The Blood Trails

Chapter 1 - The Chase

"The map! I have ton's what planet do you want?" Peter snapped out of his thought as the old man finally spoke while searching through something below the counter,  "I don't actually have the planet were on, Harmenage, but I got some nice finds. Kelos, Dreton Foe, I even got one of Eeicol 8," he hushed his voice to a whisper, "that planet is said to not even be in the Federation's territory…" an eyebrow raised with the dwindling end of his sentence...

-The Present-

It's gone! The shadow stopped following him completely, he must have finally gone too far into the forest for it to follow. Peter stopped running after fifteen minutes of uneventful jogging. He decided now was a good time to catch his breath. Judging the time he’s been running he must have gone at least three miles into the forest by now. Good thing his slim body and well-built running skills kept him in shape, he knew being an avid track runner would become useful some day.

After bending over his knees for a few minutes Peter finally caught his breath. He knew not to stay still for too long, because if you stay still for too long your muscles cool down making running again so much harder. He started moving again, a walk this time instead of a job.  Then he realized, it was really dark this deep in the forest, sunlight could hardly get this far down. He looked up once more into the depths of the large trees, this time he could see nothing at all, only large trunks shooting up as far as the eye can see. Not a single ray of light gleamed onto the surface, the treetop cover was too dense. Dark, he thought for a moment, that could be a disadvantage to him, what if the shadow still followed? He wouldn’t even be able to see it anymore.

A cold wet hand reached under his pant leg and wrapped around his ankle. He tried to pull himself away, but the grip only tightened. As he tugged at his leg the arm pulled in the opposite direction causing him to fall over. Peter looked frantically around for some sign of life.  It had caught him and there was nothing to help him, to save him, there was nothing in this forest, yelling would not doing any good. He tried to struggle, to slip away from the death grip.

-Three Hours Earlier-

"No, not any of those," Peter glanced back to the head of the store; he nudged his eyes closer to the display window, trying to peak a glance at it from behind the rows of shelves. "I want that one," he pointed in the general direction.

"Ah!" the old man perked up, noticing an expensive but extremely dangerous sell. Not being the kind to send his clients to death he quickly snapped out of his salesman mode, "Don't be silly boy, what would a skinny kid like you want with the likes of that! It's dangerous, deadly, and the fraud odds are high, not to mention it's extremely expensive."

"How much?"

"Are you listening? I won't sell you your own death!"

Peter leaned over the counter and pointed at a black and white sign above the counter that said 'Will sell anything as long as you have money,' "That sign says otherwise, now how much?" Peter was determined to get the map, for some reason from the first day he crossed the store window he wanted that map.  It was a feeling a vibe, the pit of his stomach demanded it.  That map was the answer to the his own mysteries, ones he or his parents couldn't answer.

"40,000 Feds, fraud rate 89%, I haven't, and won't, like anything in this store, check for legitimacy, I just buy and sell." The shopkeeper rattled off back in his salesman voice.

"I'll buy for 35,000."

"Do you even have the money? 40,000 and I'm not changing it, I rather not give such a dangerous tool to you anyways."

"Fine, 40,000." Peter tossed two cards onto the counter top. One of the cards was marked in the corner with white bulky letters 30,000 while the other said 20,000, "I want my change," Peter smirked.