Fragmented

Chapter Seventeen

Birds perched on small tree limbs twittered above their heads joyfully, praising the beautiful day with song. The sunlight made patterns on the ground from the bare branches that formed spindly arches above them.

Sabre had felt that they needed a bit of exercise, and since they were waiting for the machine to finish identifying the sample, he had taken everyone outside with him. They had wandered into the forest, where the only green foliage visible was in the spruces looming above them and the stout pines, brown needles littered around their bases. Patches of green were placed erratically in a tapestry of decaying grass ready to be covered in snow. Dormant kudzu vines choked the trunks of gigantic oaks and maples.

Lucas tugged the kudzu off a honeylocust and dropped it on the ground. "I try to keep the vines from overtaking the forest," he said over his shoulder to the group. "They're parasites. They crowd out the other plants and look really ugly in the winter."

He pulled another straggle off a bald cypress and continued on, Ryan stumbling on roots behind him. Sabre glanced back at the rest of the group. Time and M were side by side talking quietly. Light and Professor Red were also side by side, but for a different reason.

He watched as the Professor attempted to veer off the path and examine a purple cornflower plant. Before he could go a step further, Light had grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto the route that they were taking.

Sabre laughed quietly to himself. Then he noticed Alyssa walking in the rear alone, looking around with wonder. Her innocent fascination warmed his heart. She caught his eye and he looked away furtively. He hoped she hadn't caught him.

His attention was directed back to the front when he heard a crash in front of him. Before he could see what had happened, he tripped over something in front of him and face planted into a small pile of fallen twigs. He heard a groan in front of him and quiet laughter behind.

"Watch out for roots and vines, guys," Lucas said without looking back at them.

"Thanks for the heads-up," Ryan grumbled as he spat out the crumpled remains of a dead leaf. Sabre stood and helped Ryan up, careful of the vines and roots around them.

Time and M were the ones that had laughed, and they stifled it as best as they could when Ryan looked their way. He smiled sheepishly, expelling any possibility of antagonism between them.

"Guess I should look down more. We're almost at the boundaries, anyway."

Lucas nodded, confirming the information. "We should all be on the lookout for traps while there."

"Why?" Alyssa asked curiously. Sabre already knew Lucas' answer.

"Because I have a crazy neighbor that refuses to put up a fence and has dozens of deer traps hidden on his property."

"Deer traps?" M asked. "What are deer?"

"They're animals," Sabre responded, "but they're really flighty when they hear loud noises, so you probably won't see any now because of Ryan's accident." Ryan responded by rolling his eyes and walking ahead of them.

"He can't be that bad. He has this big plot of land, so he must have quite a bit of money, meaning he works hard. And maybe he just doesn't have much time to hunt, so he leaves traps."

"He received an inheritance from his family, like I did," Lucas said. "That house has been there for at least a century, and it could be a really nice place if he worked on it. He spends his money on drinks and girls, though. Only comes here in the summers since there's not many deer in the colder months.

"Oh, and he's also the one that threatened me at gunpoint over an animal. That too."

"Wait, that's that guy?" Ryan asked incredulously. "The hairy five-and-a-half foot tall dude?"