Eventually, my wishes were finally granted after an abundance of time that I couldn't ever keep track of.

I was waiting near the entrance until I saw three people walking side by side to the entrance. I was filled with an overflow of joy as I limped my way over obstacles like rubble and broken boxes. I used a stick I found that had come off the factory's rooftop to move towards the three people.

I soon found out it was Robert, Fron, and Jack who were walking towards the factory.

"Hey!" I shouted in a courteous manner.

"George! Mind helping us?" Jack asked me. He strode in with Fron in tow towards me.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked him.

"It seems like uh, he can't see. Robert can't hear for shit and I can't smell either." Jack replied.

"WHAT!?" Robert exclaimed, proving that he couldn't hear. Fron was speechless, as one should be if he figured out that he couldn't see, hopefully for now.

"That's horrible. Here, lemme help Fron inside the factory. Everyone else is here too, I believe so..." I said, distracted with Fron's safety.

"You're forgetting Aquafene and Angel dumbass," Fron stated. We entered the factory and went into the first room. I didn't know how Fron knew about them still being missing, but I didn't question it at the time.

I wish I had though.

"Oh yeah. Wow, how did I forget about them already?! Something must be wrong in my brain heh." I said.

"I think something's wrong with all of our brains. Let's head inside, I'll try to explain what I'm thinking there." Jack said. Robert let go of Fron's arms and helped him move forward. I carried Fron alongside Jack and Robert to the factory where Emily was ecstatic to see Jack and hugged him immediatel. Robert sat down exhausted and Fron walked aimlessly around the factory with Alice rushing to his aid.

"I didn't think I'd see y'all ever again!" Jack exclaimed in weary enjoyment.

"Me too man, me too," Maurice said, crouching next to Steve with a nauseous expression on her face. Peo was trying to warn her not to puke on her brother's face, yet she kept losing her balance and held onto the wall, barely able to say a full sentence. Meanwhile, Alice was leading Fron back into the factory as he nearly walked himself into a creature in the jungle that almost looked like a snake.

Almost.

I looked beyond the trees and saw a figure that walked up in a style of cheerful manner. I recognized this bright movement, sprung up from the floor, and limped with the stick I still had in my hands to the person walking to the factory.

Once I saw Angel and Aquafene talking with each other. I exclaimed,

"Angel!!"

She gasped and shouted,

"George!"

She dropped whatever she was holding before anything else and ran to me for a hug. As I hugged her back and Aquafene tried and failed to pick up what seemed like berries Angel dropped. Robert picked up the berries for her.

"Thanks, Rob. Can't use my arms right now nor my hands." Aquafene said. Robert didn't respond.

"Uh, Robert..?" She tried to ask him again.

"Don't try to speak with him. He can't hear for shit!" Jack teased. Aquafene understood and they both picked up the berries.

"HEY!" Everyone else shouted at him in unison.

"What it's true! Geez." Jack stated.

We all walked back to the factory with the berries in hand and set up a makeshift camp inside. We gathered sticks for a fire that Jack lit up and tried to regather all of the things we lost.

We had unfortunately lost in the blast the four remaining capsules that Aquafene had in Steve's backpack, as well as his whole backpack and Jacks's small sack. We also lost just about every aspect of our lives as well as nearly all of our water and food.

So that was just GREAT!

We decided to set our plans to fix our water and food deficiency problem by going into Altandor as we fortunately still had a rough map of where we traveled from in my brain.

"How do you know where to go?" Aquafene asked me after I stated that I knew where to go from here to get back to Altandor.

"Oh yeah, uh. Everyone apart from Peo might need to sit down for this." Everyone sat down apart from Peo who was still trying to regain her balance and Emily who had her arms crossed and leaned against the wall. I could understand why she was upset, she knew what I was about to say. As for Peo, I was worried she might've had a concussion.

"Hold up, before you say what you have to say George can I explain my thinking on whatever's going on here?" Jack asked. I nodded silently while we sat down around the campfire.

"Alright, so as you guys know there's been a massive explosion in the factory and some of us got launched far away from here while some of us stayed closer. However, I think the people that were launched farther from the factory are suffering the worst of our brains' lack of senses and neurons." Jack said.

"Lack of senses and neurons?" Maurice asked, holding her stomach.

"Yup. Here's my working theory. You see how Steve is sleeping and how you're holding your stomach to keep yourself from throwing up? Those are because of your neurons getting tired enough to the point where you got sick and he went to sleep." He stated, pacing around the campfire now.

"That doesn't make sense. Neurons don't shut off suddenly." Alice said, stretching her arms out.

"Well neither does a full-on jungle just spawn from an explosion but that happened!" Jack exclaimed. Robert seemed concerned. He assumably thought they were arguing based on Jack's serious face. Alice shrugged though and continued to stretch.

"I don't know how or why, but when that explosion happened it caused our neurons to become shocked in one part of our body or brain, affecting our senses. As a result, we have Robert not being able to hear, one of our senses. Fron not being able to see, me not being able to not smell, Alice being able to not taste, and Steve not being able to feel anything since he's knocked out cold." Apart from the neuron schpiel, what he was saying made sense.

"And the rest of us?" Peo asked, stumbling around the factory. Emily got up and made her stay leaning on one of the walls.

"That's a result of your neurons being disconnected from one specific part of your body or brain. For example, George, try to stand." He stated. I struggled to my feet with the stick at my side.

"Now try to stand without the stick." He said in a profound tone.

"I-I can't Jack. You know that." I said, crumbling back onto the ground.

"Yeah, it makes sense now," Peo said, making sure she didn't fall from the wall.

"That explains why I can't grab anything," Aquafene said. Angel though, looked awkwardly at us. I looked at her back and asked,

"What about you?"

"Huh?!"

"Do you have anything wrong with your body?" I asked her. Everyone indirectly looked at her, even Robert as he munched on a piece of the chocolate bar that Alice shared with him.

"Uh, nothing. I mean that might be because of me waking up much earlier. I wasn't launched from the factory, but instead woke up in the middle of it?" She stated nervously. We all looked at her in wonder.

"So that means you don't have anything wrong with you?" Alice asked her, and she nodded.

"Interesting," Jack said, sitting down beside me. Angel looked embarrassed though I didn't know why. She should feel lucky that she wasn't suffering the same fate as we were right then.

I noticed Fron was silent the whole time, I felt the most sympathetic about him. He was presumably launched the farthest from the factory.

"How did you guys get back here anyway?" Alice asked her brother, Fron. He stayed silent for a long time before saying,

"I don't know. I couldn't see anything. I uh, tried to yell for anyone's name. I was lucky you found me and directed Jack to lead me back here." He said. Alice looked towards Jack for an explanation.

"I saw him wandering around a large tree so I called his name and that's when I found out he couldn't see. A-And not because he told me exactly but... just look at his eyes." Alice looked directly at Fron and gulped.

"Why are his eyes uh, uhm..." She stuttered. I got up by my stick and crouched next to her.

Fron's cornea, iris, and entire eye were shaded in a blue stain. It looked like he had blue contact lenses except if the lenses were around his entire eye. I winced for him and patted him on the shoulder,

"You'll see soon enough Fron. I promise." I stated, he nodded in despair and I grabbed my stick and overlooked the jungle. It was silent, utterly noiseless. It should've been lively with birds chirping or some horrific monsters roaring but it was peaceful. As if all of the things we'd done paid off in a good way.

"What do you think the Redwoods would think of this?" Angel asked nervously behind me. I definitely didn't scream and jump in surprise.

"Uh, probably not something good? I mean truth be told if a bunch of kids that you were trying to catch suddenly spawned an entire jungle from the factory you were trying to find. How do you think they would feel?" I asked her.

"Probably not so good. I would be pissed." Angel stated.

I chuckled a little bit as we looked at the sun and the forest as a whole. She chuckled a little bit more.

And we started to laugh uncontrollably.

"HEHEHEHEHE!"

"AAAAAHHAHAHHAAAHHAHA!!"

"I could only imagine Ethan's face!" Angel said in between gasps of air. We both fell to the floor laughing our asses off as Jack asked us in confusion,

"Why are you both laughing so hard?"

"Ah, nothing!" Angel stated, wiping a tear away from her eye, and got up from the ground. I continued to laugh through the pain of not knowing what would happen next.

After all of that, we figured out a system where we could survive for the day. Aquafene would search for berries while Angel would fetch the berries and while that would figure out our food situation, we still needed water desperately. I would've asked Maurice or Steve to accomplish it since they were rather good at finding water (no pun intended Maurice, please don't kill me).

But of course with Maurice constantly barfing and with Steve being knocked out. Alice and I went out to search for water as it was still daytime.

We walked through the jungle where Alice stated,

"I remember when I was coming back here that there was a river not far from here."

"The river that, uhm..."

"Not that river, I'd rather forget about that." An awkward silence emerged that I decided to break sooner rather than later.

"So what? Does that mean a river suddenly popped up from the explosion out of nowhere?" I asked her.

"I guess so. It's been a weird day." She said, grabbing a large branch from one of the trees next to us and tugging it, trying to break it.

"Mind if you help me a little bit?" She asked me. The branch was larger than my entire body.

"Alice, why don't we go and find another branch? One that's preferably much smaller than that one." I stated. She shrugged and let go of the branch as she led the way to the river. I picked up two sticks that had fallen from a gigantic tree and we got to the flowing river.

"This doesn't seem so bad, the water even looks shallow!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah but remember the last time the water looked shallow? I'm not trusting it." She said, stepping away from the riverbank.

"Come on, you can legitimately see the river floor from here!" I stated, pushing my hand into the river. The water suddenly dissipated and what was the river floor, was now a bottomless pit.

"What the hell," I stated.

Alice looked calmly and grabbed a stick from a neaby bush. She used a rock and started to turn the stick into a sort of wooden spear. I would've made a spear too but I had a better idea. After seeing my torn right pant leg, I walked over to one of the bushes with oversized leaves on it and grabbed a handful of leaves. I utilized the rock that Alice used and made the stick flatter at the top.

I wrapped the leaves on the end of the stick that was flat and cut my ripped pant leg strands with my teeth. I used the strands to tie the leaves together into a safe net and carefully arranged the net onto the stick. Making it so that it was much easier to grab the water out of the river.

"Why are you making a spear?" I asked her, realizing that our mission right now was to get water and not fish.

"Just in case any type of fish monster jumps out of the river and eats us. Now come on and let's get some water already." She stated. I nodded and laid the net into the water. I carefully pushed it up, making sure I didn't forcefully do so in case the net snapped, and finally got the water out. At a skim, it looked misty.

"Does water always look so cloudy?" Alice asked me.

"Uh, I don't think so," I stated, putting the stick on the rock while the net overhung beside it.

"Hold up, I'm going to poke the water to make sure there isn't anything lurking in there." She stated.

"Pfft, Alice. We should be able to see if there's anything in there." I stated. She took no chances though and poked the water.

We heard a low gurgle come from the water in the net.

"Okay, what the HELL." I groaned out while Alice made a face that screamed, "I told you so."

"Alright let's just, dump the water. We'll get a fresh batch." I stated, grabbing the stick with two hands I dumped the water on the ground, resulting in the creature that was hiding in the water appearing. Alice rushed in and stabbed the creature in the neck. It flopped for a second longer before pausing motionless, dead.

"At least we have a surplus of food!" She said hopefully. I wasn't that optimistic though and instead got the net and dipped it into the river. I grabbed the stick with two hands and carefully directed the net upwards with all of its water. I went slowly to the rock and placed the stick on top of the rock with the net overhanging out of it. Alice used her spear to stab at the water but there was nothing there and the water looked clear. It was clean.

"Thank god," I stated, getting some sticks while Alice tried to start a fire. I grabbed a handful of sticks from a nearby tree and while she was making a fire, we heard a rustle.

It sounded like three distinct footsteps crunching on the leaves directly to the right of us where we had come from the factory. Three distinctive footsteps... three...

My eyes opened wide. I grabbed Alice by her shirt and yanked her into a bush. I dove into the bush myself just in time to see Ethan and his two soldiers—one carrying a rifle and the other carrying a pistol—roaming around the jungle only a couple of feet from us.

"Hey, what's the—" I clamped her mouth shut and pointed toward where Ethan and his soldiers were. She looked stunned but remained calm, simply becoming quiet.

"You have no idea how BAD THIS IS!" Ethan screamed out. The two soldiers looked like they'd been through it.

"Sir, shall we retreat to our posts and call for backup? Surely we can find the kids with more arms and—" Ethan pulled his razor out and aimed it toward the soldier.

"Don't even say the word 'retreat'. We have to keep going and search for these kids, it's my destiny! The future of everything my family has worked towards could be ruined because of these damn children! My word... you have no faith in me do you?" Those words rang in my head and swirled in my cramped brain. I looked at Alice and she was covering her head with her hands, presumably experiencing what I was too.

"But sir, it seems very unlikely that we will even find these kids in this thick of a jungle."

"And? AND?!? It is a prophecy established by my father that the person who finds the spirits of those damn Colors will be the next real Emperor! And trust me, I'm not letting those two stupid ass brothers that I have or even those cousins and niece I have to be the next Emperor, no. I'm going to be the next Emperor, just wait." He stated, putting his razor away as they continued down the jungle, ignoring the riverbank.

As soon as they were gone and Alice checked if the coast was clear, she got up and realized I had been supporting myself with a stick I no longer had this entire time.

"Oh my bad, here." She said, grabbing the stick that I had dropped in a rush. I grabbed the stick and helped myself up with her assistance. We looked at each other and for the first time, I saw her aghast. She glanced around to make sure Ethan wasn't around us and said,

"Okay, so did you have that dream too?"

"What dream?" I asked her, thinking about the dream I had last night. Or well technically speaking two nights ago by this point.

"I-I had a dream while we were all knocked out cold because of the factory about some uh, what was it..?" She was still talking slowly and I didn't exactly know why I was irritated that she was still speaking with tranquility.

"Alice."

"Yeah?"

"WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO CALM!?" She was taken aback by my outburst, as anyone should be. She looked at the ground.

"My parents. Me and my brothers' parents have been rough on us. Rough, to the point where Fron had multiple breakdowns where I had to comfort him as the bigger sister. I only confided in my uncle and since he's been barely around recently. I guess I was able to just hide what I've been feeling deep down. But after what Ethan said, I don't think I can keep my mind sane anymore than I have." She said, rubbing her head and swishing her hair from side to side.

"What did you have in that dream?" I asked her. She hesitated for a moment before saying,

"W-When I was knocked out cold I was placed in a dream where I relived moments of a person named 'Cyan'. It included things like me having some sort of power, discovering a storage facility with people I once knew as friends, trying to rebel against the Redwoods, and failing miserably. I got into a fight with another person named 'Purple', and finally got executed by the Redwood Federation. All the while I was afraid, scared, and downright terrified. I remember at one point I was in a forest like this one with a person named 'Lime'. She had written the word 'Future' on a piece of paper before we headed off to somewhere in a city, though I forgot the name of that city." She said, putting the stick with the net right above where she was working on a fire.

"Huh, I had a similar dream but instead of me being Lime or Cyan, I was myself. I somehow got to the factory when there was still a desert here. I saw a sweater that had the word 'Faith' stitched on it, then I went into the factory where I saw those capsules with the word 'Destiny'. I finally got to that forest you stated you were in and I saw the paper that Lime had written that word." I said, crawling over to her and sitting down uncomfortably next to her.

"That explains why I felt like we were being watched in my dream," Alice said, chuckling. I smiled back while she started the fire. She set the fire right under the water and the water boiled. It seemed like she learned how to make this fire from Jack.

"Make sure not to boil it for too long or else it'll evaporate," Alice stated, picking up her spear and walking over to the riverbank. I was confused about what she was doing until she drove the spear into the river while holding it. She pulled the spear out and out came a disgusting-looking fish.

"Uhm, maybe it's still good?" She said in a quivering voice. I shook my head violently which caused her to give up and throw the dead fish back into the river.

"I'm hoping Angel and Aquafene were able to get enough berries," I stated.

"Me too," Alice said. We waited until the water had been boiled and cleansed over before we ventured off back to the factory.

**————————————————————————————**

I picked up my stick and with the assistance of Alice, we picked up the net which was holding surprisingly well and we walked slowly all the way back to the factory where everyone else was. Robert was the first one to notice us and waved. We would've waved back if our hands weren't full yet we simply nodded and shouted for everyone else to come out.

As they all came out from the factory, they helped us grab the net gingerly and put the net inside where we placed it on a table that had been previously overturned.

"How do we split this up?" Jack asked. Peo smiled widely and grabbed eleven cups for each of us that she made from the leaves and string she got from...

I honestly don't know where.

She gave everyone a cup, including her unconscious brother. We smiled in excitement as we swished our cups into the net and drank the water. It had a weird taste to it but other than that, it felt refreshing!

We sat down next to the fire as the sun started to slump in the sky.

"Wanna explain what happened or should I?" Alice asked me.

"I'll do it." I cleared my throat and stood up tall with the stick's help. Once everyone quieted down, I explained what had happened while we were at the riverbank and how Ethan was planning on searching for us with the risk of backup trying to scour through the newly spawned jungle.

"That makes sense but I didn't think they would do it this soon!" Maurice stated, wiping her mouth from another barf session.

"Well alright, that means we should go to Altandor as soon as possible right?" Jack asked.

"It's not our best option though. I'm not sure if some of us can even travel through the jungle, let alone if it's even safe." Alice said.

"It's our best option so far, even though it might not be the safest, at least getting to know that our families... or our homes are okay is good enough for me." I stuttered, looking at Fron after what Alice II had said about 'family' made me feel bad. He glanced with no direction.

"Well, we better go back as soon as possible. So, as soon as all of us wake up next morning, we better go," Aquafene stated. Nearly everyone else agreed apart from Peo.

"Wait, w-what if my brother doesn't wake up!?!" Alice rushed over to her to calm her down quickly.

"She's right. I'll help carry Steve with Peo which might take a little bit more time than expected." Angel stated. All of us nodded apart from Robert—who couldn't hear for shit—and Jack. But I think that was because he was trying to smell the berries because he said soon after,

"Ah crap, yup. I can't smell anything. Shoot." He ate the berries though while Alice looked at him with disgust since she couldn't taste anything and was jealous.

"Alright, guys. Remember, we leave by dawn and with everyone not left behind. No point in going to Altandor now as it's nearly nighttime and we don't know what's lurking over there." I said, pointing towards the forest.

"Agreed." Everyone else agreed (again apart from Emily, Robert, and Steve for obvious reasons) as we set up spots to sleep in. We kept the fire burning for an extra layer of warmth.

As I lay on the metal floor with only my thoughts on my mind. I simply wished that I could get back home safe and sound the next day and yearned my way out of this cage of a factory, my life, and for my freedom too.