He was running. He was running as fast as he could. That was all he could do right now. He didn't know how long he had been running for his life. His legs ached from exhaustion and pain, but he couldn't stop. They had to get away from them. He had to get him away form that place. He could hear their shouts fade away in the distance. Good, they were losing them.
The weight on his back seemed to get heavier every minute. He dodged another tree in his path. However, his foot got caught on a root and he fell down. His friend slipped off his back and landed a few feet away from him. He groaned in pain and he tried to get up, but.. his body didn't cooperate with him anymore and the pain in his chest was getting worse. His vision blurred. No, he couldn't pass out now. They weren't safe yet!
The puddle of blood underneath their bodies only grew as the seconds passed. The sounds of their enemies was gone. They were completely alone now. One part of him was grateful for that. Another part of him was not. They weren't out of danger yet. They needed help and quick. He took a few deep breaths and tried to get up again. They couldn't die now..
It was getting dark outside and the wind was blowing through the trees. There were four people walking on a path through the forest. Three men and one woman. Two of the men were running around the others while the woman and other man talked.
"Tag, you're it!" A brown-haired teen yelled at his friend as he poked him with his finger before running off laughing. The other teen grinned and chased the other. "You better run fast, because I, the great Usopp, am the champion of tag!" He yelled at the smaller teen. They ran around the others as they played. The brown-haired teen accidentally bumped into one of his other friends as he ran away from Usopp. The blond man almost dropped the bags he was carrying. "Dammit Chopper. Look out for us, will you." The man said. "Sorry Sanji!" Chopper yelled as he continued to run around with Usopp behind him.
Sanji sighed. "Why can't they just act like their age." He said to the dark-haired woman walking next to him. The woman smiled. "I hope they don't trip over something and break their neck." She said. "Don't say things like that, Robin!" The two younger boys yelled at her as they passed the others.
Suddenly, Chopper stopped dead in his tracks. Usopp took that opportunity to jab his finger in the other's ribs. "Ha, I told you I would win! The victory is mine once again!" He exclaimed. He then noticed that the younger teen wasn't listening. Instead, he was looking in the direction the wind was coming from while sniffing the air.
"Hey, what's wrong? Are you smelling something weird?" Usopp asked the other. This wasn't the first time Chopper had smelled something the others didn't. Somehow, his nose was much better than that of an average human.
"I don't know. I thought I smelled iron or something like that. I can't smell it anymore though.." Chopper replied. When he didn't smell it for another few seconds, he figured he had just imagined it and he continued to walk. The wind started to blow harder and the teen stopped again.
"There it is again. It smells like.." The teen's eyes winden. "Blood! There must be a lot of it. Let's go take a look!" He said as he began to run in the direction of the smell. Usopp grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Wait, you don't know what's out there. There could be some kind of monster lurking around!" He told the younger teen.
"Hey, what are you two doing?" Sanji asked as he noticed the younger men staring into the forest. "Chopper said he smelled blood coming from that direction." Usopp said as he pointed in the direction Chopper said the smell came from. "Maybe someone is trying to hide a body there." Robin said, sending chills down the others spines. "I want to go and see where the smell is coming from. If there is someone hurt out there we must help them." Chopper said to the others. Sanji shrugged. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to go and see if someone needs our help." He said. The others nodded. They then started to follow Chopper into the forest.
They had been walking for almost ten minutes now without finding anything. It was getting darker and colder. There were thunderclouds in the sky and every now and then a lightning bolt would light up the night.
"I think we should turn back and go home. There is nothing out here." Usopp said. "But the scent is still there. It's getting even stronger!" The younger teen exclaimed. Usopp sighed. "If you say so.." He said as he continued to follow the other.
"I think Chopper might be right after all." Robin suddenly said. The others stopped and looked at her. "What do you mean Robin?" Sanji asked. She pointed in the distance. "Over there. I can see people lying on the ground. They seem pretty lifeless." She replied. They all looked in the direction Robin was pointing, but they could barley see anything in the dark. The lightning once again lighted the dark forest and, sure enough, they could see two people lying on the forest floor.
They ran towards the bodies on the ground. When they were close enough they could see that it were two men. They were both laying face-down on the ground in a puddle of blood. "Hey, are you ok?" Usopp hesitantly asked, even though he knew it was a stupid question. Of course they were not ok. They were lying unconscious in a puddle of probably their own blood.
Chopper ran forward to the men and knelt down next to the closest one. He turned the man on his back and was shocked at what he saw. His clothes were ripped and there was a huge cut on his chest running from his left shoulder to his right hip. His left eye was bleeding badly too. "Oh my god, what happened to him?" Chopper asked no one in particular.
Sanji had gone to the other man and had turned him around too. He looked even worse than the other one. He had a big X-shaped wound on his chest that was bleeding really bad. "He's barley alive." Sanji said after checking the man's pulse. Chopper did the same to the man in front of him. "This one is alive too, but he's badly injured. They need help and fast. We should take them to our house." The teen said.
"Why don't we take them to the hospital?" Usopp asked. "The hospital is too far away and we have a infirmary." Chopper said. "And if it was a person who did this to them, and is still after them, they might go look by the hospitals." Robin added. "B-but they could be bad guys! We don't know anything about them. They could be criminals!" Usopp yelled. Chopper was getting annoyed. "If they're bad guys we'll deal with that later. We don't have time to argue!"
Sanji and Chopper moved to pick up the injured men. Chopper tried to lift the larger male, but didn't succeed. Sanji picked up the other man easily. "Damn, he's so light. When did he last eat?" The blond man muttered. He looked at the younger teen, who was still trying to lift the other man. He then walked over to Usopp. "Can you carry him? Then I can carry the other one since I'm the strongest out of us." He said. Usopp backed up. "N-no, I-I can't stand that much b-blood." He said while covering his mouth with his hands.
"I will carry him." Robin said as she walked up to Sanji. "But Robin, you don't need to. You'll get your hands covered in blood." The blond man said. Robin ignored him and took the injured man from Sanji's hands.
The blond man sighed in defeat and walked over to Chopper and lifted the other man off the ground. There were three swords, which he hadn't noticed before, hanging on the man's waist, adding extra weight to the already heavy load in his arms. "Usopp, can you take these swords with you?" He asked his long-nosed friend. The curly-haired teen nodded and took the swords.
"Let's get going. They need treatment fast. Also, the others will be wondering where we are right now." Chopper said. He had picked up the bags Sanji and Robin had been carrying earlier. They had just come back from their shopping trip in the city. They lived about three miles away from the nearest city in a mansion in the middle of the woods. It had been build by one of their friends.
"Y-yeah, let's go. It's getting darker too. I don't want to stay here much longer." Usopp said. At that moment it started to rain too. "Dammit, why now.." Sanji cursed. They all started to run, all except Usopp.
The curly-haired teen's eyes had caught sight of a hat laying on the ground. He grabbed it just before the wind could blow it away. It was an old strawhat.
"Usopp, hurry up!" Chopper yelled behind him. "I'm coming!" The older teen yelled back. He stood up and began to run. The strawhat was still him his hand for some reason.
They started to run the last few hundred meters to their house.
"Damn, where are they? They should be home by now. What's taking them so long?" A red-haired woman said as she looked at the clock for the fifth time. She and two of her friends were doing their own things until they realized that their other friends were not home yet and it started to get dark.
"I'm sure they're fine Nami. They're not push-overs you know." One of the two men said. "I agree with Franky. They will probably walk in any minute now." The other man said. Nami sighed. "I guess you're right. I just hope they didn't spend too much money on useless things."
At that moment the front door slammed open. They could hear Chopper yell something and the others replied. The three of them looked at each other and then went to look what was going on. The opened the door of the hallway and stared at the sight before them. Sanji and Robin were carrying two strangers in their arms. The strangers, two men, appeared to be bleeding heavily since blood was dripping from their bodies.
"Franky, Nami, Brook, out of the way! We need to go to the infirmary!" Chopper yelled as he, Sanji and Robin ran past them through the hallway to the sick bay. The three of them watched as they disappeared in the small room. Their eyes fell on the trail of blood coating the carpet beneath their feet. They then looked at Usopp, who was still catching his breath at the doorway.
"Usopp? What the hell is going on?" Nami asked the curly-haired teen. Usopp, who was finally able to breathe properly again, looked up at the trio who were looking really confused and disturbed. "I guess I'll have to explain then.."
AN: I probably should be writing chapters for my other stories right now, but I've had this story in my head for several months now and I needed to write it down. It will probably be slow updated. Also, Chopper and Brook are normal humans, because them being a reindeer and skeleton doesn't fit in my story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story!