I woke up on the cold and wet ground, as I came to my senses and recalled what happened before losing my conscience. I was jolted awake and looked around to see what was going on and try to find my mom and dad, but all around me there was only darkness. I reached for the floor and felt around to check where I was standing, touching the ground my fingers felt freezing cold. the ground was wet and was filled with what felt like ice shards. reaching for my pocket, I took out my phone and tried to turn it on, but it wasn't working. I shoved it back into my pocket and felt around in my other pocket untill I found a lump of rock and held it in front of me.
"what is going on, the last thing i remembered was going to the cryo lab with my parents to watch the Chambers in their final testing period, but all the machines started to malfunction, before an explosion occurred and I was enveloped in something cold. do you know anything that I don't know tobi?" I asked the rock that I held out in my hand "indeed, you were also stuck by the same explosion, how would you know" saying that I shoved Tobi back in my pocket.
my mom was allergic to animal hair, so I couldn't keep a pet. that's when I came upon a rock that looked like a chubby black cat near the river that flows a distance away from my home, where I went with my dad to fish sometimes. I liked how it looked and kept it as a pet rock since I couldn't have any other pet at home. initially when I told my parents that I am keeping the rock as a pet they laughed it off and said I would get bored of it soon, but I never threw Tobi away, not only that but Tobi always kept me company and acted as my mental support when my parents went out on work trips around the country. even though I have grown up now, I can't really throw Tobi away as I have a lot of memories attached to it.
After putting Tobi back in my pocket, I looked around to check if I could find something in the darkness. as I started searching around I found more and more chunks of ice towards my right. as I was searching around I came across something that was somewhat cold but didn't feel like ice. after touching around it it felt soft to the touch with a layer of cold cloth draped around it. if my guess is correct, it is a human body.
I freaked out and jumped backward "Tobi I think I found something that I shouldn't have found and from the cold touch it's most probably not alive anymore" as I was freaking out in the corner a light growl came from the direction of that body.
"ugh", as I heard that noice I saw the cold body start moving and trying to stand up. looking and it standing up I freaked out "Tobi, it seems that our lives were short and I will be zombie chow in awhile, as there isn't anything around that I could use as a weapon" but suddenly it hit me, Tobi was a rock. I took Tobi out and positioned myself "I will remember your sacrifice, Tobi" but before I could do anything the person standing before me started talking.
"ugh, what is going on? where is this place?" the person that I assumed was dead, started talking and if I remember correctly this voice belonged to the cocky girl that I was talking to before the explosion happened.
"you see... I have no clue either" as I said that I stealthily put Tobi back in my pocket, "can't let her know I was gonna knock her out with a rock" I talked to myself after replying back to her.
"now that I remember, there was some kind of explosion before I lost my conscience" as she talked to herself while ignoring me, she started freaking out at the realization that something really bad had happened.
"no need to freak out, let's calmly look around and figure out, what actually happened" I tried to calm her down while looking around the surrounding once more. when I initially woke up, everything was in the dark. but as a little time went by, there was some light coming in from the left side. it seems I woke up before the Dawn and sun is coming up slowly. now that there was some light in the cave like area that I was in, I could see around better.
"umm" she also nodded and we started looking around to see what was actually going on. after looking around for a bit, it appears that we were in a cave filled with ice shards littered around the floor and a bunch of roots hanging off the ceiling. by the time we were done looking around all the ice shards had evaporated into nothing, not even leaving behind water puddles. this was something that was very weird, as after ice melts it should leave behind some water but there was none. and now that I thought about it, the ice wasn't actually that cold to begin with, otherwise the temperature of the cave should be far below what it was now and we both would be shivering in the cold. I will just call this ice as "not so icy ice".
after we were done looking around, we moved towards where the light was coming from, there was barely a small hole 1 feet wide hole from where the light was coming from.
"this looks like a small cave with nothing inside of it except for those weird ice shards, I have no clue how we came to this location from the lab but we should find a way to go back and look for our parents, they might be worried sick" as she said that she moved towards the small hole that was on top of what appeared to be a land slide.
"yeah, but before that we should first find out where we exactly are before anything else. anyways, my name is Ralph, Ralph Davis." as I said that I also went towards the hole.
"my name is Lily, surname wilson" as we both introduced ourselves we finally reached the hole. it wasn't too big, but it was big enough to squeeze our way through it.
"I will go outside first" as lily said that she quickly went through the hole. after she was through I also climbed out of the hole, even though it was tight I was able to somehow do it.
after getting outside and looking around I was stunned, thoroughly so. we were standing in a jungle and not only any jungle but a jungle so dense it was hard to see more than 30 meters in front of ourselves in any direction. after looking at the jungle I looked back at the hole that we crawled out of. hole was on the side of what appeared to be a small hill on top of which grass was growing on with a bunch of other shrubs and bushes.
I had never seen any of these plants before, even though I was very interested in gardening and had seen a lot of plants, I could not identify any of the plants growing on the hill. now that I looked around the jungle there wasn't a single plant that I knew of previously. feeling that something was off I asked lily " do you know any of the plants that are growing around us?"
hearing my question lily also looked around, but the more she looked the graver her expression became, "no, none of their characteristics match with the plants that I know of"
as we were talking, a loud roar came from the jungle. hearing that roar that came from far away but was so loud that it almost felt like it came from a few meters away, the color of our faces drained as we came to a conclusion that we might be in a far worse situation than we previously thought.
I quickly reached for lily's hand and dragged her with me farther away from the direction that the roar came from. " we should first move to a safer location before sightseeing" as we ran farther away from the roar I noticed that Lily's hands were no longer cold, though they were not as cold as before they are still a little off than normal body temperature.
"lily why are your hands cold?" as I said that, lily came to herself and said with a huff "my hands are not cold, rather it's your hands that are a bit too warm" after she said that, I laughed at her red face while we continued on our way to find someplace where we might be able to spend the night without having to worry about getting our faces eaten while we sleep.
after running for a long time we came to what appeared like a side of a mountain with a small well hidden cave entrance with a stream of water flowing not too far away from the cave entrance.
"this location seems like a good place to camp for tonight, it is well protected and the cave is neither too big nor too small with a fresh supply of water nearby. let's collect some dry wood and try to make a bonfire" after saying that we both nodded at each other before foraging for stuff that was useful.