Everyone for Themselves

Chapter 13

"Hey! You'll have to pay for that!" a voice exclaimed from the doorway, but no one had to even turn their head to guess.

Trent stomped through the doorway, looking either pleased with himself or irritated, or maybe both... Serenity couldn't tell.

"What's up, guys? Hope my wake up call worked!"

"WAKE UP CALL?! That was just a WAKE UP CALL?!" Marissa fumed, and for once, Serenity didn't blame her.

"Some wake up call," she muttered.

"Yep, because today is another challenge!" Trent exclaimed joyfully.

"Today, you will be the kings and queens of the jungle!"

"Jungle? What jungle?" Gwen said mockingly. "All I see is a forest."

"Forest, jungle, whatever," Trent mumbled, waving his hand dismissively. "Either way, you all are going to explore it! The challenge is to survive and make it all the way to the top of the hill, and-"

"How does this make us 'kings and queens of the jungle'?" Hunter interrupted. "You should've made us hikers or something. This has nothing to do with the jungle."

"So? Why don't YOU try to come up with a subject for all these challenges!" Trent said exasperatedly.

"I'd do better than you." Hunter muttered.

"Anyway, it starts now! On your marks, get set, G-"

"WAIT! I haven't even packed yet!" Marissa exclaimed.

"Who cares? That's not my problem! GO!"

***

Serenity and Gwen trudged side by side together, trying to block out the other's complaining. Trent had "forgot to mention" that they ALL had to stick together on this. One of them (if it wasn't Trent himself) was the murderer anyway, but Serenity had to admit that they probably wouldn't strike with everyone around.

"Ugh, my feet hurt! How much longer do we have to go?" Marissa whined.

"Umm... Let's see... About... 6 MORE MILES!" a girl with a brown braid said irritably.

A couple boys groaned.

"Why does Trent have to do this to us?" a boy with a sweater vest complained. 

"You know what?" Serenity piped up. "Even though we're all about to die in the same place, I STILL don't know some of your names!"

"Yeah, me neither!" the girl named Quint exclaimed.

"Well, I'm Derek," the boy in the sweater vest said.

"I'm Natalie." said the girl with the brown braid.

"I'm-"

"I don't need to hear ALL of your names!" Serenity laughed. "Just a few. Let's see... I know Gwen, Derek, Natalie, Olivia, Violet, Marrisa, Hunter, Quint, Chrissy, and... Hmm... Roberto and Eric. I think that's it!"

"I'm Yolanda! But please, call me YoYo!" a girl with black hair in pigtails exclaimed.

"And I'm Trevor, and this is Reed." a boy with curly blonde hair said, pointing with his thumb to a boy in a red baseball cap.

"And who are you two?" Serenity asked, pointing to two boys who looked exactly alike.

"I'm Wren!"

"I'm Fain!"

Serenity looked at them, confused, as they both said their names at the same time. "And HOW am I supposed to remember who is wh-"

"Don't even try," Reed muttered, passing her. "It's too weird."

Serenity shrugged and kept walking.

"Ugh, how much LONGER?" Marissa complained.

"Still 6 miles, Marissa. Still 6 miles." Natalie huffed.

Suddenly a scream sounded from behind them, and a bunch of people all whirled around to see who it was.

"IT BIT ME! IT BIT MEEEE...!" a wail sounded from behind Marissa.

Already, a crowd had started to form, but a lot of people jumped back when they saw something Serenity couldn't... A rattlesnake.  

Chrissy ran over to the snake with a cry and picked up a sharp rock, a couple people staring at her, while others were tending to the screaming girl. She stepped on the snake's tail, and stabbed it in the heart. It shuddered, then fell to the ground, staying limp.

"It hurts... It HURTS..." the girl moaned.

"Was it poisonous?" Gwen asked from next to her.

"I think so..." Trevor said sadly.

"No! P- Please don't let me die!" the girl screamed as the crowd parted a bit, revealing the girl Serenity recognized as the girl who had introduced herself as Yolanda. "PLEASE!"

"I'm sorry," Serenity said, placing a tender hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing we can do."

A pang of sadness struck her as Yolanda looked up at her, her eyes slightly unfocused. "W- Why are there three of you?!" she asked, in an obvious state of panic.

A couple people backed away from her, but Hunter and Serenity stayed where they were next to her. "It's Ok," Hunter said softly. "It's Ok."

Serenity knew very well that it was not Ok at all, but her hand did not move from its place on her shoulder, even when Yolanda's head swayed slightly and fell to the ground, even when she moaned and groaned, her leg twitching violently, and even when she finally lay still, and Serenity knew that her time was up.

Hunter sighed sadly and pulled Serenity away. "Let's go. Let's keep going." he said comfortingly. Then he turned back to the rest of the group and announced, "And guys, please... watch out for snakes."

----------

Trent's Comment: Oh, did I ALSO forget to mention the snakes? Yeah... I think I did.  

Oops.