StoryTree
you are here

The Ninety-Mile Silence

adventure◐ Teen
5 contributors · 4 paragraphs deep

They built a fire in a clearing and dragged the bright seat cushions out to spell a giant H on the ground. All afternoon they fed the flames, sending up a thin gray column. Then, near sunset, they heard it: the far-off thump of a helicopter.

The sound faded. The helicopter passed without seeing them, and the thumping died into silence. Dell's face fell. But Mara was already throwing the last green branches on the fire, and a thick plume of smoke rose. "Come back," she whispered. "Look this way." The thumping grew louder again.

↔ version 2 of 2 of this paragraph — hover its sides to flip. The card below is what happens next.

What happens next?

1 ways forward
Vote share across the top 1 branches
A possible continuation

The helicopter came back low and slow, following the new smoke right to them. Its light swept the trees and stopped on their faces. A rope ladder dropped through the rotor wind. Dell went up first, then Mara, hauling herself toward the open door and the hands reaching down to pull her in.

BD
Bram de Vries
6 votes · future 1 of 1