"THE PLAGUE "

Riviving

I open my eyes and start to cough up water. My visions a little blurry but I see a figure standing over me. Once things are clear, I see that it's Russ. He's soaked in water and shivering a little. He begins to gently smack my face.

"Justin,Justin, you awake, Justin?" He says.

I cough again then answer.

" yeah.. yeah ..im good," I say recovering.

I slowly start to sit up blinking a few times.

He holds out his hand. I take it and stand up. My leg doesn't hurt as bad so I'm able to at least limp.

Suddenly a realization hits me.

"Where's Atlas!" I say frantically. Russ's eyes widen and we start to look for her.

"She could be half way down the river by now," Russ says smoothing back his hair.

"She couldn't have gone to far," I say continuing to look ground.

I then see her.

"over there!" I yell to Russ.

She is on the other side of the river, but the water is calm enough to cross.

Russ and I both rush over. Once we reach the other side we walk to her washed up body.

Her head is bleeding a little but she still looks to be alive. Russ bends down and shakes her shoulder.

"Atlas?" I say.

She doesn't reply.

"She's barely breathing ," Russ says.

"We gotta help her," I reply," do you know CPR?"

"What!?" He answers.

"Well, do you," I ask again.

"Yeah...but.." he hesitates.

I give look at him sternly.

He sighs in frustration then leans down to Atlas. I stand there hoping she'll be ok.

She suddenly opens her eyes,but Russ doesn't notice.

I try to say something but it's to late.

She slaps him in the face and he falls back. I put my hand over my mouth trying not to laugh.

"Don't..even..think..about..it.." Atlas mumbles quietly, probably recovering too.

"Your welcome!" Russ says standing up.

"Sorry, defence mechanism," she replies string up.

"Remind me to never try and save you again," Russ mumbles crossing his arms.

Atlas apologizes again and I offer her a hand. She takes it and I pull her off the ground.

"I'm freezing," Atlas says covering her arms.

"Lets build a fire," Russ says still clearly mad.

We all agree and start collecting wood.

We put the wood in a pile near the river so creepers can't sneak up on us. Russ pulls out a lighter from his pocket and starts the fire. It takes a minute to get going,but eventually we do have one.

We all sit near our little fire as darkness falls around us.

"I got my arm stuck in a swing once," Russ says as we tell stories.

"You would," Atlas says with a smile.

"You see what happened was....me and my brother, Danny, where playing on it and I tripped," he says kind off luaghing," and you know.... of course my whole body would fall right on this swing...when I try to stand up I can't because my arm is all mangled up in the swing chain..."

Me and Atlas laugh along with his story as he continues," then Daniel tumbles over me which makes the situation worse and my mom runs out of the house yelling,
"boys! What are you doing out here!" When she sees us and gets all frustrated trying to untangle us....my dad didn't let me or Danny play out side until we fixed the swing.."

We all laugh as he finishes and Atlas starts," me and my brother, Alex, we're camping and as we were walking along the river bank I see a snake in the water...I was only ,like, nine so it scared me to death I started screaming like crazy then Alex goes over to it and I'm freaking out like,"DON'T PICK THAT THING UP PUT IT DOW PUT IT DOWN!!!" It turns out to be just a stick floating in the water..."

Me and Russ start laughing.

"He still won't let me live that one down," She says then looks at me.

"Do you have any siblings,Justin," She asks.

"Yeah, Justin what's your story?" Russ replies.

" I have a little sister ,Natalie," I answer.

"Aww...you have a sister," Atlas replies," how old is she?"

I have to think for a second.

"Eight, she's eight," I say.

"And she's out there all alone!"

"It's not like he was already worried ,Atlas," Russ replies.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean...." She begins.

"No, it's ok," I say lightening the mood.

The night fades into silence after that. We all start to get sleepy.

"Any one want to hear a ghost story?" Russ asks.

"Heck No!" Atlas replies.

"Too late...it was a night just like this ," he says scarily.

"Shut up ,Russ!" Atlas yells.

"There where three teens sitting in the woods...."

"No,no,no,no, I won't be able to sleep," she says sternly.

"Come on ,Atlas, don't be such a..." before he can finish a creeper jumps out of the woods ,with a snarl, very close to Atlas.

Atlas screams and Russ smacks it with the hammer sending it a few feet away.

Atlas quickly gets out her hatchet and finishes it off. I sit there In shock with the near heart attack it gave us all.

After it's dead Russ drags it further away and Atlas sits back down.

"Almost forgot about those," I say.

"Ha, yeah, almost....." She replies bringing her knees to her chest.

Russ comes back and sits down.

"So...the teenagers..." He says about the ghost story.

"Russ," Atlas says on edge. Russ smile and laughs.

"Just kidding..." He says.

The fire starts to die down.

Atlas starts closing her eyes and nearly falls over,but then jolts awake. I look at Russ and he's half asleep to.

"You guys should sleep," I say. They both look at me in surprise.

"I'll keep watch," I say.

"Justin you need to rest more than us..." Atlas replies concerned.

"Yeah,man, I'll..." Russ begins to say.

"No, you two have carried me all day, please, you should rest,"they don't argue with me anymore after that.

Atlas lies down ,but Russ hesitates.

"I've got this," I say reassuringly. He nods with an "I know" then he to drifts of into sleep.

I watch for half the night. Thankfully, there hasn't been any creepers.

The fire is nothing but coals now and I start to feel my self getting tired. Russ and Atlas's snoring doesn't help much.

I choose my eyes for just a second and then fall asleep.