Shipwrecked (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Twenty-Six

You decide to make a dash for it and warn George. He's a sensitive fellow and discovering such a cruel trick for himself might tip him over the edge. You're not entirely sure what he'd do if he found out, but you have a hunch that it won't be good.

The other three lads chase after you, and you can hear Sam calling something... but it's difficult to make out. You keep on running, even though your legs are utterly aching from all of the walking you've done today and you're getting a nasty stitch.

"Where the blazes did George disappear to?" John yells.

"I don't know!" you call back. "But we have to find him! He'll be heartbroken if he discovers the trick for himself!"

"Well, he's a big old sissy-boy, if that's the case," Paul says.

"You don't have kids, Paul," you reply haughtily. "You don't know what it's like to lose them! It's the absolute worst thing ever!"

"You can't claim that! You don't have kids either!" Paul pauses for a moment. "At least, not yet."

You don't respond, but you hear a slapping sound, Paul crying out in pain, and Ringo telling someone not to be such a heartless pervert. You can't resist smiling a little bit.

You spot something a little way up ahead. It looks an awful lot like the silhouette of a man, but you only see it for a second or two because it disappears!

"What the hell?" you mumble.

The next thing you know, the earth suddenly falls away. You're falling... down... down... down... and then land with a hefty thud on the ground. You've fallen down into a deep pit - and George broke your fall!

"Again, what the hell?" you say.

"Get off of me!" George cries, pushing you away. He happens to glance up. "Oh Christ. INCOMING!''

You and George plaster yourselves up against the walls of the pit. The other three lads come plummeting down into the pit, one after the other.

"AAAAAAH!" Thud!

"AAAAAAH!" Thud!

"AAAAAAH!" Thud!

You and George help them up. No one is badly hurt, but now you have a new annoyance to take care of: getting out of the pit.

John insists that a human ladder is the only way out.

Ringo suggests creating a grappling hook out of the materials in the pit.

Paul dismisses both ideas and says that they should construct a ripe out of palm fronds.

An argument escalates, but neither you nor George has the heart to participate. You sit together in a corner of the pit, hands linked.

"I'm sorry I overreacted like that," George murmurs. ''We wouldn't be stuck down here if it weren't for me."

"It's not your fault, George," you say. "I know you just wanted to save your little girl."

"She wasn't even my little girl," George says. "Look at what that beastly Drongo threw down the pit just to taunt me."

He holds out a coconut wrapped in a blanket. You peer at it in confusion.

"They must have some kind of weird magic that helped the coconut look like Serenity," George explains. His grip tightens on the coconut. "Bloody useless thing!"

George hurls the coconut at the opposite side of the pit. It hits the wall, falls to the floor, and lies there for a long time. You think you can hear a faint ticking sound.

Then the coconut suddenly explodes!

Again, don't ask why, it just does!

You die.

THE END
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