The Lost Souls

A Long Journey Ahead

But before he could touch her again, Vedha jumped out of the tunnel.
.
.

Vedha screamed as her body hit the rocks below. She quickly crawled away from there and stood up with the help of a tree. Even after 2 minutes no one came out of the the tunnel.
She sighed with relief and picked up a stick, which helped her in standing up.

"This is stupid...its useless. It was not a dream but...but....how could this be?" Vedha thought to herself.

She was now completely lost in the jungle. The suprising tunnel had brought her to a place which seemed as the depths of jungle.Her plan to follow the river was failed. Nothing came out of the tunnel after her, it was pitch black inside. She stood up and went towards the tunnel again.
Dozens of questions popped in her head.
How could there be a tunnel in jungle?
Is it really a tunnel or something else?
I am sure I'm not dreaming, but how could my best friends become ghosts?
Were they even real?
And the tunnel? Who built this?
Where is everyone?
Are they even dead or alive?
How will I find them?

Just then the bushes in front of her started moving. Vedha gulped and her grip on the stick got stronger. She heard some whispering coming from the bushes.
And something unexpected jumped in front of her. She shrieked and moved back.

"Oh my god! You.... You're alive?" Vedha managed to say.

********

Over here,
the group was still walking but slowly. Everyone was tired but no one dared to stop in between. They were walking continuosly from hours, but Vedha was not found.

"Guyss? Can I say something?" Evan questioned.

"Yeah" Sid said in the same tone.

"I'm hungry." he whined.

Me too" both Ria and Sapna said.

Ethan whispered a small "Me too."

"Soo...everyone's hungry?" Sumedh asked everyone.

Yeah and also tired. Can we please rest for few minutes? Please." Akshay requested.
"Ok, but only a few minutes." Sumedh agreed.

As the word 'ok' got out from Sumedh's mouth, everyone collapsed down sighing with annoyed expressions.

"Thank you Sumedh. At last you listened to us." Sapna said annoyed.

Sumedh rolled his eyes and sat down beside Sid. Since the hunt for Vedha began, most of the decisions were taken by Sumedh and Sid, the rest just agreed with them quickly.

After few moments of silence, Sid whispered, "Sumedh...don't you think we should've found Vedha by now? I mean...we've come soo far but we still haven't found a single trace of her."

"Yeah, I know...and that's what scaring me right now. I was damn sure that we will find her...but now...now I feel a little weird." Sumedh said truthfully.

"Sumedh, I know she's in danger but I think that we should get out of here first then inform the police about this." Sid suggested something like this for the first time.

Ethan walked from behind them and said, "He's right. We're just a bunch of teenagers, how can we do this? We don't even have food, water or a safe place to rest."