Chapter 10: Departure
Juno's vision was getting more blurry by the second she was dashing away. Carrying Josh on her shoulders made it even harder to endure the pain. Once when she leaped over a bush, she nearly fell over, but she was trained for these kinds of obstacles in these kinds of situation.
Meanwhile at the Torture Plank, the Lead Executioner was finally conscious, and he rested his back up against the wooden plank that knocked him out, and he shook out the pain from his head.
"What just happened?" He muttered out loud.
The Lead Executioner blinked for a few more seconds before looking around. The rest of the Executioners were already still on the ground, some were rubbing their backs or their forehead, while others started retrieving their silver looking axes.
"Where's that kid?" he heard one of the Executioners ask angrily in the air as he finally regained strength that quickly enough to pick up his axe.
There was a murmur around the nine Executioners as they gathered around the Torture Plank.
"I can't find him anywhere!"
"He's going to pay for this!"
"I can't wait until it's time for us to torture him!"
Those were just a few of the murmurs of anger among the nine Executioners. The Lead Executioner then noticed something. It looked like watery footprints of boots.
"Hey… look at this!" He motioned the other Executioners to give their full attention on him. The other Executioners stopped murmuring to turn and see the footprints.
"Of course! That's must've been where they made their escape!" One of the executioners exclaimed.
The rest of the other executioners looked at him.
"I think that's pretty obvious for us to know." One of the Executioners rolled his eyes.
"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get after them before we completely lose them!" The Lead Executioner gestured urgently the other Executioners to follow him. Without turning back again, the Lead Executioner ran after and followed the footprints, only hearing the sounds of the other Executioners following him close behind.
Meanwhile with Juno and Josh, Juno had finally reached her hideout by that point. She managed use enough strength to look back behind her, and could see no one in sight.
She turned back towards the hideout and quickly managed to open the door, her hands fumbling on the knob. She could see a golden chain attached to a golden lock nearby with a gem like keyhole nearby attached to the door, so she dropped Josh to the floor, fumbled on the golden chain lock, and locked the door.
She then grabbed Josh's wrists and started to drag him towards the basement, where she would've gone anyways. Josh could barely make out everything that was around him, as the only thing he could make out from his vision was some type of ceiling, and he could feel his back rubbing up against a rough surface.
Juno gripped the handle on the trapdoor to the basement and pulled it upwards, and then shoved Josh down. She then went inside the basement too, grabbing the trapdoor's handle from below to ensure that no followers could manage to find them.
It was dark and very chilly in the basement, and Juno's eyesight was worsening and getting more weaker by the second. She had enough strength to drag Josh over to one side of the basement, which was to the right of the entrance, before stumbling to the other end of the basement, which was the left side.
She leaned her back against the wall and slumped down to the ground, later falling unconscious herself.
Josh didn't know what to expect.
The Executioners were still running through the forest, finding nothing in sight but some Jungle Trees and leaves.
It was after a few minutes of running did the Executioners stop to catch their breath.
"Great. We lost them!" The Lead Executioner growled, slapping the side of the blade of his axe, causing a cringing noise to be heard among the Executioners.
"That's not the least of our worries." One of the Executioners groaned. "I can't seem to find anymore footprints!"
"Neither can I!" Another Executioner stated.
"Same here!"
"Can't seem to find any footprints too!"
The Executioner growled while hearing those negative remarks. Those were remarks he was not proud and amused of.
"Let's just go back." The Lead Executioner decided.
"Go back?" A few of the Executioners said in unison.
"Yeah. We ought to find their locations and maybe send off a Flying Machine or two." The Lead Executioner explained.
"But what if that fails?" An Executioner asked.
The Lead Executioner turned towards him.
"We just can't fail."
With that, the Lead Executioner stormed off back towards the Maximum Security Prison, leaving the other Executioners behind. The Executioners looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed him.
Josh opened his eyes a few minutes later. He could definitely see everything more clearly, but it still looked a bit dark to him.
"Where the heck am I?" Josh groaned as he sat up from the hard wall he was slumped up against earlier.
He felt a bit of pain from both of his sides for some strange reason. Maybe roughness was applied to both of them earlier. He also felt slightly wet around him, dripping water around his sides. Someone wet must've handled him that roughly!
Josh shook his head, and then he got slowly got up, and looked around the dark room, which was cluttered mainly on the sides and the corners of the room.
Judging by the way this room looked, Josh assumed it was some sort of cellar or basement because of the barrels around the corners, and a couple of bags that were nearly overfilling with shiny gold. There were also a couple of other things strewn about within the area of the basement or cellar like room.
Josh minimized the chance of walking into something unexpectedly by getting up and walking slowly around the room, making sure that he was completely aware of his surroundings.
"Oh man… I really want some of that…" Josh walked slowly towards the bags of gold that were lined up and stacked upon each other. He was tempted to take a few to fill up his pockets.
But he figured whoever it was in here, they'd sure not be amused and go after him, and he'd already had enough people chasing him.
Josh noticed a trapdoor after a few more seconds of looking around in this dark room, and he was relieved. He was kind of scared of being in a dark, desolated room, alone.
Just as Josh was about to go up towards the trapdoor, he noticed a shadow slumping up against the wall. Josh gulped.
"What do I do…what do I do?!" he whispered to himself.
Josh was tempted to just leave and exit the basement, but at the same time, he was fairly curious. He did want to find out who else was inside the basement with him too.
Josh took a deep breath, and walked even closer, noticing that the shadow figured whore a hood.
Josh clenched his teeth and braced for whatever was going to come at him, but when he looked closer again, his mouth opened wide.
He was shocked.
It was the Most Valuable Player? Who out of all the other people in the realm, and it somehow was her?
"No, no, no. This can't be happening…" Josh shook his head, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't.
"How did she get here?" Josh was still shocked at what he was seeing.
Juno was still unconscious with her eyes closed, but she was starting to breathe more normally, instead of hard and rough.
Josh tried hard to remember if he could put the puzzle pieces together.
He was nearly unconscious right after he "saved" the Most Valuable Player, but he could remember himself getting picked up roughly by someone, and seeing green grass before his vision nearly faded out.
"Could she have brought me here…?" Josh knew that was possible, but he still wasn't sure if he could be certain on that.
Josh knelt down on one knee in front of Juno. He wasn't sure what to expect next, but whatever it was, he hoped it wouldn't be another stab and a kick to the chest.
"Um...hello?" Josh asked.
No answer.
"Are you awake? Um... hellooooooo?" Josh tried again, imitating his mother's voice tone. He chuckled to himself after he said that.
Josh shook Juno's shoulders he tried a few more times to wake her up.
"Uh… you awake?" Josh sighed.
Josh waited and waited and waited. It was only a few seconds in reality, but in his mind, it felt like long dragging minutes.
Josh got up and looked around the basement some more, but this time he thought about it over.
If she purposely brought him here, why? Was it some kind of trick on him?
She could've known that he could leave the basement and maybe set some kind of trap for him to get into. Or…even worser, maybe they were both in an executioner jail like basement.
But wait… something did not seem right here. If this was an Executioner Jail, why would there be gold bags around?
Josh then looked back at Juno. This was definitely her basement. She always had a mind to go after gold. And this was her hidden stash!
Josh didn't know what to do. He thought for a few more seconds and sighed, when he came to his decision.
"I guess I'm just gonna have to wait it out until I find out what she's gonna do…"
With that, Josh went over and sat down against the wall and waited, crossing his arms. His eyes started to droop though, and he could feel a dozing feeling throughout himself.
Juno didn't know what happened a few minutes later.
But when she looked around, she put it all together and started to remember, but Josh wasn't across the room though as she remembered him being there.
Juno narrowed her eyes for a split second before looking to her left, and her eyes widened.
Josh was for some reason, sleeping up against the wall next to her!
"I didn't remember leaving him there…" she mumbled to herself.
She felt of a hint of embarrassment inside of her for a few seconds before she shook it away. She got up and knew where she was headed next. The trapdoor.
She felt for some strange reason that Josh was the type of person who wouldn't give into temptations and besides, why bother?
After she left the basement, she closed the trapdoor from below her, only to carelessly close it too hard, making a loud thump. She ignored it and peeked out of the window next to the front door. No one seems to be around.
She opened the chain lock again and slowly exited the hideout.
Later, it was Josh's turn to wake up. He didn't know how long time passed since he dozed off for a second time in a row, but when he looked around, Juno wasn't there.
"Hm. Why isn't she around?" Josh said out loud to himself. He scratched his head, confused as he looked around some more, before heading back up the trapdoor too, completely forgetting about all the bags of gold that was overflowing that he was about to leave behind, and forgetting the fact that he thought this could be a bait for falling into some traps.
As he left the trapdoor behind closed, and noticed a golden chain lock dangling from the top edge of the front door.
He went over to the front window and checked out what was going on. There was nearly complete silence between the jungle trees all grouped around one another.
Josh felt unprepared without having his own weapon, but he knew he was wanted in Jungle Arena anyways. Maybe not having a weapon could be great in disguising himself as a random citizen!
Josh took a deep breath.
"I'm gonna regret this…" he groaned to himself.
He stepped out of the front door and looked around; making sure no one was watching him. There wasn't any sight of not even a single goblin.
He then ran off into the forest in a random direction he chose, hoping he would somehow manage to end off in another place, or even better, another arena.