Soon Eric was beside me, and we reached close to the electric fences soon. We were surrounded by tall grass, that hid us from Amity and Candor.
"Okay. Shh, come here." I signaled to Eric.
He went up behind me.
"How'd you find this place?" Eric whispered back.
I responded by putting my finger to his lips. "Shh."
I scooted closer to the fence, and listened for any humming. Anything that would signal it being electric. Not hearing anything, I took a twig and threw it at the fence. Sure enough, nothing happened.
For the first time in a long time, I actually grinned. Like Landon and I would do.
I quietly cut open a bit of the fence using a sharp rock and crawled through. "C'mon." I motioned Eric.
He looked at the fence, then at me. He quickly went through after me.
"How did you know about all that?" He asked me.
"I'll tell you later. For now, lets go." I replied, then starting walking through the bushes to go into the woods.
The woods were dark and beautiful. Once you entered through the bushes to find the woods, you would be blown away.
The trees were dark and tall. The grass was rich, and dark green. There were rabbits, deers, birds and other animals hidden away if you knew where to go. In front of us, was a wooden path that Land and I had built. I walked across, as memories flooded throughout my head. Eric was following me silently, and apparently speechless. He was looking everywhere.
We kept walking, and finally I came across an engraving on a tree.
THECREW
A small part of my heart fluttered at the sight. Landon and I. We called ourselves the crew. We were such idiots. I chuckled quietly, and ran my hand across the engraving.
I could feel Eric coming in behind me, and felt him whispering into my hair.
"What is it?" He whispered. "You okay?"
I gulped, turned and leapt into Erics arms. "I'm scared. I miss him. I miss Landon."
Eric's grip on me tightened. "He's okay."
I buried my head into his chest.
"He is, right?"
Eric put his chin on top of my head.
"He's strong. He was one of the best in training."
I gently pulled away. "We've got to move."
Eric nodded, while clenching his jaw.
"So, explain?"
I led him, across the trees and deeper into the forest.
"I was almost nine when I found this place. I was pretty innocent, just wandering around like a normal kid. It was after Marcus, you know. This would be my place to get away. One day, another boy came here. At first, I was terrified. So, when he first saw me and found me, I started hurling rocks at him and he got hurt pretty bad. When I found that he was just a boy like me, I helped him. In return, he taught me how to fight and hunt. We called ourselves the crew. It meant that we would always stick together." I finished.
Eric didn't say anything for a long time.
"He's still out there. I'm sure."
I tried my best to smile, but failed miserably. I wanted to cut now. I wanted to replace the pain with more pain.
"Let's keep going." I led him toward the abandoned house that Landon and I had built as a safe camp just in case of anything. It was docked with supplies and dry food.
It was just a few seconds away now. I sped up faster until I met a blockage of trees. "We have to climb to get through, okay?"
Landon and I had built the house across the trees so no one else would find out about it.
"Alright." Eric called back, and picked me up so that I could get closer towards the branch.
"I didn't need your help." I gritted my teeth.
"I know." Eric went, then started climbing as well.
"Okay, stop and drop down." I instructed.
By the tree, there was a small zip line.
Eric grabbed it. "You're coming, right?"
"Oh no, I'm just going to spend the rest of my years in this comfortable, relaxing old tree." I muttered, sarcastically.
"Now you sound more like you." Eric stated, then sledded into the trees as I quickly followed.
Once I got through, I couldn't help but smile heart fully.
I missed this.
I looked over at Eric, who had his eyes wide from the view and chuckled.
It truly was amazing.