"We don't have to escape here," I interject. "I'll admit it did cross my mind but seeing it now, I don't think it's a good idea." As if to punctuate my sentiment, fire-froggy jumps forward and belch-fries another patch of grass before chowing down. "But we can still use this to our advantage. He's let us out to pee, so that's what we're going to do. We'll do our business and go trotting back like good little human pets." Chastity's brow furrows at that as I continue. "We need to make him believe we're loyal and obedient so he loosens the reins for the right time for us to-"
The land rumbles beneath our feet and then stops. Little flame-thrower-froggy hops back into the thick of the jungle before the ground groans once more. My eyes search out the other women's as if any of them hold the answer.
"The insects have stopped making noise," Gwen points out in a whisper.
They have.
All around us, it's deathly quiet.
"What is taking you females so long?" Z'irri says irritably, his robes swaying as he stomps down the ramp of his ship. The moment whatever kind of buggy insect legs he has under all that fabric hits the ground, all hell breaks loose.
Directly beneath him, the dirt, grass, and roots crumble, making way for something huge that erupts from the earth. It all happens so fast and it's only the shriek and the blur of his robes as Z'irri's launched into the sky that tells me he had been standing at exactly the wrong place at the wrong time. The thing that emerges from the ground has teeth. Many,manyrows of teeth. It’s also long and pink like a worm. But huge. Huge and... and currently shaking Z'irri about like a ragdoll, Oh,fuck!
There are screams all around me. From the corner of my eye, I see Alana's hot pink pajamas disappear as she flees into the jungle. Others are doing the same. The body of the worm-monster crashes down, crushing the front half of Z'irri's untaxed ship, and then raises up again, flicking its head so that its jaws could get a better hold on its prey.
Fuck. This. I'm out of here.
Z'irri screams again and I run. I run. I run.I run.
I run until I can't hear anything anymore, until I'm not even sure which way I came from, until my feet are bloody and I don't know how many times I've almost twisted my ankle over protruding roots or a patch of rocky terrain. I run until my lungs feel like they're going toburst.
I run until I can't run anymore.
Chapter 4
SERENA
I've not started crying at least. I'm dirty, sweaty, sore all over, oh, and lost in a hostile alien jungle too. I need to find the other girls. Pronto.
Standing from my spot at the base of a tree with smooth, black bark, I cup my mouth with my hands. "Chastity?!" The jungle insects around me go quiet for a beat or two of heart-thumping silence. I do not like that. What I like even less is that I get no answer. "Alana?!" I try next, and again the jungle falls silent directly after my call. I like it even less this time.
Alright. I can't stay here. I need to find the others. Brushing off my dirty butt, I start to walk, shouting the girl's names as I go and hearing those deafening silences directly after each time.
I try shouting their names fast. I try shouting them with a beat in between. For my own rapidly depleting sanity I throw in a "Yoo-hoo!" and a whistle for good measure.
"Come on guys, this isn't funny!" I whine loudly into the jungle, passing another tree with huge, shiny red leaves as big as I am. "We need to find each other."
I'm starting to question if I'm wandering in circles when I see a forked tree wrapped in swampy-looking vines that seems far too familiar for me to dismiss.Shit. Have I been here before? Should I have marked my way somehow? Is that what Good little Girl Scout Gwen is doing? Maybe that would be a good idea. Maybe it would leave a trail that the others could find too. But what can I use? I don't have anything to score the tree bark or anything to make other kinds of markings on it either. The jungle floor is a no-go, it's just piles and piles of decaying forest debris.
Suddenly, the loud hum of the insects dies down and within that silence, my heart leaps up to my throat. I wait. The noise of the jungle normally comes back a few seconds after I've shouted someone's name.
It remains quiet.
The downy hairs on the back of my neck start to tingle.
A twig snaps somewhere behind me. I whirl to see what made the noise, but there's nothing but the silent alien jungle. "Chastity?" I venture, though my voice is the quietest it's been since my search started.
A pause and then my own voice comes back to me like an echo. "Chastity?" it says, only that's not me calling her name and I’m fairly certain that’s not an echo either. My heart stops. There has to be an explanation. One of the others maybe? Or perhaps I brushed past some psychedelic plant that is making me hallucinate sounds?
Because that's my voice.
But I'm not talking.
"H-hello?" I venture.
The same beats of silence. Too long for it to be an actual echo.
"H-hello?" the voice in the jungle mimics back at me. Goosebumps rise on my arms.
