My Jewel - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter Thirteen - What is This Game?!

The next morning they got a bit of an earlier start - if the game wanted them to play by its rules, they had best not waste any time.

"Anything Bethany?" Spencer called.

"Almost there." She was in the lead once again, pouring over the map.

"Yeah, sure," muttered Fridge.

"No, really! See, it says, The Mighty Roar-"

The drums started then, drawing everyone to a sharp halt and snapping their gazes up to the sky. Then they cut out as suddenly as they had started.

"I don't like that," declared Fridge after a beat of silence. "I'm done!"

Spencer ignored him. "Okay Bethany, which way?"

"Uh, well, right here I think-"

BOOM! CRASH!

The whole group jumped and yelped as something flew past their faces and exploded only mere meters away.

"What the he-" Sawyer began, but was cut off when a motorcycle appeared out of nowhere and drove straight at them. And it wasn't alone - at least a dozen more came roaring down the hill after it - all towards them.

"What is this game?!" yelled Fridge.

"RUN!" But everyone was already way ahead of Spencer. Soon the whole group was tearing down the hill as fast as their legs would carry them.

"Come on legs!" cried Fridge as everyone passed by him. "WHY AM I RUNNING SO SLOW?!?!"

"This sucks!" yelled Bethany as they ran into the trees, the motorcycles still in hot pursuit.

"Split up!"

Bethany and Martha went one way, and Spencer, Sawyer, and Fridge all went the other.

"Those guys have huge guns!" Spencer hissed as the trio ducked behind some bushes for cover.

"Oh really? Is that what those are Spencer?" Fridge hissed back.

"Hey, your backpack!"

"Yeah don't remind me-"

"No, you have my weapons!"

Now Fridge understood. "Oh, oh yeah. Let's see what we've got-" He reached into the pack and withdrew a wooden object. "What the-"

"Boomerang!" Spencer grabbed it out of his hand excitedly. "It's one of my strengths! Here, watch this." Drawing his arm back he then launched the boomerang at the group of bikes who had followed the three. It sailed smoothly past them, disappearing into the trees and alerting the bikers of their presence.

"Now what?!" Fridge cried as the chase hastily resumed. "Now what Spencer?! You want me to look in here and see if I have a hacky sack that you can do absolutely nothing with-"

"DUCK!" Sawyer's shout saved the group as, right then, Spencer's boomerang appeared again, whipping over their heads and taking out the group of bikes.

Spencer couldn't believe it. "Whoa! It worked!"

Sawyer laughed. "It sure did! Think you can do that again?"

They ducked behind another patch of bushes when more motorcycles appeared. They just kept coming!

"Come on, we've gotta go-" Spencer began sneaking away.

"I can't outrun those guys!" cried Fridge. "You two have speed on your side."

Right. The two exchanged a glance. "Uh - oh, here, get on my back," Spencer offered.

Fridge just stared back. "Oh hell no!"

"I'll carry you, come on-"

"I would rather die!" Fridge declared.

"Just get on his back!" cried Sawyer.

"Oh nope, I'm gonna die-" The bikers were coming. The two took off again, Spencer throwing Fridge on his back and piggybacking him despite his protests, which didn't stop.

"Ahhh! SPENCER PUT ME DOWN!"

"There's Martha and Bethany!" called Sawyer. Why had they stopped running? They were still being chased. It quickly became clear though: the chase had taken them to a cliff's edge.

It wasn't extremely high, and there was water below, but it still wasn't an appealing option.

It was, however, their only option.

"We have to jump," Martha cried.

"Are you crazy?!" screeched Bethany.

"I would literally rather do anything else right now," said Spencer.

"We don't have a choice!"

"No!"

"We have to - JUMP!" With that, Martha was gone. She fell down into the water below with a splash!

"MARTHA!" Bethany followed suit.

Sawyer went next. "Spencer jump!" yelled Fridge. Spencer tried to protest, but the next thing he knew Fridge had pushed him off the cliff and both went plunging down, Fridge still on his back.

It turned out that this had been a successful way out of the chase, for the motorcycles finally left them alone. As they sped away back into the jungle, the shaken group was hauling themselves out of the water.

"Guys, I've taken in a lot of water-" Spencer was spluttering while Fridge yelled at him.

"That was the most humiliating moment of my life! Don't you do that again - ever!"

"Oh my God - Martha-" Sawyer cried when she caught sight of Martha's bloody chest. She'd been shot.

"T-they got me-" Sawyer jumped when, suddenly, Martha vanished from her side.

"W-what?" No one knew what to do or say.

"What just happened to her?"

"Did she die? Is she dead?!"

"Wait a second-" Spencer looked up to the sky. There was the ringing sound again and moments later Martha made a swift landing - right on top of Fridge.

"HEY! Get off of me!"

"Martha! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so-" She stumbled off of Fridge.

"Hey! Anybody care if I'm okay?!" demanded Fridge as he awkwardly got to his feet from where Martha had knocked him down. "What am I, a human landing-pack?"

Spencer reached out to inspect Martha's wrist. "That's what I thought. These tattoos on our arms are our life count. We each have three lives guys."

"W-what happens if we lose all of our lives?" Martha asked.

"Well usually in a game that would mean game over..."

"Game over? Wait, are you saying we can actually die in here?!" cried Fridge.

"I-I don't know..."

"You don't know Mr. Video Game Genius?!"

"Well I've never been stuck in one okay! But yes, I think, if we're not careful, we could die here. That's my main concern right now."

"Well we'd better find the missing piece then," Martha announced.

"It looks like there's a village a ways up ahead," Bethany said, once again consulting the map. "That must be the bazaar."

"Let's go then."

"Wait," called Fridge. "I've got to take a leak first."

There was silence amongst the group until Bethany sighed. "I've been dreading this all day, but so do I."

(Haha, we all know how that goes ;) I realized I forgot to mention the life-tattoos before - sorry guys! And sorry for the delay - I'm back now from my summer course so (hopefully) there will be more regular updates now (we have another Van Pelt and Terri chapter coming up next ;)) As always thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed! :))