John glanced over at Lestrade, who was now fast asleep, John wanted to remain awake so he could grill Sherlock about where he'd been since his 'death' but after a day's worth of trekking through a rainforest and ending a couple of lives it wasn't too long before he to succumbed to sleep.
Sherlock hadn't moved from his rock since they'd stopped for a break a few hours ago. He was tempted to run away now while they were asleep. He was Moriarty's main target, they'd be safer with him gone and they might even believe they'd imagined his presence today.
But then again Moriarty had them here for a reason; maybe they'd be safer with him.
Either way their lives were in danger.
Sherlock interlocked his fingers beneath his chin, he accessed his Mind Palace not very deeply, just to recall information and memories about his previous time in the Arena, obviously Moriarty had planned for Sherlock to die then but that hadn't worked it out, and the same could be said for his jump off of St. Bart's. He doubted Moriarty would leave anything to chance this time. He wanted Sherlock gone.
Sherlock pinched the bridge of his nose, his brow creasing in concentration. He heard the squawk of a nocturnal bird off somewhere to his left as it leapt from its branch flapping its wings.
Despite the early hour it wasn't pitch black, the moonlight filtered through the leaves reflecting off there damp surfaces. Sherlock's eyes followed the beams of light watching them fade or disappear behind the massive tree trunks that occupied the forest. He closed his eyes focusing more on the forest sounds, there were a large variety of insects surrounding him, he could here John's deep quiet breathing and Lestrade's louder breathing that was verging on snoring. He couldn't hear any cameras, in the previous Arena they'd given off a faint whirring noise, but him not hearing that meant nothing though. Moriarty could've just a newer model of camera.
Sherlock remained in the same position just thinking for, he wasn't sure how long, just that he couldn't come up with anything helpful. Sherlock looked to the sky again, sunlight had now chosen to start to replace the moonlight in shining down through the tree's but with its light it bought heat. A groan grabbed Sherlock attention, Lestrade appeared to be waking up, after a minute he was sat up stretching his arms in front of him.
"Sleep well?" Sherlock asked his tone held no interest though
"Wouldn't be in my top ten ways to sleep" Lestrade muttered, moving his eyes to look up at Sherlock, who was still perched on his rock, almost unmoving like some bizarre statue. "Have you had any sleep? Actually have you moved at all in the last few hours?"
"I was thinking."
"Well you won't be any help if you knock yourself out from sleep deprivation."
Sherlock snorted "I can go a few days without sleep."
"You're only human Sherlock."
Sherlock rolled his eyes so many people said that to him, he watched Lestrade for a moment before speaking.
"You shouldn't have blamed yourself" his stormy eyes fixed on Lestrade's
"What makes you think I-"
"I told John I was a fake, that Moriarty was my invention yet both of you didn't believe it"
"That's what being a friend is, Sherlock. Believing in someone and knowing when they're lying"
"Why did you blame yourself? I committed 'suicide' that was my choice."
"Because Sherlock from the rest of us' point of view it looked like you'd cracked, like everything the Press had been saying had finally got to you. I should've tried to help, not try to arrest you!"
Sherlock didn't reply for a moment
"You honestly didn't expect us to believe in you?" Lestrade asked
"I know a lot of things Lestrade, but friends and friendship is something I lack experience in. We should get moving, we need to wake John up and then keep going in yesterday's direction."
Lestrade sighed "Yeah" He knew that he wasn't going to get anything else from Sherlock for now.
After half an hour John was also awake and they were off walking again.
"So" John decided he was fed up of the awkward silence "Are we allowed to talk to you today?"
Sherlock didn't break his stride "I didn't say you couldn't speak to me yesterday"
"Yeah but you remained about ten metres ahead of us at all times, today you're only five metres ahead"
"There's something you want to speak about?"
"No but I just don't like the awkward silence. How about we talk about where you've been for the last year and a bit?"
"It's nothing interesting John"
"But I want to know."
"I've been to a lot of places"
"Are you going to elaborate on that?"
"I've spent most of my time in large cities around the world, trying to take out large chunks of Moriarty's network. Mostly in America."
"How do you 'take down' his network?"
"I didn't go around killing people if that's what you're implying. I would just find them and plant evidence on them and leave them unconscious somewhere for the police to find and arrest."
"Have you been in London much?" Lestrade spoke this time
"Only the last few days."
"Get anyone arrested?"
"Actually I was trying to find an assassin hired to kill you Lestrade, but had no such luck and am now stuck in here"
"So you've just been after Moriarty's lot for a year?" John summarised
"Solved a few other crimes along the way"
"Of course" John smirked
"Did you find the campsite Lestrade?"
"Wait what?"
"The other day? They were camping, obviously, so did you find the campsite?"
"Jesus! That was you?"
"Obviously."
"But you were American"
Sherlock smirked still keeping his five metre distance between himself and the other two though.
"This looks interesting" he said just loud enough for them to here.
"What?"
Sherlock ignored them ducking under a large branch and pulling some leaves away to reveal sand. Lots of sand. Golden yellow sand stretching out in front of them and in the distance there was a band a deep blue that joined the sand and sky together.
"A beach" Lestrade barely contained his surprise
"What the hell's a beach doing here?"
"The same could be said about the rainforest and abandoned city but it's fairly obvious that Moriarty wanted a varied Arena, much more fun I suppose."
"Should we go back into the forest?" John asked
"No" Sherlock decided "We should take a look around here"
Sherlock didn't wait for any further comments from them. He just started walking again, veering off to the left towards a slight hill hoping to get a better look of his surroundings. Within ten minutes he reached his destination and was scanning the horizon.
"Do you think there's a way out of here?" John came to stand beside him
"Yes"
"Apart from killing each other?"
"Actually I do have plans of killing you while you're sleeping John"
"Sarcasm's the lowest form of wit you know"
"That explains why you use it so much John"
John just rolled his eyes, Lestrade came up beside him.
"Anything interesting?" he offered Sherlock a curious glance.
"Only the sea and sand are visible."
"Won't we be safer sleeping in the forest?"
"But then we are going backwards, it makes more sense to keep going and sleep here"
"The logical choice?" John asked earning a smirk from Lestrade
"Of course"
They didn't stop walking until the sun settled just above the horizon, yet the sea didn't appear any closer.
"Right" John folded his arms and turned his gaze to Sherlock
"Yes John"
"You need sleep. No arguments, just sleep"
Sherlock raised an eyebrow
"I'm not challenging you Sherlock Holmes. I'm telling you"
Sherlock held his glare for a moment
"Only a few hours" he decided
"Thank-you" John smiled.
All three of them had to use their jackets as a make-shift blanket as the open sandy environment quickly became a lot chillier than the rainforest. After about ten minutes all three of them were fast asleep.
Sherlock awoke early, he refused to admit it but he felt a lot better after some sleep. He snapped his eyes open, Lestrade was still lying across the sand breathing deeply. John was… where was John?
Sherlock jumped to his feet, there a dip in the sand where John had been, Sherlock touched the spot, it was cold, John had been gone a while.
Sherlock would love to believe that John had gone for an early morning walk or to find food but he'd already spotted the multiple foot prints marking a path towards John and then away again. The ones moving away were joined by two deep lines in the sand, whoever had formed the two marks had been struggling.
John.
A/N: Sorry if there are any mistakes, I had a brainwave and have been writing at 100mph! There's something big coming soon :D Only down side is if you are planning on/are reading Mockingjay (the 3rd Hunger Games book) what's coming is sort of a big spoiler so read Mockingjay before the coming chapters if you don't want it sort of a bit ruined :P