Alone in the Woods, part 12

I heard a muffled voice. It sounded like somebody was calling my name. 

"Annie? Annie, wake up!"

My eyes fluttered open and light filtered in. A blurry image began to form. It was my friends, Janice and Carmen! I gasped and sat up quickly, clutching my head as I felt the world spin. "Oh, jeez, my head."

"Where the heck have you been?" Janice, the future wilderness explorer, demanded. "We lost you a while ago and have been shouting your name like crazy!"

"You have?"

"Yeah, did you fall and hit your head?" Carmen, such a Florence Nightingale, started searching my scalp for signs of trauma. "Hm, I don't feel anything."

"I guess I must have passed out." I looked around and noticed we were outside. I could see the top of our tents from here. "Hey, our stuff is back!"

"It never left, dear." Carmen looked at me with concern. "Are you feeling all right?" She held up her hand. "How many fingers?"

"Five," I said. "I'm fine, but I had the craziest dream!" I started to laugh in such relief. "I went forward 60 years into the future and everything had changed! It was so crazy! People had to wear these colored uniforms, I suppose to distinguish social status or something."

"Oh, no! That would be the worst for you, Annie! What would you do if you couldn't wear pink plaid anymore?" Janice laughed.

I laughed with her. Then Carmen asked, "What's this?" And I stopped laughing. It was the fancy water bottle the red family had given me.

"Annie, you look a little pale. What's the mattert?"

I took the bottle from her. It hadn't been a dream. I glanced back at the cave. I couldn't tell my friends what had really happened. They would never believe me.

"That cave really scared me. Let's not ever come back here again, okay?"

"You have my vote on that," Carmen agreed.

"Okay, sweetie. It was pretty creepy, wasn't it?" Sarah said. "I'm all for exploration, but something tells me that cave isn't safe.

I nodded, unable to say another word.

The End.