[ 17 ] search party

The hosts were in the dining hall of the hotel, with workers at their beck and call, since they were the only guests there and they were all from rich families who had been invited by the owner of the park. They had been served all kinds of fancy platters for them to choose from, but even with all the marvelous food placed in front of them, the boys were in no mood to indulge in food at that moment. Everything was left untouched as each of them did their own thing, lost in their own world.

Calum was sat at the table with them, jotting down more notes into his notebook about what had happened during the day. Lou and Harry were communicating with the security team via a satellite radio that they had gotten sent to them by a drone, so that they could keep up with every part of the search. Zayn was trying to get the charcoal from under his nails with no clear success, and was only waiting for dinner to start so that he could return to his art as quickly as possible. Michael was still entertained with his handheld device, despite the fact that two of his club mates were missing. He thought that worrying about his friends would do no good to him or anyone. They would be found whether he worried or not. Liam was sat with Lou and Harry, trying to listen in on what was happening with the search. The only ones missing from the dinner table were Niall, Clint, and Luke.

The three boys were in Luke's suite, and had been there for the past hour, hashing out a plan to rescue Ashton and Kennedy from the dreadful jungle. Before the rest of the boys went to meet up for dinner, Luke had gone to find Clint and Niall in their rooms, proposing that they could go find the missing boys. Luke hated the idea of waiting for news without doing anything to help. He thought they could do much more if they would all just create a search party to find them.

Both Niall and Clint thought it was a good idea and decided to follow the club president. Niall and Ashton were bestfriends and had grown up together, they were almost like brothers. As Kennedy's older brother, Clint felt that he couldn't just sit around while his younger sister was lost in the jungle.

Each of them stole the orange emergency supply backpack in their suite closet before heading out that night. It was equipped with a map of the park, a fire blanket, a working flashlight, toiletries, and even a few snacks. They then left the hotel and headed out into the jungle without telling the other boys where the were going.

"We have to hurry, boys." Luke told Niall and Clint. He used his flashlight to illuminate a path which they were going to be walking on. It was pitch dark in the forest, as the sun had gone down and the little bit of light from the moon was being blocked out by the heavy foliage of the trees above. "Kennedy and Ashton could be cold, hungry, and scared."

-

"I can't see anything!" Ashton complained in a whiny voice, stomping his foot down on the ground in a tantrum and refusing to move forward. 

Kennedy stopped in her tracks as well and turned to face him. The sun had completely gone down and he was right, they could barely see anything in the darkness provided by the trees. With a sigh, she reached into her pocket and brought out her cellphone. Though she had fallen into the stream with Ashton, she had been smart enough to place her cellphone in a plastic bag to keep it dry. She had done that when Lou forced her to change into a swimsuit and later forgot to get it out. 

She opened the plastic bag and clicked on the home button. Her phone screen immediately lit up, and her eyes darted to the top corner. Perhaps she could call for help. 

But it was seconds later that she saw the words no service at the top. The heavy trees were blocking her phone's reception. But at least she could use the other features. Using her thumb to drag up one of the menu bars, she hit the flashlight button and suddenly they had light.

Suddenly remembering something, Ashton reached into the pockets of his swim trunks with a gasp. Kennedy thought he had done the same with his cellphone, but was proved wrong when he did grab one plastic sandwich bag from each pocket. Inside were muffins. 

"I have food!" He announced, his hands clenching the plastic of the bags for dear life.

At the mention of food, Kennedy's stomach rumbled loudly. 

Ashton heard the sound produced inside her belly and debated for a short moment before he held both bags in front of her face and said to her, "This one is blueberry, we get the freshest blueberries from a farm near the factory. And the other is banana nut, which is equally as fresh and delicious. Both have no artificial sugars and sweeteners, and they're a great source of energy to start off your day.  Which one do you want?"

Kennedy thought for a moment. She had almost felt like she had been listening to those Horan-Irwin Bakery commercials she had watched her whole life. They were always bragging about having the freshest ingredients, and how organic, and delicious their goods were. It was probably something already conditioned into the back of his mind, advertising the family business, just like many of the other students at Empire Academy. Kennedy had only tried their products once before, and it had been when she went to the groceries with her mother, when she was still alive and healty, and there was a woman standing behind a table with a friendly smile. The woman offered Kennedy a sample of a blueberry muffin from Ashton's family's bakery, and she remembered when she bit into that mini muffin, she felt she was in heaven.

She had begged her mother to get her a little box, but they were rather expensive, and her family didn't have enough for those kinds of luxuries.

She was whisked away from her memory by Ashton shaking the bags in front of her face. 

"Can I have the blueberry one?" She asked him, looking up at the muffin with blueberries sticking up at the top of it. He nodded his head and handed her the bag, immediately ripping the plastic off the banana muffin and devouring it with one bite.

He was hungrier than he led on, Kennedy thought to herself.

She picked the plastic off her own muffin and ate it in small bites as they continued their path to the north of the park. 

Ashton stretched his arms up over his head and let out a yawn. "Eating that muffin made me sleepy." He told Kennedy cheerfully. She was surprised he was back to his friendly self, as earlier he had done nothing but attempt to argue with her every second. She figured it had all been because he was hungry. 

"We'll stop once we find a safe place to sleep." Kennedy assured him, and her foot hit something on the ground, causing her to fall forward on her knees.

The hazel eyed boy hurried to her side and knelt beside her, his hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She turned to him and gave a nod of her head. "Yeah. I just tripped on something." He helped her back on her feet and she flashed her light ahead to see there was a wooden cabin, only a few feet away. "Look Ashton!" She told him with relief flooding her words. At least they would have somewhere to sleep and they would be able to continue their path in the morning.

"Sanctuary!" Ashton cried out, and both rushed for the small cabin.

-

"Are we lost?" Clint sighed as he watched Luke, who was supposed to lead them, stop and look out at the forest with confusion. They had just been blindly following the host club president the entire time.

Luke scoffed, refusing to admit the truth. "Of course not. I know exactly where we are."

"That's a relief." Niall said a bit absently. He was already eating the snacks in his emergency supply backpack, even though they had only been out in the forest for about an hour. They hadn't gone to dinner with the other boys and he was hungry. His blue eyes looked around the dark forest surrounding them. "Doesn't this place remind you all of jurassic park?" Niall commented in a very nonchalant way whilst taking a bite of the granola bar in his hand. It was a very similar scenario, only it wasn't raining, they could get out of the park after finding their friends, and of course, there were no dinosaurs. 

"Niall, hush!" Luke hissed, turning towards his friend with a glare. He was already on edge as it was, and Niall's comment wasn't making the situation any better. 

With their flashlights illuminating the forest ahead, Luke spotted something of an opening between the trees. Nearby was also a control panel perched on a metal podium, and the boys hurried to it in hopes that it was something that could help them find their way through the jungle. There, they saw the panel only had one red button on it.

Beneath the button were the words press for park automobile. Luke's blue eyes looked down at the ground to see there was something that looked like metal train tracks headed further in the direction they were headed, to keep vehicles within them and prevent them from getting lost. That meant that it was a path that would more likely lead them further into the jungle, and it was a path they could use to return to the hotel after finding Kennedy and Ashton. 

Clint slammed his palm on the button without thinking about it any further and it began to blink in red. An automated voice said to them through a speaker on the side of the panel. "Please stand by, a park automobile will be departing from the station near the front gates and will be with you in a few minutes."

"At least we won't have to walk anymore." Clint gave a shrug of his shoulders when Luke turned to face him.

"Jurassic Park." Niall whispered, his words floating above them and leaving them with a slight uncertainty.

-

so now we have kennedy and ash still lost, but now three other boys have decided to search for them. will they find them? or will they get lost as well? im very inspired with this story right now, so i will try to update as much as i can before i hit another writer's block. thank you all so much for reading and still supporting this story.

have a great weekend!

-clary xx