Warnings: Tiny bit of blood

~~~

"I think... I think we lost them..." He breaths, slumping down in exhaustion.
"That is true but..." Jerome continues, peeking over the bush, "I think we lost everyone else too."

~~~

~Jerome's P.O.V.~

Mitch's eyes widen and he whips around the look over the bush. He surveys the area before ducking back and glancing at me with an awestruck expression.

"What are we supposed to do then? I only have ten arrows left and we have no clue which way we came from..."
"I dunno Mitch, this is real bad."

We both look behind the bush once again in hopes to find some answers. But the only clues are our now faint tracks from where we were running. Other than that mobs litter the surrounding area, aimlessly wandering around in the darkness.

"How about we bed down for the night and figure this out in the morning, those wolves tired me out." Mitch suggests, yawning.
"Good idea... I just hope everyone else is okay."

Mitch nods solemnly in agreement before we scoop out a small area of snow from behind the bush. Setting our few possessions to the side we curl up on the cold hard ground and attempt to get at least a decent nights sleep.

~~~

Yawning deeply and groggily trying to regain consciousness I rise from my place on the snow dusted ground. Thankfully I managed to get some good rest in but one thing for sure is my back is now aching from the uncomfortable sleeping position. I squint up at the canopy, observing the dim morning light squeezing through small gaps in the thick leaves. Then cracking my back and neck I slowly emerge from behind the bush and scan the area for mobs. All clear.

I turn back towards the sleeping Mitch who is curled up in a small ball, resting peacefully. I kneel down and gently poke his back.

"Mitch." I whisper, "Benja get up."

He stirs in his sleep but I'm not successful in waking him. Irritated I tap him a bit more forcefully, raising my voice a tiny bit.

"Get up Mitch, we need to get moving."

This time he groans, adjusting slightly so he can look at me from the corner of his now half lidded eye. He drags a hand down his face, sighing, before slowly pushing himself up so he's sitting. Then with a yawn and a small cough he's up on his feet, fussing with his hair so it's not messy.

"Ready to go?" I question, stooping down to retrieve our weapons and handing Mitch his bow.

He nods, slinging the bow over his back and following me as I step around the bush and examine the snowy ground for our footprints. Spotting them we retrace our path, snow crunching beneath our feet and cold wind biting at our faces. Eventually we come across the clearing where we were separated from everyone else. It's no longer snowing but because of the light wind most of everyones tracks are covered, leaving little to no hints on the direction of anyone else. Although some of the snow is still stained lightly with blood and the corpses of a few wolves still lay in the snow, slightly torn by crows that had come to feast in their meat.

"Which way should we go?" Mitch inquires, stepping up beside me.

I examine the battle field and notice that the snow is more disturbed to the West, according to the suns position. In every other direction the snow seems untainted by living things. So since the sun is directly behind us, meaning we are facing West, I decide we should cut across the field and head into the trees on the opposite side.

"Let's go that way, I have a feeling that's where the other four went." I explain to Mitch, pointing towards the tree line.

And so we trudge across the snow covered field, heading in a straight line in hopes of finding signs of any of our friends. Along the way I notices a very very small line of blood, veering of towards the right. And from what I heard durning the battle I'm guessing that blood once belonged to Rob. Although further on the trail of red disappears, leaving it impossible to track it any farther. Well at least we're going the right way...

Stepping into the bush it's only then that Mitch's stomach gurgles, reminding both of us we hadn't eaten for the past two days.

"We need to find some food..." I mumble, my stomach now joining in with the gurgling.
"I agree, at this point worms would even do." Mitch replies, patting his stomach.
"I don't think we've reached that point yet Mitch." I chuckle, rolling my eyes, "We can still go at least five more days without anything."
"True that."

As we continue our journey deeper into the woods we try our best to keep going straight, although we do have to circle around trees and bushes seeing as we can't exactly pass through them. But Mother Nature must have heard our cries because after a few more meters a large bush appears in our vision. But not just any bush. This bush is lined with small blue objects, plump and un tattered.

"BLUEBERRIES!" We shout in unison, bounding to the push and instantly picking off the berries.

Wasting no time I shove a hand full of the berries into my mouth, savouring their sweet taste. Almost every single berry is ripe and un damaged. We spend the next fifteen minutes filling ourselves with blueberries until there are only a few handfuls left on the bush. Stomach now satisfied I pick the remaining blueberries. But instead of eating them I set them gently down on the ground before plucking a few dead maple leaves off the branches of a bare tree and create a small pouch to stash the blue berries in for later. Or if we find everyone else so they can have some too.

"Is that all of them?" Mitch questions, emerging from the other side of the bushes.

I nod as he wipes off some of the juice that had dribbled into his chin. Without another word we abandon the now empty blueberry bush, continuing on West.

~Time skip brought to you by generic-o's~ (Anyone get the reference? No? I'll add in a video...)

Hours later and we are now in a small clearing, with extra deep snow. The clearing goes straight forward for a looooong time but to the left of it endless trees sprout from the ground, most of them being pine and spruce. The sun is now low in the sky, tainting it with pinks and oranges.

"We should probably stop here for the night... Eh Jerome?"

I nod, coming to a stop a couple meters out of the trees. For the most part the sky is clear, expect for a few grey clouds off in the distance.

"Let's set up in the trees just in case snow decides to come in durning the night." I state, but Mitch isn't listening.
"Jerome look."

I follow his finger a couple hundred meters away to a small journal laying in the snow. Mitch starts towards it but I clutch his arm stopping him.

"Wait Mitch, the sun is going to set and I don't wanna be stuck out here with mobs. Let's go set up a place to sleep and then in the morning we can check it out."

Mitch stares at me, then the book, then back to me. He frowns and pulls his arm away, turning back towards the book.

"I'll be quick, I promise. You can go set up a shelter and I'll go and get the book."

Sighing deeply, knowing I can't change his mind, I watch as he jogs towards the book in the distance. But for his safety I slowly trail after him, making sure he's no more than fifteen meters ahead of me. He's only halfway there when the first spider spawns, scuttling around twenty some meters away.

"Hurry up Mitch, a spiders just spawned!" I call after him in alarm, drawing my axe.

He waves his arm dismissively, continuing to jog towards the journal. I scowl, sprinting after him and decapitating a zombie that had spawned behind him. The rotting head drops to the ground with a thump, a small pool of blood seeping into the snow. Mitch reaches the journal, scooping it up before hurrying back towards me. But then suddenly a couple strays spawn directly between us. They are like normal skeletons, but they only spawn in snowy areas and they have blue leather clothing and blank white eyes. Not only that but their arrows inflict slowness. The lock onto me, drawing their bows and rushing my way. The first one let's an arrow sail towards me and I whack it to the side with my axe. But there's no way I'd be fast enough to block the second arrow speeding after it. The arrow plunges into my arm and I yell out in agony, dropping my axe.

"JEROME!" Mitch shrieks, drawing back his bow and sticking an arrow through one of the strays head.

I yelp as I pluck the arrow from my arm, blood staining its tip and now flowing out of my arm. All at once it feels like my whole body weighs triple its weight and I'm slowed drastically. So much so that a full out sprint would be considered a light jog. As quickly as I can I pick up my axe, turning on my heels and shuffling towards the trees. Another arrow whizzes by my head before I hear the shattering of bones behind me. While still 'running' I glance back over my shoulder to see Mitch has shot down both strays, looting them of their arrows. He runs up to me, shooting down an approaching zombie before hooking my arm over his shoulder and dragging me along with him.

"I am so sorry Jerome." Mitch grunts as he helps me settle down in the trees, sheltered from the new swarm of mobs outside.
"It's okay, I forgive you, but don't do it again okay?"

Mitch nods, sadly gazing at the ground and refusing to meet my eyes. I examine my now gushing arm, a new wave of pain flooding through me and causing me to wince. If it don't fix this soon...

"Here let me help you Jerome..." Mitch says, interrupting my thoughts.

He sets down the damp brown journal before kneeling in front of me and undoing my red tie.

"Hold out your arm dood."

I comply, slowly lifting my arm so he can have access to the wound. Gently he wraps the tie around the hole, tying into a tight double knot. Blood staines the tie a darker shade of red but now at least the blood has stopped dripping. Mitch sits back in the fluffy snow, looking apologetically at me. He then reaches to the side and grabs the journal, gingerly flipping it open and scanning the pages.

"Well... What does it say?"
"... Nothing. The pages are blank. But... This could come in handy, you never know. It's damp but it's the driest material we have right now."

Although a bit ticked off there is no useful information contained in its wrinkled pages, I realize Mitch does have a point.

"Let's just get to sleep, today's been an active day."
"Yeah..."
"Goodnight Mitch."
"Night Biggums."

~~~