What We Do Next.

Vito was catching his breath, the bees had given up the chase and now he was left drenched and panting from the marathon he ran, or at least what felt like one.

He was leaning against a tree and felt his energy being restored to him with each breath he took.

"Looks like it's healing me faster than usual. Is it because of that training I did with Alex? Now I get why it was important." Before Vito knew it, he felt like he didn't even run at all. He was fully energized and ready to get back to the others.

The only problem was that he was lost.

"Where am I!?" he asked while looking around, "Grrr! Minty! That woman did nothing but leave when trouble came in. Where was she when the bees started swarming me? And Cyrus, Edith! Everyone left except... Dawn."

Remembering the fact that Vito had led the bees towards Dawn had made him go from angry to guilty as he recalled that Dawn jumped into the river to get away from him and he followed.

"Should I apologize? I don't know. I mean it is my fault he got chased and all but Dawn kind of has a knack for bad things happening to him. It's almost as though he is just unlucky." Vito was currently remembering the time that Dawn had to tame the hippo in Africa.

He kicked a rock, "I guess I will have to make it up to him somehow. Anyways, how do I get back?"

Vito looked past the path he last came from, he would have simply walked backward if he could but he had made lots of turns and curves in between the trees so it wasn't a straight line that he could follow.

"Well, I remember hearing from a camper once when I was younger that the best course of action is to stay put when you are lost, but is that the best solution?"

"If I am right Minty might come looking for me or she will send someone like Terra or Cyrus to look for me. She might send Terra or he might volunteer to come and find me, that's for sure."

"She might send Cyrus because he is the most capable out of all of us. Or she might come herself because I am still her responsibility. So staying put might be the best answer."

As Vito thought about this he remembered something Minty had repeatedly said multiple times to them so far, "You are representatives, you will be fine." Remembering this, Vito had made up his mind not to stay still because he didn't believe that she would come.

In his mind, she might as well be thinking that finding your way back after getting lost is a natural talent for representatives.

"She won't send anyone. She will probably expect me to make it back on my own, I can believe that without a doubt." Vito was now looking around for any landmarks or special indications he could follow to determine where to go from here.

He stood there for a little while wandering his eyes almost aimlessly as he helplessly couldn't figure out what to do when he suddenly felt a sharp sting behind his back. No one had touched him but he could almost feel the presence of a living being creeping towards him.

One with ill intent.

Vito had felt something like this similarly before when he was younger but now it was like his senses were on high alert and he could visibly see a force of red energy near him. 

He asked himself in his mind, "Is this bloodlust? It feels... different. Much clearer than what I've felt before. And much more natural."

Vito turned his head towards some trees and called, "Whoever is out there, come out before I come find you."

A figure of a skinny man with long dirty blonde hair, no shirt, ripped Jeans with two small bulges displaying in a certain area, and wearing no shoes came out. Vito was left appalled, his mouth opened from disdain as he felt his skin crawling to get away from such a creature.

The man saw Vito and came closer to him, this caused Vito to be on guard and tense up but suddenly the man got on his knees with his hands closed together and started pleading, "Well, slap my boots and call me desperate! A real live soul out here in this forsaken forest? Sweet mercy, you gotta help me! I've been wandering these woods for what feels like an eternity, begging for a glimpse of another living being."

"Please, I'm at the end of my rope here. Lost, scared, and barely hanging on. Ain't nothin' but the howl of the wind and the whisper of the trees for company. I'm beggin' ya, lend me a hand before I lose what's left of my mind out here in this endless outdoors."

The man had crawled his way to Vito and was tagging at his trousers begging him to help him escape these woods. If Vito didn't find him strange already, this was enough to make him want to have no association with this person.

And what confused Vito the most was the man had spoken about boots but he was walking around barefoot. Vito was certainly at his wit's end for sanity.

"Listen, I only got half of what you are saying and the rest of it flew over my head. If you are lost well then sorry to tell you, but I'm lost as well. So I can't help you there. Now get lost, I am not doing anyone any charity work."

Vito was now kicking the guy to get him off his trousers because he had been insistent on hanging on to him.

The man was now crying, "You gotta understand, I'd trade my boots for a way outta this mess. Anything, I tell ya! My family's back yonder, and every minute I'm stuck in this godforsaken forest feels like another nail in my coffin."

"I'd wrestle a grizzly bear with one hand tied behind my back, I swear! Just get me outta here, partner. My kinfolk are waitin', worryin', wonderin' where in tarnation I've gone off to. Please, I'm down on my knees here, beggin' for a glimmer of hope. Let me see my loved ones again afore I wither away into the dirt."

Vito was more frustrated than before as he yelled in his mind, 'What Boots!?' Finally, he sighed, looking at the man hellbent on sticking with him he decided to play along.

"Fine, let go of me, I will help you get out of here. There should be a stream of water nearby that we can follow along to reach the edge of this forest together." Vito had now turned his back and placed his hand over his eyes as though searching on which path they should take.

The man got up off the ground with joy on his face, "Well, slap my boots and call me a fool! You're the answer to my prayers, ain't ya? Lil fella?"

The joy on his face was placed with a smile that got wider and wider as he crept towards Vito who had his back facing him, "That's perfect, that's perfect! That's Absolutely Perfect!" With one fast motion, he placed his hand in his pants and pulled up a crowbar he had stuck inside there and swung down at Vito's head with his everything, but he tried to hold back just enough to not make Vito's body bleed profusely.

Vito dodged the attack by ducking under it with his fist held low as he looked him in the eye and said, "You wanted to meet your family right? You can meet them when you cross over." With swift movement he twisted his fist around and punched the man straight in his head, sending him flying towards a tree with blood spluttering on it.

"You should work on hiding your bloodlust, I could feel your bad intentions on me," Vito said as he turned to look at him and then worriedly gasped seeing the blood pasted on the man's head and tree.

"What! But I held back! I did! I didn't kill the guy did I?" Vito asked as he walked up towards the stranger who didn't move an inch after receiving the blow.

"My first kill and it's an almost naked cannibal out in the woods? Or rapist? Or whatever he was. I don't know how I feel about this." Vito then poked him with a stick as he crouched in front of him and asked, "You are alive right?"

"No, he looks pretty dead to me," Cyrus answered standing right beside Vito.

"AH!" Vito jumped backward, "How did you sneak up on me? How long have you been there?"

"Long enough," Cyrus answered pushing his glasses back up. "So you want help hiding the body or is this a solo mission?" he asked.

Vito shook his head trying to reason with himself on whether or not he was imagining this scenario but after looking at Cyrus's cocky smirk, he realized that this was real.

"First, explain to me what's going on. You look like you know more than me right now with the way you are eyeing him down. Or is that just your default face?" Vito asked seeing as how Cyrus was completely calm seeing this man lying in front of them..

Cyrus looked towards him partially offended at the remark but decided to tell him anyway about the whole illegal forest fire deal that was going on. 

A few minutes later, Vito was left astounded at the little adventure Cyrus had gone on. He was a little hurt that Cyrus decided to investigate the strangers rather than help him first and then go investigate it together, but he didn't say that out loud.

"Well, wanna go beat them up?" Vito asked.

Cyrus tilted his head hearing this and responded, "Is violence your first answer to situations like this?"

"What? No! It's just that, well... if we told Minty, she might just say that we should handle it ourselves. I'm considering that here. And looking at this fool, it wouldn't take more than the two of us to handle to rest."

Cyrus nodded his head a little and wondered if Vito was being reasonable or if he just wanted to find an excuse to punch someone again, seeing that one was just not enough. He wasn't yet sure. Regardless he answered, "I know we can beat them, but we won't. I have another idea but it involves Minty knowing about this. Besides, she is in charge of us even if she didn't help thus far. So let us report back to her."

"I will tell you all about this idea of mine on the way back. Let's go, it's a long walk."

Cyrus had now turned his body and was walking away when Vito yelled, "Hey! What about this guy? We can't just leave him here!"

Cyrus looked at him and thought in his mind, 'We? You're the one who punched him so hard in the first place.' Reluctantly he walked back and checked the man's pulse. "Still breathing, so at least you are not a murderer. Yet."

"Hey!" Vito exclaimed.

Cyrus then looked at the bulge that was in his pants and placed his hand there. Vito's eyes opened wide as he asked, "What are you doing!?"

"He is carrying an Uzi on him. He seemed to keep it in his pants for some reason. It would definitely mislead people into thinking he was a pervert which he might be. I just wanted to know what gun he was carrying, just in case." Cyrus answered.

Cyrus then broke a branch off the tree and rolled it a little bit away from the man's head.

"This guy seems to drink a lot. He is barely sober right now. The tree branch will make it seem like he got into an accident and hit his head on the tree causing it to knock him out. He will probably think he imagined you since there are no kids in the woods. I mean what type of grown adult would think that a kid who showed up from nowhere would be able to knock him back and almost kill him with a single punch?"

Vito looked away hearing the last part of the analysis from Cyrus.

"Anyways," Cyrus said as he got up again. "Let's get out of here before they come looking for him and then we really will have to fight. The sooner we get to Minty, the sooner we can put my plan into action."