Savannah Tour: Chapter 6

Delta, June 3rd, 2:48AM

I pushed the tractor along as far as I could away from the hut before I felt like passing out.

“I’ll do it,” Sasha said, but her eyes were drooping too.

“No, it’s okay. We’re far enough away from him.” I climbed back into the tractor. As soon as I sprawled across the backseat, everything faded into darkness.

“Breakfast,” Sasha chorused in a chipper sing-song voice. She grinned and held out a half dozen crackers and a prune. She was munching happily on a couple of raisins herself.

“You seem quite happy today,” I commented as I swallowed a cracker.

“First of all, I stole some water bottles from that creepy abandoned hut,” she responded joyfully, “and secondly, nothing.” She shoved a raisin into her mouth and swallowed. “Here, have a sip.” She held out one of the bottles and I grinned.

The bottle was lukewarm, but it felt like an icepack in the scorching hot weather. It was refreshing.

“Now what should we do?” asked Sasha nearly again.

“Let’s try to find the forest,” I muttered, holding up our map to the daylight. “Since the forest is past the hut, we’ll try to make a bit of a detour around the hut to the forest.”

“And what should we do when we get to the forest?”

“Try to stop whoever is cutting down the trees. Animals need that habitat to survive. We should put up signs.” I took a sip of the water.

“I always have questions. How do we stop the person? Where do we get the signs?”

“I have a few signs in my bag. Mr. Ortega gave me some on my first day,” I answered, puzzled. “Didn’t he give you some? I have a Sharpie; I can write something restricting hunters from poaching and cutting down trees in the forest or whatever. Before we get to more questions, Sasha, we should probably get there first.” I went to the back and started pushing the tractor forward, talking as I moved it along. “We could also report the person to the Wild Savannah front office if we get back soon enough.”

“Mr. Ortega did give me signs, but I thought they were useless, so I gave them to my younger sister for her lemonade stand. Also, sure.”

“Oh. It’s alright, we’ll just have to make more widespread choices. The signs will have to be more spread apart. The forest is about 2 acres. I have 20 signs.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” Sasha said as she took the compass from the tractor. “Uh... Which was the way to the forest?”

“Well, um.” I looked at the map and muttered under my breath. “Perfect. We don’t know where to go. Let’s see. I’m fairly sure north. Wherever the hut is.” I squinted and sunlight hit my eyes. “There! There’s the hut, way up ahead. That’s the direction of the forest. I could be wrong, but let’s see.”

I went north, and Sasha followed me. After a

“Oh, come on.” I muttered. “I don’t see it anymore.”

“Oh no, we’re lost! We’ll be stuck here forever!”

“Don’t worry, I'm quite sure we’re going to be safe.” I said as I was insanely panicking inside my head. During my state of what I could only describe as delirium, I spotted a tree, and only a tree. I saw coconuts hanging from it. How strange.

I climbed the tree and picked all of them and stuffed them into the tractor. I picked up 2 of them and gave one of them to Sasha.

“How delicious and how weird for it to be here! Hey, I feel weird,” mumbled Sasha before she crashed into the ground, trembling nonstop.”

“Sasha!” I yelped as she tumbled over. I dropped down a few feet and rushed over to her. “You okay?”

She didn’t respond, breathing heavily.

I shook her. “SASHA. If you don’t wake up, I will slap you in the face and pour water on top of you.” I said the first thing that came to mind.

“No...” she whispered as she turned her body around. “I think I'm fine, except my stomach hurts, and it’s painful to breathe.”

I looked around and spotted the man’s hut. It only took me a few moments to piece together the obvious. I turned to Sasha and gulped. “It looks like that man who owns the hut planted this to keep away people... or *something*.”

“I guess so.” said Sasha as she tried to stand up, hugging her chest. “Let’s go. Wait never mind. I got to go to the bathroom! URGENT!”

“Then go,” I grumbled.

“Where should I go!? There is literally nothing in this place!”

“Find somewhere,” I half-yelled.

“I said, there is nothing here. Except the tractor and the hut. You want me to do it there?” Sasha mumbled curiously.

“Just go behind a cactus or something,” I retorted. “It’s not hard.”

“I said, once again, there is nothing here. IT’S PLAIN EMPTY! You know what? I don’t want to argue. I’m going to do it in the hut. It’s what the person gets. Bye!” she said as she dashed fast. Really fast.

I spat at her and rolled my eyes. “You’d better hope no one’s in there!”

“There is nobody here!” she screamed back.

A worker helping the person to cut the trees had to get his axe inside the hut. I stared at the worker, hoping that he wouldn’t notice Sasha. But once the worker grabbed his axe, he ran away, utterly astonished and yelling something unintelligible about the smell inside the hut.

“Thank goodness.” I cried, relieved.

Suddenly, a worker grabbed me from behind. I yelped and thrashed, trying to kick them away. The worker’s grip loosened, and I kicked them backward. They fell backward and cracked their head on the tractor as they toppled onto the sand. I think they went unconscious.

I blew out a breath I didn’t know I was holding, then looked around. “Sasha,” I called out, a worried expression visible on my face. “Sasha! We have to go!” I started to push the tractor away from the hut. I couldn’t see Sasha anywhere in the vicinity.

“BOO!” yelled Sasha. “Haha! Did I scare you?”

I flung myself backwards. “Come on! We must get going!” I looked over my shoulder and saw a worker point at us. “Sasha! Help me move the tractor!” A bunch of other workers swiveled their heads towards us, including the owner of the hut. “Sasha!”

“They are starting to run towards us! We need to abandon the tractor and run for our lives!” cried Sasha.

“We can’t!” I screamed, but in my heart, I knew she was right. So, I tossed Sasha her backpack and two water bottles and snatched the rest from the tractor. Then I ran, my feet digging into the sand. I didn’t even look back; I didn’t wait for Sasha. I just ran, adrenaline pumping in my veins.

“Wait up!” she shouted as she dashed after me.