The night was long and quiet. No one talked after the flare above was extinguished, as a resolved hush fell over the group. They all simply curled up on the rock isolating themselves from one another, each lost in their thoughts. There was no shared dinner that evening, each would simply eat what could be salvaged from their supplies whenever they felt like it.

The blood had soaked through everything. Looking into his bag, Jake found his blanket dyed black and sticky, and a small pool of blood remained undrained at the bottom of the bag long after the group had escaped the pull of the lake. Jake emptied his bag of blood and twisted his blanket out hoping to remove the blood but found it stuck hard and fast, coating everything.

The rest of the group faired no better. Leopold probably had it the worst, his armor was in disarray, and he would find pockets of blood congealed within it as he took it off, weighing him down at awkward angles that made moving within and outside of the lake difficult. Rick didn’t bother checking his bags, instead spending his time cleaning himself and polishing his knives, though this task seemed more difficult than it had been before as now the handkerchiefs he would use were stained through.

Lana sat quietly, curled up not bothering to check her luggage or remove the blood coating her in any way. She looked completely dejected following the extinguishing of the flare from the sky, more so than anyone else. An empty haze overtook her gaze as she stared downward and she never bothered eating anything well into the evening. Jake worried for her, casting her several worried glances as he attended to cleaning his ruined supplies, but at the moment he felt he didn’t have the luxury to personally go check on her.

Right now, he was worried about all of them. Rick and Leopold, in between cleaning or organizing what could be salvaged of their gear, peered over the edge of the rock they sat perched on into the unknown beyond. Before, as they navigated the plains, Rick and Leopold held a sort of confidence about them. Jake couldn’t understand what they saw at all, but the two had led the group forward while noting interesting geography or shifts in elevation. Now none of that remained, just an endless rippling lake of blood that seemed impossible to navigate.

Jake hadn’t confirmed it with the two yet, none of them seemed up to the task of really discussing their situation yet, but he could tell looking at the two their confidence in guiding the group was gone. Jake sighed and laid back on his blanket. It was still sticky with blood, but the work he’d put into cleaning it had paid off somewhat as it was better than before. The condition didn’t really matter much as Jake himself was still coated in blood.

The bitter taste of the dried beef still stained his tongue. He’d done his best to pick out the pieces protected from the onslaught of the blood, those that still looked fresh, yet still, the taste was off. Different from how it was before, tainted. Jake struggled to drift off to sleep, the unsettling feeling of the blood sticking to his skin, the rippling around him, the horrid sensation in the pit of his stomach they were trapped. All kept him awake or dragged him back out of sleep whenever he felt he might start to drift off.

Eventually, he grew sick of the unrestful exercise trying to sleep provided and gave up, sitting up to find the rest of the group still awake as well. Yet none of them were eagerly packing like he usually found them in the morning. Lana still sat curled up where had been the night before, eerily whispering to herself a repeated chant Jake couldn’t make out from where he was. Meanwhile, Leopold and Rick were seated in what looked like a heated argument, occasionally turning toward Jake and Lana with worried looks. Jake stood up and walked over to where the two sat in furious debate.

“Hey kid, lovely morning huh?” Leopold said, a smile on his face yet his eyes betrayed an absence of any joy.

“Can it, Leopold,” Rick said, annoyance clear in his tone of voice as he sat, legs curled beneath him. He looked the most helpless Jake had ever seen him and despite the annoyed way he snapped back at Leopold, all Jake heard in tone was desperation.

“What’s going on?” Jake asked, having a pretty clear picture already but wanting to give the two a chance to explain.

“What's going on is that we are a bit stuck kid,” Leopold said, scratching behind his head and smiling as if it wasn’t a big deal, despite a nervous look bleeding out from his eyes, “Neither of us can agree where we are anymore, or where to go. What to do.”

“We really have no idea where we are?” Jake asked despair welling up inside him. He thought he’d be ready for the answer by now, but hearing it put forth into reality made the situation that much worse.

“Nonono,” Rick said, shaking his head and standing up, waving his arms like a madman, “We have plenty of ideas where we are kid, Plains had plenty of rocks and cliffs like this one. Probably we are towards the middle. Halfway there. The exact location is harder to pin down, but we have a decent idea of where we are.”

“We can’t be certain of that, Rick.” Jake stood up now, a tired look in his eyes. “We don’t know how the terrains changed; fucks sake we already saw plenty of changes before the massive lake of blood. You saw the same thing I saw, nothing was shining in the light. We keep going forward, we're all going to drown.”

“So you just want to give up!” Rick sounded incensed, insulted. “Go home after all this!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No NO! Of course, not Rick but how are we supposed to keep going on like this!? We go forward well just be going in circles till we run out of stamina and drown. We have a change now, a change to turn back, try again…”

“There is no ‘trying again’ Leopold!” Rick was screaming now! “The only way to largo is past the plains, the fact they're flooded with blood doesn’t change that fact. Just because you want to call it quits…”

Both were standing, screaming at each other now as they paced around the stone. Jake had never seen them act this way, maybe awkward tension or an uncomfortable Joke but he never expected it to get this bad.

“Rick please, I’m not saying we give up I’m just saying we have to try another way. We can’t keep going like this.”

“There is no other way, Leopold. I know you know it, you’ve dodged the question of what this other way could possibly be for hours now. I get it, I really do. You just find it too difficult to keep going forward now, struggling to carry yourself with all that extra baggage?”

Rick had crossed the rock and pulled Leopold close to him, he was screaming in his face now.

“I get you want to go home to your family, I do, but some of us don’t have that option anymore! If you want to quit at least respect me enough to be honest about it. At least respect Will enough to…”

Leopold shoved Rick away, pushing him to the ground. His face was contorted in a look of fury Jake had never once seen him make before.

“DON’T YOU DARE…”

“STOP!”

Lana screamed causing both Leopold and Rick to freeze and turn toward her, both panting heavily looks of rage frozen across their face.

“I… I don’t… Will wouldn’t… I’m sorry, please just stop. It’s my fault we're stuck here so stop, please. It’s all my fault.”

Her speech ended and she covered her ears before rocking backward and forward slightly on the rock, the rhythmic speech she’d been repeating over and over to herself becoming clear.

“It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Still breathing heavily, both Rick and Leopold exchanged looks with each other before stepping away. It was clear both still fumed with rage at the other, but now they had more pressing issues to deal with.

“Lana please,” Leopold began, stepping forward and laying his hand on her shoulder. “We all agreed to do this. It’s no one’s fault.”

“He’s right Lana,” Rick said, coming to stand in front of the two, his arms crossed. “Besides we aren’t stuck here. We might not agree on how to escape, but we’ll find a way out…”

Lana shook her head though at Rick’s words before violently shaking Leopold's hand from her shoulder and pointing forward to Jake, who jumped a bit in surprise, not expecting to be dragged into the discussion.

“What about him!” She said in a plea that sounded like she was choking back tears, “He didn’t ask to be here! Hell, he barely knows what’s going on! And now he’s going to die! He’s going to die again… I mean look at him…Just look at him…”

Jake was unsure what Lana was talking about, but Leopold and Rick exchanged a sort of knowing glance before both patted Lana on her back. Rick stood up and left Leopold to comfort Lana, not wanting to leave her to wallow alone.

“Is… Is she going to be ok?” Jake asked Rick as he crossed the distance towards him. Rick shrugged before saying,

“Probably, she’s tough but she’s been through a lot. I think this might have been too much for her. She was fine when we had a clear way forward, but getting stuck up here hit her the hardest, I think. Probably felt like she was failing Will personally the longer she was stuck here.” Jake nodded, as he turned his gaze away from Lana and Leopold.

“Do you really think we can make it if we keep going forward?”

“Honestly kid, I don’t know. You saw how far the lake stretches, and I couldn’t see any clear places to rest yesterday. What I do know is turning back is a waste of time. We’ll always have to pass through the plains, filled with blood or not.”

A moment of silence passed before Jake walked over to where Leopold sat and asked,

“Don’t I get a vote? Forward or backward?”

Leopold looked up at him for a moment, unsure how to respond before nodding. Jake smiled at him before looking at Rick and saying,

“I’m sorry Leopold, but half of the equipment is already ruined, turning back now will just leave us stranded in the plains till we have to try again and ruin the rest of it. The best way off this rock is to continue forward.” Leopold sat for a minute, unresponsive before he nodded and let out a tired sigh.

“Fine Kid. I hear you. I don’t want to argue with both you and Rick. But how do you expect to go anywhere when Lala’s like this?”

Jake looked down and realized he was right. Lana was still muttering to herself, rocking back and forth across the rocks. Kneeling down he sat across from her.

“Lana… look I may not know what’s going on half… more than half the time but you guys didn’t force me to be here. You saved my life countless times, tried to teach me to survive, and risked your lives for a stranger. I still can’t understand it, this ‘Final Heros’ thing Leopold laughs about but that doesn’t stop me from being grateful. It’s not your fault I’m here Lana; It’s mine.”

“After you healed me, after I could walk, I chose to keep following you guys closer and closer toward the center of The Corruption. Even after you explained where we were going I still followed. Anything that happens to me is my fault, not yours.”

Jake smiled as Lana lifted her head. She had stopped rocking and had lowered her hands from her head focusing in on him.

“I know you barely know me, you have no reason to trust me. But you know Leopold. You know Rick. And you heard them. Where not trapped Lana, where not going to die. We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

“He’s right Lala,” Leopold added on, at her side, “I promise you were not going to die here. After all, we can’t die till Morsell executes us, right?”

Lana let out a small chuckle and nodded, before reburying her head in her knees. It was clear she was still shaken, but she seemed calmer now. Jake stood up and moved away, leaving Leopold to comfort her. He went to stand by Rick who was sitting on the ground, staring off into the lake below. He held one of his knives, feverously trying to clean it with the soiled cloth of his handkerchief, trying to find some part of the cloth that was clean.

“Good work, kid. We’ll give her some time. We probably need some time ourselves. I don’t know about you but I’ve hardly slept. And I’m not exactly looking forward to jumping back into the lake.”

Jake looked down with Rick at the rolling waves of the blood lake below. The thought of desperately reaching out, struggling as he drowned in viscous blood floated through his head every time he caught sight of the gurgling lake below. He gulped, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake, agreeing with Rick.