The Race Against Time

Chapter 10

Brooklyn

It's been hours since we were in this cave. I tried to keep my calm but I was scared. It was good to have Xander here with me however he wasn't much company. He just simply sat on the floor and played with some kind of pocket knife he had. It was somehow interesting for him.

I was getting thirstier by the minute, my mouth begged for water to fill and hydrate it. Even though I was afraid of what was out in those woods I still was inquisitive and we needed to look for some source of water or we were not going to survive. We can't just wait around here thinking that the rest of the group would magically appear and find us, we don't even know how big or how long this forest goes on for.

I sat up from kneeling position on the ground and walked over to Xander.

"Xander"

"Xander"

Is this boy ignoring me? I waved my hands in front of his face, he didn't even look at me for just a second.

"XANDER!"

"What on earth is wrong with you, why can't you just leave a human being alone, stop being annoying and get out of my face."

He had the audacity to say I was annoying; I haven't said a thing to him in the past few hours. Why does he have to be so mean? I glared holes into him before I just walked away.

Just a while ago he was being all egotistical and self-righteous like a high school bad boy.

I just wanted to ask when we were leaving this place, it has no water and no food. That doesn't settle right with me.

Well if he didn't want to hear me out then I'll just go by myself, I don't need him. Besides my leg didn't even hurt anymore surprisingly, I still didn't want to take off the bandage though, I didn't want to see how bad my leg looked. I nearly hurled just thinking about it.

Xander couldn't see that I was going somewhere because he wanted us to stay in this awful cave so I had to sneak out. I just had to wait a few more hours so it could get dark. When it was dark, I would have a higher chance of sneaking out and not getting caught by him.

He wasn't the boss of me anyways, I could make my decisions on my own, I'm not a baby like he thinks I am. Just because he was a detective working for the government, he felt he was so much better than everyone.

I'll laugh in his face when I find water, he'll want to thank me.

It was now evening time; the sun was already setting giving the sky a violet pastel look. I couldn't help but watch over my shoulder to see what Xander was doing. Surprisingly he was asleep, I didn't think that he would let his guard down so easily however him sleeping would make my escape so much easier. I stood up from the ground, took my scrunchie from around my wrist, weren't and tied my hair in a ponytail so the hair wouldn't constantly be in my eye.

I quietly crept out of the cave making sure I didn't make a sound to wake up Xander. I walked into the forest scoping the area. I Knew that rivers can be heard from a long distance in the forest if it was really quiet. So, I just walked quietly swerving through trees not knowing where to go, trying to listen for running water.

After walking for a few minutes, the dirt felt like it was getting softer and mushier. I stooped down closer to the ground and felt the dirt. The dirt was indeed damp, meaning it had water near. I was so convivial to know that I was near a water source, Xander wouldn't know what hit him.

Suddenly I heard something over my head, I watched up and saw a large drone hovering over me. I didn't know where the drone came from but if someone was controlling it, there had to be people nearby. I jumped up and down frantically waving at the drone to get its attention.

"Hey! Over here, I need help."

"HEY!!!"

I felt like a maniac jumping around and waving at a drone but doing this could help me get help. The drone flew from over my head and in front of me. The lenses of the drone watched me twitching left and right. It then flew away, I sighed relieved that the person controlling that drone saw me.

I still needed to find water though because I was tremendously thirsty, I felt like I would die if I didn't get water like right now. My mouth was leathery and coarse, my throat was so parched it felt as if the skin had been extracted and laid out in the scorching sun to dry. I could think of nothing other than finding something cool to quench it.

Soon after walking for another 10 minutes, I saw a river a few feet away. The water was glistening, making it look like glitter was on top of the water. My mouth watered by just looking at the river.

It was quite dark by now; the sun already went down. There weren't many stars in the sky but the bright moon lit up the entire forest.

I pranced to the river bank, went on my knees, and scooped water into my hands. As the water went down my throat, I felt like I was in heaven, all I needed now was sweet and sour barbeque Chicken. A girl can dream.

The next thing that came in my mind was that I haven't had a bath in an entire day or maybe more. I wasn't surely seeing that I didn't have a watch, phone, calendar or anything that I could use to tell time

There was a river right in front of me so I should use it to the fullest, shouldn't I?

I took off my shoes, a t-shirt and my pants leaving me with my bra and underwear on. I stepped into the cold water; it was extremely cold so I slowly walked in deeper. Swimming wasn't my strong point but I knew how to thread on the water to keep my body afloat. I swam further out into the water where my feet weren't touching the ground.

My life was so unfortunate right now so I wanted a little excitement, I dived down under the water wanting to know how deep it went. Finally, I was able to touch the underneath of the river, the sand felt soft between my fingers, I wanted to stay under the water for a bit more but I was running out of air.

Slowly I began to swim back up to the top, mid swimming I felt something around my foot making me stop swimming. I tried to pull my foot but whatever was wrapped around my foot wouldn't come off. There was no more air left in my lungs, I tried to scream but my head was underwater. My head was pounding, every cell in my body was shrieking for oxygen. I kept fighting until I felt like my head was about to explode. I stopped struggling, there was no hope for me. Not even Xander could help, because I ran away. Why was I so stupid?