Chapter Eight

We had decided that camping out in the same spot waiting for someone to find us was doing us no good. It had been three days and no one seemed to have noticed our absence. Instead, we started to pack up our things so we could embark on yet another one of our incredulous adventures.

The fly was off the tent, and the door was wide open and Nevaeh could be seen rolling up her sleeping bag. Some of our things were sprawled across the ground as we tried to organize our items. Lucas was putting away the food, Zeke still seemed to be preoccupied with his stick-sharpening business to care, and I was shoving things into my bag. It seemed as if we were trying to get everything put away and organized at once.

I was still being cautious. I was keeping a fair distance from Zeke in fear he would lash out at any moment and stab me in the chest or something. I wasn't very fond of that idea, I liked my body parts, and being impaled by a wooden stick wouldn't help me out. That would put me in a pretty bad situation, I think. Considering I'm out in the middle of nowhere.

I wondered, should I warn Nevaeh and Lucas? That's would be the right thing to do. Maybe the three of us could team up and take him down using his own weapon! That would be cool. We could be like the Ninja Turtles; Lucas would be Donatello, Nevaeh would be Michael Angelo, and of course, I would make the perfect Leonardo. Forget about Raphael, that would be Zeke, and Zeke needs to burn.

I reconsidered. Did I really want my friends to know? After all, that would mean they had a better chance of dying first. I decided to be the selfish little brat I was and keep the critical information to myself. After all, I didn't want to get backstabbed my Zeke. (Haha, I'm so punny! I love myself.)

I watched from the corner of my eye as Zeke finished her new pointy stick, looking around before placing it in his bag. Zeke caught my eye, noticing that I was staring at him. I brought my hand up and used my index and middle finger to point to my two eyes, then twisting my hand so I did the same thing in his direction to say I'm watching you.

He sent me a look. A mixture of confusion, annoyance, and humour flashed across his face before he turned away to begin a new task. That was a sign, it had to be! He was going to murder us all!

"We should start a gang," I heard Lucas say.

I whipped my head around to see him striking up a conversation with Zeke. A gang? Did this kid just say he wanted to start a gang? With an alleged murderer!

Zeke smiled and let out a laugh. "Sure, sounds fun. Let's do it."

"But I may have to ask my mom first," Lucas said shyly. "She likes to know what I'm doing."

Zeke shrugged. "Me too. My mom would be mad if I didn't tell her. Better now than never."

Are these two serious? They need to ask their parents permission to start a gang? Unbelievable. Hilarious, but unbelievable.

"We should get matching tattoos!" Zeke decided. "It would be the best way to let everyone know we're in a gang. Plus, they'd look really cool."

"Have to ask my mom again, but sure!" Lucas agreed cheerfully. "I could also ask my mom to bake us some brownies! She makes wicked brownies."

I wanted to stuff something in my ears to block out the stupidity. It couldn't bare it, it was painful to hear.

"What would your purpose even be, though?" I interjected. "I mean, you'd need to know the goal of your gang-" No. No. Trinity, what are you doing, don't give them any ideas for their gang!

"We could give out candy!" Lucas cheered. "We could drive around in a van handing out free candy to little kids!"

I snorted. Have a fun time explaining to the police you're not paedophiles.

"That's a really good idea," Zeke nodded. "It would be like an ice cream truck; whenever the kids see our van, they know we'll be handing out free candy!"

They want to drive around in a pedo van handing out free candy?  A pedo van, you know? Pedophile van? The white van pedophiles drive around in using candy to lure in kids? Only thing is, this time they'll be handing out real candy. Oh dear, the irony.

"And our base could be in a tree house!" Lucas jumped at the idea.

No. Nope. I had no idea who these five-year-olds were. Maybe they were just a figure of my imagination as my conscious had created to tick me off. Goodness, it was working. My conscious knew me well. I suppose it sort of had to know me well. After all, It was my conscious.

I tuned out of their conversation to focus on rolling my sleeping bag. It felt like the more I rolled it, the bigger it grew in size. Was this some sort of camping wizardry? These grew way too big for the bag by the time you had it rolled up; anyone who went camping willingly must be a wizard.

I tried fitting everything into my bag. I zipped up the zipper with much effort, wondering how the heck it all held together in the first place. I could have sworn the first time I had no need to fight against the items inside to get it shut; had I realized I packed that much I would've left something behind. I blamed Zeke for whatever reason it was.

"Guys, I found some berries." I turned my head to see Lucas holding a palm of red berries in his hand.

He picked one up and was about to place it on his tongue when Nevaeh spoke up. "I wouldn't eat that unless I wanted diarrhea for the rest of this trip."

He paused and glanced at Nevaeh who was mindlessly putting away her stuff as if she hadn't spoken just moments before.

He raised his eyebrows and put down the berry, letting the rest of them drop to the ground. "Uh, what's so bad about them?"

She didn't look up and she continued to put her things away. "Those are snake berries." She remarked. "It's an easy concept, really. White and yellow, kill a fellow. Purple blue good for you."

"Oh," Lucas said awkwardly. He shifted on his two feet before turning back around to resume putting his stuff away.

I stared at the berries he had let hit the ground. Oh no... Maybe that was Zeke's plan. To make Lucas eat those berries and die from horrible diarrhea!

I eyed him from where I sat. He looked bored. How suspicious... He was hiding something. I could feel it. 

I searched him up and down, looking for something he could be hiding. Maybe a gun? A knife? Oh! He was probably hiding all his pointy stick things. I could see any obvious - wait, no. There was something in his pants. WAS HE HIDING A GRENADE? Oh god, please don't let it be - wait, hold up. I've been staring at his dick this whole time.

I flushed red at the thought. What is wrong with me? At least he didn't see - I spoke way too soon. My face was heating up like a balloon as Zeke sent me a very weird look. He saw me looking at him. At his baby-making parts.

Soon his face morphed into one of humour as he watched my face redden like a tomato. He sent me a mischievous grin. "If you were seriously that curious about what was down there, you could've just asked, tough girl."

I rolled my eyes and searched for a retort to cover my embarrassment. "Oh, of course. Because you'll strip for anyone with a vagina."

His humour died as fast as it came, leaving nothing but a glare. He scowled at me. "Are you seriously bringing this up again? I can't believe you. Piss off, Trinity." 

He turned around and stormed towards the tent. I felt a little guilty until I reminded myself it was true. He did sleep with anything with a vagina.

My things were packed. Tightly, may I add. The others still seemed to be busy with their own things, so I sat back and relaxed. We were lost in the middle of the forest with a limited amount of supplies. I should have been more concerned than I was.

But I wasn't, and I didn't know if it was because I was so certain that we'd be found before we reached that stage, or if it was the independence inside of me trying to figure this out on my own.

I watched Zeke walk up to me, avoiding my eyes, carrying a light pile of clothes in his hands. He looked intimidating, but I'd already seen this face enough times that by now it was getting old. In fact, I wanted to burst out into giggles like a toddler at the sight of his underwear. Zeke's boxers! How exotic.

"Come with me to the water so I can wash all this." He spoke in a monotone voice, still avoiding my eyes.

Crossed my arms, even though he wasn't looking at me to see it. "Why should I go with you?" I questioned, despite the fact I was already on my feet and chasing after him.

He began walking in the direction of the water, and called over his back, "Because I didn't ask. It was more a demand, really."

I found myself keeping a safe distance from him as I followed behind, letting him take the lead. I silently scowled at myself. What were you doing, Trinity? You should be sitting down right and enjoying that fact you've finished packing! Why are you following him?

Because he didn't ask.

Screw you, conscious.

Zeke neither slowed or quickened his pace for me. I was convinced at this point he had forgotten I was even there. I could see his shoulders were really tense, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the awkwardness or if he was stressing about something.

"Uh, what am I doing here?" I asked quietly, afraid he would lash out once more.

"You're here so I can figure out why you won't quit being such an asshole," I heard him say without turning around.

I immediately got defensive, opening my mouth to reply with some witty comeback or insult to fire back at him, but he spoke before I even got the chance.

"I don't even need to turn around to know you're trying to find another way to bring me down," I could hear the anger in his voice. "You put your ego first, and I don't know what has driven you to think you're so much better than everyone here, but that needs to stop."

"Excuse me?" Was the only thing I could really think to say at the moment. "I have never done any of those things you just said. Maybe your head is just shoved too far up your ass for you to hear anything-"

"Whoop, there it is." Zeke whistled, only adding fuel to my fury.

"Shut up!" I yelled at him, scaring some birds above us.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing me to almost bump into him. A wave of fear passed over me because I was afraid I might have pushed him too far. Could you blame me? I was a dwarf compared to Zeke. I'd rather not be squished to death by him and his 200 pounds of muscle.

He looked around, his eyes passing over my head. After a few moments, I had realized he was no longer paying attention to me but rather our surroundings.

My anger was was back up and I was ready to go. I pulled my fists up into a fighting stance. "C'mon buddy, square up. Fight me, hoe." I challenged him.

He ignored me, scrunching his eyebrows as he looked around in confusion. He took a step towards me and I let out a yelp, backing away in fear.

"Do you know where to go next?" He asked me.

I took a moment to observe our surroundings, only to realize I had no Idea where we were. No, this can't be. We couldn't be lost again!

"You got us lost?" I asked in anger. 

"I wouldn't have gotten lost if it wasn't for you yelling at me!" He replied through gritted teeth.

I pointed a finger in his face. "Don't you dare blame me! You're the one leading us."

"You know the way too," He defended. "You could've said something!"

I clutched my head and let out a groan of frustration. "We got lost in the forest we got lost in? What is that? Lost squared?"

He glared at me but I only glared back. 

"Idiot," I muttered.

"Stupid," He retorted.

"Loser."

"Moron."

"Dummy. You're all a bunch of dummies. For goodness sake, I'm camping with dummies!"