Chapter Three
Crash!
Another lightning struck and thunder rolled. The rain outside my tent was wailing down with a vengeance. I tried to get as comfortable as I could in my small tent. I at least had the brains to put some wood underneath so that the water wouldn’t seep in.
Fifteen minutes went by and I curdled when I couldn’t fall asleep. The chaos outside was scary. I just didn’t want to wake up with water filling the tent. I’d drown in an instant, especially if I couldn’t unzip the entrance. What if the whole camping site was filling up with water? We’d all drown anyway.
Crash!
Shit that one sounded awfully close. I turned on my phone and used the light to look around. So far, my tent was doing fine. I tried to text Shirley and the boys but there was absolutely no reception this high up in the mountains.
Let’s get back to nature. No phones, no laptops, it’ll be amazing! Those were the words we all repeated when we were planning this stupid trip. Now it all sounds stupid. How the fuck was I supposed to contact them for help?
Crash!
“Ah!” I let out a scream when the last roar of thunder and lightning seemed so loud and close I swore my tent would be the next thing to flash and burn.
Crack!
“What the fuck?” I turned on my phone again and looked up. Something in my tent was creaking. I looked all over and checked the corners and just as I was about to peek out the window flap one of the nails just popped out of the ground, sending a portion of my tent to topple. Water began to flow into my tent and I rushed to unzip the entrance.
Heavy rain slammed against my face when I ran outside, barefoot and in just a pair of shorts and a shirt. I looked at my tent and saw that one of the holding flaps that kept the nails down had blown off. If I wanted to get things back in order I needed to strap it back down.
I turned around and glimpsed at Shirley, Tom and Jack’s tents. They were all still standing but Shirley’s was starting to crumble down as well. Her tent was more expensive than mine, which probably meant it was sturdier, but she was a lazy bitch and it was just a matter of time before her tent would collapse. She was damn lucky to be sleeping in with Tommy tonight.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered to myself as I tried to run through the woods and get the damn flap back. It had been blown off to the bushes and I needed to get it before the wind kicked up again and threw it over the hill. I didn’t want to have to go down a slippery, muddy slope in the midst of a thunderstorm.
“This is so fucking stupid!” I screamed but the roar of the storm drowned out my voice. I ran as quickly as I could but just as I was about to grab the flap it blew away and descended down a small hill leading over to the pool I bathed in.
Should I chase after it? I worried that the storm might have turned that small creek into a raging river and I could drown in an instant if I slipped in.
“Ah, what the hell,” I decided and chased after the stupid flap. I figured if it got too dangerous I’d just go back and crash in with Jack.
That was the dumbest idea I ever came up with. As soon as I stepped on the downward slope I slipped on mud. Instantly I crashed onto the side of the hill and rolled down, my body crashing through bushes and small, thorny trees. I could feel every inch of my body crack each time I bumped into a small rock and my whole journey down halted with a sudden slam against a pine tree. Fortunately for me, I hit it with my shoulder and the pain wasn’t so bad. It would probably bruise in the morning but the adrenaline was keeping me up and alert.
I tried to get up but now my legs were shaking. I was covered in mud and leaves and so much fucking dirt I wanted to scream. When I looked at myself I realized my knees were a little bloody, perhaps from a few small cuts on the way down. Nothing was too painful, however, so I figured I was still okay.
The rain continued to pour down and when I glanced up the sky looked as dark and gloomy as ever. “Fuck this shit,” I told myself and figured I should just head back before I ended up harming myself further.
I tried to go back up the way I came but the pathway was too muddy and slippery. I looked around and saw there was another way back up but when I checked what was close to this road I saw the creek. Just as I figured, the rain made it swell and it was raging fast and dangerous.
“Fuck, this is ridiculous,” I said to myself. The only pathway I had of going back up the hill and to the camping site was situated right on top of the damn river where I’d drown in minutes if I slipped into it.
I made my way to the beginning of the pathway and then looked up. Now that I could see the destination, it wasn’t really that far. The plateau where we camped at was probably less than a fifth of a mile up. I took one step up and –
– slipped on a branch.
“Oh, shit!” I cried out as I fell backward. I tried to look back, knowing the raging river would engulf me in a moment’s notice. Time seemed to come to a standstill as I descended down the small hill and, just out of nowhere, I felt my head slam against a tree trunk instead of a body of water.
I blinked for a moment, wondering how far I was from the water, and passed out.
***
“I think she’s okay,” I heard a deep, male voice mutter.
“You think? It looks like she hit her head hard,” said someone else.
My eyes fluttered as I tried to look at my surroundings. At first, my vision blurred and all I could see was white. I feared that knock on my head blinded me. Fortunately, after a few more minutes, my vision faded in and I realized Brandon was looking down at me. He had me cradled in his arms, my head resting on his leg. Sitting beside him was Chris. I checked up and realized the sky was clear and that it was already early in the morning.
“W-what happened?” I asked as I tried to sit up. Nausea quickly hit me and I leaned back to rest.
“You fell down the hill, looks like it,” Chris answered. He was covered in mud and also had a bruise on his forehead. “We thought you were dead because your body was leaning on a tree log and the river was up to your chest.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t drown,” Brandon said. He had some leaves stuck to his arms and was completely shirtless. “We got lost ourselves. One of our bags was blown away and fell down the hill side. We chased it but the rain tossed us around and we had to swim down the river just to find a suitable place to rest. That’s when we found you.”
I looked at them with shock. “Wait, what? How far are we from the camping site?”
Chris shrugged back. “I don’t know. We swam for a long while. I guess you got lucky and managed to land on a log floating in the water. That probably saved you and prevented you from drowning. My guess is we’re a good eight or nine miles away from the site.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered. I finally got the strength to sit back up. “What the fuck do we do?”
Brandon helped me back up to my feet. I only stood a good five-feet-one and he was about a foot taller than me. I looked like a little girl next to him it almost made me forget we were all wet and covered in mud. I blushed like an idiot.
“First of all, we need to find a safe spot,” Chris said. “Let’s get out and away from the river. Maybe we can find some lodgings or another camping site so we can attend to our wounds, change our clothes or whatever.”
That sounded like a genius idea. I was all game for that. I looked like shit and I felt even worse.
I grabbed Brandon and Chris’ hands, sandwiching myself between them. “Yeah, please, let’s get out of here.”
END OF TEASER