TOGETHER STRONG | JUMANJI • ALEX VREEKE | ON HOLD

Eleven

"We made it! You did it! I thought we were gonna die." Bethany cheered.

"Oops."

"What?" Rae looked over to Fridge, who had a guilty look on his face.

"I dropped the jewel."

"What?!" Everyone yelled in unison.

"You dropped the jewel?" Bethany exclaimed.

"I leaned over, thought I had to puke, and I didn't, and it came out of my backpack." Fridge explained.

"We need the freaking jewel!" Bethany cried.

"I know. That's the crazy part because I know we need it. So, we're in a pickle. We're in a pickle." Fridge spoke.

"Alex, turn around. We gotta go back and get it." Spencer ordered, and Alex turned the helicopter around.

"Yeah, let's loop around. Just look for it. Everybody open your eyes. Let's look for it as a group." Fridge said.

"There! I see it!" Bethany called out to the front of the helicopter, to where the rhinos were all going in the same motion around the jewel.

"What are they doing?" Martha questioned, as Alex hovered over.

"Looks like they're protecting it or something," Rae said, getting close to the edge to see. "I need a distraction to go and get it."

"How are we gonna do this?" Alex asked, getting as low as he can to the ground.

"Well, Rae offered to go get it, so she needs a distraction so the rhinos don't go after her," Spencer explained, and Fridge looked over the edge.

"What do you need? Your boomerang? Maye some scissors, a pipe wrench, some shoelaces?" Fridge listed off, but Spencer looked down at Fridge's wrist. Two lines.

"I'm sorry, buddy." He said, and he pushed Fridge out of the helicopter. Alex lowered closer to the jewel once the rhinos chased Fridge, and Rae hopped out.

She tossed the jewel up to Spencer, who also helped her climb back into the helicopter.

"Alex, get ready to roll us to the side."

"What?" Alex looked back.

"When I tell you, roll 90 degrees to the right," Spencer said and looked above the helicopter. "Now." And so he did. The helicopter turned to the right, and Spencer caught Fridge as he was falling.

"You pushed me out of the helicopter, jackass!" Fridge yelled.

Alex landed the helicopter safely in the grass, and everyone hopped out. As everyone complimented each other, Fridge was standing on the sidelines.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! I'm the one that was a human sacrifice. you don't know what's underside of those rhinos. And you don't wanna know. I've seen some things. Felt them on my face too." Fridge shuddered. "Things that I will never be able to erase from my memory."

"Listen, I asked for a distraction. Spencer gave me said distraction." Rae let out a laugh along with the others.

"Oh, that's so funny to you guys. Go ahead, laugh it up, get it out." Fridge said, with a smile on his face.

"Guys, I've been trying to get across this canyon for like, five years. Okay? Do you realize how big this is?" Alex smiled and slapped a bug on the back of his neck. "Mosquito." He fell to the ground after losing all the color in his face.

"Hey, Alex. You gotta wake up." Bethany immediately crouched on one side of him next to Martha, while Rae went on the other side.

"Look, He's dying." Martha pointed out, as his last black line on his wrist was slowly fading.

"We can't let him die," Rae said.

"Rae, you picked the medic character, do you think you can do CPR?" Bethany questioned, and Rae nodded.

AS RAE STARTED TO DO CHEST COMPRESSIONS,  Martha noticed something. "Rae, stop. Your tattoo."

"It looks like you're giving him one of your lives." Bethany pointed out.

"I'm okay with that." Rae tried to continue but was stopped by Martha again.

"What if you need it for yourself?"

"I promised Alex that we'll get him home. He deserves it, for being trapped in this hell hole for five years." Rae said and then continued.

"Alex." Bethany let out a laugh, as he slowly sat up. Rae let out a breath and sat in the grass for a moment.

"What happened?" Alex asked.

"Rae gave you one of her lives," Spencer said, and Alex looked over at Rae. The two stood up before Alex pulled her in for a hug.

"Don't just thank me. It was Bethany's idea for CPR." Rae breathed, as her head was resting on his shoulder.

Alex slowly let go of Rae to make sure she didn't fall, and walked over to Bethany, repeating the same hug.

"What? What are you looking at?" Bethany asked, looking around to see everyone looking at her.

"You got a situation," Fridge mentioned.

"Oh, my god these things are crazy!" Bethany said, looking down.

Alex looked over at Rae, who was standing off to the side, looking towards the distance.

"Let's all take a small break, so we can all breathe, and relax before moving on," Spencer said, and Alex started to walk over towards Rae, but Bethany got to her first.

"Are you okay?" Bethany asked the girl, who had her arms crossed over her chest.

"Yeah, uh, yeah, I'm okay." Rae sighed before the two walked off.

"Alex, you okay, man?" Fridge walked over to Alex, who was standing alone.

"Yeah, just waiting for the right time to approach Rae, and actually properly thank you for saving me."

"Yeah. The girl was really keen on saving you. She didn't care if she was giving you one of her lives." Fridge informed him, before walking off.

"SO, RAE, ARE YOU DOING OKAY?" Bethany asked once they got away from everyone else.

"I don't know how to explain it. Losing a life when you're already dead is fine, but when you lose a life when you're still alive, feels weird." Rae explained. "But that doesn't matter now. It's the home stretch. We're almost finished."

"I know! We should definitely hang out once we get out of here." Bethany smiled, making Rae chuckle.

"Totally. We can have, like, a girls' day. Me, you, and Martha." Rae said, and Bethany squealed.

"Look, there's Alex. Let's go talk to him, to make sure he's okay and all." Bethany said, and the two walked over the where Alex was skipping stones.