“I don’t see anything nearby, do you?” Jake asked, surveying the land he and Alice had freshly landed in. The duo remained trapped in the clearing, surrounded by the impassible wall created by the overgrown trees. As the night stretched on and the rumbling of their stomachs grew, even Alice was forced to admit the glitter of the leaves had lost their luster now that the sun had set, and she’d prefer something to eat or drink.

Yet with no way to escape, they had to wait through the night hoping that where they landed next would be more open and abundant in its natural resources. But looking around now Jake felt a growing sense of disappointment. They seemed to be atop a grassy knoll, elevated amongst the flat grassy plains that stretched out endlessly. A few different silhouettes decorated the horizon but were so far away Jake couldn’t see what they were with any detail. In their immediate surroundings though, he saw no signs of food or water.

“No, not much…” Alice said, still flat on her back looking at the sky. She had been standing, holding hands with Jake as they fell through reality to land wherever they now stood, but the sudden drop had caught her off guard causing her to slip and fall to the ground. Jake had also seemed unbalanced, pulled forward by the hand holding tight to her, yet he managed to stay upright with a few off-balanced corrections to his stance.

“Looks like it could rain. That’d be nice.” Alice said pointing up at the sky from the ground before rocking back and launching herself upright in a single fluid motion. Jake looked up to the sky above and saw that though it looked perfectly clear now, signs of darkened clouds were rolling in, traveling towards them across the horizon. Jake felt conflicted about the sudden prospect of rain. On the one hand, it could work to solve their water problem right away. But on the other hand, getting caught out in the rain with no cover sounded miserable.

“We should probably start walking…” Jake said, a slightly conflicted expression on his face as he gazed up into the sky above.

“Sure thing. Were to?” Alice asked, gesturing broadly around them at the open plains. Jake looked open around and closed his mouth not quite sure which direction to pick. Alice stood, watching him flounder like a fish for a minute before she sighed and pointed in a random direction.

“We're going that way!” Then without another word she set off, marching toward where she had randomly pointed to. Jake watched her march toward the vague silhouettes that loomed in the distance maybe a couple miles away. Without any other option and seeing it as good a choice as anything else, Jake took off in a small sprint, soon catching up to Alice.

The two walked in silence from then on, crossing the plains while an awkward air hung between them. Alice would distract herself by admiring the sky above while Jake spent his time polishing the knives housed in his pocket, removing each one for inspection and cleaning. Yet with only four knives he soon found himself without much to do. Now that the duo found themselves walking together, parried without any concrete goal for the time being, they suddenly found they had nothing to discuss with each other.

Questions and conversations brew in both their minds, yet the silent air between them seemed to kill any thought of talking. It left them simply twiddling their thumbs, drumming their hands across their legs as they walked side by side with only the sound of the rustling grass and growing discomfort of the clouds above to keep them company.

Mercifully the blurred silhouettes started to take shape and soon their appearance was clear. While Jake had been expecting trees or rocks of some kind, instead he found himself wandering through a forest of bushes. The smallest grew up just to his ankles while the largest grew well past his head. Most, however, sat around the length of his waist. They were all various shades of green, some practically neon others so dark they might as well be black.

The ones that attracted the pair’s attention the most though were an olive color and leaked a sickly-sweet scent that clung to everything. Pockets of sickly-sweet air hung around the olive-colored bushes, no matter their size, and from them, bright red berries grew slightly larger than a grape. The berries grew in large clusters around the bushes, and sniffing the berries themselves the sweet smell they gave off was even worse than the air around them.

Coming up on either side of one of these olive-green bushes Alice and Jake looked toward one another for a moment before glancing down at the berries. Picking one of the berries and holding it up to examine it, Jake couldn’t recognize it as any sort of berry he was familiar with back home. He was cautious of it though, he’d heard about plenty of poisonous berries with a red tint like this one.

“We should be careful…” Jake began, looking up from the berry only to watch Alice shove three directly into her mouth. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” Jake called out, rushing over to her and beginning

to wack her back in a panicked attempt to try and force her to spit the berries out.

“What do you mean what am I doing? What are you doing psycho?” Alice asked, pushing Jake away and raising her arms in a defensive pose. She wore an incredulous look on her face as looked at Jake, waiting for some sort of explanation.

“It could be poisonous!” Jake said, shocked he had to explain this to her. Alice let out a small scoff and rolled her eyes.

“Please you smelled how sweet they are. If they were poisonous they wouldn’t be begging to be eaten would they?” As Jake opened his mouth ready to argue her point she smiled gesturing around and said, “Besides, I don’t see any other food around her, do you?”

Jake closed his mouth with a gulp and sent a glance around the forest of bushes. His field of view carried beyond the bushes, growing wild in abundance and out towards the plains beyond. They’d yet to see any sign of life outside of the flora growing around them. No birds in the sky, no deer or foxes running around, not even a simple insect crawling across a blade of grass.

“There's nothing around here Jake. It’ll be fine, it doesn’t need to be poisonous. There's nothing around her for it to poison.”

“But what if it’s the reason theirs nothing around here?” Jake said, though his will was already weakening as he sent longing looks towards the sickly-sweet-smelling berries. Alice smiled at him and spread her arms wide.

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“I’m not dead yet, so that seems unlikely. Not even a stomachache. Just eat the berry. It tastes amazing.”

Looking back toward the berry he held in his hand, Jake’s will caved and popped the sickly sweet fruit into his mouth. It burst with one bite sending a wave of juice cascading down his throat. It tasted of fruit punch, the kind he would drink as a kid. Packed to the brim with sugar and after just one bite Jake was dying for more.

The duo fell into silence after that, just standing around harvesting clusters of berries to satisfy their hunger. The mini bursts of juice that came with each berry splashed their throats, a delicious treat that teased them with refreshment yet somehow no matter how much they ate it always felt as though their throat remained parched, still always dying for a simple glass of water.

After a long while of harvesting and devouring berries, Alice fell back, stuffed to the brim. She had never had something so sweet in all her life. She’d heard tales of sweet bread coated in honey and cream when she wandered the streets but gave up on ever getting to experience something so wonderful when she was young. Even just stealing a bit of stale bread or over-ripened apple, left unattended at a discounted price, had her on edge. Glancing up she saw Jake, knife in hand harvesting large clusters of berries and storing them in his bag for later. With a shit-eating grin on her face, she leaned back and said in a singsong voice,

“I thought those were dangerous, poisonous, not to be eaten?”

“Shut up,” Jake said, not bothering to spare her a glance. Alice let out a laugh and leaned forward toward Jake.

“Seriously though, have you ever had something so delicious? I thought my mouth might explode! It was so flavorful!” Jake glanced at her, an uncertain expression on his face before he said,

“It reminded me of something from home. But seriously we should be more careful in the future. We don’t know what could or couldn’t be poison.”

“I was careful!” Alice said, mock indignation in her voice, “I looked around carefully, saw the berries, thought about it carefully, then carefully decided ‘screw it, I want to eat this?’” Alice let out a small series of laughs as Jake stood up from the bush, bag now filled with sickly-sweet berries, their odor beginning to leak out freely.

“Look, we really should…” Jake began, crossing over toward Alice but was interrupted by drips of rain falling atop his head. Both Jake and Alice glanced back up toward the sky for the first time in a long while. Dark clouds now covered the sky, making it impossible to tell the time of day. Yet the swirling grey mass of clouds, the occasional flash of lighting above, and the now furious volume of rain crashing down made it clear to both that a massive storm had brewed while they sat distracted.

Looking around frantically Jake pointed toward one of the more massive bushes. It sat curved and collapsed under its own weight and provided a significant portion of shaded cover under its brambles.

“There!” Jake called out, pointing toward the massive bush, making his way through the rain at a sprint. His arms raised over his head in an attempt to stay dry, he didn’t stop till he was covered by the bush. It was by no means a perfect cover. The occasional drop of rain would still slip through the cracks left by the brambles above, and if the wind blew strong enough it would blow sideways directly into the shade provided by the branch. But it was the best cover the pair had for the time being.

Turning around, Jake saw Alice still by the olive-green bush. Her neck tilted back she was standing beneath the rain; mouth open swallowing mouthful after mouthful of rain. She seemed uncaring that the water was soaking her skin or cloak and was rather simply enjoying the drink the rain provided her. Eventually, glancing over Alice saw Jake staring at her with shock and with a small wave started walking over to him. No rush at all in her step, she soon stood underneath the brambles of the bush, dripping wet yet a smile on her face.

“I’d grab a drink while it’s still so light. No telling how rough it’ll get later on.” Alice said, pointing up above to the rain falling heavily on the earth below.

“You... You're soaked!” Jake said gesturing to her. She shrugged as if it didn’t bother her much, but Jake could see a slight shiver in her posture. “Not my first time collecting rainwater. Though it’s a much prettier sky than I’m used to.” Alice said, a wistful tone in her voice as she trailed off.

Not quite sure what else to say in response, Jake walked over toward the towering bush. Knife still drawn Jake knelt low and began to collect small undergrown clippings that lay dying in the bushe's shade. Soon, Jake had amassed a decently sized collection of these dying or dead clippings, making a small pile on the floor.

After a few minutes of digging through his bag, now filled to the brim with sickly sweet berries, Jake had managed to secure the sparking stones and start a small fire. It burned low to the ground. Jake was too worried about lighting the bushes around them on fire to stoke it much bigger, but it was still warm against the bitter chill of the rain and wind surrounding the pair. Sitting down now next to Jake, Alice looked deep into the fire, silent a moment before saying in a quiet voice,

“Thank you for that…”

Then the silence plaguing them returned, awkward and thick. It gnawed at them both, unescapable and interrupted only by the crackle of the fire and the roaring of the wind and rain around them. Jake turned, glanced over at Alice, and imagined how awkward traveling together would be if nothing changed. Clearing his voice, no real plan in mind he started speaking the first random thoughts that popped into his head.

“Fruit punch.” He said, mentally facepalming.

“What?” Alice asked, looking at him confused and a bit concerned.

“It’s called fruit punch. What the berries reminded me of. You asked earlier, I just sort of brushed it off. I used to drink a ton when I was a kid, but it was super unhealthy for you. Loaded with dyes and chemicals and junk. Still remember the taste though.”

Alice looked at him a moment blank-faced before saying,

“You put dyes in your food? You're only supposed to dye clothes. No wonder it wasn’t healthy.”

“No, it wasn’t the same kind of dye. Well, I don’t think it was. It might have been the same dye.” Jake said, a new concerning train of thoughts opening in his head at Alice’s words. Seeing the concern starting to appear on his face, Alice let out a small chuckle before saying,

“They were the sweetest thing I’d ever had. I’d always heard of sweet bread decorated with honey or cream. They always sounded so lovely. When I was little, we’d hear tails about them from the elders when they tucked us to sleep in the district and I’d dream of someday walking the street, eating cream and honey as much as I pleased. When I got older, I learned the truth. It was too hard to steal cream and honey, much easier to steal stale bread.”

Alice sat in silence after her story a downtrodden look on her face. Jake, feeling a bit panicked, not wanting their conversation to end this way went into damage control,

“Tell you what, next time we have a chance I’ll get you a thing of honey. Cream to if we can find it. Where I’m from you can get it pretty easily, I’m sure we'll run into somewhere along the way.”

Alice looked toward him for a moment, a mystified look on her face before she said in a wistful voice,

“What was it like, your home? It sounds so… beautiful…”

“How about this…” Jake said, a small smile on his face, “Every day well trade something, one fact or story about where we are from. Just till we know each other well enough to walk around without avoiding one another. See, we already did today!”

“Or you could just answer my question. I’d like to know more than one thing, Jake.” Alice said, sounding annoyed as she shot him a glare.

“Come on, it'll be fun! Give us a way to pass the time, right? Besides it doesn't have to be just one, not like we can do much else besides talk in this storm. ” The pair both glanced up toward the pouring rain and wind that would slowly fade into the background, drowned out by their conversation which would carry on long into the night.