"Get up the sun's about to set."
Alpha, woken up by a loud voice and vigorous shaking, tiredly opened his eyes to be meet by a braided young woman, whom in his book was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met.
He sat up only to find his teacher moving on to the next student. They'd traversed the forest or rested on the uncomfortable path for a whole night, this being the sole reason why soon as everyone ate their fill and hit a comfortable spot they went straight to sleep.
Looking up at the sky, the sun was already setting and the red moons were somewhat coming to view.
Standing, he gazed around only to find most of his classmates either yawning, waking up or confused as to why their teacher would be in their room waking them up.
"Wow, it's almost nighttime." One of the kids said.
"But I'm really thirsty." another added.
"You too?"
"I think I can do something about that"
With that statement everyone instinctively turned their heads towards the kid behind the voice.
Alpha gazed curiously at Ciru who after declaring that, bent down and began looking for something on the ground.
Picking up a stick that laid beside her foot, Ciru walked towards one of the tree before her and thrusted her right hand, that held the stick, towards the tree and immediately after a jet of water shot from the point of contact.
For an instant her right's hand fingers turned to a red liquid then back to normal. And although she seemed to notice the slight change, she later thought of it as deja vu.
"How did you know?" Mrs Taiyo asked, surprised by this.
Though before she had the chance to say anything, Margret who now curiously gazed at her intercepted.
"Let me guess, a hunch?" She asked with a flat tone.
"Maybe" Ciru answered with a bit of annoyance.
"Is it safe?" Alpha asked.
Ciru didn't answer him, instead she grasped her hands tightly forming a bowl and drained the water in her hands before gulping it down.
After drinking to her satisfaction, she moved back a little to give way to the rest of her classmates.
Billie was the first to break out of the daze, he walked towards the jet of running water, repeating the same process as Ciru had done, and greedily gulped it down.
Seeing this, Alpha also approached and gulped it down to his satisfaction.
After eating the roasted meat everyone one was now twice as thirsty.
"Make a proper line. We still have some time before the sun completely sets." Mrs Taiyo ordered to the kids who'd now started pushing each other for a chance to drink the water.
"What if it runs dry?" Margret asked, not bothering to make a line.
"It won't. It's the same as the fire Mercy had started. It'll run dry after fulfilling it's purpose." Dan who'd watched everything transpire from the sidelines said.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Neither Margret nor Mrs Taiyo knew what to say, since this morning Dan seemed to have predicted some things, and not once was he wrong.
He assured them that the cowboy won't show up when the sun was up. And even after they finished roasting the meat Mrs Taiyo and Mercy had tried to put out the fire but failed miserably, that was when Dan assured that it was gonna go out by itself, and sure enough after a minute the fire went out.
So none of them really had an argument to make, they just watched everyone drink their fill before following suit.
Dan also drunk his fill, and just like he'd said, the jet of water died down almost as if it was never even there.
Despite acting cool when somethings he'd said turned out to be true, Dan felt a stinging pain at the back of his head, though not as sharp. But this time it didn't stop with a slight headache, on his face, at the right side of his forehead an unnoticeable grey patch appeared.
....
"Let's go back. " Looking at the sky and the sun that was almost setting giving way to the four blood moons, Mrs Taiyo ordered.
No protest arose from the kids_not like any of them would, following her, they all walked towards the path.
"Are you gonna carry them like that throughout the journey?" Mercy asked, glancing at her teacher then Billie who both had remains of the roasted meat in hand.
"Yeah won't they go bad?" Ciru, adjusting the flame of her glasses, added.
"Well, we can eat it tomorrow. I don't really think we'll be so lucky next time." Mrs Taiyo said.
"Better safe than sorry." Billie added while bitting off a chuck.
"Don't you ever get full? At this rate you're gonna be plump before we even have the chance to exit the forest." Tony said teasingly.
'Hahaha'
The kids broke out into laughter, lightening the mood.
It's nice. I wish the whole journey would be this peaceful Alpha, with a twitch, stepped on the skull path.
"We'll walk for two hours then rest?" Mrs Taiyo pointed.
...
"Here."
"Who told I needed it?" Margret asked Alpha who held his green jacket in his outstretched hand.
"Hold on to it for me." Ignoring her question he insisted.
Everyone except her and Mrs Taiyo, had their jackets on, but looking at Mrs Taiyo, she seemed fine without her's where else she was here fidgeting like someone who'd just been electrocuted.
"I don't need it."
"I now." Alpha just brushed her wishes, placed the jacket around her neck then dashed to catch up with the group.
"Idiot" she whispered, before putting on the jacket and shooting forward.
....
"How long do you think we've walked for?
"I don't know maybe an hour."
Huh! But I'm already this tired, it's gotta be more."
"Why don't you ask teach then"
"It's been 45 minutes." Interrupting the two boys that supposedly walked before them at the back of the group while arguing, Ciru said folding her right jacket sleeve and revealing a purple watch.
"No way, all that walking only amount to 45 minutes?" The first boy asked, clearly surprised by the revelation.
"Another hour and we'll rest" Mrs Taiyo declared, though the two boys,not really heeding the comment, had their mouths agape with disbelief. Not only were they surprised, but every kid that looked towards their teacher, or more like what she held in her hand, showed different kinds of expressions
"How long have you had that?" Margret was the first to break the silence.
"Huh! (...) Mrs Taiyo was a bit confused about what she could've meant or why the rest of them had surprised or furious reactions.
"Yeah, why haven't you called anyone?"
"Maybe someone could rescued us."
"They could've even saved Lucy."
With their outburst, Mrs Taiyo's expression seemed to soften as she'd understood what they were referring to.
Alpha just watched as the scene unfolded, even if this wasn't one of the horror films he'd watched, he kinda had an idea why she hadn't called. One was that there was no way a cell could've contained service in the middle of a forest, and the obvious one being that they were no longer on earth.
Looking at her hand, she nodded in understanding before beginning her explanation.
"I've already tried couple of times, there doesn't seem to be any service around here, and the 911 call isn't going through."
Immediately after she woke up and observed the unfamiliar territory, her first and obvious reaction was to call for help.
She called the 911 more times than she cared to admit and every time she did the call wouldn't go through. Doing it couple of times she decided to just give up and try again when they got out of the forest.
"Why don't you call again?" Calming down a little, Margret asked.
"Well the battery is running low, and I think it'll manage five more calls, and we can't waste one in the middle of the forest where it's a certainty that it won't go through." She paused for a moment, looked at the gazes that were waiting for some kind of plan to get off this cursed place, "I'll call again once we get out of the forest."
Margret was about to protest, but seeing that everyone was satisfied with the teacher's plan she just signed and started walking.
The kids, after hearing about a plan that could maybe save them, brightened. Driven by the tiny string of hope, they matched forward.
"What do you think?"
"About what?" Alpha asked Ciru, who for some reason insisted on walking beside him.
"About the whole calling thing, Do you think it's gonna work?"
"How should I know?"
Trying her best to remain calm she added
"I know you don't, I just asked for your take."
Alpha and Ciru had grown up in the same neighborhood and their families were abnormally close which ultimately made them close since they were toddlers _ well kind of.
"I don't think it's gonna work?" Alpha answered with an annoyed tone.
(...) Ciru was somewhat shocked by his answer which led her to swallowing what she was about to say.
He wasn't really lying when he said it wasn't gonna work. Maybe it was the amount of horror films he'd been exposed to that influenced his thinking, but he didn't really wanna risk putting his hopes up and be let down in the worst way possible.
"What do you think is gonna happen if it doesn't work?" Walking behind them Tony asked, after listening in on their conversation.
"What else, we try to survive, figure out the mysteries behind this world and go back" Dan who walked beside his friend answered.
"This world?" Ciru asked puzzled.
"Don't tell me you still think we're on earth?" Surprised, Tony asked.
"Aren't we?" One of the kids in front countered.
Those close to them also had surprised faces.
Alpha was also stunned, not because of the revelation that they were on another world, he kinda knew that, the reason he was surprised was because of the number of his classmates that still thought they were on earth.
Like how was that even possible. He understood Ciru, she was a bit of an airhead, and also optimistic which had maybe lead her to convince herself that the addition moons were some kind of a reflection_or something close to those lines. But the rest of them, like how would there be literally four blood red moons in the sky and still think that it's earth.
Dan was confused so he just answered plainly
"No"