Mother Nature Strikes

Book 2

By: Aria Leigh

Chapter 1: Marit

I was running.

My name is Marit Landry. Don't be fooled, it's pronounced 'Marie'. You see, my first name is Norwegian, and in Norway it's pronounced 'Marit'. It was strange, because when I traced my family history, I found that none of my relatives were Norwegian. On either side. It was strange. Anyway, I am thirteen years old, have red hair, greenish-brown eyes and a face covered in freckles. I wasn't that tall compared to some of my friends.

I looked back as I stumbled through some of the long grass. I saw my friends running close behind.

First there was Mark Scott. He was fourteen, about a year older than me, but he was in the same grade as I was. It wasn't hard to see why, he wasn't all that smart. Denise and I often teased him about it, but he would deny it and say his mom had held him back. He had dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and was only a little taller than me, but once he hit puberty...he would grow.

Behind him was Denise Andrews, my best friend. She was the same age as I was, and we had had a special bond ever since we were in grade one. We were always thinking the same thing or we wer saying the exact same thing at the exact same time. She had dirty blonde hair that she insisted was light brown. She had dark blue eyes and was a lot taller than me. She was always teasing me about my height.

Behind her was Jason McLean, Mark's best friend. He was the same age as Mark and had failed a grade, so he didn't necessarily deny the fact that he was stupid. Then again, he was Mark's best friend. He was the same height as Denise, he had crew-cut dirty blonde hair, and dark blue eyes. He had a disgustingly mad crush on Denise.

We were all running. From what? To where? We were running from the black van from the enemy agency that had run off the highway in chase of us. We had all left our rock climbing equipment behind in order to get away quickly.

I was ahead of everyone else, because I had training with the cross-country runners at school. I kept running even if I wasn't sure of my friends' existence behind me. Through the long grass, the blades cut my legs. Stupid me, I had worn shorts! The cuts stung with burning pain, and I was tempted to stop, but I couldn't. I had to get away from the van that would mow me down in a second if I gave it the chance.

Out of the long grass, through large boulders and stones. I slipped a couple of times and hurt my ankle, so now that was burning with pain. Again the temptation to stop arose. I was now running out of breath, breathing hard, and wheezing.

I glanced back and saw my friends were still behind me, not as close, though. I didn't see the van. I slowed and turned to get a look while I jogged on. There was no van in any direction. What had happened? Had we lost them? No way.

I slowly came to a stop, not realizing how close I was to the ravine edge I actually was. As I turned to look at my friends who were now slowing as they came closer, my foot slipped off the edge. I fell, but I grabbed at the edge and just caught it, but I soon realized that the dirt and ground in the area of the ravine we were in was loose. It was crumbling beneath my weight as I tried to pull myself up!

My whole body went numb with the fear that I was going to fall to my death at such a young age. That is...if I didn't land in the river or the lake below.

More dirt fell past me, and my hands came loose. I was about to die. But wait...I jerked to a stop. 'Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought,' I thought as I looked down and discovered I hadn't fallen! I felt the skin on my wrists being pulled.

I looked up into Mark's face. It was screwed up in a look of both pain and effort to pull me up. He faltered and relaxed. When he tried again, I tried to help him out by pushing my feet against the ravine wall and trying to push myself up. This action took the opposite effect and pulled him toward me. He slipped further over the edge.

"Nooo!" he cried out as we both tumbled away from the grass and loose dirt. I clenched my eyes tightly and amazingly enough I clung to Mark, wanted him to save my life. As much as I hated the big jerk, he was my best chance at life right then.

I slammed hard against the ravine wall. Dirt fell into my hair and eyes. We had stopped falling again. I couldn't look up because of the dirt, but I heard Denise above me.

"Just hold on!" she yelled. "Jason! Can I get a hand?!"

"Yeah. Just hold on!" I heard faintly.

"What the hell are you doing?! Hurry up! I can't hold these two for much longer!" she screamed at him. More dirt fell in my hair.

"Marit! Grab the rope! Try to climb up!" I heard Jason yell from above. I slowly opened my eyes so I could see this supposed rope. There it was, right in front of me, to the right.

"No, I can't! I'll fall!" I cried back. I really was scared that Mark wouldn't be able to support me with one arm, and that he'd drop me before I could get a good grip on the rope.

"Marit! Take the rope now!" Denise commanded.

I slowly released one of Mark's hands and reached over for the rope. Once I had firmly grasped the tope I let go of Mark's other hand and grabbed the rope. I dug my feet into the dirt and carefully climbed up. I tried to scurry over the edge, you know, like a mouse, but I guess scurrying was best suited for them...the mice. The dirt let go again and I fell.

I reached for something to stop my fall, but I only got hand fulls of air until finally I grabbed the material of-I think it was-Mark's shirt. I heard a tearing sound, but I didn't stop falling this time. All I heard after that was my own screams and Mark's.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you fell or were pushed off a cliff, and the fall just takes forever? And when you are about to disfigure your own body on the sharp rocks at the bottom, you wake up? Yeah, I kept wishing I would wake up, or that maybe I could sprout wings and glide away. 'C'mon evolution, pick me,' I thought. Well, that wasn't working, and neither was waking up, so all I could do was scream and hope I landed in the water.