The Moonstone Girls: Book One

Chapter Three: The Escape

"That's brilliant!" She said. "I don't know why I didn't think of that myself! You know Jemma, I've been wondering; what do you think really happened? I mean when I ran towards Ben. I didn't even touch him and he just fell to the ground in agony when I put my hand up. I wonder if I have-- Jemma, do you believe in magic?"

"Yes I do." I responded. 

"Well do you think it could have been magic?"

"It's quite possible. I mean, anything could be possible now."

"Hey, this stick works really well." She told me. "We walked over to the bush to eat wild berries until our stomachs hurt. "The sun is starting to set; let's get back to the foxhole." We squeezed ourselves inside and I brought some twigs so that we could make a fire.I managed to pick up the dead donkey Ben killed and we ate the berries. "Here, I'll help you." Saskia grabbed a stone and started cutting open the donkey. Then we pot the meat right next to the fire. We huddled close to each other in the warm firelight.When the donkey was finally ready, I cut it in half. As we ate I got the courage to ask Saskia something I've been dying to ask her.

"What happened to your family?"

"My dad sold me to your dad." She started to cry and I wrapped my arms around her. "My mom started crying and I wrapped my arms around her. Then my dad killed her." She choked. We lay next to each other for warmth and before I knew it I was fast asleep. 

When I woke up the next morning we had a quick breakfast of last night's leftovers. Then, out of nowhere something grabbed my leg. 

"Ahhhh! Let go of me!" I screamed. I started kicking my leg trying to get loose and then somehow, I was standing on the grass alone. "Saskia! Saskia! Saskia!" I called. "Where are you?!" There was no answer. The foxhole that I came out of was nowhere in sight. What just happened? I thought to myself. One minute something was grabbing me leg and then it was almost like I had teleported here. But the question is, where is Saskia? Then, out of the blue, men with black masks over their faces and guns surrounded me. One man shot, but the gun was empty. It still made an agonizingly loud noise. I fell to my knees in pain. Tears of fear started to run down my cheeks. The men's voices were so loud- I could feel them pulsing in my head as though someone was using a  hammer. I saw lights flashing and soon I was carried to their camp where I was tied to a pole.

I blacked out. When I woke up, I was met with the face of an elderly talib. He was standing over me.

"How dare you walk outside without a burka?!" He yelled in a deep, raspy voice. The sound of him speaking made me feel as if shards of glass were scraping the insides of my ears. "Execute her" He ordered. A man dragged me by my limbs and and dragged me towards their commander. He put his finger on the trigger; I braced myself for the end. But again, out of nowhere, Saskia was there and immediately, the men fell to the ground in bellowing pain.

"Run!" Saskia shouted. We grabbed each others hands and ran. We ran, and ran, and ran. My legs felt like they were going to give out. Finally, we reached a new foxhole and jumped in.when we finally reached the bottom we collapsed in exhaustion. 

"What just happened?" I asked. "Where did you come from?" I'm not sure of her responses.

"One minute, we were both in the foxhole, and the next, you were gone. It seemed like you had vanished into thin air. I searched, and searched, and searched for you. I started crying and wishing that I was with you; wherever you were, and it happened! Once I saw the man pointing at you with a gun, I thought, 'Release her!'"

"Wow that's... that's unbelievable!" I responded.

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"I'm thirsty. Have you seen a stream?" I questioned. Saskia told me that it's too risky going up to the surface to find water, so we crawled around until we found an underground stream where we drank as much as we could. "Any idea how close we are to the desert?"

"It should be about two to three days." Saskia answered. "Oh, and by the way Jemma, the thing that grabbed your foot? It was a fox." We both laughed. 

As we crawled along, we made up stories to tell each other. We were now used to performing certain roles. Saskia would go up to get food so that I could stay in the quiet tunnels for as long as I could. I started the fired and prepared the food.

"I'm getting sleepy." Saskia said. "let's find a place to settle down for the night." We crawled for about an hour before we came to what seemed to be an underground cavern. 

"It's so quiet in here." I yawned. "This is perfect."

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Saskia climbed out of the cavern with the bow and arrow that I made her. The arrow was simply a very sharp rock. I used a big stick as the bow and a vine as the elastic. I made us each one for self defense and hunting. They're much quieter than guns.

When Sakia came back with an antelope and some wild berries I cut it open and cooked it over the fire. 

"In about two days we'll be in the desert." Saskia told me.

"I'm dreading it." I replied. It will be so painful having to walk outside with all those noises of nature.

"Let's go to sleep and discuss it in the morning."

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The next day, we travel farther into the cavern and finally I stopped. 

"Saskia, what are we going to do about the desert?"

"I''ve been thinking about it. There's a caravan that runs underground. We could go that way, but we'd need to make sure were talking the right paths." Saskia responded.

"That's a good idea. But how will we know if we are going the right way?" I asked her.

"We need to go west. What will we do about food once we get into the desert?" She asks me.

"We should probably go to the surface now and collect as much as we can. How long do you think it will take us to cross the desert?"

"Probably about three weeks."

"Then we will need to gather enough food to last until we can find food and water from another source." Saskia went up to the surface with her bow and arrow. She came back with lots of birds, nuts, berries, a donkey she killed, and three dead chickens from nearby villages. We continued walking west into the caravan.