Leave the World Behind

Alex brought us to his open hut in the middle of the forest. It had electricity for lights and his blender to work. But, I didn’t know why he didn’t build a roof and walls. I would have done that before I built a bar. Maybe that was just my personal preferences.
“What are you making?” Spencer asks.
“Margaritas, it's actually one of my strengths, that and piloting, although I did get shot down by a couple orangutans in fighter jets, so maybe not that great at it. Anyway, cheers.” Alex hand each of us a cup. I squints my eyes, when he said orangutans then I remember Van Pelt had control of the animals.
“Thanks.” I nod to him after he gave me a margarita.
“I've never had alcohol before.” Martha giggles, looking down at her cup.
“Me either.” Spencer smiles at her.
“Know what? What the hell? Woo!” She clink her glass with his.
“Lehayim,” He cheers. They took a big gulp to spit it back in.
“And I'm done with that.” She put it down on the table in front of them.
“It's good.” Spencer smile at Alex as he put his down too.
I laugh, as I drank mine. My dad let me drink at a few family events, so I was used to the taste. “I’m going to get a refill.” Fridge stood up.
“Me too,” I held up my glass for him to take.
He took it from me and made his way over to the bar. “Can I get two more of those?” He asks Alex.
“Yeah,” The pilot/bartender nod and pour him two more glasses. Fridge hand me, a glass before going to look around the hut.
“Alex? What's up with all these candles?” Bethany looks around at the candle there were surround the place. I went over by her to see if they had any smell. They had a woods earthy smell to them.
“Citronella, one of my weaknesses is mosquitoes, which is kind of a bummer when you live alone in an open hut in the jungle.” He shrugs, smiling. I wonder how long he has been by himself that he was so happy for company.
“He's single.” Bethany whispers to me giggling.
“Who's this? Who's Alan Parrish?” Fridge points to a carving in the wood that said Alan Parrish Was Here
“He's the guy who built this place.” Alex told him.
“Wait, other people have been stuck here too?” Spencer asks.
“Yeah, this is Alan Parrish's house. I'm just living in it.” He gave a small chuckle.
“So, Alex, tell me, how long have you been in the game?” Bethany said as she walked over, swaying her hips and taking off her hat to run her hand through her hair.
“Oh, it's tough to say. Time is kind of funny here, but a few months, at least.” He shrugged, for once not having a smile on his face.
“A few months?” I gasped feeling sorry for him.
“Yeah, I can't seem to make it past the transportation shed.” He sighs.
“Transportation shed? What's that?” Martha asks.
“It's the next level. First time, my hot-air balloon wouldn't even take off. And then there was the whole plane thing I mentioned. And once I got down to my last life, I realized I was screwed. And that I was never going to get out of here by myself. Half the stuff that came at me, I had zero way to deal with. You can't kill a black mamba with a margarita.” He stares down at his feet, looking very much defeated.
“You sure can't. You need a zoologist for that.” Fridge points at himself. I squints my eyes at him to see that he stole my refill that I end up not touching.
“Alex, we can help each other. You've been here a long time, you know the game, and between us, we have a lot of strengths.” Spencer stood up.
“Yeah, we're actually pretty good together.” Martha stares up at Spencer, making me squirm with excitement at my ship taking sail.
“I don't know bro. Okay, I mess up one more time, and I’m toast. Totally freaks me out even thinking about going back to the transportation shed. I don't want to die in Jumanji.” He shook his head.
“We just got to stick together. If we do that, we can win. I know we can.” Spencer tries to convince him.
“Oh my God, you're our missing piece. You were the thing we needed to find.” Bethany points at him in realization.
“So the clue was to, what, go to the bazaar to find the missing piece? It wasn't the elephant.” Martha finish Bethany’s thought.
“It was me?” Alex points to himself.
“Nigel did say that he’s counting on the six of us to lift the curse.” I point out.
“Dudes, let's do this.” Alex stood up and smile at us. Bethany went to pull him in a hug, but he did a bro handshake with her.
“Hey, Spencer, you gonna drink that margarita?” Fridge picks up the cup that Spencer spit in.
“Oh no, you’re done.” I grab the cup from him.
“Come on, baby I only had three cups.” He giggles trying to grab it out of my hand. I was able to dodge him easily.
“Come on, we’re going to the transportation shed.” Spencer grabs him by the backpack to drag him along.
“These are good margaritas.” He gave Alex two thumbs up.
Alex led us to a hill that overlooked the shed. “There it is. The transportation shed. There are all sorts of vehicles inside. We got to get one, get across the canyon, and get to the Jaguar statue.” He points to an old shed that had two armed guards in front.
“Okay, I see the transportation shed, I see the canyon, but I still can't see the statue, which is weird 'cause it's the most important thing in Jumanji and it's huge.” Bethany looks down at the map.
“That's what she said.” Fridge let out a drunken laugh.
“You drunk, Fridge?” Spencer looks over at him.
“What are you talking about? I ain't drunk.” He looked offended that someone would imply he was a lightweight.
“He is drunk.” I glare at him.
“I had three little margaritas.” He waves two fingers in my face.
“You're about half your usual size.” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Whatever, whatever, you always want to throw that in my face. But, I’m really tall in real life and you’re not.” He stuck his tongue out at me.
“Alex, what do we do? How do we get past these guards?” Spencer got us back on track.
“Last time, I waited till they left.” He explains.
“How long did that take?” Spencer asks.
“Three weeks?” He whispered.
“Oh, we gonna die.” Fridge slurs.
“Okay. Plan B.” Spencer suggested.
“Maybe there's another door somewhere. But we got to distract those guys first.” Alex came up with another plan.
“I've got it. Distracting guys is, like, the main thing I do. He plays video games, I distract guys.” Bethany smile proudly.
“Bethany, I hate to break it to you right now, but you don't exactly have the, um, the tool kit.” Fridge reminds her.
“Not me. Them.” She rolls her eyes and point at us.
“What?” Martha and I shook our heads.
“You have to go down there and flirt with those guys and hold their attention while we sneak in.” Bethany explains to us.
“No!” Martha shook her head.
“Fine, but I’m keeping my knives.” I pull on my holster.
“Are you going to leave your fellow woman, hanging?” Bethany turns to Martha.
“No! I can't just go over there and flirt with some weird soldiers I don't even know.” She crossed her arms across her chest.
“I know, but right now we don't have a better idea.” Bethany told her.
“You don't understand. I actually can't do it. I can't talk to guys. I'm terrible at it.” Martha whispers to us.
“I can give you some pointers.” Bethany whispers back.
“No, I'm sorry. We have to come up with another plan.” Martha shook her head, walking away. Spencer went over to talk to her.
“I’ll be fine. I can do it by myself.” I said, feeling everyone else eyes on me.
“I think you should leave the holster here.” Alex said.
“What? Why?” I felt safe with the knives. They were my safe blanket, I knew if I got into trouble I could pick one up and Connie would take over.
“It might set them off right away.” He said.
“Alright, Fridge put it in the backpack.” I told him as I undid the straps.
“Yeah, sure, you need any help.” He stares at my thighs.
“No, I got it.” I roll my eyes as I took it off and hand it to him. He put it in the backpack.
“You're a total badass. You could do anything.” Spencer yells, making us turn to look at them. They were staring into each other’s eyes, smiling and laughing.
“That's beautiful, Spencer. Why don't I set you up with a nice candlelight dinner? Or do you guys want to get the hell out of here?” Fridge whispers with his hands on his hips.
“Alright, show me how it's done.” Martha turns to Bethany with a determined look on her face.
“Class is in session. Are you coming, Jenny?” She turns to me.
“No, I’m good.” I shook my head.
“Come on, girl. Watch and learn.” She led Martha away from us.
“What do you know about flirting?” Spencer asks.
“That if I show enough cleavage, I could be reading the dictionary and men will pretend to be interested.” I smirk.
“I don’t know if you notice, but you don’t have the same cup size.” Fridge put his hands up to show how big my breasts are in real life.
“Something tells me with these men it won’t matter.” I look down at the brutish looking soldiers.
“Hey, what did you mean by that candlelight-dinner thing?” Spencer turns to Fridge when the girls were out of sight.
“What are you talking about?” Fridge looks up at him.
“You said it, me and Martha, candlelight dinner. What does that even mean?” He bent over to whisper to him.
“The girl is into you, Spencer.” Fridge rolls his eyes at having to state the obvious.
“What?” He screams out.
“Shut up.” I kick him. I look down at the guards to let out a breath of relief that they didn’t seem to have heard him.
“Is something on my face?” I ask when I caught Alex staring at me for the third time.
He looked down blushing. “I’m sorry, it just the last Connie and I kind of had a thing going.” He scratches the back of his neck.
“Yeah, well you ain’t having anything going with this one.” Fridge pulls me close to him. I roll my eyes.
“Are you guys together?” Alex looks between us.
“No!” Fridge and I said. I separate myself from him.
Spencer laughs at the thought. “No, she hates him. Fridge, can I talk to you for a second, alone?”
Fridge stares at Alex and I before shaking his head. “Come on, please.” He begs.
“Fine,” He grumbled, walking off with him.
“So, he likes you a lot.” Alex turns to me.
“Yeah, when he’s friends aren’t around.” I look through the binoculars that Fridge left behind. When I felt Alex stare stay on me, I continue. “Let’s just say I’m not a size two in real life.”
“Oh.” He let out. An awkward silence fell between us.
“How about we try look from any angle, can’t see a side door if we’re staring at the front?” I point to a couple boulders on the far right that would hide us while we looked.
“Good idea.” He got off the rock he was sitting on. We made our way over there. “You know, I’m not this in real life either.” He told me.
I turned around to look at him, making us stop behind some tall grass that would block us from the guard’s view. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“I’m not a pretty boy pilot, I’m a full on metal head. I play the drums.” He plays some air drums as if that would make it more believable.
“What is your favorite band?” I giggle at how silly he looked.
“Metallica,” He said with no hesitance.
“I like Enter Sandman.” I told him my favorite song of theirs.
“You know, if Fridge doesn’t come to his senses then I don’t mind going out with a girl that isn’t a size two.” He winks at me.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I blush, smiling at him.
We move to the boulders that let us see the side of the shed. “The slide door right there.” Alex spotted it right away. “I’ll tell the guys.” He told me, before going off in the direction they went in.
I had to wait a few minutes before he came back with the guys. “Okay, there's the door. We just need something to cut through the fence.” Alex points the door out to them.
“Okay, Fridge, you got anything like that in the backpack?” Spencer asks him.
“Uh, yeah, I should. Here you go. I got some bolt cutters. Does that seem like a good tool for the situation?” Fridge pulls out a pair of bolt cutters that were too long to fit in his backpack.
“Perfect, actually.” Spencer took the bolts from him.
“It's called backpack power, baby.” Fridge turns to Alex and me to brag.
“Come on, Jenny.” Martha calls to me. I nodded my head and pull my long sleeve fishnet top off, leaving me in a white sport bra that were pushing my breast up nicely.
“Hold this.” I throw it at Fridge, it landed on top of his head. He glared as he pulled it off.
“Good luck,” Alex smiles.
“You don’t need luck. You’re going to be great.” Fridge put his two thumbs up.
“You got this girl.” Bethany cheers as we made our way down the hill to the shed.
I was about to walk over to the shed, when Martha pulled me behind a tree. “I’m nervous.” She whispers.
“I’ll do all the talk, but if things get ugly. You have to do the fighting. I’m not sure Connie is good at hand to hand combat and I don’t have any knives on me.” I point to my bare thighs.
“Deal,” She nods.
We walk towards the shed. Martha was walks really weird, taking very high steps and swinging her hips too much to the point she almost threw herself off balance. “Walk normal.” I hiss as I past her to make my way to the men first.
“Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone?” The one with dark brown hair ask. While the one with light brown hair cocks his gun.
“Hey, you guys. We went on a hike and now we’re lost. Can you guys help us?” I smile sweetly with my hands behind my back, pushing my chest out. Martha was next to me bending over, flipping her hair while biting her bottom lip.
“Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone?” He asks me again.
I groan realize they were NPC, who didn’t have big roles in the video game. They had even less phrases than Nigel.
“You guys are so interesting and funny.” Martha giggles, playing with her hair.
They turn their head when the group starts to make their move to the side. “Wait!” I shout making their head turn back to me. I gingerly walked over to them, when they didn’t reach for their weapons I continue on. I stood in front of the one who could talk. “We’re just here on vacation looking for a good time, would you saw us a good time.” I ran my hands down his chest to his belt.
“Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone?” He looks down at me. The one holding the gun cocks it again and took a step towards Martha. The radio clicks on by itself and played Baby I Love Your Way by Bob Marley.
“Hey. You guys like to dance?” She asks. I smile, dancing fighting. I turn to dance with the one that I was already standing in front of. The other throws his gun to the side to dance with Martha.
A loud crash came from the shed. I share a look with Martha as the men we were dancing with turn their attention to the sound. I reach back to grab the knife I saw that was tucked in his belt. I pull it out and cutting him across the face. Martha kicks the guy she was dancing with in the balls.
The guy with his cheek cut open, charges at me. I throw the knife at him. It grazed his ear and land in one of the pillars. “Oh shit.” I curse as he kept on coming.
Martha save me when she jumps off the other guys back and kick him in the face. I ran to get the knife out of the pillar while she kicked their asses. I yanked it out and look back to see that she already knock them out cold.
We ran into the shed. “You should give me lessons in kicking ass. Give me a hug.” Bethany pulls Martha into a hug.
“You saved me, you badass goddess.” I pull her into a hug after.
“Yeah, give me a hug, girlfriend.” Spencer tried to hug her, but it came out awkward.
“As great of a moment as that is, we ain't got the time. They are coming. The motorcycle freaks are coming. Seaplane! We got to fly, man.” Fridge ran from the window over to Alex. We follow him.
“Nope, I can't do it. Okay? I told you, I'm not a good pilot. Maybe we should take the school bus.” He points to the big yellow bus.
“We can't outrun no motorcycle on no damn bus!” Fridge throws his hands in the air.
“You picked the plane and hot-air balloon before. Maybe you’re supposed to pick the helicopter.” Bethany suggests.
“No, I can't do it. Okay? I don't want to die. I'm freaking out a little bit.” He was having a mini anxiety attack.
“Fine, I'll do it. How hard can it be? It's a helicopter. You... You press a button, the… They gonna spin. Okay. Then after that, I got my… The... The lever. That's how… That's how you getting the forward-backward action. Once we in the air, I'mma be all right. This, I just gotta get… 'Cause it ain't got no step stool, so… Let me see something. I can probably just… Get in, but be careful.” He struggled just to get in the helicopter.
“No, you're drunk.” I roll my eyes.
“Fridge, you're drunk. Give me the keys.” Spencer went over to wrestle the keys out of his hands.
“Look Alex, you need to channel your inner Jefferson ‘Seaplane’ McDonough. Because, you might not be able to fly this helicopter but he can. Believe in him and yourself.” I grab on his jacket, not wanting him to leave us.
“Alex. This is where we need you.” Martha pleads.
“Remember, you're the missing piece.” Bethany told him.
“Seaplane McDonough reporting for duty,” He put on his aviator sunglasses. “Let's go, people.” He jumps into the helicopter. We got in and strap ourselves in. We burst out of the barn, right when the dirt bikes showed up.