"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Chloe screamed her lungs out, tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked in horror at what was holding her. She locked eyes with it, it looked like a zombie, a rotten walking corpse.
Worms were swimming in its brownish grey flesh, its eyes filled with black veins and its black pupils were staring deep into Chloe's. Its head had a few standing hairs, and a few worms could be seen sticking out and wiggling their way back into its skull.
Chloe started moving her body in a frenzy, desperately trying to wriggle free from its tight grip while she screamed at the top of her lungs in terror, but the creature's hold on her was firm.
"THEY ALL DIED!.....THEY ALL DIED!...THEY ALL DIED!.....THEY ALL DIED!" The creature screamed repeatedly, its scratchy voice growing louder in Chloe's ears. She felt like her eardrums were about to burst.
The creature suddenly stopped and slammed Chloe into the ground. It walked toward her while she crawled, trying to escape. It was wearing a brown dirty rag that looked like it used to be a white dress.
"Please don't kill me, I'm sorry.... Please," Chloe begged. It grabbed her leg, flipping her over onto her back. Chloe was now on the ground, screaming and kicking for her life. The creature was trying to get on top of her and the more she fought, the more aggressive it got. It gave her a hard slap, and her cries echoed before it sat on top of her, holding her down. Greyish-green liquid started to leak from its mouth onto her face. It leaned down, its face directly above hers. Her eyes were shaking in terror. Then the creature leaned forward some more and whispered in her ear, "What do you want?" its voice a bit shaky.
"Please....don't kill me," Chloe cried. The creature's face twisted in disgust as it looked at her. "Leave! Leave! Leave! Leave! Leave!!!!!" it screeched while Chloe screamed.
Then it grabbed her mouth with both its hands, forcefully opened it and puked inside. The greyish-green disgusting liquid flowed from its mouth into hers while she struggled to breathe. Then she came back to her senses, in front of the Phoenix. She started coughing, gasping for air. The majestic animals around the Phoenix just looked at her. She fell to her knees, coughing and puking then stared at the Phoenix with fear in her eyes and started running back to the camp.
While running, she felt like she was never going to reach the camp. Breathing heavily, the bushes, the trees, and the animals all seemed like monsters to her as she sprinted back to the campsite.
Boom!
She bumped into Kareem. She fell to the ground, her eyes teary, fear evident on her face.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay.... it's me, Kareem," he quickly assured her. She got up instantly and hugged him, relieved. She instantly started crying while he held her.
"Hey, it's okay...I got you.... what happened... are you okay?"
"I thought I was going to die," she said, sobbing.
Realizing that she was too shaken up to explain what had happened to her, he didn't press for answers. He kept holding her, letting her cry it out. After a few minutes of crying, she finally stopped and he let go of her.
"You good?" he asked, concerned.
"Yeah... sorry to spook you. That monst...." she froze for a second. "I thought that giant bird was going to kill me," she told him, half lies and half truth.
"Wait... you went back there alone? Chloe, come on, why would you do that?" Concern echoed in his voice.
She was a bit taken aback by the way he was concerned. She looked down. "Can we not talk about it? I don't want to have that kind of fear with me all night... let's talk about something else... please."
Kareem looked at her with concern. "Okay... what do you want to talk about?"
"Anything to help me forget what just happened."
"Kinda badass of you to go back there," he said with a smile.
"Seriously, dude?" she replied, disappointed.
Kareem instantly went into his head. "F*ck! This is tough. Think, Kareem... Think! Don't drop the ball on this one. This is your moment, Kareem.... so shine."
Kareem took a deep breath. "So... you and Dex..."
She gave him a side-eye. "What about us?"
He cleared his throat. "Are you guys feeling each other? Seems like you like each other... you know," he said nervously.
She looked at him and burst out laughing. "What gave you that idea?"
Scratching his head, "The guy obviously likes you... I thought maybe you liked him too."
"Stop!" she said, laughing. "I only like him as a friend, nothing more... okay, doofus."
Kareem was instantly back in his head. "YES! YES! YES! YES! I got a chance. Okay, this is my moment. I got this. It's all me... let's go!"
He licked his lips a bit and started rubbing his hands together with a weird smile on his face.
"Why do guys like doing that? Do you guys think it's cool or something?" Then she burst into laughter.
Kareem looked to the side with a smile on his face, embarrassed. Then he looked back at her. "It's to boost our confidence. Plus, it makes us look badass."
She couldn't help but burst out laughing some more. They continued talking for a few minutes, laughing and enjoying the moment. Engrossed in the fun chatter, they stopped walking when they saw the campsite and continued chatting some more, each of them not wanting to let the other one go.
After a few more moments of talking, they looked at each other.
"Thanks for this, Kareem. I really appreciate you helping me."
After chatting with him for all that time, she felt like maybe she should tell him what really happened with the Phoenix.
Kareem was so happy. "It's OK, Chlo. I'm here for you anytime," he said, grinning from ear to ear.
There was silence for a few moments. Chloe looked down, not knowing how to start telling him about what had happened to her.
Kareem was in his head again. "She's looking down... she's super shy right now... this is it... this is my moment... I've been waiting for this my whole life... my first kiss... I can do this. I'm the man... I got this... it's all me... here we go."
He started licking his lips again with a grin on his face, then slowly walked toward her. He extended his hand, slowly reaching for her waist.
A big head appeared between them. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Ahhhhh!" Chloe screamed.
"Dex, don't do that! You scared the sh*t out of me!" Chloe exclaimed, breathing heavily.
"What in the f*cks is this meat-head doing here... ruining my first kiss... madafaka... I'm gonna get you for this, Dex... you better sleep with your eyes open, bruh... MY KISS!!!!!!" Kareem thought while giving Dex the side-eye.
"Ha ha ha ha... my bad... but I got you though... you should've seen your face, Chloe. You're so cute when scared," Dex said, laughing.
"Seriously, dude, you ruined my mood... I'm going to bed," said Chloe, heading to the girls' tent.
"Come on, Chloe! I'm sorry... Goodnight," said Dex with a smile on his face. He then looked at Kareem with a serious expression in his eyes.
"What were you talking about?" Dex asked. Kareem's heart skipped a beat, he got scared. "I'm f*cked!" he thought to himself.
"Nothing serious, man. I bumped into her while coming from one of the bushes, I was peeing." Kareem's voice was kinda shaky. Dex kept looking at him, jealousy evident on his face.
"We good?" Kareem asked, his heart racing.
"Yes, we are good, buddy," Dex said with a forced smile, then he walked back into the boys tent with Kareem following behind.
"He called me buddy in the same tone he uses on Marquis before beating him up... f*ck! He's mad," Kareem thought to himself while getting into the tent.
He got into his blankets and couldn't help but think about his almost-kiss moment. He giggled a bit before drifting to sleep with Chloe on his mind.
On the left side was Kareem, in the middle was Ethan, who was making rumbling noises with his snoring and on the right was Dex, who was wide awake. He heard Kareem's giggles and looked up, anger evident on his face.
After a few hours, everyone was out cold, enjoying their sleep. In Marquis's small tent, a vibrating sound echoed from his phone.
He opened his eyes and quickly turned it off. He stood up, put on his hiking shoes and warm clothes and slowly exited his tent without making a sound.
He looked at everyone else's tent and listened to make sure they were all asleep. He started walking, making sure not to make any sound.
When he was a few meters from the tent, he sighed in relief, he was now in the safe zone. But before he could take another step, "Where the f*ck do you think you're going?" Dex appeared from behind a tree, his figure looking scary in the cover of the night.
Marquis's face turned ugly with fear, he clutched his fists while standing still. Dex walked over to him, taking slow, deliberate steps.
He reached where Marquis was standing and whispered in Marquis's ear, "I said, where the f*ck are you going?"
Marquis's voice was shaky. "I'm just going for a walk, Dex... I... I swear."
Dex took a deep breath, then cracked his neck bones for intimidation and got in Marquis's face.
"I know you're hiding something, kid. Don't f*cken test me... You think just because this damn mountain has the no-violence rule, I can't do anything to you? I will drag your ass down this mountain and f*cken murder you... Nobody gives a shit about you, so no one will even look for you... Choose wisely, cause my patience is running low. Are you gonna tell me what I want to know, or am I gonna have to f*ck you up? Those are my guys in those tents, I think they'll even help me squeeze your pathetic life out of you," Dex declared, his eyes wide open to scare his prey.
Marquis's hands and legs were shaking, tears were welling up in his eyes. Dex's horrible breath was thrown in his face.
"They're going to kill me... They're going to kill me out here... It wasn't supposed to go this way... Please don't kill me," his thoughts ran wildly.
"Yo, what's going on?" a voice echoed. Dex and Marquis both looked, it was Ethan.
"Bro, wake everyone up, our little rabbit here needs disciplining." Ethan ran back to wake up the rest of the group.
"You're dead, kid," Dex declared.
Marquis fell on his knees, crying. "They're going to kill me... Please, God, no."
The rest of the Untouchables arrived to see Marquis on his knees, crying, dressed in his hiking gear.
"What the f*ck, Marquis! What did you do now.... This f*cken kid," Kareem thought.
Chloe took a deep breath. "What did this idiot do this time?"
"Are you serious right now? If not for these damn mountain rules, you would be dead right now, Marquis... How dare you disturb my beauty sleep," Nia declared, squeezing her hand into a fist, stopping herself from slapping the stupidity out of Marquis.
While Marquis was on the ground, he looked at The Untouchables surrounding him like a pack of hungry predators.
"what's it going to be kid? Dex asked.
When he saw Dex walking towards him, his fear exploded,
"l lied....l lied to you all.....I'm sorry", his words moving fast.
"l....l....l came out here looking for an Orb. Its said to have magic Powers. My dad calls it the Ancient Orb of Power.