《War Games》Chapter 3. The First Night
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Sam and Xander fell a few feet up from the ground. Both of them started having flashbacks to thirty minutes ago when they fell off of a 30 story building. Neither of them ever wanted to experience that ever again. Thankfully they landed onto the ground after falling for only half a second.
The first thing that Sam noticed was how cold it was. The temperature from a few seconds ago, in the library, was relatively warm, which here was cold. Not quite freezing but it was cold enough to make him start shivering. His breath was seen as he breathed out.
He looked at himself and then looked at Xander. They both were wearing clothes made from coarse wool. It wasn't exactly comfortable and didn't do much to help against the cold. On top of that was a leather jacket which kept a little bit of warmth trapped in.
On the side of their belts, was a pouch, in which Sam assumed was the money that Mable talked about.
Xander got up first and offered a hand to help Sam up. He took it and got up.
They both started to look around them and try to figure out what to do next. All around them were tall trees that reached far above the ground. In the distance, they could see a mountain top with snow on its peak.
"I know she said that we would go to a place with few people but I didn't think she meant the middle of nowhere." Said Xander looking around. "What should we do now?"
"Can you tell me your name again? I'm usually terrible with names and the situation didn't make it any easier." Said Sam.
"Sure, I'm Xander." Said Xander. "And you're Sam right?"
"Yes, I am." Answered Sam. "It seems to be morning right now so we don't have to worry about sleeping right this second. Maybe we should head towards that mountain to get a better understanding of where we are."
They dusted themselves off and started to head to the mountain in the distance. After a few hours of walking, they took a short break. The mountain that they were going towards was coming closer and closer so when they finally reached the bottom of the mountain, they could see the slope of the ground rising as it got higher and higher.
Sam and Xander were mostly silent as they walked. They both felt cold and got hungry as they walked. When Sam saw a berry bush, he decided to take a break and see if the berries were poisonous or not.
"Do you think it's poisonous?" Asked Xander eyeing the bush. He was hungry but not hungry enough to risk his own life by eating poisonous foods.
"I don't think so. Look here." Sam pointed to a part of the bush where a branch was cut off. "An animal probably ate it, and since there isn't a corpse laying around here, I think they're safe. But one person should eat like one and see if they die or not if they die, the berries are poisoned, and if they live there ok. So do you want to eat one or should I?"
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" I can do it this time, but the next time we're in a situation like this, you're going to do it, okay?" Said, Xander as he went to pick one of the berries off of the bush.
"Fine"
Xander put the berries in his mouth and started to chew. It didn't taste very good. It was slightly sweet but it was mostly bland. It was as if he was just eating the dryest banana. He fully chewed through it and swallowed.
"How do you feel?" Asked Sam as he saw Xander swallow.
"I don't know. It tastes bad but not enough to make me kill myself." Replied Xander.
"Let's wait a few more minutes before eating any more."
They waited for a few more minutes and Xander was still feeling fine. Xander ate a few more and Sam did the same.
After a few minutes after they both ate a few, Sam started to think. The mountain itself wasn't very tall so even if they did climb all the way to the top, there was no guarantee that they would be able to see anything other than trees. There was also snow on top of the mountain so it would be very cold when they went to sleep tonight.
"Xander, what do you think about going around the mountain? If we see a river flowing down from the mountain, we can follow it down and possibly find a village or a city or something." Said Sam.
"Sure. If we don't find anything, we can then climb the mountain," replied Xander.
They ate a few more of the berries and started to move again, except they turned left and followed the base of the mountain around.
After they walked for two hours, Sam noticed that the sun was getting lower and lower. They saw a few more of the berry bushes as they walked and picked a few of them as they walked.
"Let's stop here for now," Said Sam. "It's going to be dark in maybe two or three hours, we should set up a camp or something."
"Should we start a fire? Maybe not since there could be wolves or something." Said Xander.
"That's true. We should make a temporary house and a bed for ourselves. How are we going to do that? I have no idea." Said Sam.
All around them were the same type of trees. There was nothing that they could use to build a house or make a bed with. All of the branches were too high up on the trees to break and the only thing that was on the ground were dead sticks.
"We could try climbing," said Xander as he eyed the trees. There were no low branches they could use to climb up and the first branch was around fifteen feet high up. It would not be easy climbing up.
Xander put his hands around the tree and started to climb. He wrapped his legs around the base of the tree and pushed himself up with his legs. He moved his hands up and got his legs up higher. He pushed with his legs again and got higher and higher. After a few more times of pushing with his legs and getting his hands up, he finally reached the first branch.
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"Wow, this feels so easy," said Xander as he sat on the first branch. "You should come up to try it as well Sam. It feels like I'm on steroids."
"How do you know what steroids feel like?" Asked Sam as he started to climb the same tree as well.
"I lied, I don't really know what steroids feel like," he stood up from the branch and started to climb higher.
Sam realized what Xander meant. Even though he put all his weight on his hands, he didn't do it that much. It felt as though he was lighter. By the time he made it to the first branch, he was a little out of breath but his arms didn't feel too tired.
"We got stronger but our stamina stayed the same. That's probably why we didn't notice anything the entire time that we were walking," said Xander. " So, we're gonna stay here until morning or something?"
"I thought this would take longer but basically. We can head out as soon as the sun comes out in the morning tomorrow." As Sam tried to get comfortable on the branch.
They talked to each other and they got familiar with each other until sunset when Xander fell asleep. They had been walking for a long time, so they both felt tired. Sam would have slept too, but he was too on edge. Usually, it took him like an hour to fall asleep, and even then, he was a very light sleeper. There was no way he would be able to fall asleep now when it was cold and the thing that he was sleeping on was hard as wood. Literally.
Sam was going through all of the things that happened today when he heard a howl. After the first one, he heard multiple howls following it. He couldn't really tell how many there were but he knew it was at least a dozen. It seemed that they made a good choice of not lighting a fire and climbing on a tree. He could only hear wolves but he doubted they were the only things that could kill Xander and him.
After Sam heard those howls, he was put on edge. He stared around the tree and trying to find anything different, anything moving. He couldn't find anything but he kept looking for an entire hour. He was starting to get sleepy and so he decided to stop worrying and closed his eyes. Soon after, he was asleep.
In the middle of the night, a creature was moving through the forest. It looked similar to a panther but it was much bigger. Its height was only a little shorter than a horse. Its claws were long and sharp, able to cut through even the toughest of skin. Its eyes were able to see even in the dark night.
It moved through the forest trying to find prey for it to feed on. In this forest, it didn't have a predator. Other than the humans on the edge of the forest, nothing could threaten it.
As it was following a scent, it reached a tree. It looked up and it could see two bodies that lay on the branches of the trees. It could easily jump and get the one on the first branch but that would wake up the one on the second branch and he would be alerted. It could see the things on the tree moved on the ground and so it decided to wait.
In the morning, when they both were down, it would strike. As silently as it came, it retreated. Far enough away that the things in the trees could not see it but close enough so that it could hear when they got on the ground.
Sam woke up in the middle of the night. He wasn't exactly sure what woke him up but he knew that it wasn't as simple as the wind. He stayed in the same position as before and didn't move a muscle. He controlled his breathing so that he still appeared to be sleeping.
He listened and kept track of the time after he woke up. It was only five seconds later when he heard a noise. It was a very soft sound and he barely heard it above Xander's breathing. He tried to make out what that noise was but he couldn't even guess.
After another eight seconds, he heard it again. It sounded quieter as if it was moving away. This time he knew what he was listening for so it was easier to hear. This time he could roughly guess at what it could be, either something large breathing or a large insect moving through the forest. Both scared him.
He bit his tongue, just to make sure that he wasn't dreaming anything. After listening for a few more minutes and not hearing anything, he let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. If it wasn't so cold, he would have surely been sweating by now.
The good thing was that, whatever it was, it was now gone.
Soon after that Sam fell back to sleep and didn't wake up till morning.
It was Xander that woke up first. He opened his eyes and left them to adjust to the early morning light. He slowly got up from his laying down position. He put his hand on the tree so that he didn't fall and stretched. His legs felt a little sour from all of the walking that they did the day before.
He felt thirsty and hungry as the only thing he ate were the berries from yesterday and they didn't eat too much in case they had any delayed effects. If they were bad, he figured, he would have known by now.
He remembered the closest berry bush from their tree and decided that he would go and eat some. He could also get a few for Sam before he woke up.
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