War Zone

Prologue

  "Hey, guys. Can U come play?" I asked my friends over the phone in a group chat. All:

"Yeah, I'm free," Lukas said, he was my best friend. He came nearly everywhere with me.

"Sure sounds fun. What R we going to do though?" Ellie said, she was always up for an adventure.

"I don't have anything planned, why not," Nick agreed to come; his family often had trips and things planned so he wouldn't be able to come with us sometimes.

"Cool, we have everyone today," I said excitedly to go and play with all of my friends, "As to where we are going... does anyone have any ideas?" I asked.

"Why not the river place U and I went to yesterday? It would be fun," Luke suggested. We had found this amazing place near the river; it was a small waterfall. Yes, a short walk away from the river, but we were bored, so we started to run around past our normal place that we hung out.

"Yeah sounds good!" I replied.

"Ooh, now this sounds interesting," Ellie said with excitement.

"Should I be worried about this...are U all?" Nick asked suspiciously. (I know that emotion can be exhibited in text messages, but bear with me here.)

"No, it will be fine, " I said " In fact, I think that U all would like it, very much," I said maybe to get there attention.

"... And more importantly, the food!!!!!!! So anyone bringing anything?" Ellie said she was always in the mood for food. (ooh, that rimed!)

"I'll bring some snacks, like cheese or something. No, who am I kidding we're not eating cheese! I'll bring some...gummy bears?" I said. "Yeah, I have nothing to bring."

"How about some bars, or Chex Mix?" Nick asked, he went hiking a lot, so it made sense that he would have some of that stuff.

"OK, and how about we each have 15 min. To get going and then meet up at the river," Luke said. So off we went, agreeing on the time and place.

Once we got there, we sat down at a picnic table set up with stones and set down the snacks to divide them between us. We each got one bag of Chex Mix and one granola bar...and a secret bag of skittles that I snuck. "Ok, it is a bit of a walk, but we can get there in about 8 minutes flat if we hurry," Luke said.

"So, then what are we waiting for?!" Ellie said as she sprinted ahead down the path. We all started walking.

"Wait, Ellie, you don't know the way!" Luke said teasingly.

Whatever!" Ellie shouted back. About a minute later she came back realizing what that actually meant.

"I see you decided to join us," Nick said with his eyebrows up.

"You don't say," Ellie said with a flat exaggerated voice.

We kept on talking like that for the rest of the walk there. Once we got there Nick was only impressed, but Ellie was overjoyed to see the beauty of the small water fall by the river. "Wow..." Ellie trailed off looking around in awe. She ran up to the top of the waterfall took off her cloths (she was wearing a bathing suit underneath), then jumped into the river from the top of the short waterfall.

"Hay! Watch ou... if you get hurt it's not my fault!" Luke shouted to her right before she splashed.

She came back up, her hair flinging back with water spraying everywhere. "You guys should come in! It's amazing!" Ellie said waving for us to some in "I know you all brought bathing suits too!" she shouted at us.

"All right, we're coming!" I said taking off my shirt.

Once we were all in the water we were taking turns going off the waterfall. "Wow, Luke. I think you might be even more ripped then Nick, with all of camping and hiking adventures. Unlike the wimp at the top of the waterfall!" Ellie shouted teasing me.

Luke caught on. "Oh you think," he said flexing,"you know, I bet that 'the wimp' can't even jump off, he's probably shaking leaf a leaf at that height!" They were obviously teasing me, daring to do some awesome flip or something.

"You wanna' bet?" I asked accepting the challenge. I jumped off doing a backflip using the skills I learned jumping on my trampoline.

" Wow, look at him!" Ellie said," He actually pulled it off."

"Wait... where is he?! He's not coming back up!" Luke said startled rushing to the bottom of the waterfall.

I heard thump, then throbbing. A horrible, loud, painful throb. Then a loud crash, like a bomb, or was it a splash...ah the throbbing. Then everything went black.