It's been a while, but here's Chapter 25. Please tell me if my story makes sense.
I was in the middle of a dark forest. It was night and the only light came from the stars and the moon in the navy sky. I first saw Vladmir, knocked out with his wrists bound tightly with brown rope. As I walked closer, I saw that we were all there, me, Austin, Josh, Adam, Cecile, and Damian. Like Vladmir, we were all lying on the ground unconscious with our wrists bound together. Suddenly, I hear voices coming from the forest. I turned around and saw about twenty adults walking out of a large, large, brown tent. The tent blended in with the trees, but it was very big and I didn't know how I could of missed it. As the people came out, my adrenaline kicked in and my eyes searched frantically for a place to hide. Then a thought crossed my mind, But even so, I walked over to a tree and hid. I was just so much more comfortable there, instead of being out in the open and feeling vulnerable. Watching from the tree, I saw them come over and kick the unconscious me in the head. My hand immediately went to my head, and I whispered to myself, "Ow." The me on the ground groaned, as the adults laughed again.
The men and women were laughing, as they walked over to the seven of us on the ground.
"They'll fetch a high price," One man said to the others. He was wearing a brown t-shirt and dark jeans. "Especially, those three," he laughed again. "Hey, Greg," the man called out to someone behind him in the mob of people. "Did you get those..."
I woke with a start and felt a warm glow against my side. With my eyes still closed I soaked in the warmth, trying to rid my mind of that dream. We just escaped, to see us all us tied up, I shook my head.
Then something occured to me, a small smile spread on my face. It couldn't have been real, I thought, relieved, I have a Devalitizer on, so my dreams mean nothing. I never thought I'd be glad to have one of those nasty things on.
Happy once again, I opened my eyes and sat up. Right next to me was a large, glowing fire.
"You guys did it," I said happily to no one in particular.
Looking around, I realized that only Josh and Cecile were awake. They sat side by side, staring into the fire in silence.
"Good morning," I said to the two.
"Well," Cecile said looking over at me, "I don't know if it's that good. We don't have any food. None at all."
"At least we're not in a cell," I said, trying to be optimistic, even though I felt my stomach grumble.
I walked over to where the two of them sat and kneeled down next to Cecile.
"So, when do we get moving again?" I asked.
"As soon as they wake up and Austin and Vladmir get back," Josh replied.
I looked over to where Adam and Damian were curled up around the fire.
"Where'd Austin and Vladmir go?" I wondered, noticing their absence for the first time.
"For a walk," Cecile said, looking up at me.
I looked down at her, and took her small hand in mine.
With her warm hand in my cold one I realized something. "Hey, what happened to the Devalitizer?"
Looking down at her wrist I saw that it was gone. Only a pink ring on her skin remained, a mark from the metal bracelet.
Cecile grinned and with her other hand she picked up a piece of metal, bent in a funny way. She placed it in my hand and said cheerfully, "They got it off."
I was lost, extremely confused. "Who got it off? How?
"Vladmir and Austin got it off just this morning."
"How?"
"They did something with the fire. Melting it or something like that," she continued still smiling. "And once mine was off, I got your's and Damian's off."
"Mine off?" I looked down at my wrist and sure enough, there was nothing there.
"Thanks," I said, returning her smile. But then something occured to me. She got it off while I was sleeping. My dream, it was real after all. I groaned.
"What dream?" Josh asked me curious.
"I'll tell you later, when everyone else is awake." I couldn't believe it. For a moment I was all cheery, my dream was just a dream, an ordinary nightmare. The next second, I learn that my nightmare is our future. Oh joy! I thought sarcastically.
Adam and Damian woke up at the same time. Adam moaning as he sat up and turned to us. While Damian stood straight up, stretching.
"Wow," he said, to himself, "I'm tons better than before." Right away, Cecile shouted across the fire to him, "I got you're Devalitizer off!"
He looked surprised, "Well, that would explain why I'm feeling better. But how? I thought you..."
"I got mine off," Cecile announced to the two boys proudly, "Vladmir and Austin did it. Then I got yours and Maddy's off."
"Well then," Adam said to Damian, looking uncomfortable, "Do you think..." He trailed off.
"Do I think what?"
"Could you know..." he looked down at his purpling arm.
"Oh, of course. Here."
Adam walked over to Damian, and I watched as Damian placed his hands on Adam's arm.
Although they stood there for a while, I mean a long while, Adam was just about perfectly fine after Damian was through with him.
With the bruises gone and Adam's wrist mostly healed, he turned to Damian and said a whole hearted thanks. Damian just shrugged as if it were nothing, "No problem."
Then Vladmir and Austin appeared from behind the trees.
"So, everyone ready to go?" Vladmir asked, seeing that we were all awake.
Nodding, I stood up with Cecile and Josh by my side.
"Let's put out the fire," Vladmir said, already striding towards the heat source.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" I couldn't help but ask, seeing that we had no water.
Just thinking this caused me to realize how parched my throat was. I was really thirsty. How long can someone live without water? Then thinking about water led me to think about hunger and how empty my stomach felt.
Vladmir looked at me, "That is a good question," he said.
We ended up throwing dirt and rocks on top of the fire and eventually it went out, taking away the warmth as well.
"That's it then," Vladmir said, as the last of the fire died down, "Let's go."
He led the way further into the forest and the rest of us fell in line behind him.
Sunlight was streaming in through the branches above us, and the trees cast shadows onto the brown ground.
Next to me, Cecile was singing a song quietly to herself and Adam and Josh were having a heated discussion about who knows what. I caught the words "ball" and "running" so I figured it was something about sports. Behind me, Damian was helping Austin our with his hurting shoulder, both hands placed on it. And in front of me, Vladmir was walking by himself.
I broke into a small jog to catch up to Vladmir. He looked at me as I fell into step beside him.
"How are your wife and baby?" I asked him.
A smile broke out on his face. "There doing fine. I got them into hiding with help from Jayden."
"That's good," then I went on to more pressing matters. "Listen," I paused and looked down at my feet, "Last night, I saw us caught. Captured by some crazy people who wanted to sell us. They were going to sell us!"
He looked at me worried and curious, "What else can you tell me?"
"Well, we were knocked out and tied up in a forest at night time. There were about twenty people who came out of a huge brown tent. One man's name is Greg," my forehead wrinkled as I tried to remember more. "Another man, he was the one who talked, wore a brown t-shirt and jeans. They were all laughing, saying we would fetch a high price."
"And all of us were there? Me, you, Austin, Josh, Adam, Cecile, and Damain?"
I nodded, "All unconscious and tied up."
"Then we better get out of the forest and into civilization." He looked behind him and said to the others, "Come on, let's pick up the pace."
"And, Vladmir? One more thing. When can we eat?"
"Soon," he said, "Let's hope to get out of here soon." And with that, his strides grew bigger and I fell back to the others, sticking my hands in my pockets.
"Hey," I said, remembering suddenly, "I've got money in my pocket." I pulled out a hundred and fifty dollars. "And a cell phone."
I thought back to when Cecile and I were in that hotel, running from my sleeping parents. I took these from my mother's pocket book.
Everyone stopped immediately and their heads turned toward me, eyes staring.
"Money and a phone?" Damian questioned.
"Yeah, I took them from my mom's purse."
"Your mom's purse?" Austin came over and snatched the phone from my hand. "We've got to get rid of this," he said, examining the phone.
"What do you mean?" I said confused. "Adam has a cell phone on him too."
Damian looked from me to Adam, "We've had phones with us this whole time?" he exclaimed.
"Well," Austin said to me, ignoring Damian, "Your parents, unlike Adam's, are under Osiris's control."
"So?" I said in a small voice, not wanting to think of them like that.
"So," he said dragging out the word, "They could trace the phone and find us."
"But-" I said, trying to think up an argument. For some reason, the phone gave me comfort. It was a life line, with just a few pushes of buttons, I
could call anyone.
"Austin's right, Maddy," Vladmir said, sighing. "We've got to ditch the phone. And Adam," he said, turning to Adam, "You better get rid of your phone too."
Adam reluctantly pulled out his cell phone. It was all battered up and cracked. "Doesn't work anymore, anyway. Got destroyed in that fight."
He held out his phone, "What should I do with it?"
"Just drop it in the bushes, make sure it's not seen."
"But that's lit..." Littering, I finished the sentence in my head, closing my mouth when I received looks from the others.
Adam walked over to a large green bush and dropped the cell phone in it.
Austin walked over next to him, and after fiddling with the phone for a bit, trying to take it apart, he dropped it in the bush as well.
"I'm keeping the money though," I said, clutching the bills in my left hand.
"We're going to need that if we want to eat," Vladmir said, turning forward again, continuing to walk.
I took one last look at the others and then stared at my feet like they were the most interesting thing in the world, and began walking again, one foot in front of the other.
Thanks for reading... if anyone actually did. I'm getting a bit depressed here.