Jim looked back at his hiking group. Was it just him or had it gotten smaller?
Jerimie looked up at Odd who had just jumped down the hill after him.
"Odd to the rescue!" he shouted.
"No, Odd," Jerimie cried. Once the part time cat was next to him Jerimie moaned. "Odd you should have stayed up there now we can't get back up."
"No way! Someone saw us for sure," argued Odd.
"No they didn't, they were too busy listening to Jim."
"Einstein, no on listens to Jim but you. Oh by the way, forgot to ask; you ok?"
"Scratched up, I'm but fine." Jerimie said. Then he shook his head, "anyway that doesn't matter. How are we going to get back to the group?"
"Um," Odd rubbed the back of his head. "Absolutely no idea."
Jerimie looked around, "well as far as I can see we have two options. Take the treacherous route back to camp down hills or," he pointed to a deer path. "Follow that into the woods."
"I vote adventure!" Odd grinned wildly and ran to the trail just as a steady stream of rain started.
The girls followed the path saying nothing to each other.
"Where the heck are we?" asked Sissi.
"I told you we're on the path," Yumi tried to keep her voice under control.
"Yea, but you said that like ten whole minutes ago," Sissi whined.
"Just calm down we know you're scared but we'll find the group," Alieta smirked slightly. And Yumi also hid a snort of laughter.
"I am not scared," argued Sissi.
"Yea, right," muttered Yumi under her breath.
The tension between the girls could've been cut with a knife. They kept walking for a few minutes. Now even Yumi was beginning to wonder if they had taken the right path. The dirt road was beginging to narrow.
Suddenly the dirt and rocks widened out into a clearing that looked like it hadn't been used in ten years.
'Dead end' proclaimed the sign nailed on the tree.
"I told you we were on the wrong path!" accused Sissi.
"That doesn't matter we need to retrace our steps and get back to the group," reasoned Alieta.
"But there could be hundreds of paths that widen out into two or three or more!" Sissi shrieked.
"I hate to admit it," began Yumi, "but we're lost."
"We'll try to keep to the biggest paths and find the group." All the girls were trying to keep their heads but it was hard knowing they were separated from the rest of the group.
They nodded but all knew that they were in trouble. Just as they headed back it began to rain.
Ulrich followed William farther into the woods trying to remember where they had come from.
"William!" he called again.
"Over here!" whispered William from behind a tree, he gestured Ulrich over and—rolling his eyes—Ulrich joined him. William pointed to the top of a nearby hill where a doe and her fawn stood eating grass. "Aren't they beautiful?" asked William.
"Whatever, come on, William we have to get back to the group." Ulrich tugged William and the sudden movement made the deer look up.
The mother seemed to smell something and ran away her baby following close behind.
"No!" cried William. He ran to follow and left Ulrich behind. Ulrich sighed and began to run after him when his pant leg was caught on a fallen branch and he tripped.
He came crashing down on the hard earth with a thump. He felt a sharp pain travel up his leg but tried to ignore it. Looking down Ulrich saw that the branch had also torn the skin on his leg as well as the pants. With a wince he tried to stand, but as soon as the joint carried his weight Ulrich knew he couldn't possibly chase after William or walk at all for that matter.
"William come back!" called Ulrich. After a moment the black haired boy walked over the hill looking dejected.
"You made me loose them," he accused.
"We have bigger problems than that," said Ulrich attempting to stand. He slowly limped over to a tree that held his weight.
"What happened to you?"
"I tripped while I chasing after you!"
"Whatever. It's probably nothing let's get back to the group," said William as it started to rain.
Odd wasn't dejected quite yet but Jerimie was starting to get more and more depressed.
"We're never going to find the rest of th group Odd. It's starting to get dark we should stop and get some rest." Jerimie pointed out.
"Come on smart one where's your sense of adventure?" the younger boy grinned wildly.
"My 'sense of adventure' as you say was washed away by the rain!"
And he was right it was almost pouring buckets now, catching them hard as they had no tree cover.
"Come one Jerimie. We're never going to get anything done if you have that kind of attitude."
"Odd, we have to stop and get some sleep." Jerimie was almost begging now.
"Fine," odd sighed. "We'll stop once we find a good place to sleep."
Jerimie sighed and they continued, wishing there was any kind of tree or cave to sleep in. his legs were aching and he knew Odd wasn't as cheery as he seemed. His shoulders were slumped and he was shivering to.
There was a rumble and Jerimie rolled hi eyes. "Odd we had dinner only a couple of hours ago. You cant be hungry already."
"I swear Einstein that wasn't me," protested Odd.
Simultaiously they looked up to see the mud of the side of the hill slid down toward us.
"Odd look out!" screamed Jerimie and pushed the younger boy out of the way as the tons of mud came sliding down the inclined plain. They narrowly avoided being crushed under a huge mass of mud but were generously splashed with the muck.
"Why'd you save me?" asked Odd looking honestly confused.
"Where are we now?" asked Sissi shivering as another stream of rain fell on her from the trees above.
"We told you that only a minute ago," moaned Yumi her patience with the brat at a complete end.
"Well it feels like hours."
"Sissi, we have no way of knowing where we're going because of how many paths the trail has," Alieta said calmly. Fortunately for the rest of the group the pink haired girl had much more patience than Yumi.
"Well i'm tired can we stop for the night?" Sissi whined yet again.
"Finally some logic," whispered Yumi.
"What was that?" demanded the mini princess.
"Nothing."
"Girls!" Alieta cried.
"We need to find somewhere to sleep," Sissi stopped and put her hands on her hips.
"Something we can agree on!" Yumi shot Sissi a deathly glare.
"We'll keep going until we can find somewhere drier ok?" the pink haired girl begged them to agree with her eyes.
"Fine," the girls growled.
The enemies were quiet for a moment until the rain seemed to increase around them. Everyone shivered harder but mostly Sissi. She was wearing a tank top and shorts, both designer labels. Her teeth chattered wildly but she stubbornly kept her mouth closed.
Alieta looked back at her, noticing her discomfort.
She dropped back and walked with her giving her the bright pink jacket off her shoulders. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt under that so it wasn't much colder than it had been before.
The look in Sissi's eyes was startled as she took the jacket.
"Thank you, but why would you give me your jacket?"
William was walking several feet in front of Ulrich who was still limping badly.
"Can you see anything?" asked Ulrich for the fourth time that hour.
"For the billionth time no!" cried William.
"Sorry, jeez," mumbled Ulrich.
"If you want to know so badly why don't you come up here and see?"
"I told you!' protested Ulrich. "I did something to my leg."
"You're just milking it for all it's worth."
"Would you like to trade? I can be stupid and lead us in circles while you have a cut leg!" Ulrich waved his arms around wildly to emphasize his point and toppled over.
William tried to ignore the insults, the outburst and the crash as he fell down. He even managed to pass over the slight groan of pain from his companion.
"William," Ulrich's tone was defeated and pain filled. "Please, can we just stop for a minute?"
"Fine," grumbled William, walking back to Ulrich. When he came back he saw that the younger boy was lying on his back, rain pouring into his face despite the heavy tree cover. He was pale and shaking. But when he looked down at the leg he realized maybe he'd been too harsh.
The pant leg was cut from mid calf down and bleeding badly. The ankle was swollen and slowly turning a violent shade of purple.
He stood and walked off grabbing a strong thick stick and coming back. He took off his relatively dry under shirt and tore it into strips.
Ulrich opened one eye and looked at him. "If you're thinking of making a torch we have nothing to light it with."
William sat next to Ulrich and held the stick to it. As gently as he could he began wrapping the leg.
Ulrich opened both eyes and sat up slowly to watch William set his leg.
"Why would you do that?" Ulrich asked.
Jim stepped into camp and looked around his group. It had started to rain harder so he had gone back with cries of glee form the group.
But as he looked around at the children preparing for bed he noticed that three tents stood empty. With a quick glance inside he could see which children were missing.
How could he have missed the fact that seven of his charges were missing?
He had to call a search party, and fast. This rain storm was slowly getting worse.
IM SOOOOOOORRY!
i promise i will never make you wait so long again. *hides in corner and cries*
R&R *big sad eyes*