Welcome back! Let's venture out into the Jungles of Jumanji once again! Haha! ;)

Four: Run For Your Lives - Literally!

The group did their best to keep up with Doctor Bailey.

"Talk to her," Fridge whispered to Spencer. "Try and get some answers!"

"Why do I have to talk to her?"

"You two obviously have some sort of past!"

"Well obviously not a very good one! She slapped me!"

"Just go on!"

Spencer gave in and stepped forward awkwardly, while the others hung back. "Uh, hi..."

He was glad when she struck up a conversation by posing a question of her own. "How did you get here?"

"Uh..." He and Fridge exchanged a glance. Fridge just waved him on, leaving him to try and come up with something. "W-we don't know really," he partially lied. "We don't remember. It was just kind of one minute back home, and then here the next."

"Strange," she mumbled. "Must be the curse messing with your memory." She was dead serious.

"Yeah, must be," mumbled Fridge. Spencer nudged him.

"What about you? How did you get here?" Spencer asked her.

"A long, long boat ride, all the way from London," she said. "I've been fascinated by this place my whole life and have been studying it about that long too. Finally, I made it here. And now I have to save it."

"See," Spencer hissed to the others. "She's serious. She doesn't know it's a game."

"Poor thing," said Bethany.

"Shh! She thinks it's real. Just role with it." He turned back to Vera. "Um, so Nigel said for us to head to the Bazaar, to 'find the missing piece'."

"Missing piece? Missing piece of what, the map?" She nodded to the torn map in Bethany's hands.

"We think so, but we're not sure."

"Well, that's where I'm headed now. That's where I stashed the jewel."

"Wait, you don't have it?"

"No, I hid it away safely, somewhere Van Pelt and his men won't find it. Nor anyone else for that matter."

"Oh, good, good." He looked to the others who were nodding. This was good.

"Yes. We'll go and retrieve it, and then I shall destroy it."

There was a moment of shocked silence before all at once all four cried, "What?!" all stopping and staring at her.

She appeared slightly startled by their reaction. "To end the corruption and its dark spell over Jumanji, relieving its power over Van Pelt, and returning everything to the way it was," she explained, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The others exchanged a glance. "But, wouldn't it just be the same to return it to the statue?"

"And risk someone else becoming corrupted by its power and having a repeat of this mess?" She raised her eyebrows.

Okay, they saw her point, but they also couldn't let her do that. Not if they wanted to survive. Not if they wanted to go home.

"Guys! The map's changing again!" The group, this time now including Vera, huddled around Bethany. The Mighty Roar was now written in what looked like a clearing.

"The second level?" guessed Martha.

"I think so," agreed Spencer.

"Second level of what?" questioned Vera.

Right, they'd have to be more careful about that.

"Uh, which way?" Spencer ignored her question. He felt rude doing this, but was unsure of what else to do.

"Um, let's see... If that is that, and that is that, then - well right here I think."

As if in response, something sailed between them, rippling the map, exploding ahead of them a few feet away. They turned at the sound of a roaring motor just in time to see a pack of motorcycles launch over the hill towards them.

"Shit!" Vera cried as she watched another line of bikes sail over the hill, speeding towards them. With that, she took off.

"Everybody run!" yelled Spencer, watching the bikes. When he turned back to his companions, he found that they were already way ahead of him, literally, already sprinting down the hill and into the clearing. "Hey wait!" He scrambled to follow them. However, with his speed strength, he was soon caught up and ahead.

Vera was in the lead. Despite being quite small, she was really fast, easily keeping up with Spencer and his special speed skill, even managing to stay ahead.

Seeing as she wasn't as panicked as the rest of the group over the attack, they could only guess that this had happened before. She just kept running, dodging blasts from the bikes. Then, she slowed down and stopped altogether.

"What are you doing?!" cried Spencer.

"Keep going!" She withdrew both handguns. "Take cover in the trees. There's a cliff up ahead, jump down into the lake, that'll lose them."

"What?!" Jump off a cliff?!

I'll do my best to hold them off. Go!"

"But, you-"

"They won't hurt me. Trust me on that. Not if they don't want to suffer at Van Pelt's hands. Now go!"

The bikes were nearing and the others didn't need to be told again. They took off into the trees.

"Ah! Why am I running so slow?!" screamed Fridge.

Vera turned back to face their pursuers, the bikes now speeding towards her on only one wheel, still firing explosives. "Oh Russel," she mumbled. "So dramatic."

She fired a shot which pierced the front wheel of one of the bikes, causing it to spin out of control and crash in an explosion.

The others stopped at the mouth of the forest and had to watch some of the epic spectacle taking place before them. The next thing they knew, Vera was speeding around on one of the bikes herself, having shoved off the rider and stealing the bike. She rode up alongside another bike and kicked the driver off. Then she jumped off her own bike and the others watched as it spun and crashed in an explosion, catching two other bikes up in it.

"Wow," breathed Spencer.

"Whoa! She's so cool!" cried Bethany. "A total bad-ass!"

"What is this game?!" cried Fridge.

Their observance didn't last long as there were still multiple bikes left, and they were zooming straight towards them. They quickly resumed running.

"This sucks!" Bethany practically screamed as they took cover within the trees.

However, this didn't stop the bikes from chasing them. While it did provide obstacles, the bikes persisted relentlessly.

Putting their skills to good use, they actually managed to take down a good number of the bikes themselves. Well, Martha and Spencer at least. Bethany decided to stick with Martha, who had just saved her by launching herself at one of the bikes and kicking the rider off, while Fridge didn't really have a choice in sticking with Spencer, who had just managed to throw a boomerang, which was apparently one of his skills, and completely miss all the bikes.

"Now what?!" Fridge demanded as they took off running again. At least the roaring motors of the bikes made them easy to hear, so they couldn't sneak up on you. "You want me to look in this backpack for a hacky sack or something so you can do absolutely nothing with it-" He was cut off though by the boomerang whipping back towards them, taking out a line of bikes. "You've gotta be kidding me..."

Spencer looked impressed. The victorious moment was short-lived though, for more bikes were still coming. There seemed to be no shortage of them. That led him to wonder if Vera was okay - sure, he had just seen it himself, she was perfectly capable of defending herself and others, but she was vastly outnumbered... But he didn't have long to ponder this. "Come on, we've gotta go-"

"I can't outrun those guys!" How embarrassing. Back at school, he was one of the fastest players on the team.

"uh, well here, get on my back." Spencer crouched down so Fridge could climb onto his back.

"Wha- hell no!"

"I'll carry you, come on-"

"I would rather die," Fridge declared.

"Get on my back!"

"Oh nope, I'm gonna to die-" He barely finished for before he knew it, Spencer had thrown him onto his back and was now charging through the trees.

"Ahhh! PUT ME DOWN! Spencer - PUT ME DOWN SPENCER!"

They met up with the girls again up ahead - at a cliff's edge.

"Vera said jump," Martha reminded them.

"I would literally rather do anything else right now," said Spencer.

The motors behind them were growing louder, and therefore closer. "We have to jump-" And with that, Martha did just that, launching herself over the edge.

"MARTHA!" wailed Bethany, before throwing herself off the cliff after her.

"Spencer jump!" yelled Fridge.

"But I-"

"JUST JUMP!"

Spencer watched as first Martha disappeared, plunging into the water below, then Bethany. His heart thundered in his chest.

"SPENCER!" roared Fridge, who was still on his back.

He took a deep breath, and mustered all the courage he could possibly manage at that moment.

And he jumped.

Yay, some action! ;) haha! And more about Vera too! Thanks so much for reading, hope you're enjoying!