CHAPTER 6
We spent the morning chopping down trees, and by the time we stopped we had cleared out a large area, and had plenty of wood. "Okay, let's get to work!" Said Jeff, smiling. "Okay, how are we supposed to do this?" I asked him as I picked up the last bits of wood. "Well if we want our house to be livable, we'll want four walls, a ceiling, a floor, a door, and a light source. And it'd help to have a table and a chair" I nodded. "Alright, lets get to work!" I said, a bit exited. I had made a workbench, a sword, and armor. But a house? I had to admit to wanting to test my skills. Jeff began to lay out a wooden floor, and I started putting together a door. Once I finished it was pretty plain looking, but it worked. "Okay, now we need walls" Jeff stated. I laid the door down and we both started putting up planks of wood. It was much easier to keep them from falling then I had expected, but that definitely wasn't an issue.
As Jeff put up the rest of the ceiling, I placed the door in a hole we had left in the wall. "Okay, why don't we take a look inside?" Asked Jeff. "Alright, why not?" I smiled. Jeff walked pushed open the door, and stepped aside. "Ladies first" he said with a bit of a chuckle. "Oh, what a gentleman" I said sarcastically as I stepped by. He followed me in, and stuck a torch on the wall. I put down my workbench in the middle of the floor, and sat down. There wasn't a lot of room with both of us, but it was nice. "So, what should we do next?" I asked him. "I don't know. Is there anything you want to do?" He said as he started putting together a small chair. I thought for a bit as he set up two chairs, and stood up. "Why don't we go check out that spider nest, we have armor now, maybe we can handle it!" I said hopefully. Jeff shook his head. "Doubt. Any other ideas?" I sighed. "Well, I guess we could explore a bit. I mean, I haven't even left this forest" he shrugged. "Alright, why not?" He said as he stood up, and pushed the door open for me. "You know, you don't have to keep doing that" I said as I walked by. He chuckled a bit "I know. There are a lot of things I don't have to do" I smiled. "Yeah, can't argue with that" I said, and started to walk into the forest, with Jeff by my side.
After walking for some time, the air started to seem a bit colder. "So, Jeff, how long have you been here?" I asked him, trying to make small talk. He thought for a moment, then looked down at me "Hard to say actually... after a year I kind of stopped counting the time" I looked back ahead of us. We walked a while longer, with not much to talk about. Eventually there was a major drop in temperature, and I started shivering a bit. "You look cold" Jeff said, looking at me. "A little" I responded. That was definitely an understatement, I could actually see my breath. "How did it get so cold so fast?" I asked him. "Eh, this place is just like that. Hey, snow!" He said, dodging an actual answer. He wasn't lying though, we had walked to the edge of what looked like a tundra, with a few snowflakes fluttering down. "Woah, how is there snow? Isn't it like, spring? I mean, it was so warm back at the house!" I said as we started to trudge through the snow, still shivering from the cold. Jeff just shrugged. "Like I said, this place is just like that." I looked at him skeptically, but just passed it off as him not knowing. "Whatever. Why don't we turn back, this wooden armor isn't providing much insulation" I said, stopping. "Alright. That sounds like a good idea" said Jeff.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, something slammed into me from behind, knocking me over. "Woah, what the hell?!" I shouted, startled. I looked up, and saw another of what Jeff had deemed a 'slime', but this one was light blue, and looked covered in frost. "Woah, look out!" Jeff shouted. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed my sword as Jeff drew his bow. I attempted to swing at the slime, but the sword slipped out of my hands as I did. The slime leapt at me again, and Jeff started shooting arrows into until it stopped moving. "You're welcome" Jeff said as I picked up my sword. I was really embarrassed, and could feel blush building on my face. "Thanks" I said quietly, still turned around. "Why don't we head back" Jeff said as he walked past me. I nodded, and followed after him. We walked for a bit, until I asked what was on my mind. "So, Jeff..." he looked over at me. "What are those slime things, anyway?" I said to him. "Oh, well, I'm not entirely sure. All I know is they're made of flammable gel, they're really bouncy, and they have a thirst for human blood" I stared at him for a moment, my head tilted to the side a bit. "Okay then...?" I said, puzzled. "Except the green ones" he continued. "Great, thanks" I said, but then stopped. "Wait, then why did a green one attack me a while back?" I asked him. "Oh, you were probably in it's path" he explained. "Oh, okay..."
We kept making our way back to the house, but as we walked, it started to get darker. "Man, time sure does seem to go fast here, huh?" I said, as we sped up a bit. "Yeah. Keep your guard up" he said, his tone getting more serious. "Right, got it" I said as I held out my sword in front of me. As the sun set over the horizon, I noticed Jeff was walking faster and faster. That was reasonable though, considering I had almost died the last time we were out at night. Suddenly, I heard a familiar growling behind us. It was the same sound the zombie that attacked me had made. I guess Jeff heard it too, because he quickly whipped around, his blue sword in hand, and started quickly and easily slashing through it. I was a little surprised, as parts of the zombie splattered around. "Woah, Jeff, do you need to be so aggressive?" He just nodded, and we speed walked until we reached the house. I ran in first, and he followed me before slamming the door shut. "Well, we made it" I said as I sat down in one of the little wooden chairs. "Yeah, glad we didn't die" Jeff said as he sat down in the other. "Yeah..." I responded. He always got so stern at night. I sighed and leaned back in the chair as Jeff started to fiddle with wood on the workbench. I looked at the door, and sighed.
(Author's Note: If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see happen, let me know! I'd also love any criticism, but if you just hate it, tell me what I could do to make the story better)