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The forest was quieter than what was to normally be expected for how late into the night it was. Usually, when wandering through the forest something would be coming out at you from behind a tree, or a small cave or outcropping in the side of a cliff. It was one of the last places you wanted to be when safety was a concern, only second to a mine or cave.
If they were going out at night, the groups would usually stick to the sandy areas where it was clear and flat. There was less to hide behind, but they could see and take out the monsters quickly with minimal damage. However, Achievement City was somehow out of food, and it's residents were too hungry to wait for the light of day before going on a hunting trip. It was, of course, going to go well. They had been there for a long enough time and hadn't lost a member yet.
"Do you see anything out there?" Michael whispered to Ray as he looked out as far as his eyes could see. They were suspended up in the branch of a tree to protect themselves from any mob attacks, and to better support their vision. The only thing that could give away their position was the black split tails of Ray's tuxedo suit that were hanging down.
"No. It's pretty quiet. Not an Edgar in sight." he whispered back, moving forward along the branch that was holding them up, before jumping to another in a different tree.
Michael resisted the urge to laugh at the lame joke before shuffling in his crouched position after his friend. The rustling sound of leaves that their movements made gave the night an eerie feeling. The hissing of a creeper, or the growling of a zombie would have been more welcome than the silence. It certainly would have been more fun.
"Is Gavin still up ahead?" Michael whispered after he caught up to the now still again Ray.
"I think..." He mumbled in return, looking to the treeline and reaching up a hand to adjust the mask that covered his face before looking back to the ground again.
Despite his overall clumsiness on the ground, and his ability to get beat up by all the other residents of the city, Gavin was a surprisingly good hunter. He walked through the trees and flung with amazing accuracy from branch to branch. He never lost sight of prey once his eyes were on it. Plus, equipped with a bow that he handled with great skill, he was always the bringer of the most food. Because of this, Gavin was often leader of hunting trips, or went off on his own. Tonight, it was apparent to Michael that he was favoring the latter.
"I wish the fucking idiot would stick with us once in a while. I'm going to fall out of this tree or some shit." he growled as quietly as he could manage, giving Ray a gentle push, trying to tell him to move forward. There was obviously nothing in their area.
Maybe Gavin got them all already. He chuckled at the thought. It amazed him still that the clumsy, little Brit could still be such a valuable asset in their hunting. Luckily, Michael still was the best fighter; the sharp claws attached to his gloves and boots, and the diamond sword on his back proving his status.
"Mogar! Get a move on dumb ass!" called Ray, in as hushed a voice he could make, but where he could still be heard. The hunger in his stomach was driving him to wish for this trip to be over as soon as possible. What he really needed to do though, was catch up to Gavin. He had a feeling that they were walking into one of lesser know or explored territories of land. Gavin probably knew where he was going, but Michael and Ray didn't, and they were probably on the verge of getting lost.
Michael's angry voice almost made him jump when it came from behind him, yelling for the creeper-dressed boy. "Now where is he? The asshole."
"Somewhere up ahead. Let's keep moving. Try to stay quiet." he answered, before picking up a faster speed and jumping into the next tree. He was sure the warrior was mumbling something rude, be the sound of movement behind him said that he was following anyway.
Travel now seemed to go on for hours, the hunger in their stomachs growing as they used up their energy to travel through the trees. Mobs and food remained scarce for them. Michael found one zombie, and one spider, taking them both out quickly.
"We can eat the zombie flesh." He joked once the monster had fallen to the ground.
"Yeah, you tell me how it tastes." Ray snapped, jumping to the ground once both threats were eliminated. Michael rolled his eyes, leaving the zombie untouched.
They both decided that continuing on foot seemed easier, as jumping branches was getting tiring, and there apparently wasn't much out that night anyway. Along their walk, Ray found a single pig sitting within a small alcove in the side of a hill. They took down the animal without much difficulty, and put the meat in Michael's blue pack.
"That thing's handy." Ray commented, pointing to Michael's back once they were moving again.
"It is indeed better than the shit you have." He said with a chuckle.
Ray frowned at that, crossing his arms like an upset child. "I can carry plenty." he protested. His black belt held up two small black leather packs on the side of each leg, both of which were made for carrying items.
Michael shook his head and chuckled. "Sure, okay." he gave up, moving ahead and leading the way. "Let's just hurry up and find Gavin so we can get home and fucking eat."
They continued the hunt in silence, still not coming across much. Both were still wondering why it was so quiet, as it was quite unusual for the night time. As they both moved on, both found themselves wondering if Gavin was still okay. Neither had seen him since they left Achievement City, and they hadn't heard him either. If something went wrong, they would hear it, right?
Of course they would. Thought Michael as he began the climb over one of the many hills that were spread across the land. He figured it would be the best idea, as going around it would throw them off their straight forward path. He wasn't in the mood to get lost.
They were just about to give up on finding Gavin and turn around, as it would be daylight before too long. However, Ray called out to him, pointing forward and saying there was something up ahead. Deciding to figure out exactly what it was, they adjusted course and went in that direction.
"It's a giant fucking N!" said Michael as they passed through the treeline.
"Top, isn't it? It's an obsidi-N!" called an excited voice from somewhere above them.
Michael and Ray looked up, and found themselves staring straight at Gavin Free. He was seated at the top of the N where the first straight line started bending down again. He smiled and waved down at them, like it was completely normal for him to be sitting up there.
"What the hell? Did you build this?" Ray yelled up, gesturing with one hand to the structure as he did so.
The Brit laughed and shook his head. "Nah, not just now. Me and Geoff did it a while ago. It points in the cardinal direction. There's supposed to be more at all ends of the land. But, we ran out of obsidian and got lazy." He explained happily. "Plus, I think this was supposed to be northwest, and we couldn't figure out the W."
"How'd you get up the fucking thing?" Michael asked, crossing his arms.
"Well I built and climbed up. It's not too hard." He chuckled. "You were somewhere behind me, and I was tired, so I decided to wait."
"You asshole. We couldn't find you at all. We didn't know where you were!" Michael growled out.
Gavin gave out a quiet apology before beginning his descent from the N, landing gracefully in front of the other two. Once he was down, Ray pointed to the other man's leather packs. "Get anything good?"
He shrugged in response. "Three small chickens and a pig. It won't last us long, but it will do. What did you get?"
Michael shook his head. "We only found a pig. There wasn't a damn thing out there tonight. Not even any mobs."
"I noticed that too. It's strange. But, pretty good right? We can head home in peace!" his voice was excited.
"Yeah, okay Gavin. Let's just go." Ray said, turning around and beginning to walk back the way they came. The other two followed directly behind, talking about some sort of funny squid Gavin thought he had seen in the water.
"Oh, shut the fuck up! It was not danci-" Michael's words were cut off when a hand was shoved rather forcefully against his mouth.
"Shh." Ray whispered, his voice barely audible. "Listen."
The two other men complied, listening for a sound somewhere in the trees. A low growling met their ears, and was slowly becoming louder.
"Zombies. Lots of 'em." Gavin whispered, pulling his bow off his shoulder and reaching an arm back to grab an arrow out of the quiver on his back. Michael stepped back, removing Ray's hand from over his mouth, and grabbing his sword, standing in a ready fighting position.
The first one to make a show from out of the tree line was easily the one that got the most fucked up. Two skilled fighters and one talented hunter all attacking at once made the monster go down pretty quickly. However, when what seemed like hundreds appeared next, they had to split apart and take care of themselves.
Michael and Ray took on and easy back to back position to keep the monsters away from one another. Gavin, having no sword with him, and not being handy with one anyway, took to the trees. He stood on a branch over top of his friends out of reach of the zombies. From that position, he shot them down with his arrows, keeping as many as he could away from the other two on the ground.
"Left Ray!" Screamed Gavin, as four zombies strolled up to the side of the man.
"Got 'em!" He screamed back, swinging his sword, turning at the waist so he could take out a whole row of the mobs with minimal effort.
"Shit! Where the hell did they all come from?" Michael shouted, thrusting the blade into the head of one of the zombies, twisting, then pulling it out. As bodies fell to the ground, they piled up heavily. However, they almost seemed to instantly decay and dissolve into strips of rotten flesh. The smell could easily be described as quite horrid. They couldn't let it get to them though, so they all decided on somewhat holding their breath when they could
"Run out of arrows yet, Boi?" Michael called up in the trees to Gavin in a way to make sure that he was okay and still fighting.
"Nope. You out of energy yet?" He replied quickly in between shots. Michael and Ray would both have laughed if they weren't too distracted by their own attacks and the rank smell that was surrounding them.
"Hey, Mogar-" shouted Ray between a slice through one creature's neck, and an elbow to the rotting chest of another, attempting to push it back. "Not that your fighting doesn't amaze me, but do you happen to have a plan to get us out of here?"
"Fucking yeah I do." He responded, driving the hilt of his sword against what was left of one of the zombie's head, then immediately moving his arm forward, pushing the blade into the skull of another.
"Gavin! Now would be a fucking great time to help out!" he called up to the Brit while still trying to hold his position.
"My pleasure, Micoo!" his ridiculous accent more prominent than normal.
Michael took a deep breath and held it before throwing his sword at a branch in the tree, watching one side of the blade sink into the bark and hold there. As quickly as he could manage after that, he held both hands up as far as they would go into the air.
What Ray saw next would have stunned him into silence if he hadn't been fighting for his life. Gavin had his body flipped downwards, both legs wrapped around a branch, much like children do when playing on the bars at a park. Swinging forward, he grabbed Michael's hands, then used the momentum to carry them both backwards, flipping him up and over the branch so he landed on his feet gracefully atop it. Reaching down, the warrior grabbed the hilt of his sword and placed it back in place on his back, before he took Gavin's hands again and helped him get back into place on the tree.
"What in the hell was that?" Ray screamed through the growls of the mobs that were still surrounding him.
"An escape. You think you can manage Michael's part, X-Ray?" the hunter replied as he crawled forward to come over top of his friend.
"Don't have much of a choice, do I?" He said, not waiting for a response before he resheathed his sword and held up both arms. Quicker than he planned for, two hands had grasped his, and suddenly he was swinging forward and up.
"Kick!" was a word he vaguely heard in his ear through the sound of the monsters, and what were probably his own screams. The sound that was made in the collision would have probably been more pleasing if it was the crunching of bones, but instead was the squelching noise of rotting flesh. Gross.
He wished he knew better what he was doing when he felt his stomach hit a branch. Luckily, he was upright enough to not lose balance and end up sliding off. Breathing heavily, Ray used his shaking arms to push himself up to a proper position on his feet. Unfortunately, his legs were shaking too.
"You should have seen your goddamned face." Said Michael, snickers coming out of his mouth, a smile on his face, even though they were still in the middle of a pretty big fight. Gavin himself was still trying to hold back the laugh, but it escaped when the warrior slipped up.
"Sorry I haven't swung like a shitty acrobat before. What was up with that anyway?" He muttered.
Gavin shrugged his shoulders and looked over at Michael. "We just started practicing it one day when two spiders were coming for us while we were on a hunting trip." The other man nodded in agreement.
"Can't we focus on actually getting out of this situation now?" Ray sighed, running a hand through his hair, which was now slightly damp with sweat.
"Well you asked." Gavin mumbled under his breath before leaning over the branch and looking down, assessing everything.
"Would it be impossible to get back through the trees?" Michael asked, carefully standing up and trying to see over all of the leaves. He was looking for Geoff's tower, his foolproof way of getting home when lost.
"We're not on the right side to get all the way to the city, but we could get pretty far, and maybe lose them. I think." Gavin replied, standing up next to his friend, looking around as well.
The other two elected to ignore the last sentence, and go with Michael's plan of jumping through the trees. The hunter decided to follow behind the two warriors, so he wouldn't get ahead of them and accidentally leave them behind like earlier. Their travel was fast, but cautious. All three of them almost lost footing a couple of times, including the very tree-able Gavin.
"Are we almost fucking there?" Yelled Michael to whichever one of the others might have an answer. His breathing was heavy, and crashing into a coma-like state was sounding appealing at the moment. But, the zombies were still too close for comfort. 'How the hell are they keeping up?' He found himself thinking. Slowness was one of their traits. Why had that seemed to disappear now?
"I thin- AHH!" Gavin's sentence was replaced by a loud cracking sound, and a scream, followed seconds later by a loud thud.
"Gav!" Michael and Ray both yelled, stopping and turning around as fast as they could. The branch that he had jumped on must have been too weak to support his weight, so it cracked off, taking him with it.
Gavin came to his senses a second later, the sound of his friends helping. He looked around for his bow, but the urgency of his situation was too great for that at the moment. He rushed to jump back into safety, but felt something like dead weight on his arm. His friend's screams told him what was happening before his own eyes did. They had caught him. It was too late. What was once one hand became five, then ten, then he couldn't tell anymore. They were dragging him down, like the monsters under your bed that a child would hear about. But this horror was too real for a child.
Suddenly, there was pain. Teeth were digging into his shoulder, following his body as it began to fall to the ground. Why was he falling so slowly? Another mouth latched onto his hand, and he felt it tugging. When the searing pain that burned like fire came, he knew that flesh must have been missing. He screamed in pain, his voice high pitched, and communicating the tears that were falling quickly from his eyes.
"Gavin!" screamed Michael. "Don't fucking stand there! Do something! Help!" He yelled to Ray before unsheathing his sword and jumping down.
Ray began to panic. Gavin was underneath a pile of hungry zombies that were currently devouring him, and Michael was about to join. The wouldn't get there in time.
But then, he saw Gavin's bow and a disordered pile of arrows a little ways from the tree. It took him no time to decide what he was going to do. He had to keep his friends alive. In less than seconds, he was lighting up a torch and putting his plan into action.
Screams of fucking agony that were growing weaker by the second were the only thing that powered him at the moment. His aim was never the best, but talent was going to make an appearance, or he would kill himself. Lighting the arrows on fire with the torch, Ray grabbed one and shot it forward at the monsters.
If the rotting corpses smelled bad, adding burning to that did not make the situation better. However, Michael was confused. Why were they on fire? It wasn't daylight out yet, although that would be welcome any fucking time now. Hurriedly turning his head for the source, he saw Ray a few yards away holding Gavin's bow and fire, which he continued to shoot at the mobs.
"Well what are you waiting for?! Get Gavin!" The man roared out.
His confusion gone, Michael nodded and rushed to work, pushing away the few zombies in front. Seeing what he hoped was a still human hand, Michael grabbed it with both of his own and pulled. What he pulled out made him want to break down and sob.
Gavin must have been missing half of his body. Three fingers from the left hand were pulled clean off, a few torn muscles and lots of dripping blood left in their place. A chunk of his right side was missing and was what seemed to be the most painful. Blood gushed from the wound, leaving behind a red trail on the green grass, showing where Michael pulled him away. Bite marks and scratches were littered over the rest of his skin on the arms, legs, torso and face. Thankfully though, Most of his head was still intact, save for a few missing patches of his hair. If it hadn't been, Michael was sure that he would have vomited.
"G- Gav?" He murmured, tears threatening to fall. "Gavin?" He spoke a little louder now, slightly shaking the man to try and get him to wake. His heartbeat was there, but barely. "Boi?" 'If you don't wake up. If you don't wake the fuck up.' He thought, not even sure how to to finish the sentences in his own head.
"Mi-" came a quiet whisper, that was too weak to even finish. "Gavin!" Michael called to the almost unconscious man, crawling forward and being gentle as he could, placed the blood-covered head in his lap. "Can you hear me, Boi?" he asked, which was returned with a faint "Mmm"
The hunter vaguely noticed Ray take care of the zombies singlehandedly, keeping them away from his friends. That didn't really matter to him at the moment though.
"Mm sleepy" said the injured man, his lips barely moving as the breath passed through them.
"No, No, No. Just listen to me, okay?" Michael said quickly, his voice turning into what sounded like broken whimpers. However, he cleared his throat and tried to stay strong for his friend. He tried to have faith that he would still be fine. Taking the unintelligible murmur as an agreement, he continued to speak. "Ray's gonna finish taking care of the zombies for us, then we're gonna go to the fucking city with you. Ryan will find some weird potion to get you healthy again, you got that shit? Then, We can dick around and you can try to add another fucking fake tower to your pathetic little room. Sound good Gavino?" With each word his voice got more broken, and at then end his words were choked off into a loud sob.
A groan caught his attention, and he opened his wet eyes without remembering when he even closed them. Gav was staring up at his with his own wet eyes. Michael wanted to die right there when he saw the light fading from the normally bright green. They were staring to dull now.
"My-" His words were choked off into a pained gasp, and Michael had to force himself to not grip his friend's head any tighter. He didn't deserve any more pain.
Determined enough to finish, Gavin opened his mouth again. "Thank you. My Boi." He whispered, the final glimmer fading from his eyes as he head lolled to the side, and what was tense on his body went slack.
"Fu..." The quiet statement trailing off as the rush tears that he had hoped wouldn't come rushed forward and wracked his body with sobs. "FUCK!" He screamed, throwing his head back. When he opened his eyes he saw something he knew he could never enjoy again. The sun was rising in the distance, spreading light on the trees, shining through the leaves and onto the ground. It illuminated the horror of the body that was in front of him.
Michael screamed. Michael raged. He grabbed his still dirty sword and started to hit the trees with all his might. When he couldn't hold himself up anymore and his voice didn't seem to work at all, he collapsed against the tattered bark and curled in on himself. He pulled his knees up to his chest, buried his face in them and cried. Why hadn't he run out of tears yet?
This was the way he still was when Ray returned from out of some other part of the forest, have had taken care of the last zombie finally. The rising of the sun had helped with that as well.
"Oh, Michael." He whispered, stepping forward and dropping to his knees in front of his friend.
"I didn't even get to say anything to him. I couldn't fucking apologize, or tell him how much shit he brought to my life, or how much I loved it." the man cried out, utter defeat and sorrow laced into his voice.
"Shh, I know." Ray tried for comfort, knowing how bad a place of mind the situation had put Michael.
Looking behind him to see what was left of the hunter, He was confused that there was absolutely nothing. He was sure that when he came back it was there. "Michael, I know how upset you are right now, but uh, where is Gavin?" He asked.
"Where the fuck do you think, Ray?" He snapped in response.
"No, His body."
"What?"
"Body's not there."
Michael pulled up his head and looked, surprised to find that Ray was correct. A pool of drying blood was the only thing left to show that a tragedy had just taken place.
"What." Michael whispered.
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Tell the world that I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits, and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Tell the world that I'm coming
It was foggy. Or, his head was. He wasn't sure what it was like outside of that. Maybe it was raining. He did hear a pounding. But, did rain pound like that? Maybe it was in his head as well.
Of course, curiosity got the best of his soreness, and he cracked open one eye, followed by another. It was bright, wherever he was. Forcing them open all the way, he blinked away the blurriness and tried to focus his eyes.
He was surrounded by paintings. What place had so many paintings? The covered the walls. Thinking, it dawned on him that it was his own house. How could he have forgotten what it looked like? Sitting up, he realized that he was in his bed as well. It seemed awfully bright to be sleeping though. Didn't he normally wake at sunrise? Or had he forgotten about that too?
Standing, Gavin realized just how sore his body was. He looked over himself. He was in simple brown pants and a loose green shirt. Where were his packs, belts, and other things he wore over this stuff? They weren't in a pile where they normally were. Plus, looking at the wall across from his bed, his bow and arrows weren't in their usual place either.
Deciding to go see if they had been stolen by someone else in the city as a joke, he walked over to his door and quietly opened it.
Geoff was outside digging through some chests, so he would be the first one to ask. "Hey, Geoff?"
"Gav! Are you guys back already? Wait- Where's your stuff?" He asked looking the younger over.
"That what I want to know! I woke up and it was all missing." He said, crossing his arms.
Geoff took a second to process that statement. Gavin was dumb, but not that dumb. "You woke up? In your bed? In your house over there?" He asked, pointing to the cobblestone building at the corner of the city as he did.
"Where else would I wake up?" Gavin was confused now. Was he supposed to be somewhere else? The fogginess in his head grew for a moment before calming again.
"But you were out hunting with Michael and Ray! They haven't even come back yet." The older man explained.
"Hunting? I don't- I don't remember that." He said quietly, shaking his head, not as denial, but more to clear it.
"Dicks, dude. What the hell happened to you?" Geoff exclaimed.
Gavin was about to speak again, but was cut off as the sound of someone coming closer reached his ears. Turning his head, he saw Michael and Ray coming up from behind Jack's house. Were they crying? What had happened?
He didn't have the chance to ask his questions before he heard them shout his name. Before he realized it had happened, Michael had his arms around him in a bear hug.
"Oh my God! What the hell?" He spoke into the crook of the hunter's neck. "You're here. You are really here right?"
"I uh, I think so?" He said, keeping his arms around the man but pulling his head away to look at Ray. Tears covered his face as well, but in his hands were familiar armor and leather. On his back was a worn bow and empty quiver. Everything was covered in blood.
"My stuff!" He exclaimed happily.
Michael pulled away then, rubbing his neck and shaking his head slowly. "Yeah, it was-" He trailed off.
"Was where?" Geoff added to the conversation for the first time.
"All that was left." Ray finished.
"Left?" Gavin whispered, his eyes widening in horror, although he still wasn't sure what he was scared of.
Michael nodded, running a hand over his face. "We were hunting, y'know, the usual. But then, there were fucking zombies everywhere. We tried to escape through the trees but-" Again, he didn't finish his sentence. Gavin didn't need him to though. He could figure it out.
"I died?" he asked quietly. Michael nodded his confirmation. Slowly, the blurriness in his head returned, until it was almost unbearable. But then, looking at his stuff in Ray's hands, his bow, and Michael's face; it all came back. The shock of the fall, the fear, the pain, and then the tears, before there was nothing and he was waking up in his own house again. "Oh. I uh, think I remember."
Michael's eyes widened and he stepped closer to Gavin, until they were almost touching. It was awkward and silent for a few moments before a whispered "I'm sorry." was said by both of them at almost the same time. Gavin would have chuckled if a shake of the other man's head hadn't silenced him. Slowly, Michael grabbed his shirt, pulling him forward until their chests and noses were touching. Then, closing his eyes and tilting his head to the side, he pushed his lips against Gavin's, the act quickly becoming urgent, Michael throwing all of his feelings, all of the truth into it.
Gavin lifted his arms and wrapped them around Michael's neck, pressing their bodies together. He was so distracted that he didn't notice Ray and Geoff shake their heads in disgust and walk away, giggling as they went.
It was about damn time.