Emma noticed something out of the corner of her eyes and looked behind her.
"What was that?" She wondered.
She immediately dashed towards the area and the others looked at her in confusion.
"Emma?!" (Y/n) called after her.
When Emma reached the area, her eyes widened when nothing was there.
"There's nothing there. Was it my imagination?" She wondered.
Alicia and Yvette stared down the hole that they had climbed out of.
"So the roots are weak against the cold?" Alicia questioned aloud.
"That's why they stopped moving." Yvette said.
"It's so cold here." Mark said, pulling up his scarf.
"Yeah. Colder than where we fell." Rossi agreed, shivering.
"It's the same forest, but the temperature is different." Dominic pointed out.
"Yeah." Anna agreed, looking up. "Maybe because there's no sunlight coming in."
"Even so, it's really cold." Dominic shivered.
"So then...as long as we're on this cold ground where there's no sunlight, we have no fear of getting attacked by those roots and falling underground?" Gilda questioned.
"Probably." Maiko nodded.
"Well, then! I'm glad it's winter! Or we could've been eaten!" Don said happily.
Nat held the novel in his hands and was looking over the pages.
"Actually..." Nat then turned the book so Don could look at it, he pointed at a specific sentence. "...seems like the hole doesn't open up unless it's winter. The book says that Alvapinera is a legendary cave that one can only enter in winter."
Don immediately grabbed the book and read over the sentence with wide eyes and a dumbstruck smile frozen on his face. Gilda walked up and gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.
"It would have been better if it wasn't winter." She said,
"But thanks to that, we found out just how unpredictable the outside is and what this book means." Emma said.
Don flipped through the pages of the book.
"A guidebook, eh?"
"Yeah. Hidden in the story are various hints on how to survive the outside. The enemy's weakness. And-"
"Emma! (Y/n)! Maiko! Found it! This is it!" Ray called out.
The others quickly rushed over to Ray and he gestured to an odd looking group of plants. The kids stared at them in confusion.
"Uh...what's this?" Nat asked.
"Water." Ray replied.
The kids all stared in shock.
"What?" They exclaimed.
"They appear in Ugo's Adventures. Anemones that can store fresh water." He explained.
Maiko's eyes widened. "That's right." She said,
"Anemones?!" Don exclaimed, a look of disgust on his face.
"Watch this." Ray said.
He took out a small knife and held an open jar close to the plant and cut a small slit into it. Suddenly, water gushed out of the plant and Ray caught it all in the jar. The kids watched in wonder and awe. Once the water had filled the jar, Ray twisted the cap of the jar back on.
"This is just a plant. But they were called anemones in the story. And according to the book, this water is drinkable. We don't have to go all the way to the river. In an unknown environment, the biggest concern is obtaining food and water. We don't know what's edible or what's poisonous. So it's great that we can get information on those things." Ray explained.
Don held the book close to his face and grinned.
"It's so amazing. This book, and this person, William Minerva!" He thought.
"The outside does indeed have a lot of dangers. We don't know much. There are many enemies. More than we imagined. But we'll be okay." Maiko assured the others.
Emma smiled and nodded in agreement.
"We're not alone. We have each other. We have an ally. Let's go see Mr. Minerva. Let's survive. First, let's get through this forest. Come on! We can do it. Let's keep going!" (Y/n) said.
The kids cheered in agreement.
***
The group of escapees had been walking for quite a bit now, they were making sure to stay within the enclosed area where no sunlight shone through the large trees.
"Emma, is this the right direction?" Don asked, turning to look back at her.
"Yeah!" Emma replied.
"But unfortunately we sort of went off course underground." Maiko added.
She said that quietly so only (Y/n), Emma and Ray could hear her. Ray held out the pen and opened it so they could see the coordinates there were currently at.
"I see." Ray said to himself.
The three girls looked over at him.
"This is our current location. Both B06-32 and B00-15 describe positions. What you call coordinates. The number on the left indicates the distance to north-south, the number on the right to east-west. No, when we left the house, we came from the northeast. And we're heading south now, so..." Ray trailed off.
"So it's like this." He thought.
"Location B06-32 is south. To be accurate, we're heading toward the eastern side of the south area." Ray added.
(Y/n)'s eyes widened. "He's correct..."
"You're so scary! How did you figure it out so quickly? So scary!" Emma exclaimed.
"With this many clues, anyone could figure it out." Ray said nonchalantly.
"When (Y/n), Emma and I first looked at the pen at the house, there was no letter and the numbers were 00-00." Maiko told Ray.
"I see. So we're directly east from the house. We were at B01-14, so we came back north a bit." Ray said.
Ray helped Chris over a large root while Emma held the pen.
"So? How do you know that this was a location? Besides, how do you know to go to point B06-32? How do you know Minerva's there?" Ray asked, the question directed at Emma.
Emma didn't reply, she simply closed the pen and offered it to Ray.
"Here."
Ray took it and opened it again while Emma continued.
"Norman said, "You'll understand if you look at the pen." and if neither of us did, to "show Ray and he'll understand"." She said,
Ray smirked. "So, neither of you figured it out, eh?"
Maiko's cheeks turned red in embarrassment at Ray's words and teasing tone of voice.
"H-Hey! Don't just assume!" She shouted.
"We got halfway." (Y/n) told him.
"The morse code."
Ray noticed the morse code and read it.
"Touch me."
Ray did as it said and suddenly a new page showed up. It had the same owl symbol at the top along with the numbers, 13-18-02, written above an empty white rectangle box.
"Emma, Maiko and I were able to open it up to there." (Y/n) told him.
"Well, you're not good with these things, so..." Ray trailed off.
Maiko glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
Ray looked over it again and a lightbulb went off in his head.
"Ah! I see. That's what it is." He said.
"So you do understand!" Emma said.
"Emma, that book. The other one we couldn't figure out. The book about mythology with no morse code. That book is the codebook for this pen." Ray told the three.
"A codebook?" Emma questioned.
"Yeah. Look. There's the same label with no morse code, right?" Ray opened the book after Emma had handed it to him. "So you use this book to decipher the code. 13-18-02 is the code. You can move on if you enter the answer. For example, we look in the book for page 13, line 18, the second word." Ray flipped through the pages and found the word. "The word is "human"."
Ray entered the code and the hologram changed. It was now formatted in a letter, written in neat handwriting.
"If you need help, come see me. I'm at location B06-32. From William Minerva!" Maiko read aloud.
A large grin formed on Emma's lips. "It's a message from Mr. Minerva!"
"This is great!" (Y/n) said excitedly.
"Norman probably saw this. Then there's the next code and its answer. So there's information split up and..."
Ray stopped talking and immediately closed the pen. The four eldest looked around.
"Hey, Maiko, (Y/n), Ray..." Emma trailed off.
"Yeah. Something's coming." Maiko said.
A rumbling sound began to get louder and louder and the kids looked around in paranoia.
"No way...another one?!" Nat exclaimed.
Some of the bark of the nearby trees ripped off, creating a cracking sound.
"What the..." Nat trailed off.
Suddenly a large creature that looked like some kind of demon came crashing through the trees and the kids all took off running.
"RUN!"
...CH. 42/END