Yo, time for chapter 8. This one will be quite interesting, if you ask me. Now, I already have this whole story idea in my head, or at least, the frame of it. I'm not going to tell you it, but... I'll tell you that Joey does get out of the sanctuary, eventually. I'm keeping things at that. Now, on with the chapter!
Joey was walking down the trail. He was also nibbling on a dried apple, and taking small sips of water out of a canteen.
It had been a couple of hours since he started walking the trail, but things seemed grim. Even though he was feeling down, the food did help him a bit. But he knew he shouldn't eat at a time like this.
He put the canteen back in his backpack and finished the apple, savoring every bit of it. It may have been healthy, but it was better than nothing. He decided he should start trying to call for the others.
"Yuugi! Triisten! Teea!" he called.
Then it hit him. He hadn't seen them for days. They were either out... or dead. He sighed, slumping against an oak tree. He then suddenly stood up straight, turned, and started at the tree. An oak tree in the middle of a jungle! There was something REALLY wrong going on here...
He then realized that, beyond the tree, was a more forest region. He sighed. Good, more protection in forestry. He was getting tired of the jungle area anyway. But what he really wondered was... where were all the snakes?
Suddenly, the sound of a twig snapping caught his ears. He ran into the forest, looking around frantically.
"Yug? Tris? Tea? Someone?" he asked into the trees. There was silence, but after a moment... a small, scared voice spoke up.
"...Joey?" Joey immediately turned in the direction of the voice. The tone and sound of the voice was like music to his ears. Ahead of him stood the spiky-haired duelist, a frown played on his face, but slight hope shining in his eyes.
"Yugi!" Joey exclaimed, his eyes brightening as well. Yugi's face twisted to a smile.
"Joey! You're okay!" the two ran and tackled each other in a 'guy' hug (A/N: if you know what I mean lol). The two laughed.
"Where are Tea and Tris?" Joey asked quickly. Yugi blinked, but the smile stayed.
"They're right nearby," he said. Joey's heart was rising out of the darkness. But it didn't stay far from the darkness. Not only had seeing his friends meant that they were alright and unharmed, but it also meant that they still hadn't found a way out, and that they were still in danger.
"Then take me to them! I have a tree house we can stay at for a while!" Joey grinned. Yugi nodded. He led Joey some ways into the forest. Before long, he spotted Tea and Tristen. The two brunettes were sitting on the ground, Indian style. They each had depressed looks, but when Joey came into their view, their faces brightened.
"Joey!" the two both exclaimed in unison. "You're alright!" Joey nodded.
"C'mon you guys, I have some things for you," first, he pulled the backpack off of his back and set it in front of him. He pulled out some of the dried fruit and the two canteens of water. "You all have to be ravished. Please, drink, eat, build some strength.." the two looked amazed at Joey. He was offering food to them, instead of eating it all himself? Dire times do change people's personalities.
Regardless, they took the food and water. They ate little, and drank little, to save up. They left half of the fruit, and a whole canteen of water. Joey nodded, slinging the backpack with the food over his shoulder.
"Now, c'mon. I have a tree house we can stay at," the others' eyes sparkled as they looked at Joey. They all followed him as he led them back to the trail in the jungle.
At nightfall, the four reached the tree house. They climbed the ladder, and upon entering, Tea screamed.
Before them lay a skeleton. Joey could only feel pain coarse through his body.
Professor Greenbloom was dead. Joey sighed, setting the backpack down and throwing the skeleton out one of the windows. Tea was standing, hugging herself tightly, her eyes closed, tears running down her cheeks. Joey frowned, looking at her.
"Tea, it's alright... that was just... this scientist..."
"We're next, I know it," was her reply. Joey growled, shaking his head.
"No, Tea. I have this... 'power' if that's what you could call it," he said. They all looked at him with strange expressions.
"What do you mean, Joey?" Yugi asked his friend.
"How do you think I got away from those Komodo Dragons? It was my hand. They smelled it, and ran off. On my way through the area looking for you, I came across an Anaconda. It took one whiff of my hand and was off in the trees. I haven't seen a snake since my run-in with the Anaconda, which was... either yesterday, or days ago. So trust me. This hand is somehow keeping all the snakes away," he said. He hadn't exactly known how long he had been out within the interval of passing out crying in the ground, and when he met Professor Greenbloom in this tree house.
Joey threw the backpack towards them. His lips curved into a soft smile as they looked at him with confused faces.
"You need it more than me," he said. The three exchanged glances. There was the sounding of a soft sob from Tea. She had tears in her eyes that were just starting to run down her cheeks.
"Joey, we were so worried about you... all of us thought you died... but... here you are, alive... and even offering us food! We can take this, we've been horrible friends. We left you back there, and we felt horrible for it. Joey, please, you keep it. You need it more," Tea looked up at Joey with her glistening blue eyes. "Please, Joey." Joey sighed softly, shaking his head.
"I told you guys to leave me. Besides, I thought one of you was dead too... I found a skeleton nearby. Do you know what that means?" he asked them. Yugi blinked at Joey.
"What... does it mean?"
"It means that, there are two more passengers besides us that haven't been killed yet, or that we don't know have been killed yet. And it's most likely that they either were killed or are going to be, and that just means that we're going to be the only survivors," Joey said.
"How do you know we're going to be survivors, Joey?" Tristen whispered.
Silence filled the tree house. Joey, along with the others, stared at Tristen.
"Tristen. Why are you such a pessimist?" Joey asked him. "Why is it that you have to ruin our attempts at optimism? Why, Tristen? I don't see why you're always looking at the worst. I understand we're in a very difficult situation, and it is likely that we might die. But you don't have to say it. At least we can sit around and believe that we'll make it out," a slight glare was put in his eyes, directed toward Tristen. The male brunette stood.
"Don't you see!" He exclaimed. "We're going to die, here! Can't you tell? If we haven't found out a way now, a week into this place, and they haven't sent in help, do you really think we're getting out of here anytime soon? I don't! And we're obviously going to starve to death because I don't see you havin' any food, Joey!" they just stared at Tristen. This was not like him.
True, dire situations made people not themselves. And they did also make people insane, thinking it was impossible for survival, and that they were afraid of the thought, so they spoke it. And in this case, this was how Tristen acted.
"Tristen..." Joey started, shaking his head. He walked over and kneeled in front of the brunette. "Tristen, I understand how you're feeling right now," he said, with a completely serious face. "But you must not lose hope, as Yami would say. You must'nt lose hope, and... look, you're scaring Tea and Yugi... Tristen, please, understand... we need to believe we're getting out of here as much as possible. If we don't, then... we might not..." Joey looked down. Tristen stared at the blonde, until finally he got up and stepped back a bit, sitting in the corner.
Joey sighed, seeing he wasn't going to agree, but wasn't going to go on about how they were going to die here. He turned to Yugi and Tea and smiled.
"So, you two going to eat or just sit there? I'm sure this professor had some more food hiding out in here somewhere," he said. He looked up, seeing that there was a large board just spread across the top. He blinked, climbing up a ladder that was there.
As he got up into the upper area, he marveled. There was a ton of food. Dried fruits, canteens of water, canned foods. He looked down.
"You guys... we're gonna live for quite some time," he started passing down food to the others, who gasped and shouted for joy.
They all sat around, their stomachs finally full. They hadn't felt like this in a while, but it was nice. Joey packed a bunch of the food and water into his backpack, and into three other backpacks. He had found them up there with all the food. He looked at the others, seeing Tristen dozing off, and Tea and Yugi still eating. He smiled. Maybe their fortune would finally change. He picked up the backpacks, walking over and setting them with their respective owners.
"Tomorrow we'll go look for the way outta here. We don't find it? We come back. And if we don't find it, we'll go the other way, and go out the way we came," Joey said, sitting down with a slight sigh.
"But... Joey, it took us days to get there from here..." Yugi mumbled. Joey shrugged.
"Then let it take us days to get back. As long as we get outta here... everything'll be cool," the others all nodded. Joey's hand suddenly started pulsing again. He grabbed it, and looked around. Yugi, noticing, picked up a canteen and threw it to Joey. Joey quickly unscrewed the top and poured it over the wound. It instantly stopped pulsing.
"Shoot," he said, unwrapping the bandage. He slowly unwrapped it, though, like something would jump out at him if he didn't. As he removed the bandage and set it aside, he sighed, the hope in his eyes flickering out like a candle.
The mark now covered his entire hand, fingers and all. It spread down his wrist some ways. It was all a purple-ish black.
Tea and Yugi cringed at the sight.
"That's horrible..." Tea mumbled. Joey nodded slowly, picking up the bandage and wrapping it back around his hand. As he did so, he layed back and closed his eyes.
"Alright, we all need to sleep. We need to sleep so we can get a good head-start tomorrow," the others all nodded, and soon they were all asleep.
Joey suddenly sat up. He looked around a bit frantically, forgetting where he was. Suddenly he remembered the whole sanctuary thing, and the fact that he was still stuck in the tree house sank in deeper. He looked around at his friends and smiled. They were all sleeping peacefully. He glanced at his watch. It still seemed dark, but his watch read eight o' clock. He muttered under his breath and got up, going into the attic to fetch some food for a breakfast.
Joey took down some food, putting it in the lower level. He started to make something out of the food, like a little breakfast for them. A 'victory' breakfast. For when they got out. He wanted to keep everyone's hopes up, even though escape seemed impossible. He got some canteens of water and set them around the breakfast he made. He got up and went to sit out on the small balcony.
He stared out at the jungle. It was strange, he had only seen images like this in books or on movies. It was weird actually being there, and he felt as though he wasn't in Domino at all. Even though he knew in his mind that he was, he felt that he wasn't, and couldn't push the thought,
'Would it be weird if we had somehow been transported to a real forest...?' of course, he could definitely never shake the thought that something weird was going on, because weird things were constantly happening with them, so he couldn't dismiss the thought. But think. Wouldn't it be just... so weird? Like, it would surpass all the other weird things that have happened in his lifetime, Battle City, Duelist Kingdom, the Millennium Items. None of it would compare being transported into a jungle from a sanctuary that carried man-eating snakes.
He then heard some shuffling within the tree house and turned. Yugi was starting to sit up, and he rubbed his eyes, blinking, looking around. Joey smiled at his friend who had seemed to forgotten their situation as well. As he awoke, the others started to stir as well, and then they saw the breakfast layed out in front of them.
Joey wandered back into the tree house, sitting in front of the breakfast. The others crawled over. Even though they were still pretty full from the meal last night, they ate plentiful; they knew they were going to need it. Plus, they thought Joey had probably worked hard to make them breakfast. Although, they all ate silently, not daring to speak of their journey ahead.
Soon they all finished, and Joey stood walking over and grabbing his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. Surprisingly, Tea broke the silence spell,
"Guys... if one of us gets attacked... or we don't make it out... I wanted to say... that you guys are my all-time best friends, and I'm glad that my last time would be with you," the other males blinked, but nodded.
"Yeah," they all replied.
This was it.
Would they get out, or would they all die?
This was where the answers would come.
Ta-daa! Done. So, what did you think? TELL ME! Oo