When I woken up from my restless sleep, I saw that Maddie and Rhyan were already awake.
After they saw that I was awake, Rhyan said, "Come on, let's get moving. We are a long way away from home and we need to get back as soon as possible."
I stood up and we started walking to the end of the tunnel. As we stepped out of the tunnel, I cautiously looked around to see if anyone was there.
"All clear." Maddie called out to us.
We ran for the cover of the trees that were close by.
Once we were safely hidden, I asked, "Which way are we supposed to be going?"
"We should go that way; it is the shortest route we can take to get home." Maddie said and pointed into the forest in front of us, after quickly glancing at her phone.
After we had been walking for about ten minutes, we stopped and looked around. In front of us was a small river that was about twenty feet across. The river seemed to extend into the forest forever.
"How are we going to get across?" I wondered.
"We will have to swim to the other side." Rhyan said.
We carefully stepped into the freezing cold water and started to make our way across the river. Suddenly, my foot slipped on a slimy rock and I fell into the river. I floated to the surface and shivered as my wet skin hit the cool morning air. I continued wading across the river and Rhyan and Maddie did the same. As the water got deeper, we had to swim across, instead of wading. Soon we were all soaking wet, from our heads to our toes.
We finally reached the other side of the river and climbed out of the water. As we continued through the trees, I looked behind us.
"We should really dry off. We are leaving a trail of water, and anyone that is trying to find us can just follow the trail." I said.
"Sorry, we can't really dry off with anything. We will just have to move quickly, so that no one can follow our trail."
Suddenly, I heard the sound of running footsteps coming from behind us.
"Run, someone is coming!" I exclaimed.
We started running through the forest until we came to a clearing. There was a rose bush in the middle of the clearing, and thick bushes surrounding the edges. As we ran past a rose bush, Maddie's wet shirt got caught on one of the branches.
"Help me, Rhyan!" she yelled.
"I'm coming!" Rhyan replied.
Rhyan ran back to Maddie and frantically tried to free her from the rose bush, but only succeeded in getting her more tangled in its branches. I ran over to try to help, but Rhyan pushed me away.
"Go hide!" she said to me.
I could hear Dwayne and Rob yelling at each other to hurry, and to run faster. Their footsteps were crashing through the forest, probably trampling anything that got in their path.
"Run, Callie, run! We will catch up with you later!" Rhyan screamed.
"No, I'm not leaving you here!" I yelled back.
Dwayne and Rob were getting closer with every second.
"We have to leave, now! Rhyan, Maddie, come on!" I yelled out.
"We can't Callie!" Rhyan whispered into the forest.
"Maddie?!" I called out desperately.
"Sorry Callie, we have to stay." Maddie said sadly, gesturing to her shirt that was caught on the bush.
