Desolation

Chapter Three

A blond haired girl stands up, glaring at me.

"Where'd she come from?" she exclaims

The rest of them just stare at me silently. Wow, I feel very welcome.

"This is Tessa. I found her up in a tree in the jungle. She's one of us," Tristan says.

One of us. Who are we?

A few of the kids smile at me, but the rest of them continue to stare at me as if I have three heads.

"So how many of us are there now? Twelve?" a boy with red hair asks.

Tristan nods. "Six girls, six boys" he says.

"Do you know why we're here?" the blond girl says to me. There is something about the tone of her voice that rubs me the wrong way. There is a hint of menace in her voice.

I shake my head no.

"Great. We're trapped here on this island and no one has a clue where we are or how we got here. I want to go home," she says bitterly.

"Jessica, you think that anyone wants to be here? Of course not, everyone wants to be home. But we're not, so we've got to figure things out here," the red haired boy says to her.

Jessica turns around then stomps away to the water. I can already tell that I do not like her.

"Hey, where did Ian go?" Tristan asks.

"He went into the jungle to look for water," someone replies. Water. It suddenly hits my how thirsty I am.

"There's no clean water?" I ask nervously.

Tristan shakes his head no.

"As of right now, no. But there has to be some source of clean water out somewhere in the jungle. We'll keep looking for it and find it eventually," Tristan says

"It would be nice if we found it before we die from dehydration," Cara, one of the girls says sarcastically.

I suddenly feel dizzy and overheated. The sun is beating down, bright and shining in the cloudless sky. All of a sudden, everything is too bright. I shut my eyes, wobbling slightly.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tristan asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I just need to get into the shade for a little," I say. I need to get out of this blazing sun now.

"How about you go sit in the jungle for a little bit? Just don't go too far," Tristan says

I nod, then turn around and begin to walk back towards the jungle.

"Hey, are you sure that you're okay?" I hear Tristan call out.

I turn around and say yes, even though I am not sure if that is the truth.

As I walk back towards the jungle, I feel everyone's eyes on me, but I don't care. I finally escape the blistering sun when I reach the shade of the jungle canopy. Sitting down on a rock, I rest my head on my knees. Exhaustion immediately creeps into my body and my head begins to pound, like a hammer striking my skull over and over again. I begin to think things through, trying so hard to remember why I'm here and what is going on. But I can't. No matter how hard I try to remember, my memory is still a blank slate.

Everything is just too confusing. Why are we here? Who are these kids? Where are we? Then, something occurs to me that I hadn't thought of before; maybe this is all just a bad dream? Maybe I will wake up in a few hours back in my bed. But something deep and harsh inside of me tells me that this is reality.

Suddenly, I begin to cry. And it's not just crying; it's loud sobs that rattle my entire body. I don't want to be on this strange island with these strangers. I want to be home. The tears spill out uncontrollably from my eyes as I continue to sob, gasping for breath.

Then suddenly, I freeze when I realize that I'm not alone in the jungle.