I woke up the next morning with another rush of energy, however this time instead of it being directed at my body, it was directed at my legs.
Once I noticed this, I tried to shake it off by standing up again. But, standing up required a whole less energy as I could suddenly... walk again! I was ecstatic! Oh, how I missed being able to walk! I practiced walking around, saw Robert near the forest outside of the gap, and walked towards him.
"Hey, Robert," I said in a whisper. Mainly because a couple of our other friends were sleeping next to him and around us.
"Hey, George." Robert also said in a whisper. I was dumbfounded that he could hear me so I asked,
"Oh! Are you able to hear now?"
"Mhm! It's wonderful to hear again. Didn't think I'd know what a deaf person feels like for at least one day." Robert whispered back. I was confused about how he could hear me and how I could walk but I didn't care as of right now, I was just happy for me walking and him hearing!
"Heh, yeah. Anyways, want to get some berries for the journey ahead of us?" I whispered, Robert nodded and as I helped him up from the ground, I heard footsteps behind me. As I turned around, I couldn't believe my eyes.
"Mind if I join?" Steve whispered as he woke up from his deep one-day slumber. He wasn't exactly able to concentrate on us but that might be because he just woke up.
"Oh hey, Steve! How was your actual day-long nap?" Robert whispered, cunningly. Of course, though, Steve ignored his remark.
"It was pretty good! I had a dream of a bunch of flying dogs and cats, and I was able to fly with them! It felt amazing bro, you should've been there man." He whispered at us. Me and Robert giggled as we got out of the factory and looked for berries with Steve.
Looking for berries wasn't as time-consuming and treacherous as I had previously thought it would be. From Angel's and Aquafene's scratches because of the thorns on their legs and arms I thought that this would be way more tedious. But in reality, they probably weren't careful as we got the berries quickly in silence and started to head back. Robert then asked,
"Steve, why aren't you giving us some useless facts about these berries?"
"I don't know anything about these berries Robert. I'm still a bit tired after sleeping for a whole day too." As if to show this, he yawned and tears formed on his eyes.
"Well, they shouldn't be poisonous. We ate some yesterday anyway." I stated. Steve then suddenly stopped and looked at us with confusion.
"Wait. I slept for an entire day?"
"Yeah! Me and George have been talking about it for minutes now." Robert stated, taking one of the berries from his hands and eating it.
"Ah wow. I guess the realization sort of hit me right now huh?" He stated with a voice crack, grabbing a couple of berries he dropped from his realization, we went back to the factory.
"The weirdest thing was though. In that dream that I had, I felt a sort of... presence? I don't know, but it felt like something else was flying with me and those animals." Steve suddenly said.
"Probably just your imagination. Don't sweat it!" Robert said as he picked off some berries into his mouth. I on the other hand remembered the strong presence of danger I had felt when I was in that bush in my dream. Though, I decided to play it off for Steve. He was probably already freaked out that he slept for a full 24 hours.
"Yeah, I agree with Robert. Whatever that presence was isn't real. It was probably just in your head." I said.
"Hm yeah, I hope so," Steve responded and started to help Robert pick even more berries from a bush. I guess they just wanted a surplus.
"Oh! How is my sister?! Is she okay?" He asked us while he was picking a berry.
"She's good, just tired and a bit unbalanced," I said. Robert nodded while he picked another berry.
"Thank god. I was worried for her in my dream and I sort of forgot as soon as I woke up."
"You forgot about your sister?!" I asked him.
"No, no! I forgot to ask if she was okay." Steve exclaimed. We headed back to the factory and as we did this, we heard noises coming from the factory and began walking towards the sound as it didn't seem that loud.
Once we walked inside, we saw Peo continue a loud yawn she had started beforehand. Steve walked past us and spoke in a whisper with Peo. I couldn't hear the conversation but it was obvious both of them were happy to see each other after a day of not seeing one another. They hugged while me and Robert placed berries into the now empty cups.
After this, Peo woke up the rest of the group by accidentally yawning as loud as she could once again. The yawn was more like a scream than anything else as she said to Steve,
"Yeah, I'm just really tiiIIREEDD AHHHHHHH!" Everyone else who was sleeping woke up in a startle and Alice stated,
"Peo! What the actual hell was that!?"
Peo ended her yawning and said with tired eyes and a gentle voice.
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just tired is all. I don't know why I yawned that loud."
As everyone else was rubbing their eyes and started to stretch, I walked up to Maurice and said,
"Hey, Maurice. A question, did you have any... strange dreams while you slept?"
"Hmm, no. Don't know why you asked me that but I had a peaceful night. I think Jack did though as I saw him late at night tossing and turning around on the floor." Maurice said as she was standing up, she touched her mouth in confusion and said,
"I don't feel like puking."
"Phew. Oh, OH!" Emily exclaimed, she could also speak now and was talking so fast that I could barely hear her coherently. But I think she was saying something about how happy she was she could talk with us now. Aquafene hugged her and also cheered on with her. She could now use her arms. Angel stretched out next to me as we saw Peo walk confidently now.
"I see you can walk now. Care to explain why you're not celebrating that?" Angel asked me.
"I would like to be able to celebrate that. But right now we have a lot of things to worry about. Our families, future, Altandor, and of course let's not forget whatever that monster was and Ethan Redwood." I replied. She nodded and stood next to me for a while. Her hands were shaking like she wanted to celebrate with them. With a sigh and a roll of my eyes, I stated,
"Go ahead, celebrate with them." She looked ecstatic and jumped about with the rest of our friends who had turned standard once more.
I walked up to Jack and noticed that he seemed a little confused about not only where he was, but also what was happening in the first place or the celebrating, I sat next to him and said,
"Hey bud, you okay? I heard you had a bad night."
"Yeah, I'm okay now, just went through a big nightmare you can say," Jack said.
"Alright, mind sharing with me what kind of nightmare?" I stated back.
"I don't know George. I felt like I was in a sort of nightmare, I was being chased by a rabid dog and as I was running at a terrible speed. I tripped and fell on some type of being. It felt light and when I looked up, it had a concerned look on its face. But before I was able to take a good look at the being, it vanished and so did my nightmare." Jack replied, staring at Peo in anger. I barely held in a chuckle and patted his back.
"That's strange, I'm glad you were able to get out of your nightmare. Thanks for sharing that, must've been hard to remember that huh?" I asked him.
"Yeah, you can say that," Jack replied. He soon got up and went over to the cups where he smelled one. He looked surprised and continued to smell the berries like a maniac. I was happy for him.
After I talked to Jack, I walked towards Steve who was talking to Emily about something. What was it? I don't even know, I think it was something about airplanes but I must've misheard him.
Emily was also talking back seemingly able to speak fluently once again even though she didn't speak for an entire day. After I saw Emily speak, I had a thought. Something that made me think:
What if those capsules were curses put on us? And the jungle that suddenly appeared from the factory was just the result of the explosion? As these questions appeared in my head, Angel then said,
"Alright guys, I think it's time to go now. I'm pretty sure we've over-welcomed our stay here."
"Agreed," Aquafene said as she got the cups from the floor and placed them in each of our hands.
I rummaged through my brain once again on the map I had seen two nights beforehand. I was able to remember where the pond was and where the forest from the Isle of Colganla was. But getting from the factory, through the jungle, and into the forest would be a hassle and I didn't exactly remember where to go from here. As the rest of us got up and started to walk towards the entrance, I noticed, along with everyone else, that Fron remained sitting down with his eyes closed.
Emily turned around and crouched beside Fron and asked him,
"What's wrong?" Fron then opened his eyes to reveal that his eyes had been completely blackened. Like a literal void. Fron started to cry, saying,
"Why can't I see... why can't I see... how did this even happen? WHY AM I SUFFERING LIKE THIS!?!"
I felt horrible for Fron and based on my other friends' reactions, I believed they felt just as bad. Alice then stepped up and as Emily took a step back, Alice wiped away his tears in the process. Alice then said to Fron,
"Hey, listen to me. I know everything won't be alright. Now that you're blind, and though I could only hope you regain your vision, I can't promise you that. But, I think you can get through this. We all think you can get through this! Plus, I find that being blind is very cool."
"Yeah, no offense but how do you find that cool? I mean he can't see, I mean come—" Robert said as he then got smacked in the head with a fistful of Aquafene.
"OW!" He exclaimed.
"Just shut up," Aquafene said.
As everyone reconciled themselves and with Fron now feeling half-motivated, Peo and Alice then went side by side with him as we walked out of the factory and into the wild jungle.
It took us a mere minute before we realized we were completely lost.
The jungle had outstretched farther than I could ever imagine. I didn't know where to begin my search for Altandor or even where to end as we aimlessly and confidently walked in one direction. Based on where I had remembered where we went into the factory, we passed the fence that we had jumped, nearly got entrapped in a tree in some idiotic way, and followed this kind of guessing game where we were going all the way to a river, but it wasn't the same river me and Alice found. And it wasn't the same river that Maurice had almost drowned in. This one was different. The water was more hazier and darker. Like as if the water had been polluted by the factory we had just gotten out of.
Maurice looked at the water and fully avoided it as much as possible. Alice of course, went inside the river water with no problem. The water went up to her chest but other than that it wasn't that deep.
"Why is the most dangerous-looking river I've ever seen the safest river?" Steve said, I shrugged and continued on through the river as Emily looked at the water in revulsion.
After Alice's dip in the probably 1000 disease-infested waters, we went to a bush to help her dry up and went through a plethora of other bushes. Wait, why were these bushes continuing forward? Why was the whole sky and ground view filled with leaves?
Sooner enough I figured it out, the bush was trying to trap us.
The bush we had gotten ourselves into turned out to be a full-on plant that was trying to trap and consume us. Robert was the first one to figure this out. Why? Well, he was the first to scream as sharp and snappy teeth suddenly surrounded all of us.
"What the hell did we walk into George!?" Jack exclaimed. I stuttered and looked behind me as the wall of leaves suddenly closed off the way we came from. It looked like a massive dome of leaves was slowly encompassing and closing in on us. Emily tried to tear off the plants' leaves with her bare fists but it was so strong neither she nor Angel who joined in could tear it apart.
"What the hell!?!" Emily shouted, pushing with all of her might on the leaves. This all, by the way, happened in the span of a couple of seconds. The leaves just continued to draw us closer and closer together. It was trying to suffocate us with an abundant amount of leaves! The sharp teeth started to spread slowly to my left, I knew I had to find a way for all of us to get out but how?! There were way too many of us and we barely had any supplies to fend for ourselves. I perked up at what would've been the sky but it now only had a small opening of sunlight at the top, if only I could...
The idea popped into my mind like bread popping out of a damn toaster! I rushed over to Jack and stated,
"Jack, can you get two more people and follow me over to the center of the field?! EVERYONE ELSE, START PUSHING AGAINST THE LEAF WALL, WE NEED AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE!" I yelled out. Everyone understood as Jack pulled in Angel and Robert to help us out.
"Okay, Jack you'll be the base, we have to do this quickly if we want to get out with our lives. Robert go on top of Jack and Angel just wait until Robert is fully seated on his shoulders." I sounded like a bumbling idiot but they got the idea. Robert went on top of Jack with little to no difficulty and Angel soon climbed both Jack and Robert's bodies to reach the top. I overlooked Angel climbing Robert and saw Fron, Alice, and Steve trying to push the leaf wall with all of their strength. Dirt started to overflow at the bottom of their feet giving them balance as they pushed against the wall. Maurice and Emily were bashing the sharp teeth of the plant with rocks they had found. Of course, the rocks barely made a dent but it surely created a distraction which I needed more than ever. I saw Aquafene hustle with a large boulder and try to smash through the plant wall. The rock bounced off the plant wall though and just barely missed Aquafene's head.
"Be careful!" Jack exclaimed from here. He too saw Aquafene almost decapitate herself. Angel had finally gotten up to Robert's head with a whole lot of struggling and I was the last one to climb up. I climbed over Jack and got onto Robert's legs when all of a sudden, a large—
BEEELCH!
—sound that came from the plants' teeth. My heart dropped as I thought someone had been eaten by the bush. I overlooked where the teeth were and saw that Peo was actively accidentally feeding the plant rocks and dirt. I think she was trying to hit the teeth but kept missing because Maurice screamed at her,
"STOP FEEDING THE PLANT!"
"I-I'm trying alright!" She stuttered, she threw another dirt patch into the plant's mouth. But I couldn't get distracted because of that. I climbed up Robert's lap, almost hit his groin with my foot, and leaped up to Angel's arms. I grabbed onto them for dear life and pulled myself up from her body. She lifted me as much as she could without losing her balance and as I finally got on top of her, I saw that the little opening wasn't an opening at all, but instead some type of white flesh.
"The fuck?" I was about to poke this weird, white fleshy object but I realized something. This whole dome of leaves was a living nightmare, but also a living THING. If those leaves were the plant's mouth then this must be...
"Angel," I called her, she leaned over to one side and looked at me.
"Yeah?" She asked in an alerted voice.
"Do you have anything sharp on you by chance?" I asked her. She shook her head and asked below to Robert and Jack if they had anything sharp. Jack dug into his pockets and shook his head while Robert pulled out a necklace tucked under his shirt and handed it to Angel.
"What's this?" She asked him. I tried to look at the necklace but Angel's head was in the way.
"It's a knife necklace my mom got for my birthday. But that doesn't matter now, do what you need to do with it." He stated. Angel turned around and I hadn't noticed how close I was to the back of her head so once she turned around, she bumped her nose with mine.
"Oh, my bad," I said. I don't know why I was embarrassed when we were in a very, very, VERY bad situation but that didn't matter. Angel handed me the necklace and I pointed the miniature knife from the necklace at the bush's eyeball. The bush looked at the knife and I could tell it was nervous, maybe as nervous as I was. But it was not the time to get sentimental with a plant that was trying to kill us. Well, more accurately a bush but whatever.
I plunged the miniature knife into the bush's eyeball just in time as Jack slipped from the monstrous amount of dirt that was being piled up around his feet from Alice, Steve, and Fron. All of us had been pushed into a space no smaller than a bus stop station and as Jack slipped, so did Robert and Angel as they plummeted to the ground and fell hard. I was still dangling on the ceiling by the necklace directly inside the eye of the bush. The mouth screeched and I grabbed onto the leaves on the ceiling of the plant dome and pressed harder into the plant's eye. The walls stopped moving as the mouth also suddenly stopped screeching. Plant juice, which oddly tasted like root beer and had the color configuration of a child's drawing, started to spew from its mouth and mainly its eye on my face, I grabbed the necklace just in time as I fell down the bush's ceiling. Steve got up and caught me before I landed head-first into the soil.
"Are you alright?!" He asked me.
"Never been better!" I exclaimed. The plants' walls dissipated and all that was remaining was me covered in plant juice. My clothes were soaked and I still had the necklace, also covered in plant juice. I headed over to Robert still rubbing his back from the fall and handed him the necklace.
"Here, this came in handy, thank you," I stated. I again was in no mood to celebrate us escaping out of that mess and for the first time neither was any of my friends. Hell, Robert just nodded and put the necklace back on his neck. I poured the plant juice into my cup and thought of emptying it before I realized, I didn't die yet after I had drank a mouthful of the plant juice. I smelled the juice, gave myself a few seconds, and took a sip. Everyone else was grossed out.
"EW!" Emily exclaimed.
"I think I'm going to vomit again," Maurice said.
"Guys relax, my god. It tastes like root beer, the same root beer from the Waterway. Trust me." I said, walking over to Angel. She looked at my clothes and with a deep breath took her cup out and nodded. I pulled out my left sleeve and poured her the plant juice. She looked at the liquid in her cup with contemplation before drinking it.
"Oof... that aftertaste is a bit brutal, but other than that it reminds me of that Waterway root beer yeah. It tastes nice." Angel said. Suddenly, everyone was surrounding me apart from Fron wanting my root beer or plant juice from my clothes.
Shortly enough, we were back on our way and with me having nearly dried clothes from just the amount of juice my friends drank. We pushed past a handful of shrubs that had a variety of colors and eventually found our way to what seemed like the edge of the jungle after god knows how long.
"Oh shoot, does the jungle end?" Peo asked no one in particular. I was surprised that the jungle even ended at all. I thought by this point it had wrapped around the entire world.
"Be careful, it might be another illusion," I stated, walking carefully over to where the jungle seemed to end in a massive field, I reached my hand out. Aquafene grabbed a large stick that looked more like a club than anything else and handed it to me. I nodded in appreciation and aimed my club at anything that moved around me. It looked like an ordinary field.
"There wasn't a field here before," Robert said.
"Yeah well neither was a jungle and neither was my brother blind but here we are Robert," Alice said. She was on edge too and honestly who wouldn't? I didn't know where to look and if there were monsters around us, just possibly hidden from my eyesight.
"It looks... normal," I concluded. I lowered the club and as we entered the field the temperature suddenly became even more warmer, if that was even possible. However, since this might've been the way back, we took the hazard of going through the field. Plus, we saw the jungle continue not far from where we were so we thought we would be safe. We THOUGHT.
I have to repeat myself because not even thirty seconds after we had entered the field, we heard a massive stampede to our right. Steve was the first to look over to our right and repeatedly tapped Robert's shoulder in surprise and pure trepidation.
"Oh for fucks sake WHAT!?" He looked towards where Steve was pointing and his eyes went wide. I saw that they had stopped and craned my head towards whatever they were looking at. That was when I a stampede and as I looked at the stampede my jaw dropped. Everyone else stared in awe and horror as multiple wolf-like animals were chasing us from the other end of the field. The plant juice I had just drank earlier sank into my bladder and I almost peed out of pure anguish. But, Angel grabbed my hand and suddenly just like that, we were on the run for our lives.
Luckily the field was well, a field. Barely anything stood in our way apart from a couple of shrubs here and there. The main problem though wasn't our slow speeds, surprisingly enough we were fast runners that day. Even Fron was keeping pace with us under his circumstances. No, it was the temperature. It was steaming hot. I could barely focus on one thing at a time between my friends, my safety, and the wolves fast approaching us.
"How much... GASP! farther?! EXHALE!" Steve asked between gasps.
"Just a little more!" I exclaimed, exhausted. The wolves were right on our tail (no pun intended for their bushy tails) and as we fringed closer to the end of the field, my legs started to give out. I was falling behind and Emily was the first to cross, she turned around and helped Robert cross over back to the jungle. Alice and Peo ran after him hand in hand while Fron soon after ran straight ahead and continued to run through the jungle before bumping himself into a tree. Jack came after him while Aquafene and Maurice came after Jack. Sooner enough, it was only me and Steve left.
"I... I can't! I can't continue!" He stated, gasping for air as we were only a few feet from the rim of the field. I knew I had to save him since I got us into this mess in the first place. So, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward the edge of the field. Everyone else was too exhausted to help us and I grabbed my club and prepared to fight the first wolf charging at me. It was the leader of the pack and as it approached, it slowed down. The other wolves came around him and surrounded me in a rough semi-circle. I pulled Steve up and pushed him just the extra couple of feet he needed to get to the other side. He stumbled and fell at the entrance back into the jungle. I was now alone with the wolves as they fully surrounded me.
"I'm guessing, you're not ordinary wolves." I breathed in and out heavily. The leader of the pack puffed out his chest and stared directly into my eyes. I was exhausted yes, but I was in no way about to give up. The wolf growled at me and I sized it up. The wolf was about the same height as me, or so I guessed, he wasn't exactly standing now, was he?
I pulled out my club and tossed it onto the ground out of pure instinct and faced the leader of the pack head-on. Since my friends were on the other side of the field inside the jungle, I somehow couldn't tell what they were saying since there was some type of audio barrier between the field and the jungle. But if I had to bet by their facial expressions, they were fearful and infuriated I had thrown the club away. I could tell they were ready to go in but I exclaimed,
"Don't go in! I got this." I faced the wolf and we paced around each other for a slight bit of time. It was like two strangers seeing each other for the first time. Both were bewildered by one another.
"I can tell you're an honorable animal. So I must ask, what do you want from me?" I asked, bowing in respect. I was guessing on what to do by this point based on improvisation but since the wolf looked like he might've been extremely important, considering he was the leader of the pack, I didn't want to disrespect him before being eaten alive. I tried to think of an escape plan but with every wolf standing with their spiky chests puffed out, I couldn't exactly move anywhere.
The leader responded to my question by walking towards where I was standing and bowing before me. I looked behind me to my friends and they were all baffled and in utter stupefaction. The wolf went back after he bowed and spoke in a low and growling tone,
"No one has ever bowed for me in a millennia. Who are you if I may humbly ask?" The wolf asked me without even using his jaw. I was stunned and my ears were probably going insane, but I said,
"I-I'm George. Those people there are my friends." I pointed towards the rest of my bewildered friends on the other side between the field and the jungle.
"Hmph. Sorry for my rude intrusion. You see, this field is my homeland." I couldn't exactly believe that because of the amount of fur on their coats but could I really argue that?
"Ah, I understand. Me and my friends are trying to find our homeland too." I stated. The wolf nodded in agreement and stated, again without using his mouth,
"I see. You have earned my respect for not blindly attacking my fellow Junisks and instead bowing before me. I will let you go on your way now, George. Have a safe travel. I do hope we will see each other again soon. And make sure you hold onto your friends dearly, they may provide you something in return." The wolf said in a booming tone in my brain. The two wolves behind me parted ways which allowed me to get out of this scorching field. Before I went through, I stated back to the wolf,
"I hope you and your people are safe." The wolf seemingly smiled and nodded back at me. I then exited out of the field and collapsed, falling asleep.
Once I woke up... well let me backtrack.
I never fully slept. I was in a state of slipping into and out of consciousness. The most I saw when I was conscious was going through considerable amounts of shrubs, bushes, trees, rivers, and the jungle's hot climate that made all of us extremely thirsty. I could feel the sweat trickle down my neck and body. And with us going through the jungle with the sun beaming at us, it didn't help at all. I heard Peo try to devise a plan to keep ourselves alive but I slipped back into unconsciousness before I could hear anything else from her plan.
I opened my eyes fully for the first time in a long while and saw the night sky in the air. I had no concept of timing, which made it impossible for me to tell the time by this point. Anyways, we were in a little opening between two massive bushes. But they didn't look anything like the bushes that had entrapped us earlier in the day. I had on my forehead a wet piece of cloth and looked around. Crickets in all shapes and colors were everywhere around me while a fire was burning brightly in the distance. I got up slowly from the comfy grass ground and walked over to the fire where Emily sat. I made no noise while walking towards her because once I sat down next to her she was startled.
"OH SHIT! It's you, George, phew."
"Yeah. Where's everybody?" I asked, looking around I didn't see a single person other than Emily.
"They all went to a creek not far from here. Originally, Peo made a plan for her, Alice, and Fron to go out looking for water while the rest of us would build a small encampment to rest. But since all of us desperately needed water after that wolf incident, they all went."
"And what about you?" I asked her.
"I decided to stay. I can wait for water if one of my closest friends could be hurt or stolen by anything or anyone." I smiled warmly as I looked up towards the sky.
"I'm going to guess none of you knew how to build a tent?" I asked her. Looking around me I saw absolutely no signs of a tent and instead, a mish-mash of sticks and leaves spread around the area.
"Yeah, none of us went camping other than Jack. And considering his dad always bought over an already made tent, he wasn't much help." She said, throwing a small branch into the fire. It crackled once the branch hit the fire.
"Hey. We were worried about you." Emily said reassuringly. I looked at her and smirked weakly.
"I knew that. I took a massive chance standing up to those wolves—no. Junisks." I stated.
"Junisks?" She asked me, she was obscured.
"Yeah. Didn't you hear our conversation?" I asked her back.
"Nope, there was some sort of force protecting the field to the point where we couldn't listen to you and those 'Junisks' without risking your life. So we stayed put. I felt all of our hearts pounding intensely when that wolf came closer to you. But of course, we were confused, why didn't they attack you in the first place?" She asked me.
"Let me counter that with another question. Why does this jungle exist? Why did we see that monster yesterday? Why did the factory explode? What happened to those capsules and the spirits that... enraptured into us?" I said with a gulp. I didn't want to think about these questions but now, I needed answers more than anything else. Especially rather than more questions.
"I don't know anymore. I don't know why Fron can't see, I can't seem to shake the answer out of my brain." She said, grunting. I nodded.
"Well neither can I," I stated back, looking at the fire I asked her a question I knew she had the answer to,
"How are you?" I asked her. She looked at me, startled by me suddenly asking me this. But then she sunk back into the log we were sitting on.
"Bad. Just... not good at all. I can't explain the words that show how afraid I am, and how confused I am at my surroundings. I mean our lives just got ripped apart, George!" She exclaimed in frustration, I nodded in understanding. I worried for my family and what they were going through right now. I could just imagine one of those bush plant monsters surrounding the house... I couldn't imagine it any longer.
"Most of all, I'm afraid that Ethan might've gotten to our families before us. I can just visualize what would happen. He would try to interrogate them, they would know nothing. Then he would confiscate their home phones and by then..." She drifted off toward the fire. Her face was twisted in outrage and sorrow. I wished I could reconcile her, tell her everything was going to be okay. But it wasn't, I knew that for a fact. And we didn't even know where we were going.
"We better check up on them and tell them I'm okay and awake now. They'll probably have a lot of questions for me that include 'why didn't you get attacked by those wolves?!'" Emily chuckled softly as I got up with her help and walked off to where they had gone.
We didn't travel far, probably 100-200 feet before we finally got to an opening and saw Alice using our net and stick idea for getting water. Everyone else was drenching and washing themselves in the river. I would've too considering the warm climate but I was still afraid I would sink in the river water.
"Alright, see y'all later!" Peo said as she walked through the path that had led us to the river.
"Bye! Good luck!" Jack replied.
She looked at us and simply waved. Then she double-checked directly at us and her eyes opened in shock.
"GEORGE!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around me. I chuckled lightly and hugged her back.
"Hey, Peo. I'm happy to see you too. Don't squeeze too hard though!" I winced, she let go of me and made sure I was okay.
"I can't believe you're alright! I thought for sure you were going to be eaten by those vicious wolves!" I wouldn't necessarily call them vicious, more like disrespected. But she was just expressing her agreeable opinion, I couldn't exactly argue that the wolves could talk with me and were nice now, could I? Still, I appreciated her concern and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Is everyone else at the river?" I asked her. I didn't realize it until I heard Peo but my voice, as well as Emily's, were completely parched.
"Mhm! Just go to Alice and she'll give you a cup of water. And don't worry, the river's safe. Oh! One more thing." She got close to my ears as Emily went ahead of me.
"Thank you for saving Steve. He's the only family I can cling to right now." She whispered in my ear, I nodded and was too tired and thirsty to say anything else. So, I walked off to Alice where everyone else saw me, and made sure I was okay.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked.
"Man, I was worried about you!" Aquafene exclaimed.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Angel exclaimed, also hugging me.
Truth be told their concern warmed my heart, but you know else would warm my heart and my throat at the same time? A nice DRINK OF WATER!!!
I walked over to Alice and I was on the verge of screaming at everyone else to stop worrying about me. I hoped Alice wasn't the same.
"Glad you're okay. Want a cup?"
"Gladly," I said. I was happy that she only made one comment about my safety. She gave me a cup of water and I drank it swiftly.
"Another!.. uhm. Please?" I stated out of respect. She nodded and swigged my cup into the net. She gave me the cup back and I drank it again. Meanwhile, I saw Emily happily splashing in the river. If anything, this looked like a nice summer vacation in a jungle. Apart from the deadly bushes, Junisks, the other deadly creatures within the jungle, and the fact that Ethan Redwood was still actively looking for us. But for now, I felt like I was at peace. I was in tranquility.
"How's your brother?" I asked Alice. She looked up at me and then at her brother looking down at the water, his eyes still blackened.
"Can I be honest with you?" She asked me. I nodded calmly as I placed my head closer to hers. She said in a low voice that wasn't exactly a whisper,
"I'm scared George. But since I'm the oldest out of all of you I have to keep calm and cool. After everything we've been through though, including even before the factory exploded, I'm on the verge of breaking apart. I don't have any control over anything. I feel so... fucking useless." I grabbed her right hand and clasped it between my two hands.
"Look around us. A jungle literally exploded around us. We barely escaped a bush that looked innocent enough. You two survived the worst heat I've ever experienced in my life. You can survive this... I mean. We can survive this. You just have to be an optimist, even through these troubling times." I stated. She looked down at the net and saw her reflection on the water in the net.
"Was it worth it?" She asked me. I didn't need any clarification on that question, I knew exactly what she meant. But I decided to paraphrase it anyway.
"You mean was it worth it to go to the factory out of curiosity, only for us to nearly die three times in a row and now be in this situation? In my opinion, yeah." I stated. She surprisingly understood and looked at her hands. They were scratched up, probably from the rough landing she had when she escaped from the field and looked up at me.
"Why didn't the wolves attack—"
"MANNNN, I'm bored! Here Jack, wanna play a game?" Steve asked so loud it disrupted my conversation with Alice. We looked up at him.
"Sure I guess, what's the game called?" Jack said.
"It's called... TAG!" Steve said as he tapped Jack on the shoulder and ran away.
"Ugh... alright then. Come here!!" Jack then ran towards Steve and they went on a wild goose chase, tagging each other here, there, and everywhere.
"See? Everything's fine. And please no more questions, I already have enough in my brain anyway." I stated towards Alice, she kept her mouth shut about questions and instead looked around us for the first time.
"You know, even for a jungle as dangerous as this one with its many illusions, it looks so peaceful." She said.
"A deceiving jungle can do that for you I suppose." I shrugged, getting a third cup of water myself, I drank it until it was half full and placed it between me and Alice. Jack nearly hit himself with a low-hanging branch and avoided it just in time as Steve tripped over the branch and face-planted into the dirt, getting a mouthful of dirt in his mouth.
Emily and Maurice were giggling at how stupid they were, and Robert and Angel were playing patty cake with each other to pass the time. I decided that I wanted some peace and went into the forest and sat down beside a tree with my half-full cup. When I sat down, I looked towards the sky, which was covered by leaves upon leaves by the enormous trees. I looked at the trees beyond me, then at my hands, then around my surroundment. I felt.. afraid, not of someone. But something, lurking around in the forest, maybe in my mind. But whatever it was, it felt strong. I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to get rid of this presence, but it seemingly grew closer and closer until... I hurled my guts up.
I puked a massive amount of liquid and other... disgusting fluids in front of me and while I did this, I felt different, as if I had a great amount of energy at my fingertips. As I was playing with my fingers, Alice then walked up to me from behind the tree and said,
"George what happened!? You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit of vomit is all. You've seen this before with Maurice so don't act so surprised! It's probably from the fact that it's so hot right now." I said.
"Alright..." She said with a hint of concern. Alice then sat down beside me and asked,
"Can I ask you a question?" I nodded and with a deep breath, she asked,
"Have you been feeling this... surge of energy lately?"
"Pfft, you're going to have to be more specific than a surge of energy. Between the factory and right now I've had so many surges of energy, I can barely recount all of them." I said, lying through my teeth, I had no energy when we were in those bushes nor when we were running through the field nor when we were still in the factory. I've had none, at all.
"Ah, well this surge of energy is a little different. It's... how do I explain this? It's as if I drank the most delectable juice in the entire world and felt immediately refreshed." She said. I never had that kind of surge of energy but I was curious about what she meant, so instead of telling the truth, I regretfully told a lie.
"Uh-huh yeah, I've felt that too. Well, at least for me, I feel a big presence. Like as if something is watching over me. Though I don't know what." I said. I might've told her a little bit of the truth with the big presence but I felt like I owed it to her for lying in the first place.
"Hm, that's interesting. Maybe when I get home we can figure out what's been going on with us. For now though. I see Peo coming back in the distance." Alice said, looking through the trees in front of us.
"That's weird, I can't see that far," I said.
However, after I said that I saw Peo carrying what looked like the sticks from the fire from earlier as well as stumbling around the pathway. I wondered how Alice was able to see that far without any type of binoculars or just anything to zoom in on her.
After I wondered about this, I ran to Peo and helped her carry the sticks to the small area where we were staying at the creekbank. As Emily saw us she alerted the rest of our friends and we started to each place the sticks in a pile. Jack then started to make another fire as well as Aquafene putting some water in extra cups she had created and placing them carefully in a small pouch made up of twigs, large leaves, and a large rope she had gotten from... wait a minute. A rope!?
"Aquafene. Where did you get that rope?!" I tried to hide my alertness but it accidentally slipped.
"Uhm.. I got it from that tree over there." She stated in confusion. I looked at the tree and saw the bush next to it. It was burnt. Son of a bitch.
I looked at the bush carefully and crouched beside it. Aquafene was curious and also crouched beside it alongside me. I was looking for one thing and one thing only, that damn charred paper. I searched inside the bush far and deep until I felt something solid. I grabbed for it and pulled it out, it was the blazed piece of paper! How it didn't burn completely, I had no idea. Maybe Veronica had luckily made it out of fire-resistant paper?
After everyone else drank out the water from the net I grabbed the paper out and showed it to them.
"Uh, George. What's that?" Emily asked me.
"This, my friends. Is hopefully our ticket home." I said, putting the charred paper slowly on the ground to not accidentally break it. I knew I had only one try at this or else the possibility of it breaking would become worse. I lifted my foot swiftly and smashed the paper under my foot. The cracked holographic screen showed up right in front of me displaying where we were and how far away from Altandor we were.
I have to admit, we were heading in the right direction for once! The only problem was that we had to cross the river completely and take a left it seemed. But before I could explain what this was, everyone else was crowded around me, asking the questions I was just about to answer. Fron and Alice sat in silence though.
"George, how did you get this piece of paper?" Emily asked.
"George, how did you know it was in that bush?" Jack asked.
"George, why didn't you find this piece of paper sooner?" Robert stupidly asked.
"George—"
"CAN YOU GUYS CALM IT!?" I shouted.
"No! How the hell did you know that paper was there?" Aquafene asked.
"Oh my god do you wanna know why?! FINE! I was trapped from that tree using that rope you're using for your pouch! I tried to burn the rope with the paper but it didn't work and I shot the rope with the rifle I had gotten. I swear I've explained this to you guys before! You can even see the point when the bullet entered the rope there!" I exclaimed, proving that Ethan had nearly kidnapped me. Everyone else realized I had said this beforehand and rubbed the back of their heads and necks.
"Sorry George," Angel stated.
"It's fine. Just believe me when I say something, please." I stated. Looking at the holographic screen, no one bothered to ask where I got the paper from and instead took a good look at it.
"So this is where we're supposed to go. To go back home." Jack stated, cracking his knuckles.
"Yup, we better go now before Ethan or anything else for that matter gets to our families before we do." The 'anything else' I was referring to was that monster with its purple, mesmerizing eyes and its multitude of teeth. The holographic screen shut off for the final time. Everyone else packed it up and we cleared out the fire before we crossed the river. It luckily didn't suck us in and no fish monster was trying to eat us as we crossed.
I then had a horrific thought. If the rope was here, then the jungle should've been right next to the city and near the pond right!? But surely not, it had to have ended near here if the rope and paper still survived somehow.
As I had these thoughts, we ventured off into the horizon, and once we walked around a quarter of a mile or so, we encountered a distinguishing hill. Each one of us helped Fron climb up the hill, and then we climbed up the hill ourselves one by one.
Once we got to the top of the hill, however, I saw how much the jungle had devastated the place we once called our home. I also saw that we were near a waterfall and strawberry plants had been crushed under new plants and trees. I looked down and saw the Waterway Café. Completely. Destroyed.
"Oh my god," Robert said as he looked down. The entire town was a mess of green with broken wood and glass everywhere on the streets below.
"Heh... at least we got out of that factory. Right?" Aquafene said as she looked down at the town.