We Can Only Go Up, Right?

Ah, what a good morning. Almost made me forget that I'm stuck in a forest without any food or other supplies, almost. The morning was good until I heard a loud slam. Oh god, what the fuck is Herm doing?

I get up and look to see what made the noise. Good news, Hermit is asleep (or dead). Bad news, Club is trying to choke out Rose.

"CLUB!" I ran over to the 2 and pushed him off Rose. "What did I say earlier?!"

"You don't understand-" Club tried to some BS convince me he was doing no wrong.

I instinctively reach to my side, looking for my gun. I guess I can be a bit stupid at times- wait. I actually have a pistol on my hip... when did I get this?

It doesn't matter, I point the gun at Club and he freezes. I don't know if this is loaded or not. We stare at each other for a couple seconds when Rose breaks the silence.

"Sorry if this is the wrong time to ask," Rose says, heavily breathing. "But what the hell is going on?!"

I point my gun... is it mine? Whatever, I point the gun I got at the 2 of them to make sure they don't move. I catch a glimpse behind me and see that "Herm" is still alive and he's just... staring.

I just realized what a stupid move pointing a weapon at my allies is, so I put the gun back into one of my large pockets. I also just realized that I can easily kill the Hermit right now... but I can't do it infront of them and Herm will most likely bleed out soon. I'm better than that.

Club scrambles toward Herm and whispers something to him. I could hear that he was saying something, but I don't know what. I've gotta get my hearing checked.

"HEY!" Rose shouts at the two. "I had my reasons."

At this point, I just want them to shut up.

"Stop acting like children!" I shout at them all. I don't think I said it in english, but I'm tired of babysitting them all. I grab the gun back out of my pocket and fire it into the sky. It echos... It echoes. Some mountains must be nearby. I might've given away our position, but I don't care. I'm pissed.

I... I think I need to tone it down a bit. "Stop," I try to convey my frustration without shooting birds out of the sky. "Just stop it, please."

Herm gets up and stumbles toward me. He stares at me for a good 10 seconds before speaking.

"I... I-I know how to get our little... arrow thingy- problem fixed." He stumbles on his words. He flops around his arm and splashes some blood on me.

"Yes, yes, Herm." I sarcastically prepare to ask him. "What could you know?"

"The mountain to your right is important, I think." He tells me. "Someone told me that it would help Rose get rid of her arrow, but I'm not sure if they were telling the truth."

"T-then we should be on our way!" Rose brushes herself off and stares back at Club with a judging anger.

"Okay then." I keep my eyes on everyone. "Let's go." We head toward the mountain and I get reminded that this... is a mountain. It's huge.

We continued to walk toward the mountain before Herm collapsed and Rose decided to just drag him.

"Is he okay?" I point at Herm, who looks back at me and waves.

"I hope so." Rose answers. She continues to drag him as we get closer and closer to the mountain.

Once we made it to the mountain, I found something weird. There was a dirt path heading up the mountain. Other people must've been here before. That means what Club was saying was right... I'm kinda shocked, but to be honest, not really.

"Hey, Collar." Club gives Rose a smug look. "You seem to be really slow. Maybe I should help you a bit by carrying the Hermit for you, should I?"

Hermit giggles to himself after Club says what he said.

"No, I got it." Rose squints at Club. "I wouldn't want to put a child to labor. I got this."

"Focus." I turn back to the 3. "We have to all put an effort into going up this mountain. Or we could just drop Herm."

"That's a bit radical, don't you think." Herm stares up at me.

The group becomes quiet again as we head up the mountain. I've thought up the words mountain way too much now.

"Hey Jacob," Rose says as we continue on our way. I don't even need to look at her to understand that she's about to do something petty "I would like to.... apologize for the last time we met."

I'm not going to pretend I don't know who Jacob is. I mean, who chooses the name "Ja Club" without being named Jacob. With all this in mind, Club doesn't answer.

We continue to walk for a good amount of time (I'd say 10 minutes) before Rose drops Herm to take a break.

"Called it." Club stares at Herm.

"Shut up." Rose pants. "I just need a small break."

"Well what about-" I try to say before Herm lifts up his finger and puts it on my mouth.

I look him in the eyes and he just falls asleep.

"I swear if shit like this keeps happening," I grumble to myself. "I'll just straight up shoot him."

"DON'T DO THAT!" Rose shouts.

"Why do you care?" Club asks Rose.

"It would be so fair if I killed Paul." Rose answers.

"As if you could." Club scoffs.

"Wanna bet?" Rose pulls out a metal, medieval looking shield.

I decided to just shoot the ground next to Herm. If it hits him, then it hits him. I don't care... He doesn't fucking move.

"Puto-" The word slips out of my mouth. "I'm done with this shit."

"How 'bout you try thinking a bit?" Rose blabbers to me. "Watch and learn, Unga Bunga Gun Man."

Yeah, I hate everyone here. She walks over to Herm and taps his shoulder. He wakes up and Rose holds up 3 of her fingers. Herm looks at her, and then rolls so his face touches the ground.

"Are you okay?" She asks, still holding up 3 fingers. "You've been out for a good 5 minutes."

"I'm... fine." He slowly gets up. "Let's start clim-" He looks around to see that we have already started making our way up the mountain. With that, he doesn't say anything else and just walks up the path without a limp or anything like that. Fuckin' weirdo. I don't think arrows make people this... THIS!

After a while of walking in silence, Herm turns to Club with a look of terror.

"Hey Club." He says in a bland tone.

"What?" Club turns toward Herm.

"Nevermind." Herm responds back.

I just can't anymore. I'll check my bullets to make sure I have enough to take ou-

....

Someone's hiding here. I can hear it. I can tell it's a person because I don't think any other animal would be able to whisper something about bushes.

"Shh..." I stick my hand out behind me. "I hear people." I think about it for a second. I have a gun, Club has a club, and Herm could be a good shield. Also, whoever is here most likely sees us. "COME ON OUT HERE!" I shout out.

A man steps out of the bushes, I instantly recognize them from before. They have a name tag with a word I cannot pronounce on it.

"HEY! I KNOW YOU TWO!" He says in a more cheery tone. Honestly, this alone makes me want to shoot him less. "YOU'RE HERMIT AND... Gros... gors..." You know what, that's understandable. I couldn't pronounce his name for the life of me.

"Paul." I bluntly tell him.

He seems really excited and he tries to hug Herm, but then jumps back in either fear or disgust. You know what, this dude is the most bearable person in this whole group.

"Is...." He whimpers after shouting something I couldn't understand. "Is that... an arrow?"

"Yes," Rose sighs. I just realized that she dropped Herm again. "It's a long story."

After Rose said this, some wannabe survival expert pops out of one of the bushes, covered in leaves and sticks. See lets out a yawn and then looks at the group with anger.

"Wha-" She rubs her eyes. "Who are... oh. Dammit."

"I guess I've got some explaining to do." Seupikeo (That's what his name tag calls him) chuckles.

I don't care for any explanation dump, I rather take a good look at what's around us. Something that I just noticed is that the mountains seem to have changed height from last night. I remember being able to see a mountain from behind the one we're climbing, but not anymore.

Nothing else is too strange... I guess. The mountains alone are off putting though. The fact that they are changing is uncanny, how much of it is real? Are strings being pulled? Or am I just high as Fuck? If so, I've most likely overdosed by now.

I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around. There is a man in a leather jacket and black helmet. There are neon lights on his helmet that form a grey, expressionless face.

"Shhh...." He covers my mouth. "Don't say a word."

I nod.

"Okay." He takes his hand off my mouth. "Uhhhhh, can you do me a favor."

He taps my gun and it starts to glow.

"If you shoot this at something or someone," He frantically explains. "It'll... teleport you. Don't use it yet though. Use it wisely. Do you understand?"

I nod again.

"Great!" He claps once. "This should speed up the build up. With that, both sides are equal. This is going to be fun. If it isn't..."

He gets very very in my face. After 10 seconds of staring at me, the man starts to walk away.

"Don't let me down, Mr. Francisco." He looks at me before jumping off the side of the mountain. At this point, I don't question it.

I look down at the handgun, which is still in my hands. The glow begins to fade and I put it into my pocket. I wasn't given a holster. Asshole.

"The only other person who I know could do that is Sandra." I overheard Rose. I lost track of what we were talking about, but it seems that the bush person's name is Sandra. "Oh, I'm sorry, 'Towo.'"

"You're talking mad shit for someone in my general vicinity." Sandra reponds.

"Listen, listen, listen." Herm makes a parting motion toward them, but he's too far away for it to actually separate them. "I know she can be annoying, b-but give her a break. She..." He pauses for a bit. "She got shot by some arrows and a bow and we need dedededed to get up the hill to help her."

"What hill?" Soupicko asks the bumbling idiot.

"I'm not done yet, hun!" Hermit turns around and trips, almost hitting the floor. "We gotta go up the hill because Pablo over there says there will be medicine for Rosa." He turns to Setpickle and whispers loudly. "Duuhhh, she also thinks I have an arrow in me instead of her. She's so goofy."

"Come on, Herm,"I grab him with one of my arms and rest the other one on my forehead. "Both of you stop bothering the fine couple, we have better things to do."

"Hold on." Sipunko grabs Herm's other arm. "Why don't you get to enjoy yourself for a bit and hang out with us... EVEN BETTER, WE could come with you."

I look at Sandra and she aggressively shakes her head from side to side.

"If you want to, you can join us." I respond after thinking it through. "But we gotta go."

"Okay then." The dude with the name I can't figure out how to pronounce tells me as he walks toward our group. "Bye Sandra!"

We continue up the path, I guess we aren't taking a break. Sandra catches up and joins us, I guess. We didn't say anything, it just sorta happened. They might've talked about it, I wasn't paying attention.

The others continued to talk. I don't really care about what they said, other than the fact that the name of Superpickle is Akio. It is way easier to say that than whatever the name tag means.

The path is long and boring. I've lost my chance to shoot Herm because of the gun "upgrade" and I think I might've caught some illness. I might as well finish off Herm if it'll mean I get out of this place sooner.

"Hey Herm?" I stopped the group.

Herm flinches as if he was dazed out. "Y-yes, Ha- Paul?"

"Nevermind." I changed my mind.

Right after this, a Pickaxe tumbled down the mountain and landed near my feet.

minderRe, ngdingWi n'tis rkingwo, wne yswa to lkta ear ededne.

utSh up!