Orphan

Chapter 36 - Taylor

"Get out!"In a single-aisle, we walked out of the bus and into the forest. I had never stepped into one before. It was so mysterious, so enchanting, and so full of life.Trees towered into the skies. It was dark, the air was thick and stuffy, and I could feel the heat trapped here. There were even beams of light that cut through the canopy.As I turned around, I could see that the floor covered with autumn leaves and ants crawling on top. There were also birds chirping from high above as if welcoming us."It's so pretty! I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life here. It's so much better than the Academy.""I wouldn't. Look at those hair eight-legged creepy crawlies dangling from above. There must be millions of them here. Imagine the number of webs you would have to walk through and imagine the spiders crawling over you."Alex was right, looking at where he was pointing there were so many eyes that stared back at me. "Alright, kids! Today we will be touring the forest. Why are we doing this, you may want to ask? Well, it's a secret. But you will appreciate it later when it all comes together.""I will be splitting you all into groups of two. Your objective today is not to lose your partner and make sure to scream if they go missing!""Why would they go missing?" the girl on my right asked."We're in the wild, we're in the animal's home, and if they are hungry, guess what's going to happen?""But I thought you said there would be no killing today.""Well, we will not be responsible for any deaths, only you are. Look out for your partner, and there will be no deaths.""Okay Evelyn, you will be going with Augustus. Alex with Rachel. Adam and Zac. Sophie and Crystal. Ruby and Dylan, Luke and Taylor. Nicholas and Jayden""Now find your partner and then line up here behind this tree. It's the tallest one, and it marks our meet up point."The tree was old and appeared to have survived a fire. It was the only tree without a single leaf on its branches. It looked so alone. The only life that could be seen was the green fungal that climbed up from its root.What happened to you? "Hello, Green Eyes! We meet again."" Augustus! We are a team. Let's look after each other.""Who would want to be in a team with you? Are you hungry? I bet you didn't have anything last night.""I am not hungry thank you.""I didn't see you last night. You missed out. We had warm succulent chocolate that melted in your mouth, steaming soft roast pork, and marble cheesecake! How I wish I were still at the Academy instead of this stupid forest."I wished I had something to eat this morning. Hearing Augustus describing all the yummy foods made my tummy grumble. I felt so embarrassed, my face burnt red. "Hungry much?""Come on, let's line up."We walked together and made our way to the tree. Standing behind a boy and a girl. The girl was tall, wearing a green top and skinny black jean. She had long brown hair that fell to her shoulders and sky-blue eyes. Standing next to her was a tall boy. He had perfectly shaved black hair with a dark-toned skinned colour. He was skinny, wearing a green singlet, and a pair of light green shorts. He looked pleased, and every time he smiled, his teeth flashing into the night."Hi, my name is Evelyn, and this is Augustus." I stretched out my arm and placed my hand in a shake position like how I had seen Maria introduce herself to all the donators back at the orphanage. "Nice to meet you. My name is Luke, and she is Taylor." "Enough with the introductions! Let's move!"We followed Zoe on a dirt path that extended through the rainforest. Looking up into the trees, there were birds of all colours, gazing down upon us, red, green and blue. Strange hairy monkeys that looked at us weirdly whispering to one another as if there was a major secret to be shared about us. "Zoe, how much longer? My legs can't move no more."She turned around."Lad, if you cannot move, then you can stay. Get Evelyn to protect you. She's a survivor and a saviour. Maybe the two of you can work together and survive the night. We are moving to the main attraction, and we're not coming back.""Why do I have to stay here with him. And more importantly, what's the main attraction?"I wanted to move, to see the main attraction, not stay here."Remember you are in pairs now. If Augustus doesn't move then, you got to stay. As for the main attraction, you will see it later.""Come on, Augustus, move!"He didn't move.Glaring at Augustus, I grabbed his hand and pulled, but it didn't work. He was too heavy."Augustus! Come on, let's go.""Make me. I am tired. I need to sit."Sitting down, on a collapsed log. I waited, as the other kids started to move away.In the corner of my eye, I could see a creepy gigantic brown hairy eight-legged thing, moving towards Augustus."Augustus! Get up!""I said...""Spider!"He shot up off the log."Where?" I swiped with my hands knocking it and flying it across to the other tree. The others turned to see what had happened."Fatty, aren't you lucky?" Zoe said."The thing she just wiped is a huntsmen spider.""There are millions of them in this forest, and they are known to give a slow yet painful death to those that it bites.""The bite itself will not hurt, but as the venom travels into the bloodstream, you will feel burns, as if someone holding a knife with fire started twisting it on your body.""As it travels further, the same pain will spread. It's not life-threatening, but once you are in that much pain, you will tremble, you will break, you will fall to the floor.""And that's when you will die.""So, do you still want to sit down Mr Augustus?""Evelyn, good work on saving him but next time. Maybe you should find out what it is that you are sweeping off before you do it. This forest has many dangerous things, wouldn't want to be the superhero that dies, now would you?"The way she had described it made it sound so scary, she was thanking me for saving Augustus, but at the same time she was telling me off.We walked and joined the others.We passed a waterfall, a pond, some more trees and scrubs but we kept moving. It went for about an hour. It was getting dark, and less light was breaching into the forest. When suddenly, we stopped. I crashed into the person in front as he crashed into the person in front of him. "Why are we stopping?""Are we at the location? Which one's the main attraction?""No, but what you all need to know is that we are about to go for a dip." "Where's the water?" Taylor asked as she stepped out and disappeared with a loud splash.