Survival

Thinking over my life, I regretted not being selfish even for once. I couldn't fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher or having a happy life.

I sighed, pressing back my tears. I didn't want to look weak in front of the girl; she was probably a hundred times more frightened than I was.

As I was lost in my thoughts, I suddenly felt something tugging at my sleeve. I looked to my side and found the girl in tears.

"A-Are we...going to die?" She asked, her nose red from crying too much.

It was at that time that I finally got a good look at her. She seemed like she was between 7 and 9 years old. She had long blonde hair, emerald eyes like two beads on her face and thick round glasses which looked bigger on her small face.

I forced a smile and patted her head, "No, we won't die. It will be a matter of time before we get out of here."

"Promise?" She nervously held out her pinky finger. I chuckled, locking my finger with hers, "Promise."

She wiped away her tears sloppily and grinned as wide as she could.

"My name is Lily, what's yours?" She asked in a cheerful voice.

"Rai." I replied with a small smile.

Just as she was about to say something, her eyes were suddenly drawn to my body, making them go wide open.

"You have something sticking out of your skin..." She said in a worried tone.

"What?"

I looked down at my body and just as she said, there were indeed things sticking out of my skin; glass shards, to be exact. I didn't realize it until now, but the wounds were stinging like crazy. I couldn't believe how it went unnoticed by me. The blood around the wounds had already dried and hardened.

A thought suddenly crossed my mind.

"How did I even survive after the chandelier fell on me?"

It was evening when I escaped from Ryan's lab so it had been a day in the laboratory with these shards pricking me.

I pulled out the shards one by one, and the whole time Lily kept wincing everytime I took one out, even though it was me who was in pain.

After getting all the shards out, I noticed shadows engulfing the ground. It was already getting dark. We needed to find a shelter for ourselves for the time being.

"Let's get moving. We need to find a good place to rest for the night." I said as I got up.

She nodded, holding onto the hem of my shirt as we began walking. I planned on going as deep into the forest as possible until we reached the other end or until help arrived. Reaching the other end of the forest could probably take 2 or 3 days. Making preparations to stay in the woods would be difficult, especially since I had no experience of living in the wild. But what worried me the most was that I had no knowledge of what kind of animals were lurking in the forest.

We walked through the forest in search of a safe and secluded place, but all we could see till then were dull thorny bushes, poisonous mushrooms, insectivorous plants, earthworms and few large trees with withered, brown leaves.

As we went deeper and deeper, I began noticing that the forest was getting thicker and thicker, and fresh trees bearing fruits were being spotted everywhere. I sighed, relieved that we didn't have to starve.

After walking through the dense forest for a couple of more minutes, I spotted a river. It's water was twinkling between the trees and hiding beyond dark trunks. I could hear it rushing along.

The problem of having water to drink was also solved. A part of my worries had dissipated after finding edible food and water.

All of a sudden, I heard a growl. I looked down and found Lily fidgeting with the skirt of her frock and her cheeks were flushed red. "U-Um..."

"Hungry?" I smiled, "Give me a moment."

It would be a lie if I said I wasn't hungry myself. I glanced around in search of a tree bearing non-poisonous fruits.

"Ah, there it is." I walked towards a large guava tree not so far from where we stood. I climbed up the tree and threw down a bunch of guavas to Lily who catched them enthusiastically.

At this point, I was almost convinced that we would be able to survive in the woods without much difficulty, but I had forgotten about one important fact.

Suddenly, I heard rustling in the distance. Our bodies tensed up as the rustling got louder and louder, closer and closer. I quickly jumped down, carried Lily in my arms and made a run for it. We hid behind a thick row of bushes and tried to be as quiet as possible as we watched through the gaps in the bushes.

After a few moments, we heard a series of footsteps which was followed by the appearance of three men. They carried guns with them. From the looks of it, they were obviously after us. The men glanced everywhere, pointing their guns whenever they turned around.

"There's no sign of him. Scatter." One of them commanded. The three men scattered in three different directions and one of them was approaching the area we were hiding in.

When my eyes fell on his gun, an idea struck my mind. I placed a finger over my lips and gestured Lily to stay quiet. She was getting more and more nervous by the minute.

The man slowly and cautiously inched closer, pointing the gun at the bushes. I frantically looked around for something to create a distraction. I fumbled through the bushes and broke a thick branch as quietly as possible.

After that was done, I threw it in the other direction. As soon as the branch made a sound, the man quickly turned to the other side.

"So you're there, huh?" He laughed as he slowly advanced in the wrong direction.

As soon as I saw an opening, I leaped out of the bushes. I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck in a headlock.

"Agh! Who is it?!" The man struggled.

Before he could use his gun, I punched him in the nose and knocked him out. The gun slipped out of his grasp and his limp body fell on the ground.

Lily gasped when she saw the unconscious body of the man.

"Don't worry, I didn't kill him. He's just unconscious." I squatted down, "You can come out now."

She sighed with relief and crawled out of the bushes. On seeing the man's limp body, she frowned.

"He deserved it!" She pouted and kicked the unconscious man lightly with her hands on her hips. She made it look like it was her who defeated the man.

"Alright, let's go before someone finds us." I picked up the gun and grabbed Lily's hand.

"Okay!" She replied with a huge smile.

We had to hide in different places for a couple of hours because of Ryan's men continuously searching the area. After they decided we weren't on this side of the forest, they gave up and left to search on the other side.

We were hiding and running for so long that it had exhausted both of us even more. We sat down to get some rest. As unlucky as we were, there were no fruit-bearing trees around that area.

I took out a guava from my pocket which I had thankfully managed to grab before running away.

"You're hungry, right? Here." I tossed the guava to Lily. It rolled and stopped next to her feet. Her eyes twinkled with hunger and she gulped. She quickly grabbed it and was about to take a big bite but stopped all of a sudden and looked at me. "What about you? You're also hungry, right?"

"Me? I'll be fine. I'm not that hungry."

Well, that was a lie.

She frowned and got up, "Cut it in half. We both can eat."

"Huh? I told you, I'm not that hungry. You can have it." I argued.

"Just do as I say!" She stomped her foot.

"A-Alright..." I took the guave from her and broke it in half. I gave one half to her and kept the other half for myself.

She smiled widely and sat down beside me.

"I'm small but not stupid! I can see you're tired. Do you always think of others before yourself? You should take care of yourself, too!" She chomped down on the fruit and huffed.

I chuckled at her concern. I looked up at the sky and sighed. I still couldn't believe that my father was dead— like that. I had so many questions but no one to answer them.

The sun had already dipped below the horizon and tomorrow would be a new day of escaping the forest. Just the thought of it worried me.