The third roar echoed, making everyone cover their ears as the echo was painful and intensified the sadness they were feeling. As the echo faded, the sadness faded with it.
The roar made the inside of the mountain unstable, and the shaking worsened. Huge stones started falling, breaking off from the walls.
"We need to find a way out of here now!" Dex said.
Still shaken up by the zombie woman, wiping her tears, Chloe turned around.
"Over here," she said, and the group turned to her, seeing a pathway in the walls, a tunnel.
"We don't even know where it leads. We can't just go in there," Ethan protested.
"You got any better ideas, wise guy?" Nia chimed in.
"Let's just go. We don't have a choice," Dex declared.
The falling rocks increased in number and size. The crew started running toward the pathway.
"Ethan, watch out!" Dex yelled, jumping and pushing him out of the way, saving him from a bunch of falling rocks.
"DEX!" Ethan yelled as Dexter was about to be smashed by the rocks he'd just saved him from.
A green light appeared above Dex, blocking the rocks. The rocks hit the green shield and fell to the side.
"A f*ckin' force field? Dude, that's awesome!" Ethan said, amazed by Dex's power.
"No time to be amazed. Let's go!" Dex yelled, running. Ethan quickly got up and started running with Kareem and Marquis following behind. Nia was right behind Chloe, trying her best to dodge the falling rocks, occasionally getting cover under the trees.
As for Chloe, she was walking, showing no sign of even trying to dodge the falling rocks. Nia looked up, and the falling rocks above Chloe bumped into each other, falling to her sides, some even seemed like they just avoided her.
"How is she doing that?" Nia asked herself and proceeded to run for her life.
Chloe was the first to reach the pathway, followed by Nia, Dex, Ethan, Kareem, and Marquis. As soon as Marquis jumped into the pathway, the falling rocks blocked it and covered almost the entire garden. If the group had stayed, they would have all died.
When the rocks finally stopped and the group couldn't hear any shaking, they stopped and gasped for air.
"Let's keep moving, guys. I don't want to spend another second inside this freaky mountain," Dex said.
The group started moving through the tunnel pathway, and the stones on the walls seemed dimmer than the last ones they'd seen. They kept moving.
"What kind of monster roars like that?" Kareem asked.
"I couldn't help but feel sad and cry," Ethan added.
Dex ignored them, not wanting to look weak in front of his crew. He didn't want them talking about how he'd cried.
"That was the saddest thing I've ever heard. What do you think happened to it?" Nia jumped in.
The crew spent a few moments discussing the sad roar, then the tunnel pathway started getting bigger and bigger as they walked.
They kept walking for a while, then suddenly came across the biggest bird nest they'd ever seen. It was the phoenix's nest.
"What the heck?" Kareem said, shocked by the huge nest.
Knowing who the nest belonged to, Dex quickly declared, "We need to keep moving as fast as we can and get the heck out of here before it comes back!"
The crew saw light ahead of them. They quickly started walking around the nest, and a few meters away, they were out of the tunnel. They looked down and quickly realized that they were standing where they'd met the phoenix the last time. They were standing in the pond, but all the water was gone, and the waterfall had disappeared without a trace. The sun was already up when they made it out, it was morning.
"I guess Marquis was telling the truth, huh?" Kareem said.
"Future sight? That's a waste of a wish if you ask me," Ethan said, unimpressed by Marquis's wish.
They looked forward and were shocked. The mountain had changed.
"What the heck happened here?" Dex asked.
The mountain had turned into a regular mountain. All of its majestic animals, creatures, and beautiful sights were gone. The trees had become normal trees, and some huge trees had withered.
"It's like it lost all of its magic," Marquis said, following behind the crew.
Dex walked in front of the group, his eyes moving around the mountain, shocked by the change.
"Did we do this?" Kareem asked.
"Get your sh*t now! Don't leave a single thing. Let's get the f*ck out of here!" Dex declared.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" Nia asked.
"We need to get the heck out of here before someone comes to investigate the sudden changes to this damn mountain. We don't want to be here when they show up," Dex continued. "So get your sh*t and let's go. Don't leave a single thing."
"Marquis, get your ass moving. Now!" Ethan yelled while Marquis was busy being shocked by the changes. Marquis quickly started moving.
"Let's f*ckin' go, guys!" Dex yelled again, and the group started hiking down the mountain in a hurry to leave.
It took them some time, but they finally reached the bottom and sneaked past the hole in the fence, moving as fast as they could.
Marquis quickly turned his phone on and saw at least twelve missed calls from his dad. He ignored them and called Tommy.
"Where the heck are you, dude?" he asked.
Tommy replied, telling Marquis that he was almost there.
"OK, hurry up," Marquis said, then ended the call.
"What kind of people do you work with, kid? Your driver's not here yet. Where the f*ck is he?" Dex asked, frustrated.
"He said he'll be here soon," Marquis answered.
The group started walking through the grass fields, which had gone from super green to dried up overnight. When they were about to reach the road, Dex stopped.
"Get down, hurry up!" he signaled. In front of them, five black cars were passing by, speeding toward the ruined majestic Evergreen Mountain. The group crouched down, hiding in the grass, watching the cars pass by. As soon as the cars had passed, they hurried onto the road and carefully waited for Tommy's van to arrive.
"Where the f*ck is this guy, Marquis?" Dex asked.
"There he is!" Marquis yelled, seeing a white van in the distance heading toward them.
As soon as Tommy parked the car, the group quickly scrambled in.
"Go! Go! Go! Drive! Let's get the f*ck out of here!" the group yelled at Tommy, and he quickly made a U-turn and sped off back to NA (Neo-Age) City.
After a while of driving, the group finally reached the city and were greeted by the huge buildings, beautiful billboards, and different cars, mostly electric.
"Phew! We are finally home, man," Ethan said, happy and relieved they'd made it out alive from the mountain.
Soon, they reached their neighborhood, and Kareem, Ethan, Dex, Nia, and Chloe hopped out.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot to ask, what happened out there? You guys seemed flustered," Tommy asked.
"It's none of your f*ckin' business," Dex replied, walking away with his crew.
When they arrived at their homes, they were all very tired. When Marquis went inside his house, no one was home, and the house was a mess. It seemed like his parents had left in a hurry. He quickly made his way to his room and started doing the group project Miss Chiedza had given them.
Kareem said goodbye to his friends and made his way into his house. His mother was sitting on the chair, waiting for him.
"Where were you? Where did you sleep last night?" she quickly bombarded him with questions.
He kept walking toward his room like he didn't see her.
"I was out camping with my friends," he said, walking up the stairs toward his room.
"And you didn't think to tell me? Kareem! I'm still talking to you!" she yelled, but all she got was the sound of Kareem slamming his door. He took off his shoes and fell on his bed, instantly falling asleep.
The same went for the rest of the crew, when they got to their houses, they instantly went to sleep.
Nia reached the gate of her house and went to the back, pulled out a key from her pocket, and opened the door. She was renting one room at someone else's house. She pushed her door open, revealing a messy room with one small bed, a two-plate stove on the floor, a table with a laptop on top, and a suitcase where she kept her clothes. There was also a nail in the wall where she hung her clothes and an iron under her bed. She walked in and closed the door behind her, standing in the dark for a few minutes before sighing and turning the room light on. She took one step, and the sound of papers being crushed echoed.
She looked down and saw a bunch of letters. She picked them up and saw that they were from her father, and her face turned ugly. She threw them under her bed, fell top, and sadly drifted to sleep.
After a few hours, it was finally nighttime. Tommy was at his small apartment when his landlord banged on his door.
"Tommy, I want my rent money. It's been three months, and if I don't get my money by the end of this week, you're out!" the landlord yelled.
Tommy sighed, counting the money he'd gotten from Marquis for driving them to and from the mountain. It wasn't enough to even feed him for a week.
"How am I going to pay this hag?" he thought, sitting down on his couch wearing boxer shorts and a white tank top. He turned on the TV, and it was the news.
"The world's first wonder has changed overnight. Its magical creatures and beautiful scenery have disappeared, and no one knows how that's even possible. Our experts were at the scene earlier, and here's what they found," the news anchor said.
Tommy raised an eyebrow, realizing that was where he'd dropped off Marquis and his friends. He quickly increased the volume and continued watching.
"We've found footprints at the back of the mountain and a hole in the fence that was meant to keep people out. The perpetrators sneaked in, and we don't know what they did when they went up there. We found their traces up there, but we don't know who they are, yet."
"Bingo," Tommy smirked.
He muted the TV as the landlord's footsteps faded. On screen, a blurred photo of footprints appeared, his tires had left tracks too.