Behind her the noise escalated into a thunderous roar. Jessy looked to her left to see Phillip running beside her. To her right was chandler, also running. Jessy glanced behind them, at the rushing water, getting ever closer and ever louder. Her mind was filled with only fear and panic and survival. Soon the water would catch them, she thought, the wave would scoop them up, like a giant watery hand, and carry them further into the caverns. The trio skidded around a corner, their cloaks flying out behind them, packs being flung to the side, almost tipping them off balance, weapons belts chinking under the roar of the rushing water. She couldn’t remember where they’d come in, she couldn’t see the ladder they’d used to come down through the celling. What if they’d passed it, what if they couldn’t get out? She looked behind again, to see the tide come around the corner.
“There it is!” cried out Chandler. Jessy turned back. Chandler was pointing ahead of them, and she could also dimly make out the rope ladder swaying slightly. Phillip put a spurt on and was halfway up the ladder before Jessy reached it. She immediately started climbing. She was halfway up when the water hit.
“Hold on,” Phillip screamed at them from safety. Jessy held on tightly, her arms twisted into the ropes of the ladder as the wave beat at her with cold merciless fist of water. She looked down at Chandler, to see him struggling also. He was up to his neck, desperately trying to hold on, and climb higher.
“No! Chandler! Don’t!” Jessy called to him, even though she knew he probably wouldn’t be able to hear. “Don’t climb! You’ll slip!” He looked up at her and grinned, hand reaching for another rung. Whoosh! Another wave hit them and subsided.
“Chandler!” Jessy screamed as he was wrenched away from them. “Chandler!”
“Game Over,” said a loud ominous voice. The water disappeared, and the trio lay panting on the hollodeck floor.
“Jackass,” Phillip said to Chandler, throwing his arm out in an attempt to hit him. “You made us loose again.”
“Sorry,”
☮&♥
