Whoo! Another chapter, I'm already working on the 8th too.

Falling to Rise is slowly getting closer to planning but I still have lots to do.

Also thank you for all the support you guys have been giving me so far! <3 It means so much, now on with the chapter

LOST

Chapter 7

"You find anything yet?" Mitch called out over his shoulder, we were all looking through the base for anything salvageable. Materials, food, armor, something to make traveling easier. Unfortunately during that really crazy fight a lot of things got destroyed. 

"No, but I found some paper!" Jerome answered.

"Jerome! We can't use paper to save the world," Adam countered before Mitch could reply. I sighed and wandered to what was left of the kitchen and walked into the pantry. 

The whole roof of the place was riddled with holes from creeper explosions so the rays of the sun streamed in. With the power once again broken and useless at this point, the base had an eerie feel to it.

"There is some food here we can use! Not all of it is burnt, smushed or dirty!" I yelled out in my loudest voice. I heard some fast approaching footsteps and Ian appeared around the corner.

"How much?"

"Uh, maybe a good 2-3 week supply if we ration it," I shrugged my shoulders. Ian grumbled to himself and then sighed.

"2-3 weeks? You did say we need to head to the Dryhx Woods right?" I nodded in response, "You do know that needs about a months supply of food if not more..."

I nodded, "But I'm sure we can find more along the way, it's not like there aren't towns and places to hunt."

"You're right," Ian moved forward and started opening the chest, packing the food away into a large sack, "but with this whole reality messing up sh*t who knows how the towns will act."

We would travel by horse, which would cut the travel time by about half, except the stables got a bit wrecked. Now we only have two horses, the other's bolted, and we need to use the remaining horses to carry supplies.

I helped Ian pack away the food and when that was done I trekked outside to see Jason saddling up the horses to carry some of our gear. "Need help?" Quentin walked over to Jason carrying only a medium sized satchel. 

I decided to head toward Adam who was searching the perimeter of the base. Pretty sure he's in the back garden at the moment.

~~~~~

I heard the rocky crashes of stone on stone. Peeking around the corner was Adam, he was standing over Seto's grave stone, or at least what remained of it. 

"What're you doing?" I asked as I walked up beside him.

He did a little jump then smiled and turned to me, "Just getting rid of this thing, We don't need it now."

I nodded in silence, "Sorry..."

"Hm?" I glanced over at him.

"Sorry for doubting you is what I mean."

I stayed silent, I wasn't sure how to respond, maybe silence was the best answer. 

"Adam! Ty! Come on, we're heading out!" Jerome's voice rang out. I looked over at Adam and he sighed he walked back slowly, me following him in silence.

~~~~~

Travel was slow and uneventful. We decided to avoid the town of Aramoor so as not to attract attention. We were going to head to the town farther up for supplies, a place we don't go to often so people wouldn't know our faces that well, maybe the name though. Me and Seto occupied the back of the group and the silence between us was unbearable.

"Soooo... I read part of your journal—log, er something."

"Yea, maybe some of it was useful, but unfortunately I left all the important stuff back at my temporary base. I would tell you more except I don't have a database of information stored in my head of everything I wrote down during my research."

I chuckled, "I know, but that' not what I was going to say. I was going to ask, why didn't you just come to us anyways. We wouldn't have minded helping you, you're our friend and you've helped each and everyone of us," I paused as silence enveloped us, "We even promised each other before we left home, that we would stick by each other through thick and thin."

Seto stayed silent as we walked his eyes shifted uneasily at the ground, "Well—"

"Seto! Hey, why aren't you teleporting, what happened to all that energy you said you had," Adam chided from the front, Jason smacked Adam lightly in the head with his gloved hand. His suit gleaming in the sunlight.

"Don't be like that," he said through his helmet, Adam laughed and I heard a  strange noise and Seto was gone. Then next to Adam, from where I stood Seto twirled his finger and Adam fell forward.

"I still have that energy," Seto smirked while the others joined in laughing. I snickered, but I knew for a fact Seto was avoiding the question.

~~~~~

We had passed the town of Aramoor several hours ago and were soon approaching the next town. But the sun was setting fast and if we didn't pick up our pace we wouldn't make it before it got too dark, unfortunately we've been walking with no breaks except for lunch, in which we also had to wait half an hour for Seto to come back. He just decided to disappear without telling us, I swear Adam was close to exploding.

"Are we there yet?" Jerome muttered, I was still walking in the back of the group, but Mitch and Jerome both lagged behind now. They definitely had the most strength, but all that messing around early must've caught up to them.

"No fluffy, we'll be there in.... Ian when will we get there?" Everyone was physically tired, even Seto, we were all dragging our feet in the dirt trudging as slow at the sun moved.

"Probably another 2 hours...."

Loud groans of defeat emitted from all of us, Mitch and Jerome plopped down on the ground and sighed in relief.

"Is this the price we get for not being as active!" Mitch shouted to the sky. I think Mitch means, is this feeling of exhaustion the price we all pay for not going out as often since we all stuck to the base. We are all out of shape.

"Come on, get up we still have a little ways to go," Quentin hoisted Jerome to his feet and then pulled Mitch up after him, dragging them both forwards as the rest of us made an attempt to follow. "If we keep going now we'll get to rest in a nice warm bed, and I don't think you all want to stay out here and fight another horde of mobs like last night."

With the mention of last night everyones eyes shot up like a rocket, "Nope!" Jerome shouted. Both he and Mitch immediately took the lead, now dragging Quentin along like a rag doll, and marched forward. Running up to catch up to them I shouted, "Hey, hold up, wait!"

Now they were running with a sudden burst of energy, one that left the rest of us, minus Seto in their dust.

~~~~~

The moon was rising and we finally reached the next town. I believe this town was called Rezrin. This town had a large stone wall that surrounded its perimeter, torches lined the walls every 10 or so feet.

We were only 50 or so blocks away when commotion broke out at the gate.

"Alright! Alright! We're leaving! Jeez don't have to be so darude about it," a man came stumbling out of the throng of guards at the gateway, holding his hands above his head and frowning. his red sunglasses stood out against the dark night.

He was followed swiftly by two more people.... er one person and a zombie.

"Man this sucks balls!" The zombie man hissed as our little group of 8 marched closer to the gate.

"Hey you people! Those Rezrin people won't let you in even if you payed them!" The third guy had thick glasses on and a red and grey checkered shirt.

Our group stayed silent as we stood by the gate, Adam was talking with one of the guards, in a few moments they stepped aside and let us in. I didn't dare look behind us as I heard the same voice before start yelling.

"What! Hey you nerds! Why do you get to go in and we don't," his voice echoed in the night.

"Hey, hey dood!" I looked back and saw an arrow fly straight for my face. Seto was in front of me before I could react the arrow was gone and in a flash so was Seto.

"Tom! You idiot!" The one with red sunglasses yelled at the zombie man and proceeded to run off, dragging the two by the wrist into the near by forest. You could see the guards on the walls shooting a volley of arrows into their direction.

"What! It was a joke!" Was the last thing we heard from them before they vanished into the forest.

"What was all that about?" Jason asked one of the guards.

The closest one to his right answered him immediately, "They are a group of notorious bandits known throughout the land for wreaking havoc and and burning villages. I'm sure you have heard of them they're known as the Reds."

Ian coughed and said, "The Reds?" The guard nodded and Ian added on, "They died a long time ago, trust me on that, those people are not them."

"Ian, you've heard of them?" Adam inquired.

He nodded, "The Reds actually work for the East Army, they did a lot of dirty work for them... They're horrible humans, I've met them, and I know those three were never one of them."

"Ha you're information is all wrong! We have proof they are part of the Reds, follow me and I'll show you. Then I'll take you all to an inn." The guard waved us along as another one soon after he left took his place.

We were walking the quiet streets of Rezrin, which was never so heavily guarded the last time we were here, of course thats was about 2 years ago I believe.

"When you said East Army, you meant the one that goes around harassing villages right?" Mitch spoke up in a whisper to Ian. Ian nodded and I noticed Adam clench his fist.

"Those b@stards are a bunch of cowards! They wouldn't know the definition of protection if it hit them right in between the eyes!" Adam exclaimed, earning an immediate smack to the head by Jason.

"Shush, people are trying to sleep."

"Sorry..."

"He's right though, the East Army are a bunch of cowards... A bunch of cowards that deserve to rot in a hole..." Ian muttered to himself but everyone heard him. I could only suspect he has a dark past with them, because we don't know much about Ian. When he joined the team his past remained a mystery, a mystery no one bugged him about because they could sense it was a touchy subject.

"We're here!" the guarded cheered merrily, he lead us to the front of a cozy little inn. Plastered on the front walls were four wanted posters. Three of them were the familiar group of three we ran into earlier this evening, the last one was unfamiliar. A young male, perhaps in his late teens, and had a wide smirk on his face and short hair covering most of his eyes.

"See, right there, wanted for association with the Reds." The guard pointed at the last three pictures, but the first one still remained a mystery.

"What about this one?" Quentin pointed to the first picture, all of us appeared equally curious, besides the guard who seemed unfazed.

"Oh him? He's a nobody, just a made up character we guards asked the town artist to draw. We put up the fake photo just for laughs, nothing really important." The guard reached forward and ripped the paper off the wall, crumpling it in his hands and tossed it behind him.

Ian, out of all of us was the most surprised, not sure why, but it got him really perplexed. The guard rambled on about some other things and said he would take our horses to the stables connected to this inn. We could stay here and rest as long as we needed and that we were welcome anytime.

None of us objected as we walked inside.

>:) How's that?

Some things are going down, more confusion and mysteries, I hope it's not to confusing and bad. ^^;

Yes that was CaptainSparklez, SynHD, and MunchingBrotato, if any of you are going to ask.

~WrittenDarkness