Chapter Text
“So, we just follow the trail and... Are you listening?”
“Yeah, sure, always…” Bonnie paused in tying her boot laces and looked over to Amy. “What did you say?”
Amy groaned. “Why do I go to places like this with you?”
“Because I don’t mind driving us everywhere?” Bonnie quipped, hopping out of the trunk of the car where she had been sat changing her shoes. “I’ll try not to get distracted this time.”
“Key word; ‘try’”
“Well I’m not going to just lie to you. But look.” She pulled a small purple cube out of her backpack. “I got this! It’s called a Nav-safe, the latest in navigation tech. You just put it on the floor, it scans where you are and leads you back to safety. And it can send an emergency signal if things have gone really wrong and it can’t guide you back safely. So if I do get distracted and we do get lost this little baby will guide us back!”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Bonnie pulled the trunk shut and patted the bright yellow, vintage Beetle affectionately. “See you in a few hours old girl.”
“Come on Bonnie!”
“Coming!”
*
“It feels so good to be out in the open air after submitting that thesis.” Amy breathed in deep. “I don’t think I’ve really left my apartment in a month! Not even for groceries! And I’ve barely spoken to anyone besides you and my Mom and Dad.”
“And now you’re still only speaking to me.” Bonnie laughed. “No, it’s nice, beats just popping out for coffee then going back to writing.” She hopped over a fallen branch. “I’ll be glad to have something that resembles a normal sleeping pattern again.” She pulled the branch over to the side and noticed her friend had stopped, staring further into the wooded area at the edge of the trail. “Amy?”
The brunette didn’t move, only squinted.
“Amy?”
“What’s that?” Amy finally raised a hand to point, the other shielding her eyes from the sun.
Bonnie trudged back. “So much for me not being allowed to get distracted… What’s what?”
“That, down there!” Amy wagged her pointing finger at an area of green about a half of a mile from where they stood.
“Sure, what about it?”
“Well, doesn’t it look out of place?”
Bonnie looked at her friend and then turned back to the area she indicated.
“The plants. They’re wrong. They almost look fake.”
“Let’s go check it out.”
“What was that about me not getting distracted?”
“Be quiet and come on.”
They made their way carefully off of the trail, picking a path around untamed nature until they reached the spot Amy had noticed.
“What do you think it is?”
“Why are you whispering?”
“What if it’s someone’s hiding spot?”
Bonnie laughed loudly. “Are you serious?”
“Stop laughing at me.” Amy snapped, bending to investigate the strange area.
Bonnie forced her laughter down into a soft chuckle, moving to the other edge of the strange area she felt her boot meet something solid. She moved the grass around it with her hand, a projector.
“What the…” Realisation ran down Bonnie’s spine like an icicle. “Amy, wait!”
But it was too late.
Amy leaned forward; arm outstretched to push the strange looking plants away, but instead of hitting solid ground she fell into the hole the projection had been hiding.
Bonnie leapt forward, throwing herself on the ground, catching her ribs on the projector and just managed to grab hold of her friend’s ankle as she disappeared.
Amy screamed.
“Don’t worry! I’ve. Got you.” Bonnie grunted, trying to pull Amy up.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m. Sure.” Bonnie tried to stand, but as she did, she felt her heels sinking into the ground. “This can’t be good.”
“I think I can see a big enough ledge that you could lower me to!” Amy’s voice echoed slightly. “Then I can stand up and help you help me out of here, because I’m pretty useless to you with my ass in the air.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s do that.” Bonnie nodded.
She sank down to a sitting position slowly, and then orientated herself to laying on her front.
“I’m touching it with my hands now, just a little further and I’ll be able to sort myself out! Good! That’s good! I’m okay, you can let go!”
“Are you. Sure?!”
“Yeah Bon, I’m sure!”
“Okay…”
Once she had released Amy’s foot and made sure that her friend was alright Bonnie stood up, and turned around, to stretch out and dump her small backpack off to the side before mounting the other half of the rescue. She let out a small laugh, ironic. Her brothers would be proud.
She stepped back an inch, maybe not even that, and felt the ground underneath her give way.
*
Bonnie didn’t know how long it had been before she opened her eyes. Why did her hands sting? Why did her head hurt so much? And what was the shooting pain in her shoulder about?
“Bonnie!”
Amy? What?
“Oh my god Bonnie talk to me!”
Amy?
Bonnie’s eyes snapped open. The hike. The strange plants. The projector and the hole in the floor. She’d fallen down it. But there was still space to move in front of her. It must curve, she must have managed to stay close enough to the edges that she had followed them down like a slide until she’d lost momentum.
“Bonnie!”
“I’m okay!” Bonnie shouted, or at least thought she did.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
“I’m in pain but that’s not to be unexpected! Where are you?”
“I’m still on the ledge! You fell so much further! I can’t even see you! I thought for sure you were dead!”
“That’s cheery!”
“Shut up I was scared!”
“I just need to be quiet while I do something! You can keep talking if you want, just give me a minute.”
In the peripheries of her mind Bonnie could still hear Amy shouting to her but she was too preoccupied to actually notice what was being said.
She turned the inner face of her watch a half turn counter-clockwise and the tunnel was illuminated with a faint glow from the holocom.
“How are we going to get out of here?!”
“Working on it!” She yelled, pressing buttons on the holographic display.
Three repeating dots appeared for a moment before being replaced by a green check mark.
“Yes!”