Chapter 8: A mission

                                    

                                          
     It was time to move, yes. But something had my attention. We had come all the way here, but the place seemed like it had nowhere else to go but backwards. The closer we moved to the waterfall, the more I noticed that the place we were in resembled a straight line. Curiosity was killing me, so I had to ask.
 "I have a question," I said.
     As everyone started moving, they stopped and turned around upon hearing me.
 "Move where?! There is nowhere to go but back," I said, waving my arms and pointing around me. Camila waited briefly, then smiled.
 "Just follow us, oh, and try not to fall behind." Then she turned around.
     As she did, everyone except Emilia and me started running.
 "What the fuck?" Emilia said, her eyes wide open, just like mine. We looked at each other, still not processing what was going on.
 "Don't fall behind now," Chase said as he ran past her.
 "Hurry up, dipshits!" Cameron said as he started running as well.
 "Hurry up, guys! Get a move on!" Russel said, followed by Echo's barks as he wagged his tail.
     Within a few moments, we saw them reaching the front of the waterfall. The river was not very deep; it was probably up to their ankles.
     Then, at the very moment they reached the front of the waterfall, they leaped, disappearing through the currents.
     I gave one more look at Emilia, her look of uncertainty kind of like waiting to see what I was going to do.
 "Well... It's now or never, Emi," I said, stretching out my hand as if trying to grab hers.
     She looked at my hand but refused to grab it, pulling herself a step back.
 "Y-yeah... You first," she said.
     Why wouldn't she give me her hand? Was something wrong? Maybe she was scared. So, I braced myself, shrugged my shoulders a bit, and started running towards the waterfall. Emilia followed close behind. Running as fast as we could, we yelled just before leaping into the downpouring waterfall. I closed my eyes as I leaped. Curiously enough, the current wasn't as strong as I anticipated. The feeling of water crashing against my skin was over fairly quickly. Maybe it was the fact that I expected a bit of resistance from the water that made me jump a bit too strongly, so much so that I lost my footing. My legs came out from under me as I landed awkwardly in the slippery dirt that followed.
 Thwap!
      I slammed myself hard. The side of my face and some of my clothes were covered in dirt. I stared around me. Russel and Chase winced a bit as they saw me royally eat it on the slippery floor. I looked around at Emilia; she had actually nailed the landing. She slipped a little bit, but not knowing what was after the water made her jump less, managing to avoid falling or slipping. I guess you could say we went two different ways about it, hers being the right way, obviously, by the outcome.
 "Nice jump, dumbass! Hahaha."
     I was greeted by Cameron's heckling... how nice.
 "Ugh, Cameron..." Charlotte nodded in disapproval. I turned around and saw Emilia. She started to walk towards me, as if to give me a hand to help me up. I had already begun stretching my hand towards her, but I was quickly interrupted by Charlotte as she hastily kneeled down in front of me.
 "Hold on, let me see," she said, grabbing my face and tilting it from side to side, looking for bruises. "Don't move," Charlotte said again as she grabbed a black long-sleeved shirt she had wrapped around her waist. She started using it to clean my face. It was already wet from the waterfall, so the dirt came off fairly easily.