Chapter four:
Sunlight hits Mello's eyes and he scrunches his eyes before giving up opening them half way.
He blinks a few times to get rid of the blurriness then he finds him staring at Matt's chest and stomach, with Matt being asleep now, as well as the empty spot on the other side of Matt where Near was sleeping on Matt's chest and stomach as well. He opens them fully and sits up rubbing his eyes only to look again.
Sure enough the mostly albino boy isn't there.
Mello gets up about to go looking but when he turns he sees Near sitting on a log on the other side of the fire with his back to them seeming to stare out into the trees. He goes over to the other and stands a little behind him.
"Good morning Mello." Near greets the other.
Mello clenches his teeth that Near got it right without having to turn around. He moves over to the log and sits next to Near with a space between them. He hunches over putting his elbows on his legs just above his knees joining his hands together. "Yeah morning." He greets not looking to Near.
There are a few seconds of silence between them.
"How long have you been awake for?" Mello asks with his eyes flickering to the other.
"Not long." Near responds with a glance to Mello making their eyes lock.
"Ah." Mello says as they look back to the woods.
The awkward silence goes on…. Until Matt makes a snore sound in his sleep, making the two slightly turn around putting one hand on the log to look to the red head, as if to try to break the silence.
This makes the two share a small chuckle.
"I'm glad we made it out." Near says after their small chuckle.
Mello turns to him. "Really?"
Near turns to Mello as well. "Yeah." He nods softly. "We need each other. Together we have a fighting chance. The three of us have the best chance out of anyone."
Mello is silent for a moment then his eyes flicker back to Matt for a second before turning to face forward again. "Yeah well you can't forget death is a daily possibility now." He says.
"I know." Near says also turning to face forward again. "If it came to death I would hope for you and Matt to go first."
Mello turns to death glare Near. "Why!? So you can go off living while we die!?"
Near shakes his head then turns to look into Mello's eyes. "No I didn't mean it like that. I meant that since this adventure will bring us closer together I was thinking that you two could die before me so you wouldn't have to feel the pain of watching someone you care for die."
Mello blinks surprised at this as their eye lock stays for now. He finds his voice. "If we die then we die. That's life. We can't say for sure who will go first or last or how long apart it will be between our deaths." He says mostly to himself as he glances away.
"Yeah true." Near agrees also turning away.
Neither of them notice the fire go out.
Matt opens his eyes slightly as he had been awake since just before Near's comment about death. He watches the two with a small smile on his lips then he closes his eyes again to see if he can get anymore sleep.
Suddenly there's a monster roar making the three of them jump to their feet alert for in case one or more beasts show up.
After a few moments Near speaks.
"We should probably get moving." He says.
"It's dangerous to stay in one spot for too long." Mello says then he looks to see Matt up. "Ok we are all up. Now let's go." He takes the lead and the others follow as they head away from their little camp site behind.
They have been walking for a little bit now so far moving away from the roars or anything that could bring them to their death as they only have their bare hands and their socked feet, that they know they'll need to find shoes to cover, as well as bodies to defend themselves with no guarantee that it's even effective.
Matt's stomach growls. He groans in response. "Aw man I'm hungry. Can't we find something to eat?"
Suddenly Mello stops making the others stop.
"Get down." Near says.
The three of them quickly move into hiding behind a bush big enough to cover them. They carefully peer over it watching as four beasts walk by.
The beasts don't seem to notice the three as they walk right past them.
They stay hidden looking out for any more of the beast or any other enemies.
None come and the three come out of their hiding place.
"How do we even begin to fight them? Or are we just going to run for the rest of our lives?" Matt asks.
"We'll fight them one day. We need to just figure out their weakness and make or find some weapons." Mello says.
Matt's stomach growls again. He wraps his arms around his stomach with a groan. "Can we get some food?" He whines.
Mello sighs softly. "We'll see if we can find anything edible out here or we'll see if we can sneak into town. We also need some foot wear."
"There is a place we can hide in for a little bit in town." Near says suddenly. "If we can sneak into town we might be able to get there. Of course we can't stay there as the beasts will eventually find us."
This perks the other twos interests.
"Fine we'll go to see if we can sneak into town. We'll stock up and check the place Near is talking about." Mello slightly grumbles.
They begin heading towards town, at least in the direction they believe is the way there as Near mostly leads the way.