The Lake house

INSIDE THE CHAMBERS

Okay... fine. I'm desperately looking for the keys to the store house. Did you perhaps see it lying any where in the room?", Rose asked murmuring quietly while hoping that she won't dig in any further and squatted beside her gazing clearly to her face and would tell her where the keys are.

"Ugh..I think I saw it over there a while ago. Maybe it isn't there anymore", Emily replied pointing to a small spot on the floor beside the entrance which was quite covered by a blanket which shrouded feet of another female that was fast asleep, lying underneath the huge blanket. Rose instantly remembered that she had left with the keys earlier to the beach which must have dropped on the floor when she went outside. She quickly removed the blanket from the covered spot and saw the piece of metal lying lifeless on the smooth ground but ended up waking up the sleeping lady who wasn't thrilled that she had been woken up from her deep sleep by someone else.

"Hey! What the heck!", She almost screamed out in anger but Rose as well as Emily gestured to her in order to keep her voice down by placing their fingers across their lips so that her voice wouldn't wake up and the others. She paused obeying the duo but sneered at Rose and decided to retire back to her sleep.

"Thanks a lot Emily, for your help", She whispered extremely grateful for Emily's help in assisting her to find the keys and left the tent quickly in haste to help the others without waiting a single moment to hear Emily's reply. She immediately went to the store house where the small crowd had caked up behind Michael who bravely stood alone in front of door despite the harsh cold that is bearing heavily down on him. He stepped aside for Rose to unlock the door which she did allowing the cold crowd to gain access into the store house In order to get some warmth from the cold before getting a hot bath that will drive away every feeling of coldness away from their weary body. They all storm inside except for Rose, into the store house which was quite sizeable for them to keep warm and calm down their chilly nerves. Michael stood by the door way with Rose outside while Max properly array the cold teens in order close to the wall which was surprisingly warm and cozy to lay their bodies to.

"How long.... are you... going to take", He muttered with his crisp breath puffing out into the cold air in front of Rose and gaze expectantly for an answer.

"I don't know but it will be more quick er if I get capable hands from the others", She replied staring blankly at him.

"Alright, but make it quick because we've been walking to the camp through the dark bushes under the cold for quite a long time so, ppplease hurry up before our lungs get frozen", He replied and shut the door from inside leaving her behind to request for assistance from the sleeping females.

Teddy stealthily sneaked past two Sentry guards who were keeping a tight lookout for intruders as well as invaders who try to plunder their encampment, into a nearby bush where he safely hid himself under the cover of darkness which aided in concealing him away from the watchful eyes of the watchmen. Then he crawled underneath the dark shrubs away from the watchmen but failed to get past two patrol guards who luckily didn't see him but made him withdrew back into the shadows in order to look for a perfect opportunity to get away from the savage men. He took another dive into dark the shrubs when he noticed a clear path which wasn't within the watchmen radar and crawled in haste to avoid been seen by any of the patrol guards that was pacing back and forth beside a huge tree which shrouded part of their hideout. He peered with his white eyes glittering in the dark bushes watching the patrol guards as he kept crawling quietly underneath the bushes in order to sneak past the savage man and turned left swimming past the noses of the oblivious guards into another section of the hideout. The hideout was built with bamboo sticks running above the ground on the surrounding trees which created pavement made from tree barks enabling them to tread safely above the moisty ground but had their main headquarters, where their chief resides, erected on the damp soil. Almost all the tree routes that ran upwards on tree branches originated from the headhouse spread loosely upwards into small cells made of hard bamboo sticks with savage peasants dwelling inside with their families. Teddy felt he had been going round in circles instead of escaping past the hideous hideout into the other side of the forest since he couldn't see the right path to take out of dangerous domain of the tribesmen and decided to raise his head above the short reed to take a peep through the dark bushes in order to ascertain his current position. He slowly raised his murky head to take a peek above the grass that has painted his dark face with muddy sand except for his white eyes that shone in the darkness and saw a patrol guard approaching from a distance with a flaming torch but took a right turn on the clear grass into another cleared path leaving him behind to gaze at the wooden pathway exquisite crafted and tied to one of the tree branches which ran from his left angle straight towards a treehouse that embrace a large tree with its spiral staircase made of wood. He realizes that he hasn't left the hideout yet but was stranded inside unable to decipher the right path to take that will lead him out of their domain into the former region where he had luckily escaped from the hunters leaving behind Julian to the mercy of the tribesmen that had shot his arm with an arrow as well as poor Benard whose corpse the tribesmen had taken back to their hideout and kept it inside an underground cell in awaitance of a hungry beast which they fed daily with livestock. He decided to find a perfect spot to hide himself until the break of dawn which will enable him to see clearly enough for him escape from their hideout that seems to be broad enough to cover every hidden area in the surrounding bushes.

"I think I have venture into the wrong direction, and I need to find somewhere to hide so that I can get back to the others", He muttered to himself lost in thought as heavy sleep weigh down on his eyelids that was painted with black mud as a result of the damp swampy area that derived from the dry soil after the heavy storm had rain hard on the soil transforming it to a muddy ground and slowly got up from his muddy bath plodding slowly in clear sight off the radar of the watchmen including the patrol guards. He moved towards a dark spot behind a wooden house near a tree but failed to continue further as he sank below the ground through a tunnel and landed with a heavy thud on a pile of round stones leaving him totally unconscious with heavy sleep beside a dark figure.

Kelvin peered at the mid section of the queer statue standing in front of him unshaken by the heavy dust particles present in the spacious hall and turned around to see the soft breeze outside the building which was left open for him to see by the huge doors he had left ajar when he entered inside the stonehouse. He took his gaze off the statue peering curiously at the large cloaks shrouding weird objects by the corner especially at covered section at far end of the wide hall under a stony staircase which ran upwards into another upper floor held by four small columns. He followed the spiral staircase with his gaze which barely make out the exquisite structure as a result of the faint light emitted by the waning gibbous outside the building through the large doors. He took his flashlight from his knapsack where he had kept it after it had burn out its batteries leaving him handicapped unable to see clearly and tried to switched on again but it didn't respond to his demand.

For a while, he thought of what to do in the hall which looked totally strange to him and decided to climb the stairs in order to find out what the stonehouse contains but he recalled that he had left his two companion to the stonehouse, under the passing storm and felt reluctant to go ahead with his plan.

"I wonder if they went back to the camp to take shelter from the storm or stood under the rain waiting for me to come back", He muttered to the murky air surrounding him and the statue where he rested his arm on the rough stone.

"If I go back and meet the others there without breaking the barrier, I don't know what they might say to me. But the storm might have chased them away, possibly into the maze or somewhere else", He soliloquize looking worried and undecided of what to do next as he placed his hands firmly than before on the statue.

"I think I should figure out where the former owners of this building hid the device

to control the barrier first before returning back to the others but everywhere is dark. I can't see clearly and find it under this circumstances", He said to himself and groaned in frustration while trying to figure out how he would be able to see his way through to retrieve the device under the very faint light that falls heavily upon every queer objects in the hall making it difficult for him to decipher which one is the hidden device. He left the statue and moved over to the wall behind the right door where he spotted a metal loop for hanging flaming torches but he found none on it and looked behind at the opposite direction of the wall behind the left door which was creaking softly to the tunes of the wind flowing past it into the dusty room. He luckily saw a wooden torch that had no fire on it held by the same metal loop in front of him and walked over to take a closer look where he found out it hanging there lifeless carrying no fire on it but he took it out from the metal loop having three metal arms and stood there trying hard to peer through the faint light to see if he could utilize any object to ignite a fire on the wooden torch. He observed every corners of the hall but saw nothing helpful to use as a means to lit up the sleeping torch for him to scout the building and pulled off his knapsack down on the dusty ground to see if he could find anything helpful. Although there wasn't any sign of a single fire which left the hard structure dark and lifeless, the inside still felt warmer than the outside where the crisp air thrives freely out of the reach of Kelvin totally shrouded by the whole building keeping his frail body warmth from the cold outside. Rummaging through his knapsack looking for any helpful material that will aid him ignite a fire but found none inside that could be of help to him which made him vent his frustration on a little stone thrusting it forward endlessly towards an empty space that echoed in the dark after hitting an iron rod that lay on the ground covered by the darkness. He was about to give up when he noticed a spark emitted from the collision which occurred far into the a small room by the right corner of the hall and got up from the dusty floor gazing at the empty darkness that enveloped the small room. He hadn't seen the small room earlier when he stumbled inside the hall because of faint light mixed with the dusty fog that fill every corner of the hall and wasn't aware that the small room was situated beside two large white cloak that shrouded huge boxes sealed with a thick padlock. The two black boxes partially obscured the little cell away from him leaving only a small opening to be uncovered by the black boxes. He was lucky enough to thrust the stone past the boxes into the room which was left opened allowing him to see only darkness inside the room and walked with the wooden torch in his hand towards it after he had placed his gadgets back into his knapsack in order to ascertain further, the sudden spark of light in the dark that could aid him create a fire in order to find the device to unlock the barrier in the open field, shielding the stonehouse from outsiders.