Chapter 14 - Lost Forest

"Why is it called the Lost Forest?" Alice asked when the trio was walking towards the Fast Travel station in Highlands. As Lilith had ordered, Salvador, Zer0 and Alice had left Sanctuary immediately. They were heading at the forest near the Highlands, not knowing what to expect of the area where they have never been before.

"Because when someone goes there, they never come back", the short Gunzerker answered, his calm tone showing no signs of being concerned. "People say they get lost in the woods."

All the color disappeared from the siren's face, and Zer0 found it slightly amusing. She wasn't that good of hiding her emotions. "W-what?" Her voice was shaky, and only fool wouldn't see that she was afraid.

Salvador chuckled. "Don't worry, chica. You're not gonna disappear anywhere."

She was looking at her feet, her face burning from the embarrassment. She was the only girl in this group right now, and she didn't want look weaker than the boys. "I'm not afraid of that", she muttered haltingly.

Zer0 raised his eyebrows behind his visor. "You are not?" He asked amused, and earned a shot of glare from her.

She stared her feet again, feeling the burning fading from her face. The Fast Travel station was now only few feet away from them, and she gulped silently. "So... Have you guys ever been there?"

"Nope", they both answered in unison, which made her face turn pale again.

"Uh... Awesome", she muttered. They stood in front of the Fast Travel for a moment, waiting someone to do something. Salvador turned to look at the Assassin, his eyebrows raised.

"I'm not going to touch it", Zer0 said and pointed at the machine. "Last time it exploded."

They both heard as the Gunzerker muttered something, and went to set the right location to the Fast Travel. Alice turned to look at the Assassin her brows raised. "Wuss", She said.

"I'm not the one who is shaking in fear", he answered calmly, glancing at her. He couldn't help but smirk, when he saw as her legs were actually still shaking. "Wimp."

Alice glared at him, trying to stop his legs from shaking. She tried to think something what she could shoot back, when suddenly everything started to fade away, as the bright blue light surrounded her. She blinked couple times, until she saw clearly again. They were standing in the woods, surrounded by trees, and nothing else. She couldn't see anything else, and the sunlight was shining only slightly trough all those leaves. It wasn't that dark, but she still started shaking again. Everything seemed weird in there, like little too gray. She couldn't explain it.

"Be careful not to get eaten by a monster", Zer0 teased from next to her.

She glared at him once again, and started walking. She grabbed her Echo Recorder and felt as her skin went goose bumps, when she realized it wasn't working. The whole screen was black, and nothing happened when she tried to press different buttons.

"Where the hell do we go?" Salvador asked when he noticed the same thing. They eyed their surroundings, realizing the annoying fact; Everything looked the same, where ever they looked at.

Then Zer0 raised his hand, pointing at the direction on their left with his index finger. "There", was all he said, and it made Alice and Salvador both to squint, trying to find something what he was seeing. Well, there wasn't anything. Only those same looking trees everywhere, and they seemed like they never ended.

"Oh yeah, you have that sixth sense of yours", she muttered, and followed behind, when the Assassin took the lead. Zer0 seemed to know where to go every time when they were looking those Vault Door pieces, and Alice just didn't get that. It was like she just said; he seemed to have some weird sixth sense what no one else had. She had wanted to ask about it, but never had a chance. Every time when she was about to do it, something big happened, and they always needed to fight. Then she of course forgot the whole thing.

"Zer0..." She started, but suddenly ran into his back, as he suddenly stopped walking. She stumbled back up, and peered in front of them. She let out a sudden scream, when she saw some big guy standing few feet away from them, wearing a white hockey mask and a big machete.

"Holy mierda!" She heard Salvador's voice shouting behind her. "It's Jason!"

"It's wha-", she was cut by the machete, which this Jason guy had just threw to their direction. It would had probably hit her, if Zer0 hadn't pulled her down and made her dodge it. Zer0 immediately took out his pistol and started shooting, aiming for Jason's head, while Salvador gunzerked like maniac. But then he just disappeared all the sudden. Zer0 stopped shooting, scanning the area with a frown.

"Fuck this, I'm out!" Alice screamed hysterically, walking away. She was stopped by the same figure, who appeared directly in front of her. She let out another fearful scream, and started running away as fast as she could.

She didn't even know how long and how far she ran. The only thing she knew was, that she actually had never run that fast. She was amazed, and then a little embarrassed. Now Zer0 had a good reason to call her a chicken. She slammed his head into the closest tree, not that hard that it could even hurt her. "I'm a wuss", she muttered out of breath. She leaned her back against the tree, and looked at her surrounding, wondering where she exactly was. Everything looked as similar as before, except the fact that she was standing directly next to some big cavern's entrance. "Huh..." Her situation couldn't get any worse, so she decided to look around that place. She walked closer to the cave, and then she got a strange feeling which was telling her to turn around. She did what it told, noticing a man in black armor standing in front of her.

"Don't go there!" He shouted, looking extremely freaked out. Her eyes widened when she realized that this exact person was a blacksoldier, and aimed her gun at him. Then she noted that this soldier wasn't planning to do the same. His expression showed that he didn't even know what was going on, and who was standing in front of him, like he wasn't in this world anymore. His eyes were wide in horror, but still weren't focusing on anything. He was shaking even more than she was. She couldn't see any guns with him.

"Why?" She asked, trying to sound calm. She didn't lower her gun, when she looked inside the cave over her shoulder.

"T-there's that thing! It's evil!"

He was obviously scared of something, and it was kind of freaking the hell out of her. She turned around, and looked at the cave once again. Now she was planning to do something what she didn't like at all. She walked slowly closer to the entrance, her legs shaking. There was really dark, but she could see that there wasn't anything. "See, there's nothing", she said, but still feeling a bit unsure. She didn't even know why she wanted to calm this man, but she still tried. Maybe she was just too warmhearted.

She turned her head to look at the man, when suddenly saw something with corner of her eye. Her eyes went wide, but this time she didn't scream like then when she had seen Jason. She wanted to scream, but nothing came out of her mouth. In front of her stood a thin and very unnaturally tall man with weird long hands, who was wearing a black suit and tie. Even the fact, that he had tentacles coming from his back wasn't the scariest thing. She stood there like frozen, and couldn't look away from the white and faceless head.

"S-Slenderman!" The soldier cried, dropping onto his knees.

Slenderman stretched his tentacles towards her, trying to grab her with them. Her survival instinct took over, and a white glowing shield appeared around her, blogging the tentacles. She automatically raised her smg, and opened fire. Bullets didn't seem to affect at all, and then he suddenly disappeared. She saw as he appeared behind the kneeling soldier, stretching his tentacles, but this time towards him.

"NO!" She screamed, her left hand raising without her own will. She wasn't sure what her body was going to do, but still didn't find back. It was like in her dreams, except now she was probably able to move if she just wanted. Her hand started to glow with her own white light, and she was sure that her shield would appear around the blacksoldier. But this time it didn't. It formed around the faceless man, making her eyes wide yet again. She was just about to make it stop, when suddenly she noticed something strange. The shield was keeping the faceless man inside, while several thunderbolts appeared inside of it, blasting the Slenderman. She and the blacksoldier stared at the shield speechless, until it faded away, showing that the Slenderman was gone.

"Well, that was something new", she said shocked, looking down at her hands. She felt pretty tired, and didn't wonder why. The blacksoldier stood up, and she watched as he walked away, still looking like he wasn't in this world anymore.

Zer0 walked calmly around the forest, like nothing had happened earlier. He was kind of sure that there was something wrong with this place, and he didn't mean that they had just faced Jason Voorhees. Sure that was weird if anything else, but despite that he just had a weird feeling. He had seen a lot strange during his time in Pandora, so nothing seemed to surprise him anymore. For example, they had met the mighty Kraken in a real life, not that long ago. Everything was getting weirder and weirder, day by day.

He wandered for several minutes, which felt like forever to him, trying to find his lost comrades. They both had run away from the insane serial killer, and he hadn't seen any sights of them since then. He wasn't that worried about them, knowing how though they'll both be in a pinch. Now he was just wondering where the hell did they go. He was getting pretty frustrated soon, feeling stupid by trying to find his friends, while they still had their mission to accomplish. He continued walking, keeping his pistol leveled in his hands, in case if someone would try to attack again. The more frustrating thing was that he didn't have his sniper anymore. It had been perfect to him, and now he couldn't find any same kind of a weapon.

His search operation wasn't making any success, so he decided to go after the next Vault Door piece. He was pretty sure that he would be just fine without Salvador and Alice. He stopped walking and looked at his surroundings, waiting for any kind of sign, which could tell him where to go. And suddenly, there it was. That annoying stinging feeling on his left hand. He turned to look at left, feeling determined when it started to feel more. He continued walking, his hand stinging more and more.

You are getting closer... A sudden low and resounding voice said. He stopped walking, like he had run into a wall. He couldn't describe that voice, but it made him feel a pulsing ache in his head. It sounded like several people had said those words at the same time. It sounded evil, and demonic.

He had his pistol raised, trying find the source of the voices. He couldn't see anyone, only those same looking trees. "Who was that?" He heard his own voice calling. "Show yourself!"

Voices didn't answer, but they started laughing, thousands of demons laughing at the same time. His pulsing headache, turned into a burning pain, causing him to hold his head with his hands. Laughter stopped, but he could hear as they were still echoing.

We are nowhere, and still everywhere... they said, bringing back the burning. His gun dropped to the ground, as his legs gave way and he fell to the ground on his knees.

You don't like puzzles, don't you, Zer0...? There was another laughter, but it wasn't that long and loud. Fine, I will give you a hint. You can't see us, because we are nowhere to be seen. You can hear us, because we are closer than you think...

There was a long pause, like the voices waited him to try and guess. He didn't.

We are in your head, Zer0, and we are here to stay... Then the maniac laughter started again, every part of his brains felt like they were burning. The pain in his hand spread all over his body. He knew that those voices didn't belong to this world, there was something wrong with them.

"Get out of my head!" He heard himself screaming. All the voices were still laughing, sounding like demons. He felt like his head was going to explode, when suddenly he saw a woman standing in front of him, couple feet away. She had a short and blonde, almost golden hair, and he could see her emerald-green eyes, which were standing out with their bright glory. She was looking at him, with a sad expression, like she knew something was wrong. Like she heard them too.

"Leave him alone", she said quietly, her voice only slightly louder than whisper. She turned to look at the ground.

Zer0 frowned behind his visor. Was she talking to the voices? He wasn't sure. He felt relieved when the voices stopped all the sudden. He let out a sigh, letting his body to relax. Then he saw as the woman turned to look at him again, her eyes watering. "I know you can't see or hear me, but..." She paused and returned her gaze back to the ground. "I'm sorry." It was all what she said.

What? He thought confused. What was she talking about? He was seeing and hearing her just fine. And why she was sorry? He stood up, and before he could ask about it, she was gone. He blinked couple times, and looked around him, trying to find her again. She wasn't there anymore. Now he was left alone, confused once again. He was obviously going insane, and nothing like that was happening to other Vault Hunters. He could feel the Vault Door piece being close, and felt like his head was spinning. He took a deep breath, and heard a crack as someone stepped on a branch behind him. He spun around, his pistol immediately pointing at the direction. Alice stood there, and threw hear hands up with widened eyes.

"Whoa, Calm down!"

He lowered his gun, but didn't put it away. He wasn't feeling safe without his weaponry. "How long have you been there?" He asked, wanting to know if she had seen anything.

"I just got here. Couldn't find Salvador anywhere." She put her hands down, eyeing him carefully. "Are you okay?"

He was going to answer and lie, but just then that Slenderman appeared between them. Alice let out a loud scream, startled by the sudden appearance of the figure, and started shooting it like crazy (although she knew it wasn't going to work, but she still did it) . Zer0 was more afraid if she was accidentally going to shoot him, and the feeling got stronger even more when she closed her eyes, while still firing. Then he noticed a strange thing about the figure. All the bullets what Alice was firing, went straight through it, like she was just shooting the air. They didn't get stuck to Slenderman's body, which made him frown in confusion. It just stood there faceless, standing on top of some round and flat object - Wait, what? He walked in front of the figure, knelt down and studied the objective. It was some kind of tiny machine, and when he pressed a button on its side, the whole Slenderman was gone. He pressed it again, and Slenderman was back.

"It's a hologram", he noted, standing up.

Alice looked at him, them back at the figure, still having her gun pointed at the figure. "It's what?"

He walked next to her, and raised his hand. "Look." He was going to poke Slenderman's faceless forehead, but his finger went through it, and he could even see as the image flickered a little when he did that.

Alice stared at the hologram blankly. "Well, now I feel stupid", she muttered embarrassed. She had fought and ra away from holograms all this time, so she had a good reason to feel stupid as hell. They stood there in silence god knows how long, looking and glaring at the faceless figure.

"Bitch", Alice muttered and bitch slapped the fake Slenderman, but of course failed. She sighed, and looked at her empty smg. She had a feeling that they weren't going to need their guns anymore. At least not today. "We should go... And find Sal."

Zer0 nodded. Then they would find the person who was behind all of this nonsense. He would be more that happy to rip the person's head off.

Salvador found very uneasy to find against his foes, even when they were shorter than him. Maybe that was the problem. He of course didn't know that they weren't real. He had been wandering around the huge forest, trying to find his friends when one of those things had appeared out of nowhere.

He looked at the tiny figure who stood few feet away from him. It looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't place how. It, or more like he was few inches shorter than him, and he was wearing a purpple hat, a weird green long jacket or cloak, or what ever that thing was, and it looked too big for the poor guy.

"Hey, you! Have you seen a guy who wears a black helmet?" He asked, his accent making his English sound pretty bad. And maybe the main reason was, because he was nervous. That guy looked pretty suspicious. He just kept staring at the Gunzerker, not moving at all, making him feel uncomfortable, "A guess not... What about a blonde chica?" Short man kept staring at him in a scary way. His grip tightened on his gun.

He blinked once, and then was surprised by a six more those weird-looking midgets. They surrounded him, and started walking towards him, their hands raised. Right now they looked like some freaky midget zombies from some even more freaky fantasy movie. He raised his both shotguns and aimed at the two of them. "I warn you", he said, feeling bad about this. "I'll shoot your heads off."

They probably didn't care, and kept doing their zombie thing. Suddenly one of them dashed forward, apparently trying to hit him. He pulled the trigger without even thinking, and saw how the bullets flew through his targets.

"What the..." He pulled the trigger once more, noticing as the same thing happened again. All those weird-looking midgets kept attacking, while he kept shooting at them. Some of them disappeared, and then appeared again somewhere, keeping him pretty busy.

Unfortunately for Salvador, he hadn't noticed the white-haired siren and the Assassin, who were standing on a side, few feet away from him. They stood next to each other, while watching the epic fight between those midgets and Salvador, not saying a thing. Zer0 eyed the area, searching for those tiny hologram devices, which they had seen earlier. There was few on the trees, and rest of them seemed to be on the ground. Then they just stood there for couple more minutes, watching the fight between fake midgets and Salvador, both more than a lot amused. Gunshots were breaking the silence, and they both had to dodge couple bullets that Salvador shot accidentally to their direction.

"Hey, aren't those the Dwarfs from the Snow White?" Alice asked frowning. She didn't have any idea of how she even knew that. Apparently she just remembered stuff, but unfortunately the most important things were hiding behind the imaginary hazy curtain.

It was hilarious how Salvador hadn't figured out yet, that those midgets weren't even real. Salvador was gunzerking and running away from them at the same time, and they followed him like a ghosts, always appearing in front of him. So he probably was just too busy to figure it out.

When Zer0 didn't answer, Alice turned to look at him, and found him holding his Echo Recorder, and pointing its back at the fight. Then she heard a sound, like someone had photographed, and a tiny flash came from the back of the device. Zer0 looked at the picture what he had just taken, and a proud smiley emoticon flashed on his visor. Alice hadn't even known that those things had a camera. She looked at the picture of Salvador, who was screaming and jumping into air and shooting the midgets at the same time, desperate look on his face.

"Should we tell him?" She asked and turned to look at the Gunzerker, who had landed on his ass.

Zer0 seemed to think about this for a ten seconds. Then he took out his pistol and aimed at the little machine on the ground, which was perfectly next to Salvador's feet. He pulled the trigger, and the tiny machine exploded, making the Gunzerker jump by the surprise. He turned to look at them with a deep frown, forgetting the attacking midgets. Alice went to shoot the other devices, while his mouth dropped open.

"They were just a machines?!" He almost screamed.

"Holograms", Zer0 corrected, sounding calm as usually. Salvador let out a several curse words, some of them weren't familiar to Zer0 at all. Then he let out more of them, and now he wasn't even sure if he was speaking the same language anymore.

"Hey guys, what is this?" Alice interrupted, and pointed at the ground. Zer0 walked next to her and looked down, seeing two tire tracks on the sand. They all looked at each other, and then started following the tracks. Salvador was heard to mutter more those Spanish curses on their way. Those tracks snaked a lot, made frustrating circles, until it finally ended in front of the entrance of the same big cavern, that Alice had seen earlier. The next spot looked like someone had fallen to the ground, and then the tracks continued to deeper in the cave.

"Uh, not this place again..." Alice whispered to herself. She was about to start walking forward, when she was startled by the hand on her shoulder. She bit her tongue, to not let out the yelp which she felt was rising from her throat. She looked at her side, and saw four glowed fingers placed on her shoulder, and then the owner of them. Zer0's other hand holding his sword's hilt, while his visor staring deeper in the cave, and Alice could feel how tensed he was.

"What?" She whispered. Salvador gave her a questionable glance.

"We are not alone", he answered calmly, too calmly in Alice's opinion. She and Salvador both drew out their guns, pointing them to the same direction.

"Lead the way", Alice demanded confidently.

Zer0 said nothing, just grabbed his pistol with his other hand, leveled it and started walking towards the voices that only he could hear. The stinging sensation came back, and it made him tighten his grip. That meant that he was also getting closer to the next Vault Door piece. He was hearing some weird whirling sound and talking, but they were muffled, so he couldn't hear clearly.

Oh my god, this is going to be perfect... He heard as the voices in his head said. He frowned, and saw a slight light coming from the end of the tunnel. What? He asked and mentally kicked himself because of that. He was hearing voices in his head, and all he wanted was them to go away, and now he was making conversation with them.

You'll see... the voices answered, sounding amused. He decided to ignore them, trying to avoid the headache what he had suffered earlier. He had hoped that those voices were coming from the same source as those holograms, but now he very much doubted it.

They still kept their guns raised and ready, when they arrived at the end of the tunnel, seeing a huge room in front of them. There was one big table against the wall, a big old-looking computer on top of it, and a several flat screen monitors above it, showing a video surveillance from the forest. Everything was surrounded by those dark and stony walls, and a yellow tiny robot was wheeling in the middle of the room. Salvador's and Alice's eyes went wide, and the letters WTF were displaying on Zer0's visor.

"Where did they go? Oh, well they ran away, of course. My mighty plan was obviously too much for my poor minions." They hear as Claptrap muttered. He let out a bombastic laugh, which made him sound like a total lunatic. He turned to look at himself in the mirror. "Oh, you're as genius as handsome - GAH!" He jumped in the ear, startled by the Vault Hunter,s when he noticed their reflections behind him in the mirror. He rolled around, and looked at them. "M-minions! You startled me!"

They all still had their weapons raised, and they didn't feel like lowering them. "What the fuck are you doing, Claptrap?" Alice asked coldly.

He glanced the monitors behind him nervously. "I, uh... I was doing.. Experiment.. But hey, we are friends, are we? Just chill, and put your guns... Somewhere", he asked with a hopeful tone. They stayed still, and didn't show any signs of lowering their weapons. "... Or don't..."

"What kind of experiment?" Alice asked frustrated.

When Claptrap didn't answer, Zer0 pressed his pistol's firing pin down. The sound made Claptrap jump again, and he raised his robot hand into air. "O-okay, I'll tell you everything!" He shouted frightened. "Just don't shoot!"

"What kind of experiment?" Alice repeated.

"I-I-I... I found these.. Monitors and accidentally touched something, and then those holograms just appeared! First I was scared, but then I realized they weren't even real..." He chuckled nervously. Funny thing that even a robot could be that nervous. "Then I had a great idea, and I mean a great idea, when I saw those men in those black helmets and things through the surveillance cameras.. I used and moved those holograms with this computer looking thing." He pointed at the old looking computer, which was below the several monitors. "It was hilarious, I can't even remember when I've laughed that much!"

"YOU PENDEJO!" Salvador screamed furiously all the sudden, and loaded his shotguns. "It was all your doing! I'm going to rip your -" He looked like he was ready to shoot, but then Zer0 put his hand on his shoulder to calm him.

This is almost too funny... The voices in Zer0's head said, laughing madly. He tried his best to ignore it, but it was pretty hard thing to do. "What you meant, when you said you saw those men with black helmets?" He asked calmly.

Salvador seemed to calm a little, and lowered his guns, but only an inch. Claptrap in other hand looked like he was going to pass out, if robots even could do such a thing. His whole robot body was shaking in fear, and he had been quite sure that his own minion was going to kill him. "I-I-I... I... You know, those.. New bad guys? I.. I saw as they were walking in the woods and stuff..."

"I saw one of them too. He was kinda freaking me out", Alice said.

This made Zer0 frown. If those blacksoldiers were after the next Vault Door piece, they needed to hurry. "Did you see where went?" This is getting interesting...

Claptrap nodded... Or at least it looked like he nodded. He moved in front of the computer, typed couple words, and then a video footage appeared on the screen. They looked at the seven soldiers who were lying on a ground, looking pretty dead. They all had bullet holes all over their body. "They shot each other. I think it was an accident", they heard as Claptrap said thoughtfully.

Huh, well it seemed that Claptrap had been useful after all. At least at once. Look at that table... The voices said with its annoying demonic voice, making Zer0's head feel like it would explode. He wanted to ignore it, but his curiosity won. He turned his head at the direction, looking at the only table in room. That old-looking computer laid on it, like he had seen before. Everything seemed normal, except one thing; there was a large, black jigsaw puzzle looking thing and its white trails glowed at the same pace as human heart. His eyes widened, and he looked at Claptrap in disbelief.

"Where did you find that?" He asked, keeping his voice monotone, while walking in front of the table. He felt as his headache started to pulsating, knowing that he would probably suffer from migraine soon. Alice grabbed the Vault Door piece, and glared at it annoyed.

"It was here all the time. I knew it was something big, so I took care of it", Claptrap answered proudly.

Zer0 nodded. They had came here for nothing, when someone had already found that pain in the ass, but he didn't care. At least they didn't need to fight for it this time. He wanted to go as far as possible from that thing. He knew he was hearing these voices because of it, although he didn't know why. "All right then. Can you contact Angel?"

"Sure thing, minion!" Claptrap, who looked a lot more cheerful than earlier, turned to face the computer again. Then after few seconds they heard some voices, like someone was speaking to someone.

"Angel?" Alice called.

They heard footsteps, as someone walked towards the microphone. "You found the piece?" Was all what Angel asked, not even bothering to say hello first.

"Yeah... We kinda did.." Alice answered muttering.

"Good, because I have something.. - what?" They heard a long pause, until she continued, sounding annoyed, "..Okay, what I meant to say... Vincent has something to you.." Then they heard a soft frustrated muttering. "We'll land this city somewhere in Highlands. See you soon."

Claptrap clapped his hands together, looking totally excited all the sudden. "Ah, Sanctuary. I haven't been there for a while. I think I'll come with you, minions, just to make sure that you are doing your business properly. Hey, I know! I'll throw a party! I'll invite all my friends, and we'll eat pizza and dance and..."

Alice stared at the talkative robot, rubbing her temples and thinking different ways to silence him. Even this robot's voice was sounding annoying, and she didn't know how long she could live with him. "He's coming with us?" She asked Zer0, sounding almost desperate.

"Yes, he is", the Assassin next to her answered calmy.

"Does he ever shut up?"

"No, he doesn't."

"I think I wanna kill myself", She said, now sounding almost like panicking.

"Touché."