The Fallen (On Hold)

Chapter Three

At first I'm falling through the clouds, then suddenly my hand is jerked up and it feels as if my shoulder has been dislocated. But luckily I've stopped falling.

Peering up, I see Chase has grabbed onto a giant branch breaking through the rock's surface. With no effort at all, he flings me up so I can sit on top of the branch then pulls himself up.

"Okay, let's never do that again."

"Agreed," he says as he looks at me. "But how are we going to get back up there?"

"We're not going back up there so no need to worry about that. I think our rope is long enough to hook-on up here and then rock climb down, don't you think?"

"But where would we tie it up here?" he starts looking around.

"Right where you're sitting," I say as I peer down to in between our legs at the sturdy, rough branch.

"But then we won't have it later on if we tie it."

"We'll only be using one rope because they're each 200 feet and I think the base is only a days walk," I start pulling the rope out of my jacket and hooking it around the branch multiple times with multiple knots.

I really hope this doesn't break. But he doesn't need to know the chances of it snapping and us falling to our deaths.

When I'm done, I toss the rope down. Making sure I can see it's in the trees only 150 feet below us, I grab onto the rope and hop off the branch, slowly inching myself down along the jagged rocks poking out from the cliff side.

After about 10 minutes of climbing down, I finally reach the bottom then scream up to Chase that he can come down.

As I start to see Chase appear in my vision, I remember the box. Oh my gosh, the box. Where is it?

Freaking out, I start walking around in search of the box, hoping I can find it. Checking behind every tree, peering through branches, scouting the pine covered floor. But with no such luck, my hands turn up short.

Suddenly there's a thud behind me and I turn around to see that Chase has landed.

"Hey Phi, what are you looking for?"

"Umm, nothing I just..." I don't know if I should tell him, "Umm, I-I dropped a box around here when we fell and I don't know where it went."

"Was it important?"

"Not really, but I would really miss it if I can't find it." Yes it is very important, the fate of human kind rests on it.

"Here, let me help you find it," he starts walking around the trees with his head down.

After 15 minutes have passed, he screams, "I think I found it!"

At hearing that, I rush over to where I heard his voice as fast as I can only to see him opening the lid of the box.

*****
Picture of Chase Tate