"Holy hell." The boy groaned through a mouthful of blood and vomit as he turned to wretch into a growing pile of steaming filth. The golden sky burned above him, a small bit of his mind mused at the possibility that the forest around him was on fire but the pain that ran through his body blanketed the thought. The world was a haze of red and gold, blood ran into his eyes, for some reason he had fallen, face first, onto an open hill top. Blinking to clear his vision and with all the strength he possessed, held himself up with buckling legs and stared into the dark canopy of the world.

All around him, miles of shadow black forest stretched into the horizon. Below him a trickling pond; fed by a little waterfall no higher than his waist. The setting sun warmed his frigid body in a flood of yellow light and for a moment he closed his eyes and simply basked in it, the pain subsiding beneath the warm touch of the sun. "Come on Roky, let's go." He spoke softly and felt the pain once more well up in his body. "Ow..."

Carefully he made his way down to the stream fed pond. It babbled quietly to itself as Roky dipped his face slowly into the water. It broke coldly over his hot flesh and without thinking filled both his nostrils and mouth with water. His brain panicked and he shot back out of the pond and coughed and gulped air. "Don't do that again stupid." Roky chuckled, the taste gone from his mouth and the terrible smell washed clean from his nose. Shuffling over to a fresh spot of pond he dipped his hands into the water and sipped from them. The water so so clean and tasted like no water he had ever drank. Its purity seemed to flush the pain from his body, it healed him as he sat, dripping water onto his cold, bare arms.

His fingers clasped and dipped once more into the pool, he examined the water he held so tenderly. It was so serene to him, holding the water aloft, brushing against his fingers a little green fish circled, tickling his palms. "Hello." Roky spoke softly, his sense of the world gone. "You wouldn't know where we are would you?" His eyes beamed down intently, the fish swam in circles, its six, tiny fins working the water frantically. "You want to go back, all right then, I guess I'm not terribly interesting company for a fish. There you go."

The fish fell shortly to the water and rejoined its brothers and sisters. Roky couldn't help but smile, he loved watching families, something so natural was alien to him. The others, speckled orange and red welcomed the little fish back. He watched them soundlessly, barely breathing, happy in their content at having back the little green. The sounds of the forest drew him away, his eyes closed, steadily and heavy. Long ululating calls rang out every few minutes, their loud, harshness clouded Roky's mind over the quieter, less distant chirps and squeaks of others. It was an ordered din, if there could be such a thing. Like an orchestra made up of poorly made instruments. Yet it was serene, lulling, awesome and tiring. Before Roky knew it, he awoke, hours later, face sticking with the prickly grass.

Roky looked up, a great big moon watched over him, it was terrifying and large, a basketball in the sky. He thought he heard voices, but his neck, back, legs and arms were stiff and numb, wanting to move all he could manage were a few twitches of his fingers. The effort tired him more, a voice covered him like a warm blanket, soft and feminine, a smile crossed his face. "Hhhlluh?" Was all Roky could say, he forced his head to tilt to the side, but no one was there.

"Its okay, I'm here." It said again, Roky melted, tears flooded his eyes, emotions he didn't know he had washed over him like a tidal wave.

"Huhss thrr?" He grumbled out, cold hands, lithe and wonderful against his hot skin turned his moon pale face.

"I think you've been poisoned. Have you eaten anything?" Roky shook, or rather convulsed his reponse, the shadowy girl seemed to frown. "You drank the water then?" Roky blinked frantically. "That can't be it then, I drank it too and nothing happened."

Then it hit him, the fish, Roky thought, the fish are poisoned. The tingling in his hands wasn't the fish tickling him but more than likely a defensive poison working into his skin. "Fssh... Fishhh!" Roky groaned, panic was soon over him, his little friend had tried to kill him, or was killing him.

The girl brushed her long, shining hair behind her ear and stared into the pond. For a brief moment Roky caught a glimpse of her face. It was death pale in the moonlight, but smooth and invigorating. Roky felt warmth course through him, though a part of him laughed that he was merely aroused instead of feeling better. She stared hardly into the water, a hand poised, wanting to quest into its depths. Roky found he could move his head and shook it from side to side, he grunted feeling the sharp grass poking into his ears. "You're right," The girl gave a pitiful laugh. "How dumb would I be if I were get poisoned too? Here, you're shaking." She hefted his head up into lap, her legs issuing warmth through her jeans, Roky shuttered as he came to the realization of how cold he really was.

"Thanks." He coughed, his throat dry and scratchy. "If it isn't too much to say, you're beautiful." Roky caught the stunned girl's expression, her lips pursed as if to speak but Roky had feinted once more.

"Mmmm." Roky nuzzled his face deeper into something warm and soft, light from what he guess was a sun, afront his closed eyes and he clutched closer a body.

As his mind rose, steadily to the surface he wondered what had happened to the girl who had helped him. He suddenly felt terrible, he hadn't even asked her name or given her his. His fingers idly moved over smooth flesh but still nothing seemed a miss and he warmed his face between a pair of soft mounds. Before his brain had actually grasped what he was doing Roky cried out frantically and pushed himself away from the girl. Surprisingly she still slept, Roky felt lucky, his face was beat red with guilt and anxiety. He'd been groping her all morning, his brain comfortably nestled between two pillows of soft ignorance. He stared down at himself, his guilt clearly attempting to escape. The girl stirred and looked down, her supple breasts nearly pouring out of her low cut top, she sat up quickly and began to right herself.

"How are you feeling?" Her voice seemed concerned, not judging, but even so Roky couldn't bare to face her after what he'd done.

Roky stammered around an answer for a long while before answering. "Much better, thanks, a lot."

"It was nothing, but your head is bleeding! Here, let me-"

"No, no! Its fine, I guess I just scratched a scab, its nothing." Roky thought he looked and felt much like a boiled lobster, his entire body was red with embarrassment.

"Are you sure? You don't seem all right." Roky could hear the girl getting up, he stepped away as he heard her feet closing the distance. "Why are you running away?"

"I'm not running away, I just need to move around, my legs need some exercise that's all."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

This stopped Roky dead, the world seemed to close in on him, he flinched feeling her delicate fingers wrap around his wrist. "Are you-"

"No... of course not. Just... antsy."

For a brave second Roky turned to face her and nearly died. All his self-consciousness, self-hating flooded over him. He felt small and dirty standing beside her. The young woman was just a bit shorter than he was, her face was perfect but for a dark bruise above her left eye. Long blond hair fell behind her shoulders in curling locks. Her eyes tore through him like a whipping blade of a propeller, shockingly blue, it was as if he could see right through her through her eyes as they matched and made pale the brilliant sky behind her. He could feel his gut suck back into his stomach and he subconsciously puffed himself up, attempting, moronically to mimic some manner of greatness. Roky had touched such a creature, whose skin was pale and unblemished like a roll of silk upon a tablet of polished marble. Roky had pushed himself into her bosom and grabbed her while she slept, he felt disgusted yet in that one second the world seemed to fall apart around him.

"Its okay, really, we'd probably have frozen if we didn't..." A sheepish smile crossed her face, it was her turn to redden.

"I didn't mean- I mean, I was asleep- I..."

"Its fine. Really." She brushed a few stray hairs behind her ear, Roky managed to draw breath for the first time in a long while.

"So no touching the fish then." Roky said, the girl laughed and the awkwardness had dissolved.

"At least we have water." She laughed and seemed to come to a final realization. "I'm Brianna by the way."

"Roky... Serter."

The two shook hands awkwardly and had another laugh. Roky had led them to the top of the hill, not a fair distance away from his small pile of vomit. They looked out onto the world, above the tree tops. It was almost too much to bare, to the west and east there was nothing but a sea of green. to the north, a vast and titanic wall of mountain ranges, tipped in white upon storm grey mountains. The south yielded a single mountain, more of a hill, in the distance. It seemed terribly lonely, they felt a likeness to the southern mountain, alone atop all the frightening trees. The trees, whose trunks were comprised of hundreds of what looked like smaller trees all wrapped together like a community of bark and branch. They rose impossibly high, thick branches tangled together, everything was so sublime it made the clearing seem all the more unnatural in such a place.

For hours they stood, fear and loneliness overwhelming them. Brianna, somewhere in the hours that they stood there had taken Roky's hand tightly. Only when they spotted a group of people emerging from the forest did he realize he was squeezing back. The group wandered around the pool, a few stooped to drink, it was then that the grim reality brought them back to life.

"Don't drink that!" They screamed in unison, every one of them jumped and looked around, Roky and Brianna hurled themselves down the hill.

"Who the hell are you?" A boy, a bit older and taller than Roky glared at them, he looked vicious and fought the urge to dive into the pool and drink till he burst.

Realizing they were still holding hands Roky let go and flexed out the stiff muscles. He looked cautiously to them all, he wanted to speak but no words would come. "The fish are poisonous, just be careful. The water is okay." Brianna recovered herself and spoke going over to the pond.

"Then why the hell would you tell us not to drink it then if its okay? Morons." The boy spat and knelt down and drank deeply from the pool.

"Cut it out Adrian." Came a heavy, Australian accent, Roky and Brianna turned to look at a tall, darkly tanned man with sandy hair and a rough, stubbly face. "You're always such an arse."

"We wanted to warn you." Roky made out quietly, everyone looked at him sternly, a moment of thankfulness greeted him.

"Thanks mate, I don't suppose anyone has a razor on them eh?"

Everyone seemed to laugh, the three males were beginning to look rough around the cheeks, the women seemed more interested in drinking. With the group were the older man and Adrian as well as two younger girls and a woman that seemed about the same age as the Australian. There are seven of us, Roky thought unable to do much else, everyone seemed to be draining the energy out of him. Occasionally Adrian would glare over at him, his piercing eyes ripping at Roky, his blue shirt was torn in a number of places and his jeans looked worse for wear. The Australian introduced himself as Bradley Fayar, the older woman too was Julie Trudard. The little girls, probably fourteen or fifteen offered their names, Kaylee and Jessica. Kaylee was snide where Jessica was quiet, it seemed odd that they were friends, Roky imagined that Kaylee probably owned Jessica somehow.

"So what do we do?" Julie asked sitting beside Brianna, her dark, raven hair contrasting her pale skin. She was staring at Roky, who froze and shrugged. "Does anyone even know where we are?"

"In England somewhere, last thing I remember is Stonehenge and a bright light." Bradley said after a long drink, the tips of his hair dripping little, glistening beads as he stood. "Then I was falling, landed on a shrub a couple miles out and that's when I found you lot."

"I don't think we're in England." Roky managed confidently, Adrian's eye glared up at him.

"Then where are we tubby? France?" Roky glared back at the devious face but he couldn't find the strength to fight back. "Can't really say where we are can we? Anyone have a compass?"

"The fuck does a compass have to do with anything?" Roky snarled, he could see Brianna out of the corner of his eye hide a grin, Bradley laughed a little.

"You wanna go fatty?" Adrian was on his feet and closing the distance between him and Roky.

Adrian rolled up the sleeves on his shirt, Roky's heart pounded, he hadn't fought in years and that fight didn't go as well as he'd hoped. Distantly the others made weak calls to stop them but Adrian lunged and Roky instinctively brought up a fist. The clenched hand soared past, but in an attempt to block one of Adrian's blows Roky's elbow connected with the boy's temple and the fight semed over. Adrian lay motionless on the ground, Roky sore from the landed blow to his shoulder.

On the ground Adrian squirmed and coughed and growled. Pain blinded him and he kicked out like a wounded animal, trying feverishly to avenge himself from the ground. Roky backed away and looked, feeling scared, around to the others who all seemed to smile or applaud him except Kaylee who sneered at him.

"You son of a bitch!" Adrian cursed getting to his feet, he punched at Roky who couldn't seem to find it in him to fight back. "Fucking touch me, you don't deserve to breathe the same fucking air as me! You fat piece of shit I'll fucking kill you!"

Roky was on the ground and being kicked and punched and kneed. He was bleeding, the wound in the head was open and bled freely again. He felt weak but the attacks felt numb like he wasn't entirely feeling them. A fist connected with his jaw and stars and pain blitzed him. Steely blood washed his mouth and he coughed and gasped for air. After a moment the blows stopped, Adrian stood panting over him, Roky glared up between coughs and gags. Roky shot his foot out and kicked Adrian's knee, a resounding pop echoed over the group, followed by an ear splitting scream.

Adrian fell to the ground, clutching his leg, pain shot through him like white hot fire. His vision blurred and screamed curses at Roky. Kaylee rushed to his side and tried to help, Brianna too flew Roky's side and began to wipe the blood away. Struggling, Roky stood, his body sore, hardly bruised but bleeding. He stood over Adrian, hatred, blind anger had gripped him. Roky lowered his foot upon Adrian's knee and pushed to the ground. Roky's eyes, little more than black pits glared down, murderous intent gripping him so tightly that he shook. Adrian whimpered as his leg painfully extended down onto the ground. With a sharp grunt Roky threw all his weight onto the knee and the entire forest echoed with an ear piercing scream.

Brianna pulled Roky to the ground and buried herself in his chest, sobbing and terrified. Roky tried to get up but the girl weighed him down, her locked arms held him tightly immobile. It was a long time until Adrian was hoarse enough to stop screaming and resided merely to sobbing in pain, his knee moved freely every time he shifted his weight.

Roky had moved himself to the top of the hill crest and faced away from them until dusk had fallen. Bradley tried his best to keep everyone's spirits up, Julie, a newly graduated nurse had attempted to reset the knee. She'd ventured into the forest and found dried roots and a pair of thick but sturdy branches to hold the leg in place. Adrian cursed Roky all afternoon, screaming up at him that he would kill him in his sleep. Roky passed off the threats. His face and body hurt from the assault and his mouth tasted of blood well after the sun had fallen.

He stared into the forest, eyes heavy, the cold nipping at his bare arms and face. It made his wounds feel better but those he hardly cared about. Brianna approached him after the sun had set, carrying water in her hands. Roky pitifully accepted it and drank from her palms. When the water was gone she touched her frigid hands to his face and neck, it was a horrible comfort to be cold and in pain, the only balm available being the frosty wet hands of a girl who seemed absolutely terrified of him.

"I'm sorry." Roky mumbled through her hands, when she took them away he stared into her eyes, unable to read them.

"You fought back, nothing to be sorry about." Her voice was low and sounded of a force calm.

"But you're afraid of me now." Roky said bitterly, hating himself and his words. "I'm such a-"

"Shut up!" Brianna barked and slapped Roky across the face, his lip opened up and bled again, Roky let it dribble down his chin and onto his jeans. "I'm not afraid of you. I'm just afraid." She sat, hunched over her lap, her shoulders looked to be weighing the girl down. "We have no food, no shelter, we can't even make a fire because no one wants to go into the forest. And Adrian, god what an asshole. Who cares if you're..." Brianna seemed to stumble on her words, she hadn't planned on pointing out Roky's excessive love handles.

"Fat? I do. It isn't fun. Today just reminded me of most of my early school life. Only I actually fought back, most times I just let them fuck me up." Tears welled in his eyes, he lowered his face and let them flow, she couldn't see them that way.

"I'm glad you fought back. You're a better person than he is and he was completely out of line!"

"Stop trying to make me feel better." Roky sighed, bringing Brianna to protest.

"But-"

"Stop. I don't like being cheered up. I know, I'm weird."

Brianna shuffled over and rested her head on his warm shoulder. The air was cooling down drastically, the cold air from the mountains cascading over the forest. Her hands found his and Roky laughed despite himself. He'd socially exiled himself from people for so long he barely knew how to interact with them. Brianna felt warm against his skin as she nuzzled into him, Roky went to put an arm around her but stopped. Something was in the forest, a light, maybe a fire. Roky stood, knocking Brianna away. He took a few steps down the hill and paused.

"It can't be."

"Is that a light? Has someone come to find us?"

"I don't know..." Roky stood there, debating his next words. "I'm gonna go look. Stay here, it'll... be safer."

"Roky don't, I'll go get-"

"No, I'll go, just stay here, please?"

The moon had crested the mountains to their right, Roky's face pleaded against the silky blue hue of moonlight. Brianna shook her head, even as Roky began the descent into the trees. She turned and ran to the others, but when Bradley and Julie returned Roky was no where to be seen. The trio watched in awe at the light, too afraid even to speak of it. Bradley wanted to go but a primal fear held him in place. He'd never seen trees or grass or fish or anything like where they were. The light may be people, or it could be something else entirely. His mind flew always to the latter and he hated himself for not going after Roky.

For over an hour Roky sat watching the pond, little fish swam in its crystal shallows and without care for his surroundings, named each and every one of them. In the far distance a voice called out for help, or for someone to answer them. A dangerous sneer spread across Roky's face, his silence had been broken and to top it off he had forgotten which fish was Moses. His eyes scanned between the thick trunks of the forest, thick, he thought, was an understatement. One could carve a comfortable room inside one of these trees. In the far distance a glint of white passed between the trees and what he thought was a blue shirt. He looked down at his own clothes, a dirt ridden black shirt and jeans with the right knee torn apart from his landing.

With a final mouthful of water Roky climbed stubbornly to his feet, his legs had recovered, if only a little and made for the tree line. Their calls remained unanswered as he walked over to where he had spotted them, his right knee giving out a number of times before he stopped beneath the canopy of a mighty tree. Before he could open his mouth to call out to them he heard a third voice, frantic and panic stricken, cut through the air. A wave of solemn relief washed over Roky and with a wince he turned back to his pond. In the distance he could hear sobbing and cursing, but his interest was not with them, but the funny little fish in his pond.

The voices filed themselves in with the rest of the forest sounds, freakishly long cooing, high pitched clicks and a dull thudding as if something large and powerful were using one of the trees as a sparring partner. The voices though had become quiet in the next hour or so that Roky had spent dipping his hand into the pond to try and coddle one of the fish. He did not mind, for the pain was still very real to him, and he needed a simple joy to pass the time until his body was ready to move about again. When the voices had fallen dead to his ears Roky laid back and stretched, his skin crawling in prickling goose-pimples.

"There's someone down there! Look, I see someone!"

"Then say something, don't just point at it."

"I was going to! Hey! Hello! Can you hear me?"

"I sure can."

Roky sat, the pain had mostly left him but his joints ached and with a lazy nod turned his head towards the voices. Eyebrows raised as he discovered there were many figures approaching him, though he did not remember hearing them in the distance. He smiled to himself remembering that he had not cared enough to pay them that much mind. "Hello?" One of the girls circled around the pond, her blond hair falling over her face as she tried to peer into Roky's eyes.

"Can I help you?" Roky shot back, not entirely amused that people were eyeing his water with a thirsty intent. He glared maliciously as one of them, the man with the blue button-up shirt knelt down and drank deeply from the pool. "Don't drink too much, you might vomit."

The man looked at Roky quizzically and wiped his mouth, Roky's black eyes burned into his soul, demanding he back away from the pool. With slow motions the man got to his feet and stepped away, Roky sighed and turned back to the girl. She stood straight now, her prominent chest catching his eyes, supple breasts strained the fabric of a tight necked, cream coloured sweater. His eyes drifted down to her tight jeans, dirtied with what he absentmindedly guessed was from falling like he had, her shoes too were ruined with dirt and mud. At last his eyes found hers, a brilliant shade of brown that seemed to glow amber in the darkening sky. Her cheeks were rose red and her golden hair was now tucked behind her ears. "So what's up?" the girl seemed startled, he recognized the agony in her eyes as she seemed to have hoped that Roky had been someone who knew where they were and why.

"You're... one of us?" A pained look streaked across her face and immediately she began to sob.

"Shut the hell up for God's sake." Roky spat the envenomed words with a sinister ire. "I hate crying, and since it won't get you anything stop it. Now!" He barked, everyone jumped back and the girl fell back, teary eyes gazing back at him.

"You don't have to such an asshole you know." Another girl, noticeably older remarked from his left.

Roky whipped his head around, eyes boring into her like a white hot knife into her flesh. "Go drown yourself." And he pointed to the pond, the woman shook and backed away. Roky pulled himself to his feet, blinking once or twice to adjust his eyes. Everyone backed away, fearful for themselves, the girl on the ground made no move. "There's no sense in panicking is there?" His voice was calm, almost sing-song like as he cooed the words. "We know we're lost, good for us, we know we have water, all the better to survive with. What we don't know is how far we are from someplace with food, heat and fresh clothes. Now, I think, no one knows how we got here. Sadly, and I know everyone will agree with me on this one that, how we got here doesn't matter, so let's not waste air talking about it until we've found food and heat. There's seven of us, a lucky number, all the better since I think we're going to need a littler luck around here. Let's get the pleasantries out of the way. I'm Roky Serter and the last thing I remember is falling ten feet into this clearing."

Everyone relaxed as they listened to his low soothing voice, his malice had drained away and everyone seemed to nod to themselves. "I'm Brianna, the last thing I remember is landing on something hard, I've been having a bit of trouble breathing ever since." Her hand went suddenly to her left breast and Roky felt a twinge of regret having yelled at her merely moments ago for crying when she may have been doing so out of pain instead of fear.

"I'm Julie Trudard, I fell too, not from ten feet, but it hurt." Roky nodded to her almost like an apology but reserved the vocal to come later should she prove herself deserving of one. The woman bore dark hair, black in the fading light, her eyes matching her hair. She wore a black collared shirt and matching pants, something about her reminded Roky of a tour guide but he let it slip from his mind.

"Bradly Fayar, I actually woke up in a tree, good thing they have vines or I'd still be up there." The group gave a light chuckle as he sat down and massaged some heat back into his arms. Roky noted the deep red vest he wore, it puffed out and reminded him of a hunter, his sleeveless plaid shirt visible beneath the vest, a regular hill-billy, Roky thought.

"Adrian Baroch," the one with the blue buttoned shirt said, his voice clearly unsure of whether he trusted Roky or not, Roky grinned inwardly knowing that Adrian shouldn't trust him. "Feels like I took a header out of plane, my shoulder is pretty screwed up."

"Pity." Roky stared at him absently, his gazed shift back to Brianna and a warm sensation of butterflies danced in his chest.

"I'm Julie, this is my friend Jessica, she's still pretty shook up and hasn't spoken since I found her." Curiously Roky spun around to face them, they were both terribly attractive, Julie clad in a jeans jacket and Jessica in a four sizes too big, pink sweater. Both wore their light brown hair in tight ponytails, Roky would have taken them for sisters if she hadn't just told him they weren't.

"Oh well." Roky shrugged, then turned his attention to their surroundings.

Darkness had crept upon them and now the only light came from the trees, an odd glow, yet bright enough to illuminate the group. He had mistaken the light to be the last vestiges of sunlight, but looking up he was greeted by a field of twinkling stars. A chilling thought fingered up his spine and into his head as he looked for the star that would resemble Earth. With the force of such fear and suspicion weighing on his mind, Roky fought the tears and heartache that welled inside him and pointed to the forest.

"I'm not tired, so I'm going to look around, anyone want to come with?"

The others stared at him, like he had changed into some kind of incomprehensible creature. With a grunt he pushed his way past Brianna, catching her sweet perfume on a breeze. He longed to engage her, even socially but the crushing thought of being stranded on a planet that wasn't Earth desired heedless confirmation.

High above him, in the dense canopy hung strange lanterns that pulsed with an eerie fluidity. His shadow was black against the dirt ground, Roky bent over and touched the dirt, it was as dry as anything, no wonder he hadn't seen any shrubs or other plants, he thought. To his left a veined root crept from the ground, splitting off somewhat like a wooden spider's web. Carefully he approached it and with a courage he found only in the realization that he was, eventually, going to die here did he touch the root. It felt soft like velvet, not hard and rough like trees on Earth and looked as if hundreds of holes had been drilled into it. "All the better to drink with my dear." Roky mused in absolute wonder, he considered tasting it but didn't chance his luck.

Tens of the spider roots decorated the forest floor, he wandered in a straight line as best he could until he spotted something strange. On the ground something glowed brightly, pulsing frantically. Roky approached confidently, the thing seemed as if it were struggling in the sandy dirt. It was a giant slug, about the size of a four year old child who had been fed far too much and Roky could see its strange innards beating and straining in its fleshy cage. A dark spot poked out of the ground and Roky yelped and climbed atop a high root. The new thing was no creature but what looked like a black snake made of the same strange bark the spider roots had. It arched over the wriggling creature and with a sound like tearing flesh spread a hundred root-like fingers over the glowing slug. Within minutes a cage had formed around the glow-slug and from the pores on the bark dribbled clear drops of liquid that hissed menacingly upon tits flesh. A moment passed and without warning the thick, clear membrane of the slug tore apart, the acid from the roots tearing holes in its body. Stinking grime and fluids flooded the area and the roots seemed to come alive as new webs sprouted at the tips to drink of the glowing fluids.

Roky nearly wretched at the smell, his brain spun and the world appeared to be spinning rather violently on another axis. Such was his dizziness that Roky fell from the tall root, one of his fingers dipped into the yellow liquid as he hit the ground. With all his strength Roky pulled himself up and away and dashed away to seek fresher air. When he had regained a measure of himself he noticed the tip of his finger glowed brightly and buried it in the dirt, trying to wipe off the reeking slime. Staring at his dirty hand the tip of his index still glowed brightly, there was no pain, no pleasure, no tingling, for now he would resign himself to being in the clear and with that he found his old tracks and made to run past the awfulness of the sucking vines and decomposing slug.

His legs took him farther than he had wanted, the smell still burning in his lungs like a malignant cancer. He struggled for breath and reached out for something to lean on and fell, face first into the dry dirt. His ears caught the distant thudding and tearing of something large in the near vicinity. Roky's eyes widened in blurred terror as another slug dropped with a sickening thud to the ground. Minutes later, as his eyes were closing and dreariness captured him did he gaze into the eyes of something not resembling anything he had ever seen before. Marble white spheres, protruding from a great flat skull bore down upon him. The animal's bulk amplified by the fact that every step it took caused Roky's head to bounce off the ground.

Fear and panic flooded over him as his brain meticulously shut down. Tears drawing puddles of mud in the dry dirt. The end is here, Roky kept thinking, he couldn't feel his body and began to sob as his ears picked up the crunching of teeth. The darkness of his mind finally claimed him, his body limp and his mind plummeted into a deep sleep.

"He's been gone for hours." Bradley paced, wishing he had something else to wear, something far warmer in the frigidly cold night.

"Roky said not to worry if he weren't back soon, he did say to worry if we heard his chilling death throes... though that isn't entirely comforting." Brianna sat under the bulk of an exposed root, the group had decided that it was far warmer near the forest than out by the pond. Her arms still favoured her sore ribs, everyone watched her but did not say anything, none of them knew how to help her.

"I want to go look for him." Adrian said getting to his feet. "Even though he's kind of heavy he looks like he could throw down something fierce. If we find anyone that wants us dead, it would be good to have him."

"Where the hell do you come up with that shit?" Bradley laughed and rubbed his forehead. "Have you seen any kind of hint or sign of civilization?"

"No, I've been standing here all day, in this clearing, wondering why the forest is glowing and whether or not we're all going to get cancer from standing too close to it." Adrian threw his arms up into the air and made sure to kick the root of the tree they were under as hard as he could. "Why did he want to go alone anyway?"

"He didn't you moron," Julie growled, an angry eye peeked out from her concealing darkness within the root beside Brianna. "He asked if anyone wanted to go with him and you stood there looking like an idiot with your finger up your ass."

"The hell crawled into your pants?"

"Look, I'm tired, I'm fucking scared for my life, a friend of ours might be dead or dying in that frigging place and all you can do is stand there and bitch like... a little bitch! Just shut up and let us go to sleep!"

When the bitter echo had fallen prey to night, Julie and the girls fell back into the root cave and slept. It wasn't a peaceful sleep, but none the less they slept. Adrian continued to pace around the camp until it had worn the last nerve of Bradley. He got to his feet and with a resounding crack Adrian fell unconscious.