MCYT RANDOMNESS 2

In Tents, PT 2

PoV: Ren

We only have 1 tent, Martyn's leg is broken, and now Doc's trapped us in here. And my first reaction is human buffering.

'I- just- what the- Doc! Dude! How?!'

'I was zipping it too fast and it broke!'

'Is the other bit still on it, can we unzip that?' Impulse suggests. Skizz nods. Doc tries, and sighs.

'Not doing anything, man...'

Lightning suddenly flashes above us, a growl of thunder showing the storm is right above us. The rain keeps hammering on the tent above.

'Does anyone have a knife? Or anything that could break us out?'

'I... Have flint and steel?' Cub suggests with a laugh of this-is-a-terrible-idea.

'Absolutely not.'

'I wasn't looking to brighten up that way...' Joe grimaces. We all nod.

'Can we just sleep and figure out in the morning? Whatever we do will stop our only tent being usable.' Hypno reminds us.

'Yeah, I just need rest,' Martyn agrees. 'Wake me when it's morning...'

'Will do, dude.' Another flash of lightning. I huddle further into my towel. 'Why does there have to be a storm at the same time...?'

'You do realise we wouldn't be in here, Skizz, if you hadn't gone and messed up the tent construction!' Impulse reminded, throwing his now-soaking towel at Skizz.

'It's not my fault you were hogging the instructions!'

'I wasn't hogging them!'

'You were! I couldn't see anything! And you weren't answering my questions.'

'I was fine on my own!'

'I WANTED to help!'

'Well you DIDN'T!'

'DUDES! Calm down!' I shout. Impulse and Skizz fall silent, glaring at each other.

'There will be a way out.' Joe tries to calm everyone by saying. 'We'll escape this less-than-optimal situation tomorrow, after some sleep.'

'"Less than optimal situation"?!' Martyn repeats, unable to sleep. 'My leg's f***ing BROKEN!'

'Langauge!' Doc scolded. Martyn replies with a middle finger.

'Stick your PG up where we can't see, D*ckM! I'm not waiting all night to get proper medical assistance.'

'Hang on, now,' Cub interrupted as Martyn glared at him. 'I'm the only reason you got any medical assistance, man!'

'You're not exactly medically qualified, Cub.'

'Martyn, time out.' Skizz snapped. 'We need to stick together through this. Ok, homey-buddy? We'll find a way out of here tomorrow...'

The tent lurches, the ground beneath us turning from solid to what appears to be liquid terrifyingly fast.

'What's going on?!' I question.

'The river burst it's banks... The campsite's been flooded.

'Is the tent waterproof?' Impulse asks No one seems to know. Doc observes the broken zip closer.

'We do not want to be submerged like a submarine.' Joe figures. 'Instead of subordinate squabbling, we could subdue ourselves. If we could substitute our suburban holiday canvas for something better, we could subtract sub-optimality from the situation before we submit to the subject of our imminent subconsciousness, subserviently...'

'Anyone want a marshmallow?' Hypno interrupts the Joe Hills Difference by asking. 'I don't know about you, but I'm kinda hungry.'

Cub pulls out the marshmallows, handing out one to everyone, though pausing before giving one to the sulking Martyn.

'Now what?'

It's then that I see the puddle of water on the edge of the tent nearest the broken zip, slowly growing.

'Dudes...'

'Oh s***...' Skizz spots it too. 'Oh no.'

'Skizz I'm sorry for ever shouting at you!' Impulse declares, hugging his friend. I shuffle further away from the flood. Martyn's just swearing over and over again.

'If this tent properly floods, I'm dead.'

'Don't say that!'

'The subtle substance...'

'Joe, just shut up,' Hypno interrupts. 'We need to get out of here!'

'Who can get out first and drag this ashore?'

'We're still stuck in the tent!'

'We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die!' Impulse repeats, joining me in hugging Skizz for emotional support.

'Ok, everyone stay calm and we can get through this,' he calls. 'does anyone have anything sharp?'

Cub, who's been silently rifling through his stuff, pulls out a knife, stabbing the tent side, tearing it open and diving out into the water.

'We're uhhh... in the river?' is all I can hear. There's now a solid layer of wet along the bottom of the tent that Joe and Hypno are desperately protecting the stuff from. Doc's covering the hole with a towel, Cub's clinging to the side of the tent, now soaking wet and requesting assistance. Joe, Doc and Hypno are preoccupied. Impulse is too scared, and needs Skizz for emotional support. Martyn can't do it. So it's me that crosses the slowly sinking tent, crawling through the tear in the side and falling into the water.

'Dude! This is freezing!' I yelp.

'We need to get the tent to the riverside... Somewhere,' Cub calls, scanning the banks I can no longer see. I'm incredibly aware that we're just floating further and further downstream. Or, slowly drowning.

'Which side?'

'This one looks closer.' Cub points right. I nod, and together we start swimming, trying to move the tent that doesn't budge.

'I can't stop the water!' Doc yells inside. 'We need to leave the tent!'

'Our stuff!' Joe protests.

'Our marshmallows!' adds Hypno.

'My F***ING LEG?!' Martyn yells. 'How am I supposed to swim!'

'If more people get out, we'll have more luck moving the tent.' Cub figures. Hypno's first out, Joe following. Then Doc, Skizz, Impulse. Martyn's hanging half out the tent now a foot flooded, face white.

'Oh notch...' he mumbles. 'I can't...'

With everyone else out, we are able to swim the tent to the edge of the river, where Martyn struggles free, into the mud. Doc picks him up, carrying him to the edge as the rest of us wade after. Skizz drags our 3rd ruined tent, and all our ruined stuff, behind.

'Worst f***ing holiday ever...' Martyn grumbles. I nod.

'How are we going to get back to the minivan?' Impulse asks. In the river, the rain was less noticeable, but now it's impossible to ignore.

'It's somewhere up... there?' I point vaguely.  'If we work together, we can get back to the campsite, get the rest of our stuff and... Sleep in the mini-van tonight and drive home tomorrow morning. We've survived the worst.'

'And...' Hypno says. We all turn to him as he pulls out a half-full packet. 'I got the marshmallows.'

The end!