Chapter 11
The group continued walking until they reached a dried up forest. No rain had come for days, and the trees had lost all their leaves and the ground was as dry and hot as a desert.
"Guys?" panted Sid, obviously not ready for an environment like this. "Can we take a break? I'm dying of thirst here."
Suddenly, Sid heard a screech. Several vultures had been sitting on the tree branches, watching the group walked along the forgotten forest. "It was just a figure of speech!" shouted Sid, instantly perking up and running to join the others.
The group stopped and looked around at the several vultures, perched on the branches, staring at them with glowing eyes. "They're all just sitting there, watching us." Manny spoke quietly.
"I wonder what they're thinking." Sid whispered back. Suddenly, they heard a gunshot, and a bullet bounced off a rock right next to Eddie's foot. Eddie yelped and jumped into Crash's arms. Manny looked up to see the owner of the bullet… The Lone Gunslinger! He stood on a cliff a few yards away from them, holding his rifle.
The Gunslinger flicked out his cigarette and smiled an evil smile. "Food…" he said, smiling. "FOOD!" he shouted, pointing at the group. The vultures started screeching and flew towards them, ready to tear into their flesh.
Diego and Manny drew their swords and started swinging at them. Several vultures hit the ground as the group started running to get out of there.
The Lone gunslinger growled, nobody gets passed him and his vultures alive. He loaded his rifle and looked down the barrel to see the group running. He aimed for Ellie and fired. Manny swung his sword over his head and deflected the bullet. The Gunslinger growled and jumped down from the cliff, shooting and reloading all the way.
The group stood near the edge of a cliff, with the gunslinger and his army of birds pushing them towards the edge. "Give it up, giant!" the gunslinger growled. "You're dead anyway! You all will be a feast for me and my pets, one way or another!"
Manny growled and swung his sword at the vultures that snapped at him. Suddenly, an idea shot through his mind like lightning. "Diego!" he shouted. Diego threw two vultures off of him and turned around to face Manny. "Strike you're swords into the ground with mine!"
Diego nodded and lifted his swords high into the air, while Manny did the same. They struck down into the ground, which caused a massive rock slide to happen. The group rolled on the rocks, trying to keep their balance. Suddenly, they rolled right off a cliff.
The gunslinger looked over, hopeful that they died. He growled in anger, the group had survived by landing in a tree. "I hope we don't have to do that again!" said Sid. The tree broke and the group fell to the ground in one big pile.
…
The group continued walking; Sid was singing some song he wrote about food. "Sid!" Manny and Diego shouted. "What, it's catchy?" Sid asked. Manny shook his head; he did not need to hear Sid sing after what happened last time. The group continued walking but stopped after their eyes laid onto a magnificent sight. Standing on top of a rock was an ark, like Noah's ark, and all the animals and people of the valley were gathering on that one ship.
"Wow! I can't believe it!" said Crash. "We showed that scary vulture lover what happens when you mess with the herd!" shouted Sid. Everyone cheered; they had made it to the boat.
Suddenly, their celebration was cut short by a loud gushing noise. Standing between them and the ark, was a bunch of geysers in a giant field.
"Aw, it's just a little hot water and steam." said Sid. "How bad can it be?" A bird flew down and landed on the geyser. The geyser spurted up into the bird and fried it. "I think I almost peed." Sid spoke quietly.
"Okay, let's go." said Manny. He was about to go into the geyser fields when a geyser spurted right in front of him. "Manny, get back!" shouted Diego. "It's a mine field out there!"
"We have to go through it!" Manny shouted. "Are you crazy?!" Ellie asked in surprise. "I like to keep the flesh on my body, thank you very much!"
"No, there's no time!" said Manny. "The dam will burst before we make it, and we'll drown!"
"We go through that and we get blown to bits!" retorted Ellie.
They argued over going through the geyser fields, yelling back and forth. "Can I say something?" Diego asked, trying to break it up. "NO!" Ellie and Manny both shouted at the same time, causing Diego to back up.
Manny yelled in anger. "You're the most stubborn and hard headed person I ever met!"
"I guess that proves it then, I am a giant!" Ellie retorted. She started running off. Crash and Eddie turned towards the guys and then back to where Ellie was heading. "Sorry." said Crash. "We gotta stay with our sister." They headed off in Ellie's direction.
"Let's go!" Manny growled angrily. He started walking through the fields. "I don't know, drowning sounds like a more gentler way to die, being blown to bits sounds so… sudden!" said Sid.
"Yeah? Well at least you don't lingering when you're blown to bits." Diego replied. They started walking through the mine field after Manny.
…
Manny walked through the mine field, easily avoiding all the geysers. Sid and Diego, however, were not exactly having a good time. Manny kept walking until a geyser spurted off, right in his face. Manny fell to the ground, conked out.
Manny opened his eyes, everything was quiet. He could hear the voices of his friends talking about him, and what they had said about him. Diego and Sid ran in front of him, their voices inaudible. Suddenly, Manny felt a large slap on his cheek and instantly came back to reality.
"Come on!" Diego shouted. "We gotta get out of here!" Manny quickly got up and started running to the end of the minefield with them.
…
Somewhere at the glacier water park, the dam was about to burst. It started cracking, creaking, and popping open, like a barrel when shot. Pretty soon, it would burst, and the whole valley would be flooded.
