Chapter 294 - 297 Chs

294 Forest Problems

Suddenly, those agents moved in a different direction, and the footsteps began to disappear into the horizon.

“Okay,” I muttered. All of a sudden, leaves rustled behind me, which I turned around in fear. But it was Barry. Relief washed over me as he came to look. “What happened?”

“I didn’t see the beast, but I saw a bunch of enemies,” I said. Barry’s face paused for a moment, as he stared at me. “How do you know they’re enemies?” I asked.

“They’re enemies for us, and they will destroy us,” I said. Barry sighed, which he placed his binoculars against his eyes, but took them off after a quick moment.

“Will they affect this village?” he asked. I scoffed, completely confident in what I was going to say. “They will burn this village to the ground just to find and kill us.”

Barry’s eyes widened with shock and sorrow, which he placed his hand over his mouth. “Your plan for saving this village will be scorched to ashes,” I explained. “But maybe, you can help us.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, throwing his hands in the case to halt the conversation. “Who are you guys?”

“Very important people,” I said. “Anything else is classified. But just trust us, because I want you to achieve your dream.”

“Oh, really?” Barry said, which his hands steadily reached behind his back. I glanced between his hands which were now hidden behind his back, and his face that only showed the message of suspicion.

.....

“Barry, please,” I said, slowly reaching my hand out. “It’s fine.”

“Really?” he said. “It’s all fine, allowing us to get trapped inside your mess. I don’t think it’s fine. Not at all.”

“No, we’ll fix this,” I said.

“No, I will.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

All of a sudden, Barry grabbed his weapon and faced it towards my chest. Quickly, I kicked it out of the way, causing the silencer of the gun to slip off, which traveled all the way to the ground.

“Well, that’s useless now,” Barry said, looking down at the silencer.

But suddenly, he pulled out a knife, and swung it towards me. I ducked, which the knife chipped out little pieces of bark, leaving a scar there to settle.

I kicked him in the chest in an effort to break free, as my heart pumped in shock and confusion. Barry tumbled down from the thin twig and fell off the side.

But, his hands were quick enough to grab the branch and hang on.

“Barry, come on. It doesn’t have to be like this!” I pleaded to him. He chuckled. “It already is. The second I figured out your plan, that’s when you became my enemy.”

He paused for a moment, in which his eyes widened, as if realized something that was probably the immense opposite of what the actual truth was.

“In fact, now thinking about it, maybe those aren’t even your enemies. Maybe they’re working with you to bring down this village1!” he shouted.

“What?!” I shouted. “Number one, that’s not true. Number two, didn’t you want to leave?!”

“I wanted to leave this place by cementing my place in the history of this village. They might even let me leave because of what I did. Not only would I have saved a village, but I can go home while Raven’s Gorge is standing strong!” he shouted.

“First of all, we didn’t expect anyone to be in this forest. Especially our enemies!” I said. Suddenly, a cracking sound reverberated in front of me. I looked down, seeing the little zigzagged tear of the branch. Barry was going to fall to his death if he didn’t stop this now.

“Plus, you can save this village by warning everybody about the danger coming!” I pleaded, glancing between the deathly crack and Barry.

“I will,” Barry said, nodding agreeably. “However, every hero’s journey starts with one step—or in this case, a kick.”

Suddenly, he kicked my chest, throwing me off the little branch, and landing on the one below. This one had more mass, meaning more strength, meaning I could possibly stand on this.

But the pain searing through my stomach almost limited me from doing so. I laid my hand on the main bark of the tree, which I felt a little tug, as I looked to the side.

Barry was there, with his switchblade, which he slowly walked towards me. “You’re going to be the first of many that’s going to die against this war against the people.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, finally on both of my feet.

“I should’ve known. Random outsiders that could fight off muggers in such an experienced way. So clean and fresh as if you guys just came from a mansion. But mostly, how brave you guys were, as if a pack of muggers didn’t just attack you,” he said.

“Those sound like pretty weak reasons to be honest,” I said, looking to both sides, to which Barry rolled his eyes and continued his steady encounter.

“Nonetheless, don’t expect to live very long after this,” he said. He threw his first attack, which the knife swung towards my neck. I guided it to the side, shoving my knee into his stomach before pushing him back.

He stumbled back, which his knife flew into the air, piercing into the branch above us.

That seemed to be the last straw.

The branch broke off the bark and collapsed towards us. “Oh shoot!” I shouted, moving to the side, to where the branch hit Barry on the shoulder, not the fact that it hurt, but more of the fact that it swung him off the branch.

Barry shrieked a cry of terror as he fell off the branch, and fell down towards the ground. I leaned over to peek down, but the only thing I saw was his voice becoming more faint as time went on.

A heavy impact abruptly sounded, which afterwards, a faint thud was heard followed by some groans.

He was still alive, how?!

But not for long. Footsteps ultimately followed, as TSA agents began to scout in this area. Shocked, I pulled back and hid on the bark, trying to catch my breath.

“Bro, you need to try the one cheeseburger back at the Foodstorm Cafeteria. They actually made it right this time,” one of them said. The other, which was a voice of a girl about the age of eighteen, responded, “I’m not a fan of that layered monstrosity you call food,” she said harshly.

“It’s not a monstrosity for your biased information,” the other guy said. “This is a product that serves as American pride.”

“Oh, boy, here he goes,” she said. “Why don’t you go ahead and marry the president at this point?”

“Well—I mean—there are many limitations to that to be honest,” he said. Although I was interested in their conversation, my main focus was looking down at Barry to see if he would get up on time.

I don’t want him to die. He’s the only chance we have to leave this village. We need to get the briefcase, find Brie, and Raven’s Gorge was holding me back.

I looked down to the next branch, which wasn’t too far away from my current one, but it was still somewhat of a leap.

I nodded, taking a deep breath before I readied my legs, then took off into the air, before taking a hard landing onto the next branch.

I immediately gripped my hands on the bark, taking a deep breath as I did so. Now I had a better view on Barry, who was still laying flat on the ground.

I wanted to call him, or get his attention somehow, but that was not a good idea. He would, number one, climb back up to continue his conquest to kill me, or the TSA notices and shoots me from the tree.

Either way, I would be dead.

But then, Barry moved his left arm with such fragileness it was almost to the comparison of a baby that was just born.

He steadily got to his feet, and immediately lifted his head up in my direction. I pulled back, hoping he didn’t notice me by any chance.

I peeked a bit, which Barry lifted to his feet, looking down to the ground. It was assuring to only see his red hat, which he now put on over his scruffy brown hair.

But then, I heard this: “Hey, who’s there?”

Barry looked in that direction, and the voice was the sound of the TSA agent. All of a sudden, Barry flung to the side as a blue bolt collided with him at zooming speed. My eyes widened with shock, too stunned to even move. I needed to find Hans immediately, because things just got way—way worse. Slowly, I lifted my left leg to rest on the one below me. Then, after a period of hanging while attached to the bark, both feet were now planted on the branch beneath.

But then, the voices suddenly increased in volume.