I can hear them. All of them. I can feel them surrounding me closely. The vibe is just as horrid as it was before, but only now I cant seem to move. And I can not see. I wish I could see her. I can feel her over me. Her warmness surrounding me, just her presence is calming and warm.
It feels like home to me. Oh, how I wish I were home. Maddie at the candy counter, Cody and I playing in the lobby. It seemed like a much simpler time. Even now, as I lay unmoving, I just wish my eyes would open and I could see at least one part of home.
Maddie sat. Waiting. Hoping. For him to wake up. Even flutter an eyelid. Anything, that would prove that there was life inside him. Life willing to fight its way out. She hoped there was enough fight in Zack. Enough strength to will himself awake. Enough strength to want to live. But what would be enough at this point?…
"Maddie?" Denton whispered through the darkness of the cave. She didn't turn her head up. She knew she couldn't see him and she didn't want to see him. Her gaze was on the boy who was unconscious beneath her.
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"I think I have a plan to get him out of here. But I need the help of everyone." he spoke to everyone.
"Um, not to be a total bitch, but what about us?" Bethany whispered back, sounding hostile.
"Once we get Zack to safety we can get out!" Heather whispered back, after slapping her friend forcefully in the arm.
"Okay. Their sleeping, correct?" Denton asked rhetorically. "Well, we need a distraction to lead them further down the cave, so you guys can get out of here. I know my way through the woods pretty well, and seeing that you got lost, you will probably need my help." he finished.
"Okay so what should the distraction be?" Cody asked. It was the first time he had spoken since any remembered. His gaze was always fixed upon his brothers, much like Maddie's was. And all wished he hadn't spoken at all, because his voice no longer sounded like Cody. It sounded harsh, and dare anyone think it hopeless.
"If their drugs were harmed that'd lead them away." Tapeworm said suddenly.
"That's it!" Denton whispered in a near yell. "We'll set it all on fire!"
"But dude you're forgetting one thing!" Tapeworm pointed out, while actually pointing to the drugs in front of them. "The drugs are over here."
"Then we'll have to get to the back way out. It'll be harder, but it's the only chance we got." Denton replied, before standing up, letting his feet plant firmly on the soil beneath him.
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The air seems thick with wonder. Wonder about even the simplest things. I can feel them. I know my wonder is simple. I wonder if I will get home to watch the next monster truck race. I wonder if I'll make it to football tryouts. I wonder if Maddie likes me…
Isn't it odd that even in the most unlikely of situations, our mind seeks the every day comfort. Things we always took advantage of are the things that we think of now as a comfort of home. Everyone has them.
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"How much weight has he gained to be on the football team?" Tapeworm grunted, as the weight of Zack, weighed onto his shoulders. Cody rushed behind him to help lighten the load, only to find that he grunted.
"A ton, that's what!" Cody grunted. "And it isn't fat either…muscle sucks…" he gasped.
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Struggling to get Zack to the back side of the cave was not an easy task as Cody and Tapeworm became tired. The others were still at the entrance deciding the rest of the plan, and neither Cody or Tapeworm wanted to leave them behind, but knew there was no other choice. Zack's safety became a must, as he had no fighting chance against the men.
The dimly lit cave wasn't easily ventured at all, as they rammed into wall after wall. Cody groaned as he hit the umpteenth wall, before tripping over something, causing Tapeworm and Zack to fall, too.
"What was that?" Tapeworm asked, annoyed.
"I don't know…" Cody said, before feeling the ground below him, immediately wishing he hadn't. He grazed something with his fingertips, causing them to tingle. It felt almost leathery, but not quite. And that is when Tapeworm, too, had an inspection.
Each boys hand traveled across the leathery feel, until the reached a soft plumpness where jaggedness met only a moment later. That is when they both realized that it wasn't leather. It was flesh. And they had just touched a human mouth. Figuring it out, they each yelped ferociously.
"Holy shit! Is it alive?" Tapeworm asked.
"No…there isn't a pulse." Cody replied braver than Tapeworm would have thought.
"What the hell Cody, this is a human body! You'd think you'd show a little emotion!" Tapeworm screamed.
"Don't talk to me about emotion! My brother's lying here! About to die! Besides if you haven't noticed this isn't the only body we've seen in the last twenty-four hours!" Cody retorted, standing up.
"I've noticed! She was my best friend!" Tapeworm yelled, repeating Cody's action, and standing, before shoving Cody backwards, and watched as he toppled over Zack's unconscious body.
Anger filled the air just before I felt something heavy topple over me. But it seemed to do something…
A groan was heard, and figuring it was Cody, Tapeworm stomped towards the exit, dragging Zack by the collar, behind him. "Ow…." a voice grunted, and Tapeworm soon realized who he was dragging was conscious. Dropping his collar, Zack's head banged onto the cave floor below.
"Ow!" Zack yelled.
"Holy shit! You're conscious!" Tapeworm said, kneeling to him.
"Yea, where the hell are we though…?" Zack asked, rolling over onto his stomach.
His arms were frail as they wobbled beneath him. "A little help!" Zack said, annoyed, before Tapeworm launched him to his feet.
"Zack?" Cody asked, finally approaching, while still wiping the dirt from his clothes.
"Where are the others?" Zack asked abruptly.
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The burning desire of wanting to know. Of waiting. Was eating at Maddie, as she sat, almost crumpled-like on the dirt floor. She felt helpless, as if a rag doll, sitting legs beneath her, her body idle. And even though her body was idle, her mind was not. All she could wonder is if Tapeworm and Cody could make it out, with Zack safely in tow.
She sighed, heavily, and someone's hand grazed her shoulder blade. "He'll be fine." Denton said. Clenching her teeth together, she forced a sad smile. "Don't worry." he finished.
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"Yeah, the reason he isn't worrying is because he's one of them." Bob, who had just heard Denton, said to Bethany. She nodded, before turning to look at Maddie, noticing a single tear fall down her cheek.
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Zack's POV
Weak. That's what I was. Not from the blow in the head. Not from the stiffness of not moving from being unconscious. No. I was weak. I had gotten myself hurt, and dampened everyone else's chances for survival. They all had to devise a plan on how to get me out safely, and then how get themselves out.
Why they had put me first was weighing on me. Why? If this was a war, which it might as well be, and a soldier fell on the battleground, the firing would not cease. It would continue. Maybe even stronger than before.
That is what needed to happen. They should have left me behind. For I was the weakest link in the chain of survival, and it was my fault I had gotten hit in the first place, no one else's. Therefore, it should be I, who found a way out myself.
It shouldn't be them to pay. Not Bob. Not Bethany. Not Agnes. Not Heather. And not Maddie. I hated myself more and more, step by step. How could I go on if they didn't make it out; if she didn't make it out.
Freedom is a virtue. Not a right. Especially not to me. I didn't disserve to be walking towards it. They did. Each and every one of them. Even Max. A friend to the core. Why was I the one blessed?
Turning my heel in the other direction, I went back. Cody called after me, yet I didn't listen. I was going to get my friends. What was the point of walking to safety first, if I was conscious and in the same physical attire as them. My feet wobbled beneath me, just as the thought left my mind. What irony?
I just hoped that I could get them out. And that Cody and Tapeworm continued the journey out of the cave. The less deaths, the best. And possibly they would send help in the right direction, but when my mind produced the thought it quickly erased it, as Tapeworm would most likely get them lost.
(A/N) I'm really sorry if this chapter SUCKS...it's just I havent really had time to do ANYTHING! I really am sorry. I just wanted to tell you guys, that this story will not be ending any time soon. At all.
Special thanks to:
Annie Hughes, da archer, erin, perfectbliss, DeigoAlmirante, Chel08, jcg2491, GilmoreGirlAddict, Ashley T., Frog Disease, Lennie1984, Hhr Its what i believe, Sandt21, basketballlvr411, and Rongo, for their support in Chapter 11