Chapter 1: Prologue
A particularly large yawn broke the silence inside the van. To the passenger's seat was Renee, wiping the tears about to fall from edges of her eyes. Rain beat down in waves as the windshield wipers whined and whipped the wet gray from her vision. Familiar sign whizzed by when the car's light hit against it- Fallen Valley Ahead.
"Miss, why don't you go to sleep?" Carlo, the company driver said without even glancing to the young team leader. And Renee don't need him to do so. She'll be more thankful if they got home safe and sound. Beside…
"Nobody could sleep in this time." Renee replied, and winced shortly when she heard snoring from behind her. She glanced back and saw her ten team members comfortably sleeping and snuggling at each other. "They are the exception, I guess." She added. "How about you, Carlo? Should we park for awhile and rest?"
"I hope we could but we're far from the town already, Miss. It's not safe to park when we're surrounded by mountains; rebels could come down anytime."
"It's not safe to drive in the middle of downpour either." She replied, taking a look at the runoff on the rock walls on their right side from some strip mining higher up on the mountain. She knew that those swirling red and white runoff were mixed with some acidic stuff that could make things slick. "Well, if we have no other choice, then I could only ask you to drive safely and slowly, Carlo." She quietly said, her breath hitting and instantly steaming up the window.
They left the resort early in the day hoping that they won't get caught up in the dark but not only that they were even travelling under a heavy downpour in the middle of nowhere with the threat of rebels.
The road began to climb, she saw Carlo shifted gears. They made the right turn up a curvy, one-lane dirt road with a few pull-offs on the right in case you met another car. On their left was a narrow bank that dipped to Fallen Valley Crick with its churning, coffee-colored water.
She shuddered as she clenched her fists so hard her knuckles went white. Of course, this journey is taking so much of her spirit and she could not help dread for anything that might happen on this time.
Her anxiety slightly subsided when her phone lit up. She took this out of her pocket and a notification could be seen at the middle of the screen. She had forgotten to turn off her mobile data that's why a message popped up. She swiped the lock-screen open and opened her messenger. A video had been sent by her sister, Elle.
She rummaged her bag in search of her earphones and put them on. The video loaded for a while before it finally started. The person filming could not be any bad than this and Renee already knew who was it right away. It was Raven.
[["Sis! Is this for real?Kya." The fifth child of the family, Alyssa, screamed while fanning a fuchsia pink envelope with a golden emblem of a ballerina on the front. "Please be back quickly and introduce me to Mrs. Walsh! I never knew you're acquainted with such a high-profile woman! She's inviting me to a ballet team for Italy! I'm not gonna miss th---"
"Ah. It's my turn stop talking already!" The sixth child, Cath, interrupted and pushed Alyssa's face away. But the latter fought back and pushed the other girl's face away.
"It's not time yet! Stick to the schedule, would you?" Alyssa said and raised a pair of cream colored pointe shoes. "Thanks for this, by the way. As I was saying, I hope you'll allow me to leave for Italy. Don't worry I'll do my best so I could keep the scholarship until I graduate. If I will be part of important events then I'll send you an invitation."
"Okay time's up." Elle's voice interrupted together with a timer beeping from the side.
"Tch." Alyssa left the chair and Cath immediately sat.
"How about me sis? I wanna go overseas as well." Cath said while pouting. "In your dreams!" Alyssa's voice interrupted. "Paris is a good place to learn fashion. Someday, I want to go there alright? Anyway, I'm content with this for now." Cath said while showing a complete set of art materials. "But I want to enroll in an art school in high school, Sis. Why is it that Alyssa could go to a ballet school and I couldn't?" She said, sulking.
"Hey, you! Stop asking Sis so much when you can't even maintain your ranking. Get lost." Elle interrupted.
"Eh. I'm second though." Cath retorted back and crossed her arms.
"Yeah, but I am always first, so is Sis, Grace and Alyssa, and you used to as well."
"Big sis doesn't complain. So why would I bother. Raven didn't get first either.
"Raven is good in academics as well, but is too lazy to maintain his rankings, however he is first in extra curricular and was the student Body President in his time."
"You're kidding me. Raven, you tell me that Elle is lying."
"Hm. I think I forgot to tell you?" Raven replied from behind the screen.
"Then if I got first will you let me enroll in art school?" Cath asked.
"I'll help you persuade sis if you graduated first in your batch."
"Okay, deal." Cath replied and stood from her seat. "Sis, you heard that right? You have two more years before I graduate." She said and walked out of the screen.
The next who appeared in the screen where Grace and Elle. Grace, the second born, has short wavy hair. Elle, the third born, on the other hand could be simply said as the strict secretary type with long straight hair and eyeglasses.
"Now look, sis, you have spoiled that brat rotten, she's beyond saving now." Elle complained. "Anyway, thanks for the clothes. I will be needing them on our reach out missions so you're my life saver. Maybe we won't be seeing each other for a while since I will be leaving for another mission so I won't be home when you get back. No worries though, Grace is more than enough to handle these brats at home."
"Save me from the troubles, please." Grace said while taking something from her pocket. Then she raised the object and jiggled it in front the screen-it was a key. "Thanks for this. And may I ask another favor?" She grinned. "Prof is asking for a date, will you go?"
"What? I've never heard of this!" Elle glared at Grace and looked at the screen. "Sis, you didn't told me, who's this guy?"
"Hey hey. Save your exaggerated reactions, will you? It's not you who's being asked out. Beside the Professor is a good guy."
"The Professor! He might be some middle-aged guy! Stop playing cupid for Sis. God, I can't imagine seeing her walking down the aisle to get married to someone who's about the age as our parents!"
"Woah. Hold your horses girl. This is my Professor." Grace said and took her phone then showed something to Elle. Even Raven was interested to know and moved from behind the tripod and looked at the phone.
"Oh. He's young, what's his name? When was the date?" Elle asked curiously.
"Hmm. But there was another guy who's driving Sis from work. He talked to Grandma once." Raven said ad handed the phone back to Grace.
"Huh? What am I missing out?" Elle asked dispirited
"Grace, let me see who's this guy!" Alyssa also entered the screen and snatched the phone. "Hmm. Mrs. Walsh also has a son and I think he was the guy who built our house. I think he's much better than anyone."
"The heck! How many guys are there? Do you have photos on the other two?"
"I have a photo of Mrs. Walsh's son! He is an important guy in the Bachelor's World, the monthly magazine for young bachelors. Wait wait I'll get the magazine!"]]
The video had gone rowdy again and the five people appeared on the screen shortly, circling the magazine.
A blinding flash of light took Renee's attention from the screen. She thought she also heard a loud thunder crack. Suddenly, the van fishtailed on the slick mud, like it was on ice. The van spun around, facing downhill to the river, scraping on its side and came to a stop halfway the cliff. She could no more hear the voices of her noisy siblings on the video, as she sat shaking and holding onto her seat belt, her pulse thudding harder than the rain.
The vehicle was tilted and any violent movement could cause the van to continue down the cliff. She could not hear anything as she saw Carlo leaning on the steering wheel, lifeless and bathing in his blood. On the window to the dead man's side is a bullet hole with cracks around it.
Blessedly, the rain was letting up a bit. However, she did not rolled down the window to ask for help as it is already obvious that anyone outside the vehicle is an enemy. She was about to turn around and give instructions to the people behind her who's also holding their breaths as her, scared to death to make any movements, when the van tilted further for no reason.
Her scream echoed in her ears as she saw blurry images from behind the vehicle. Dread ran in her blood as she finally realized that the enemy is not some rebels but someone else who have it in them to kill them off. But she had no time to think of her enemies nor enemies of her team members.
She grabbed her phone and hit the voice record, "I love you, everyone." She said with tears running down her eyes before hitting send. At the same time, the van tilted even further before it ran down the cliff, stumbling down the muddy slope before plunging down into the swirling dark waters of the river, sinking deeper along the current.
Inside the van, Renee had long lost consciousness with her blood mixing along the river water. The only light under the cold darkness was her phone and her siblings replies of "we love you too, sis."
***
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