The Waking

Chapter VII

Chapter VII

     Quinn and I sprinted through the forest. Well, I sprinted. For him, it was simply a casual jog. Still, we blasted through the dense foliage really quickly, so fast that in fact when we reached our destination, my sweater was shredded from catching on hundreds of twigs and branches. Note to self: never wear loose clothing when running real fast. As I said before, we had reached our destination. We exploded out of the forest and into a small clearing. I whirled around.

     "Where's Brianna?!" I screamed at Quinn. Behind us was the forest. In front, the clearing continued for another couple hundred feet, before shifting back into a dense forest.

     Quinn stepped forward a few feet before stopping abruptly. He looked down at the ground in front of him.

     "Here." He whispered, pointing at what I thought was the ground. I took a few steps toward him, and realized that he wasn't pointing at the ground at all, but into a ravine, about 100 feet deep. The drop was so sudden that I hadn't noticed it, while I was standing no more than five feet from the edge. I cringed.

     "Is she..?" I couldn't finish the question. It was too hard to imagine Brianna's dead body lying at the bottom of the pit.

     "She's at the bottom, on her back. I don't know how badly she's hurt, but she isn't dead." He looked like he was holding back tears. "She can't be."

     I cleared my throat. I took a deep breath and looked over the edge again. This time, I saw Brianna, lying in a pool of dark liquid, her neck bent at an odd angle. I blinked a few times.

     "How the hell can we get to her?" I asked, my voice shaking.

     "Jump," Quinn said, "your strength will make you impervious to fall damage."

     I didn't know if I could trust Quinn completely yet, so I peered over the edge again, looking for an easier way down. There were a few roots sticking out the edge of the cliff, but they didn't look strong enough to hold my weight. I looked to Quinn. He raised his eyebrows, gesturing at the pit.

     "Do you trust me?" he asked.

     I took a shaky breath.

     "Yes."

     "Good." He said, backing up a few feet. "On three, we jump."

     Okay. Here we go.

     "One." I said, closing my eyes.

     "Two." Quinn said, to my right.

     In unison, we said:

     "Three."

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     Have you ever made a decision that you immediately regretted? Like trying to carry all the groceries in from the car at once, only to have them all spill out of your hands and onto the floor? Well, as soon as Quinn and I jumped, I felt as if I had just dropped the first bag of groceries, and that the rest would soon follow. Gravity took over as soon as my feet left the ground, and I plummeted towards the ravine's floor at a breakneck pace. My hair whipped in the wind and my torn sweater flapped like a flag. It took me all of 0.3 seconds to realize that I wasn't upright, and that I would belly flop into the ground if I didn't change positions. The groceries kept tumbling out of my hands as I tried and failed to right myself. The ground was incoming, fast. I shrieked in terror and covered my face with my arms. When I felt like all the groceries were on the ground, that all hope was lost, and I'd soon splatter at the bottom of the ravine, I felt a strong arm wrap itself around my waist, straightening me. I glanced to my right and saw Quinn, right as we hit the ground.