Descending

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

James stopped in his tracks. His leg was throbbing from his continuous sprinting around like a mad man. The screams had become louder and more helpless with each passing second. James looked this way and that, finding nothing but the echo of the phantom Maddie.

There was tremendous roar above the sickening echoes, a flash of sun-blinding light, and the rain fell down all at once, the light a razor to the clouds, opening up to the heavens.

James started moving again, limping toward the screams. He heard a loud, murderous growl and he ripped out his homemade spear, spinning around to find nothing. His imagination was running wild. James could not concentrate with the screams, thunder, heavy rain, and his mental state pounding in his ears and head all at once, faster than his racing heart.

The growl was further away, giving way to another loud crash of thunder and a flash of light. James suddenly slipped, landing face first to the ground, a loud crunch to his nose. He tentatively put his hand to it and he could feel the curve of his broken nose, blood covering his dirty fingers.

"Damn it!" James yelled in anger and fear.

James hears a terrible scream, unlike the others: desperate, blood curling, painful, and terrified. He jumps up fast as the flashing lightning, holding his nose that was pouring blood like the rain coming down.

One hand collecting a pool of blood, the other his spear in hand, ready to save his sister. His leg was literally buckling under his weight and it felt like as if someone was twisting and turning a knife into the unhealed wound.

His vision started to swim with the rain; clouding up and darkening like the storm above. The world began to spin and he collapsed with a thump.

James tried to get up but he was too delirious to the world to even attempt movement, not to mention stand. He decided to go to the last resort: "AMBER!!! HELP!"

"JAMES!! I'M COMING NOW!" He heard Amber yell as loud as she could above the deafening noises all around them both.

James still felt the throb of his leg and looked down to see that his tattered shorts were completely soaked in blood, reopened with his failed effort of finding Maddie.

It seemed like hours and Amber still did not show. It kept going through James mind that something had found her before she got to him. With that thought in mind, James reached for his spear and leaned against a tree to force his body up.

"AMBER! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!!!" James screamed so loud his voice cracked and he coughed up blood that had run down his throat from his nose. He spit the blood, dark red against the gentle brown earth.

With his adrenaline pumping, James pushed off of the tree and began running, falling, tripping towards where he last heard Amber. His spear was tight in his grip, ready to plunge at the death that was chasing him, Maddie, and now Amber.

James constantly had to wipe the river of blood from his nose and the water pouring into his eyes from the ominous storm. He finally reaches where he had heard Amber . . . or thought he had. The only sign was the trampled ground of Amber's anxious, running footsteps.

He followed the broken undergrowth, a maze of never ending green. It was too much, the dizziness becoming overpowering. He did not see her body until he tripped over it, falling on top of Amber's unconscious face.

She did not even move a muscle, her body still as a rock. Blood covered her right arm, dark and fresh, her spear broken, the top half missing, the bottom half tight in her grip.