Stranded

Chapter Nine

The sun set in the sky, the usual fat lump of orange now a beautiful mixture of colours spread horizontally across its canvas.

"The sky's real pretty right now," Reese said out loud as she wandered behind the group with a few of the others.

"Yeah," Owyn agreed, her eyes drooping low as she forced her limbs to keep up with the others. Vesper looked over at her and couldn't help but feel exhaustion herself.

"Guys I think we should stop, take a break?" She shouted so the others way ahead could hear. They stopped walking abruptly and waited till the others caught up.

"That sounds like a good idea-" Nate began before Lisa interrupted him.

"No, are you guys crazy, Dani's life is on the line here, we can't stop," Lisa said, her gaze briefly dropping on Dani's still body on the make-do stretcher.

"Lise, I get that, but look around everyone's exhausted, we should recharge and then take off again," Christina reasoned.

"I agree, we should stop," Ahanyu spoke as he and Mo gently lowered the stretcher to the ground, "It will get dark soon. We're better off travelling during daytime."

It was settled then and within minutes they were huddled together in a cave nearby, half of them already passed out.

"Ves, get your arm off my face," Riley said through gritted teeth, swatting her friend's arm away. Vesper mumbled in her sleep and turned over.

"It's so fucking hot," Xander huffed.

"Lucky you, it looks like it's about to rain," said Nate. Xander's face lit up as she made to quickly exit the cave, she couldn't wait to feel the cool rain on her skin, it had barely rained since they had been here. Ahanyu quickly grabbed her arm to stop her, she looked at him confused.

"Trust me you don't want to go out in that," he warned. Xander was still confused and a few of the others shot around questioning glances, their interest suddenly piqued.

"Just watch," Ahanyu said gently pointing to a small animal that crept out from its shelter. The rain grew heavier and as the drops layered themselves onto the animal's skin, it began to tremble and shriek. Its fur began to burn, and its skin bubbled as it melted until it was reduced to an ugly lump of remains on the ground. Ash held back her vomit and turned away in disgust.

"Acid rain," Lauren whispered, her eyes teary, "I hope the others found shelter in time."

"We'll be back soon enough to check on them, I'm sure they're fine but once this rain stops, we've got to get moving." Lisa said, going to the back of the small cave and pulling her knees up to her chest. Mo went and sat beside her, offering her a small smile before he patted his shoulder. Lisa smiled sadly back, resting her head gently on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

They set off again in the morning. Fifteen minutes into their journey, Ash and Riley stopped suddenly, cocking their heads as they seemingly heard the same thing, they looked at each other before looking at the rest of the group.

"Do you guys hear that?" they asked them.

"It sounds like water falling," Owyn whispered, stopping beside them. Within seconds they were all running towards the sound, Ahanyu and Christina trailing behind with Dani.

"That would be the river," Ahanyu informed Christina.

"There's a river?!"

"Fresh water!" someone exclaimed excitedly. Many of them were already drinking from the river, liquid running down their chins. Xander and Ves had their entire heads dunked underneath the cool flow of water, revelling in the pleasure it provided them with.