Happy Little Tree

        Lasso had stayed up most the night, dozed here and there but for the most part was up. Something didn't feel right about where they were but he couldn't figure out what it was. He accidentally fell asleep due to the exhaustion of all the running and didn't wake up at first to the sound of Bones calling his name. The sun was barely rising when Bones had woken up. He was wrapped up and at first he thought the cowboy had wrapped him up in his lasso cause he was kicking in his sleep a lot again but when he looked down at himself he wasn't wrapped up in a rope. Instead it looked like roots. Large roots had wrapped around his legs, arms, and torso and was dragging him away from where he was sleeping with Charlie. Actually moving this 7'2 boy, pulling him across the ground to a large oak tree. "Lasso!! Lasso!!" He yelled and tried to squirm out of the roots. Finally Lasso slowly lifted his head and looked at Bones. Charlie was still fast asleep but he was slowly getting dragged as well to avoid a fight.

Lasso shot up and grabbed the machete that he stole from Tiger Tony years ago and ran to them. He hacked at the roots that were dragging Bones by his feet and Bones was able to untangle himself the rest of the way. Charlie was starting to get dragged faster so both of them rushed over. Bones grabbed Charlie so Lasso could cut him loose as well. Charlie woke up to the feeling of Bones yanking him away from the roots that slithered like snakes back for a few feet back towards the main tree they were coming from. Lasso quickly picked up Charlie and shoved him towards their backpacks. "You boys grab those qui- FUCK!-" Lasso was dragged down by a root that wrapped around his ankle. "Boys get!!" He demanded while trying to turn and cut himself loose.

"What the hell is this?!" He mumbled angrily to himself when he got his machete taken away by a live root and then he felt he got yanked very roughly. He was thrown into another tree then slammed onto the ground but before he blacked out felt whatever was wrapped around him slowly let him go and he felt hot air across his back then everything went dark. Bones had wrapped a torn off piece of his shirt around a large stick and lit it on fire like a torch. He quickly ran to Lasso and tried to light the roots on fire to get them off him. Once they were gone Boned quickly stomped the flame out and threw dirt over it to put it out. Charlie tried to run but Bones grabbed him and made him stay. Bones picked up Lasso and his backpack and Lasso's and ran with Charlie far from the oak tree.

      Bones had Lasso's head on his shoulder and could feel blood soaking into his shirt. Charlie was struggling to keep up with the tall boy but still managed not to get left too far behind. When they got far from the tree and felt safe enough to stop Bones dropped their backpacks and laid Lasso down in the grass. Charlie was gasping for air and Bones motioned for him to look around to make sure there was no zombies or anything while he started checking for Lasso injuries. There was a gash on his forehead so Bones wanted to take care of that first. He quickly grabbed Lasso's backpack and rummaged through it for the makeshift first aid he had. He found extra ammo, one of his guns, some knives, knife sharpener, canteen, a ring? Bones has never seen Lasso wear it but he remembered Shiny wears on exactly like it. He put it in a side pocket and grabbed out the makeshift first aid.

        It contained some needles and thread for stitches, bandages, aloe gel that they made, tweezers, scissors, gauze rolls, and athletic tape. The gash on Lasso's head didn't look that deep so Bones just grabbed the gauze rolls and athletic tape. He cut off a piece of the gauze roll and poured some water on it to clean away the blood and dirt then bandaged the gash. He then checked Lasso for other injures but all he had was some bruises on his ribs and a possible concussion. Bones put all of his stuff back into his bag but grabbed the ring again and looked at it. Charlie came back and flopped onto the ground next to Bones but he was ignored for now. Bones just looked at the ring, it was a blank gold band. Nothing was engraved on it or anything. He has seen Shiny wear the same exact one but Bones figured that Lasso had one as well. He had no clue why but he had taken a mental note awhile ago that Shiny wears his on his ring finger but Bones didn't know if that meant anything.

        He then remembered that Lasso doesn't like him touching his things so we quickly put it back and closed it. He then checked on Charlie who seemed to be fine, exhausted but just fine. Bones himself wasn't hurt either. Just covered in mud where the roots had wrapped around him and dragged him. He didn't know how they could do that but then remembered Penny's rant about the genetic mutation the other day but didn't know how it would spread to plants and trees. Bones then just sat there and waited for Lasso to wake up. He never said much so him and Charlie just sat there in silence and waited for Lasso to wake up. Charlie eventually got bored and looked at Bones. "So what do we do?-" he asked Bones shrugged. "Wait for the only adult we have to wake up then see what he says" Bones answered and Charlie thought for a moment. "Bones aren't you 20?-" he asked and Bones rephrased his sentence. "Wait for the responsible adult to wake up and see what he says" was all he said and fell silent again. Charlie kept trying to talk to him but all he got from Boned was either a shrug, nod, or head shake meaning no.