Capítulo 33: Brave new world
It seemed the moment they stepped through the doors they were no longer on the warship much less planet earth.
Nothing at all seemed familiar.
Could they have entered another dimension?
They listened out for news from the Spirit Defense Agency but none came.
All the girls were clueless as to what to do next.
Where were the instructions, should they stay or go?
What outcome should they hope to achieve?
There was this huge buildup to do the test.
Now that they finally entered the testing ground.
It was just radio silence from the Spirit Defense Agency.
Charm's group speculated amongst themselves that all the teams had been split up and isolated.
Every group had to find a way to survive in this brave new world.
Her group was fortunate to be teleported to the inside of a cave.
They had arrived in the darkness of night.
Even the air around them smelled wet and moist.
The walls of the cave were slimy and covered with moss.
Still they traced their hands against the gross walls until they were out in the open.
A canopy of twinkling stars greeted them outside but the night sky had six moons.
The howl of some ferocious animal in the distance scared them witless.
Frightened, they hurried back inside the cave and none were brave to go outside again.
Rain started to drizzle and then it came down heavily driving the girls further into the dark cave.
It was cold and damp, Charm was unable to see anything in the darkness.
The cold night air sent shivers down their spine and the girls huddled close together for body heat and warmth.
"We are going to die," screeched the bible thumper.
"Pipe down and go to sleep," replied the disgruntled voice of the tomboy.
Everyone started speaking at once.
Until one by one the voices lessened as the owners drifted off to sleep eventually.
When morning came, from outside the cave they realized they were on higher ground.
This gave the group an advantage of being able to see for miles around.
They all voted to remain in the abandoned cave for shelter.
Relieved that whatever humongous creature that used to lurk inside and made the cave its home was nothing more than dust and old bones.
Huge animals from what seemed like the ice age roamed the land.
A carpet of thick green forestry for miles around.
Yet there were no visible animals during the day which the girls found strange.
Some unknown danger lurked in the forest nearby and it made the girls not want to venture too far from the cave.
For days the girls stayed cooped up inside the cave afraid to stray too far from the cave until their stomachs started to growl.
They could only assume that if they died in the simulation they also died in the real world.
No one was willing to risk their lives to test that theory.
Charm slowly began to get acquainted with the other girls, the bible thumper's name was Anna.
Anna might have had a few screw loose but she was also a fountain of information as she had wilderness skills.
So far they had been lucky they hadn't had any serious casualties as yet.
They were always hungry.
Whatever they gathered during the day was shared equally amongst the girls.
That meant the portion sizes were really small.
Picky eaters would not last long in this world.
It was either starve to death or eat mushrooms, coconut and bamboo.
The only edible mushrooms that were all around them for miles were the ones that sprung from decomposing carcasses and stagnant water.
Only the tomboy was skilled enough to climb the coconut tree.
The others were grateful even though she was smug; they put up with her poor attitude.
Coconuts took forever to open with their bare hands but it was worth it.
Once they removed the husk and got down to the nut.
They would bash the center of the coconut against a sharp rock until it cracked open.
Then they could relieve their thirst with fresh coconut water.
Afterwards they would consume the coconut jelly and reuse the empty coconut shells as bowls.
By now Charm had grown used to the whistling sound that the bamboo made in the wind.
They were never thirsty because where a clump of bamboo grew the thickest there was also a freshwater pond nearby.
Throughout the day they set small traps all around the outside of the cave.
They made handmade shovels and spears using bamboo and dug as deep as they could.
Hopefully they would catch medium to smaller size animals with these traps.
The traps also served a dual purpose.
It would also give off a warning if an animal larger than a giraffe was heading their way.
Sticks and stones became the weapon of choice as Charm was determined to hunt for food under the cover of darkness.
"My family learnt to live off the land, we eat whatever is in season and we are not afraid to go dumpster foraging either," explained Anna.
"We haven't reached that level of desperation yet," said bossy Tiffany dryly.
Tiffany was the de facto leader that everyone listened to from the beginning.
The girl's respected Tiffany from the waiting room and often ran to do her bidding.
Next to Tiffany sat a bright eyed, tall, ebony beauty named Serene that was always calm.
Her hairstyle was called 'sister locks' and she piled them high on top of her head in a cute tight bun.
At night the other girls would watch, fascinated as Serene showed them how she tightened her own locks.
As best as she could using bamboo sticks that she fashioned for that purpose.
"Anna, am I doing this right?" asked Serene.
She was wrapping pointed bamboos together with a twine that they made out of coconut leaves.
"Tighter," barked Anna.
Those were to go into the traps and any living creature that had the misfortune to fall into the traps would be pierced by the sharpened bamboo.
Anna went around to inspect the work of others and stopped dramatically when she reached Morgan.
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