From the academy to the woods

DJ was right, that voice could only come from one person, and that is Ethan Munson.

A good-looking tall guy with light beige skin tone, dark brown and narrow eyes, hair that was always in a messy rug style, and is the weirdest out of all of us. To no surprise, he's the most famous guy in our group. Ethan is quite known among our classmates and even some upperclassmen. Though to be frank he doesn't like the attention he gets, sometimes if it gets too much for him he'll be straightforward with them.

He and I go way back and are practically family! And if we were a family we'd be those two brothers who you would have to constantly keep out of trouble.

Also, he's the other guy who busted Jelo's house's front door with me and DJ.

What can I say? We hit milestones together, or in that particular case, we bust down doors together.

But that begs the question, "When did he get here?! Did another bus arrive?"

"No," Thea answered, "He was probably on the second bus. We just didn't notice him because we were preoccupied with talking to Mrs. Jung and dealing with Clarisse."

Jelo stood up and climbed up the chairs and tables to check outside the door's window, "Most likely what happened was that Ethan hit his head upon the bus's impact and was in pain for a while and then saw DJ's distress signal and just sprung into action. Or he could've seen the ruckus that was going on and wanted to see what all the commotion was about and found the Inmourtis. Either way, we owe him one."

Ethan's voice echoed through the halls shouting to people 'Get out of here!'' and 'Hurry!'. The Inmourtis growls and groans grew fainter and fainter as well as his voice as the seconds passed. It was good news for us, but for Ethan, not so much.

"Now we have to get out of here!" Thea said, standing up, "I know they aren't in any condition to run, but the both of us are. We can't just sit around here flicking DJ's flashlight anyway expecting another person to pass by and know morse code! We can't just sit here and wait to be rescued while Ethan is out there playing tag with the infected!"

"I agree." I stood up as well, doing my best to endure the ache and pain, "We have to get to Ethan. The two of you go and bring him here, I'll stay with DJ. We're not going anywhere anytime soon anyway."

Thea smiled as our eyes met and nodded, "We leave no man behind."

DJ raised an eyebrow at her, "Your motivation for wanting to help him probably involves a debt worth 40,000 conchas."

Jelo and I were surprised by his disclosure. Ethan owed her money? And it was a whopping 40,000 conchas!

"What could he have possibly done so he'd be in such a debt to you?" I asked though I'm not sure that was such a wise move on my part.

"Remember her porcelain vase in their living room?" DJ asked, "He broke that."

My eyes widened, "You mean the antique one?"

"Mm-hmm."

"How did he even break that?! It's at the corner of the room!" Jelo questioned.

Thea looked at us and then glared at DJ, "It's not my vase! It was my sister's! And if must know, yes it was an antique, and Ethan broke it when we were doing a project at my house. He brought his dog over despite my numerous objections and you can probably imagine what happened. My sister wanted it paid for immediately so I had to pull out all my savings for it. You know how my sister is. I made him promise to pay me back because otherwise, I'm going to have to tell his mother, who in sweet irony sold the vase to my sister, that he broke her prized vase. But that is beside the point right now! What matters is that we find a way to help him!"

"Thea's motivation aside, you two still need to get out there, or else Ethan might end up being dinner for all those Inmourtis! Our friend is out there right now, risking his life!" I exclaimed, "I don't think anything more needs to be said"

Jelo nodded, "You're right. There isn't even a question of what we should do, just an action that needs to be done. I know I said that we'd be safer in here but we have to help him. And we're going to. Lanz and DJ stay put."

"We know." said DJ, "As he said, we're not going anywhere. Though I've got to ask, do the two of you even have a plan?"

Thea and Jelo looked at each other as if they were waiting for one of them to share an idea. DJ sighed, "Lovely."

Thea's attention shifted to the globe rolling on the floor towards the wall, "Wait a minute…"

Her eyes lit up like a bunch of glowsticks and smiled as she faced us, "I think I have a way of getting us out of here. A safe one for all of us!"

"All of us?" I asked.

"If so, that's great! What's the-"

Before Jelo could even finish what he was saying, Thea ran to the right side of the room and started knocking on the walls.

"- plan…"

The three of us just stared at her and probably had the same question in mind, what is she doing?

She kept on knocking and knocking until the knocks didn't sound solid, "AHA! Here it is!"

I turned to Jelo and asked, "What is she talking about?" but he just shook his head in reply.

Thea then searched the wall for something else, I would've offered to help but I had no idea what she was looking for.

"Found it," she smirked and pulled a lever that was hidden and looked like it was part of the wall.

She pulled it open and revealed a secret passageway!

"Did I hit my head too hard or did the wall behind the locker just open?" DJ said looking all confused.

Jelo was fascinated and stared at it as he went closer and then turned to Thea, "We've been using the classroom for five months now, how come we've never heard about this until now?"

That's when I realized that he had asked the wrong question, "How come you know about this?"

"Collis is a 17th-century mansion built during the Ranac dynasty, and if you had paid attention to our history lessons back in elementary you'd know that secret passages were common in Insula during that period," she explained, "Any more questions? None? Good, let's go now."

She asked Jelo for help to lift the locker and opened hers to grab a backpack that was stuffed inside.

"You listened during history?" that was the first question that popped up in my head for some reason.

"How could she not?" DJ said, "She sandwiched in between Harvey and that one person that Ethan doesn't seem to get along with."

"Oh, I see."

"You told us the history of Collis Mansion but didn't answer Lanz's question." Jelo stated, "How do you know about this place?"

"From a friend. Now come on, let's go," Thea went to DJ's side and helped him up while Jelo assisted me, "Just follow my lead."

The two of them went in first and we followed closely behind. It was a long and very narrow hallway, the only thing that lit it up was the flashlight DJ was holding and it was almost out of battery. It was too dark and too small for us, we barely fit in here! We're like sardines in a can!

While walking, I noticed a loose plank Jelo was about to walk right into and tried to warn him.

"Jelo duck, watch your-!"

Before I could even finish warning him he looked at me, "What do you-"

Thud!

"- head…"

"- m-mean…"

He walked right into it, well, more like slammed into it and very hard too.

Oh well, at least I tried.

I leaned on the wall and pulled him up and we continued walking.

We had a hard time moving in this place, I'm pretty sure I got a few cuts too. It took a while to reach the end of the hallway but that just lead to something else. Steep and narrow stairs.

Since we didn't have much choice, we kept moving, and eventually, we reached the end of this passageway.

"Finally!" I cried, "We're going to be out of this creepy and squeezy tunnel!"

Jelo looked at me, scrunching his face, "Squeezy?"

I didn't mind him and turned to Thea who stoop up after checking her leg, "Tell me something Thea, did anyone, other than us, ever use this place in the 21st century?"

"Actually, yes. Someone does use this place and quite often too," she answered, but somehow the look on her face concerned me, it was like she was suppressing something, "The person who told me this place existed."

"Did that person even fit in here?!" DJ exclaimed.

"Yes, she did. Must've been the perks of being small."

The perks of being small, only two people come to mind at the mention of that. No doubt they'd fit in here.

Thea pulled the lever on the wall and slid it open revealing an empty gymnasium. To our comfort and relief, there were no Inmourtis in sight and the door to the first-floor corridor was locked. I could hear growlings but they were distant. I can't help but wonder and worry about what happened to Ethan and there's only one way to find out.

Our gymnasium has two entrances, one I've already mentioned, and the other leads to the lacrosse and soccer field outside.

We made our way to the door that leads outside. When we opened it made noise but thankfully it wasn't loud enough to attract the Inmourtis.

When we got outside we heard shouts and screams, we recognized one of the voices, it was Ethan's!

Out on the field, there were numerous students, and Ethan was one of them. Many were fleeing and some of them were drawing attention to themselves so that others could run. Ethan was running and shouting, desperately trying to avoid the five zombies at his tail while keeping them away from some students.

"HURRY UP, I THINK THESE PEOPLE HAVE MORE STAMINA THAN I DO! JUST GO! RUN!" he shouted.

After he took a glance at the students and made sure they were far away enough from the Inmourtis he focused back on them, "COME ON, IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!"

"What is he thinking?! He should just run! He's going to get himself in deep trouble!" DJ exclaimed.

Jelo scanned the entire area for a safe place to hide, "Over there! Come on!"

He leads us to the storage shed where he and Thea leave us. The shed had a small window that shows the field, from where I was sitting, I saw and heard the entire thing while tightly holding onto my frying pan and keeping an eye out for Inmourtis that could be headed our way.

"HEY!" Jelo shouted taking the Inmourtis' attention away from Ethan, "OVER HERE!"

He used one of Thea's sticks to hit the shovel's step to make lots of noise. Whatever the two of them planned, if they even had one, was working. The zombies moved away from Ethan and started to chase after Jelo.

Ethan, however, stood still as he realized who was helping him, "Jelo?"

Thea didn't waste a second, while the zombies were busy following the noise Jelo was making, she ran towards Ethan and grabbed his hand dragging him towards the shed. Thea opened the door and Ethan was visibly surprised to see us there.

"You three are here too?!"

"Buddy it's great to see you too but we have pressing matters to attend to!" Thea said and then I handed him the old metal bat I saw lying around the shed.

"Now grab him," Thea instructed which confused the three of us, "Didn't you hear what I said? Grab him! He can't walk!"

"Uh, yeah… I stepped on a shard of glass and sprained my ankle so a little help would be ni- WOAH-! WOAH!"

Thea's instructions seemed pretty clear to me, she said "grab him". I don't know how and I don't know why but I think Ethan heard it as "carry him like a sack of rice" because that is what was happening right now!

"Where to?" he asked with all seriousness as if the situation wasn't ridiculous.

Thea was speechless. DJ on the other hand seemed like he was amused by what he was seeing. But both of them were doing a very poor job of holding their laughter in.

"Seriously guys? Really? Is this amusing for you?"

"Yes," DJ answered, snorting with laughter. At least he's honest.

"Ethan, she said grab me, not treat me like the sack of rice your mother buys at the market!"

"Shh!" shushed DJ, "Do you want to attract those things to us and make us a buffet for them?! Be a nice sack of rice and be quiet, okay Lanz?"

"I'll remain quiet if I'm not dangling over Ethan's shoulder anymore!"

"Shh!"

"DJ!"

"Shh!"

"Okay, now that we have established that Lanz is cosplaying as a sack of rice can we now proceed with the plan?" Thea said, cutting in the middle of the conversation, "Jelo and I agreed to meet in front of the school so that's where we're going. But I have to check on those people at the entrance first. Can you handle them both?"

"The people at the entrance? You don't need to worry about them anymore. When I got there some people wanted to get them out of there so I created a diversion so they could be brought to safety. They're probably on their way to the hospital now." Ethan explained.

"That's great!" Thea said, smiling.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

"Well we can't wait here that's for sure, so we just proceed as planned. The town is where we're headed, we find help there. The buses won't come here anymore because Mrs. Jung alerted them of the situation. Right now, we're on our own."

"Okay then, let's not waste any more time," I said but they just shushed me again!

"What did we say Laanz? A quiet sack of rice." Thea said then laughed as she and DJ headed to the front of the school.

"Haha! Very funny Thea!" I shouted so she could hear me, "But seriously Ethan do you honestly plan on carrying me like this the whole time?"

"Why not?" He asked, "It's comfortable for me this way."

"It's uncomfortable for me this way."

He paid no attention to what I said and sprinted. We caught up to Thea and DJ, and soon enough all four of us were at the school gate. Thea gently placed DJ on the ground and Ethan finally let me down carefully, what a relief it was that he didn't toss me down like an actual sack of rice!

Thea then turned to him, "You're on guard duty. They can't exactly protect themselves, so you're their bodyguard for now. I'll be back with Jelo within at least twenty minutes."

"And if you aren't?"

"Then your debt of 40,000 conchas to me is changed into protecting the two of them until this all ends as well as making sure my family is safe and sound. If we aren't back within twenty minutes you muster all of the strength you can and grab both of them and take them to town."

Ethan stayed silent for a few seconds and looked directly at Thea's eyes, "I don't care about my debt, so just get back here."

Thea was about to run when I saw her flinch. She reached for her food, the one that was grabbed by Uncle Paris earlier, and fixed the bandage that she applied. I didn't even notice she was hurt and put one on, I was focused on getting to DJ and helping Ethan that I didn't see that the people I was with needed help too!

"T!" DJ exclaimed.

"Thea, you're hurt!"

"I'm fine you two. It's just a scratch," she said before running back to the field.

I couldn't stop her, all I could do was look at her running back to the field filled with worry.

Since Thea left, Ethan didn't sit down for a moment. He tightly held onto his bat and checked the time on his phone continuously all while keeping an eye out for potential danger.

I was worried about all of us. I can't help but think if we manage to survive tonight, what awaits us tomorrow?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. One problem at a time Lanz.

Minutes passed but there was still no sign of Jelo or Thea. This isn't looking good. I kept on turning my head, looking around, hoping they'd pop out somewhere, but there was no sign of them.

"Twenty minutes are up," Ethan muttered.

"What? NO!" I protested as he took my arm and placed it around his neck, he did the same for DJ but neither one of us wanted to leave without Thea and Jelo.

"Ethan just wait for them for five more minutes!" pleaded DJ.

"Ethan, please!"

"Don't you think I want to wait for them too?! But you heard what Thea said! I have to take you two to town!"

"BUT-"

"ETHAN! ETHAN!"

I wanted to say something but our heads turned as we heard Jelo's voice from behind. They're here! The smiles that formed on our faces immediately faded when we realized they weren't alone.

"START RUNNING!" Thea shouted.

"GOT IT!"

We started to run and the two of them quickly caught up to us. They took DJ from Ethan and we all ran to the streets.

We knew we had to shake the Inmourtis off our backs but how?

That's when DJ had an idea, "S-Split up! They'll be confused about who to run after! Split up and head…"

"HEAD TO WHERE?!" Ethan asked.

"DJ THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO HESITATE! HEAD TO WHERE?!"

"ALDER FOREST!" he shouted, "HEAD TO ALDER FOREST!"

"Alright! Forest it is! Meet up at the preserve!" Jelo shouted and then they headed for the woods.

Ethan and I did the same. We know these woods like the back of our hands, we knew how to get to the preserve. From the school, the preserve was at least five kilometers, it would take us roughly about 40-60 minutes at least to get there.

If you don't know these woods it would be easy to run around in circles and get lost and I'm saying this as someone who is speaking from experience.

The rustling of the leaves on our feet as we run, the hoots of owls, the light of the moon, and the cold night breeze that passed by all made it seem like we were in a horror movie. A genre I'd like to avoid. All that wasn't helping the growing fear I was feeling.

Ggggwwwrrrarrr!

Suddenly two Inmourtis came out of nowhere! I recognized them, they were the ones Jelo, DJ, and Thea were trying to shake. They shook them off alright, but now they were chasing us! One of the Inmourtis lunged toward us and we fell to the ground. Ethan immediately got up, but I couldn't! The Inmourti was pinning me down! It tried to bite me but I blocked the attempt using the frying pan!

"A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE NICE RIGHT ABOUT NOW!"

Ethan grabbed his bat from the ground and then hit the Inmourti, getting it off of me.

"COME ON!" he said as he pulled me up and once again we made our way to the preserve.

We ran, and ran, and ran. I didn't know how much time had passed, all I knew was that we were getting closer because the path was familiar. Though Ethan must've been exhausted by now, not only was he running, but he was also helping me. I felt bad for being a burden.

After a while, we saw the sign to the preserve. It was only a kilometer away! Smiles formed on our faces, we were almost there!

We continued to run and run, we were so close that we didn't even bother to take a break.

When we got there the fear I was feeling rose because no one, except us, was there. The others were nowhere to be seen or heard!

"Where are they?!" I asked, panicking, "They should be here by now!"

That's when we heard a distant cry for help somewhere in the woods, "HELP! SOMEBODY, HELP US! PLEASE!"

I immediately recognized who it was, "It's Jelo!"

"They're attracting way too much attention to themselves!" Ethan noted.

"Something's wrong. They wouldn't be risking their lives to call for help otherwise!"

Ethan and I looked at each other, he seemed torn on whether or not to leave me here all alone to help them or stay put.

For me there was only one answer, it wasn't even a question, "Go. I'll be fine, GO!"

And with that, he ran and I was left all alone.

I was worried about my friends. What kind of trouble did they run into? Was it Inmourtis? Wild animals? Not only that, the brave face I put on to send Ethan off was fading. I was terrified on my own. My weapon- if you can even call it a weapon- was the only thing I had on me to defend myself which isn't much. I'm practically defenseless! If anything were to come out of the trees what was I supposed to do? I can't even run!

Each noise and rustling of the leaves on the ground had me on edge. You can't blame me, an Inmourti jumped on me that same way! They're like one of those whack-a-mole games, they could pop out at any time!

My eyes kept on scanning the area around me and my heart started pounding louder when I heard various footsteps coming in my direction.

I grabbed as many rocks as I could from the ground and hid behind the boulder, then when whatever it was came out of the woods I just shouted and started throwing rocks everywhere!

"GGGYYYYAAAAAA!"

"OUCH- LANZ! HEY CUT OUT! LANZ! YOU ARE HITTING OUR FACES!"

I opened my eyes and saw Jelo standing in front of the boulder with DJ.

I smiled from ear to ear. You have no idea how relieved I was to see the both of them standing there glaring at me for hitting them with rocks! Though they're probably ticked off about that last part.

In my defense, that was pretty much all I could do to defend myself against the Inmourti.

Soon enough, Ethan came back, but when he came back the smile on my face disappeared. He was carrying Thea in his arms, her leg was bleeding badly and she was trembling in pain.

"Get her over here!" I said, laying my blazer on the boulder.

She looked at Jelo and tried to talk despite the immense pain she must've been feeling, "M-My backpack! Give it to me!"

"H-Here," he said before handing it to her.

She opened it and brought out her brother's first aid kit as well as two tumblers. She soaked a gauze pad inside one of them and rinsed her wound using the other. SHe was out of breath and having trouble so Ethan and I decided to help her.

Under her instructions, Ethan genthly dabbed the wound with the gauze pad she soaked. She flinched once or twice but tried to keep calm for the most part. Afterward, she handed me a towel and asked me to dry the wound, it was clear that even touching it lightly caused her pain.

When it was all done, she put a non-adhesive pad and a bandage over it to cover the wound.

She turned to me and made me sit beside her, "Your turn."

"What?"

"Your foot. It's bleeding bad."

I didn't have much choice but to let her tend to my injured foot. First she cleaned my wound and dressed it up like hers and then she tended to the sprain on the same foot using the cold spray she had on her other backpack.

I gave her a few minutes to recover before saying something, "Thanks but your foot doesn't look fine to me."

She recalled our earlier conversation at the school before responding, "There was no time Lanz. I had to act, otherwise, Jelo could've been in serious trouble! My pain was worth bearing because it gave us the chance we needed to save our friends. A few hours ago we didn't even know if DJ was safe, then it was Ethan's life at risk, and then it was Jelo who was left alone to protect us. I figured if you could run barefoot just to protect me a little sting wouldn't kill me."

I went closer to her and saw her eyes water though she tried to hide it under her hair. Thea wasn't known to cry, she'd always either be expressive of her emotions or keep them inside.

I held her hand, "You putting their lives before your own is nothing short of heroic, but please remember that your life is just as important as theirs. You have to tell us if you're hurt so we can help you. We can't do that if we don't know. We can't afford to lose anyone, I don't want to lose you or anyone of our friends!"

I lowered my head as I too felt my eyes begin to water, I didn't want them to see me like that, "I can't. I just can't…"

"My mom is missing and I haven't got a clue as to where she is! You know that she and my sister are the only family I have left. You guys are the next closest thing to that. I am NOT going to lose you too."

For a moment there was only silence.

When I looked up at Thea she was looking at me the same way she did back when we were kids, lost in these woods. It was like we had returned to that moment, I was once again the child who couldn't help but cry at the thought I wouldn't be able to see my family again and Thea was the little girl who didn't leave my side even though she was scared. Right now, she must've been seeing that same eight-year-old boy she desperately saved from the cold waters of the lake.

"Lanz…" I heard DJ mutter.

"You aren't going to lose anyone," Jelo reassured.

"He's right you know, it isn't easy to get out of our clique," Ethan said, with his signature smirk.

Thea rolled her eyes and turned to Ethan, "For the hundredth time, we are not a clique!"

"Tell that to the teachers," Ethan whispered to Jelo and made him chuckle.

I scratched my head, "My mom seems to think that too, probably because the teachers have mentioned it during the PTA meetings. I kind of see why they would say so though, I mean from an outsider's perspective we do look like a clique.

After that, it was all smiles and laughter. But the rustling of the leaves on the ground caused us to go silent once more. Our brief movement of joy returned to the horrifying atmosphere from before.

Jelo armed himself with his shovel, Thea held tightly to both her sticks, Ethan was ready to swing his metal pat, I was ready to hit foes with a frying pan, and DJ grabbed some rocks.

My heart pounded once more and I could hear my breath, I was more terrified than I thought.

MUAHAHA!

Everyone jumped at the sound of Ethan's ringtone.

Ethan, the guy who owned the phone, accidentally swung his bat on Jelo's head. Thea, who was right beside them, also hit Jelo, but unlike Ethan, she hit his guts. The poor guy soon found himself on the ground with the leaves with an aching head and stomach.

Jelo Jenkins everyone. The guy who avoided being eaten by those infected with the virus, could not avoid the danger that is his friends. Also known as us.

"SORRY!" both of them said at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Thea asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm good," he answered, "Can you pick up that call? It might cause more danger…"

Ethan grabbed his phone from his right pocket and showed it to us, "It's Czyrus!"

"What?" DJ said in disbelief.

We all huddled around him as he answered the call.

Czyrus Fukushima is another one of our friends. We've known him since last year when he transferred to Collis. He had a clean-cut classic fade and was a glasses-wearing guy as well. He was a quiet guy when we met him, he's not exactly loud like Thea either. He's in the middle, just moderate. He's also pretty smart at mathematics, he helps me with the confusing equations I can't wrap my head around. But despite his tutoring, and the tutoring of some of our other friends, I still can't wrap my head around them.

I'd love to chat with him, I do, but now isn't really good timing. You see, Czyrus wasn't with us on the trip because he was hospitalized a week ago. His parents were experiencing some dehy- Wait a minute.

"A pleasant evening to you Czy!" Ethan greeted, "Look buddy, I would like to talk to you, all five of us do but we're kind of in a pin-"

Then he suddenly stopped talking and made a look that worried all of us.

"Czy, slow down! I can't understand you! Where ar- Wait, who's with you?!"

"Put him on speaker!" Jelo implored to which Ethan did, "Say it again Czy, we're all listening!"

"ARE YOU THERE?! GOOD! NOW LISTEN TO ME!" Czyrus panted as he spoke, it seemed like he was running and was out of breath, 'IF YOU ARE BACK IN VALENS, YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THERE! THEY THINK IT STARTED AT PRASINOS, IT DIDN'T! EVERYTHING STARTED —--"

"Czy, say that again! We couldn't catch the end of what you were saying!" I responded, hoping he heard me.

"THE VIRUS —--- IN —---! THE HEART IS —---! DO YOU HEAR ME?! THE —-- – VALENS!"

"What about Valens?!" Thea asked.

"YOU NEED TO — OUT – VALENS! – STARTED – —---!"

"Czy! What are you talking about?! Your connection is choppy!" DJ exclaimed.

"YOU HAVE TO HELP US! ME, — — COLETTE AND —! YOU HAVE TO GET US OUT OF —-- LAB! OH NO, THEY'RE —-!"

The mention of the name Colette sent me into another level of panic.

Colette was the nickname of my sister. And I seem to remember Czyrus mentioning her during their vacation.

I grabbed the phone from Ethan's hand, "Czy did you just say, Colette?!"

"GET HELP! FIND US! AND GET US OUT OF HE-!"

"CZYRUS! CZYRUS! IS MY SISTER WITH YOU?!

And just like that the call dropped leaving us with more questions than answers. Czyrus wasn't where we thought he was and it seemed like my sister was with him, not only that but sounded like they were in real danger!

I tried calling Czyrus' phone again but the call didn't connect, adding another level of panic to my already overflowing pot of it, "Why won't it connect?! We were just talking to him a few seconds ago!"

"Lanz, calm down," said DJ.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! DJ DO NOT ASK ME TO CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW! YOU HEARD CZY TOO! HE SAID MY SISTER'S NAME! AND LAST I CHECKED MY SISTER WAS IN MARE NOT PRASINOS! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!"

"And how are we exactly supposed to do that?" Ethan, who was now holding me down, asked, "You and Thea can barely walk, I can barely stand and keep myself together!"

"Well you can't expect me to just sit here and do nothing! My sister and our friend are in danger and we don't even know what kind of danger!"

"But you won't be of much help to the both of them either if you don't calm down!" Jelo pointed out as he helped DJ

"If you want to help them Lanz let me ask you this," Ethan said as he looked at me, "Do you think that acting rashly with no plan whatsoever is going to help them? Do you even have at least a hint of the kind of danger they're in and what would be the best course of action we can take? Because I listened to the same phone call as you and am very much confused about a LOT of things."

DJ raised his eyebrows in agreement, "He's got a point you know. Do you?"

I stopped struggling and thought for a second. Jelo and Ethan let me go as I sat beside Thea, frustrated with the fact that I had no answer to the questions he asked.

"See?" Ethan said, "You don't. Now comes the part where I ask, did anyone else understand anything from that call?"

DJ sighed, "All I could make out was that we need to get out of Valens, something about it, whatever it is, didn't come from Prasinos. Also there was something about a lab. Anyone else pick up anything?"

Thea shook her head while Jelo turned to DJ, "Pretty much the same thing except that Colette wasn't the only one with him and I think we know who those people are. Otherwise he wouldn't have mentioned them."

DJ, who was leaning against a tree for support, connected the dots, "They're probably being held in some lab. We have to figure out where, who they're with, how there are, and who's responsible for holding them captive."

"Czyrus said to get help. I don't think he just meant he needs our help. I think he wants us to get help from the authorities," Thea pointed out, "How we are supposed to do that, I don't know. But this what I do know, we have to try."

DJ turned to look at Jelo, who was now leaning towards the same tree he was, "How many rescue missions does that make for you guys tonight?"

"Four."

Surprised by his answer, DJ asked, "That many already?"

"Yup. Saving you was number two. Ethan, three."

"What was rescue mission number one?"

Jelo took a deep breath, "Saving our own behinds…"

"Oh. I see."

"Anyway," Thea said, turning all our attention to her, "What's the plan? Head to town like we agreed on?"

"And what if the town is crawling with those In- Ina- What did you call it again?!"

"Inmourti." I answered DJ.

"Thank you," he said, "What if the town is crawling with the Inmourtis?"

"Then we run, hide, and hopefully survive?" Ethan answered.

DJ raised an eyebrow at him, "Seriously? You call that a plan? How do we even get there in the first place? I'm not exactly in tip-top shape and both Lanz and Thea's feet are bleeding. The two of you can't assist all three of us, you're outnumbered by one."

"Then…" Thea looked like she didn't know what to do. She looked around then turned to Jelo and smiled, "We sail through the forest."

Ethan was visibly confused by her choice of words, "Sail?"

As soon as DJ heard that he looked around as well, "You don't mean…"

"Mean what?" I asked, confused like Ethan.

"Oh come on Lanz! Don't tell us you've forgotten!" Jelo exclaimed. " How do pirates sail through the seas?"

"By a pirate shi-" My eyes shot up when I realized what they were trying to tell me, it was an old make-believe game we played before. "We don't have a pirate ship though!"

"Oh we do, actually!" he said heading towards a pile of leaves and swept them away using the shovel revealing an old wooden wagon.

Jelo grinned as he looked at us, "This pirate ship."

"Any more questions DJ?" Thea asked.

"None."

"I have a request," Ethan said, raising his hand, "I want to be captain of this ship!"

"Why don't you let someone else be captain this time Ethan?" Jelo suggested, "After all, you were always Captain back then."

"By someone else do you mean you? The next person that was captain the most other than me?"

"I didn't specify anyone Ethan, I just said let someone else be captain. How about DJ?"

It's moments like this that remind me of how childish our group can be, well, mostly Ethan, but I find it quite adorable.

The pirates game was Jelo's favourite back then, he'd always compete with Ethan to become the captain. To be honest, I liked him better as Captain than Ethan. All that guy just seemed to want was to pillage and plunder Treasure Trove, also known as Thea's backyard.

"No thank you!" DJ said, "I will be more than happy to become the first mate!"

"Why don't we let Lanz be captain this time?" Thea proposed.

Everyone was now looking at me. Waiting for me to say something. But I didn't want to be captain!

"Why me?!"

"Why not?" DJ asked.

"Fair enough," Ethan agreed easily, "Lanz it is! It beats having Jelo as Captain!"

"Seriously, it's like he didn't grow past seven…" I heard Jelo mutter which made me laugh.

"Well? What do you say, Lanz?" Thea said as she looked at me with a warm smile.

These guys seriously know how to cheer me up. I know that they pulled up this old make-believe game on the spot but it was obvious to me that they did so because I was upset. They could've just said that we'd use the wagon to get to town but Thea mentioned the pirates game because she knew what Ethan's reaction would be.

What do I say?

"I say… Set a course for town!"