CHAPTER 9
CHERRY'S POV
I felt much more relieved by the next morning but I could still feel pains from the ant bites from yesterday. It is 7:00am and all of them are still asleep. We all agreed yesterday that today we were not going to those freaky pathways; we were going to use today to restore and revive ourselves. I freshened up then went downstairs to the field, the walls had already gone down but there was something strange about the sun, it is as if the sun got dimmer, it is not shinning as bright as it was yesterday. The whole environment looked darker than yesterday.
"Strange" a voice said behind me
I turned back it was Skye "Hey Skye", he didn't answer as usual, he just kept a straight face then sat down on the warm grass so I joined him.
"Yesterday was a rough day huh" I asked, he didn't answer. I got pissed up
"I know you don't want to have any girlfriends apart from your sister but we're team mates at least for once we should try to communicate and put our heads together, you know?" he didn't answer
I just felt stupid, I told him "What's the use, you won't even budge, but anyways I'll just keep talking to you until to reply me someday".
I continued "So, let's talk about the pathways, I thought they were called pathways of mayhem because of the piercers but it's because of the spiders, insects and reptiles"
"Me too" he said
"Wait, did you just talk to me"
"Don't make me regret it"
"Really?"
I continued "She's really wicked, she didn't even tell us about the death that awaited us even in the daytime"
"Maybe she didn't remember"
"Just that single mistake almost killed us"
"Yeah, you're right, and now we don't know the reason why the sun suddenly became dimmer"
"I think it has to do with something that happened yesterday"
"But what could that be" I looked at the pathway in front of us, trying to examine it carefully.
Skye, there is something weird about that pathway that our team took. It's shaped like an F a capital letter F check it. Skye looked at the pathway
"That's true, let's check the others"
We looked at the four other pathways "I got R, S", I said
"And I got E, A" Skye said "let's try to put the words together"
We entered inside got a paper and a pen, then we sat down on the floor in the sitting room, I took the pen, then I wrote on the paper F R S E A
Skye shakes his head "This doesn't make sense, give me let me try" I gave him the pen, he puts down "E A R S F".
"This too does not make sense" I said "let me try again, so let's see" FEARS "fears?" he said looking confused "fears" I repeated the word to myself "it all makes sense"
Skye looks at me "what are you talking about?"
"FEARS"
"You must be crazy, is it the ant bites"
"No silly, FEARS"
"What are you guys talking about?" we turned around, it was Rose
"Rose you are awake" I said
"Yeah, that bee stung me real bad down to my brain"
I laughed but Skye didn't
"So what are you guys talking about" she asks' again
So I told her "you won't understand until you go out and check it out yourself". I told her everything she needed to look out for. As soon as she left, I explained everything to Skye. After ten minutes, she came back and sat down on the floor too "so the pathways spells FRSEA ?" she asks
"If arranged it spells FEARS" I said
She looks at Skye and looks at me "FEARS, what is that supposed to mean"
So I said "it means that the pathway takes in our fears"
"What do you mean" Rose asks.
"Remember yesterday those insects that attacked us, the effect of them are measured by our fears, how painful their bites or stings or venom will be. They are all measured by our fears, that's why the pathways are dark because we were afraid"
Skye shakes his head "Before are we not meant to be afraid? Are we supposed to stand there and let those things devour us, no matter what, they are dangerous insects and we'll feel their stings and bites there is no how we won't be afraid".
"What are you guys chattering about", we turned our back, Jeremy, Bloom, Blaze, Stacey and Tasha, Tania and Ferdinand just woke up.
"What are you guys talking about" Jeremy said again
Skye stood up "Sorry dude, did we wake you guys up"
"Yes, you did"
"We're sorry" I said
Bloom comes to meet me "What are you guys talking about?"
"Rose can you do the favors of explaining the whole situation to them"
They all sat down and Rose told them everything that we figured out.
"So what have you come up with" Jeremy asks me.
I try to explain more "You know, lady Jane said that this is a test, and everything that happens we'll feel it and eventually die if we've been killed."
"So what's next?" Stacey asked
"I think in this kind of test we will have to fight other bad guys before we'll meet the boss"
I proceeded "Those insects are like the bad guys and the PIERCERS are like the higher bad guys and lady Jane and her co-workers are the bosses or something like that and if we're afraid of their servants anytime we face them, the sun will keep becoming dimmer until we won't be able to tell the difference between morning and night and that will be on the last day"
Ferdinand grabs Bloom's left arm "Then what will happen, the tension is killing me"
"What will happen is that the walls which comes out in day time and goes in, in the evening time will no longer be able to protect us because there will be no difference between morning and night and the PIERCERS will be able to come here to kill all of us or whatever they do to humans".
Skye nods in agreement.
"There is one thing we haven't tried" Jeremy said
"What's that?" I asked
"Contacting our parents"
"I've tried calling my mom, apparently, there's no network here"
"How many days do we have to stay here?" he asked
Bloom replies "Three days"
Stacey stands up "We have to do something and fast.
CHAPTER 10
WRITERS POV
The next day they got ready, intending to find a way out of the pathways, they each carried things that they could use against the insects and reptiles. By 6:00am the walls went down and they were off.
FLYING EAGLES
As soon as they got to the home of the ants, the ants came out again, this time they carried insecticides, they were using it to kill the ants, but once they spray it on one, it goes down and then stands up again to come after them.
"This is bad, ouch, ouch" Blaze said
Cherry was able to clear a small path for herself and crossed over but she saw that it would be impossible for the others to pass so she told them "Go back, ouch, I'll take it from here"
"But, we can't leave you here ouch, how will you come back?" Blaze said
"When we all go, none of us will be able to come back because the ants won't let us, let me go then you guys should go and find a solution to this ant problem"
"But"
"Come on Blaze don't be a child"
"Blaze let her go, ouch" Bloom said "come back safely okay, we'll be waiting for you"
"I will", cherry looked at Skye waiting to hear something from him, he just said "come on bloom, let's go" he turns bloom and blaze and together, they started going back.
They went back and she continued her journey. Nothing much happened in the other groups, they were not even able to last for five minutes, they all chickened away.
She walked on for two more hours before She finally reached the end, when she came out of the pathway, the place was like a beach with coconut trees, rocks and a long flowing river. She sat down trying to catch her breath from all that trekking; she looked around "What is this place? Lady Jane didn't tell us there was a beach" she said to herself. As she went closer to the ocean, by the right side of the river there was a big rock with a writing on it, it said "DEEP INSIDE THIS RIVER IS THE WAY OUT OF HERE"
She looked at her watch 12:15pm "I'm not going back until I find a way out of here, "Let's go swimming Cherry". She removed her jumpsuit wearing only her black short tight and singlet, she dived into the cold water, swam dipper and dipper until she hit something, something like a big wide glass around the river, she tried using her legs to break the glass so she could swim through but the glass wasn't breaking and she was running out of breath. she looked around and spotted something like a door knob attached to the glass, she opened it, and got sucked through the glass door with some water, and the glass door closed by itself. she went down a slide and dropped on the ground like a ton of brick. When she stood and looked up, she could still see the river and the glass door. "Where am I?" she asked herself, the place was like a very big cave well lighted, the kind of cave that batman uses for his hideout, it was glorious. At a distant end of the cave, there was an opening but there was a huge problem, the cave is divided into two with a precipice in this end and another precipice at the other.
"How am I supposed to cross over, there has to be a way" she told herself
She looked around trying to figure out what she could do. Finally, she found the missing puzzle, by the left side of the slide there was a lever, she ran there and quickly pulled it up and from the ceiling, a wooden bridge was dropped down in the middle of the precipice. She wasn't sure if the bridge was well balanced so she took the lever and threw it at the bridge, the bridge remained strong. she held the rails, shook them excessively but they didn't cut, she became satisfied, she climbed on it and walked across trying not to look down. she was able to safely get across and went straight to the opening which led into a passage. The passage was well lit, she walked through the passage for about twenty minutes, finally she saw a transparent glass door with an inscription that said push, but she didn't push because she could see some people through the glass. she pressed her face against the door, the room was very massive, it was like a communication room, she could see people moving around, they seem to be working on something "I thought Lady Jane said it was only us in this place", she looked at her watch, it was already 2:00pm "oh no if I don't go now then I won't be able to make it before 6:00pm". She started running back, she didn't stop until she got to the slide, with great difficulty she managed to climb the slide. As soon as she opened the glass door water just started gushing in, she managed to get through the door and swam to the surface of the river. When she stepped on land, she wore her jumpsuit and continued running. Bloom, Skye and Blaze had already come out to wait for her at the ant's home as she told them, but they waited for 3hours. She was nowhere to be found, so they threw the insecticide to the other side for her so that when she comes she could help herself with it. Then they headed back to the duplex to wait for her. When Cherry arrived at the ants home, she immediately spotted the insecticide, she then knew that her friends were there earlier so she quickly helped herself with it and started running again. Other students had been waiting for Cherry in the field ever since her teammates came back from the pathways.
Stacey went to meet Skye "do you think she'll make it", he didn't answer. Stacey actually wanted to use this opportunity to start a conversation with Skye but he didn't answer her.
She turned and looked at Bloom and Blaze, their seriousness and facial expression made her know there was no need to ask them because they might give the same answer as Skye.
On the other hand, Cherry was damn tired she could not even feel her feet and it was like her heart and lungs will soon fly out from her chest, she wasn't even breathing well anymore and she had twenty minutes to reach the duplex.
Ten minutes left and cherry hasn't reach the duplex, "come on Cherry you can do it" Blaze said as he kept on looking at the passage. She finally came out from the 1st pathways, "It's Cherry!!!!" Bloom screamed excitedly "come on you can do it", then everybody started cheering her, the walls started going up, "Cherry hurry!!!" Blaze screamed, she increased her pace. As she got to the walls, they had already gone 5 feet tall so she went back and jumped over the wall and landed really hard on the ground, she started panting fast, in few seconds she fainted. Skye volunteered to carry her to their room with the others following him, Bloom was surprised, for the first time Skye is willingly carrying a girl other than her. When they got to the room, he told everyone to go that he'll drop her and come downstairs in a moment, then he closed the door. He removed her shoes and laid her on her bed then whispered to her "I knew you would make it", then he left her in the room to rest. Later on Bloom and Mitchell used ice blocks to rub the soles of her feet because they were swollen. After some hours, it became late so they all went to bed too.