Ride

Chapter 27- A Day in the Caverns

Chapter 27- A Day In the Caverns

Even though the hole in the "ceiling" of the caverns wasn't all that big, Fudge felt the sunlight come flooding in early in the morning. That was good for a couple of reasons. For one thing, she didn't have to freak out at every single storm noise. For another, she was glad for the extra warmth.

Morning was here... Or was it? With the darkness of the storm and her irregular sleeping, she had no idea what time it was. In fact, she wasn't even sure what day it was.

"Whatever day it is, I hope today's the day I get found", she mumbled to herself bitterly.

She had promised Doc that she wouldn't lose hope and she really wouldn't. Tail Light Caverns wasn't that far away from town. Fudge was sure that someone would find her. She just hoped that someone would find her soon.

Despite the fact that the sunlight felt good and would probably make being stranded a little easier, there was one downside. Without the rain, she had no way of getting water. Unless... No. She couldn't. Well, it was either that or die of thirst. One... two... three!

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" she cried out as she attempted to roll over onto her side. Her back was hurting, her ribs were hurting, her elbow was hurting. Still, she was managing to do it slowly and painfully. She sure hoped that she was happy like this. She didn't think she could roll back over onto her back.

Gingerly, she stretched her arms out and tried to scoop up some of the water. God! This was the most amount of work her arms had done since the accident. She didn't manage to get an awful lot of water, but it would have to do. For now, anyway. Still, poor Fudge knew that if she wanted to survive, she was going to have to find a way to get more water and/or she would have to be found very soon.

Lightning McQueen was up with the sun that morning and was racing over to Flo's for some oil, so he could just go out and search for Fudge. In fact, he was gone before Sally even woke up. He felt his heart sink when he saw that Guido and Luigi were over at Flo's, already sipping their oil half-heartedly.

"Hey, Guido!" he called out.

Guido glanced up and gave him a small smile. "Ciao."

Luigi didn't even look up from his oil. He hadn't been drinking it all that much, but now, it was as if it was the most fascinating thing in the entire world.

"Sheriff... be here... soon", Guido announced.

"He said he was gonna call out a search team", Lightning commented. "Do you know what's happening there?"

"I think... he do that now", the forklift replied.

McQueen nodded. "Right..."

Although they wanted to see what the search team were like, Lightning, Luigi and Guido were all long gone by the time they arrived, desperate to find the missing teenager. They'd only stuck around long enough for Sheriff to distribute radios with instructions to report immediately if Fudge was found. It was a very comforting sight when they were out in the middle of the desert and a helicopter flew above them.

"(Do you think the search crew will find Fudge?)" Luigi wondered as he and Guido made their way through the desert.

"(I don't know. I hope so.)" Guido sighed. "(She has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours now and still nothing.)"

"(I know...)" Tears formed in Luigi's eyes.

Unfortunately, when the entire town and the search team grouped at lunch, Fudge still wasn't found.

"It's wet and freezing cold!" Sally commented worriedly. "She'd catch pneumonia or something."

"Or worse, hypothermia", Sarge chimed in.