Priscilla Sum

Part 23--Shaken

I woke up feeling rested and refreshed...

Three seconds later, my cot tossed me out of bed. Jordyn landed on her shoulder beside me.

"Ow!" She snapped. "What—EARTHQUAKE!"

No duh; I guess I might not have known what it was until somebody screamed it in my face.

The ground rolled and rumbled beneath us. "What is the likelihood of the shaking opening a crack in the ground right under our tent?" I stammered, keeping my jaw tense to avoid chomping on my tongue.

"I d-don't think we're... on... a... fault line!" Jordyn answered.

Over the crashing of the trees and the roar of falling rocks, I heard people shouting and alarms blaring all over the place outside our tent. Jordyn and I curled up as small as possible under our cots until the shaking stopped.

I peeled my face from between my elbows and looked over at Jordyn. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm still alive," she muttered from her fetal position. "How about you?"

"I think it's stopped," I said, slowly uncurling my body. My nerves felt like quivering even though I could find things like the hanging ties in the tent to confirm that nothing was shaking still.

Professor Silver popped his head through the door of our tent. "Are you ladies okay?" he asked.

"We're fine," I pushed myself up onto my feet. "What a way to start the day!"

The professor smirked. "I'll say! Why don't you both get dressed and we'll all group up in the middle of camp to get a damage update from Stephanie?"

"Will do."

I hauled out my duffel and picked out a tee shirt and shorts for the day's outfit. Jordyn sat on the edge of her cot, but she wasn't moving.

I slid on my clothes before turning to her. "What's wrong?"

She had a look on her face, like she knew a secret she couldn't possibly tell, or the same way Tony would look when he felt horrible but didn't want to have to explain himself.

"I... kinda don't want to be here anymore," Jordyn mumbled under her breath.

I came over to sit next to her. "Did talking to your mom make you homesick?" I asked. "Or..." I saw the way she crossed her arms over her middle. "Do you feel sick-sick?"

Just at that moment, her gut let out a resonant moan. We both giggled a little. Jordyn put a hand to her forehead.

"Maybe I am coming down with something," she mused. "But it's more like..." She searched my face. "Yesterday was weird, right? It can't be just me who thinks that... Everything that happened... and then the phone call just cutting out like it did..."

She broke off as I started nodding. "Derrick has been picking up on stuff too," I said, and filled her in on what he talked about while she was off making her phone call.

"Wow, that's super shady!" Jordyn mused when I finished. "I think this group might be a little too fixated on finding whatever treasure or something, and I've seen enough paranormal TV shows and films to know that never ends well for the people involved!"

I sighed and stood in the middle of the tent. "But we can't just say to the professor Um, actually, we're done being on the field trip now and we'd like to go home. We can't just leave!"

"But we shouldn't stay if there's something that could threaten our lives!" Jordyn countered. "I vote we take a boat to the mainland and try to call home from there."