Disclaimer: See Chapter 2
Thanks to Dracula'sGurl, DemonRogue13, Tao Kitty, Tailfeather, and ldypebsaby for the reviews!
Ch 8- Into the Woods
The children had been tramping through the woods all night, and it didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon. They were all tired, annoyed, and going on no sleep, but they also wanted a head start on their parents. Little Rosie was having a hard time with this woodland trek. She was exhausted, thirsty, hungry, and missed her parents already. She didn't dare tell the older kids. If they knew she was here, they were sure to be furious at her.
"Water." The parched redhead rasped to the trees. A swift flowing stream seemed to appear out of nowhere, and the five year old thankfully took a well deserved drink. The older children had also discovered the brook, and were bathing their aching feet upstream.
"When are we gonna stop?" a very irritated Raina asked Drake, who was the unofficial leader of the group.
Drake shrugged, and remained silent.
"Why don't we stop here, where we know there's a clearing, and go on in about an hour." Kaye suggested.
Everyone seemed to like the idea and were soon lying on the cool, soft grass. Kaye, being the only one who had brought a watch, set its small alarm, and lay down upon the grass. Rosie tried to sneak into the clearing quietly, in need of a nap, but was soon caught by Ron due to his acute hearing.
"Rosie!" he hissed heatedly, not wanting to wake the others, "What are you doing here?!?"
Rosie's head hung guiltily at the sound of Ron's angry voice.
"I- um." The small girl replied, on the verge of tears. Triss was the only one awake to hear Ron reprimand Rosie, and came to the little one's rescue before Ron's temper got the best of him.
"It's okay, Rosie," Triss whispered soothingly to her, finding her a space to lie down in the small clearing. Triss then turned on Ron.
"You made her cry!" the blue mutant berated, tail swishing back and forth in frustration. "She's only five, Ron; you can't be that hard on her!"
Triss and Ron went to lie down again, as far away from each other as possible. Ron was infuriated. How dare Triss tell him off like that, as if he knew nothing! As he fell asleep, Ron didn't notice that the food supplies he was supposed to be watching were dangerously close to the stream. Ron was too distracted by his anger to notice this serious mistake.
Kaye's alarm beeped sharply, causing her to jolt awake. She was soon forcing everyone awake, telling them to get moving.
"You don't have to yell, we're right here!" Joel snapped, already exasperated on finding his little sister along on this quest.
Kaye's eyes flashed treacherously as she said in a dangerously calm voice, "The last guy who spoke to me like that went home a new soprano."
Joel instantly backed off, intimidated greatly by the homicidal teen. Raina high fived Kaye and asked, "Okay, everything packed up?"
Everyone nodded, until Ron said, "Wait, where's the food."
"What?" asked Raina forcefully. Raina was almost as dangerous as Kaye, but in more of a psycho way than a murderous way.
"It's not here," Ron gulped, hoping Kaye wasn't tempted to turn him into a soprano. The whole group went to examine the area where Ron last left the supply bags.
"RON!" Raina hollered at her brother, "GET OVER HERE!" Ron whimpered, knowing how close he was to death. "LOOK!"
Raina pointed to a single piece of bread sitting on the edge of the bank.
"YOU LOST THE FOOD!?!" Drake snarled, his face reddening as Ron's face paled.
"I guess we're going back home then," Kaye muttered, disappointed that the mission had failed.
"We're NOT going home!" Drake challenged furiously.
Kaye produced a switchblade out of her back pocket and growled, "You wanna run that by me again, brain dead?"
It took the combined efforts of Triss and Raina to hold Drake back, while it took Ron, Will, Nate, and Tom to hold Kaye down, due to the switchblade.
Once everyone had calmed down, the kids decided not to go back, but to keep going, despite Kaye's muttering that they were all idiots. They kept moving until nightfall, when they found a clearing slightly larger than the one before, and set up a real camp. Ron went out to hunt, hoping to redeem himself, and came back with a rabbit and a weasel.
"You expect us to eat that? Raina questioned, looking at the weasel in disgust.
"Do you have another suggestion?" Ron retorted.
"No." she snapped in defeat, "But I'm not eating any of the weasel. If you want to, that's your mistake. But when weasels take over the Earth, I'm with the weasels, and I'm not going to cut you any slack."
Ron scooted away from his slightly insane sister as did others sitting near her. After Kaye had skinned the two animals, she put them both on a stake over the fire to cook. Tom managed to scavenge some apples, though he had to force the tree to produce them. Everyone then ate their meager dinner, listening to Kaye's mumbling about being afraid of small children. Rosie, strangely, had taken to Kaye, and had eaten the meal in Kaye's lap. Shortly after eating, the children decided to go to bed. They were grouped two to a tent, Joel and Rosie in one, Triss and Nate in another, then Will and Ron, Drake and Tom, and lastly, Raina and Kaye.
Nate was trying hard to go to sleep, which he needed badly. Earlier, it seemed that he had just drifted off to sleep, when Kaye was telling them to wake up and get moving. Once again, he had just fallen asleep, when Raina burst into the tent and yelped, "Something's wrong with Kaye!"
At the sound of Raina's panicked tone, Triss and Nate rushed out of the tent to meet the others who had also been awakened by Raina or Kaye in some cases. The others were standing in the dark, with no light source except the moon, for somehow the fire had gone out. The twins accompanied Raina into the tent that she and Kaye shared. Kaye was in a terrible state. She was clutching the sides of her head, yelling and whimpering, as if she was in pain. Every moment or so, she would wave at the air, banishing an imaginary being. She didn't open her eyes much, but when she did, the three could see they looked slightly abnormal. Raina, Nate, and Triss stood there wondering what to do, when they noticed something curious about her teeth. They were quickly becoming larger; in fact they were growing at such an alarming rate that her braces snapped. Kaye spat a bracket out of her mouth, as she saw her fingernails thickening. Her yells had become lower and raspier now, so Triss and her two companions left briefly to fetch a first aid kit that Triss had brought along.
"How is this going to help?" asked Raina, wondering how a first aid kit would help in a situation like this.
"Well, I also brought a laptop," answered Triss. "It's got an encyclopedia. I was hoping to find a diagnosis on it."
"You brought a laptop out here?" Nate asked his sister in surprise, "Those things cost a fortune, and you dragged it out here?
"Well how else was I gonna entertain myself?" Triss asked impatiently.
"This can't get any worse!" whimpered Nate, "Our food's gone, our fire's gone out, and now this!"
The camp then heard an earsplitting roar that rumbled like thunder and sent birds fleeing from their nests. A sinister and shadowy figure emerged from the gloom around Kaye's tent. Though the fire was gone, the eerie moonlight showed the creature's lethal weaponry. Muscle and sinew stood out on this graceful, but powerful figure. As it walked, it revealed gargantuan claws that were as sharp as an assassin's dagger. There came forth a rumbling growl, after which pearly white fangs glittered in the fluorescent moonlight. To top it all off, the shadow stared with ghostlike yellow eyes.
"It can't get any worse, huh?" Ron asked.
"Obviously it can." Raina whispered, swallowing hard as the colossal panther which had been Kaye lunged toward her.
Thanks to Dracula'sGurl, DemonRogue13, Tao Kitty, Tailfeather, and ldypebsaby for the reviews!
Ch 8- Into the Woods
The children had been tramping through the woods all night, and it didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon. They were all tired, annoyed, and going on no sleep, but they also wanted a head start on their parents. Little Rosie was having a hard time with this woodland trek. She was exhausted, thirsty, hungry, and missed her parents already. She didn't dare tell the older kids. If they knew she was here, they were sure to be furious at her.
"Water." The parched redhead rasped to the trees. A swift flowing stream seemed to appear out of nowhere, and the five year old thankfully took a well deserved drink. The older children had also discovered the brook, and were bathing their aching feet upstream.
"When are we gonna stop?" a very irritated Raina asked Drake, who was the unofficial leader of the group.
Drake shrugged, and remained silent.
"Why don't we stop here, where we know there's a clearing, and go on in about an hour." Kaye suggested.
Everyone seemed to like the idea and were soon lying on the cool, soft grass. Kaye, being the only one who had brought a watch, set its small alarm, and lay down upon the grass. Rosie tried to sneak into the clearing quietly, in need of a nap, but was soon caught by Ron due to his acute hearing.
"Rosie!" he hissed heatedly, not wanting to wake the others, "What are you doing here?!?"
Rosie's head hung guiltily at the sound of Ron's angry voice.
"I- um." The small girl replied, on the verge of tears. Triss was the only one awake to hear Ron reprimand Rosie, and came to the little one's rescue before Ron's temper got the best of him.
"It's okay, Rosie," Triss whispered soothingly to her, finding her a space to lie down in the small clearing. Triss then turned on Ron.
"You made her cry!" the blue mutant berated, tail swishing back and forth in frustration. "She's only five, Ron; you can't be that hard on her!"
Triss and Ron went to lie down again, as far away from each other as possible. Ron was infuriated. How dare Triss tell him off like that, as if he knew nothing! As he fell asleep, Ron didn't notice that the food supplies he was supposed to be watching were dangerously close to the stream. Ron was too distracted by his anger to notice this serious mistake.
Kaye's alarm beeped sharply, causing her to jolt awake. She was soon forcing everyone awake, telling them to get moving.
"You don't have to yell, we're right here!" Joel snapped, already exasperated on finding his little sister along on this quest.
Kaye's eyes flashed treacherously as she said in a dangerously calm voice, "The last guy who spoke to me like that went home a new soprano."
Joel instantly backed off, intimidated greatly by the homicidal teen. Raina high fived Kaye and asked, "Okay, everything packed up?"
Everyone nodded, until Ron said, "Wait, where's the food."
"What?" asked Raina forcefully. Raina was almost as dangerous as Kaye, but in more of a psycho way than a murderous way.
"It's not here," Ron gulped, hoping Kaye wasn't tempted to turn him into a soprano. The whole group went to examine the area where Ron last left the supply bags.
"RON!" Raina hollered at her brother, "GET OVER HERE!" Ron whimpered, knowing how close he was to death. "LOOK!"
Raina pointed to a single piece of bread sitting on the edge of the bank.
"YOU LOST THE FOOD!?!" Drake snarled, his face reddening as Ron's face paled.
"I guess we're going back home then," Kaye muttered, disappointed that the mission had failed.
"We're NOT going home!" Drake challenged furiously.
Kaye produced a switchblade out of her back pocket and growled, "You wanna run that by me again, brain dead?"
It took the combined efforts of Triss and Raina to hold Drake back, while it took Ron, Will, Nate, and Tom to hold Kaye down, due to the switchblade.
Once everyone had calmed down, the kids decided not to go back, but to keep going, despite Kaye's muttering that they were all idiots. They kept moving until nightfall, when they found a clearing slightly larger than the one before, and set up a real camp. Ron went out to hunt, hoping to redeem himself, and came back with a rabbit and a weasel.
"You expect us to eat that? Raina questioned, looking at the weasel in disgust.
"Do you have another suggestion?" Ron retorted.
"No." she snapped in defeat, "But I'm not eating any of the weasel. If you want to, that's your mistake. But when weasels take over the Earth, I'm with the weasels, and I'm not going to cut you any slack."
Ron scooted away from his slightly insane sister as did others sitting near her. After Kaye had skinned the two animals, she put them both on a stake over the fire to cook. Tom managed to scavenge some apples, though he had to force the tree to produce them. Everyone then ate their meager dinner, listening to Kaye's mumbling about being afraid of small children. Rosie, strangely, had taken to Kaye, and had eaten the meal in Kaye's lap. Shortly after eating, the children decided to go to bed. They were grouped two to a tent, Joel and Rosie in one, Triss and Nate in another, then Will and Ron, Drake and Tom, and lastly, Raina and Kaye.
Nate was trying hard to go to sleep, which he needed badly. Earlier, it seemed that he had just drifted off to sleep, when Kaye was telling them to wake up and get moving. Once again, he had just fallen asleep, when Raina burst into the tent and yelped, "Something's wrong with Kaye!"
At the sound of Raina's panicked tone, Triss and Nate rushed out of the tent to meet the others who had also been awakened by Raina or Kaye in some cases. The others were standing in the dark, with no light source except the moon, for somehow the fire had gone out. The twins accompanied Raina into the tent that she and Kaye shared. Kaye was in a terrible state. She was clutching the sides of her head, yelling and whimpering, as if she was in pain. Every moment or so, she would wave at the air, banishing an imaginary being. She didn't open her eyes much, but when she did, the three could see they looked slightly abnormal. Raina, Nate, and Triss stood there wondering what to do, when they noticed something curious about her teeth. They were quickly becoming larger; in fact they were growing at such an alarming rate that her braces snapped. Kaye spat a bracket out of her mouth, as she saw her fingernails thickening. Her yells had become lower and raspier now, so Triss and her two companions left briefly to fetch a first aid kit that Triss had brought along.
"How is this going to help?" asked Raina, wondering how a first aid kit would help in a situation like this.
"Well, I also brought a laptop," answered Triss. "It's got an encyclopedia. I was hoping to find a diagnosis on it."
"You brought a laptop out here?" Nate asked his sister in surprise, "Those things cost a fortune, and you dragged it out here?
"Well how else was I gonna entertain myself?" Triss asked impatiently.
"This can't get any worse!" whimpered Nate, "Our food's gone, our fire's gone out, and now this!"
The camp then heard an earsplitting roar that rumbled like thunder and sent birds fleeing from their nests. A sinister and shadowy figure emerged from the gloom around Kaye's tent. Though the fire was gone, the eerie moonlight showed the creature's lethal weaponry. Muscle and sinew stood out on this graceful, but powerful figure. As it walked, it revealed gargantuan claws that were as sharp as an assassin's dagger. There came forth a rumbling growl, after which pearly white fangs glittered in the fluorescent moonlight. To top it all off, the shadow stared with ghostlike yellow eyes.
"It can't get any worse, huh?" Ron asked.
"Obviously it can." Raina whispered, swallowing hard as the colossal panther which had been Kaye lunged toward her.