Chapter 8

The group of survivors, led by Ellie, were making progress. They had been racing against the large rock wall, which was progressing behind them, but it seemed as if they would never make it to the bridge. What was worse was, after an entire day of walking without breaks, all the people looked like they were ready to collapse. Even Crash and Eddie, who had their arms around each other's necks, were fainting and falling.

After seeing her tree-climber brothers fall, Ellie announced, "Maybe we should stop for a break."

At that moment, everyone (except Peaches and Louis) fell to the ground in exhaustion; it was definitely time to stop for a rest.

…..

Night fell quickly, and families began gathering into groups with their loved ones. Ellie, before going to bed, was doing a quick head-count, just to make sure that nobody had gone missing during the move. As for Peaches, she was staring into the night sky, watching for her father.

"I miss you, Dad…" Peaches said silently.

Suddenly, Ethan popped up in front of her and said, "Well, that's something you don't see everyday."

Oh yeah, there was another interesting fact: Peaches was hanging upside down, on the branch of a tree, by her legs!

"Ethan!" Peaches yelled out in surprise. "Hi!"

Suddenly, the branch snapped, and Peaches fell to the ground. Embarrassed somewhat, she quickly got up, brushed herself off, and fixed her hair.

"I meant to do that." She spoke, trying to make her voice sound smooth.

Ethan chuckled and replied, "I have never seen a giant sleep like that before."

"What?! No, this just helps me think! Helps me get blood to old noggin, and away from my feet and… whatever…"

"Okay, that's a little weird…"

Suddenly, a rumbling was heard off in the distance, and the two looked, and saw that the large rock wall was knocking down some buildings. It was a fair length away, but it was still frightening to see. After seeing that, the two went back to talking.

"So, how are you holding up with all this?" Ethan asked, his tone concerned.

"Honestly, I'm a little scared…" Peaches replied. "Okay, a lot scared; everything we knew is gone."

"Yeah, I'm pretty scared too. Well, not scared, but… concerned. Hey, if your not busy tomorrow or anything, you want to walk with me tomorrow? You know, try and get our minds off of all of this stuff."

"You want to walk with me?"

"Well, you did almost flatten me this morning. So, I figured it can't be worse than that, right?"

Peaches chuckled a little and replied, "Yeah."

"And one more thing…" Ethan spoke, quieting his tone. "It's not a big deal or anything, but you might want to lose your nerd friend."

"Louis? Yeah, sure, not a problem…"

Ethan smiled at that, and then began walking away. Peaches, on the other hand, let out a dreamy sigh and leaned against the tree. Ellie, who had finished her headcount, and was overhearing the conversation from a distance, came over.

"Somebody looks happy…" Ellie spoke, her tone playful.

"Yeah…" Peaches replied, her tone dreamy. "Ethan's great, isn't he?"

"Peaches, I know you like this one… but just don't change who you are, okay?"

"Okay?"

Ellie then bent down, did a handstand, and flipped her legs onto the branch of the tree; an old tree-climber trick, taught to her by her adopted mother.

"You coming up?" Ellie asked.

Peaches was going to, but upon seeing the other young giants sleeping on the ground, decided to copy what they were doing.

"I think I'll just sleep down here tonight." Peaches replied.

"Okay." said Ellie. "Good night, baby."

"Good night, Mom… good night, Dad…"

…..

It was around noon, and Manny, Sid, Diego, Shira, and Granny floated aimlessly through some fog. They were riding on their makeshift raft, made from the broken piece from Gutt's ship, and nobody was talking.

Manny was also no longer wearing his sweatshirt; he had lent it to Shira to cover herself with, as she removed her soggy clothes and placed them out to dry. Due to the sweater's large size, it covered her and kept her warm, though it was somewhat hard for her to move around.

As for Granny, she was chewing on a large clam that had washed up just recently. However, due to not having any teeth, she couldn't bite through it; which was probably a good thing, as it would break her jaw, or what was left of it.

"Hey, chew this sandwich for me!" Granny spoke, handing the clam to Sid, who was sitting beside her.

Sid took the clam and asked, "Granny, why didn't our family want us? What's wrong with us?"

"Ah, they think we're screw-ups." Granny replied, her tone blunt, yet kind. "And they think we can't do anything right."

Sid then began opening the clam and succeeded, finding a pearl inside it. He tried to grab it, but the clam smashed down over his fingers, and he let out a yell as he tried to shake the clam off! He then smashed it down on the makeshift raft, causing a large crack to appear in the wood! However, it worked, and the clam came off his hand.

"Screw-up." Granny spoke, gently prodding Sid in the arm with her cane.

"Oh, Sid!" Manny yelled, upon seeing the crack.

Manny quick got up, bumping into Diego, who bumped into Shira, who bumped into Sid, who bumped into Granny. To say the least, they all were going a little stir crazy, having been on the makeshift raft for so long.

"We're never going to make it home on this thing." Diego grumbled.

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you capsized our ship, genius!" Shira retorted, her tone sarcastic.

"Yeah, trying to escape from you and your crew, sweetheart!"

What followed was a string of expletives from both Shira and Diego, both of whom were about ready to tear into each other's throats!

"Land!" Manny suddenly yelled out.

"Yeah, Land!" Diego yelled at Shira, before a confused look came over his face. "Wait, what?"

"Not her, there!" Manny replied, pointing through the fog.

Everyone looked and, through the fog, they saw what Manny was pointing at; it was a huge island, with a large mountain, a dense forest, and cliffs! Manny, Diego, Shira, and Sid all began paddling towards the island, all with excited looks on their faces; they finally found somewhere to stop and rest.

…..

The five arrived on the beach, and Diego, Sid, Manny, and Shira got off of the makeshift raft. Diego walked a few steps and then collapsed into the sand, glad that he was on land once again. As for Sid, he saw a bush with yellow berries on it, and quickly rushed to it.

"Food!" Sid yelled, his tone joyous. "I've missed you so much! Look at me, I've wasted away."

He then grabbed several yellow berries and began stuffing them in his mouth. But, when one flew out of his nose, he came to a shocking conclusion; those weren't berries, they were bumblebees! With a loud yell, he opened his mouth, and all the bees flew out; fortunately, none of them stung him.

"Okay, snack time is over." said Manny. "We need to fix up the raft, and get it seaworthy."

"Come on, Manny." Diego groaned.

"Wow, Shira must really hate building rafts." Sid spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Diego asked.

"Look, she's running off into that forest."

Diego and Manny both looked and, to their horror, saw that Shira was running off! While they were getting on land, she had quickly shed Manny's sweatshirt, put on her own clothes, and was now making a run for it!

"Diego, get her!" said Manny. "She can help us get back home!"

"Shira, stop!" Diego yelled, running after her.

…..

Running after Shira, Diego quickly shed his trench-coat and katana; he couldn't have anything weighing him down while he ran. But, he still had his knife sheathed on his belt, so he could defend himself if it got nasty.

Despite being fast, Diego was having a hard time keeping up with Shira, as she was employing different tactics in order to lose him. Her tactics included snapping a tree branch in Diego's face, leading him into a gulley, and knocking down some loose rocks.

But even though she used these tactics, Diego kept on her. Finally, coming to a dead end, she quickly ran up a rock wall to escape! She then stopped and looked back, letting out a scoff over the fact she had lost Diego. However, that quickly ended, as Diego appeared out of nowhere and tackled her, pinning her to the ground!

"Let go of me!" Shira growled, trying to get free.

"Where do you think you're going?" Diego asked, pinning her on her back, by her shoulders. He then looked up and said in amazed tone, "Whoa…"

What Diego saw was a large current of water, flowing in between two large cliffs, and leading out to sea. The island they were on was Switchback Cove, just as Flynn had said!

"Switchback Cove…" Diego said to himself. "This is the way home…"

But then he looked down the cliffs and saw that there was a large ship being built, down near the beach. The builders were natives who were short, and wearing furry clothing. Unfortunately, they weren't building the ship out of their own free will; they were being ordered by Captain Gutt and his crew! The pirates had gotten to the island first, and were now terrorizing the natives into working for them! Raz, Gupta, Dobson, and Squint were whipping the natives, while Gutt, Silas, and Flynn stood to the side and watched; they were going over the instructions for building the ship.

"Uh oh…" Diego muttered, his tone dark. "That's not good…"

…..

Having headed back to the beach (and dragging Shira along with him), Diego told Manny and Sid what he had found. Together, the three went back to where Diego saw the pirates, to which they hid behind a log and examined what was going on.

"Okay, what do you think?" asked Diego.

"Two words: Anger Management." Sid replied.

Manny proceeded to flick Sid in the side of the head and said, "That boat of theirs is in good condition, and if we take the current like the 'tub of lard' said, we'll be able to get back to the mainland. I say we charge them, take the ship from them, and leave them here stranded on the island."

"Now that's a really great plan." Shira spoke, her tone sarcastic, having been tied to a tree with vines. "You're pirating a pirate ship, from pirates."

"I'd hate to say it, but our prisoner is right." said Diego. "We can't do a head-on attack; they outnumber us by four people."

"Then how are we going to take the ship?" Manny asked. "We have to-"

"Guys, SHHH!" Sid spoke, causing Manny and Diego to become quiet. He then pointed to the forest and said in a hushed tone, "The trees have eyes."

Manny and Diego looked into the small forest beside them, and they saw what Sid had meant. From the forest bushes and trees, they saw several pairs of eyes staring at them.

And then, after a few seconds, the owners of the eyes came out. They were natives, like the ones who were being held captive by Gutt and his crew. They were short, tan-skinned, and they wore clothing made from the fur of animals. There were over seventy of them, and they surrounded the trio!

"Natives." said Diego, his tone somewhat nervous.

"Well, at least we know that we aren't alone." Sid spoke, his tone hopeful.

"Let's just hope that they're friendly…" Manny replied. "And maybe, they can help us…"

Author's Notes: No, this story isn't dead; I just haven't worked on it a long time! Sorry about not putting any new chapters out, but I've been busy working on other stories. It's not that I don't want to continue it, it's just that there are other stories I want to work on.

And to answer the question of 'Akira Koski 2020', if this fanfic was a film, it probably would be rated PG-13, for the violence and thematic elements.

R&R,

Heroboy005