7Title: Hikemare (Her Very Own Nightmare)
Author: Andie
Rating: pg(ish)+
Summary: After her mom runs away with her "Trainer" and her pops gets hitched to her brother's best friend's mom (Could that be anymore confusing?), Evon really just wanted to get on with life. And avoid all humanly known contact with her new step-bro. Of course, as the bloody fates would have it Evon gets none of her wishes. Instead Evon gets stuck in a cave a'bagillion feet off the ground in the middle of a raging monsoon - AND with flipping drug traficators chasing after her. Pssh, and people say spring break is awesome.
Warning: Umm... a teeny-weeny bit of "Shame-On-You" words, but not many.
Fic Type: Adevnture/Mystery (Romancy-ish, if you look close enough. Evon is totally crushing on... well y'all'll see)
Disclaimer: All of everything is mine, as are all the mistakes.
Author's Note: Well, enjoy! And please review, this was entered into a writing contest at my local college... I haven't gotten feedback from them yet and I need to know if it was the right idea to give this to them.
Hikemare (Her Very Own Nightmare)
Short Story!
She was cold, wet, and hurting like a two ton elephant had used her body as a favorite trampoline. These were not ideal feelings for someone who was on a vacation. Though Evon didn't particularly view her current situation as any old holiday. In fact when her father, and recently wed step-mom, told the newly united family of six to pact their bags with clothing fitted for warm weather Evon hadn't been all that ecstatic.
"It will be an adventure Evon! Don't you want to get to know your new step-brother? And you'll love the sun."
Ha, Evon hated the heat. Give her the nice chilly climate of Colorado any day.
Either way, look where it had gotten her now?
Stuck in a damp cave fifteen something feet above the ground, which was presently flooded with rushing rapids. Just another wonderful addition to the family honeymoon in which she had been dragged along on four days ago.
None of the past few days would have ever taken place if Evon's mother hadn't decided to have a "midlife crisis" and steam up the windows of her fitness trainer's sports car.
Unfortunately, that had been the case leaving her father, Arthur Jones, heartbroken and alone. Set in action by the chain of events Evon's older brother decided to take it upon himself to get his best friend's mom hooked up with Arthur.
Equaling true love and marriage.
This had all gotten her, Evon Marie Jones, stuck in a cave with her brother and step-brother hiding from a group of drug trafficking men and a raging thunder storm.
Going on about her problems would do nothing for her. The only productive activity would be to sleep and gain her energy. So that's what she did.
Slept…
The "rat-a-tat-tat" of knocking on the open doorway that separated Evon's room from the rest of the hotel suite left her puzzled. It was something that rarely occurred at home, thus leaving Evon confused as to why it would happen here – a bagillion years away from their Colorado cabin. Even if the door had been closed, Evon would have known who it was right away.
Her father's love of his life and her, along with Ethan and Ellie's, new step-mommy, was the only person who had the brain to knock on Evon's door. Winnie Greyson Wilson-Jones was a full and unique package. She was a young thirty-nine-year-old woman who had the aura of an angel from Heaven, with natural honey blonde hair and sea blue eyes to complete. Most likely there was a halo hanging on her bed post. Evon believed her step-mom's only real fault was the fact that her son was the best friend to Evon's own brother, Greyson Wilson.
The idea that having an absolute pig like Greyson as a son had yet to deflate Winnie's charming smile. Practicaly identical to the one her son wore ninety-eight percent of the time when around others. Although, Greyson had more of that teenage smirk to his smile than the pure sweetness his mother had.
In every other way Greyson was the complete opposite of his mom. Dark chestnut hair fell across his forehead, which drove Evon crazy when he had to shake it out of his vision, and hazel eyes were framed perfectly by his long eyelashes. His dark looks reminded Evon strangely of J.K. Rowling's wizardly character, Harry Potter.
"Evon," Winnie's voice was even angelic. Calm and smooth, but had a firm sound that came from raising her son on her own, "Arthur – your father and I, we're going to be taking Ellie down to Nogales to shop for the afternoon."
Uh-oh, that meant family bonding time for the teens. Something that Evon wasn't exactly looking forward to. Who wanted to hang out with their older brother and his best friend/step-brother anyway? Not her for sure.
"We were hoping that you and your brothers will take that hike we've been talking about."
Of course, Evon sighed as she pushed her laptop off its resting place on her thighs. The "hoping" in Winnie's sentence translated into "you will do this" and the "we've been talking about" really meant "what Arthur and I have decided" in Winnie Speak.
For all the softness that made Winnie purely… Winnie, she still parented like a fifty-year-old woman with the experience of having ten kids. There was no arguing with Winnie Wilson-Jones. Her word was etched in stone next to the Ten Commandments.
Again Evon sighed dejectedly, "When do we leave?"
Winnie's smile increased ten fold at Evon's reaction to the hiking plans. Winnie knew that she couldn't have gotten any luckier with a greater family to be apart of. The Jones weren't the average everyday family. With Arthur being the certified genius that he was, and having a boy like Ethan who was as obsessed with sports as her own son only added to the wonder of it all. Evon and her electronic knowledge clearly showed that she was her father's daughter. And then there was eleven-year-old Ellie. A wonderful burst of sunshine no matter the situation or people she was with.
Regrettably, her own son didn't cherish the idea of family as much as herself. His attitude, and Evon's, had lead Winnie and Arthur to the idea of sending the teens on a hike. This would force bonding time on the two kids.
Raking her hands thru her long natural sun bleached hair Evon chewed on her lip, "What does one take on a hiking trip exactly?"
Winnie laughed as she leaned down to pull up a medium sized shoulder back-pack, "What one can carry."
"I'd recommend a water bottle," Greyson's voice and stance was full of cockiness as he stood by the door.
Glaring at the sudden appearance of Greyson in her doorway (clear proof of the fact that no one respected her privacy anymore) Evon pushed herself off the bed. "Go away. No one asked you."
Typical, both teens simultaneously thought.
Winnie on the other hand smiled, "Shoo, shoo, o' son of mine. You'll need to pack too." She waved her eighteen-year-old out of the room only to follow after giving Evon the count down to leaving time and a few suggestions in the packing department.
As much as she loved the girl, Winnie knew Evon was never going to be one to like the adventures of the outside world. The teenager much preferred to stay in and mess with anything that could be flied under "Techno."
Packing her bag took Evon less than twenty minutes, deciding on whether to take her iPod Touch or not took much longer. She was still debating the issue when their rental car pulled into a dusty half-filled parking lot located at the bottom of a large canyon looking rock formation.
"Goldilocks? You getting out yet or what?"
Evon's head snapped up with her face twisted into a snarl. She absolutely despised the nickname that Greyson had taken to calling her. Goldilocks. She had stupid long multi-colored blonde hair and cobalt eyes, these traits supposedly gave Evon the look of the little lost girl character.
Greyson, who used a ready to rumble façade to cover up his soft side, should have known that it wasn't always wise to judge a book by its cover.
Evon grumbled as she slid out of her seat, "Don't call me that." Slamming the car door, Evon held her hand up in a backward wave to the rest of the family who were still located in the car. She slipped in her earphones, giving her means to ignore both Ethan and Greyson's chatter, as she dragged her feet across the parking lot. Taking the iPod had most likely saved her ears from rotting off from hearing about too much football or some other stupid sporting activity, or ESPN.
Listening to the blasting sound that Bullet for My Valentine called music, Evon passed by a board that encased a map. Both Ethan and Greyson looked to be landing a plane as they discussed (Were they trying out some knew type of sign language?) which pathways they would be taking on their multiple hour long hike.
A multiple hour long hike. Multiple, as in more than one.
Evon had felt the pout form on her face when she had first gotten into the car at the hotel and still she couldn't make it disappear. Just thinking about how long she had to be out in the heat had a grimace resting on Evon's face that could put the Grinch to shame. The heat of the midmorning sun roasted Evon's shoulders that had been left bare by her tank-top.
Thank God she had lathered on suntan lotion, otherwise she would have darkened three shades. Somewhere in her ancestry, on her mother's side, Evon had a relative who had been of Indian blood. This kept her from turning into a lobster and instead made her look as if she "fake baked" whenever she had the chance. Not that Evon had a problem with those who wished to have skin cancer written into their horoscopes. She just happened to have a tendency to be offened with being acused of trying to obtain cancer.
Evon's skin typically looked as if it had been attacked by a spray-on bronzer and her hair had the appearance that she took an annual trip to get her roots dyed. None of which Evon did, seeing as her hair color was completely and utterly hers, as was her skin tone. Evon did perhaps see how Goldilocks could be compared to herself. Truthfully though… What childbook story character listened to the bands Bullet for My Valentine or Smile Empty Soul?
From the resting place on one of the few shaded rocks Evon looked up at Ethan and Greyson as the two trudged over. By the look on his face Ethan had obviously lost in the decision making, "Are you going to just sit there? Or would you like to go on this hike with us?"
"I'm coming you lards, hold your horses." They'd been the one holding them up, not her.
Greyson's laugh was short and humorless, "Your sister's got jokes Ethan."
"Yeah…" Ethan nodded his head absentmindedly as he searched through his bag for some item that was probably lost long ago, "that she does."
"Whatever," Evon felt annoyed with the boys already. This was not going to be the trip her step-mom had hopped for. "Can we get going?"
"We were waiting for you Goldilocks."
Growling under her breath, Evon chose a few choice words that Winnie had most definitely hoped wouldn't come up during their hike.
This was the point where Ethan knew he was to intervene, "Alright kiddies, we're going that way now."
Evon glared at the two boys as they walked off into the random direction that Ethan had pointed to. At least she had her iPod.
No more than forty minutes later Evon was ready to call it quits. Her feet were sore and undoubtedly had a large number of blisters covering them. The pain was caused by her lack of proper hiking boots. Of course blaming her shoes would get no satisfaction out of Evon. Moving to the next best thing, she turned to start venting to Ethan and Greyson – who had been oh so kind to allow her a mini-break in their treacherous hike.
Though, the break was for picture taking. This resulted with her spending their seven and three quarter minutes of free time standing waiting for Ethan to work the camera.
As much as she loved the technology of being able to do a simple thing like press a button and capture a moment, Evon preferred to be the one clicking that said button. She was not a fan of being the one in front of the camera.
The passion to whine was overwhelming to Evon. Her feet were going to be the death of her and a migraine was creeping up in the corner of her mind due to the heat. Standing in the open desert in the middle of the day with no shade was not helping. And the longer it took her idiot brother to figure out how to work the camera the longer she was slowly going to fry to death.
"Seriously… Ethan, just push the button for God's sake." Evon winced at her tone as soon as she heard it, she sounded like their mother in one of her many moods. To make amends Evon continued in a lighter tone, "I'm pretty sure it just got darker and that it dropped a few degrees…"
She hadn't liked the idea of being the the desert during the day and Evon certainly did not like the idea of being in the middle of nowhere at dusk.
"Nah, Ev. I've taken the picture already… and it's only three o'clock." He paused and pointed to something on the camera screen so that Greyson could get a better look, "There's, something. I'm not sure what, but in the background of your pic. It's mules, they're carrying duffle bags."
"Do we have a little drug trafficking going on?" Evon joked as she sat down on the desert rock she'd been standing on.
When neither of the guys laughed, as they should have, Evon couldn't help it when her eyebrows lowered in a pout. Evon sighed her mood a bit disconsolate, males just don't have a good sense of humor anymore. She'd thought it was funny.
"You know," Evon started conversely, "the moving and passing along of drugs is known to take place out here. It's practically the perfect place. They use mules and the likes because they can't land planes 'cause of the radar system the Feds use to watch for 'em."
Once again, neither boy paid her any attention, "Fine then. I can talk to myself. Who wants to talk to you guys anyway?" Making sure to not pout, Evon pulled her iPod from her one strap backpack.
It was dead.
"Great. This is just great!" Evon griped as she jumped up on the rock, "I'm in the middle of the flipping Sahara," Dashing a quick look to wards the sky Evon's frown increased. "It looks like it's about to start pouring and–"
Evon felt the burning heat as it flew by her head before her brain registered the sound. It made her think of a truck backfiring. The quick razor bite of the bullet made Evon cry out as it deeply grazed the side of her right shoulder.
Everything happened at once then, just like in the movies except for the fact that there wouldn't be "Cut!" or "That's a rap!" in this scene of her life. As the pain stole her breath, the clouds above opened up and dumped buckets of water onto the Earth. To the side of her Evon could hear Ethan's cry of pain. Before she had the chance to turn to her brother or register what was even happening Evon was being pulled down to the, now mud covered ground.
Sitting behind the stone, Evon couldn't hear a thing. It was as if someone had muted the volume on the television. Was she in shock? From what she had seen on television you could go into shock if you were shot. To the left of her Greyson sat with his arms around her. His dark hair was now a wet mop around his head, much like her's probably was.
Evon watched as Greyson's lips moved but whatever he said was lost on her deaf ears. She did follow his hand as he pointed to a canyon about a half of a football field away.
Was he wanting them to go there? Confused and scared, tears welled up in her eyes. Shaking her head, they didn't have time for her to have a freak-out. They needed to get away from whatever was going on behind them.
Next to her Greyson pulled off his short sleeve shirt, leaving him wearing only a tank top over his chest. A chest that Evon felt she paid too much attention to at a time like this. As he ripped the shirt across the bottom Evon was rolling up her own sleeve to check out her wound.
Red. Everywhere.
Her arm and right side of her baby blue tank top was completely stained a dark red.
Suddenly, just as fast as it had disappeared Evon's hearing came back. It felt as if she had just popped her ears while in an elevator. One moment nothing, then everything was louder.
Thunder boomed shocking Evon. Though she'd seen that Greyson was soaking and felt the pouring water, somehow she hadn't quite taken in the fact that rain was thickly falling down on them.
Still, everything was moving in double speed. Greyson had Ethan, who was bleeding profusely from his leg, next to her and was wrapping a tourniquet to quench the blood flow.
Evon felt as though she was having an out of body experience. She watched from above as her body stood hunched over next to Greyson and helped a weak Ethan up.
The three made their way across the desert terrain as fast as they could, staying in the cover of rocks as much as possible. It had to have taken them eight minutes to travel the fifty yards until they reached the slightly sloping canyon wall.
Blindly Evon continued up the cliff. Even if she'd had the courage to look away from the rock wall the rain would have left the world a blur. With each upward movement Evon's sore arm bitched a little more.
Ignoring the pain Evon pushed herself farther, whatever she felt now was nothing compared to what Ethan was feeling. And while she only had herself to get up the cliff side, Greyson had her brother to help.
The sound of rushing water was all that Evon could hear now. She felt as though she was one of the players in the game show Jeopardy and that her time to answer the question was about to be up. Instead of having to come up with a solution to a trivia question, Evon was becoming ever closer to slipping and falling to her death. Falling back into the rushing rapids would be much more costly than having one thousand points deducted from her total score on a stupid game show. One misplaced hand on the slippery rock would result in her loosing something awfully important.
Her life.
If Evon lost her grip on the wet crumbling canyon wall, she would find herself plummeting backwards into the rain water that was easing its way ever higher with each passing moment that the monsoon raged on.
She felt as though she'd been climbing for days, her arms ached and her body felt like it weighed tons. 'Just a little farther, just a little farther' chanted like a broken record in her mind. Evon knew the ledge was close, she could feel the rock to the left of her start to jut out farther than the rest.
"Finally." The word came out as a sob as she pulled herself up onto the cliff ledge. It felt as though she was trying to get out of a pool in the deep end – with only one hand and no leverage.
After a series of grunting attempts, Evon was able to pull herself up onto the canyon shelf. Quickly she anchored her feet around a rock protruding from the ledge. She needed to help out Greyson, who was somehow below pulling Ethan up the sloped cliff.
A hand made its way over the edge, not wasting anytime Evon gripped it tightly and pulled with all her might.
Minutes later Evon slumped against the wall of the cavern completely wiped out. She didn't think that she had an ounce of strength left in her. Along her left side Evon felt Greyson move closer and mutter something about maintaining body heat.
With Greyson at her side and Ethan's head in her lap Evon fell into a deep and dark sleep.
The whirling hum of a dryer was what woke her. For a moment Evon believed that she was really home, in her bedroom next to the laundry room.
Reality was like a fist to the gut, as she slowly became aware of the dank and chilly cave Evon was really in. She was still freezing, still wet, and still lost in the middle of a desert. Peculiarly the "Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh" was still echoing throughout the cavern.
As she pushed herself up she couldn't help but hold back a moan, her body was stiff as a board from leaning against the jagged wall while she slept, "Okay, that's not normal." It wasn't, after all, everyday that one heard of floating clothes dryers. Which was the only thing that Evon could think of that was making the insane noise.
Gently squeezing through the narrow crevasse that made up the cave's mouth Evon realized that doing so wasn't the most intelligent idea of her lifespan. Her injured shoulder, still wrapped in Greyson's t-shirt, smarted sharply as it scraped along the rock wall.
"Shhheeeat…" Evon bit her lip muffling her curse.
No more than two seconds after her top row of teeth sank into her bottom lip, Evon's mouth was dropping open in a combination of shock and amazement.
Diagonally above the opening of the cavern was a hovering helicopter.
"Oh… Omigod! Greyson! Grey–"
"Ev? What the hell are you doing out here, you could… what…"
The looks on his face surprised Evon, shock first crossed his handsome features then it was covered by a frown of anger.
"Crud. Get under the cover of the cave Evon."
Confused, Evon struggled against Greyson's pushing hands, "Why? What?"
"Man, Evon. How do you know that's someone to help us? Could be that it's the freaking drug dealers who are out there in that 'copter?"
She hadn't thought of that. Anyone could fly a helicopter around as long as they knew not to land or get close enough to the radar sensors, "Oh."
"Yeah, 'oh'."
Both teens stood in-between the narrow passageway that lead into the cave, "So what do we do?"
Evon could feel Greyson's hot breath on her cheek as he sighed, "We wait."
The two teenagers listened quietly to the helicopter as it circled around, someone had located them. The question was… who was it?
El extremo.
Again, was it the right choice to give it to ECU? Hmm?
I'm turning into the Stress Monster here (please help).
... Also, I made a bookcover ('cause I'm crazy about that crap - doy). You can find it by clicking my: "Homepage" - Pics: Big/Tall/Skinny/Small - Book Covers