted despite knowing that is was all in vain. I was hopelessly lost and no one was going to find me. Why oh why did I tell Dora and Suay to go ahead without me! Why did the stupid school send us on this camp, claiming that it was requirement for graduation?
"AH!" I screamed in frustration, stopping in my tracks. I was exhausted, lost, thirsty and hungry, my water and food supply is low and I am still stuck in the middle of no where! Please can someone find me already!
Suddenly, a horn was heard and this made me make a mad dash for the source of the sound. I was finally saved! My group came to look for me! Thank God!
When I broke through the trees, the sight before me made me want to cry, it was not my group at all. Instead, there was a very dirty-looking male waving around a sword, fighting against these super ugly black humanoid monsters. What on earth have I walked into? It was like something out of a nightmare/fantasy story.
I watched the scene before me in both awe and horror as the male cut down monster after monster, black blood raining everywhere. OMG, black blood! I heard harsh cries as pebbles and small stones hurled themselves at the monsters that charged relentlessly at the male. I eyeballed where the aerial projectiles were coming from and spotted 2 small boys bravely throwing them at the monsters.
The sound of the horn caught my attention again and my eyes went back to the male, probably the father of the two boys and he was gallantly protecting his two sons. A roar than caused me to turn my attention towards a humongous monster that stood at the top of a small mound, motioning for more of its companions to attack. The creature itself than took its bow and took aim; I looked to see what is was aiming at and it was father of the two boys.
Nightmare/fantasy storey or not, I was not about to let two boys become orphaned and a brave father die trying to protect his sons.
"Mister Duck!" I yelled just as the creature let loose the arrow, praying that I was loud enough for the father to hear. Luckily it was enough and the father ducked the arrow that hit the tree behind him with a loud thud however my shout had alerted the monsters of my presence and several ran towards me with swords and other lethal looking weapons.
"Wa!" I cried, dodging the sword that swung towards my head, rolling in the dirt. This was not what I had expected when I woke up this morning! For once, I was thankful for my parents for forcing me to take up martial arts as a little girl so it was on instinct that when a fist flew for my face that I blocked it and delivered a punch of my own.
My whole body was moving on instinct, I was mightily afraid of what I was seeing but I was more afraid of being killed by these monsters that should not even exist. I was pulled into the battle as I dodged, blocked, kicked and punched until I was sort of cornered together with the two young boys.
"Behind you milady." The dark haired boy cried, pointing behind me. I turned on the balls of my feet and delivered a harsh roundhouse kick to the monster's face. Sweat was running down my face and I was getting tired but the onslaught of monsters did not cease or even slow down and I was soon overwhelmed and separated from the two boys. I could only watch on as the two were picked up and roughly thrown over the shoulders of two monsters and carted them off.
Their cries alerted their father who called out to them but was blocked by the monsters. I barely caught a glimpse the sight of an arrow sticking out from his shoulder before being whacked across the face by one of monster. The force of the blow threw me into a tree, leaving me disorientated and breathless.
By the time I got my bearings, one of the hideous creatures was towering over me with his sword arching its way down towards me, there was no time for me to avoid the blow. I was going to die.
AN: So what do you all think? Please review and share your thoughts. Nervous for my first time attempting a LOTR fic.