The Lost Gems

Chapter 19

March 9th 1,034
7:30 p.m

The sun was starting to set and we had been walking for hours. The air grew chilly and gave me goosebumps. How much longer are we going to have to deal with this?

My stomach started to growl. We needed food but there were no places to get it in these woods. Everyone's ribs were exposed and the guys were loosing muscle. We had very little water with us and the constant walking gave me headaches. The stitches in my hand were slowing healing together. Rods stomach also was starting to fuse together it looked much better and was less red and puffy. On the other hand my face wasn't so good. My nose was a dark purple color and so was my neck from the bruises. It looked like I fell off something and landed on concrete smashing my face. I looked horrible.

"How are you doing?" I asked Sal. He didn't look so good either. He had dark bags under his eyes and light scruff on his face but his smile never faded and his eyes were still there bright blue color. He never gave up which makes me believe why we are so good together.

"I'm fine, just trying not to lose hope." He said with a grin that made me smile. He adjusted his backpack then wrapped his arms around me. He comforted me and each time regained my hope, he was careful not to hug me too tight because of my neck. He was so sweet and sentimental.

I thought of a place where we could live together, all of us where it was safe to raise a family and not live in fear and hiding. No fear of someone coming and killing you and those you love while you sleep. A world where you could enjoy yourselves and raise a family. It seemed impossible given our situation but maybe that would be the case. Maybe we could make that possible. I was deep in thought about something that seemed so far away.

I heard a noise in the distance then a scream. Sal instantly let go of me and whipped around to look in the direction of the sound. I tried looking in the direction too but couldn't because the others had been pushing me.

"Run! Go go go!" Clay demanded.

Before I knew it I was sprinting in the other direction and ignoring the screams from behind me. The screams weren't coming from us, they were mutants. As I was running I kept looking back to see them. There were about twenty of them tall, muscular, and healthy unlike any of us. They were running strait towards us.

I ran as fast as I possibly could. Everyone else was in front of me, my legs just couldn't handle it. I kept running as the screams got louder and closer. My lungs were burning and it was hard for me to catch my breath, my whole body felt like it was on fire. Trees flew by me in a blur. I ran and ran, I seemed to be slowing down while the others got an even bigger lead than me Rod and Clay took the lead and right behind them was Diamond and Tanz running for their lives. Sal was slightly ahead of me and kept yelling for me to run faster. I tried but I couldn't. The shouts seemed to get louder behind us.

I thought it was over when I thought I felt someone tug at my hair, then I saw Rod and Clay jump and shortly behind jumped the Girls. Before I knew it Sal seemed to follow and then me.

I landed with a splash. It was shallow but deep enough not to hurt when we landed. I went to speak but was silenced by Sal he moved his hand and motioned me to stay silent and then pointed up. It seemed like we were in an underground cave. There was a hole in the above ground from where we jumped through. Right below was a small pool of water that must have collected from rain that came through the roof. It was dark but we were still able to see around us. We stayed silent waiting then we heard the shouts again from above. Please please please don't find us I thought as I crossed my fingers. My prayers came true and they passed after I heard a stern voice yell and many other feet running away. I sighed and began to breathe again when I knew they had left. We started to move out of the water and onto the rock. Sal helped me get up. I did a quick headcount and everyone was with us.