Chapter 8 - Ambushed

I wrapped my fingers around the handle of my bedroom door and slowly pushed it downwards. All at once, like I had just opened a door that led to heaven, all my favourite things came into sight, which caused my heart to well up with a feeling that put the message in my brain that said, You're safe, you're at home. In front of me was the only bedroom window I had, which was concealed by the curtains being pulled across it.

To my left was my wardrobe which was covered in dog-eared photographs of my mum, which half made me smile and half made me sad because I spent every day here alone and I saw nobody all day, every day, well apart from going to school. Without a second thought, I walked over to my wardrobe, planted a small kiss on my left index finger and I stroked Mum's face on one of the pictures.

"Noapte buna." I whispered to the picture, which meant 'goodnight' in Romanian. I sighed, allowing myself to release everything stressful off of my chest before letting out a yawn, my mouth growing so wide that it was equal to a lion's. Placing my phone on my bedside table, I gently began to remove my clothes and change into my normal bed clothes. When I had done so and I was all warm and comfy, I made myself to the downstairs bathroom and began washing my face and brushing my teeth.

After that, I dragged myself upstairs into my bedroom again, grabbed an extra blanket off of a hook on the side of my wardrobe to keep me warm and I flopped down onto my bed. I snuggled down and rested my head on the pillow, yawning once again as I properly prepared myself for resting until morning. However, just as I was about to close my eyes, there was a vibrate from my phone on my bedside table. I sat up in bed and sighed loudly and grumpily.

"What now?" I muttered to myself.

I stretched out my hand, took my phone in my hand and looked at it. At that very moment, I felt utterly awful for making a fuss because I saw that it was a notification from Larry. At once, I clicked on it and I saw the message he had sent me.

I've done some talking with the sibs, he had messaged.

I saw that Larry was still online, so I asked, What did you talk to them about?

I talked to them about I'm A Koopa and Iggy said that he would be more than willing to come with you to Australia and I am coming too.

Oh my…yes! They were coming with me! But…I felt a little weird. I worried for Larry because I knew he got homesick quite easily and I worried for Iggy because of his anxiety. It was almost as if I was asking for way too much.

You know, I feel like I'm asking for way too much, I texted into the box, You both have issues of your own that you have to deal with and I just feel awful that you feel you have to sacrifice yourselves for me.

Don't worry about that, Larry said, Making sacrifices are what friends do for each other! Just think about it, I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't make sacrifices, would I?

I guess so, I replied, But are you sure Iggy's okay with this?

Of course, he told me to tell you specifically that he was making a sacrifice for a friend as well.

Upon seeing this message, I smiled and put a hand to my heart because despite our age gap, Iggy seemed very nurturing and very willing to help me, even though he would most likely result in having a panic attack during the journey. Oh, that's very nice of him, I messaged, Tell him I'm grateful for his words and I'll try and help him as much as possible as well, and most of all, thank you for this.

You're most welcome, Larry replied, Anyway, I think I should let you get some sleep. Even though it's not until the end of the week, you still need to prepare for it. I'll see you tomorrow, sleep well.

You too, I messaged back, See you tomorrow.

With that, I closed down my phone, placed it on my bedside table and switched off my lamp. I settled down into bed and nestled my head into my pillow, completely allowing myself to wind down and within what seemed like ten minutes, I took myself away from the real world and into mine.

…

I began to stir. For a brief moment, I felt the warm, comforting sensation of my blankets around my body. They were tucked in all around my neck, attempting and succeeding at giving me a lovely, fuzzy hug and it seemed like this was going to go on for a long time. Ahh…this was such a lovely feeling and I never wanted it to end. I was warm, I was comfortable, I was…hold on a second.

Everything within my surroundings seemed safe and secure except there was one part of my body that felt cold. My face. At intervals, I thought I could feel soft gusts of wind blowing onto my face and causing the inside of my nose to burn slightly from the amount of frigid air I was breathing in. I couldn't help but open my eyes. All at once, a bright, grey sky lined with the branches of jungle trees filled my sight and made me close my eyes back up again.

Oh my… At this point, I was thinking, What the hell? Why am I outside? And in the jungle, no less! Oh, no. I suppose I had already been flown to Australia and I was in camp, but what I thought was profoundly confusing was that I hadn't remembered being on a plane or anything. It seemed like I had just been here in my timber frame bed the whole time. Hmm…this was weird. Right. I knew I had to grow accustomed to this place since there would most likely be a point in time where I had to go and do a trial, so I grunted and slowly sat up in my bed.

Just like before, I opened my eyes, but the details of the sky and the trees were more vivid. Despite the fact that I hadn't really enjoyed seeing those things the first time, a deep sense of happiness filled up in my body. I was expecting to see some of my campmates sitting around the fire pit, or some of them still sleeping in their beds, but strangely, nobody was there. I was all alone in the jungle.

I thought that most people who comprehended that they were all alone in an environment that they had no experience with would probably start freaking out about the fact that they weren't going to get back home in a hurry, but not me. Instead, I was happy that I was all alone because more often than not, solitude was my main requirement in life because that meant that it would be quiet, and it was quiet. Apart from the soft tweeting of the birds, everything was all quiet and quenched and that made me want to lie back down and fall asleep again.

However, I knew I had to properly wake up and explore and make the unknown known, so, stretching my limbs as far as they would go, I drew back the covers that were spread all over my body and I went to set my feet down onto the floor, only to realise that I had nothing on them apart from the same bright red socks that I had seen from somewhere online and I didn't feel like soiling them on the ground, so I scanned around my bedside for any source of shoes, and luckily, I found my brown hiking boots that were doing their simple job of standing at the foot of my bed and waiting for me to put them on.

I leant forward and reached out for them and as I did, I felt my back crack loudly. "Oh, my. How long was I out for?" I asked rhetorically.

I had absolutely no idea, but for the time being, I was going to state my answer as 'a bloody long time'. It took quite some effort to force my feet into the boots because mostly, I was used to just slipping on shoes easily and I had no clue if it was just me, but I felt like I was going to have difficulty walking since I was wearing such heavy shoes. However, instead, I had been wrong because when I rose up unsteadily and lifted a foot up in the air, it happened with meagre problems, so that was a bonus.

I looked around my comfortable little sleeping space and on one of the bed knobs, I noticed a small, camouflage backpack with a bottle holder and my name emblazoned on it in capital letters. Luckily, there was actually a bottle of water in the holder, so I lifted it out, twisted the cap and took a few great gulps of water. Instantly, I felt a twinge in my taste buds. Never in my whole life had I tasted water that was so…clean. After I had nourished myself with the natural beverage, I wiped my mouth, placed the bottle back in its holder and swung the bag onto my back.

Looking around at the astounding scenery I never thought I'd get the opportunity to see, I began to slowly make my way out of camp. Fortunately, there were paths and signs that indicated where to go and how to get to certain places that were still practically part of camp, so I followed a sign that read, 'Lake and Waterfall.' As I walked on through the path, the dangling vines tickling my face and neck, I took in all the wonderful scents of the flowers and plants that were growing beside me.

Yes, I had seen plants and flowers that were beautiful and odorous as they were, but now that I was in a different country, I was amazed that living organisms on the other side of the world could look and smell even more pretty and contrasting to those of the UK. Right now, I felt so relaxed that my senses were comfortable with my surroundings that I almost wished I could live here forever, given the silence and solitude I was experiencing. This was everything that I wanted and deserved.

Except… It would potentially be a dangerous place to live as well because the jungle was a habitat to many scary and harmful creatures. Maybe I could get bitten somewhere on my body in my sleep and I would die before I woke up the next day. Or maybe it would just be done during the day and I would have to face the pain of being hurt while conscious and…it made me sick to think of this, but what if said bite would cause my body to slowly malfunction and after a long period of suffering, I would die.

I was pretty sure that something like that wasn't going to happen, well that was if I wasn't careful, so I tried not to worry too much about it. However, I was just trying to calm back down after I had just thought about it when I heard the soft rustling of leaves. I suddenly froze dead in my tracks. Like a slow corkscrew, my head turned towards the source of the sound and I stared for a long time without blinking, but I could see nothing in the bushes, so I turned back around to carry on walking.

However, as I did, I heard the same rustling sound in the bush and all of a sudden, from the corner of my eye, I saw three colours burst out towards me. Red, white and green. In a fright, I directed my attention to the bush only to let out a scream of terror, for there, now in front of me was a piranha plant! I could've easily taken off and fled like the wind, but I felt so frozen that I couldn't move a muscle. I had read about these creatures before, but what baffled me was that I never thought about piranha plants settling into the Australian jungle!

As I felt my chest move up and down like the Tower Bridge, the piranha plant slowly extended its stem, its mouth dripping with saliva. Oh, no no no. If I didn't move within the next thirty seconds, I wouldn't even exist, but, what if it was just looking for company? Actually, er…no. I had read that piranha plants were creatures that didn't rely on anything else but themselves for finding food and that was when I knew I was probably going to get eaten. I had been hoping that the plant would barely know I was in its presence, but no.

It was already too late. Piranha plants were adorned with all of these tiny hairs that sensed physical movement everywhere within its surroundings, even if it was a tiny bug crawling on a leaf or something. This was because they had no sensory organs whatsoever and even just from me breathing and walking past slowly, this piranha plant could sense that I was there and that I would be a good breakfast treat.

Thankfully, I saw that the plant was tethered to the ground, so if I ran away, I wouldn't be followed, so I edged away from it, then ran away as fast as I could. After about ten yards, I stopped and leant against a nearby tree to catch my breath. I had run away so fast and I was so exhausted from the amount of adrenaline I had gained from facing that predator that I put a hand to my heart and panted. Right. I must've been a few metres away from the view of the waterfall because I could hear the faint gushing of water ahead. Smiling at last, I took a few steps and followed the sound.

RUSTLE! RUSTLE!

Huh? What was that? Oh darn, hopefully it wasn't another piranha plant. I turned on my heel and bent down to swipe the branches aside and see what was in the bushes, but nothing was there, so I dismissed it and walked on further. However, no sooner had I taken three or four steps when I heard a malicious, spiteful hissing sound. Shit. That could only mean one thing. I could barely bring myself to turn around and see what it was.

It was a snake. A long, fat snake that was covered in yellow save for a few blue patches down its body. It stared at me with piercing eyes, like it was saying to me, "Prepare to die…" and almost immediately, it slithered up my legs rapidly and violently wrapped itself around my abdomen. It didn't let go. The snake seemed to laugh cruelly and it must've been some form of a cue because about five other snakes slithered out from the bush and coiled themselves around me tightly.

That felt like such an excessive wave of shock that I had been ambushed in that way that I lost my balance and fell onto the floor. My voice cracked as I screamed for any source of salvation, but I promptly realised that I thought it was foolish of me because who the hell would be out in the jungle to save my life. What was terrible was that one of the snakes must've known what side of my body I was used to using because as I writhed and struggled, the snake slithered up to my left arm and gave it a vicious bite. At once, I felt a torrent of venom course through my veins, which caused me to scream, but for only a split second. It paralysed me from head to toe.

AN: Wow, I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. I can't even remember the last time I described a place with this much detail and I also can't remember the last time I used an explicit onomatopoeia in my writing. I don't think I ever have...but anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned! :)