My Own Private Paradise

Author: hell's lil angel13

Summary:Before and after the journey to find Ray Brower, there was another one there. After their journey, what happens next? How did they change, how did they stay?

Disclaimer: see chapter one

A/N: This was kinda hard to write, since I had a classmate who died a few days ago who was hit by a car, may he rest in peace now. I really liked writing this, so I hope you enjoy it.

Blood Brothers

It was when the radio started playing Lollipop when we were in the woods a little that Teddy and Vern started dancing and making me laugh at them. I was walking behind them and in front of Gordie and Chris, who weren't talking and Gordie was looking forlorn. I wondered what was wrong, but he and Chris started talking and I decided not to disturb them.

"Mighty Mouse is a cartoon, Superman's a real guy," Teddy was telling Vern when I walked up to them.

"Of course Superman's a real guy Teddy, duh!" I said. That was the most obvious thing on earth. Who wouldn't think Superman was a real guy? That's why he's never gonna die (A/N: RIP Christopher Reeve).

"I know that, it's Vern who doesn't."

I looked back, Chris and Gordie were really far behind us now. "Come on girls, we don't have all day!"

"Yeah, by the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore!" Sometimes I wonder about Teddy's own sanity.

We made it to a bridge over the river where we all stopped for a second. If a train came, we'd be just like Ray Brower, now what?

"Anyone know when the next train's due?" Vern asked when Chris suggested the Route 136 Bridge. Teddy said that that would take way too long and they could if they wanted, but he'd be on the other side, relaxing with his thoughts.

"Come on, we're acting like pussies. One train already came and the chances of another coming when any of us are on here is like...one in a million, let's go," I said and started walking first, with Teddy following close behind me. Chris, then Vern, and then Gordie followed behind us.

Teddy and I made it almost to the end, probably only five feet off when Gordie screamed, "TRAIN!" We all looked back in shock that a train was actually coming. I was still for a moment until Teddy pushed me in my back to get me moving.

Chris made it safely to the other end, too, but Vern, who had been crawling most of the way, and Gordie still had a ways to go. We all started screaming for them to hurry up and run. The train was really gaining on them now and the conductor must have seen them, since the whistle was blaring in our ears.

"JUMP! JUMP GUYS!" I screamed at them and Gordie must have heard or at least read my lips. He tackled Vern and they fell onto a ledge just as the train whizzed past where they were standing just seconds before.

We waited for it to pass and then ran to see if they were okay. They were, but very dusty and rubbing their heads. "Hey," Chris said, "at least now we know when the next train was due."

I looked at him and snapped in his face. He flinched, I'm happy to say, and I did the ol' 'two for flinching' routine and punched him in the arm twice. "Come on, we gotta keep moving. You guys okay?"

Vern and Gordie came up the ledge slowly and we kept on moving while we still had time. It would be a few hours before sunset, but we needed to find a place to make camp for the night before that.

It was two-and-a-half hours before we found a good place in the woods to stay. Gordie made a pit of rocks where we would put the fire and Vern and Teddy went off to collect sticks. Me and Chris did too, in another part of the woods.

I was just reaching for a branch near me when I cut my arm on a thick pricker bush I didn't notice. "Oh damn," I said loudly as I looked at the scratch. It wasn't deep, but it stung like nobody's business.

"What, you okay?" he asked me quickly while I wiped some of the blood off my arm.

"Yeah, just cut myself on the stupid branch. Hey, I think we got enough sticks for a fire, let's head back." We went back to Gordie at almost the same time as Teddy and Vern were also coming back and we all put the branches in a pile together near the pit.

It took three matches, but we were finally able to get the fire going, which was when Gordie pulled out some hamburger meat for our dinner along with some cokes. Vern's fell in the fire, 'cos he didn't listen to Chris when Chris told him right before it fell in to turn it over, and then Teddy and Chris had to go and make fun of him, again.

"How bout you cook your dick?"

"Be a small meal," Chris said and we all laughed. But, Vern got it out of the fire, anyway. We had some Winston's after that and Gordie told us his newest story, about Lard Ass and a pie-eating contest. Just like Chris said, it was the best.

We talked into the night. I don't even remember what we talked about anymore, it was the kind of stuff that everyone talks about, then they discover the opposite sex and those conversations get completely wiped out of your mind.

Don't you hate it when you're just about to fall asleep, then something has to go and wake you up right away and you have to start all over in trying to get to sleep? Well, that's what happened to me.

All of us jumped at the sound that was like women screaming, like they were being murdered or something. Teddy was convinced it was Ray Brower, walking around the woods, trying to find a place to rest forever. "I wanna go see the ghost," he said, but there was another piercing noise that freaked him out, making him fall and yell, "Jesus H. Bald-headed Christ!"

Gordie suggested we keep watch and Teddy volunteered for first watch. Let me tell you how that went! He was talking and keeping us up for the first twenty minutes, pretending he was a corporal in the army, just like his old man.

"Teddy, I swear, if you don't shut up I'll come over there and kick your ass in!" I yelled at him while the others just told him to shut the hell up. I slept through a little of Teddy's watch and all of Vern's. Mine came next, but nothing happened during my watch that you'd really care about. I saw a couple squirrels trying to attack each other, that's about it.

I woke up Chris when it was his turn to take watch and tried to fall back to sleep, but I couldn't for some reason. I was tired, but I just couldn't keep my eyes closed for too long.

After a little while of trying, I heard Gordie, who was next to me on my left, moaning a little in his sleep. I shifted a little to see what was wrong and saw that Chris was also looking at him to see what was wrong. Gordie yelled and woke up quickly, then mentioned something to Chris about Denny, his late older brother.

"I miss him Chris." Chris told him to go back to sleep, but like me, he couldn't. So, he went over to Chris at the tree we all stayed near during our watches and talked to Chris about taking the college courses with me and him.

What I heard next, about Chris confessing why he couldn't and about Old Lady Simons stealing money from him, broke my heart. And all three of us knew that there was almost nothing we could do about it. Thickly, through tears of shame and years of sadness that Chris Chambers, the toughest guy in town, had been harboring all these years, he said, "I just wish...I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

Gordie tried to comfort him as best he could for a while, then Chris told him to go back to sleep. When he was back in his sleeping bag for a few minutes, I got out of my own and went over to Chris, whose cheeks were still tear stained and his eyes puffy.

"Hey," he said, "what are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, I've been up since my shift."

"You heard all that then?" I nodded slowly. "You probably think I'm a pussy don't you?"

"Shit no, man!" I said quickly and a little loudly. I looked quickly over to make sure the others weren't awake. "No way," I said more quietly. "God man, you gotta stop putting yourself down. You're the best guy out there I know and that's saying something. It doesn't matter what those fuckers think of you."

Chris gave a wet laugh, almost as if he was about to laugh and cry at the same time. He was still pretty upset, I could tell by the way he was sitting. I thought for a moment on how I could cheer him up. What was it that I could do that would cheer Chris Chambers up from this slum he was in? It would have to be good, real good.

"Hey, you bring your pocket knife with you?" I asked him suddenly.

"Yeah...it's in my bag," he said confused. "What do you—?" he started, but I put my finger to my lip to make him be quiet while I searched through his Boy Scout pack until I pulled out one of the few things good he got from his old man that he liked, a pocket knife in a leather case that he got for Christmas when he was nine.

Carefully, I searched through it for a second before I found the blade that was considerably sharp. Chris looked over my shoulder as I did this, a worried and curious glint in his eyes. I looked over at him and smiled mischievously while I held up my left hand, my writing hand.

Now where would be the best place to cut? If I cut on my wrist, I could cut the vein and that could be dangerous. If I cut my finger, I'd fuck up my fingerprints. If I cut my palm...I don't know, I guess my palm would be the best bet.

"Gimme your writing hand," I said and Chris put out his right hand. Swiftly, I pierced the tender skin of his calloused palm. He jumped slightly that I just deliberately stabbed his hand, but was still watching me curiously as I cut my own palm with the still bloody knife.

"What the fuck are you doing Collins?" he asked me quickly, but I just ignored him and grabbed his now bleeding hand and pressed our palms together. I don't know if it was working, I never did this before, but I had a feeling that I did it right.

"There. Now we're blood brothers, brothers and friends for life." I smirked at him while stared at his hand that, if we did it right, no had my own blood in his veins.

By now, the sun was starting to come up and it was Gordie's turn to take watch. I got into my bedroll, thinking I could sleep now, and Chris went to wake up Gordie. I was right, I was asleep within a few minutes.

During his shift, Gordie went off somewhere to do whatever it is that he likes when we're not around, or asleep. This freight woke us up a few hours later and he came over the tracks after it passed.

"Ready?" he asked and we all nodded, ready for the second half of our journey. I don't know how I knew it then, but I could tell we were pretty close to finding Ray's body, real close, I could almost taste it.

A lot of people would say I've been hanging with guys too long, but I was really looking forward to finding this body. I mean, sure I was scared, we all were, but this was really something that everyone has to go through before they become real adults. This would make my boys men, we'd be shedding our innocent molds and falling from that safe platform.