7 This Ain't New York Guys

Joey was first to awaken that morning, he looked to his two sleeping friends and then at the burned out fire. A thin stream af smoke was growing from the centre of it. Joey watched it for a while and breathed in the sweet smokey air. It was mixed with the scent of rich grass in the morning dew. He listened to the birds singing in the sky above him. He spread out his arms on the ground, he was feeling hot and sticky. He put one hand out infront of his face, his hand was dirty and red. He touched his side with it and shifted slightly on the sand. he felt a surging rush of pain. He lay still and felt his forehead which was pounding. The blood had dried up into a thick crust which had matted some of his hair. He closed his eyes again and thought. Where the hell am I? What were they talking about last night?

Then Joey heard the others begin to stir. Chandler sat up, he could feel a splitting headache coming on. He saw Joey stirring a little and smiled, "Joey, you awake?"

Joey opened his eyes to confirm, he smiled at Chandler, "Yeah." Then he started to look concerned, "You hurt?" He noticed the scratch on Chandler's head and his sun-burned, tired face. "Oh, no I'm not hurt bad...neither is Ross..." Chandler said assuringly.

"So we survived, huh?" Said Joey.

Then Ross too started to stir, "Guys?" He smiled and came over to pat Joey on the shoulder.

Joey patted him back, "This ain't New York, guys." He laughed.

Ross thought, "No. This is...Africa I think."

"WHA--?" Chandler shouted in disbelief, "Africa? You're crazy, Ross!"

"Yeah, Africa is where The Lion King lives." Joey added, proudly remembering one of his Disney videos.

Ross folded his arms in disappoinment, "Guys, see those trees over there?" He pointed, "And that mountain over there?" The friends looked. There was indeed a blue, grey coloured mountain on the horizon. It looked unreachably far. Chandler stared at it, "It's so big..." He thought out loud.

Ross nodded, "It's definatley African, I'm thinking mount' kilimanjaro but I could be wrong." he smiled smugly.

"But how did we end up here?" Joey yelled loudly.

Chandler felt a joke coming on, "I see, Dr Geller's theory could be wrong!" He toyed.

Ross frowned at Chandler, "I'm basing this on what I know are common facts." He added. Chandler laughed and Joey smirked. "Laugh all you want, but could you have made this fire without me?" He pointed at the steaming pile of branches. Chandler looked deliberately at the pile, indicating that there clearly was no fire. Ross stamped his foot in humiliation. Then he turned, "I guess you're probably hungry, huh?" He grinned.

Chandler rolled his eyes, "OK Ross. We geddit..."

Ross continued to grin, "And..." he added expectantly.

Chandler sighed, "...And, Ross knows best." Chandler said monotonously. Ross felt pleased with himself and laughed at Chandler's embarassment.

"I'm guessing around here the best way to get food is in the ground." He lectured. "We should dig near a tree to find yams. I saw them do that in a survival documentary."

Chandler accepted the statement, "OK, but since you're the best, shouldn't you be the one doing all of the digging?" He said craftily.

Ross frowned again, "I have a PHD, Chandler. I'm not stupid."

Joey began to feel uneasy, "Hey you guys don't fight." They turned to Joey who had been listening to their argument. "I wanna help get the food..." He said as he began to pick himself up. Chandler and Ross quickly gestured for him to sit back down again, and Ross pushed gently down onto his shoulders, "You will stay right here, Joey."

Then Chandler said, "We could take it in turns...I'll stay here with Joey...while you show me from a distance how to dig for jams."

"Yams." Ross corrected.

Chandler shrugged and rolled his eyes, "Yams."

"OK. I guess that's fair." He looked at Joey, turned and left for the nearest tree. Chandler sat down next to Joey and waited expectantly, he could barely see Ross through the tall grass, but could just make him out several metres away, his back was bent forward near a tree where he was digging carefully with his hands. Lying down, Joey was having difficulty in watching Ross, he strained his vision so he could see his feet and everything that was just beyond them. Chandler tapped his fingers rhythmetically as he sat, "I am so hungry." He was still staring in the direction of Ross as he exclaimed to Joey. Joey was thinking the same, "Tell me about it. I dunno what this yam food is, but I tell ya I could eat a bucket load of that right now!" He laughed out loud. Joey nodded as the reminder of food poked into his stomach. He could feel a sickening surge of emptiness inside of him, not just in his stomach, but also in his mind.

Ross returned with a small armful of what Chandler thought looked like some sort of reddish potato. Their faces lit up with the sight of food, Ross was also smiling confidently, "OK..." Then his smile suddenly turned into a grimmace, "Chandler! Why didn't you light a fire? "He shouted angrily.

"Oh...I didn't realize you needed a fire to eat yams." Chandler shrugged in a sarcastic mannor. Ross rolled his eyes deliberately when he spoke, "Well if you want to eat raw vegetable protein matter, fine!" His voice was loud and antagonising. "But I'll just be lighting a fire so I can eat mine cooked!"

He lit the fire frustratedly but improved on his skill. He then rubbed the dirt off one of the yams.

"So what now, we put them on little sticks and hold them to the fire like marshmallows?" Chandler teased.

Ross was beginnig to tire of Chandler's jokes, "Not that you would know any better but marshmallows are cooked that way because they melt." He picked up a second yam and began to rub at that too. Chandler opened his mouth to say something but Joey interupted, "How do we cook 'em ?" he asked Ross. Ross cleared his throat as he put down the last yam next to the fire. He thought for a moment, "I don't know." He said quietly.

"Why don't we wrap them in leaves and then put them in the middle of the fire?" Joey said enthusiastically. "That's what they did on 'Days Of Our Lives' in the extreme wilderness episode!" His two friends listened, and Chandler responded with a confused glance.

"OK. We have a cook here people!" He yelled as if a live audience were watching them. Chandler rolled his eyes so Joey could see, but Ross saw it too.

That evening the friends continued to talk and sit whilst eating their roast yams, and Chandler thought it had been the longest day he had ever experienced. He had the unfamiliar after-taste of yam in his mouth. He hadn't eaten as many as the others, and still had some left by the side. He was rolling them around in the leaf Ross had prepared them in. Ross was leaning relaxed onto his elbow and picking his teeth with his fingernails. Chandler was sitting up and poking at the embers in the fire with a stick. He stared intensely; his mind was elsewhere, lost in the red curling heat of the fire. As he stared he saw the flames begin to curl harder and faster, and the sound of the crackling wood became louder. He tried to look away but couldn't, and he felt the heat of the fire on his skin becoming hotter as he gazed into them. Still the crackling became louder, and other sounds began to merge in with it, 'Chandler...' A familiar voice inside his head, mixed with the grim image of a knife. The same horrific image from before, he recognised the thick red liquid still dripping off the blade. Chandler tried to control his own breathing as he felt himself step into the apartment with hard, echoing footsteps. He looked at his hands which were shaking violently. He forced himself to take a quick glance around the room. Joey's room. He dared not to look at the floor in the fear of coming face to face with that horrible scene. He yelled as he felt his eyes being opened by some inexplicable force, focusing them directly onto the red flooor. He saw Joey, his eyes wide and searching. His hands gripping the air and his knuckles turning white. Chandler choked in fear, his mouth gaping at Joey for a moment as their horrified eyes met. Again the voice appeared, 'Chandler...' Chandler screamed out loud, "NO! This isn't real...It's not..." he screamed through the trapped voice in his head, not knowing if anyone was there to help him. He was unsure whether he was in reality, though he wished hard for it not to be, as his time to save Joey was long gone. For a moment all that was in Chandler's mind was that Joey had died. He quivered in a huddled mass beside his friend's body, wriving and shouting at the world. "Please don't..." He shook heavily as he took a breath, "...Don't be happening to me...If this is real... Oh god don't be." He grabbed Joey and held him tightly to his chest, burrying his head into his clothes. Chandler errupted in tears, as he felt all his own strength merge into one big mass of confusion. He continued to clench onto his friend's body like it was the last thing he had left. "I wont...let go. I won't." His face hardened out and his clench became harder in thought. The mass of confusion was mixing inside of his head again, and tearing at his skull as if it wanted something from him. Chandler gritted his teeth as he let the big ball of confusion explode infront of him, and he saw once more against the reddened background, the face of Joey looking through him into his thoughts. Chandler distraught, listened to his voice, "Chandler!"

Then Chandler awoke. He lay gasping for air, his back toward the ground. As he looked up he saw the grey sky patched all over with watery blue clouds. He took a deep breath of relief as he felt his friend's shoulder up against him. He turned to see which friend it was. It wasn't Joey, it was Ross. Chandler sat up, he could feel a mild headache rumbling in the back of his brain. He saw Ross was lying fast asleep, which made him feel a little reasured. He thought to himself about how he could have fallen asleep and laughed at the thought, but when he looked to where Joey had been lying last night, his smile suddenly dropped. Joey wasn't there.