Young Writers Society

They continued running for what felt like hours, in all fairness it was probably only a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity running around the stuffy tunnel, having to dodge around ridiculous amounts of crazy large cobwebs.

"Is it just me or should we have gotten to the exit by now?" Aria called to the others, stealing a glance behind her, she couldn't see the large spider monsters, but she could feel and hear them following their small group.

"Well...if we didn't get to the exit, Raspian should've. It looks like he's miles ahead at this point. How fast can this guy even run? Maybe we should be careful from now on. These spiderwebs just aren't reducing in number and those do not look like they're easy to break. The fact that Raspian hasn't run back to gloat probably means he hasn't found exit or else..." She let that hang in the air.

"He should remain with everyone else." Phoebe squeaked, shivering from head to toe.

"I just hope he doesn't do anything silly." Aria sighed, it was bad enough they were being followed by angry monsters, but it would make things even worse if Raspian got himself stuck.

"Let him run, he's useless anyway, " came a voice from up ahead. Asher had apparently slowed down a bit. "I can take care of anything in our path here. None of these stupid strings here can actually stop me."

"I would honestly be totally fine with both of these idiots getting stuck so we can have some peace," whispered Cass to the girls, making sure Asher up ahead couldn't hear them.

Aria nodded in agreement. "What would be even better, would be if they got stuck together, could you image?" Aria giggled to herself.

"Oooh, yes," said Cass.

"What are you three giggling about?" came a question from Asher up ahead. Before they could answer....a very girly and very much terrified scream came from somewhere in front of them.

Written with @FlamingPhoenix

"That sounds like Raspian!" Phoebe cried a look of worry washing over her already terrified face.

Aria sent Cass a look of concern as she picked up her pace. "Yeah it did, lets hope he hasn't gotten himself into any trouble." Removing her knife she readied herself for the worse.

"I guess there's only one way to find out, come on cowards," said Asher, marching forward, not bothering to even look at where he was going.

The girls followed behind, taking a lot more care to walk around the strands of web that hung from the ceiling here and there.

"Asher, watch were your walking!" Aria called avoiding a dangling web. "We don't need you getting stuck in one of these!"

Just as he said that, Asher was suddenly flung into the air by some invisible force. The girls stopped in their tracks. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could see Raspian dangling from the ceiling somewhere nearby.

Aria looked up at the boys, her mouth a gape. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" She looked to Cass then Phoebe. "How are we going to get them down? The webs are to tough for us to cut through." To make her point she threw her knife into a web nearby only to have it stick.

"Oh dear." Phoebe whispered behind them.

"Keep in mind we still have to deal with that!" Aria jabbed her thumb behind her at the angry spider monsters heading their way.

"Oh no, I don't know if we'll have time to even get up to those two, much less cut them down," said Cass, "I could try shooting the webs, but then you know the very obvious risk in doing that."

Then with a loud screeching noise, several other spiders dropped down on them from the ceiling. All thoughts of saving the boys put aside, they began to run.



Written with @HarryHardy

Aria hoisted her bow off of her shoulder knocking it up with an arrow. stopping her run for a few seconds she takes her shot towards Asher, allowing the arrow to stick to the web just above him, then the same to Raspian. She then continued running. "Well now hopefully they will be able to defend themselves." She called to the other two.

"Yeah, hopefully," said Cass. They continued running as the monster began to gain on them. The new spider creatures appeared to be smaller than the ones that had been chasing them earlier, but they were also clearly a lot faster.

"We just have to make it out this cave, then we can find a place to hide, and form some kind of plan to save the boys." Aria jumped over a long web then continued running, when a loud cry from behind them made her turn her head to see Phoebe be pulled up into the net of webs above.

"Nooooo," screamed Cass, as Phoebe was suddenly sucked up from behind them.

Aria looked from Phoebe then the Cass, she really wanted to stay and get Phoebe out but that would end up with all of them in the webs. Grabbing Cass's arm she dragged her along as she ran. "We can't stay, we have to get out so we can save them with a plan in mind." She had to block out Phoebe's cries for help from behind them.

"But...." protested Cass, her failing here as she realized there really was no other option than to leave Phoebe behind. The two of them ran, even as the spiders continued to gain on them. Cass was just about keeping pace with Aria as she ran.

"Let's just get out of here first, there is know point in all of us being spider food." Aria looked behind her at Cass. "Don't worry they will be fine, the boys fighting will make so much noise who would want to eat them, and same goes for Phoebe's screaming." Aria ducked under a large spider web then continued running.

Written with @FlamingPhoenix

Cass tried for a small smile at Aria's attempt at a joke. It was all she could do after all. As they ran, Cass realized that she was keeping pace with Aria, which meant Aria was probably running slower that she wouldn't get left behind. That was probably hurting their chances of finding a way to save their friend. She knew she would never be fast enough or have the stamina to keep running for too much longer. She had to do something a little drastic here. So that at least Aria could escape out of there.

"Cass come on!" Aria called, seeing Cass slow down. "We can't stop yet."

"I'm really sorry about this Aria, but I think its the only way. I'm far too slow," said Cass, as she quickly slid to a halt. She managed a quick thumbs up and shouted her final words before she was snatched up by her legs. "Find a way out Aria..." Suddenly she was weightless and an unbearable stench engulfed her. She found herself being wrapped in some sort of sticky substance and dragged off towards a long tunnel hidden in the darkness.

At Cass's words Aria came to a stop quickly turning around only to watch Cass be wrapped up in a large spiderweb. "CASS!" She couldn't move, why her out of all people, why would she do that? She watched as Cass was dragged off to a place she couldn't see. The sound of the monsters not to far off made her come back to reality, she looked to her right just in time to roll away from an oncoming attack. Quickly getting to her feet she dashed as fast as her legs would let her down the cave, she was going to get them out of there...But how?

WRITTEN WITH @HarryHardy

Aria had know idea how long she had been running. Her legs were aching and her body was wet with sweat, she could feel she didn't have to much longer to go. Shaking her head she looked ahead, she had to keep going, what would happen to the others if she just gave up?

Spotting a small flicker of light ahead Aria could feel her last bit of energy go to her legs as she forced herself forwards with a new found strength. Running out of the cave Aria took a moment to lean her hands down on her knees allowing herself to catch a much needed breath.

Looking behind her Aria was glad to see know monster in sight. Looking around for a good place to think her eyes spotted a few figures ahead. Breathing heavily, Aria wiped the sweat from her forehead as she Ran to them, hoping for some kind of help.

"HEY!!" She cried waving her hands, she knew she looked like she came back form the dead but really didn't care. "Hey you!"

Harrison Hardy was getting bored of exploring this dusty old maze. Sure, they'd set out to explore the area after they saw that pod escape off the attacked ship. But now that they'd seen the pod, in the terrible shape it currently was in, at the start of the old defunct Alvagoran defense system. It was an old and weird system...after all...what kind of civilization builds a giant booby trapped maze in space complete with crazy monsters to guard its borders. But nonetheless...when the system was in its heyday, it was crazy effective and it looked like that hadn't changed much since it going inactive. The occupants of the pod were nowhere to be found and he was about to yell at the other two to call of the search.

And then he heard it. A girl yelling "Hey you!!"

He whipped around quickly, and squinted. Off in the distance, he could see a girl, looking like one of the protagonists of a zombie apocalypse film, stumbling towards them, clearly very tired.

"Jen, James, get over here...looks like we might have survivors after all," said Harry, waving to his sister and his new teammate.

"Oh my good, the poor thing looks in terrible condition," said Jennifer, running up to them.

"Oh phew...finally we find someone," said, James, taking long deep breaths. "Also..guys....try to keep in mind I'm just a human...ya know...can't run for quite as long."

"Sorry, James, " echoed the two siblings.

"Come on, let's go talk to her," said Harry. The three of them jogged over to the girl.

Written with @FlamingPhoenix

Phoebe hugged her knees to her chest as she looked around in fear, large and small spider monsters were everywhere. Their small eyes looking at her then to the others with her. Trying to make herself smaller she looked to Cass.

Cass looked back, trying to give Phoebe a small smile. Truth be told, she was currently terrified out of her mind, but she tried to look composed so that poor Phoebe wouldn't feel even worse. Their situation did not look good at all. They were encased in thick strong webbing that might as well have been heavy steel cables to her pathetic efforts to free herself.

"Do you see the boys?" she tried to whisper through the webbing covering most of her face.

Phoebe tried her best to shake her head. "No...where is Aria?"

"I'm not sure...but I think she managed to escape. She's not here at least. I may have kinda used myself as a distraction so that hopefully she could get away and find some way to rescue us. If anyone can figure that out, she can."

"I hope your right." Phoebe mumbled her eyes moving towards the monsters that were slowly getting closer. "I really hope your right."


WRITTEN WITH @HarryHardy

When Aria reached the other group, she quickly regained her breath. "You have to help! There are others still alive." She pointed behind her towards the cave opening.

"Oh hi, that sounds like a terrible situation," said Harry, coming to a stop in front of her. He tried what he hoped was a comforting smile. "Why don't you calm down a little and tell us what happened from the start, so that we know the best way to help your friends."

Aria glared at him but did as asked. "Long story short, we got attacked, we crashed here on an escape pod. We then ran into a large monster, not sure what it was. Killed it. And ran into that cave for safety. But its crawling with Spider Monsters, that have got my friends stuck in its webs...I'm not even sure if there still alive..." Aria trailed off looked behind her at the cave.

"Wait a minute, did she just say they took down one of those stupid large sentry things on their own," chimed up Vankous from the back.

"Vankous, shush, I hardly think compliments on defeating a sentry is the thing she needs to hear right now, she's probably very worried about her friends," said Jennifer.

"Yeah, looks like that's quite an urgent matter then, isn't it," said Harry, "what did the spider things look like exactly, did they look organic or were they a type of robot?"

Frowning Aria crossed her arms. "Oh gee I didn't get a good enough look while it was trying to eat me!" Sighing Aria shook her head. "But lucky you I killed one of their young and took its leg, and I'm sure its organic if its blood had anything to say about it." she paused. "Oh and about that, I wouldn't touch its blood or get it on you, you'll melt into a puddle of goo."

"Oooh, its that breed, this will be so much fun," said Vankous.

"For the first time I think I actually agree with you on that one," said Harry, "can I have that leg to inspect?"

Jennifer came around the two boys to Aria. "Don't mind those two nerding out over the monsters, tell us which direction we need to go."

She turned to glare at Harry. "Did you two genuinely not see this girl is in distress or are you too just that insensitive?"

"Sorry," said Harry, looking sheepish.

"Oh I didn't..." began Vankous but was silenced by a glare from Harry this time.

"No, I don't have the leg." She shook her head with an amused smile. "If I did we would have a very angry horde of Spider Monsters on our back. They are trackers. Soo no I kind of tossed it." Turning she began to walk back to the gave opening. "Now come on! You want to help before there isn't anyone to save don't you?"

"Yeah, we definitely don't want that," said Harry, "come on, let's go take a look at what exactly these spiders are."

"You mean, save the poor kids that are trapped?" asked Jennifer.

"That's exactly what I meant," said Harry.

"Really?" asked Vankous, looking confused.

"Shut up and come on," said Harry, jogging after Aria.

Rushing into the cave, Aria knocked up her bow. Ready to attack at any moment as she could feel the others come in behind her. "They should be this way." Aria slowly walked down the cave tunnel, ducking under webs.

Written with @FlamingPhoenix