Teletubbies: Escape From Darkness

Chapter 20: The Discovery

"This isn't going to work Laa-Laa," Dipsy grumbled, holding his hat out for the other three to climb in.
"Well it opened a portal when we were under attack," she protested, trying to fit her large fuzzy foot inside the hat.
"It did that on its own, us shoving ourselves inside isn't going to do anything," Dipsy sighed in exasperation.
"Laa-Laa, he's right," Tinky-Winky nodded in defeat, "all the crazy things that have happened have no correlation."
For the umpteenth time the teletubbies looked around defeatedly at each other. The dull resignedness in their eyes told it all. Every time they had a bit of hope it slipped between their fingers like sand. No matter how strong Laa-Laa tried to be for the others she couldn't hold onto it.
"It will work! It has to!" she protested weakly, trying to convince herself more than anything. Po nodded, more out of sake of agreement than anything, but the rest looked at their feet.
"We can't give up!" Laa-Laa pleaded.
"We're just being realistic. We've barely had more than a few shriveled roots to eat while we've been trapped in this hellscape. We've been here..." he counted on his chubby fingers, "six days! We had that cave water and collected rain, but we're so dehydrated I can't think straight. Dipsy and I's wounds are infected I don't know how much longer I'll be able to walk" He was ranting now, tears of frustration bubbling out of his eyes.
Laa-Laa just let her own tears slip silently out of the corners of her beady teletubby eyes as she watched her friend's spirit break before her eyes.
"Who knows when the sun baby or his minions will catch up to us," he murmured quietly, "maybe it's for the best, we can't survive much longer."
Laa-Laa felt her gut twist, reminded that it was her who had started this whole mess. She just wanted to go far away from here and ball up and cry until the pain was gone.
You have to stay strong for them, she thought as she looked at their broken faces.
After several moments of crippling silence Dipsy put his hands on Laa-Laa and Tinky-Winky's shoulders.
"We need to look for food, water, and a place to camp, we can't stop living now," he said grimly.
The teletubbies tiredly picked up their feet and split off, wearily carrying their items with them.
...
After a temporary victory of finding some sort of grass to eat the teletubbies made camp under an over hang. They had no fuel for a fire so Tinky-Winky, Po, and Laa-Laa slept huddled together for warmth as Dipsy took first watch. His feet dangled off the precipice of the cliff, swinging thousands of feet above the rocky depths. The air was musty here but now that it was cooler out, it offered small relief to breathe it in.
Dipsy looked over his shoulder at the pile of his friends and felt an emptiness in his insides. The teletubbies had lost heir healthy chubby roundness, Po's ribs were showing. He shook his head dejectedly and picked up his hat from the ground, wearily hauling himself up. He clambered up onto the overhang above the teletubbies heads, and sat there staring into the sky. There was not a speck of light, no moon and no stars. Just a enveloping darkness, almost suffocating. No stars to wish on in sight.
"I've never been one for wishes..." Dipsy trailed off talking to no one, "but we've tried everything else at this point, I suppose it wouldn't hurt."
Without a star to wish on, Dipsy looked down at his hands, clutching his hat.
"I wish I could help them, I'd give anything just to get them out, even if I had to stay," he closed his eyes and breathed out shakily. Then opened them, almost hopefully. Nothing had changed.
"Thanks a lot," he rolled his eyes at his hat, and tossed it next to him.
He shook his head for a moment, at how idiotic he'd been to think a wish would work.
A ripping noise rang out in the night and Dipsy scrambled to his feet in a defensive stance, heart pounding in his head, adrenaline pumping. Slowly he scanned the area. He gasped when he saw the portal that had opened up in his hat.
"Great bibaly cheese!" he exclaimed, stunned for a second. Then the portal began to close, slowly.
Dipsy cursed and began to sprint, feet sliding in the sand. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he leapt down from the overhang next to the teletubbies.
"What in all of Teletubbyland is going on?" Po grumbled sleepily, startled awake by his frantic screaming.
"The portal! Come on! Grab your things!" He exclaimed urgently. The teletubbies rushed to grab everything and broke into a run, trying to get to the portal on the ledge above them. Po slipped on the sand on her way up but Dipsy yanked her to her feet. The portal had grown substantially smaller and was almost closing in on itself as Dipsy was the first to clamber in. Then Tinky-Winky.
"Go, go!" Dipsy screamed in panic. The door was closing rapidly as Laa-Laa got in and Po just barely made it before it collapsed completely.
The teletubbies all breathed a sigh of relief.
When they had finally caught their breath Po broke the silence.
"What is this place?" she said in incredulity.

A/N: almost done with the book