Chapter 9

"Well what are you waiting for? Let's go and help that person!" I snapped and started to run in the direction in which I thought the voice was coming from.

Sally soon realized what was happening and began following me.

"Help! Help!" the voice became more clear and it was evident that we were near to the person.

Eventually we neared a thicket of trees and the sound of footsteps could be heard and as soon as we started approaching the trees someone else walked out of it!

We saw two boys walking out, talking amongst themselves. When they saw us they stopped abruptly and looked at us with wide eyes. All of us were staring at each other not knowing if this was real or not.

Sally was the first to recover this time and started shaking me by the shoulders and shouted enthusiastically "We found them Emily! We found them!"

I snapped out of my daydream and began cheering and shouting too during which the two of them were looking at us as if we had just escaped a mental asylum.

When we finally calmed down I introduced both of us "Hi! I am Emily and this is my friend Sally. Our whole group got stuck here and there is no one left. We were searching for any person who might have been left behind like us and we finally found you both!" I squealed in delight.

They both chuckled and the taller of them with black hair arranged in a messy look and black eyes with a healthy build introduced both of them "Hello I am Nigel and this is my friend Daniel." Daniel just smiled politely and said a 'hi' and he also had black hair but they were curly and a very thin body. Both of them seemed nice.

Nigel continued "We got separated from our group and the next thing we know there's no one around. We were confused and decided to search for help thinking someone might be out there who would help us. So here we are." he shrugged his shoulders at the end.

I was about to say something when Daniel interrupted me and said "Wait a minute. You said that your whole group got stuck here. Didn't you?" he pointed at me.

I nodded and replied "I was just going to tell you to come and join our group so that all of us who got left behind are together."

Both of them readily agreed and we made our way towards our chamber and made small talk in between.

"Do you guys know anyone else who got left behind?" Sally asked them both.

They shook their heads implying that only both of them got left behind. We soon reached our chamber and could hear the usual chattering that goes on in our group.

As soon as everyone noticed we were back Nancy shouted "Thank goodness Emily and Sally you both are back! We were starting to get worried that you both were lost!" and everyone else started talking at once.

Sally shouted to gain their attention "Calm down guys! We both are perfectly fine apart from being exhausted but anyway we found two boys who got left behind, who are standing right here and you all didn't notice them." she scolded them while me, Nigel and Daniel chuckled.

I nodded and introduced them all "Sally's right! Guys this is Nigel and Daniel and boys this is Nancy, Ritz, Maddie, Hessa, Ady and Riya." I said while pointing to everyone.

Everyone said hello and me and Sally enquired about everyone's task and they told us they had completed it successfully.

All of us decided to have a high tea as everyone was starving by the amount of work everyone had done. We had a huge spread in front of us which we gobbled up like animals.

"Oh that was great! I was starving." Ritz remarked.

"When are you not." I teased which earned chuckles from everyone.

The rest of the evening was spent in sitting around the fire that we built and getting to know Nigel and Daniel.

We discussed about the possibilities of getting left behind but could not think of any thing realistic. It was a mystery for all of us to solve.

Daniel told us "A couple of days back me and Nigel found someone in our tent and when we entered the tent to catch that person there was no one! All we found was a bracelet."

All the girls were shocked and there was pin drop silence in our chamber while all of us exchanged uneasy looks.

Maddie finally decided to break the silence by saying "Well it's funny because the same thing happened to us! This was the bracelet that got left behind." and she showed Nigel and Daniel the bracelet.

"Oh my gosh! It's the same bracelet we found. Did you guys get a note of some kind? Because we got a note too." Nigel said.

All of us denied it when I suddenly realized that I had got a piece of paper which I had tossed in my backpack thinking it was rubbish.

I quickly enquired "Was it a piece of paper crumpled in a ball?"

"Yes! That's exactly what it was but we couldn't read it because ours got wet." Daniel said excitedly.

"I cannot believe this! I got that paper and I thought it was just a random piece that the girls might have thrown. I tossed it in my bag! Wait I'll get it now!" saying this I quickly rushed into the tent and searched my backpack for that paper and I found it pressed at the bottom.

I quickly grabbed it and dashed outside.

"I found it!" I exclaimed happily.

"Open it quickly!" Hessa ordered.

I opened the note with trembling hands and read it out aloud. It said:

You all have to rot in PWDBR as I have closed all the exits that they have. You must be wondering who is this idiot that is writing us these stupid notes. Aren't you? Well I guess you'll never know. By the time you will read this everyone else would be gone because I'll raise the alarm saying there's a fire in the forest and you all have left already. Now you'll ask why you all are left behind. Well my answer is because I hate you!

P.S. Keep the bracelet. It'll remind you of me.

So long then!

Lots of love

K