11 Hours

Hour 6

My whole body ached. Especially my back. It felt like I was drug through the forest even though I fell and rolled down a hill.
" Need a hand?"
   I blinked a couple of times to regain more consciousness and saw Johannes standing over me with a sinister smile on his face while he held his hand out. I looked him up and down before I grabbed his hand and pulled myself off the ground.
" Did you wake up first?" I asked.
   He looked left and right then looked back at me, "Seems like it."
   I began to look around to find Bryson because I was sure that he fell off Mya's shoulders. After looking for a while I found him lying in a pile of mud and trees. I ran over to him and got on my knees next to him. Then Bryson groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
" Careful, careful. You were out a lot longer than us." I said as I brushed his hair with my hand.
   He smiled and struggled to reach out to me. I smiled and moved my hand closer to his and intertwined his fingers with mine.
" Oh screw me...." Mya groaned.
   Those of us that were awake looked back and watched Mya as she slowly got up off the ground.
" Note to self, never follow Alex," she said.
   I rolled my eyes and looked back at Bryson.
" Well I don't think following her has a lot of cons. I found a cave not too far from here." Johannes stated.
" Really?" I asked.
   He nodded his head and pointed ahead of him, " Just past those trees up ahead."
" How long have you been awake?" Mya asked.
   Johannes glared at Mya for a minute before he gave her an answer.
" I woke up a bit before you all."
   Johannes walked off and bent over to pick up something.
" Is that-" Mya began to say.
   Johannes turned towards all of us with a broken sphere-shaped object in his hands. One half in each hand.
" Your Drone," he said.
   Mya snatched her drone out of his hands and narrowed her eyes at him. He threw his hands in the air like he was surrendering.
" I didn't have anything to do with it." Johannes pleaded defensively.
" Where's this cave?" Mya asked.
" Just past those trees. I will lead the way," he replied.
   Mya stood there and gave Johannes a deadly stare. Like she was trying to figure something out. Like she was trying to figure Johannes out. Mya and Johannes normally got along pretty well, but their dynamic has changed. It seems like Johannes is playing mind games with her and she is not with it. Johannes was different though. I think Mya saw it too.
   Mya walked over to Clariece, who was still knocked out cold, and slapped her a couple of times," Wake up princess!" she yelled.
   Clariece opened her eyes abruptly and began to swat her hands as if a fly was in her face.
" It's just me doll face." Mya smiled.
   Clariece groaned and kicked her feet in anger.
" Johannes said he found a cave," I announced.
" How did he find a cave if we've all been out?" Clariece groaned.
" My question exactly," Mya said in a low voice.
   Johannes glared at Mya. Daring her to reveal something. She stayed quiet though. She didn't break eye contact with him.
" I'll help Alex carry Bryson. Lead the way." Mya said to Johannes.
   I looked at both of them for a while until she walked over to Bryson and I and put one of his arms over her shoulder.
" C'mon hun, put his arm over you, and let's get him up. These aliens wait for nothing."
   Johannes walked over to Clariece then began to walk off. We followed behind him.
   As we followed behind him I noticed he would occasionally look side to side as if he were looking for someone. Or looking out for someone. Mya saw what I saw. Every time I looked at her she had her eyes glued to Johannes's every move. She studied him like he was the answer key to an exam.
   We walked for about ten minutes until we finally arrived at the cave Johannes was telling us about.
" Sit Bryson down over in that corner. I'll get to him in a second."
" A second? He needs help now Mya," I said after I laid Bryson down slowly on the cold, wet floor.
   Mya walked up to me and looked me dead in my eyes.
" I gotta take care of something."
   Then she walked out of the cave and went left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   I saw him standing there looking out at a lake that was one cliff fall away from us. There was something wrong with him and I was determined to figure out what it was.
" Reminiscing?" I asked as I walked up next to him.
   He turned his head and chuckled.
" Admiring," Johannes responded.
   I sighed and looked at his side profile. He had a nice side profile.
" Shouldn't you be fixing your friend?" he asked.
" My friend." I thought to myself.
   Bryson was hardly my friend. I had met him one time before this...twice because it was two different moments. Bryson was more of a friend to Johannes than he was to me. Why would he refer to him as my friend?
" He won't die anytime soon. It was a minor hit." I responded.
   I looked down at his arm and analyzed his wound. The wound he got after we fought those three aliens. The wound he got from something in the ground.
" Whatever cut you were sharp as all get out." I laughed.
   He looked at me with a huge question mark on his face.
" Your arm."
   He looked down and smiled.
" You don't know half of it. Hurts like a mother.
   I slowly nodded my head and kept plastering my fake smile. I needed to answer some of my questions.
" So-"
" Can y'all wrap your conversation up? Bryson is still hurt!" Alex yelled.
   We both turned around to look at Alex then we looked back at each other.
" Duty calls," he said with a sinister smile on his face.
   I looked down at the ground for a second to decide if I was gonna speak. I didn't. I simply walked back into the cave.
" What were you two talking about?" Clariece asked.
" Nothing. Nothing at all."
" Well can you help Bryson?" Alex asked.
   I rolled my eyes and got on my knees next to him. He was going in and out of consciousness. He seemed weak. Tired.
" Flip him on his back," I said as I looked through my bag for my medical kit.
   Alex looked at me dumbly. As if I were out of line for asking her to flip her boyfriend over.
" Ok, I'll give him a couple more hours till he goes into a coma, flip him on his godforsaken back Alex," I demanded.
   She nodded her head and struggled to flip him over.
   I took out a flat, round disk and placed it on top of my bag. I began to look around for somewhat clean water.
" I need you to do something for me." I reached into my bag and pulled out a spile and a rubber bucket that you push the middle in for it to form a bucket or push it back in to make it flat.
" There's a lake not too far from here. I need you to get some water."
" I can take her," Johannes said.
" Clariece can join her," I replied.
" I knew where this cave was. I knew where the lake was. Let me take her." he argued.
" I can go by myself." Alex interrupted.
" It's not safe." Johannes insisted.
" It's not safe Johannes. Glad you pointed that out. Clariece can gladly join her. She'll put up a good fight."
   He just stood there and stared at me. He was angry with me.
" Mya right. Clariece is a good fighter. We'll go together." Alex said, attempting to break the tension between Johannes and I. 
   I nodded my head while keeping eye contact with Johannes.
" Take this with you," I said as I held the spile in my hand.
   Alex walked over to me and grabbed the spile and quickly walked out of the cave with Clariece following right behind her.
" Why do you wanna keep me here?" Johannes asked weirdly.
   Like he was trying to get some truth out of me. He walked close to me and kneeled.
" Isn't it obvious?" I tried to focus on his eyes but mine kept trying to catch a peep at his lips.
   He moved so close to me. He was barely a couple of inches from my face. I knew something was wrong with him so I did what any sensible person would. I pushed him away from me.
" Too close cowboy."
   He chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair. I shook my head.
" My drone you idiot. I'm blaming its current condition on you."
   He sighed and put his hands on his forehead.
" While they fetch some water, we're gonna fix my drone. It's the only way we'll get into their ship."
   It got silent. It made me uncomfortable so I looked over at him and he was looking dead at me.
" Tell me more about yourself Mya."
   I gulped and looked down at Bryson who was unconscious.
" We went through this already. My personal life adds nothing to the mission." I replied sternly.
" Why does everything have to be about the mission with you?" he asked.
" Maybe you forgot but I was called in to help y'all. My being here has everything to do with the mission. I have one objective. Save everyone. That includes killing these aliens, protecting y'all, and making them go home." I explained.
" Seems like keeping your personal life to yourself is harder than telling us."
" It's only hard when people like you make it your dying wish to bother me with personal questions," I answered.
   He sighed and took his satchel off his shoulder.
" So how are we going to fix this drone?" he asked.
" Do you even know the first thing about fixing anything?" I laughed.
" I do as a matter of fact." He replied confidently.
" You do?"  I laughed. I paused for a second. Internally deciding what my next words were gonna be. What was I gonna do?
" Well have at it cowboy. Bryson is on the brink of death and I gotta heal him."
   I reached in my bag and took out the rest of the supplies I needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" So what was that back there?" Clariece asked.
" I don't know...Mya and Johannes are acting weird." I replied.
   As we approached the drop, we got on our butts and slid down the hill. When we finally reached the bottom, I paused and looked at the large body of water in front of me.
" Was this behind our school the whole time?" I asked.
Clariece chuckled and got up off the ground. " Well, we're deep in the forest so I don't think this is considered behind our school anymore."
She grabbed the bucket from off the ground and walked over to the edge of the lake.
" So what am I supposed to do with this?" I asked as I held the metal thing Mya gave me.
   Clariece looked back then walked up to me and grabbed my hand.
" Oh that's a spile," she said.
   She took the spile out of my hand and walked up to a tree.
" Remember when we watch Catching Fire? They used this."
Clariece stuck the spile in the tree...barely though. A lot of it was still not in the tree. Then she put the bottom of both her palms behind the spile and pushed it into the tree fully.
" It drains the water from the tree."
" Ok, and where are we gonna put it?" I asked.
   She didn't know how to respond to that. She just stood there and kept looking at me then at the spile.
" Maybe we put it in a tree near the cave." she threw out as a thought.
   I walked over to where she sat the bucket down and picked it up.
" I think it's fine where it's at,"  I said.
" I didn't think I was gonna wake up yesterday and gonna have to fight for my planet," Clariece said sadly.
   I sighed and stopped getting water from the lake and turned around. She stood there with her forehead in the tree. I could hear her sniffing. I walked over to her and pulled her close to me.
" I'm sorry," I said as I rubbed her back.
   She let the waterworks flow as she hugged me tightly.
" I just wanna go home Alex...is my family even alive?"
   I said nothing. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't answer her question because I didn't know. Her family could be dead. All of our families could be dead. I had been purposely not thinking about what was going to happen after we saved the world again. We would all have to face the facts. We would have to go and find out if our families were dead. Truth be told I can't handle that. I'm barely keeping it together as is. I am dead tired and all I want to do is sleep but I can't. We have to get rid of these ugly creatures.
" Bryson..." I thought to myself.
   I couldn't handle it if Bryson died. Not today. I wanted to wake up. I think that I've convinced myself this is all a sick dream. A nightmare. I wanted to wake up. I needed to pinch myself.
" What are you doing?" Clariece asked.
" Pinching myself," I responded.
   She burst into laughter and broke ours. I smiled and began to laugh too. It made me feel better seeing her laugh. Seeing Clariece smile. I knew this was all too much for her. She'd never been through anything like this. I knew it was also hard for her to know that I kept something from her. That I lied to her. To be fair it had only been a day and I still needed to process the fact that I fought robots not too long ago.
" Testing to see if this is a dream?" she asked.
" I was hoping it was."
   She sighed and walked over to the bucket that was ¾ full of water.
" We should get this back to Mya," she said.
   I nodded my head and we walked up the part of the hill that had tons of rocks so it would be easier to walk up.