Stuck Out Here With You [Lapidot Safari AU]

Chapter Six: The Final Crawl

"Run!"

Peridot didn't even know who yelled the order- stars, it might have even been her--but she took off behind the others as they pelted towards the rescue vehicle. The wind raced past Peridot's face like a whip, the humid, sticky air making each intake of air feel like she was ingesting cotton.

She wasn't sure who was ahead or behind her because she suddenly had a very dire case of tunnel vision, the speck of light at the end being the glittering yellow headlights of their rescuers. Unfortunately this rendered her rather clueless as to where her boots were stomping, and at least twice she had to be caught before she fell face-first into the earth, saved first by Garnet yelling orders and then by Pearl, features hard with resolution.

The vehicle was coming up fast, but Peridot thought that Nyumbani-Dunia was faster. A crash of thunder on the growling horizon sent flames up Peridot's spine as she fumbled, watching the Jeep slow to a crawl. In the driver's seat was a lean, lanky boy with gauged earlobes who couldn't have been any older than Peridot. Next to him was a uniformed safari staff member, shorter and heavier, with curly blonde hair. "Come on!" The driver hollered over the frantic rumbling of the engine motor, flagging the sprinting group over. "Nyumbani-Dunia isn't slowing down any! C'mon!"

"Lars!" Steven cried out, having apparently recognized the driver. But the driver's name couldn't matter less to Peridot at that instant. She was not about to be lioness chow, not when safety was so close.

Pearl was the first to reach the vehicle. She elegantly jumped into the first available seat, motioning for the others as Garnet flew in beside her, followed by Greg who hoisted Steven up with a huff. He went in shortly thereafter, followed by Amethyst in the next seat over, before Lapis claimed the last row with a grunt of effort.

Peridot was pulled in last by Lapis, onto the furthest seat in the back as the door slammed shut behind her and the car vaulted off with the screeching of tires and the crunching of soil.

"Are you all okay?" Lars shouted from the driver's seat, gaze snapping back to observe his panting, ragtag band of rescues. "None of you got a piece taken out of you by the crazy lady lions?"

"I can't feel my legs," Amethyst wheezed dramatically from in front of Peridot and Lapis, leaning onto Greg as she tried to regain her breath and her bearings. "But, otherwise, I'm feelin' pretty okay."

Steven made a mewl of a sound, hands wrapped tentatively around his right ankle. Garnet was on him in an instant, gently pulling away the boy's hands and pinning her lips assertively. "Steven has a cut on his ankle," she revealed, fingers gently pressuring a swollen slash on Steven's pale foot.

"Here," the woman sat beside Lars offered, leaning back from the passenger side and handing the crew a first-aid box. Suddenly the vehicle lurched to the side, earning a few startled shrieks out of the riders as the woman spun on Lars. "Lars, are you insane?!"

"No less than the angry wild cats trying to jump onto the Jeep!" The skinny man spat back without venom, knuckles turned white with strain as his head stuck out the window. "Wild cats that are getting very close to us, Sadie!"

Peridot, short of breath, dared to take a peek outside her window, and immediately snapped back into the safety of her seat, practically clinging to Lapis' side. "One of them is right by the rear-side tires!" She hissed. She hadn't seen which lioness it was but that didn't matter because whoever she was, she was right there and she was not here to make acquaintances.

Lars whipped the vehicle around again, like he was on a tight roundabout, and Peridot felt herself slide into Lapis, the momentum of the shift pulling her heart up into her brain as it howled with fear. "Be careful!" She seethed, her frustration rooting from the primal trepidation that coiled in the pit of Peridot's stomach. "You'll flip the Jeep over at this rate!"