Section Four

"This can't be happening...there is something definitely wrong" Freya had started to panic even more than before. She grabbed the map and began to examine again and again. Considering the river as a landmark it was obvious that they were in Section four.

"Maybe the map is wrong and they forgot to mention the river" Lucas tried to calm her down. Freya gave him a stern look which scared Lucas. She blamed him for the trouble they were in.

"Oh my God what are we gonna do!" Pete exclaimed. Pete kept pacing around. Esme couldn't say a word she just opened and closed her mouth. She knew something had to be done, so she took the map and began to track back their steps. Something was definitely wrong.

"How did we even end up here?" Esme was very confused and kept looking at the map. It was absurd that they walked all three sections. After looking at the map for another minute Esme gained a little confidence. While Pete and Freya fought with Lucas blaming him for everything Esme tried to calm them "This is not the right time to fight guys." Esme had figured out what went wrong, she had a plan and that had to be active immediately.

"Okay Guys calm down I have a plan" Esme started explaining, "Look the river runs at the border of section three and section four. And since we crossed the river we are in Section four right now. Lets first cross the river." All of them gathered around the map Esme was holding.

"But we won't be able to make it to section one before sunset" Lucas said in a very concerned tone.

"Yes we won't but atleast we can try to make it to section two. There is an excavation going on we might find some help there" Esme said.

"The River runs very long how do we know where we are" Pete asked.

"See this mountain, we are right here now. The distance between the borders is not much we can easily reach section two in time" Esme pointed out.

"If we are in Section four right now that means we crossed section two, how did we miss the excavation site?" Pete rubbed his head.

"The excavation site is right in the middle of section two, we didn't see it because we crossed section two from the edge" pointed out Freya.

"Lets not wait another minute" Lucas said and started climbing downwards.

Esme, Freya and Pete followed behind him. They had increased their speed as they wished to cross section three before night.

"There it is, the river" Freya spotted the river from an height. All four of them started walking towards the river in hope to cross it. As they walked towards the river they saw a red eyed beast. It was drinking water from the river. It took a minute for them to spot five more red eyed beast drinking from the river.

All four of them froze at their spot. Lucas signaled everyone to move back slowly. They started to move back slowly with utmost care so that the beasts are not alerted. As Esme moved back she stepped on a broken tree branch. The branch broke into two. The sound of it was very low but still alarmed the lions. They turned their heads towards the sound. Esme almost made direct eye contact with one of the lions. Lucas covered Esme's mouth before she could scream. Lucas holded Esme's hand and ran as fast as possible. Freya and Pete were nowhere to be seen. The group had split and there was no time for Lucas and Esme to search for them. They ran back to the same place from where they started.

"Please tell me.. they are not ...following us" Esme tried catching her breath, this is the fastest she has ever ran. She sat on one of the rocks putting one of her hand on her chest and other on her knee.

"No.....I don't think so" Lucas spoke as he holded his head in his hands, "Shit!....Were did Pete and Freya go." Lucas began to look around.

"I hope they are fine" Esme was concerned for her other two teammates who were left behind. She stood up on a high rock to see if either Pete or Freya were visible anywhere.

"Maybe they ran in the opposite direction" Esme murmured.

"Esme" Lucas said in a deep voice.

"What?" Esme looked towards Lucas, his face was horrified. He had one hand extended towards her and was slowly taking steps backwards.

"They followed us" he whispered.

Two red eyes were visible from far staring right into Esme and Lucas. Esme jumped down the rock and holded his hand. Just as the lion was about to pounce at them they swiftly started running. Using every last bit of energy they had they ran even deeper into the woods. There were two lions that followed them. Matching the speed of a lion was impossible for them but they didn't lose hope. They didn't stop to look back, both of them kept running at a lightning speed.

They reached till the end where the river branched into two. One of the branches curved towards the deeper part of the jungle. They tried to cross the river but failed to do so. Crossing the river was not possible as the stream was very strong so they decided to run parallel to it. The jungle shooked as the lions roared together.

Esme and Lucas increased their speed and ran even faster. They came very close to the end of the river. Lucas caught Esme before she fell from the cliff. There was a waterfall at the end. Esme bend down to look at the depth of it but nothing was visible as the surface below was covered with fog. There was no other way to go, Lucas looked towards the mounts in hope of climbing them.

But soon on one of the mounts above them appeared two lions. They kept their gaze focused on both Esme and Lucas. Lucas grabbed Esme towards him and whispered in her ears "Do you trust me?"

"No, not at all" Esme tried to push him away.

Before Esme could even say another word Lucas holded her even tighter and jumped down the waterfall.

The lions pounced towards them but couldn't catch them. The jungle trembled with a much louder roar of the lions.