Yet again, dedicated to wonderful reviewer "Just Me", and our dear reviewer Fern, (sound familiar) who really needs to read AND REVIEW some more of this wonderful epic. Please enjoy:


Chapter 3: The opposite of freedom.

"We should probably leave now," Jackie suggested.

"Hopefully we won't run into anymore walking trees," Mel said.

"Aww, now you've gone and jinxed it," Jackie complained just moments before an arrow soared into the tree behind her; Jackie jumped high into the air.

Everyone but Jess turned to Mel. "What? I suck at archery. I'm standing five metres away from you; my record to date is ten centimetres. It wasn't me!"

Jess was looking at the arrow embedded in the tree. "This looks different to Mel's," she turned around, looking into the trees, trying to figure out where it came from.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jackie said, suddenly looking into the trees behind Fern. "We need to get out of here," she said as two arrows zoomed out of the bushes behind Fern, landing either side of Mel, one snagging her dress. Mel shrieked and hurriedly pulled the arrow from her dress, so she could escape if needed.

Susan tightened her grip on her glaive as Jess went to grab Mel's hand.

"Get down!" Jackie shrieked eyes wide and unfocused. Everyone sensed a power in her words and obeyed; just moments before a barrage of arrows were fired over their heads.

A force of ghastly human-esque creatures came barging into the clearing, bows and swords in grotesque hand. Susan and Mel shrieked while Fern began to hyperventilate. Jackie pulled Susan and Fern up, getting them to run. She looked helplessly over at Jess and Mel, a distance away and almost surrounded by the creatures.

"Run!" Jess screamed to them as she looked for a way for her and Mel to escape. They were surrounded, their only way out was through the creatures, to fight; something she couldn't see Mel doing at the moment. She looked up into the tree canopy.

"Mel, climb up the tree behind you," she said, quite forcefully.

"I can't," Mel said, looking up and then all around them, at the creatures.

"Mel, go! The trees are really close together behind you; see if you can climb from tree to tree,"

Mel looked hopeful at the idea, but was still concerned, "What about you?"

"I'll be alright," Jess told her as she swallowed hard, "I'll be right behind you," she pulled Mel up and pushed her up onto the lowest branch of the tree. Mel pulled herself up a couple of branches, trying to stop her dress from getting snagged on anything. She quickly looked down and saw Jess throw a rock at the nearest creature, hitting it on the head, its eyes spun as it fell to the ground, Mel almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it, almost, but not quite.


Jackie was suddenly leading the situation, something she was quite unused to. They were running through the trees, being chased by the creatures. Jackie wished they only had to deal with walking trees.

"What about Jess and Mel?" Fern yelled from behind her, "We can't just leave them behind!"

"We have to; we can't help them right now. We'll come back when we can!" Jackie didn't want to say what she really thought; 'if we can'. Jackie saw something in the distance, something she really hoped she was not seeing. She stopped in her tracks, forcing the others to stop as well.

"What are you doing Jackie?" Susan demanded as she attempted to pull Jackie forward, "They are right behind us!"

"And right in front of us!" Jackie told them.

"We are in so much trouble right now," Fern concluded.


Jess ducked and dodged the creatures' attacks, every now and again glancing up into the tree where Mel was still climbing. Mel was perhaps the fastest of them running on level ground, but Jess hadn't liked her chances having to duck and dodge-especially in the dress she wore. Jess had hoped she would be able to hide once she got past the creatures, they were amazingly fast though, and chased her as she ran into the trees. She'd hoped the creatures would all follow her, but to her dismay many stayed behind and watched Mel's attempts to climb the tree.
Jackie had no idea what she should do, no idea that she liked at least. Her grip tightened on the sword she'd managed to drag along as their options narrowed.

"Guys are you with me?" the others seemed to know what she meant, and held their weapons tightly, though fear and uncertainty was in their eyes.

Jackie went to lift her incredibly heavy sword and failed. She refused to give in as she saw the creatures closing in on them from all sides. She jerked the sword up so quickly that she was unable to prepare for the weight and she fell backwards comically against the ground.

"Jackie, get up, they're almost upon us!" Fern yelled.

A creature was right there, right in front of Jackie; she swung her sword at its legs and it jumped back.


Susan used her glaive like a staff, not knowing how to use the ends. Each muscle began to ache as she blocked each blow that was directed at her.
Fern swiped at the air with her knives, inflicting some minor damage, unlike the others, scratching gruesome faces and ripping dirty clothes. She screamed and cringed with every blow she inflicted. If only Fern had known her weapons were 'throwing knives'. A larger creature came upon her, knocking the others out of its way. It approached Fern slowly, Fern attempted to attack it; it stopped her with one hand against her forehead. That's when she was grabbed from behind…
Mel was having trouble climbing the tree; she kept missing branches and falling back, her skirts constantly got caught on branches, as did her quiver of arrows. The creatures on the ground didn't help much either, as they fired arrows and threw rocks up into the tree. She'd seen Jess disappear into the trees chased by many of the creatures and hadn't seen her since. She didn't know what had happened to the others and was afraid to think about it.

Another rock hurtled past her head, barely missing her.

"Stop it you freaking maniacs!" she screamed at the creatures. They fired an arrow up at her in reply. "Your aim sucks!" she yelled as the arrow missed.

Mel saw a flash of colour amongst the trees and was able to focus on Jess; surrounded by the creatures, all pointing arrows at her head.

"JESSIE!" Mel screamed, before she did the only thing she could think of doing. She fell.


Jess looked toward the clearing as she heard Mel call her name; all the creatures surrounding her did the same. She saw Mel fall from the tree and her heart sank as she heard the loud thump of Mel's body slamming into the ground. Jess couldn't imagine that she'd survived such a fall, but refused to give up; realising that her almost captors were not paying attention to her for the moment she ran, planning to head back to the clearing.
The creature smiled as it watched Fern struggle against her captor. It pulled out its own knife and scratched a mark down her cheek. Fern felt the blood drip down her face, she tried to fight against the pain; she fainted.
"Fern!" Jackie screamed as she too was captured. She heard a scream louder then her own, Mel's voice, screaming out Jess's name. Then a horrible thud confirmed her worst fears.
Susan was surrounded, her glaive was being fought over, and she struggled to hold on. She felt the glaive being pulled from her grasp. She gave up as she heard screams around her.
Mel lay on the ground unmoving. A creature approached slowly. Brushing her hair aside with an arrow it saw her ear, her strange pointy ear. It reacted strangely, communicating this with the others. Then it smiled, Mel saw this through barely open eyes. She sat up quickly, her head throbbing; her arm hurt so much she presumed it was broken. She saw no hope in the creatures terrifying smile. Unless…

She grabbed her bow with her sore arm and readied an arrow, pulling the string painfully back to her ear as she remembered being taught at some school camp years ago. She pointed it at the smiling one. It stopped smiling. She walked towards it, making it step back; it bumped the creature behind it, which bumped the one behind it and so on.

Mel wondered how long she would have to hold the bow her arm was already shaking.


Jess ran into the clearing, next to the stream, creatures not far behind. A group was in front of her and she skidded to a halt. The nearest one turned to look at her and picked up its bow; Jess saw something it didn't and pointed behind it, it turned slightly, just as it was knocked roughly into the water by another creature, which landed on top of it. Jess looked for the source of this domino effect and saw Mel, shaking, pointing her arrow at the line of creatures. Jess ran into the trees, aiming to get behind her, when she saw Mel drop the arrow. She stood still, open mouthed, as the creatures captured Mel roughly. Moments later Jess was crash-tackled to the ground and knocked unconscious.
A/N: Thankyou for staying with us for such a time dear reader, things are starting to get very interesting, are they not? Now, to those of you actually reading this (which means you, 'cause duh,) this is the moment when you click on that button in the corner and give us a review of some description. THANKYOU KIND SOULS, AND, IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO REVIEW: "Mîbo orch!"

Hmph. Now, as Jess is attached to her computer she WILL KNOW if you don't review and she will track you down and… (We had to blank this out as it would make our rating change immensely. And I think it's not biologically possible.)

Now go on, go review. Blessed be. If you do…….