Into The Woods We Go

I wake up on the wet cold ground while getting rained on. I sat up then started looking around, I was in the middle of a forest with very tall trees. My whole body was sore and in pain. I look down at my unwanted tattoo and verbally sigh. In the distance, I hear a fainted cough. 

I perked up and started frantically looking around. I slowly get up, "Hello?! Anybody out there!"

Silence filled the air then another cough came from the right of me. "Hello?" I follow the noise of the coughing to find where the coughing is coming from. "Hello-"

I tripped over something hard and my face landed on the hard wet ground. "Ouch..." I look over to see Joey lying on the ground coughing up dirt. "Joey! Are you okay?" I crawled to Joey's side and saw how bruised and beaten up he was. "I'm okay..."

I slowly got up from the ground and then helped Joey to his feet. "Where's Juju?" Joey says looking around. "I don't know." The rain starts to pick up stronger blurring our vision. 

"We got to find shelter for tonight." Through the rain, we see a small abandoned shelter that looks like a box. We ran into the shelter to take cover from the rain. Standing in the shelter, I could see Joey looking down at his tattoo.

"Does it hurt?" I said.

"Yes, just a little though. Does yours hurt?"

"Yes, a lot..." I sat down on the hard ground and put my back against the wall. Joey looked out into the rain as we both sat in silence.

"We're going to need a fire for tonight," Joey says.

"Do you know how to build one?" Joey nods, "I used to be a Boy Scout for about six years so I know some survival skills. I'm going to go gather the materials to go make a fire."

"Do you need any help?"

"No, stay safe in here I'll be back." Joey then runs out into the rain leaving me in the dark and abandoned building.

A few minutes later Joey comes back with tree branches, twigs, and grass that's hanging out his pockets. He lays everything down on the ground and then gets started working on the fire. I watched him make a bow with an old string and a tree branch, then started rubbing the sticks together. "Do you need help with anything?"

"When you start seeing smoke, just gently start blowing till we get fire," Joey said while still rubbing the sticks together. In about five minutes we started to see smoke. "You can start blowing now." I gently blew on the fire. The fire sparked and began to grow bigger. "We did it!"

We sat back and watched the fire burn. "I hope Juju is okay," I said thinking about the worse.

"Me too," Joey says with his head down.

"Has this ever happened before?"

"No, I always knew there was another town but they were never our enemy." My ears perked up. "Wait...Does everybody else know too?"

"Only a few of us, including your brother but I knew them before anybody else."

"What do you mean?" I said interested. 

"Because I used to live there, that was my home. When I was eight I became an orphan, I didn't have nowhere to go but then I met Laden, he told me he had a town and he took me in. Crazy how a ten-year-old took care of an eight-year-old... but anyway that's when he told me he named the town "Dark World" That's what the tattoo on your arm stands for."

I look down at my tattoo, "How did you find The Town of Kids?" Joey hesitates but speaks anyway. "Laden found out there was another town and he wanted to destroy it and he needed me to do it. He wanted me to act like I was lost so they could take me in and once they take me in I got to make them trust me. But once it came time, I couldn't do it. Your brother was way better than Laden, the town was so peaceful."

I looked at Joey too stunned to speak while Joey sat there in silence staring at the fire. "So...You already had the tattoo?" Joey continues to stare at the fire then says, "Let's just get some rest, we got a lot to do tomorrow." I nod my head then lay down on the cold ground and try to go to sleep while Joey is in a daze. 

I wake up to the fire put out and Joey asleep on the ground. I rise up to see the sunlight beaming into the abandoned building. I slowly stood up and walked out of the building to get fresh air. The ground was all wet from the storm last night. I yawned and then quickly emptied my bladder behind a tree. I walk back to the abandoned building to see Joey up and walking around. "Good Morning."

"Good morning, how are you feeling?" 

"I'm feeling okay," I said leaning against the wall. Silence fills the room as we both think about the situation we are in. "Are you ready to go?" Joey says breaking the silence. "Yeah, we got to find Juju as soon as possible." We walk out into the woods getting deeper and deeper.

"Do you know how to get back?" I said.

"Yeah, but I don't know where we are." Joey stops to look around. "Are you not going to answer my question you avoided last night?"

Joey sighs and says, "The moral of the story is I wasn't going to betray your brother." Joey then pauses, "Did you hear that?"

I looked around confused, "No. We should try and find some food, I'm starving." 

"Shhhh...It's getting closer." Joey says breathing heavily. I try to hear what he's hearing, I didn't hear anything until I heard growling behind us. I slowly turned around to see a vicious dog with scars and patches of missing hair.

"Don't freak out, David..." Joey says through his teeth. "I think we should run," I whispered as low as I could. The dog starts barking aggressively with foam forming around his mouth. "Yeah, I think we should run." Joey busts out running in the opposite direction. "Joey!" I ran right behind him huffing and puffing. The dog chased after us barking and catching up to us. Joey jumped on a tree and started climbing, I knew I couldn't climb a tree so I kept running while the dog followed close behind. 

The dog grabbed the bottom of my pants and pulled me down. "Ahhhh!" I screamed while kicking the dog in the head with my other foot. The dog then bites me on my right leg, pain rushes throughout my body. The dog's teeth felt like knives digging into my leg. I tried to scream but nothing came out.

Suddenly, I saw an arrow that looked like a sharp stick fly and stabbed the dog in the leg causing the dog to whimper and let go of my leg. The dog runs off into the woods leaving me on the ground bleeding. "Are you okay?!" A girl leans by my side with an eye patch. "Juju? Is that you?" 

She smiles, "Guilty as charged." Juju looks down at my bleeding leg. "We need to get you help?" Joey comes running over and sees my leg. "Damn!" Joey quickly took off his shirt and wrapped it tight around my leg. He then looks at Juju's eyes patch, "What happened to your eye?" 

"Nothing, I just thought I'd looked badass with an eye patch." They slowly helped me up and I wrapped my arms around the both of them as I limped. "Juju, do you know where the town is?"

"I think so, I think it's to the east." Juju pulls out a compass, "East is right in front of us." My leg begins to throb in pain as the blood soaks Joey's shirt. "Ugh." I groan in pain.

"Hold on, We're going to get you help." We move slowly through the woods as they help me limp through the forest. I wanted to give up but I kept limping through the forest. "We can't stop, we got to keep going so you won't bleed to death," Joey says.

An hour later we reach the gate of the town, weak and exhausted. "Let us in! We have a wounded person" Juju yells. I try my hardest not to pass out. Three people pop their heads over the gate and they finally let the gates open.