Chapter Text
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Jade had actually fallen down a good string of dreams. Every other night had either been a nightmare they repressed or just… nothing.
These dreams were most certainly fueled by the tender moments they shared with their… friends? Family? They couldn’t call them family yet, could they?
Whatever they were, the moments they shared with them gave them hope and in turn, gave them something nice to manifest in their head while they were asleep.
They’d just been drifted away from a pleasant pool party with… the others and now they were all seated at a table. They all held cards, UNO cards to be exact, in their hands. In the middle of the table were two piles of cards haphazardly stacked up. Jade seemed to be losing miserably given they were holding fifteen cards, but at the very least, they all seemed to be having fun. That’s all that mattered.
Strangely, all details beyond the table were just simple shapes and colors. That was alright, all they really cared about was the moment unfolding in front of them.
They just wanted this to stop being a dream and start being their reality. They wanted to share these moments with everyone without having to be asleep for them, without having to wake up sad on a remote island knowing they weren’t real.
Suddenly, everything started violently shaking. Strangely, nobody else seemed to react to or be affected by this, but everything still came crashing down regardless. Everything seemed to fracture piece by piece, slowly ripping their dream away from them.
Why? Why me? Why can’t I just—
Just as they were yanked back into consciousness, the shaking stopped.
The haze that came from waking up alongside the distress they just felt made it difficult to parse anything they could’ve seen or heard. They opted to just mutter something incomprehensible and try to swat away whoever, or whatever, was trying to disturb them.
They assumed that did the trick since what followed was complete silence and stillness. They had a feeling they were still being watched though.
When they finally opened their eyes, their suspicion was confirmed when they spotted both Jamie and Luna looming over them. While neither of them showed signs of being guilty of shaking them, they deducted based on their personalities and mannerisms that Jamie was likely the culprit.
It didn’t really matter who did it though, it would’ve made no difference in their reaction. They were simply confused as to why they did it.
“What’s going on? Why’d you have to wake me up like that?” Jade growled.
Jamie stiffened up in response to Jade’s sudden hostility. “I, uh, there’s… something we gotta show you and it’s almost noon I think, so…”
Wait, it’s almost noon? “Oh. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be mean, just…” Jade exhaled deeply. “Nevermind. You two had something to show me?”
Jamie’s face contorted into something… indescribable. “Oh, yeah. There’s a whole field of lava and a volcano ahead of us. It’s… kinda gnarly, honestly.”
Jade shot up immediately. “A what now—” Jamie was correct. There was, in fact, a volcano in front of them. They couldn’t see that aforementioned “field of lava” from where they were sitting, but from just the volcano alone, they knew they were about to be in for a bad time.
“But hey!” Jamie’s sudden chipper tone felt forced. “Look at the top!”
Their eyes drifted to the top, but nothing stood out. It was just the top of a volcano. What was so significant about it?
“The… top? What am I looking for, exactly?”
“Well… me and Riley found out about some ‘peak’ from one of the pages and…” Jamie seemed hesitant to continue.
“And…?”
“Nevermind. Forget it.”
“Okay…?”
“Anyways, looks like that’s where we gotta go.”
“Are you sure?”
“You got any better ideas?”
“Not exactly…” Jade turned around to confirm that the desert was completely shrouded in fog. “Not like we can go back now.”
Jamie ever so slightly winced at that reality. “Yeah. Guess we just gotta move forward then.” They then walked away without giving Jade an opportunity to respond. Luna decided not to follow and instead lingered.
Something that stuck in Jade’s mind was the fact that Jamie seemed quite hesitant about this. Were they already having second thoughts?
Regardless, if Jamie of all people was concerned, it had to be bad.
Jade and Luna stared at each other in an awkward silence for a moment. Luna seemed to be incredibly anxious about something, presumably what they saw up ahead, so Jade figured now would be a good time to try to talk to them about it.
“What do you make of this, Luna?”
“It’s scary…”
“Yeah, I’m not terribly excited about it myself, but we don’t really have a choice unfortunately.”
Luna frowned and crept a little closer. “It… s-sounds nice that we can l-leave soon, at least…” They didn’t seem so confident in their statement.
“I suppose that’s true. I imagine everyone’s getting tired of not having air conditioner or food or water or—”
“I don’t w-wanna go back.”
Jade was completely dumbfounded by that statement. “Huh?”
Luna started to tremble. “H-He’s gonna be m-mad—”
“No, hey… buddy, listen.” Jade invited Luna with open arms. Thankfully, Luna complied. “It’ll be okay. Riley already said they’d handle him. Jamie and I are on board to make sure you’re taken care of too.”
“Mmm. Okay…” Still, Luna didn’t seem too confident. Jade wished they could do more for them.
Well… there was one thing. They knew this would be a big commitment to make but…
“Promise.”
Luna pulled away just enough to hold out a pinky. “Pinky promise.”
Jade chuckled. “Okay. Pinky promise.” They then locked pinkies with Luna.
That seemed to do the trick, since Luna perked up a little after that. They were still quite anxious, but seemed a little more composed now. Jade would take whatever progress they could get, given the circumstances.
Luna pointed over towards Jamie and Riley, who were now peering over the edge. “M-Maybe you should check it out too…”
“How bad is it?”
Luna’s frown deepened in response. “It’s so s-scary that it even has J-Jamie scared… I…”
That confirmed their suspicions. “Noted. I’ll go take a look. It’s worth knowing what we’re dealing with.”
Jade finally let go of Luna so they could give them some space. They’d been in each other’s personal bubbles a lot lately, so they were probably getting tired of it. They then promptly removed the coat from their lap so they could stand up and head towards Jamie and Riley.
Luna seemed to be trailing behind them with gentle footsteps. For a split second, they figured Luna would be really good at being sneaky. However, given the kind of life they lived, they probably were sneaky, but not for good reasons. Poor kid.
Riley spotted the two of them immediately, but Jamie seemed to be engrossed by what they were seeing. It wasn’t until Jade tapped them on the shoulder that they responded and nearly jumped out of their skin in the process.
Jamie heaved and grasped at their chest. Had they really scared them that badly? “What the… why… hah… hi Jade… Luna.”
“Hi Jamie, hi Riley. Sorry for scaring you like that.”
“Don’t worry about it.” They then glared over at Riley. “Doesn’t help that someone didn’t say anything.”
Riley feigned guilt and threw their hands in the air. “Guilty!” They then giggled, much to Jamie’s dismay.
Jamie groaned. “Whatever. Anyways…” They pointed out in front of them. “This is what we’re dealing with.”
Jade diverted their gaze from Jamie to observe what they were pointing at.
The first thing they noticed was the lava gradually rising around pillars of rock. They noted that it did stagnate at a certain point and recede just as slow as it rose. They had no stopwatch on them so they couldn’t get an exact time, but they did wait until it rose again to determine that they had maybe a few minutes at a time to make their move.
The pillars themselves seemed to loosely form a path through the valley, though very few were actually connected. The ones that were connected were simply connected by a chain. While they were unable to avoid the possibility of jumping and falling into lava, they’d much rather cross with a chain rather than sheer luck.
They spotted a couple nests with massive eggs inside of them. Whether or not those eggs contained food was an entirely different story though. Given they were in nests though… probably not. Regardless, they may still be worth checking out if they end up coming across any.
The last obvious thing was a white suitcase at the very top of a massive pillar. They only spotted the latch and the front of it, but figured it’d be way too far out of their way to go for. However, that did open up the possibility of finding luggage here, which would definitely be a boon given the circumstances.
Jamie sighed. They didn’t say anything, but their eyes did the talking for them.
They were scared. This was… vastly different and significantly more threatening than anything they’d dealt with already. This wasn’t just climbing up a mountain anymore, this was a genuine threat to all of their lives. It was completely reasonable to be afraid of something like this.
“Jamie…?”
“The… the lava. It’s not just there for looks, is it?”
Riley shook their head. “No. If you were to fall in there…”
Jamie’s eyes contorted into something akin to fear. “I wouldn’t come back.”
“Yeah.”
Jamie softly chuckled. “Maybe Luna’s right to be scared about this. This is… this isn’t like the other places.”
Luna walked up and grabbed Jamie by the hand. “L-Let’s just clean up, okay…?”
Jamie nodded. “Yeah. I like that more.”
The two of them then headed off to clean up what little they had in the camp, leaving Jade alone with Riley. They almost decided to chase after Jamie to comfort them, but they had a feeling that Luna would be able to do that just as well.
Riley sighed. “No rest for the weary, huh?”
“Is it true that we’re getting close to the end? Jamie said we were reaching some ‘peak’ and was going to say something else, but…”
“Did they tell you that Myres told them we were getting close?”
“No? They kind of trailed off after mentioning that you two had read a page mentioning a ‘peak.’” As they stared at the lava, they came to a realization. “Wait… maybe they didn’t mention it since Luna was attached to them.”
“It’s possible. I… still don’t know how I’m going to break it to them that half of us are cursed. I’m just not sure how they’d take it.”
“Well… neither you nor Jamie seem to be negatively affected so far, so let’s just…” They hated that they were saying this, but considering what was in front of them… “Continue to keep this a secret, okay?”
“Yeah, probably for the best. I really don’t want to spook them now.”
Suddenly, Jamie barreled directly into Riley from behind. Fortunately though, they were both able to quickly re-gain their balance.
Jamie stumbled back and seemed slightly panicked once they realized what they did. “Oops, sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Jamie stared at the ground for a moment. “Are… you?”
“Yup, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Okay. Uh, good.”
Luna approached Riley, which Riley took as an opportunity to remove the hat they claimed and ruffle their hair. Luna seemed to react positively to this affection, much to Riley’s pleasure.
Riley stared at the hat they still held. “Wait… you’ve still got Jade’s hat?”
“Uh… I was g-gonna…” A devious smile crept on their face. “Give it b-back! Obviously!” They definitely weren’t going to. That had to have been Jamie’s idea. That much was confirmed when they smirked.
Was it even Jade’s hat anymore? They’d come to terms with parting ways with it when Luna first claimed it back in the caves. Now, they had no interest in claiming it as theirs again. Luna seemed happier with it, so they didn’t want to ruin that.
Jade shrugged. “You can keep it if you want, I don’t mind.”
Luna seemed taken aback by Jade’s generosity. “W-Wait… really?”
“Yeah. You seem happier with it and it fits you better. I think you should keep it.”
Riley placed the—no, Luna’s hat back on their head. They then glanced over at Jade and smiled. Jade responded in kind as a nice and warm feeling filled up their heart.
That moment ended up not lasting for long though, since Riley suddenly seemed concerned about something once they returned their gaze to Luna. “Are you alright, Luna? You seem kinda roughed up.”
Riley’s question prompted Jade to scan Luna for anything wrong. They did notice they were roughened up a bit, but clearly they weren’t injured if they were able to have an interaction like that. They saw nothing readily apparent to be concerned about.
Luna beamed and gave a thumbs-up. “Good! W-We got a little d-distracted and… uh…”
Riley sighed in relief. “That’s alright. At least there’s not much to clean up and you two had some fun in the process.”
The chatter between Luna and Riley became background noise as Jade honed in on Jamie. They’d been focusing a lot on Luna lately, but it was evident that Jamie needed some attention too.
“You okay, Jamie?”
“Yeah. Just a little roughed up from playing with Luna.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What do you mean then?”
“You’ve been acting a bit strange since I woke up. Everything okay?”
Jamie gaze drifted down to their shoes. “Just… thinking about stuff.”
“Okay. I won’t pry.”
Jamie opened up anyways. “Well… every other place we were in seemed… not terrible. Lava is an entirely different thing though, and honestly?” They glanced over at Luna and Riley, then back at Jade. “The stakes are a lot higher for me now. This isn’t just about the two of us anymore. It’s about them too.”
“More of a reason to stay cautious, then. If we all want to get out of here and have the opportunity to start anew, we’ve got to be careful.”
“Yeah.” Jamie sighed. “Alright. Guess I should actually get to cleaning now…”
“Jamie…”
“You should go sit in the shade for a bit.”
“Jamie, I’m—”
“Please.” Jade took that as their sign to leave them alone.
“Okay, fine. I’m going.”
They quickly darted over to the umbrella before they could agitate Jamie more and set themselves up beneath it. This time, they decided against covering themselves up since it had warmed up considerably since the previous night. Instead, they left Riley’s coat alone and made a mental note to hand it to them the next time they passed by.
However, Riley clearly seemed to have no interest in passing by as they darted around camp to assist Jamie and Luna with cleaning. They didn’t have much to tend to, but it was evident they were still preoccupied.
Oh well. Maybe they’d come looking for their coat later. Jade would just have to take care of it in the interim.
With nothing else to do, Jade decided to lay back for a bit since nobody would be prodding at them for some time. If they were being given time to rest, they might as well take advantage of it, right?
…
They blinked and the sun was suddenly a little lower in the sky. Immediately after sitting up, they noticed that the entire camp had been tidied. Additionally, they noticed that everyone was standing around the campfire with their bags on their backs, which meant…
Oh. They were holding everyone up.
“Sorry for keeping you all—” Jade shouted out from beneath the umbrella.
Jamie cut them off. “Jade, please, just stop apologizing for taking care of yourself already.”
“But—”
“Just… get everything packed up so we can go, okay?”
Jade nodded. “Okay.”
They then promptly disassembled their entire set up, starting with the umbrella. They pulled it out of the ground and closed it up then tossed it to the side. They then stared at everything else which was already organized, unsure of what to do next.
“I’m guessing you’re gonna need this?”
Jade turned around to Jamie offering their backpack. Jade reached out to grab it, but Jamie pulled it back out of their reach. “Make sure you give it back to me when you’re done, ‘kay?”
“Of course.”
Jamie once again offered the backpack to Jade, who grabbed it and set it down gently beside their items.
They stared at Riley’s coat for a moment before deciding to just stuff it in the bottom around the base of the golden Bing Bong. If Riley needed it that badly, they would’ve already asked, right? The umbrella was next to be stored, occupying one of the outside slots. The bottle of Tryhard Sweat was placed snugly in the other.
Satisfied with their work, they picked up the backpack and handed it back to Jamie, who quickly slid it on their back before Jade could get any ideas.
“Hey, uh…” Riley waved for everyone to return to the fire, which they did. “Before we get going, I just wanna say thanks. You’ve all been incredible to be around and I’m glad we’ve made it this far. We’ve just got a little bit left to go before we can get off of this island so… I just wanted to get that out there before I lost the chance to.”
Jamie frowned. “You act like we’re never gonna see each other again.”
“No, I act like we’re about to walk through the literal pits of hell and a volcano. I don’t think we’ll be offered the chance to speak like this for a while.”
“I guess that’s true.” Jamie then dug a small hole in the sand with their foot for a moment. “Uh, thanks to you too, I guess. You’re… I like you. And, uh, Luna too.” They seemed a bit ashamed to make such comments.
Luna seemed giddy by the sudden comment and nearly tackled Jamie in a hug as a result. Surprisingly, Jamie didn’t resist and instead embraced Luna. “Especially you, Luna. You’re awesome.”
Little did Luna know, that was probably the highest honor they could receive in Jamie’s eyes. Jamie wasn’t exactly an “I love you” kid or anything of that nature. At least, not saying it directly. If they held someone in that regard though… it was basically the same thing.
“Yay! Y-You’re awesome too, Jamie!”
Jamie simply laughed and tightened their embrace in response. Jade could’ve sworn they saw a tear in their eyes, but they’d likely never admit to it. They then let go of Luna and gently pushed them back a bit. “Alright, that’s enough hugs for a while. I feel better now.”
Surprisingly, Luna didn’t seem upset at this. In fact, they instead nodded in agreement. Maybe they were getting tired of all of the affection too. After all…
Nevermind. They didn’t want to go down that train of thought. They knew how it’d go anyways.
Jamie stuck an arm out in front of them. “Peak Scouts on three?”
Jade raised an eyebrow. “Peak Scouts?”
“Yeah! We’re climbing to the peak, and we’re scouts, so… maybe we can be called Peak Scouts?”
Riley stuck out their arm, placing their hand atop Jamie’s. “Sounds good to me.”
Luna hummed in agreement and put their hand atop the pile as well.
Jade volunteered their hand as well. Jamie started the countdown shortly after.
It was nice that their troop finally had a name. Maybe it was silly in wake of all of the other issues they were dealing with, but it did ground them a little bit. At least everyone was on board with it. It would’ve probably been awkward if they weren’t.
“One…”
It just felt so surreal to be at this point. They were, hopefully, not too far away from going home.
“Two…”
It was strange how close they’d all gotten, especially when they were a dysfunctional group a few days ago.
“Three!”
The past didn’t matter now though. All that mattered was the present and the future.
“PEAK SCOUTS!” They all shouted in unison.
They all departed from the camp for hopefully the last time. All that stood between them and their salvation was a volcano.
Nothing stopped them before.
Nothing was going to stop them now.