April Spring

Chapter 6

It's been three days since I fell in the cave. fortunately, the water that drops from the cave stones is rich in minerals, so it's helping me stay healthier. Blue is getting even skinnier, though, and I can feel my own ribs now.

I am getting sick of all this darkness. I tried lighting a fire, but it went out quickly since I don't have much wood and little oxygen is left in here.

I can already feel my lungs drying up inside me. The air is now so thick, it feels like I'm trying to breathe water.

Still no sign of help. I have been trying everything from screaming to banging on the roof of the cave. I have explored all the passages so much that now I can name every stone and boulder in them.

Surely there's a search party by now. Surely they're already trying to dig the cave out. Surely I'll be saved before... before I die.

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It's day four, and I'm starting to feel very queazy. I've vomited nine times today, and Blue is doing no better. I don't know if I'll ever make it out of here.

"Ready, boy?" I ask Blue as we walk down the death tunnel. I have named one of the passageways 'The death tunnel' because it has a steep drop off into a dark cavern that seems to have no bottom. I found a rope laying around the other day and have been using it to climb into the death cavern.

"Here we go," I tie my rope to a ledge and wrap the other end around my waist before climbing down the steep cavern wall.

The rope wouldn't really save me, because it's longer than the cavern's deepness. I just use it to lower me on the parts where there are no ledges.

Blue waits at the top for me, because he would fall if he climbed with me.

I reach the hard part on the wall, where there are no ledges to step on. I hold tight to the rope and lower myself carefully. I finally feel another ledge and allow myself to sit on it. I look down the cavern and start to see the floor of the deep cave.

Once I'm rested, I get up and continue climbing down until I reach the ground. there's only a little slack left on the rope so I untie it from my waist.

This is the first time I've made it all the way to the bottom, so I look around the huge cave. There are gigantic cave formations all throughout it, and some small tunnels leading off into the darkness.

"Stay, Blue!" I call to my husky before choosing a deep looking passage.

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It is a few hours later, and me and Blue are up at our camp. I tried all the passages but they all lead to dead ends, cave ins, or drop offs.

"Here you go, Blue," I let Blue lick the water out of a bowl shaped stone.

I suddenly hear a scraping sound, followed by muffled shouting.

Shouting!

"Help!" I immediately jump up and run to the blocked up tunnel I originally fell through.

I can hear talking on the other side. "help, I'm in here!" I shout repeatedly.

I hear someone shout "get back!" So I slide down the rock Pile with Blue and we wait.

I see the rocks start to slide and come loose, and before I know it Kayden's shoulder busts through the boulders, creating an opening large enough for me to crawl through. Dust and dirt explodes around us and I cough.

I see sunlight burst through the opening, and a rush of fresh air enters my lungs.

"Lexi! Are you okay?" He sticks his head through the hole.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Can you help me out?" He reaches his arm in and I take hold of it, letting him pull me out.

I squint from the sunlight showering me. I see that we're pretty deep into the forest, and the house is no where in sight.

Kayden examines me for injuries before pulling me into a hug.

"You're so skinny! Have you eaten anything the whole time you were in there?"

"Nope," I laugh, happy to finally be out.

I hear a yelp from inside the cave.

"Blue! Come here, boy," I stick my head through and see Blue climbing up the rocks.

"Is that a dog?" Kayden says, having heard the yelp.

"Yeah, I found him before I fell in. He's kept me company the past four days."

Blue makes it out of the cave safely, wagging his tail and panting.

"I guess we had better get back to the house," Kayden grabs my hand and starts to walk, but I keep my feet firmly planted in the ground.

"What about April?"

"Oh... well, since everyone's been searching for you, we haven't been doing much looking for April. Don't worry, though, since I found you we'll tell everyone to start the search for your horse." Kayden replies, tugging softly on my hand.

I'm satisfied with his answer, so we walk in the direction I assume is the house. I have no idea which way to go, but it seems Kayden does. I let him lead me through the forest until we make it back to the house.

We go inside and Kayden grabs the home phone, dialing a number. Blue rubs his head on my leg and I pet his ears.

The phone rings three times before I hear a faint, 'hello?'.

"Mr. Burt, I found Lexi. Yes, yes she's here right now. We're at the house."

There is a slight pause before Kayden says, "of course," and hands me the phone.

"Dad?" I ask, hoping he won't be too dramatic about it all.

"Lexi! Thank goodness you're home! Where in the world have you been this whole time? Are you alright?" He asks without giving me a chance to answer.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you about it later. right now we need to find April. I lost her tracks in the woods, but I know which way she went. If we can just get a search party I out there I know we can find her."

I can hear him sigh over the other line. "alright, I'll send out some men to start looking,"

"Thanks, dad. Love you, bye.". Just before I hang up I can hear him say 'love you too'.

"Okay, let's get going." I say determinedly.

Kayden looks confused, and quirks an eyebrow. "going where, exactly?"

"To find April, of course."

It seems he tries to hold back a laugh, but fails. "you're not going anywhere until you eat something."

I am about to argue, but my growling stomach reminds me that I am hungry. VERY hungry.

I allow him to make me a sandwich before scarfing it down, enjoying every hurried bite. "Okay, let's go now," I stand up and run outside.

In a few seconds I see Kayden beside me, and we both head to the barn. Or at least what's left of it. The entire thing is nothing but ashes. I look around and find all of the horses tucked away neatly in our extra corrals, which fortunately survived the fire.

We jog over and pull out two horses. I tack up General and Kayden tacks up one if our extra horses, Mindy. We both mount and take off in a gallop towards the woods.

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Authors note
Hello readers, im really hungry right now so no long A.N. Oh but btw, what do u think is gnna happen? ;) thanks for reading!