The Survival

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I jerk awake and jump five feet in the air, my heart going miles per hour and I start making the worst scenarios in my head.

We are going to die, I’m going to die.

Oh, Dear God I haven’t even experienced the best things in life, like getting so drunk that on the next morning I can’t even handle the sound of my breathing. I’m not going to be a mom, I’m not going to have kids.

I grab the closest thing to me, which is a piece of wood and get ready to kick, beat and hurt whatever is here. If I’m going to die at least I will die fighting... or I can run.

Another scream reaches my ears but this time I also hear words, “Oh my God!”

Nathan that was sleeping wakes up brutally, thanks to this awful scream, his sleepy eyes wide open not really focusing on anything but still wider than a golf ball, his fists are up in the air as if ready to start fighting.

“Take it out of me!” another shout occur. What the hell? I raise my brows and turn my body to where the sound comes from. I’m greeted with a petite frame with blonde hair screaming for dear life.

Who is she? Lucy.

Why is she screaming? I don’t- “Take the spider from my arm!” Okay you have the answer.

I’m stunned for a second. Is she actually screaming because of a spider? I thought that she was dying, like having a painful death and she is almost screaming bloody murder because of a small spider?

“Lucy? You aren’t dying?” Nathan speaks, his voice husky from lack of use.

“Almost there,” Her high-pitched voice is making my ears ringing. What a nice way to wake up.

“For God’s Sake, I think that you gave me a heart attack.” I start marching her way, more than ready to kill that thing on her arm, leaving a confused Nathan and a still asleep Beth and Sarah behind. And I’m the sleepyhead of the group.

“What is that thing?” Are the first words that leave my mouth, on her arm was assumed to be a spider, a small, imperceptible hairy spider, but what I see is a gigantic tarantula.

“Take it, take it, take it” Lucy keeps screaming at me.

“I’m not touching that hideous thing.” Nah, forget it, my hand is not getting close to it, I may not be afraid of spiders but this one is different. Jesus, its huge almost the size of my dog.

Okay I don’t have a dog and the spider isn’t that big but still.

“What is taking so – What the f**k is that?” Nathan’s neutral and curious voice turns into panic? Disgust? Shock? It may be the last one.

“Take it off of her.” I say. His eyes focus on me and then on her arm, the tarantula it’s on her forearm, I can see tears streaming down her face, if I was on her position I would be crying like a baby.

Nathan grabs my ‘weapon’ also known as wood, the one I forgot that I was still grabbing and ever so slowly makes it touch the hairy thing, its legs wrap around the stick and without waiting more Nathan throws the piece of wood to the ground, away from us.

Lucy’s knees fail and Ed is behind her on that instant to support her. She is crying on his chest, nervous for having the spider on her arm. I know that she has arachnophobia, so I perfectly understand her reaction and I’m also not a big fan of those animals.

Animals.

That reminds me of the players that came with us to Ireland, we still have to find a way to go back.

“Let’s find something for you to eat.” Nathan says to me while elbowing me and turning back to the place he was sleeping in.

“Do you think they noticed our absence?” The question burst out of my mouth.

He stops dead in his track and walks back, to stand right in front of me. We are so close that I can feel the tip of his shoe touching mine, his breathe hitting my face, and his eyes even though they’re tired, they’re so shinny with such an unbelievable force.

“Who?” His eyes piercing my own. The green from his orbs shinning so brightly. I’ve never seen a green colour like his on anyone’s eyes. Sarah has green eyes, but they are a common and vague green. I also have but mine are just... lifeless, because of past experiences that broke me.

Yet, his.

“The teachers, our colleagues.” I answer him.

He scoffs, “Those bastards that you call colleagues don’t give a damn where we are, what we are doing and if we are alive or dead. The teachers are a different story, hopefully they are already looking for us, or by now they have alerted the authorities that we are missing.”

I nod, he must be right, we have been missing a whole day ,“But... we never told them that we were coming here. We only said that we were going to visit Larne.”

He visibly tenses realizing what I said, his hand goes straight to his hair, grabbing the locks furiously while he bits his bottom lip, his hand descends to his face and he mumbles something incoherent.

“Oh man, I forgot about that,” he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath “Doesn’t matter, we are going to get out of here.”

“You think so?” I need to know that we are going to leave, I need someone or anyone to assure me that we are going to find our way to the tracks. His eyes open and lock with mine that were already staring at him, he is looking at me intensely and he replies to me, with a simple ‘I do’.

An idea pops in my mind, I reach for the back pocket of my jeans and retrieve my phone, if we are lucky I may have signal. I gaze carefully at my phone, I slid my finger on the screen to unlock it and I’m received with the image of my background: me and my brother making funny faces. A frown appears on my face.

“You don’t really expect to have signal on a forest, right? Especially when we are so in the middle of it.” An amused grin appears on his face and I break from my spell.

“We can’t?” I say completely oblivious to why not.

“You never camped in your life, correct?”

“Unfortunately, this is my first time, and after this I will probably never come near a tent.”

“We can’t have signal, here our phones are useless. We spend so much money for iPhones and expensive Androids and when we really need them, they can’t do anything for us.”

I couldn’t agree more with him. Since my phone is just as useful as a cow in this situation I lock it. Call it a ninja reflex or an eagle eye, but before my phone turned dark I noticed a red point on the corner.

“Wait a minute” I whisper, I unlock my phone again and sure enough, there is a notification.

3 unread messages

I open the messages and scan the texts. They are from James.

*9.47*

‘Hi little sis are you fine? You haven’t called me last night. You must have got drunk or something. Call me when your hangover is over muah muah Jx’

*14.24*

‘Kate are you fine? You okay? Please answer me I need to know, I just heard the news. Call me as soon as you see this’

What news is he talking about?

*14.58*

‘C’mon shortcake, call me or answer my messages’

“I thought you said I couldn’t have signal?” My eyes never leave the phone while I direct my words to Nathan.

“You don’t, you probably received them when we were on the verge of the woods,” My mouth forms a shape of an ‘O’ and I nod believing his words.

“News? What news?” Nathan speaks, I haven’t registered that he was reading my text messages, but it’s not like it matters, I was never one of those girls that venerate their phones and look at it like some secreted object.

“I don’t know.” I shrug, either way it is not like I can discover.

“We should wake the others, but before we do just that let’s eat some snacks.” He finally takes a step back, putting some space between us. I nod once and start to follow him.

 “When I get back, I’m going to buy an old phone, those that look like a brick, I bet that it’s more useful than this one.” Nathan laughs and a smile spreads on my face. Oh, that boy.