Sweat rolled down my cheeks as I placed my hands on my knees and hunched over and let out short, ragged breaths.
I almost stumbled into the dry sand but placed my hand on a large boulder to steady myself.
"So, I hear your name is Mute now. Is that right?" The Warden had said to me. I had stood my ground, next to her floral couch, and kept my mouth in a grim line.
"That's what Rash said anyway, when I asked him about that shattered nose of his." The Warden continued despite my silence.
I looked up the boulder to see it continued into a mountain. At the top of the mountain was two rocks placed side by side to make the shape of a thumbs up sign.
Or a lopsided penis...
"You know he was reluctant to tell me at first - it must have been a pride thing. Said that Firecracker hit him in the face with a shovel." The Warden shrugged and her read hair bounced on her shoulders.
"It's a shame I didn't believe him, it would have made both of our lives so much easier."
"Why the fuck is this place so weird?" I muttered to myself. Earlier I had found a capsized boat.
Let me repeat that if you didn't catch it the first time. I found a capsized boat in the desert. About a mile from where I found a mountain with a lopsided penis on top.
"I told you that I would get my revenge and this might just be the way." The ginger smirked, "I'm done with your games, and this is your choice."
I waited for her to continue, and she did. "Either you leave this place, we say you ran. Or, you stick your hand in this box and I'll get my way anyhow."
"I'm going to end up finding peaches or some fucked up shit at the top of this." I muttered.
I don't know what drove me to do it. I don't know why I grabbed that first dent in the boulder and hoisted myself up. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was the dehydration, but five minutes later, I found myself at the top of a boulder.
But with an entire mountain left.
"What's in the box?" I snarled and a smirk crept across the Wardens freckled face.
"In that box is what we like to call a yellow spotted lizard." I froze upon hearing those words. "One bite, and you're dead a slow and very, very painful death."
"And if I don't?" I rose my eyebrow.
The Warden pulled a silver handgun from her belt.
"I will put a bullet through your head."
My feet found every nook and dent in that mountain. I stumbled up, despite my exhaustion and need for water.
"Why am I doing this?" I kept on asking myself. But every time I did, a voice in the back of my mind told me to keep going and that there wasn't exactly anywhere else for me to go right now.
I could go back to camp and tell everyone what happened, which would probably end with a gaping hole in my chest, or I could go back to the capsized boat and eat the suspicious jelly is in those strange glass jars.
The only reason why I didn't eat them to begin with is because I usually live by a rule to not eat hundred year old, brownish substances.
But maybe it's just jellied chocolate... Peach smelling, jellied chocolate.
"You won't get away with this. People will find out." I growled as the Warden shoved me forward and I stumbled across the dirt. Everybody was in the Mess Hall and too busy eating to notice me.
"Oh, trust me, I will." The Warden let her head back and laughed. "And to help my case, I can bury a few valuables and say you ran with them. The police would just eat that up. Criminals running is not a strange occurrence."
"They know I'm not a thief. I drove a truck into a school, not robbed a bank. Everyone knows I'm not a thief." I snapped. I knew G-tent would realize the flaw in the Wardens lie and come save me.
"The judge also thought you were harmless enough to send you to a camp with razor sharp teeth, I guess he was wrong about that too." The redhead smirked and shoved me forward again.
Dehydration was getting to me. The fact that I had second degree burns and possible infection didn't help. My arms were aching, and I felt like I would collapse any moment.
I was actually nearing the top though. Between asking myself what the hell I was doing with my life and telling myself only a little bit longer, I had managed to distract myself from the pain and aches long enough to climb almost a full mountain.
With multiple stops in between all that as well, mind you.
"I better be getting a fucking award for this." I told the voice in the back of my mind.
I named her Wendy.
'Wendy' had quickly became my social life. Maybe I was going crazy like my father. Maybe I would get Multiple Personality Disorder and end up with a snapped neck as well.
Or maybe I simply have Syphilis and will end up like Hitler. Either one doesn't end in my favour.
"Now scat. If I ever see you again, I won't hesitate to put a bullet straight through your forehead." The Warden shoved me forward and I took a few cautious steps.
I didn't have food, I didn't have water, and the place was littered with death sentences like scorpions, rattle snakes and lizards.
I would be dead in three days, at the maximum.
"Go!" The Warden screamed and I jumped farther away. Even though I was trained to handle situations like this, all my training and life lessons went out the window the second The Warden showed up with a gun.
"Leave, and don't come back until your dead or bitten!" The Warden screamed again, even though it made absolutely zero sense.
I swear, if I die out here, I'm coming back to haunt that bitch.
My hand reached the top ledge and with the last bit of strength, I pulled myself up and collapsed onto the ground.
And right into a puddle.
At first I had thought that it was my own sweat. But then I came to my senses and realized that it wasn't physically possible to sweat that much, unless you're like deathly ill or something.
"Water." I rasped out and managed to twist my body enough to put my face in the pool and lap up the water like a dog.
Not my proudest moment.
"This place really is fucked." I sighed in content and started making angels in the mud.
My hand hit a clump of white flowers and curled around it. I gave the clump a hard yank and brought it closer to my view once it was pulled out of the ground.
"Yup, totally, and absolutely, no doubt about it, fucked the hell up." I agreed with myself. I had pulled out an onion.
I had never liked onions, but then again, I had never liked climbing, the desert and dirt but look where I am now. So, despite my hate for the vegetable, I brought it to my lips and took a large bite out of it.
And it was sweet.
"Where the hell are my necklaces?" The Warden screamed as she stomped into the Mess Hall. "Where is Mute? She was supposed to meet me at my cabin and she never showed! And now, my jewellery is missing!"
"I brought her to see you. I saw her go into your cabin." Zigzag piped up. It was the truth, Mute had simply walked right in, not even bothering knocking.
"Well, I never even saw her!" The Warden yelled, "she must have snuck in and stole my jewellery!"
"Mute isn't a thief!" Barbara yelled and stood up. The other G-tent girls stood as well and crossed their arms across their chests defiantly.
"Let's see, she is in a detention camp, she has beaten up multiple people, and suddenly my necklaces have gone missing and she's no where in sight!" The ginger listed off on her fingers, "she sounds like a bloody thief to me!"
"There is no way Mute took your things, you must have misplaced them or something." Bleach snapped. "She got here for crashing a car, all those people who got 'beaten' are fuckers who are too pussy to handle themselves as deserved it."
"Watch your fucking mouth." Rash muttered and Pitch shot him a glare.
"Columbian Neck Tie, Rash, just remember that." she winked and Rash paled.
"Somebody find that criminal, now!" Mr. Sir yelled, "NOW!"
Everyone in the Mess Hall leapt to their feet. The boys started shuffling out of the building and calling Mutes name repeatedly. G-tent on the other hand, pulled off to the side.
"She didn't take to jewels." Hustler said immediately.
"Tell me something I don't know, but where the hell is she and what the fuck happened at the Wardens cabin?" Bleach snapped.
"D-do you think she's..." Barbara trailed off and tears filled her blue eyes. She couldn't handle losing her best friend. Especially when she had been so rude to her the previous day. She couldn't have Mute die with the last words she heard from Barb being harsh and cruel.
"She is not dead." Pitch snapped firmly. She was not letting her tent think that Mute was dead or that she was a thief.
"We have to find out what happened." Hustler said and spotted a tall boy with crazy blonde hair. In unison, all four girls lunged forward and tackled the boy to the ground. They may have been girls against one big dude, but the were angry and needed answers.
"Tell us exactly what happened." Bleach snarled. She had picked up a few lessons of intimidation from Mute.
"What?" Zigzag looked around wildly.
"You were the last to see Mute, so tell us what happened." Barbara clarified.
"Nothing! I just showed her to the Wardens cabin and she walked right in without even knocking. I figured she would get in trouble for the stunt she pulled with Rash so I just went to the Wreck room."
"You better be telling the fucking truth or we will set your tent on fire in your sleep." Pitch growled, "we have experience in that sort of area."
"I am! I didn't see nothing!" Zigzag waved his arms.
Hustler eased off a bit. "Then where is she?" her lip was quivering and Zigzag took a good look at the four girls. Barbara had tears slipping down her face which she quickly tried to brush away, hustler was fighting back the water works and even Pitch and Bleach looked frazzled in the short period of time that they had learned the news.
"Why do you care, she was a bitch anyway." Magnet crossed his arms as he joined the conversation with the rest of D-tent, save for Zero and Stanley.
"Shut up! She was our friend!" Bleach growled, "Is. She is our friend!"
"Okay, chill!" X-Ray held up his hands. "She's probably off taking a shower or something. She's fine!"
"You don't understand." Hustler choked and furiously wiped her eyes. "When we got in trouble for hacking into the State Files-"
"Wait, you did what?" Armpits jaw dropped.
"Listen, we were sent to the Wardens cabin and- and Mute sort of freaked.
"How do you mean 'freaked?'" Squid asked. He had never even seen Mute speak - hence the nickname - except for when she threatened Rash.
"She- well, she basically attacked the Warden, but that's not the point." Bleach waved her hand away. "The point is, the Warden promised that she would get revenge on Mute and this might just be it."
"So you think, what? The Warden killed her and buried her body in one of the holes?" Zigzag asked and the girls looked down. They actually weren't thinking that, but now that he said it, they realized it could be a possibility.
"If it will make you feel better, we can just check the holes around the cabin, see if there's any upturned soil." Armpit shrugged. He didn't believe Mute was dead. There was no way that pain in the ass was gone.
"Thanks." Hustler rasped out.
Nobody said another word as X-Ray led them to the Wardens cabin. There were few holes near the cabin but the boys figured that they could check them just to make sure they weren't turned into any graves.
"Guys?" Squid called as he peered into one of the holes. "This one is half full of dirt."
A quick sob escaped Barbs mouth as they all rushed to the hole. Even though it was cramped as hell, the nine boys and girls fit into the hole and began digging for there lives.
Or Mutes life, that is.
"Oh my gosh." Pitch gasped as her hand came in contact with something.
She pulled it out of the ground and everyone's faces paled where they saw what was hanging from the girls hands.
It was three pearl necklaces.
The same necklaces that the Warden had apparently lost.
So G-tent and the boys are working together to solve the case of the missing Mute. Review and tell me what you think. I thought I would twist things up a bit because you never see a girl on Gods thumb.