Anchor

Chapter 9

As I stopped rolling I quickly looked up at what ran me over and detected the soaked and with mud covered brown-haired girl straightening up.

'You!' She said with relief as she recognized me.

'Me!' I answered while standing up wiping the wet dirt from my cheeks.

'Did you see what that was?' She asked breathing heavily.

'No.' I shook my head and wet strands of hair flew in my face. 'Was it following you?'

'I don't think so. Do you know in which direction the others went?' She slowly began to calm her breathing down.

I shook my head again. 'I didn't look back.'

She nodded and rubbed the injured area on her arm that was covered with my hairband.

'Okay.' She composed herself. 'What are we gonna do now? I mean we're lost somewhere in this giant forest.'

'I don't know, make a picnic?' I brought out a slight grin.

She looked me with that are-you-serious-face I knew just too well from my dad. Guess that joke was a little incongruous.

'How can you still joke about our situation?' She shook her head but I could see that her lips formed a slight smile.

'Not sure but I guess it's a way to cope.' I returned. 'And I think that's at least more useful than flipping out.'

'I'm not flipping out!' She said a little outraged.

'Who said you were flipping out?' I tilted my head.

'However, we should go look for the others or the beach.' She suggested.

'Yeah, let's go!' I said and started walking into the direction I thought I came from.

She walked next to me and periodically rubbed her arm while we were going through the humid air of the forest.

'River?' She asked after a while.

'I never told you my name.' I said a little confused.

'I know. Will told me.'

'Oh.'

'Ya, uhm...I have a question.' Her voice was quieter than before.

I looked at her expectantly.

'You look so familiar.' She said and she seemed really concentrated on something. 'Have we met before?'

I knew I had the same thought when I saw her on the beach but I couldn't make out why.

'I don't know.' I said after a few seconds of silence.

'No, I'm pretty sure I've seen you before.'

Suddenly I remembered why she looked so familiar. I had seen her on one of my dad's parties. My dad often made parties, he was literally the live of the party when he wasn't working but that one was the only time the chairman of the FBI was on his parties, and the only time I had seen her before.

Was she his daughter? I couldn't think of any other reasons why she would have been there.

But it was probably better if she didn't remember where she had met me.

'I don't think so!' I didn't want her to get the idea I was my father's daughter.

The rain had almost completely disappeared by now.

Suddenly I heard the sound of something cracking nearby and judging by Hailey's expression she heard it too.

It was quieter than the one we heard just before we all ran away.

I looked in every direction and after a couple of seconds it sounded again, only louder.

'Let's better walk into the other direction!' Hailey whispered and I nodded nervously in agreement.

As soon as we had changed the direction a voice sounded behind us. 'Are you fleeing from us?'

Our heads flew into the direction it came from and I detected Theo and Will walking up to us.

'God, you scared the hell out of us!' Hailey protested.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to make you shit your pants.' Will said directing to Hailey.

'Where are the other two?' I wondered.

'I don't know, we haven't seen them.' Theo explained. 'I thought they would be with you maybe?'

I shook my head.

'We should go look for them!' Hailey suggested and Theo nodded in agreement.

'No, it doesn't make sense to look after two persons in this giant forest in which we're lost too by the way!' Will contradicted Hailey.

'Yeah!' I said. 'We will only get even more lost.'

'How can we get any more lost?' Hailey's voice sounded but I didn't listen to her at all. I was distracted by a really quiet sound in the background.

I started walking into the direction I thought it came from and the farer I got the clearer the sound was. It was the sound of water splashing!

'River?' Theo asked but I was too focused on finding the source of the noise to answer him.

'We're in the middle of a discussion, you can't just walk away like that!' Hailey said with a little anger in her voice.

'Watch me!' I said without looking back at them.

The clearer the sound was the faster I was walking and when I had walked a few meters through the woods I stood right in front of something that looked like a cavity but without a ceiling.

A small waterfall went down from one of the walls and end ended up in an also quite small river that went along through a cave passage. Tendrils adorned the stony walls and on the ground were a few rocks coming out of the earthy ground. Sunbeams shone on the water and made it sparkle.

I would be lying if I said it didn't look beautiful. It was so untouched and naturally, I was literally speechless as I entered it.

'River?' Voices sounded from behind.

'I'm here!' I said while leaning on one of the rocks and a couple seconds later the others arrived at the point I was only just standing. They switched their eyes between me and my surroundings.

'Woah..' Hailey heaved up while they all had the same expression on their face. They were amazed, just like I had been.

'You found a water source!' Theo said with a bright smile on his face.

I winked at him and we started to fill the bottles from Will's suitcase with the water from the waterfall.