The Underworld Plan

Chapter 6

"Stuck in the Upperworld? No, we can't be stuck up here. We won't survive," Dalton argues, clearly terrified.

"Unfortunately, there is no way for us to bring you guys back down here," the engineer replies, still calm. Of course he's calm, his life isn't the one at risk here!

"Well what are we supposed to do?" Dalton squeaks. At this point, his face is drained of all color and his hands are shaking. So, basically, he looks exactly like the rest of us.

"Judging by the damage down here, you should be able to walk to the next entrance before we can fix one of these," the engineer informs him.

"Walk to the next entrance? How long is that going to take us? We have quite extensive walks up here just to cover our area," Dalton argues.

"I would say that walk will take you a couple of days, three tops," the lady who Dalton had been talking to before responds this time.

"But that leaves us in the Upperworld for more than one night," Dalton practically yells.

"I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do. The closest entrance to here is west from where you are, over in Delta area. I'm sure one of you has used the Delta entrance at least once, right? And even if not, you should be able to find it on your map. It's in the middle of a field, very similar to this one. In a situation like this, the CGOTW strongly recommends you camp out in the safe meadow of the entrance tonight and begin your journey tomorrow. If you need any information, we will have someone stationed at this intercom all night. Good luck," the lady finishes, and then the intercom goes dead. nit knowing what to do, Dalton sits down in the grass and puts his head between his hands.

"Alright, well, this situation could be worse, I guess," Jake states, taking control of the group now that his best friend is too shocked to do anything.

"Could be worse? We are stuck in the Upperworld. How could it possibly be worse," Jessi screeches, terrified.

"No, he's right!" Colton steps up to defend Jake. "We just returned from a mission to the mall, right? Which means we have camping goods that we picked up, some sustainable foods, containers, heck, we even have clothes!"

"And, according to the map, to get to Delta area we are going to have to walk by that mall again anyways. This time we can pick up survival based goods. More tents, rope, fishing rods, knives, and anything else. We can even have Cassandra map out a path to take through the mall to get what we need, although I don't really think she should come in, no offense," Martin calls out.

"I really have no reason to he offended by that, Martin," I laugh. "See, guys? We can do this! We can get back to the Underworld with minimal casualties. But now is not the time to panic. It's getting dark fast, and we still need shelter and a fire. Let's split into two groups, each with 3 Strength and 3 Eyes. One can look for firewood, the other for more shelter type items," I take charge, noticing the sun rapidly falling in the sky.

Everybody mutters agreements before splitting up. Dalton and Jessi go in a group with Martin, Edwin, Adam and Skylar, which leaves me in a group with Mary, Zach, Michael, Jake and Colton. The other group offers to find and build shelter, leaving us with firewood.

"Well this is unfortunate," Colton murmurs as he walks up next to me.

"To say the least," I mutter, still not believing the situation we are in. Despite half of us portraying ourselves as confident and hopeful, we are all honestly terrified to spend even one night out here. The Upperworld was insanely dangerous now. Even our meadow was most likely overrun by wild animals every night.

"The way you took control up there though, that was really sexy," Colton comments, grabbing my hand in his.

I giggle before whispering, "thank you, but it's really not the time for this."

"When is it really the time for flirting? Since That Day, everything has been completely focused on working to make the Underworld function. If we don't make this the right time, we may never get a chance to see what we have," he argues. Although logical, something about his argument irks me.

"Yeah, I made time for flirting earlier. But this is a life or death situation here, and I'm not going to ruin my chances of survival over a silly fling," I hiss, pulling my hand out of his and grabbing some firewood instead.

"A fling? You think I just want this to be a fling? I was looking for something serious," Colton growls, clearly annoyed.

"I-I didn't mean it like that," I stutter, suddenly regretting what I had just said.

"You know what, I think you did. So I will leave you to defend yourself in this 'life-or-death situation.' But don't expect me to come around when all of this is done," Colton says, his tone so cold that it cuts straight through me.

Jake walks up as soon as Colton leaves. "Trouble in paradise?" he asks, but as soon as he looks at my face, concern takes over from his usual sarcastic smirk. "Oh, Cassandra," he murmurs. "What just happened."

"My fear of commitment, I guess," I mutter, blinking tears out of my eyes. Jake doesn't say anything else, he just hugs me and stays by my side as we hunt for firewood. He keeps our mood up by doing silly things like pointing our bugs he could use for revenge on Jessi, but as much as I'm laughing, something about Coltons's and my argument keeps getting to me.

When we have enough firewood to last us through the night and then some, we head back to the meadow. When we get there, the shelter group is already back and setting up lean-tos in a circle.

"Hey, Cassandra," Jessi calls, jogging over. "Mary is all shy about having to sleep in a lean-to with a guy, so I offered to room with her tonight. I was thinking you could share with, oh I don't know, Colton." She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, making me laugh despite what I had to say next.

"Yeah, I don't think sharing with Colton is going to work out," I mutter, kicking the ground.

"Why? What happened?" Jessi asks, so I provide the same explanation I gave Jake.

"My fear of commitment. I can just share with Jake though, its not a big deal. It would be better is Dalton roomed with Martin anyways, they have some stuff to work out." With Dalton being recognized as a leader in the group and Martin being the most topographically inclined person we have, the two were going to have to work together to get our group safely to the Delta Entrance.

"That's true. I'll go let everyone know," Jessi says before running off. I head over to where the fire is being set up and make sure the logs have enough room underneath to let the fire breathe.

After the fire is started and our shelters are set up, we all sign up for a watch. We agree on 6 intervals with one Eye and Strength in each, for maximum protection. Jake and I eagerly sign up for the first shift, hoping to sleep without interruption once our shift ends.

Everyone walks to their assigned shelter, leaving Jake and I sitting in the opening of our shelter almost-circle alone. We sit in silence for a long time before Jake finally speaks, but when he does, I almost wish we could have sat in silence the entire time.

"I know you told Colton your story from That Day, Cassandra. I don't know what made you confide in him before me, but now that we are going back to the mall, I need to know what happened. We are supposed to be best friends, but I don't know one of the most significant pieces of your past. So, Cassandra, its now or never. Either you tell me your story now, or I'm leaving our group if and when we get back to the Underworld for a group that doesn't keep secrets."

"You can't do that, Jake!" I have to work to make sure I don't wake up our team. "Why do you need to know mine so bad? I don't know yours. I know Jessi's and Dalton's, but not yours."

"Yeah, we both know everyone's except each other's. Speaking of Dalton, you need to tell him too, eventually. But I will make you a deal. You tell me yours and, in exchange, I will tell you mine. And I will tell Jessi later, that way every story in our group has been told to every person."

I think for a while and then, realizing I really have no other option, say, "deal."

A/N: I am out of town without my laptop, so I wrote this chapter on my phone. It's too difficult to do any editing on here, so until I get home and have the chance to look this over, there will probably be quite a few typos and/or parts that make no sense. I will fix these asap!