FOREST

[In the forest]

We ran heedlessly but surely away from the explosions, trying to take as much distance from danger and consequently the edge of the forest as we could. The robot dudes had said we were safe in the forest___ well, not exactly safe, but it was supposed to be safer___, I hope they were being truthful.

I ran till my lungs burned and my legs hurt, till I felt like I was dying; then I ran some more. Finally I tripped on a branch and fell headfirst into the undergrowth. Sid helped me up then we trudged forward a little before we couldn't go on anymore. I sat down with my back against a tree and watched Sid do the same opposite me.

I breathed heavily, eyes darting the forest for danger, especially from the direction we came. "Holy fuck!" I said quietly. "They killed people! They really killed people! This is unreal, did you see what shot us?"

"I didn't see anything," Sid said. She looked up. "I think it was drones, I think the attacks came from the sky,"

"Sweet," I looked up. "At least the... Sparse canopy will help us," I just realized what was odd about this forest, these trees. They had leaves! The leaves were sparse and wrinkled, but green leaves nonetheless. They say the decay hit the west more, are we somewhere in Africa? Traveling to Africa in a train? It didn't make sense but it was the few places you can still farm since 2042.

It took us twenty fearful minutes to realize we weren't being pursued and relaxed. I rose to my feet and looked around. No sign of anyone visible, but I could hear others in the distance. The voices were indistinct and faint however. "So what now?" Sid asked, rising too.

"Dunno, we get out of this forest through the other side. You know, head to that wall we saw? Or sit up here and await further instructions.... Damn, I'll give anything for a bottle of water!"

"And which are we doing?"

I looked at the direction we came from and shuddered. "They both have pros and cons. We can head to that wall only to get killed, because obviously we were only told to enter the forest, nothing more. Or we can stay here and still die anyway because we were suppose to head to the wall."

"And we are going to the wall, why?"

"I didn't say that,"

"Sure," Sid rolled her eyes. "Your voice said it all, it was a little higher pitched when you were talking about the wall,"

I glared at her. "Let's get going, I am not slowing down for you,"

After walking for a time we found a large wooden crate just lying in the forest. The box was made of planks put together roughly. Curious, me and my sister walked closer. "You think it's a trap?" I asked.

"I don't know," Sid frowned. "Hey, is there any chance we can just, you know, walk past?"

"Nah," I shook my head. "What if we were meant to find it? Draw back first," I took a few branches and threw it at the crate. When nothing happened I drew back closer.

"Sam I don't think...." Sid said.

I ignored her and pulled the crate open. "Holy shit!" I gasped as I saw what was within. "Sid, come over here,"

Inside the crate lay an assortment of weapons on display. Weird futuristic firearms, swords, daggers, grenades and handguns, all in twos. I looked into Sid's eyes and knew she had the same thought as me. [That shit is about to get bad since we are giving weapons.] I searched the crate for any sign of instructions but saw nothing so I decided to just arm myself.

The guns were unloaded so I had to do it first. The firearms were weird but loaded with the magazine inserted up into the gun the usual way. It took me only a moment to figure it out. "Arming ourselves to fight for our lives," I scoffed. "So much for school. This Camp is more like The Hunt, remember that shitty movie? But I am glad I got that for reference." I looked towards Sid.

She had gotten herself a handgun and was now testing a katana. She pressed a button on the weapon and it lit up with blue electric light. Laser sword, I whistled, why not. I just finished loading the firearm then started loading the pistol when unseen speakers blared above. "Hello ladies and gentlemen," a cynical bubbly voice said. I looked up and glimpsed some drones flirting above the foliage.

Quickly, I ducked under a tree__ heat pounding__ hopefully out of sight. Sid did the same. Like me she stared at the sky panting heavily in fear. "Congratulations on making it here alive fellas, but you have no time to rest yet. In the forests are crates of weapons scattered around at random, but surely enough to go around don't worry." The voice chuckled.

"Oh nice, I see some of you have found them. But if you haven't make sure you do cause things are about to get..., spicy." He laughed again. "This forest is 60 miles stretch to the walls of Camp, I am sure you can see the wall from down there. You have only 6 hours of daylight remaining, so normally it'd take you around two days to get to the wall. But do not bother heading here, you'll not be let in. Which brings us to the fun part, yeah!" He clapped.

"Some of you have played video games and read fantasy novels I believe, so you have an idea about game elements right? Right? Well, surprise!; this forest is infested by those so called fantasy monsters you see in fiction, crazy right? Oh lord, Trolls, goblins, Kobolds crawling around how horrible. But do not fret, the monsters roaming this part of the forest are usually low leveled, level one or twos... You say level three? That'd just be your bad luck.

"Now, using the weapons you are giving you are to hunt these monsters. Every monster drops a level orb behind after death; you are to absorb enough of these orbs to level up to level 1, 12 monster orbs in average I reckon. Only when you level up to level 1 will you be allowed into the wall of Camp, because Camp is the school of super people, yada, yada, yada.

"Ahem, anyway, I know you don't understand or even believe what I am saying, but you just have to follow instructions for now or die resisting... Ah, it's not too bad, you'll see. A little bit of hardship yes, but after leveling up you'll finally transcend baseline humanity, and you'll know what Camp is all about. Good luck fellas and happy hunting!"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The moment the announcement finished, the drones cleared out. It took a moment before we moved; me and Sid went back to the crate. After stocking up enough weapons that we could carry comfortably. That's a rifle, a grenade, a handgun and a dagger each__ I had to dissuade Sid from taking the Katana because it's too impractical__ we set out towards the wall anyway. We were told we won't be let in, but being on the move seemed a better idea than the alternative of sitting ducks waiting to die. Besides, which other direction could we go? Behind is sure death, and the other directions to the side? That might get us lost. Luckily we could still glimpse that tall wall in the distance so that shouldn't be an issue. But still.

"It is too silent," Sid said.

"And?" I asked.

"It means there's probably a predator out here.... Or predators, if we choose to believe that announcement. But I don't think it's really true, fantasy monsters? I mean goblins and orcs, they should be more original; I think they have robots molded into those forms and we are suppose to hunt them...."

"Can you keep it down?" I snapped. "If there are really monsters out here then you are attracting them to us,"

Sid shut her mouth and pouted. We continued walking in silence. Soon we came to a halt as we saw something ahead. We quietly hid behind a tree each before peeking. The creature stood on two feet but it was definitely not Human. It was as tall as a rather short adult man, had hairy white body, hooves instead of feet and a white goat head with large curling horns to complete the look. It looked like a human sheep or something. The sheepman was wearing only loin cloth and a pouch around its waist.

A fantasy creature? What's this supposed to be, a goblin? I don't read those kind of fantasy books but even I found that unlikely. I looked at Sid, ready to attack, but she shook her head. Yeah, I figured she wouldn't just go all kill the monster. Besides, this guy looked intelligent. If it's up to me I don't mind killing the creature much, but...

I bit my lip as I watched the creature go around the glade sniffing weeds before plucking some and stashed them in the pouch.... I sighed finally, and nodded__ in agreement__ to withdraw. We backtracked some distance away before I scowled at her. "You know we are gonna have to kill those things right?"

"Says who?" Sid snapped. "Besides, it looked too real, I don't think that thing is just a robot,"

"This is crazy isn't it?" I rolled my eyes. "But it doesn't matter what that thing is. Hell, it might be a guy in a costume but we have to kill it to live, these Camp guys won't settle for less, you know that!"

Sid glared at me. "You seem eager about it,"

I scoffed shaking my head. "These guys mean business blondie. We gotta do this, it's we or the robot thing," I pleaded. "See I can't do this on my own. I am scared out of my mind too,"

Sid stared at me earnestly with her bright blue eyes for sometime before nodding. She sniffed. "You are right, it's probably a robot anyway,"

"That's the spirit," I held up the firearm. "Let's get this thing!"

Ah, dang!

The creature wasn't where we left it when we returned, so we continued on while looking for any sign of it when suddenly we heard a roar and a giant appeared before us from thin air. The creature was black as obsidian, with leathery scaly skin and a huge bull's head and large horns pointing towards the sky. It had a bulky bull like body but stood on two hooves. On its human like hand it held a giant ax which it quickly swung down at us.

I instinctively dived to the side. I rolled on the ground to put some distance between us but the creature rounded up on me. "Shit!" I cursed and drew away in fright. But on its way to me the creature suddenly jerked then turned around altogether with a mighty roar. Sid was shooting at it. The fact that the firearm shot blue lasers didn't give me a pause, I aimed my rifle and fired too.

The creature roared in anguish under our combined assault then abruptly broke up in pieces of light particles and scattered in the air, disappearing like it has never been there, leaving behind only a glowing silver orb that fell to the ground.

I picked up the orb and inspected it then handed it to Sid to sate her curiosity. "They made this so life like," She said in wonder. "Do you think we can really absorb this?'

I frowned and bit my lip. I wanted to tell her this might be all real, that we really just killed a fantasy creature, not a robot or android or whatever, but it sounded too rediculous even to me. "Let me try," I said.

Catching the orb she threw, I gave it a better look. It was translucent and bright, I could almost see through it. Concentrating, I consciously sought to absorb it and to my surprise it melted to dew and sank into my hand. I gasped as a warm feeling traveled through my body to my heart then disappeared. I felt energized suddenly and smiled in satisfaction. Then my eyes widened at the implication of this all. I looked at Sid and could see the fear I felt mirrored in her eyes.

After that brief stop we continued on. We decided to hunt more of these things since we now know how this game works. Another thing that bugged me is that we didn't come across anyone else. I mean at least a great number of us made it to the forest, plus I could hear them in the distance earlier but we never crossed paths. I wondered if that was coincidental, or is this one of Camp's doing too? Though how they'd do that, I didn't know; it was highly unlikely they were forcing people to stay away from each other.

Sid slowed and I followed her eyes. There was a stream ahead, cutting the way we were headed, before it three of those sheep like creatures were drinking from the river. Like the one earlier they wore only leather loin cloths, with their hairy torso bare. I studied them in amazement, no matter how long I look at it, they looked realistic, nothing like computer generated.

I shook my head at that thought. They couldn't be really living things, I told myself. I readied my gun and glanced at Sid, she looked reluctant but nodded. I wonder when this gun will run out of ammo, if ever, seeing as it spews lasers and all. Anyway, I snuck closer before shooting at the creatures.

Three shrieks resounded in the forest as the Sheepmen tried to flee under two gun fires. I felt like a terrible person all of a sudden after witnessing their human like reaction. Their cries, especially, sounded too human for my liking. That made me freeze and stopped shooting altogether.

Because Sid stopped shooting too, two Sheepmen escaped leaving only the last who stumbled a few steps before bursting into pieces of light. I frowned at the silence that descended in the forest. "You are right blondie," I said. "They are so fucking life like, how did they make this? These things cry like fucking babies!"

I picked the sparkling silver orb and handed it to Sid. "It's yours," I said.

Sid frowned before taking it. She studied it curiously before absorbing it. Then she closed her eyes for sometime. When she finally opened them, her eyes were firm. "These things are not real!" She said as if she just got enlightened, surprising me. "Of course there are not, oh my god! I am so stupid, how could it be real? For a moment there they got me. I mean they just discovered how to make realistic AI!"

"I guess," I said.

"Yes, they wanted us to get cold feet when we see all that stimulated human reactions so we die faster. We can't hold back anymore Sam!"

"You are right blondie," I nodded. Forget that most of the things she said made no sense, but I was not about to discourage her. We deal with things in different ways after all.

"Should we go after those two?" She asked.

But I shook my head. "They are gone Sid, let's just rest here for a bit, have a drink then we can continue."

"Makes sense," she nodded. The river was just wide enough for a person to have to jump over it to get across. I knelt and stared at the water; it was clear and running fast. I took a deep breath then cupped my hands, fetched from it and drank. It was weird, drinking water like this, but my thirst made me drink more. I hope it doesn't make me sick.

After we quenched our thirst I decided to give a little prep talk for both our benefits. "The guy in the speakers said we'd need 12 orbs each to finish this... Ahem level up, that's like 24 in total for two of us. We got 2 already, so 22 to go. Let's do this!"

And so we continued on deeper into the forest.

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