A/n: EARLY UPDATE!
I will be having (TRYING) to have much more regular updates now . I will be aiming to update once a day to three days, but that will depend on how quickly I can write the chapters. I hope you are all loving this story and actually like it. I try my best and can't wait until it is finished to see the final result!
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter! And check out that song ^^^^ that's my song of the day choice!!!!!!!!

Enjoy! TaylorLeFay

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AND DON'T FORGET TO READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Chapter Seventy Two:

Walking down the sand dune hill was a nightmare.

With every step I was terrified of plummeting straight down. Due to it being very steep, we had to take careful steps, also considering the fact that the sand was not stable and instead with every step I almost slipped due to how unstable the sand was.

Even though from a distance what laid up ahead was quite visible, it was definitely much farther than what I had anticipated it to be.

It took hours before we had reached the bottom of the hill, my legs were on fire. For some reason, it was much harder going down than up. At least up the strengthening in my legs were stable, whereas down I had to constantly tread on tip toes praying that I would not be sent flying.

I felt sweat coat my face like a second skin, and from behind Lucas I saw beads of sweat dripping down his neck from his dark hair. Where I would usually cringe at the sight, it did not bother me anymore.

I knew I did not fair any better.

But when we were on the flat land, my legs relaxed a little in relief and we continued onwards. It again to much longer than I had thought but eventually we approached the dark, wide structure falling deep within the ground.

All around, I could only see golden yellow sand and a sky so blue that it hurt when I looked up for two long. Constantly, my vision was restricted as no matter how much I attempted to protect my eyes, grains of sand kept falling in them and dug deep causing a deep itchy irritation within me that I just could not scratch out.

Eventually, I fell along side Lucas as we approached what appeared to be a huge ravine.

We stepped closer to the edge, the ground now growing rock solid beneath us and stopped a few safe metres from the edge.

We seemed to have found the beginning of one as suddenly the ground parted into a huge hole that fell straight down. Hundreds of metres deep, with a large blue river running along the middle of it.

I was not sure where the water was coming from, but watched in desperation as the dryness in my mouth was reinforced and I watched the water flow for hundreds of metres ahead of me.

There was no possible way to cross the ravine from the left and the right as hundreds of feet separated the large wall of rocks. I took a step closer and quickly paused as I felt rocks shift below me and jumped back as they began to slide downwards into the ravine.

Lucas quickly grasped my arm and scolded me, "Careful!"

I stumbled backwards and we took a few steps further back, well and truly avoiding the edge.

We were silent for a few moments, just staring at the long ravine in front of us and the separation of the two sides, left and right. Since there was no way to go across it, it was evident that we would have to go around it.

I glanced at Lucas who had a distant look on his face, his dark hair was plastered to his head, wet with sweat from the heat. Not that mine faired better by the feel of it.

He glanced towards me and surprisingly smiled, raising a hand he said, "I'm left, your right. Scissors, paper, rock."

I lifted a brow and felt a smile rise on my own lips.

"We are deciding our fate with a stupid game of scissors, paper, rock?"

"Yes," he replied with a wide grin on his face.

I let out a loud laugh as I raised my own hand in front of his.

"Ready?" He questioned and I nodded.

In sync, we both chanted the song and I felt my hand shake as my head hurt from having to make the right decision.

"Scissors, paper, rock."

I felt my hand release and saw that I suddenly clenched my fist into a rock and saw he did the same thing. My eyes flew to his and with the look on his face I giggled as he let out a chuckle.

"Scissors, paper-" We were about to start when I realised that we had left our something really important.

"Wait, wait, wait."

"What?" He asked glancing at me with concern.

I met his electric blue eyes before asking, "Are we doing best of three?"

I watched as he rolled his eyes and scoffed. "You stopped because of that?"

"It's a serious question." He scoffed again. "Then, no, whatever wins first wins."

I nodded and we resumed the game.

"Scissors, paper, rock."

I flattened my hand into paper and glanced at his hand as he formed scissors. I felt my bubble of joy left as I saw that I had lost even though it did not matter which side we went. I just did not like losing.

"Hah!"

Lucas jumped and pointed a finger in my face as he won. He laughed loudly as he pointed at me again and stepped close as he said, "You lose."

"Whatever," I grumbled and began to walk off towards the left as his loud chuckles followed from behind me.

"Stop being a baby," he yelled after me still laughing as the distance between us grew. "I won!"

I shook my head, but what he could not see was the smile that had taken a hold of my face the whole time.

But none of that helped with what was coming up and the full dehydration and starvation that was coming our way.

. . .

The day did not last long as night began to fall hours later. It was quite a struggle considering that we were now fully out of supplies, having no food or water left. And the fact that the ravine just went on and on and on.

Even after spending all day walking along the left side of the ravine, it just kept going and going. We walked at a safer distance from the ravines edge so we would not accidentally fall into it, but kept an appropriate closeness so we would not lose our way. At least this way we knew we were not travelling in circles.

What did not help either was the fact that we were exhausted and have not slept for over twenty four hours. It wasn't like we could, it was too dangerous. But again, it was dangerous enough that we kept moving because our bodies are on the verge of shutting down.

As the night grew, the long sleeve I took off during the day quickly came back on as the cold winds of the night entered the desert making for one of the coldest nights I have ever experienced. In fact, maybe even the coldest even with my families trip to the Snowy Mountains.

It wasn't until well after midnight that Lucas spoke to me after spending hours in silence, trying to keep moving and not tire ourselves out.

"Should we try get some sleep?"

I nodded at his words and as soon as they left his mouth I instantly dropped to the floor unable to move any longer.

He quickly bent over and swore under his breath as he placed a hand under my arm and tried to prop me up.

I shook my head waving him off, "I'm fine," I croaked.

I watched him wince as he sat back, directly in front of me and frowned. Even when he spoke I heard his croak from not being able to eat or drink since we had no supplies.

He shook his head but didn't say more as he very much knew that he was in no better condition than me.

My body ached and I felt my eyelids grow tired as they began to shut but I forced myself awake as I glanced at Lucas propping his head back on his backpack and he slowly slid down, lying his head softly on it.

He winced as his head made contact with something hard in his bag and swore softly. But not soft enough that I didn't hear. I felt a soft smile rise on my face as I whispered into the night,

"Get some rest, I'll keep watch."

I saw him begin to rise and I quickly reached a hand out and placed it on his thigh just above his knee. I felt him tense and freeze and I softly rubbed my hand, my thumb grazing over the side of his leg.

He let out a soft sigh of comfort and I froze at the sound. With a soft nudge, barely noticeable of his knee into my hand, I continued the soft soothing strokes.

"Wake me in an hour."

I nodded and gave him a soft yes even though I knew I would give him longer. In no time he was fast asleep and I was left alone for a while.

I laid back and stared at the night sky. Surprisingly there was no clouds and the moon shone full and bright, luminating the whole sky. I smiled softly as my eyes trailed and trickled over the thousands of little stars I could now see.

The pollution back in the city would not allow me to look at the stars above me as I was now. In fact, they mostly hid behind clouds of pollution, but here, they did not. Instead they were embraced by the sky and I smiled in its comfort.

I was not sure how much time had passed, but as I saw dawn approach I decided it was time to wake up Lucas.

He frowned when he saw it was dawn and went to scold me for waking him too later but I shook my head and lied back down to sleep just for a little bit.

It was not until hours later that I was awoken and we continued our journey feeling the slightest bit better.

Although there was no way to brighten the sullen mood at the amount of dead bodies we began to pass.

I felt fear creep up on me as the hours passed, the more bodies appeared and were clustered together. And what scared me the most was that they were not self inflected, or were done by some creature or beast that was here.

But instead, they were clean kills made my others. Slices of blades, blood all over the sand, and puddles of it both dry and fresh. Multiple bullet wounds trapped within the bodies that left a scary chill travelling through my veins, my blood running cold.

It made me think and worry about what and who we were approaching.