PositivumQuestae
|• thank you for all your support •|

"Help!" Elizabeth screamed as she tried to float on the water. "You bunch of sadistic maniacs!"

Juniper and Lyra sniggered as Wes, River, and Lincoln guffawed hysterically. Elizabeth had annoyed River who decided to push her into the 'river' as punishment. At first Lyra screamed but Wes assured her that the water wasn't deep as they could see the surface below. They all waited for Elizabeth to realise that she wouldn't drown, but the girl didn't have a single ounce of trust in them, which made Lyra laugh louder.

The little girl they had ran into, Martha – that was what she told them her name was – had explained how she lost her friends at a rockslide near the eastern side of the valley. She didn't know if they were all dead or if they managed to escape. She had a blank expression, neither did she care if Elizabeth drowned. Martha showed a suspicious interest in Lincoln which made Lyra squirm for a reason she didn't know.

"Please..." begged Elizabeth.

Lyra walked forward and pouted, "Come on, guys. Save the maiden in distress." Unfortunately, her words made them crack up, even more, she had only wanted them to help. "Guys! Act civilised!" Lyra laughed at her own words and bent down to help Elizabeth. "Come on, girly."

Elizabeth looked like at Lyra like she had been offered the world and not a hand. "Thank you, Lyra!" She hugged Lyra tightly after Lyra hoisted her out, her wet body against Lyra's dry skin; it felt good.

"Aww, no problem. But Elle, you would have never drowned, I can see the surface below." Lyra tried not to laugh as she pointed it out. Elizabeth glanced at the river and bit her lip in embarrassment, her cheeks went red.

"I knew that." Elizabeth uttered and stormed into the tunnel. River and Lincoln laughed harder, clutching their stomachs as they leaned on the trees.

"Come on." Giggled Juniper as she followed Elizabeth. Lyra waited for everyone to go in, she preferred being last. I was a follower, not a leader, something mum would disagree with.

Lyra lit her portable lantern which she had made with Emma using a matchstick as Wes held out a ball of light, some sort of device he probably scavenged up.

"Eww," He screeched, making Lyra jump and drop her stick.

"What?" Lyra growled.

He looked at me with disgust. His expression suddenly made Lyra feel very self-conscious.

"There's a clash here, between modern and old. Fire? Like, we have these cool devices and you light a fire?" He rolled his eyes and smirked. There was another outburst of laughter, Lyra knew for a fact it was all because no one wanted to think about the previous night, it could have been any of us, anyone would have been dead.

"Well, Mr David." Lyra tried to keep the mood light, though her heart finally understood their childish behaviour. "If you didn't have all this... technology, you'd have to live with this." Lyra picked up her lantern whilst cursing under her breath and walked further in.

The eerie silence buzzed in her ears, she had developed a sort of paranoia of silence, the stillness erecting goosebumps up her arms; the shadow of noise reminding her of the shunned and oppressed; the deadly darkness made it more menacing, more perilous.

"Wait," Martha harshly whispered. Her tone held a flicker of greed, but Lyra ignored it. "Look at this." Martha held a small rectangular object in her hand. It was a silver rectangular object with a hole at the top, or at least what Lyra thought was the top.

"What is it?" Lyra asked as Martha played with it using her fingers. As Martha pressed the left side another tiny rectangular slip came out. A gasp escaped Juniper's lips as she took it from Martha's hands. Lyra saw the corners of Martha's lips curve in annoyance. Martha liked the object, whatever it was, and Lyra was clueless as to the reason.

Juniper examined it with her piercing, navy blue eyes. "It's a USB." She said.

"A what?" Lincoln spoke my mind.

Juniper glanced at Wes for support, who in return shrugged.

"A Universal Serial Bus." Juniper said. Her understanding of the world surprised Lyra, but for once, Lyra doubted Juniper was right.

"Bus?" River sniggered. "You have finally, officially, become an imbecile!" Wes slapped River's shoulder and laughed too.

"Good one, man." Lincoln joined them.

"Shut up!" Juniper screamed, her outburst scared Lyra as well as the boys, even Martha. "This is a type of interconnection port which can be used to connect equipment to a device." Lyra could hear the sophistication in her tone, the element that made her like Justin. If the Hunter hadn't scorched the plains of their world, if it hadn't hunted them down, Juniper could've been the leader of the world. "Sometimes, it even stores data. This one has data!" Juniper's enthusiasm baffled them, they had no clue what excited her so much.

"Guys!" She chirped. They stared blankly at her. "Guys! This is exciting news! This means we might discover something."

"Ohh." Lyra tried to show some interest, however, Lyra hadn't succeeded.

"It's fine, I'll show you guys when I've decrypted everything. You guys don't know because this is an object from the past, something we used before the Bio revolution." Juniper went on. That explained it more, Lyra had given up history at the age of eleven, and she didn't know much nor did she remember anything.

"What's this?" Lincoln pulled out a blue crystal from the wall. A sudden roar echoed throughout the tunnel. They all ducked down and embraced themselves for whatever was to come. Surprisingly, nothing happened.

"We should go now, I don't like it here." Elizabeth ushered us forward.

—

Covered in debris and sweat, they reached a closing at the end. They had walked for a few hours, taking two small breaks in between.

"What the heck?" Wes heaved a tired sigh. "It's blocked."

Lyra budged past Martha and Lincoln to inspect what Wes was pointing out. The rocks were all crumbled and jagged, overlaying each other. She saw peeks of light on her right, suggesting an exit. The rocks were the same ones she had seen at the top of the tunnel before they entered.

"Lincoln did this," Lyra said as she turned around with a stone in her hand. "When he pulled the blue crystal, he caused the rocks to crumble down at the exit," Lyra explained. "It must have been holding some of the stones in place. I did see Lincoln struggle to pull it out when he did. It all makes sense."

Lyra saw Lincoln back away a few steps, she saw worry wash over his face as he searched hers for help.

"But!" Lyra quickly added, "We can try and push this out." Lincoln smiled gratefully at her approach. "Chop, chop let's get to work."

—

It wasn't easy. They tried various methods, pushing harder than they had ever pushed. River's anger took the best of him, he had punched the rocks and split his knuckles. Lyra helped bandage it up, his blood staining her hands; its red colour bringing back images of a bloody Emma. Lyra shook the thought out of her head and concentrated on his knuckles.

"It's no use." Juniper sat on a rock opposite us as she spoke. "It won't budge, we need hands made of rock." Juniper giggled at her herself, probably in fear. Lyra knew for a fact that Juniper didn't like being trapped somewhere for too long. The others joined them, plopping down on random rocks, their faces masked in debris. Lyra passed around a bottle of water and drank some herself, the liquid cooled her boiling insides.

They sat in a hopeless silence, their minds drifted away to different places. Lyra knew Juniper was missing her brother Justin, just like Lincoln and her were missing Emma. River had his eyes closed, his teeth chattering in pain. Wes had his head on Elizabeth's shoulder whilst she leaned on the rocks behind her head. All of them seemed scared, except Martha.

"Martha? You okay?" Lyra asked.

She nodded. "He's coming."

"Who—"

The rocks began to jostle, they fell out of their place, someone was pushing the rocks from the other side, whoever it was; they were strong. They all backed away slowly, watching the rocks tumble down as they revealed the way out.

"Adam?"

"No time to explain."

—

I believe it was one of the longest chapters I've written.

Thoughts?

What do you think of Adam and his 'power', his strength?