Chapter 4: C-4

Jane watched Tinkerbelle wearily as Tink did her best to try to cheer the teen up. She danced, she made faces, she did charades but nothing could make Jane choke up a laugh. Tink pouted irritably since her antics did not provoke that giggles and joy that they used to.

"Forgive me, Tinkerbelle," apologized Jane. She really did want to laugh but she was in a very confused mood and she was so full of up with questions and uncertainty that there was no room for amusement. "I'm just not in the mood right now."

Tink gave a sympathetic look and bells rang sadly in her presence. Jane peered over at Lilly, who was still sleeping like a log. It had been hours since they had returned from their little excursion with the pirates and mermaids. Peter had flown off in a rage and hadn't been back since their quarrel this morning. It must have been early afternoon, Jane presumed, since the sun was so high. Time to wake up the rock.

"Lilly? Wake up, Lil," whispered Jane with a slight shake. When no reaction occurred, she shook Lilly's shoulder a little harder and spoke a bit louder. Still nothing.

Jane was getting a little frustrated. She kept making attempts to wake her sister up and each time, she gradually intensified her wakeup call until she was yelling and practically hitting Lilly.

"FIRE!" screamed Jane and she pushed Lilly viciously. "AHH! I'm dying! My arm has been lopped off and I'm bleeding to death! Save me!"

Lilly groaned and rolled over. A ray of hope!

"The blue, furry monkeys from the arctic are coming, Lilly! They've come to throw frozen bananas at us!" exclaimed Jane, followed by several light punches in the arm.

"No," whimpered Lilly as the bright sunlight greeted her very unpleasantly. "I don't want to wake up."

"Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty. I had to take drastic measures to wake you up. Usually you awake before I get to the blue, furry monkeys."

"I told you never to remind me of those again, Jane," grumbled Lilly as she rubbed her eyes and sat up, now almost fully awake.

"It was just a nightmare you had. And it was years ago."

"I was traumatized! Time cannot heal the scar that those monkeys made," argued Lilly overdramatically, holding up her index finger in a commanding way.

"You are such a child, Lilly Billy," Jane said while chuckling. They sat in silence for a moment and Lilly took this time to rub the sleep from her eyes and then when she focused her eyes correctly, she realized that someone was missing.

"Where has Peter gone?" she asked in surprise.

"I don't know," Jane lied. She didn't think it wise to inform the ten year-old of the clash that happened why she was off in La-la Land. Eventually, she was going to have to tell her about their sudden return home but she decided that she'd wake until Peter cooled down some.

"Maybe we should go find him," Lilly suggested and Jane gave her a stone-hard no.

"Peter will come back when he comes back. There's no need to start a search for him," Jane assured her. 'At least not yet.'

"Alright then. But what can we do in the mean time?"

"Um… not sure. Any ideas?"

"A game of hide and seek would be nice. And we have so many places to hide here!" said Lilly and Jane felt a stab of fear. Yes, so many places for them to hide… and anything else that didn't want to be seen. She decided to go along with it regardless. She wanted to give Lilly a fun time before returning back home.

"Ok, I'll be 'it'. You hurry up and hide because I'm only counting to twenty-five!" Jane teased and Lilly sprinted out of the hideout with the bushes slashing her arms and face.

She was going to find a hiding place that Jane would never find. She looked high and low for a perfect spot to hide and found it just as she started hearing rustling behind her. An old tree with gnarly roots held a hollow hole that had a tiny entrance that only a small child might be able to fit through. She dashed into it just as Jane came into view. She watched Jane intently as the older went around the area looking in every nook and cranny for Lilly. Lilly giggled quietly when Jane would jump or turn around at any tiny sound.

'Jane can be such a scaredy-cat. I don't understand why she's so afraid all the time. Neverland has made her unusually edgy, I've noticed. I love it here!' thought Lilly while keeping her eyes on Jane. Jane started wondering farther off into the distance and once the sounds of her presence were silenced, Lilly came out of her hiding spot and ran as quickly as her feet could carry her to home base: the hideout. The hideout was just in sight when there was a deafening BOOM!

She clapped her hands over her ears and screamed in fear. What had just happened? It sounded like dynamite had just exploded. In fright, she ran even faster and felt a little better when she was concealed by walls and a roof. She took a few moments to regain her composure and took deep breaths while wondering if Jane was alright.

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Jane shrieked as the loud thunder of an explosion rang out in the afternoon air. Momentarily, she forgot about the hide and seek game and even Lilly as she sprinted back to the hideout as if Hell's dogs were at her heels. Everything blurred into one massive blob of green and brown and felt completely confused. Where was she going? She didn't know the way back to the hideout! Especially since she had just run off into any random direction to get away from the noise.

"Oh no," she said with tears forming in her eyes. "Oh no, no, NO! What am I doing?"

She looked around her and hoped with all her heart that she might see something familiar, but unfortunately, she could recognize nothing. More tears sprung into her eyes and started trickling down her cheeks. Then she finally remembered her hide and seek partner.

'Please, God, no,' she silently prayed as she bolted off into the jungle aimlessly. She was afraid to call out Lilly's name as she ran because something human had placed explosives in the jungle. Instead, she whispered it hoarsely and started panicking when she still couldn't find her sister. 'God, you know I've never asked you for anything before, but I'm asking you now, please keep Lilly safe and help me find her.'

The forest floor was littered with leaves and dead branches from the population of trees in the area and so anywhere she went, the cracking and rustling went too. She tried fruitlessly to quiet her footsteps incase there were people near by. The ground was completely covered, though, and there would have been a bear hiding under all the windfall leaves and tree limbs and she would have never known it. Not only that, the small amount of grass growing was extremely tall and brushing against her calves as she ran. Her breath caught in her throat as the aerobic stress from running set in. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and calm her racing thoughts. As she bent over and panted deeply, she saw something sparkle in the leaves. Curious to what it might be, she ventured over to it and reached for it. When her hand pulled out of the layer of covering, it held a silver coin.

'That's odd,' she thought to herself as she studied the coin. She reasoned that it must have either belonged to an Indian or a pirate. She wanted to take it back with her but had no pockets so she flicked it back into the grass and turned to walk away. The moment the coin hit the ground, another explosion let loose. Jane ran. She ran as quickly as she could just to get away. Although, everywhere she ran, a geyser of flames erupted from the ground just as she past over them.

"Landmines!" exclaimed Jane as her pace quickened. The flames threatened to take off her feet as they came dangerously close to the fires. She felt gallons of adrenalin coursed through her as she ran faster and faster; each explosion seeming to get even more treacherously close to injuring her. Tears flowed freely down her face as air became thicker and harder to take in. The smoke from the air mixed with the clean oxygen and her straining lungs screamed for a full breath of air. Her legs were beginning to feel like jelly and the fear was almost too much for her. If she stopped before she was out of the mine field, then she would be blown into oblivion for sure.

"You said you'd protect us, Peter! Where are you now?" yelled Jane and hoped that he might hear her and come to her rescue. Peter did not come. It was just her and mines for 100 more feet.

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"Lilly?" said Peter as he entered the hideout. He saw the younger girl safe and sound but Jane was missing. And those repeated blasts did not seem promising.

"Peter! You're back!" greeted Lilly in relief.

"Where's Jane?"

"Out there somewhere. We were playing hide and seek and then there was a loud BANG and I ran here."

"Oh no," he worried. He turned right around and flew out of the secret hideaway as quick as a flash. He had to find Jane, and fast.

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'Finally,' Jane thought in the deepest relief. She had reached past the mine field's limits and was on safe ground. At the moment, she stood with her hand on her knees, bent over and breathing hard in an open field. The shock of racing through a mine field hadn't entirely cleared away and she squeezed her eyes shut as she gasped desperately to calm her breathing. Her lungs were contaminated with the smoke and fumes of fire, causing every new breath to be increasingly harder to inhale. She held her throat with her hands and looked like she was choking. Thinking it would be better to stand up to open her throat up some more, she shot upright with her hands still clasped around her neck. Slowly, things became blurry. She felt lighter. The daylight vanished and became black…

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A/N: Jane's blacked out and Peter's on a hunt to find her! It can only get better from here. lol.