Relocated (Chapter 3)

Several more earth shattering explosions occurred in the distance.

“I guess the drones weren’t kidding, huh?” Cyra said under her breath.

Mitch heard her from the front of the line. “Nope… guess not,” he replied. “There are probably dozens of inactive volcanoes around here too.”

Cyra stepped on a small log covered in algae. It was slippery and she rolled her ankle and it twisted the wrong way. She lost her balance and fell into sludgy water to the left of where she was walking. “Help!” She yelled.

The four of them all tried to grab her before she sunk deeper into the water. Before they could get her all the way back up and out of the water, the eyes of crocodiles rose above the water. They all gasped in terror.

Mitch and Wini grabbed Cyra by the shoulders and started dragging her as quickly as possible. One of crocodiles snapped viciously at Cyra’s calf. She felt the sharp scissor-like teeth pierce her leg and she gritted her teeth in pain, yelling. Mitch pulled up Cyra in a flash of panicked motion. He quickly grabbed a nearby rock. Wini and Skippy also found rocks and broken tree branches and started chunking them wildly at the crocodiles in desperation. Instead of throwing the rock, Mitch took the rock in one hand and slammed it down multiple times on the top of one of the cocodiles heads. The skull of the crocodile cracked just as it’s teeth skimmed the side of Mitch’s head. The rest of the crocodiles slowed down and slithered back into the water. The crocodile with a crushed head was still alive but started to fall down. It snapped at them one more time but then Mitch shoved it away wildly. The muscles in his back were strained from all the frenzied wrestling and he shouted. “Run!”

The three girls helped Cyra as good as they could, as she was limping from the leg injury. The five of them ran through the rainforest wildly, all the while, they hoped they were still heading in the right direction to find the bunker.

“There!” Wini pointed toward a slight clearing. “It’s the mountain!”

“Oh… thank goodness.” Trista said, as she was trying to hold Cyra up.

They forged on toward the mountain base. They finally made it to the mountain base but there were no papaya trees in sight.

“This way.” Mitch motioned for them to follow him. They were all covered from head to toe in mud and algae. Mitch’s face looked rough and Cyra’s leg had been punctured in several places.

Mitch ran ahead as fast as he could run. Their hearts were all racing from the adrenaline rushing through their bodies. Skippy yelled at Mitch. “Slow down! We can’t keep up. The crocodiles aren’t chasing us… they stayed back in the water!”

Mitch didn’t respond to her but ran on through the foliage. “Here! We made it!” Mitch motioned wildly at the girls who were several yards behind him still.

“Oh… thank God!” Cyra’s mouth felt dry as a desert.

Skippy, out of breath, was eyeing the papaya trees that were full of papaya fruit. “Honestly, I’ve never been so glad to see papayas in all my life!”

There was a small waterfall that was gently trickling down near some of the papaya trees. Cyra hobbled over to the water and started lapping up the water in large mouthfuls. “I’m so thirsty!”

The others fell down in exhaustion. Their hearts were still racing.

Skippy slapped Mitch’s back. He winced. “We made it!” She bellowed at him. “Did you just seriously wrestle a crocodile and now you’ve lived to tell about it?”

Mitch had a dazed expression on his face. “That was nuts…”

They sat for a few moments in silence. Each of them then took drinks from the waterfall. They washed the plastered mud, sweat, and algae off of their bodies. Cyra and Mitch washed the blood off of themselves. Wini carefully inspected their wounds. She had just finished her nursing degree in college so she always found opportunities to apply her medical expertise. She looked at Cyra and said, “You’ve always been the tough one.”

“That crocodile almost had you for a snack, Cyra.” Skippy exclaimed. “For a second, I didn’t think you were gonna make it.”

“Yeah, it all happened so fast. And I didn’t know what was happening and even now I’m in shock a bit I think…” Cyra sat still. “Mitch, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked down at the ground. For a moment, he closed his eyes, pretending he was back on the beach. Just a couple hours earlier, he’d been swimming in the ocean water alone, carefree. His plan was to go back to his grandparents house and eat tamales with turkey, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, and sweet peppers. There would have been plenty of rice and fried plantains to share. His stomach growled at the thought of it. He took a deep breath in and could almost smell all the smells. His grandma’s cooking had instilled vivid memories in his mind over the years.

“Catch this!” Skippy chunked a papaya at Mitch. He didn’t look up in time, trying to catch the flying fruit, but instead fumbled it awkwardly. He scooped it up and felt it to see if it was bruised. Skippy laughed.

Mitch wondered how she could laugh and be happy exactly in such dire circumstances. She’s a character, he thought to himself. “Thanks,” he nodded toward her, as he began to peel the fruit.

Skippy supplied each of them with a papaya to eat. It was a bit challenging to get the peel off but they finally did and the sweet flavor of the fruit gave them some energy.

“That was the best and most memorable papaya I’ve ever eaten!” Skippy said as she wiped her lips with her arm. “It makes me think of the old song… I like papayas, mangos are sweet…” she began to sing and then trailed off because no one seemed too amused. “Tough crowd…”

Another explosion went off far away. Trista shuttered nervously and asked, “I wonder what’s in the bunker…” She looked over to where a round metal portal stood in plain sight. They all walked over to the bunker and inspected the three latches holding the round door shut.

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