Chosen.

Chosen. Chapter 19

Chapter NINETEEN

Autumn

"Mmmm, not yet; five more minutes." But something keeps shaking my shoulder, and I, once again, plead, "Please, really, I'm soooo tired." I roll back over, and, immediately, the sleeping bag is ripped off me, "What the heck??"

I sit up, about to get seriously mad, and then it hits me.....I'm in a tent in the middle of the jungle. This most definitely is not my bed at home. I can see the sun barely peeking over the horizon, and I hear the birds chirping as the forest wakes up around me. I rub my eyes trying to clear my head while I try to fully wake myself up. "What time is it?" I ask when my foggy brain starts to work again.

Heath checks his wrist link and answers, "It's about 5:15. We let you sleep as long as we could, but the sun is coming up. We need to get a move on, Autumn." Without another breath he continues, "Mom made a quick breakfast, and then we're heading out to the beach, all right? Along with our newest guest, I guess."

Guest....what guest? It takes me a moment, but then it all comes back to me from last night. Kyle and I were keeping first watch; everything was fine. We were talking when we heard a noise in the trees in front of us. Kyle immediately took off to check it out, while I was on the verge of waking everyone else up. That's when I heard a yell and what sounded like a struggle. I didn't have time to think and I just instinctively took off, running in the direction of Kyle. I didn't know what was going to happen, other than I was on my way to save him.....or at the very least put up some kind of a fight with the wild beast that was likely tearing him to shreds!!

CRRRUUUNNNNCHHH!!! I trip over something pretty big on the jungle floor and crash, head first, into the bottom of a bush. "Ohhhhh," I groan. My head is suddenly throbbing, and I think my knee is probably bleeding from scraping across the ground. I sit up and realize the 'lump' I just ran over was Kyle, who I now can barely just make out on his hands and knees on the ground trying to catch his breath after my accidental tackle. "What the heck, Autumn? That's twice now I've gotten knocked to the ground. Thanks a lot!!" Relieved just to hear his voice, I respond, "I'm sorry, Kyle," I say apologetically, "I thought something had you, and I took off without thinking." Then it clicks what exactly he said, "What do you mean twice now? What knocked you down the first time??"

"Ummm, hi there," and I whip around to the voice behind me (which doesn't help the pounding in my head one bit). The watering in my eyes starts to clear, and that's when I notice the figure standing a few feet away from us, "And who are you??"

The pounding headache now brings me back to the present, and I rub the slight lump on my head, "Oh, yeah, that guest." I continue, feeling a little bit annoyed, "Give me a second and I'll be right there." Heath gives me a nod and heads back over to the fire with the others.

As I'm packing up my stuff, I hear a giggle and fight the urge not to roll my eyes. "Oh, stop it, Autumn," I tell myself under my breath. I don't know why I'm so pissy about our late-night visitor, probably because I was scared half to death last night. I decide to just do my best to avoid any conversation this morning and hope everyone can read my 'I don't wanna talk' signals.

I finish packing up and walk over to grab the last of breakfast out of the pan that Mom prepared, "Thanks, Mom; I'm starving." Mom gives me a smile and attempts to pat down my more wild curls, "No problem, Hon. Eat up, and then we'll get going. Your Dad and Kyle have already started heading to the beach with the chest. I told them we'd be right behind them."

"Check and check," I say, as I head over to a nearby fallen-over tree and plop down to chow my breakfast by myself. While I'm eating, though, our new camp 'trespasser' obviously can't take a hint and comes over, "Morning, Miss Autumn. Sorry again about last night." And then I look up into the beautiful face of Ellie Langdon. I try my best not to grimace and I manage to choke out, "Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry about it." She smiles and gives me a hug, which I stiffly accept.