CHAPTER 3 - RATS

Zack readjusted his backpack. It wasn't particularly heavy, but the straps were digging into his shoulders. He looked to his brother. Cody was silently heaving the weight of the far heavier pack. If it was bothering him, he was showing no sign of it. Zack looked from his brother to the horizon. He'd expected after a few minutes of walking, they'd see something other than the endless green grass and blue sky. He sighed at this unfortunate revelation.

"What's wrong?" Cody asked. Zack was surprised at his brother's dexterity. His voice wasn't even strained. How was he easily lifting all of the food? "Is it your leg?" Cody looked to Zack's shin. Zack's leg was still bothering him. It would twinge with each step that he took. If Cody was toughing it out, Zack would have to do the same.

"Still good, Cody! If it gets bad, I'll tell you." He pointed to the horizon. "I figured we'd have seen something by now." He was eager to change the subject

"Same." Cody agreed. "At least the sun is moving." He wiped sweat from his brow. He noticed the dumbfounded look on Zack's face. He chuckled. "It means time is happening. Wherever we are, at least it's a place that revolves around a sun, and the fact that the sun is moving in the sky, means there will likely be a nightfall. We'll be able to separate our time into days."

"Dork," Zack said reflexively. He went back to looking at the horizon. He was frustrated at the situation. He accepted that Cody was smarter than he was. Cody applied himself to learn as much as he could. Zack preferred to be street smart, and more physically capable. With his leg injury, he didn't even have that going for him.

For the next hour, the twins said nothing to each other. Cody would occasionally look to Zack, wanting to say something, but he couldn't pick the right words. He could tell Zack was struggling. He was toughing out his injury. Zack would never admit that he was seriously hurt, and his pride had taken a hit when Cody took the heavier load from the hotel. With each step Zack was trying to place his weight evenly to avoid a limp. Cody wanted to inspect his brother's leg for himself and see if there was anything he could do. He didn't have any medical abilities, but he could probably figure out something to help comfort Zack.

"What's that?" Zack finally said. Cody squinted at the horizon. He nearly jumped for joy. It looked like tree tops. "You see it too?" Zack asked. "It's not one of those fake, what-do-you-call-'ems?" He was trying to get the word out, but likely didn't know it.

"Mirage, and no, it's not. I see it too!" There was a look of relief on Zack's face. "We can rest when we reach them. Zack nodded in agreement. Cody let out a sigh of relief. Had the brothers walked for much longer without a change in scenery, their journey would have likely become more contentious.

It didn't take long to reach the trees. The two brothers laid the packs down beside a massive oak tree. Zack sat in the grass next to the trunk. He leaned against it. He seemed at ease. Cody sat next to his brother, and leaned against the tree as well.

"Hungry?" Cody asked reaching into the bag.

"Yeah, what have we got?" He asked peering into the bag. Cody pulled a box of Ritz crackers and two water bottles. He tore open the box and pulled out a sleeve of crackers. He handed it to Zack along with the bottle. He accepted him but a scowl crossed his face. "Is this a joke?"

"No. I had to take stuff that didn't require us to cook it, and could be easily eaten. Mom didn't keep a lot in the suite." Zack frowned as he opened up the sleeve and shoved the disappointing morsel in his mouth.

"You think Mom's okay? Has she been walking in this field for hours too? What if she chose a different direction from us?" Zack asked multiple good questions, that Cody couldn't respond to. Cody wondered about what had happened to the other residents and employees of the Tipton Hotel. They hadn't come across anyone yet. Cody took a swig from the water bottle and poured some of the water over his head. The warm water still felt refreshing against his skin. The sun had beating down on him for hours, and it wasn't exactly kind to people of the Martin brother's complexion.

"This is Arwin's fault, right?" Cody finally said. Zack shrugged. "I mean, his invention explodes, we end up here. He said it would change the world."

"You think he invented a teleporter?" Zack asked with a smile. "That'd be dumb."

"Maybe, but what else could it be?" Cody responded. Zack had no answer for this, so he just stuffed a few more crackers in his mouth.

From behind them, the twins heard a strange scratching noise. The two boys looked at each other to confirm they were both hearing the odd noise. Cody stood up and looked behind the tree they were sitting at.

"Zack, I want you to slowly stand up and back away from the tree." Zack saw the worry in Cody's eyes. He did as he was told. Moving slowly to his feet caused his leg to sear in pain. He grimaced as he got to a standing position. He slowly joined his brother and peered behind the tree.

"No way," Zack gasped as he saw a massive rat, thirty feet from where they stood. "Do you think it smelled the food," he whispered. Cody nodded. "I've seen some rats on the green line, but I've never seen them that big before." Zack was fascinated by the giant rat. Cody grabbed the back of his shirt, holding him back.

"We should stay away from it," Cody murmured. The beast's beady red eyes made contact with theirs. The two boys instinctively backed off. The rat scurried over to them, and begin sniffing the backpacks.

"It's going to take our food," Zack said into Cody's ear. "What do we do? Is it even possible to scare that thing off?" Cody eyed the kitchen knife Zack had placed next to his bag. "I've got an idea." Cody started to move away from Zack. "I'm gonna distract the rat. You grab the knife." Zack looked to where the knife was.

"What if that thing bites you? You could get rabies or something!" Zack stopped Cody from getting further away

"Don't be stupid. You're injured. It makes more sense for you to get the weapon!"

"I told you I was fine! Besides, if this thing bites you, we'd both be injured. Now go get the knife!" Zack angrily pulled Cody out of the way. "I'm way more distracting anyway." Zack has a wild smile on his face as he moved further apart from Cody. "Look at me you ugly rat!" Zack called. The rat's red eyes focused on Zack's noisemaking. It kept one paw on the food bag, as a means of protection. The rat was the size of a golden retriever. Zack made note of the beast's large front teeth. He didn't want to guess how sharp they were. He watched Cody just outside of his periphery. He'd made it to the knife. Zack increased his noisemaking. The rat started to arch it's back, it was defending what it thought was it's territory. It never heard Cody.

Cody struck the knife into the rat's backside as hard as he could. The creature roared in agony. In it's thrashing it threw Cody off, with incredible power. Cody hit the tree and landed with a sickening thud. He still held the knife in his hand. The distressed rat turned its attention to the aggressor that had stabbed it.

"Cody!" Zack reached for his brother as he ran. A strange blue aura enveloped Zack's hand, and a matching one was around Cody.

Cody looked up at the rat bearing down on him. He clutched the kitchen knife in his hand and thrust it as hard as he could toward the rat. He closed his eyes and hoped for the best. If he did enough damage to the rat, it might buy Zack enough time to escape. He felt himself be enveloped by a strange sensation. He opened his eyes and he was surrounded by a blue aura. It gave him renewed strength. He put more power behind his thrust and watched it enter into the rat's forehead. The creature vanished in a puff of gray smoke. When the smoke dissipated, three pieces of gold lay on the ground. Cody looked to his twin. Zack still stood with his hand out. The blue aura had disappeared from both of them.

"What was that?" Zack asked in disbelief. "I just…" He stared at both of his hands. "Did you see that blue stuff too?"

"Yeah, I did." Cody remained on the ground, staring at the gold nearby. "You saw that rat vanish into smoke, right?"

"Yeah, I did." Zack confirmed. He helped Cody to his feet. "What is this place?" Zack asked.

"Still have no idea," Cody said as he picked up the pieces of gold on the ground. He held them up to his eyes for inspection. "How did you do...what you did?" Cody asked.

"I dunno. I just saw you in danger and I reached out. Then...that happened."

"It made me stronger. I could feel more power behind my knife swing."

"Can you do that too?" Zack asked. Cody shrugged, but he held his hand out. No aura came the extremity. He tried thrusting it multiple times, but nothing happened each time. Cody frowned. "Let me see if I can do it again." Zack extended his arm and the blue aura surrounded his hand, and Cody. The two looked shocked.

"How are you doing that?" Cody asked, his jaw dropped.

"I think it has to do with what I'm thinking. I was thinking about saving you when I did it before, so I did it again! It works!" Zack was beaming with pride. Cody extended his own hand again, but to no avail. He scratched his head.

"But i'm thinking the same thing." He was disappointed that he didn't have a special power like Zack, but the two had more pressing concerns. If there were more giant rats in this forest, the two were in for a much more difficult journey than they had anticipated. "In any case, we should grab the packs and keep moving. I don't want to stick around and wait for more rats."

"Good point," Zack said. He began his jog to get the packs, when his leg gave out. Zack yelled in pain as he crumpled to the ground. Both hands immediately clutched his leg. His adrenaline had subsided, and the pain he'd been ignoring was now front and center. Cody ran to his side. Zack was taking quick breaths.

"Easy, Zack," Cody said patting his brother's back. "Take deep breaths, or you'll hyperventilate." Zack obeyed. "I'm gonna take a look at it." Cody reached for Zack's pant leg, but he rolled out of the way.

"Stop it! It's fine! Just give me a minute!" He yelled.

"Quit acting like this, just let me see how bad it is!" Cody yelled back. Zack kept fighting. Cody had tried to keep his composure, but his frustrations had been mounting all day. He didn't know where he was, and it didn't seem like a real place. Now, Zack was injured and wouldn't accept any help. He couldn't keep it in anymore. He lurched at Zack, and pinned his shoulders to the ground. Zack grunted and tried to knock Cody off, but had no luck.

"Get off me!" he shouted. Cody held him down. Ordinarily, Cody could never overpower

Zack. Zack was surprised. There was nothing wrong with his core, or upper body strength. Why couldn't keep Cody from pinning him? Even Cody seemed surprised at his ability to keep Zack suppressed.

"I just want to help! Let me take a look at your leg, and maybe I can try to make it hurt less," Zack's face turned red from embarrassment. Cody wondered if it was from a realization that he was throwing a tantrum, or that he had been pinned by his physically weaker twin. Zack stopped struggling and looked off to the side. Cody released the pressure from his brother's shoulders. He removed Zack's sneaker and carefully rolled up Zack's pant leg.

"You done this before, Dr. Dork?" Zack asked. At least his sense of humor was back. He had gotten himself to a seated position.

"No, but I don't want to hurt your leg anymore, so I'm being cautious." Cody finished rolling at Zack's knee. His shin was in awful condition. It had bruised horribly, covering Zack's skin in a purplish hue.

"Cool," Zack said, looking at his wound.

"Well, I'm not a doctor, but it doesn't look broken," Cody said.

"So, you can't do anything about it?" Zack folded his arms.

"I would say the smartest thing to do would be to keep as much pressure off it as possible. If you had something to put your weight on, that would help." Cody began to eye his surroundings for anything that could be used.

"How about you just carry me," Zack snorted.

"Not a chance," Cody said as he zeroed in on a new target. There was a thick branch hanging from the tree they'd been sitting under. A good enough leap, and he might be able to pull it down. It was long and thin, but sturdy. Zack could use it as a walking stick. Cody stood under the stick, looking up at it. Zack watched from where he was sitting. Cody made a leap for the stick and swung his hands at it. He landed with nothing to show for the effort. He made another attempt, but whiffed again.

"Look, I'm sorry about giving you a hard time, but do you really need to make a switch?" Zack chided. Cody ignored his brother's taunt. He needed to think of a way to get the stick down. He looked at Zack, helpless on the ground, similar to how he had been moments before.

"I've got it!" Cody exclaimed. "Do that blue aura thing to me again!" He bent his knees under the stick. Zack raised an eyebrow

"Why?"

"Just do it!" Zack shrugged, and he extended his arm. The blue aura enveloped his hand and Cody felt the same powerful sensation he had felt before. He leapt with all his might. He got tremendous height and clasped his hands around the stick and yanked it free. When he landed on the ground, he couldn't help but holler in joy. "That was amazing, Zack!"

Zack leaned back on his palms as Cody inspected the stick he'd just pulled from the tree. He tried to summon the energy to stand. Cody was already beside him with his arm out. Zack sighed to himself, and accepted his brother's assistance. Cody handed him the stick.

"Use it as a walking stick," Cody said. "Just place your weight on your other leg and use this to keep your balance." Yet another thing Cody was knowledgeable about. Zack stared at his feet. He knew he hadn't been treating Cody well since they arrived in this strange place. Cody was always mild mannered, and never got physical with Zack, even if Zack sometimes deserved it. He'd pushed Cody far enough today, and wanted to apologize, but he didn't know the best way to.

He looked up, prepared to try, but Cody spoke first, "I'm sorry, Zack." Zack was shocked to see that Cody looked ashamed. "I knew you were hurt, and I took it too far by pinning you to the ground. I had no right to do that to you." Zack couldn't help but laugh.

"I was going to apologize to you," Zack sighed. "I knew I was hurt, but I wouldn't admit it. I've been slowing us down, and putting us in danger. I was trying to show off that I'm strong and could power through it." Cody responded with a laugh of his own.

"Alright, then. Let's agree to forgive each other for our tempers and work together to figure out what's going on here!" Cody stuck out his hand, and Zack accepted it. "Besides, i get the feeling, the only way for us to make any kind of progress, is to head through this forest."

"I think you might be right," Zack said. With a shared sigh, the twins grabbed the backpacks and slung them over their shoulders. Then, with renewed vigor, they made their way into the forest.