Chapter Nine: That Buzzing Feeling
A feeling of cold emptiness began to spread through Alaska as she examined the white shoe in her hands. Mitchell was down the hole, Mitchell was possibly injured, or kidnapped, or dead. Yes, Alaska hadn't liked him very much, and quite a few times when he had been ruining her nights she had considered stringing up to the roof and beating him like a piñata, but she couldn't do that to him if he was dead… it would be less fun without him squealing in pain.
"I have a frien – acquaint – I know this nice little – oh, I just know this guy!" Alaska said, holding up the shoe as she failed to find words to describe her relationship with Mitchell. "It seems that both he and Damian have gone down this hole, possibly together, and we need to get them out of there, now!" As she spoke, Alaska glanced into the hole: it seemed to stretch on for about a kilometre or two, with no sign of where the bottom lay. "What have you got me into this time Mitchell…"
"I don't give a Rattata's ass about getting your friend out!" Chloe squawked hysterically, and snatched the shoe from her hand. "Mitchell Melton? MITCHELL BLOODY MELTON! He's a little prick, why the hell do you want to save him!" She shrieked and threw the shoe away. Paige soared over and grabbed it, glared angrily at Chloe and then spun, sending it flying back towards her. She screeched and leapt backwards, whacking Lachlan in the nose as she did so.
"Mitchell may be annoying, but I've known him a hell of a lot longer that Damian, alright?" Alaska snapped. "If we're going to save a friend of yours, I don't see any issue with saving a … person of mine as well!" The two teenagers glared angrily at each other, and Alaska was trying hard not to slap her across the face. She had been pissed off, angry, annoyed, sometimes even furiously envious of Chloe before, but Alaska had never been this mad at how selfish and arrogant she was until now. As they stood there with sliceable tension between them, a timid cough sounded to the side.
"It's all very nice and well that you want to save these two boys," Sandy said quietly, twirling her hair through her fingers, "but how do you plan to save them?" Alaska's wanted to keep glaring at Chloe, imagining her falling down the hole and getting trapped, but she knew that Sandy had a fair point: there was no point arguing when they had no idea what they were going to do.
"I'll try calling out to them and see if we get any response!" Lachlan suggested, and stood over the hole. "OI, DAMIAN! YOU DOWN THERE?" He shouted. Everyone bent over the hole to listen, but the strange clicking and buzzing only seemed to get louder. "They could be unconscious," Lachlan said miserably.
"Or dead!" Chloe squealed, and Alaska couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Don't be so melodramatic and jump to the worst conclusion!" She snapped. "What we need to do is to go down into the hole and see if we can find the two of them and work out how to get them back up."
"Wonderful plan Alaska, but as your friend pointed out," Chloe hissed, glaring over at Sandy who looked rather affronted,
"how the hell are we going to get down there?" Again, Alaska was left without an answer, but Sandy suddenly stepped forwards. She was given Chloe the same nasty look she had given her earlier, and Lachlan stifled a smirk at Chloe's stunned look. The blonde haired girl walked up to the edge of the hole, Butterfree flying softly behind her, and grabbed something: a think green vine, one of many that was dangling down.
"If madam doesn't mind getting her hands a bit dirty," Sandy said in such an acidic tone that Alaska and Paige couldn't help but exchange smirks, "we could quite easily climb down these vines." Alaska and Lachlan examined several others, and saw that there were indeed very thick and seemed to be coming out of the earth, so they should support their weights.
"Alright then team," Alaska boomed, and Chloe shot her an unnecessarily angry look, "we'll each take one vine and begin to descend. If something bad happens, just cross your fingers and hope you land on the last person whose vine snapped." Chloe's eyes bulged, and Alaska winked at Paige in pleasure before dropping her legs into the hole. It definitely was very dark down there, and Alaska hoped that they would be able to come to a safe landing in the unknown bottom they couldn't see.
"Race you to the bottom!" Lachlan called, and Alaska was surprised to see he already had both arms and legs wrapped around a vine and was shimmying his way down the natural rope. Sandy let out a hysterical giggle and began to descend her vine as well, Butterfree following above her.
"Come on Paige, we'd better get a move on!" Alaska called, and her Pidgey twittered excitedly, swooping down and nearly whacking Chloe on the head. Alaska smirked as she swung around, quickly wrapping her arms and legs around her vine. It felt both tough and flexible at the same time, and Alaska was temporarily put off the idea of climbing down a piece of nature into a large black hole. Sandy and Lachlan were already moving rather rapidly down, and clearly their vines were able to support them up.
"You'd better catch me," Alaska warned Paige, and began to move down.
"Pidgey Pidge," Paige said with an eyeroll, and Alaska gave her a joking glare. The vine felt weird to touch, but Alaska was able to grip onto it firmly, and was beginning to slowly descend down into the hole. The only main issue was that she kept whacking into the wall, tearing a hole in her jean legs.
"What is wrong with this thing?" Alaska grumbled as she was continuously whacked into the earthy wall. She looked up and felt her blood boil once more, the answer right above her head: Chloe was on her vine, descending down like a rock climber pushing off from the wall. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Alaska shouted up, and Chloe glared down at her, though her features were undistinguishable due to the dimming light.
"I don't want to climb down vines, these things are unstable and I don't have a harness!" Chloe shouted back. "If it breaks and snaps, I will feel comfortable enough knowing I'm landing on you!"
"Go on your own vine you stupid bitch!" Alaska hissed, and Paige twittered angrily. Chloe simply ignored her and continued to descend, and Alaska wanted to climb back up and throw her off. Instead, she did the only thing that came into her mind: she grabbed the vine and began to swing it. Chloe screamed as she swung violently through the air.
"STOP IT!" She wailed, still trying to descend as she swung.
"Than get off my vine then!" Alaska shouted back. Chloe just continued to scream, and Alaska swung it again. The whole vine was shaking now, and dirt was beginning to sprinkle down onto Alaska's face. She brushed it off, but felt a slight rumbling in the earth as she swung the vine again.
"Uh oh…" Alaska mumbled. There was a loud snap that echoed inside the hole, and Alaska's body lurched as she suddenly tipped backwards into the darkness. Chloe screamed, Paige cried out, and Alaska couldn't help but yell as she fell rapidly down the hole. She was moving around instead of going in a straight line, and a fourth screaming voice was getting closer. Alaska simply shut her eyes and braced for impact as she smashed into Sandy, and heard another yell signalling that Lachlan had joined the falling bodies. All four of them were falling and screaming, and Alaska felt for Sandy's hand: if she was going to die, she wanted to die besides the only friendly person in this hole.
CRUNCH
With a body shuddering thud, the four of them all landed onto something that was reasonably soft, but the long fall and impact made it feel a lot harder. Alaska groaned, and for the second time that day she felt someone on top of her. There were other grunts and moans from around her, and Alaska opened her eyes to find she wasn't in complete darkness, but it was indeed very dim.
"Is everyone alright?" Sandy asked from nearby, and Alaska could feel their hands were still interlocked and she smiled, reassured by some companionship. Everyone mumbled they were fine, though Chloe and Lachlan sounded very sour.
"So, climbing down vines… not the best plan," Alaska said jokingly, and Sandy sighed.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," she replied, and Chloe scoffed a few feet away.
"Well next time, don't suggest anything until it is a great plan, alright?" The blonde hissed. "But I think Alaska has some of the blame here, as she caused us all to fall down here, didn't she?"
"You shouldn't have gotten on my vine then!" Alaska shouted back, getting to her feet. It seemed they had landed on more vines, judging by what she was standing on, and could see an outline of Chloe's features in the little light they had. "Don't start anything Chloe, we're down here for a reason."
"Oh, walking away from a disagreement, real brave!" Chloe hissed. Alaska turned angrily towards her, a fast raised in her fury and was ready to strike, willing to fight Chloe like she had been dying too for so long. But just as Alaska began to swing, Lachlan suddenly cried out, and all heads turned. Alaska wanted to know why she was being interrupted, but her anger was suddenly replaced with fear that crawled through her entire body in a second. The strange buzzing sound they heard from above was now obvious, and their fate, as well as Damian and Mitchell's, was uncertain.
A group of Beedrill were right there.
'Group' seemed like an understatement. There was about one hundred Beedrill standing before them, their white stingers raised like swords. Chloe and Sandy both let out frightened whimpers, and Alaska couldn't help but feel dread and unease creep through her body as the Beedrill began to march forwards. The light in the cave was getting brighter, illuminating not only all hundred of the angry Beedrill, but dozens and dozens of Weedle crawling across the walls, and a large number of Kakuna settled into the wall like very strange ornaments. The light revealed holes like bunkers set into the walls, some leading to a network of tunnels, others simple nesting places that Weedle were gathering in.
"Beedrill Bee! Beedrill Bee!" The Beedrill all buzzed angrily, and began to walk forwards, the front two rows with their stingers raised. Chloe screamed and clung to Lachlan for support, but Lachlan was standing solid and unmoving, his eyes wide with fear and shock. Alaska looked around desperately and saw Paige and Butterfree were still hovering above them all, looking down in fear as well. They caught her eye, and Paige went to move but Alaska shook her head and mouthed 'Don't move yet' up at them. Paige looked surprised, but nodded and stayed airborne around the vines.
"AAAAH!" Alaska whipped her head around in time to see Chloe flying backwards. She was about to ask what had done it when suddenly three of the front Beedrill fired what was unmistakably a String Shot at Lachlan. He was thrown backwards by the force, and Alaska wanted to see where he landed, but instead felt something hard but sticky hit her in the middle. She surprised how forceful it was, and flew backwards and whacked into a wall a few metres away. It was yet another painful blow to her already sore back, and Alaska instantly tried to pull away from the sticky string: it held as if it was made from metal, and Alaska's arms simply began to hurt as Sandy was thrown to the wall next to her, screaming loudly.
"It's going to be an even longer day than it already has, won't it?" Alaska sighed, and was forced to give up trying to fight the String Shot. Someone laughed next to her, and Alaska quickly looked to her left: Damian was stuck to the wall next to her, dirty faced and clothes torn, but was flashing his perfect smile.
"Just be glad the Beedrill haven't roughed you around, they gave and Mitch here a real warm welcome, didn't they?" He explained, and Alaska inclined her head more to see her old neighbour. Mitchell was smiling widely and looked rather happy about the whole experience, more so than Chloe who was now crying her eyes out.
"Hey Alaska, we must have missed each other back in Viridian!" Mitchell said quickly. "But it's good to see you again, do you have any awesome Pokemon yet? I've only caught a Rattata and a Weedle so far, but my Weedle is close to evolving, I can't –"
"Nice to see you too Mitchell," Alaska sighed and leaned back against the wall. Damian laughed again, and Alaska couldn't help but smile as well. "He's my old neighbour –"
"I'm well aware of that," Damian chuckled quietly. "He was running to try and find you when his shoe came off and he slipped in the grass and fell down here. I heard him scream and climbed down one of the vines like you guys tried, and found him injured and tried to treat him but the Beedrill attacked us. He's been keeping me entertained for the last hour."
"You haven't been down here a hour, you left us at the battle about twenty minutes ago," Alaska explained, laughing.
"Any time with him seems twice as long," Damian replied, and Alaska couldn't help but laugh and nod. She looked towards Sandy, willing to offer her words of support, but the blonde haired girl had her eyes shut and was muttering something quickly under her breathe and Alaska decided not to disturb her. Instead she looked straight towards the large mass of Beedrill before her. They were all standing in perfect rows with their stingers raised, reminding Alaska of soldiers in an army. She was rather scared about what the Beedrill would do to them next: the light they seemed to be creating was lighting up another large circular section of this passage, it's only main feature being a particularly large hole in the wall.
"I don't know what their going to do to us, but I really don't want to stick around any longer to find out," Damian whispered, all laughter gone from his voice, and Alaska nodded solemnly. "I've been pulling my arms free and my right arm is rather loose, I think I could –" but Damian paused there as something changed within the tunnel. A loud rumbling, thudding sound was echoing around them, and Alaska could place it's occurrence in only one place: the largest hole in the wall. The Beedrill began to buzz excitedly, and many more Weedle crawled out of their holes like spectators to watch what was happening. Something big was coming out for them, and Alaska didn't want to be around for it. Fear was enclosing her like a disease, but Alaska couldn't help but let it consume her. She was going to die at the hands of whatever was coming out for them. She would never be able to get any badges, never post any blog entry, never battling with Paige or Darwin again, never see the faces of her mother, her father, Freddie, the twins…
"Freddie…" Alaska whispered, and she felt Sandy and Damian's eyes turn to her.
"Whose Freddie?" Sandy asked, but Alaska ignored her: the fear was beginning to leave her now, as excitement quickly filled her body up.
"Damian, use your right hand and opened my bag up and feel for a plastic bag," Alaska said, and Damian nodded and managed to extract his right arm from the String Shot unnoticed due to the Beedrill staring towards the hole instead of them.
"When you get the plastic bag, feel around inside for a knife, and then we can cut the String Shot open."
"Is there a reason you carry a knife with you?" Damian asked, and Alaska simply smiled, remembering as she took a knife usually used to cut ropes from a bug catcher she defeated, and would have used it if she was ever hungry enough to try Fredrick's brownies. She went to tell the story, but the rumbling was suddenly deafening. All six of their eyes turned towards the hole as a loud screech echoed out of it, and the creature that lived within walked into the open…
