Trapped

16.

I was gawking at the now settled rock barrier between our group when Zac, who had managed to get up, joined me. He started picking up some rocks and throwing them aside.

"Guys, can you hear me?" He shouted at the barrier. I smiled slightly at the humor in the situation, all because he looked like he was talking to the rocks.

I started helping him lift some stones but a lot of them were too big for me to lift. Not that I was weak, but there were some stones on the pile that even Dwayne Johnson himself couldn't lift. Zac soon realized the same thing and he gave up. He did however manage to take out a stone that made a hole in the barrier and gave us a way of communicating with the others.

"Hey, guys, are you there?" My mind shouted out to them. I recieved a shuffle and a coughing sound as a response from the other side. Not long after Angela's face appeared behind the hole and she frowned.

"What do we do now?" She asked and I shrugged and looked at Zac.

"Are the others alright?" Zac asked and his question was answered when a dusty Jason groaned and showed his face from the other side.

"Well, we all seem to be intact, Jeremy is just having a bit of a meltdown over here." When Jason said that I listened carefully and I could hear some ragged breaths on the other side and assumed it was Jeremy. I wanted to be there for him but the situation made it impossible for me to comfort him.

"Angela, you have to calm him down," I told her.

"How? I'm not good at those types of things and you know it! That's your forte, remember? " She said.

"Yeah well, just pretend to be me, then" I said. I knew that Angela had it in her, she just had to try.
She sighed and than I could hear her murmur some things to Jeremy.

"What do we do now?" Jason asked from the other side. I frowned, unsure of what we could do.

"Jason, you'll have to lead them through the tunnels, there is another way Luna and I can use to get there, but it is a bit more dangerous and it will probably take us longer." He looked at me as if asking if I would be okay with it. I shrugged and put on a brave face, because it was the only other option.

"But I can't remember- I mean I don't know how to get through the tunnels," Jeremy said. I narrowed my eyes at his words, but remembered that he did help save me and I needed to have more faith in him.

"Oh, right," Zac said and handed him the map through the gap in the barrier.

"Okay, well, see you when you get there then," Jason said and turned around and explained the plan to the others. Angela and Jeremy bid us farewell through the hole and then they were off.

I turned to Zac and raised my eyebrow, expecting him to enlighten me on the situation. He just stood there deep in thought and when he saw my face he shrugged and said: "What?"

"I'm waiting for you to tell me where we are going and how dangerous it is exactly." I said.

"Oh, yeah, about that, we should get going because it's going to take a long time to get through it, " he said and started swimming back the way we came.

"Wait, just tell me what to expect at least!" I yelled after him, but he just kept going. I hurried along after him, insisting that he tell me where we were going. He led the way back to the outside of the tunnels and my eyes widened when he swam into the deep open and lifeless waters.

"Zac, stop! Why are you swimming that way? Isn't there another tunnel we can take?" I asked and he just shouted at me to stop whining.

"Well maybe if you told me what I needed to know I would shut up!" I said but he just ignored me. Eventually I did keep quiet, it was no fun asking questions when you recieved no answer.

After a long while of swimming in silence it became unbearable. I then tried to talk about something else: "Can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"Depends," he answered. I was relieved that he actually answered and jumped right into the question.

"Are you really from here or were you put in this world as a merman?" I inquired.

"I lived here before I came to the mortal world," he said.

"So why did you bring us here?" I asked, slightly angry at the thought.

"There are so many portals into this world, I had no idea that slide was one of them. I'm sorry," he stated. So he didn't intentionally lead us here.

"But why did you even come to our world?" Another question popped into my mind.

"Because I was sent there." His answer only brought more questions to my mind. Who sent him? Why did they send him? Why would he even feel sad about leaving here if he was meant to stay in our world anyway? Maybe his mother sent him away, after all she was the one that told him never to return.

"Why won't your mother let you back?" I asked.

"She's not my mother," he said, again not answering my question.

"But you called her mother when we visited the palace?" I half asked, half stated.

"Yes, because she wants me to call her that," he said.

"So what is she of you then?" I continued.

"My stepmother," his tone was clipped, but I was too curious about other things to notice.

"So what happened to your real mother?" I asked. I admit it was a bit of an insensitive way to put it, but I was too caught up in my own curiosity to even think that it might have hurt his feelings.
Zac sighed and then turned around to face me. I stopped and our eyes met, he looked angry.

"Get a clue Luna! Can't you see that I don't want to talk about it?" His tone was harsh, almost like he was defending himself. I must have hit a nerve. I felt bad about it, but at the same time I was mad that he didn't just tell me nicely instead of being so rude.

"Okay," I said softly and in an apologetic tone and I continued to swim in the direction we were going before.

Once again we were swimming in silence and my head was filled with even more questions than before. Eventually we came to a dark place where the water was extremely cold. In the distance there was something that looked like an old mine shaft. This only meant one thing, more tunnels.

When we reached the shaft Zac swam into the opening below and motioned for me to follow him. I was reluctant at first, but I knew I had to do it to find my friends. And besides, they needed me to open the portal to get back home.

I thought the previous tunnel was scary, but this one takes the cake. It was pitch black and so dark that I could not even see my own hands if I waved them before my face. To make matters worse, I also could not see where Zac was after we got to a certain depth.

"Zac, where are you? I can't see a thing," I said, feeling around before me to make sure I didn't swim into something.

There was long silence and it sent me into a state of panic. Then I heard a swooshing sound close by, it sounded like someone was swimming next to me.
My head snapped in the direction of the noise but I couldn't see anything. Then there was another noise on the other side and another above me shortly after.

There was no way that one person could swim in two places at once. Which only meant one thing;me and Zac weren't the only ones in here.