Leave the World Behind

I was in the back of the helicopter with Spencer, Martha, and Fridge.
The helicopter starts to drop at a fast rate. “What's wrong?” Bethany yells so Alex could hear her over the noise.
“Something's broken!” He told us. The helicopter hit trees sending it swirling around making us scream and put our hands on the roof to gain some control.
“Hang on!” He told us like there was anything else we could do.
“Oh, my God, we're about to die! We're about to die!” Fridge screams in my ear as we nose dived into a canyon. Alex was able to yank it up enough, so we didn’t hit the rocky ground. We were only hovering over the ground.
“It won't go up!” He yelled back to us.
“What do you mean?” Martha asks.
“The collective is busted.” He told us, like we know what that meant.
“What is that?” I yell.
“It controls the plates up there, which tilts the rotors and controls the pitch. It is how we go up and down.” He explains what the part did.
The drumming started. “Why do the drums have to play now?” I whine.
“You guys? That can't be good.” Bethany grips on to the edge of her seat.
“It's no way that's good news.” Fridge peaks out of the helicopter to see what it was. “Albino rhinos! They're indigenous to Jumanji. They're huge, white, scary, and stupid, and they eat people.” He informed us about the animals that were chasing after us.
“No!” Bethany cried.
“They're getting close!” Spencer looks out from his side of the helicopter.
“My stomach's starting to bother me a bit.” Fridge rubs his stomach.
“Go up!” Martha yells at Alex.
“I can't go up!” He reminds her.
“I think I had too many margaritas.” Fridge whines.
“You better not throw up on me.” I glare at him.
“You guys, what are we going to do?” Bethany looks back at us.
“I'll fix the helicopter. Tell me what to do.” Spencer looks to Alex.
“You got to connect the flight-control rod to the mesh plate under the rotors.” Alex explains to him.
“Flight-control rod, mesh plate, under the rotors,” Spencer repeated it to himself.
“Do you even know what those things are?” I scoff.
“I'll be right back.” He stood up on the edge of the helicopter.
“Spencer, where are you going?” Martha yells.
“Hurry up.” Fridge yells, making me slap him.
“Be careful!” Martha and I yell.
“No, no, just hurry up!” Fridge screams.
“Shut up, Fridge.” We yell.
“You’re probably making him nervous.” I glare at him.
Rhinos started to hit the helicopter with their horns, jerking us one way then the other. Spencer feet fall off the side of the helicopter and he was hanging on by holding onto the top.
“Spencer!” I yell as Martha tried to reach and pull his legs back.
“Speed it up, Alex!” Fridge yells to the pilot.
“Spencer!” Martha yells.
“Hurry! Come on, fix it!” I yell when I saw that the canyon was about to end.
“Oh, you can say that.” Fridge hisses at me.
“Running out of time!” Alex screams out.
“Fix it, please!” Martha pleads.
“Got it!” Spencer yells, giving Alex enough time to pull us up before we hit the wall and became rhino food.
“We made it! You did it! I thought we were going to die.” Bethany cheers.
“That was amazing, Spencer.” I smile at him.
“Thank you, guys.” He smiled sheepishly.
“Oops.” Fridge interrupted our happy party.
“What do you mean, oops?” I glare at him.
“I dropped the jewel.” He admits.
“What?” We scream at him in unison.
“How the hell did you drop it?” I rubbed my temples.
“I leaned over, thought I had to puke, and I didn't. It came out of my backpack.” He explained, while reenacting it for us.
“We need the freaking jewel!” Bethany cried.
“I know. That's-that's-that's the crazy part 'cause I know we need it. So we're in a pickle. We're in a pickle.” He reminds us that we were in this together. It was the only reason why I wasn’t shoving him out of this helicopter. I might need to know something about a dangerous animal later.
“Alex, turn around. We got to go get it.” Spencer said, seeing that we had no other choice.
“Yeah, let's loop around. Look for it. Everybody open your eyes. Let's all look for it as a group.” Fridge put emphasis on the world group. Alex flow us back into rhino canyon.
“There! I see it!” Bethany points. There was bright green stone. The problem was that the man eating rhinos were circling it.
“What are they doing?” Martha looks down at the beasts.
“It's like they're protecting it or something.” Spencer stares at them.
“How are we going to do this?” Alex asked, flying around the area.
“I don't know.” Spencer kept his eyes on the rhino. There was no way someone could get it without dying.
“Well, you got to go get it, right, buddy?” Fridge turns to him. I glare at him. Spencer was his buddy now that he needed him. “What do you need, your boomerang? Maybe some scissors, a pipe wrench some shoelaces? I'm your valet. Whatever you need, I can get it for you. Okay? You just say the word.” He moved over to the edge of the helicopter were Spencer was. “What?” He asks after Spencer continues to stare at him.
“I'm sorry, buddy.” He told him.
“Sorry for what?” Fridge look confused. Spencer pushes him out.
“What the hell is up with you guys killing each other?” I yell. I peek out the side to see the rhino chasing after Fridge.
Alex flew over the green stone and Spencer jump out to grab it. He throws it to Martha and grab onto the landing skid. “Turn us around.” He orders. Alex tried to race to Fridge, but the rhino beat us to it.
“NO!” I cover my eyes with my hands.
Spencer climbs into the helicopter. “Alex, get ready to roll us to the side.”
“What?” He looks back him like he was crazy.
The game chimes. “When I tell you, roll 90 degrees to the right.” Spencer told him, keeping his eyes on Fridge falling from the sky. “Now!” Spencer said. Alex turns us to the side making Fridge fall past us. Spencer grabs him before he was out of reach.
“You pushed me out the helicopter, jackass!” Fridge yells. Alex put us back up right and Spencer pull Fridge back in.

Alex lands us safe and we got out. “Oh, wow!” Spencer looks around at the view.
“Spencer, you're amazing.” Martha compliments him.
“Thank you.” Spencer nod to her.
“You are a killer pilot, Alex.” Bethany smile at him.
“Thanks.” He gave her a smile back.
“You too, Spencer, you were incredible!” Bethany nod to him.
“You’re guys team works was top notch. No one would know you guys only know each other for a few hours.” I bounce around, pump that we were alive.
“Thank you but he was amazing, our pilot.” Spencer points to Alex.
“No man, you’re an amazing leader.” He gave the credit back to Spencer.
“Excuse me. Excuse me! I'm the one that was a human sacrifice. You don't know what's on the underside of those rhinos. And you don't want to know. I've seen a lot of things. Felt them on my face too. Things that I will never be able to erase from memory” Fridge screams, getting our attention. We giggle at the dramatic speech. “Oh, that's funny to you guys. Go ahead, laugh it up. Get it out.” He glares at us when we couldn’t stop laughing.
“Guys, I've been trying to get across this canyon for, like, 20 years, okay? Do you realize how huge this is?” Alex looks around in awe. He slaps his neck. “Mosquito,” He whispered before falling down.
“No, no, no! Alex, no, no, no!” Bethany ran over to him.
“Alex.” Martha and I ran over to try and get him up. Martha gently slapped him a couple time in the face, trying to get him up.
“He's dying.” I show his forearm to everyone for them to see how his tattoo was fading.
“No, we can't let him die. We're too close! Does anyone know how to do CPR?” Bethany looks around at us.
“Camp!” I point to Spencer, remembering he said he learned it there.
“Yeah, start with three chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. One, two, three,” He shows her with his hands how to do the chest compressions. She copied him.
“How do I do this?” She looks at Spencer for the next part.
“Okay, pinch his nose; open his mouth, full lip-lock. Ah, one breathe, two breaths, then repeat.” He instructed her.
“Come on, Alex.” She whispers to him as she continues to give him mouth to mouth.
“Bethany, stop. Your tattoo, it looks like you're giving him one of your lives.” Martha stops her. It was true while Alex was tattoo was coming back, Bethany was losing one of hers.
“I'm okay with that.” She nods.
“What if you need it for yourself?” I ask her. I like Alex, but I knew Bethany longer.
“I want Alex to come home too.” She went back to giving him CPR.
He coughs before taking a deep breath as he came back to life. Bethany fell back happy that she was able to do it. “What happened?” He looks around, not understanding how he was still here.
“Alex, Bethany gave you one of her lives.” Martha informed him and helps him off the ground.
“Bethany, you okay?” I check on her.
“I think so.” She said out of breath.
“Bethany, is that true? You gave me one of your lives?” He helps her up.
“I mean, yeah, of course.” She smiles, blushing at having him so close to her.
“Thank you.” He gave her a long and tight hug, than he let her go and walk away.
Spencer’s, Fridge’s and my eyes widen. “What? What are you looking at?” She asks.
“You got a situation.” Fridge point down.
“Oh, my God, these things are crazy.” She laughs, after seeing she got her first boner.

We split up to look around for the Jaguar. Somehow I got stuck with Fridge. Throughout this game, we were friendly, flirty, and he even kissed me. But, being on the last level reminds me that we were going back home. While I was excited to see my parents again, I knew that Fridge would go back to ignoring me.
“Are you going to be mad at me for the rest of your life?” He snaps tired of me ignoring him like I have since I got back my camouflage mesh top, guns, and hostler from him.
“What you did to us was unforgivable, so yes I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life!” I snap.
“I did it for you.” He throws his hands up.
“You did it for yourself, being popular meant more to you than our relationship. Spencer and I didn’t fit in with your cool friends. He’s too nerdy and I’m too fat.” I glare at him for making like he was doing me a favor.
“Stop talking about Spencer. We both know this isn’t about him.” He put his hand up to stop me from saying anything else.
It did stop my rant. It made me ask the question that I’ve wanted to ask for the last two and a half years. “When did you know that you were going to ditch me? Was it before we had sex? Hell was it before the first kiss.” It ate at me every time I thought about it. I need to know how much of my first love was fake.
“I knew the last weekend of summer. Remember when I took you to the fair that was in town. We saw all my teammates and their girlfriends there. The next day I went to practice, you were all they talk about. They weren’t nice thing, Jen. If I stayed with you, you would have to put up with that shit. I mean they shut up about it around me, but I can’t be there all the time. It’s better for you not to be with me and be invisible.” He explains, taking slow steps towards me like he was approaching a wild animal.
“That should have been my choice to make not yours. Besides, I’m not invisible. I got detention because I broke Jason’s nose after he grabbed my tits.” I glare at him through the tears in my eyes.
“What the fuck? How the hell does he not have detention?” He snaps.
“The teacher didn’t see.” I huff, still upset about it myself.
“I’m going to beat him up the next time I see him.” He grunts making me scoff like that would do anything. “You said it should be your choice.” He ask, bring us back on track.
“Yeah, it should have been.” I nod my head.
“What would your choice have been?” He reaches out to grab my hand, but I move it behind my back.
“It would have been you, it’s always been you.” I admit, hating that I could still love someone who treat me horribly. I never thought I would be that girl, even though I been that girl for years now. I never realize I was her, until now. It’s was a twist revelation for me.
He took a deep breath before asking nervously, “Even now?”
“Yes, you think I would still be this mad if it still wasn’t you for me. There wouldn’t be this pain my chest every time I have to see you with another girl.” I wipe away the tears that were running down my face. I felt embarrassed to be confessing this to him, who knows how he would feel when this game was over. Would he go back to his popular life and forget about me again?
He cups my face and wipes the tears away for me. “There’s been others girls I’m not going to lie, but none of them got me like you do. They go out with me hoping I’ll make pros. You just wanted my time. I love you. I’m sorry for making the wrong choice.” He stretched his body to push his lips against mine. I bent down to make it easier for him. Soon after, I had to pull back laughing. “What the hell is so funny?” He asks.
“It’s weird having to bend down to kiss you.” I crack up.
“You laugh it up now, but soon I’m going to get the other two feet of me back.” He reaches his hands over his head to show the height he was going to gain back.
“What is going to happen then?” I move to hover over him while I still could.
“Oh, you’ll find out.” He looked up at me and licked his lips, which made me laugh again. It was hard to take him seriously when I knew right now if I wanted to, I could kick his ass. “You know what girl I don’t have time to play with you. I have a jaguar to find.” He turned to go further in the forest.
I laugh following him. After wandering around a little more, we walk through some bushes to find a giant mountain with the jaguar carved in it.
“Let go get the others.” I smile up at the mountain.
We walk along the river and caught Martha and Spencer kissing. “Come on. Hey! I don't want to see that. I don't, not today. While you're down here professing your love for one another, I found the Jaguar. Let's go.” He interrupted them. He leads us to where we last saw Alex.
“Isn’t that a little hypocritical of you.” I whisper to him.
“No, because I was doing that while finding that Jaguar,” He whispers back. “Come on, you guys I found the Jaguar.” He calls out to Bethany and Alex who were sitting by the riverbank talking.
We lead them to the mountain. “There it is.” Fridge points to the jaguar.
“There it is,” Alex smiles.
“We'd better get walking.” Spencer leads the pack down there.
We end up in front of a hiking trail. “I think we just follow this path.” Bethany looks up from her map.
“No. It can't be that easy.” Alex shook his head.
“Yeah, this would be the boss level. It suppose to the hardest.” I agree with him.
“The Defenders,” She read off the map.
“What does that mean?” Fridge asks.
“There's only one way to find out. Fridge, give me the jewel.” Spencer turns to him. He glanced at all of us, before digging it out of his bag.
“Spencer.” Martha calls to him. He nods his head, telling her he was sure. Fridge gave him the stone making the torches light up along the pathway.
The drum started to beat again. “Something's about to happen,” Martha stares at the trail, waiting for something to come out.
“I hate those drums.” Fridge sighs.
“You can’t walk in there.” I grab Spencer's arm.
“I’m not, because that's what the game wants us to do. Follow the path. It's a trap.” He looks around for another way to get there.
“When you see the elephant begin the climb.” Bethany points out the elephant statue that was on the side of the trail.
“I'll go through the trees.” Spence looks up.
“The trees?” Fridge didn’t look sure. Spence nod his head.
“I don’t think that’s what it means.” I shook my head.
“That must be it. That's the move. This is the final level of the game. And I'm pretty sure this is a Bravestone thing.” He gave us a smolder before running to climb a tree.
“Did he just refer to himself in the third person?” Bethany squint her eyes at me.
“Um, fourth person, I think.” Martha watches him with concern.
“How does he do that?” Alex watch in amazement as Spencer walk along branches like it was nothing.
“Climbing is one of his strengths.” Fridge explains.
“Oh, gotcha,” Alex nods.
“Cake makes me explode.” He shares, making Alex look at him confused.
Spencer screams and fell out of the tree to get eaten by a large cat.
“Oh my God, you guys. Panthers,” Bethany whisper as a group of them came out of the bushes to walk towards us.
“No, those are jaguars.” Fridge corrected her.
“What do we do zoologist?” I ask him. Before he could answer, the game chimes and Spencer fell in the middle of the trial. He ran over to us.
“Are you okay?” Martha asks.
“Yeah, I think so.” He rubs his bald head.
“You still have the jewel, right?” Alex asks.
“I got it.” He took it out of his pocket to show it to us.
“Oh, thank God.” I put a hand over my heart.
“Hey, what happened?” Fridge asks.
“I don't want to talk about it.” He shook his head. We share a look making me groan, it was a stupid squirrel.
“Okay, we need a new plan.” Bethany said. Everyone agrees on that. “Spencer, any ideas?” She turns to him.
“Can I speak with you guys for a minute?” He asks Fridge and I.
“Now?” He asks. Spencer nods his head and we follow him away from the group.
“What's going on?” I ask, once we were out of hearing distance of the others.
“I can't do this.” He shook his head.
“What are you talking about?” Fridge squints.
“I can't do this. Okay, who am I kidding? I'm not some adventurer. I'm not actually brave.” He began to take fast breathes.
“Spencer, I just saw you hanging out of a helicopter.” He points out.
“You catch a snake in mid air and you beat up a pack thugs.” I remind him.
“It's a lot easier to be brave when you have lives to spare. It's a lot harder… when you only have one life.” He shows us his one tattoo.
“We always only have one life, man. Okay? That's... That's all we get. That's how it works. The question is, is how are you going to live it? Which guy are you going to decide to be? Did I just quote our principal? What the hell is this game doing to me? I got to get out of here.” He looked in disbelief that something an authority figure said to him sunk in. “Look. We can do this, man. We can do it together.” He turns to Spencer, with a new focus in his eyes that said he had an idea.
“Together?” Spencer looks at us.
“Together.” Fridge nods his head.
“It’s the way we’ve been doing it our whole life, well minus two and half years.” I said making Fridge glare at the side of my head.
“You're a good friend, Fridge.” Spencer smile at him. We went back to the group for Fridge to give his game plan.
“Alright, I don't know video games, but what I do know is football. Now, those lightning-fast, man-eating cats out there? They're the Defenders, which means we got to run one hell of an offense.” Fridge explains.
“You guys.” Spencer point to where the dirt bike noise was coming from. “We got to go.” He hurries Fridge.
“Here's what we're going to do. We're going to fan out and run a play that I call: The Double Reverse Refrigerator. Bethany, you go up the left side. I'll go up the right. Alex, you'll draw the defense, so Spencer can go up the middle.” He gave everyone orders.
“What do we do?” I point to Martha and myself.
“Take out those bikes.” He told us.
We nod our heads and everyone got to their position. “Fridge,” I ran over to him before he disappeared into the forest.
“What?” He asks, waiting to see what I want.
“I really like seeing you take charge.” I bent down to give him a heated kiss before running back over to Martha. Baby, I love your way by Bob Marley started to play again as Martha did her dance fighting. I whip my knives and ninja stars at them.
I let out a scream when I felt something tighten around my ankle and drag me across the forest floor. I look up to see a dirt bike and then to my side to see Martha being drag by another. I pull my gun from the holster and shot him three times: two in the back and one in the head because I was piss off. I was about to shot Martha’s dirt biker when Spencer came out of nowhere and hit him with a bat. He went flying clear across the jungle.
“Thanks.” She smiles at him.
“Sure.” He nods to her.
They share a longing look that was sweet, but this wasn’t the time for it. “Guys, we got company.” I nod my head to the dirt bikers approaching.
“Get to the statue. Go!” Martha orders. He picks up the dirt bike and rode off. She grabs a vine and swing to kick a few off their bikes. I shot the rest of them. After we finish them off, we ran to the mountain, where we found Van Pelt holding Bethany hostage.
“Give me the jewel, or your friend dies.” He held a gun to her head.
I pull my machine gun around and point it at him. “You shot her and I’ll blast you and your little kitty cats.” I threaten.
“Don't give it to him!” Bethany cried.
“Quiet! Stop!” He growls at her making me put my finger on the trigger.
“Take me instead, okay?” Alex steps forward making the jaguar snarl as they step towards us. While I didn’t want to kill animals, I would if I had to.
“Give me the jewel.” Van demands.
“I can't do that.” Spencer shook his head.
“Five. Four, three...” The psycho counted.
“I can't give you the jewel.” He told him.
“Spencer.” Martha hiss.
“Two!” He counted down.
“Because I don't have it!” Spencer yells, making Van Pelt and I lower our guns.
I heard this pounding footsteps, I turn to see Fridge come out of the jungle riding on an Elephant. “Zoology, bitch!” He yells, waving the jewel around in the air.
Van Pelt sends the jaguar to attack him. The elephant shook them off easily and the rest ran away. I guess their survival instinct over rule his control on them.
I lift my gun back up when Van Pelt lift his. But, I couldn’t get a clear shot with Bethany standing in front of him. He shot at Fridge, would have gotten him too but Bethany bite his arm. But, the shoots spook the elephant and Fridge end up losing his grip on the stone. We watch as it fly towards the mountain somewhere.
“Douche bag! You suck!” Bethany pulls S.I.N.G. from Miss Congeniality. Martha and Spencer ran to get the stone.
“I’ll get Bethany, you get Fridge.” Alex told me. I nod my head, agreeing with the plan. He attacks Van Pelt who had Bethany pin to the ground.
I ran over, not knowing how I was supposed to calm an elephant. “How do I calm it down?” I ask as I dodge the angry elephant’s feet.
“There is no calming down anything this big.” He screams, holding on tightly to the creatures back.
I ran ahead and climb one of the trees. As the elephant past it, I reach to pull Fridge off it. While I did that, the elephant lift its head impaling my stomach with its tusk. It all happens so fast, that I didn’t have time to scream. With my last bit of strength I yank Fridge on the tree with me.
“Oh shit.” He stares at the hole in my stomach. He helps me get down the tree as the elephant went on. He lay me on the ground and put my head on his lap. “Why did you come for me? I wasn’t in any danger on top of it.” He wipes the tears from his eyes.
“What if it bucks you off or did this to you? It’s fine I have another life.” I hiss, wishing that death would hurry up.
“So, I don’t I like watching you die?” He glares. I disappear like Martha did and soon the game chimes. I was able to land on my feet this time.
“Let go.” I nod. We ran back to where the others are to see Martha falling from the sky and Spencer swing around on a rope to meet her. She gave him the stone and land gracefully.
“Yas Martha.” I clap my hands for her.
“Go Spencer!” Fridge screams.
He slammed the gem back into place. We look around waiting for something to happen. “What the heck? We beat the game.” I scream in frustration.
“Call out its name.” Bethany whispers beside me.
“Call out its name!” I yell, realizing she was right.
“Call out its name, everyone!” Bethany orders.
“Jumanji!” We scream out. A green light waves came from the stone, turning Van Pelt into dust and bring light back to the place. It looks like paradise now, instead of a natural disaster.
“I think we did it,” Martha smiles.
“I think we won.” Fridge pulls me into a hug.
“I think we did.” Bethany smile along with everyone else.
“Guys its Nigel,” Alex points to a familiar jeep coming towards us.
He got out of his jeep and walk over to us. “Well done, intrepid adventurers! You lifted the curse! All of Jumanji thanks you. Your work here is done. So, sadly, this is where we part. Seaplane McDonough, let me shake your hand.” He held his hand out. Alex look back to smile at us one last time before shaking the man’s hand. He turn into little dots and got sucked up into the sky.
“Adieu, Professor Oberon.” He held his hand out to Bethany.
“Later, dude.” She looked down to whisper to her penis before taking Nigel’s hand. She too got sucked up into the sky.
“I'll miss you the most, my little Mouse.” He didn’t even get to reach his hand out before Fridge was stepping to him.
“Get me the hell out of here.” He took the man’s hand and left too.
“It was a pleasure, Connie.” He held out his hand for me.
“It will be a pleasure when I get the hell out of here.” I grab his hand and sigh with happiness as I got lifted up into the sky.