An instinct to survive

Chapter Eleven

I squeeze my eyes shut as the black water swallows me whole.

I flip round in circles swirling around and around causing me to loose any sense of direction.

As my lungs start to empty I sprawl myself out to stop my spinning.

I open my eyes once I had stopped spinning.

The darkness swallowed everything, including me.

I look for any sign of sunlight but all I can find is emptiness.

I panic, the screaming in my chest for air overpowering.

I stop moving and float flat on my back and let the smallest air bubble escape my mouth. I watch in anticipation as the bubble latches to my face and gradually sliding across. Once it is at the side of my face the bubble springs off and floats up behind me.

I swivel around and kick as hard as I can as my lungs burn for air.

My chest tightens and my knees stiffen but I'm getting closer to the air bubble.

Suddenly I brake the alluring surface with I huge breath.

As I pant I look up and see Kendall and Lilly's horrified faces searching in the sink hole for me.

Kendall's eyes catch mine and I see him let out a breath of relief. Lilly soon catches on and inconspicuously rolls her eyes at my idiocy.

I scramble to catch a loose bit of wood that came down with me. I latch my arms onto it, not tempted to let go. As I catch my breath I try to figure out how I'm going to get back up.

I look up at them and smile soon my smile breaks into an unstoppable cackle, which eventually windes up me choking on my own spit.

"Are you alright?" Kendall calls down to me.

"Yup, fine." I reply with a smile. "Just trying to figure out how to get up!" I add a little breathlessly.

Kendall's dark eyes scan the area.

"Look, over there!" He points one strong arm towards the other side of the chasm. A small rounded rock points up out of the surface. "Climb up onto that and I'll see if I can reach you." He directs in a strong voice.

Now I see why he was a Lieutenant.

I weakly push through the debris and slowly make my way to the other side.

The rock is smooth and slippery.

I find a foot hole and push myself up.

I gracefully (air quote) scramble to stay on, with one leg hitched over the other side and my arms spread wide around the rocks surface trying to hold on.

"Hey! Before I get up, do you reckon this water's drinkable?" I ask while Lilly automatically searches through her bag to find an empty bottle.

She chucks it down to me which I very uncoordinated snatch out of the air.

I slide back down the stone and full the bottle to the brim with mucky brown water.

"Are there any more?" I call out.

Soon enough a small plastic bottle hits me on the head  .

I scowl up at Lilly who's face, trying so very hard to contain her obnoxious laugh.

I pick the bottle up and full that up as well before elegantly (again, air quoting) scrambling back up the stone.

Kendall reaches down a strong arm for me to grab but sadly his arms are too short or I'm to short one or the other.

I jump and just manage to snatch his hand out of the air and he slowly pulls me up.

His strong grip is no match for the murky liquid cascading down my arm and soon I slip. A small yelp escapes my mouth as I fall back down to the water. Water rains down on me as I resurface.

"Try again!" He calls out. " But this time climb up the side a little."

I do as he says but only make it so far before I am completely stuck.

Luckily I am high enough for him to clasp my forearm and pull me out of the giant sink-hole.

"Thanks." I say breathlessly looking up at Kendall.

"No problem, besides you had the water so it was kind of a no brainier." He chuckles, before shifting his gaze to my knee.

The look on his face said it all.

"It's fine." I say, lying through my teeth. To be honest, it hurts like hell, but he didn't need to know that.

He raised his eyebrow before walking towards me.

"Don't lie to me Kiara, how sore is it?" His tone deadly. His eyes still latched to the bandage with mud infested blood seeping through.

I grit my teeth. "It's perfectly fine." I say holding back the high-pitched crack, threatening to escape my lips. A dead giveaway that I was lying.

"I don't believe you." he replies, intimidatingly inching closer.

"Well it's not my problem that you have trust issues." I retort back, disgusting my gulp from his intimidating figure.

Suddenly out of the blue he sweeps me off my feet and carries me towards the overhanging building we were seated under before.

"Stay." he growls as a small smile threatens to emerge on his lips.

He walks over behind a building before returning with what looks like a spiked leaf.

"Are you going to beat me with it to take the pain away from my knee?" I question, slightly amused.

"So you admit it's sore!" He cries in triumph, to which I roll my eyes. "And no I'm not going to beat you with it." Without another word, he bends down and gently peals the drenched bandage off.

He tosses it to the ground and I watch with curiosity as thick dirty blood oozes out and down my leg.

He shifts his gaze to the leaf.

"Its Thyme" he says before crushing it between his two fingers into a paste of sorts.

"Put this on your fingers and around the cut." he orders.

I do as he says, though I was questioning his motives.

I gingerly trace my finger around the edge of my cut, ever so gently, and it instantly soothes the pain.

"Better?" he smiles.

"Much." I exclaim with relief. "Where's the first aid kit I had?" I ask while I try to get up to search.

Kendall gently pushes me back to the ground.

"Stay here I'll go find it." he informs with force.

Soon enough he comes back with a scruffy looking bundle of bandages.

"Here." he hands me the bundle before walking away to cheek on Lilly.

I don't pay any notice of the pair, and focus on my leg.

I tear open a bandage and intricately a-line the bandage with my wound.

I cover it before scanning my body for anymore straggling cuts.

I look up to the sky, it look as if it is around four.

Good enough.

I let my eyes fall and rest my head against the building, welcoming the restless sleep ahead.

*****

I am really sorry about the years of waiting for this chapter if people still even read it! I have been really busy at the moment with other priorities but I'll try to get a chapter out more often then I do 

Hope you are enjoying 'An Instinct To Survive' so far, and keep reading😄