Joe woke up to an itching feel on his face. At first, he was too groggy to try to brush the feeling away, but the feeling became so irritating that he had to move his aching arm to brush whatever was on his face off his face.
When he waved his arm wearily on the side of his face, he heard a buzzing noise follow, and the noise slowly became softer, showing that whatever was on his face had flown away.
At first, he wanted to sleep for a little longer, but something was really bothering him. His whole body ached a lot, and a few parts of him hurt, but not bad enough that it felt like something broken. He just knew he had some bruises, but from what? His curiosity got the best of him, and he decided to open one of his eyes to a slit.
He groaned when he saw a pile of black soot in front of his face. The black pile still had small lines of gray smoke coming from it, telling him that someone had lit a fire near him and it had gone out not more than an hour ago.
His first thoughts were that he must be at camp with his father and Frank, and that couldn't be possible because he first wasn't in a tent, second wasn't in a sleeping bag, third, his clothes felt damp, and lastly his throat hurt a lot. Actually a lot of him hurt a lot, but his throat felt like it had been slashed and then ripped apart.
Groaning as he pushed himself up, Joe looked around his surroundings with one eye in squinting and one open in his attempt to fully wake up. He rubbed his eyes to try to wipe the residue of sleep away before unconsciously rubbing his sore throat. It looked like someone else had been there other than him, because he could see a part of the ground was pressed down beside him like someone was sitting there.
The thought that someone was watching him sleep scared him a lot, but then again it could have been Frank or his dad or both. Actually, both were unlikely seeing that he could only locate one set of foot prints, but then again, why was he left alone?
He then remembered his fall.
The river! He had fallen, but who had pulled him out and then tried to dry him out? It couldn't have been anyone dangerous if they person was trying to save him.
"Hhhh..HHhh.." Joe tried to speak, the pain was unbearable.
The thought of not being able to talk at the moment, or yell if he heard someone calling for him…. or SCREAM if someone was after him… not good. He can't panic. The worst case scenario is if he lost control of his nerves and he did something really stupid.
Rustle Rustle
Joe gasped, he heard something. He wasn't hearing things. That was one part of him that was working correctly, and he heard something big.
Turning from side to side, trying to scope out the intruder, he saw someone or something with a lot of hair.
Was it a bear? No it was too lean and too small. There it was again.
He saw a flash of skin, and that got him to slowly move to a crouching position. He couldn't be caught off guard.
The next thing he knew, something very long and very sharp whizzed by him while slicing right past his right arm.
The red that was seeping down his arm was the only thing he needed to register the part of his brain that screamed, RUN!
"Frank, you okay there?" Fenton said as he continued to support Frank while trying to walk through the dense forest.
"Yeah." Frank grimaced.
His ankle bothered him some, but it wasn't too bad as long as he didn't try to but his full weight on it.
Frank flicked his head up and became eerily quiet all of a sudden.
"Fran..?"
"Shhh…" Frank said softly and slowly.
There it was.
"Dad, I hear water!" Frank said excitedly.
Finally, he could get something cold on his ankle.
Fenton stopped to try to hear what Frank was hearing, and became just as excited when he too heard the rush sound of probably a river.
"I hear it too! WHOOPAH! Success!" Fenton yelled out as he jumped into the arm with one of those leprechauns, shoe-tapping jumps.
"Dad? Are you all right?" Frank asked with a look of amusement on his face.
"Well think about it Frank, we found water and people thrive on water…"
"And where there's water, somewhere must be people!" Frank said as he realized what his dad was getting at.
"If we follow the river either way, we must have to reach somewhere with civilization." Fenton said as he again put his arm under Frank's arm to support him towards the direction of the river that they heard.
When they reached the river side, Fenton slowly put Frank down to sit on a log.
Fenton pulled his arms into his many sweaters and pulled out his t-shirt. Walking to the river's edge, he put his t-shirt into the water and wrung it dry before giving the damp t-shirt to Frank.
"Thanks." Frank said as he gently laid the cold cloth on his semi-throbbing ankle.
It took a minute or two, but the cold sensation started to numb the throb to something almost non-existent if he didn't moved his ankle around.
He watched his dad as his dad scanned the area around him.
Frank felt like he was such dead-weight. His dad could have gone so much further if he didn't have to drag him around with his bum leg.
"Dad…" Frank said sadly. "Maybe you should go and see if there's help without me. You'll find help much faster without having to help me walk."
Fenton frowned in anger and Frank saw something thing he's never seen his dad do, his dad was crying.
"Frank, I'm not leaving you behind."
"But Dad…"
"Frank, I don't know where my youngest son is, and I don't want to not know where my first born is."
"But Dad, I'll be right here…"
"NO FRANK! Don't you understand? Someone deliberately separated all of us, and I was lucky to find you. I'm not going to lose you to you got that?" Fenton said as he turned around away from Frank
He didn't want Frank to know that his father was so raveled about this. He had to keep strong.
"When you've rested, we'll continue."
"Dad…" Frank said wide-eyed.
"I said that's enough!" Fenton yelled, more out of worry than of anger.
"No Dad… look." Frank said as he pointed at the water.
Floating in the stream was a hat with BHS on it that resembled Joe's Bayport High School cap.
Fenton ran towards the stream before leaning over to grab the cap from the river's grip. He then turned the cap around to the inside rim of the hat where he hoped the thing he was looking for wouldn't be.
Joseph Paul Hardy
I warned them. OH how I warned them, but they kept coming. Why won't they LEAVE ME ALONE? Why? Is it so hard… why… I didn't mean to do the things I did… I just had to. I'm sorry. Sorry I'd have to do those things again, and this time I won't miss.
Okay
so I finished another one! LOL! You people must be surprised in the
sudden updates. Well I don't know, I just started writing instead of
questioning everthign I wrote, so every chapter took me less than 2
hours to write. Hope you like it! AND AGAIN! PLEASE REVIEW! This lack
of reviews are kinda bumming me down seeing how there are soooo many
hits and sooo little reviews. I know some of you are going to my
chapter page more than once, but like 200 hits and like 2 reviews or
something? Someone isn't reviewing here :( . Well thank you
THIS much for reviewing
everyone! And I hope to work on my grammer issues, but I get so
excited on updated to get a beta reader or to re-read myself. Well
THANK YOU AGAIN! Check soon to see what's up with this CRAZY story
lol. You will never guess. :)
Love Always,
Lgbabyblu
