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I hung in space for what seemed like a very long time. I know that it only takes a second, or less, to fall fifty feet, but when your life is hanging in the balance time has a strange way of changing speed! I wasn't scared anymore. What was the point? My fate was out of my control at this point! Instead, I was only thinking about my life and my friends. I thought about Dodge, my good buddy who had helped me out of a Roblox prison. I thought about Zeke, the peculiar fellow who resolved the zombie crisis with me. I thought about Thor, who had given me an opportunity to be a superhero for a while. All these memories ran through my mind, like a carousel. Then-
BAM!!
I hit the water like a ton of bricks! The force was so powerful that I gasped, with the natural result of that being a wave of water rushing into my mouth. I struggled and kicked, not really knowing which direction the surface was or how deep down I had gone. I couldn't feel the bottom of the river or the top of the water!
“GASP!” My head burst through the surface of the water and I sucked in a breath desperately. A feeling of relief rolled over me. I was safe! At least for the moment anyway! I looked up the embankment that I had jumped from and saw the flames sticking their long tongues out over the edge, hungrily searching for more to devour.
Where were the others? Had they chosen not to jump? My question was answered when a dark shadow moved out and over the edge of the cliff.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
They were jumping alright, and falling into the water all around me! I paddled away as fast as I could to avoid being struck. One by one, the others broke the surface, much the way I had moments earlier. In the dim glow from the fire above, I struggled to make out who was who. Finally, I saw Pete's face and swam in his direction. As he and the others made their way to the river's edge I spoke to him.
“Are you hurt?” I said.
“No, I don't think so.” Pete replied. “That was pretty gutsy what you did up there. I don't think I could have jumped if you hadn't gone first.”
“It seemed like the only option.” I answered.
At that point, I heard an agonizing scream from up above us. We all stood frozen in place and listened.
“They didn't all jump.” Pete said grimly.
I nodded. The idea of being up there in those flames was too much to process right now so I pushed the thought from my head. Pete and I went around to the others and checked on them while getting a quick head count. There were eight of us left. Mike had fallen in the forest, and one more had chosen not to jump. We were all in a state of shock, but the decision on what to do next was fairly simple. The river we had jumped into flowed downstream to the little town that was on this Roblox server: Simpletown. It wasn't too far, and it was our only real place of refuge at this point.
So together we set out for Simpletown. The fire would no longer bother us now that it had hit the cliff's edge so we were safe.
For now.