Shortly, we were back on our way and with me having nearly dried clothes from just the amount of juice my friends drank. We pushed past a handful of shrubs that had a variety of green hues and eventually found our way to what seemed like the edge of the jungle after god knows how long.

"Oh shoot, does the jungle end?" Peo asked no one in particular. I was surprised that the jungle even ended at all. I thought by this point it had wrapped around the entire world.

"Be careful, it might be another illusion," I stated, walking carefully over to where the jungle seemed to end in a massive field, I reached my hand out. Aquafene grabbed a large stick that looked more like a club than anything else and handed it to me. I nodded in appreciation and aimed my club at anything that moved around me. It looked like an ordinary field.

"There wasn't a field here before," Robert said.

"Yeah well neither was a jungle nor was my brother blind but here we are Robert," Alice said. She was on edge too and honestly who wouldn't? I didn't know where to look and if there were monsters around us, possibly hidden from my eyesight.

"It looks... normal," I concluded. I lowered the club while we entered the field. The temperature suddenly became even warmer, if that was even possible. However, since this might've been the way back, we took the hazard of going through the field. Plus, we saw the jungle continue not far from where we were so we thought we would be safe.

We THOUGHT.

I have to repeat myself because not even thirty seconds after we had entered the field, we heard a massive stampede to our right. Steve was the first to look over to our right and repeatedly tapped Robert's shoulder in surprise and pure trepidation.

"Oh for fucks sake WHAT!?" He looked towards where Steve was pointing and his eyes went wide. I saw that they had stopped and craned my head towards whatever they were looking at.

That was when I caught sight of a stampede and my jaw dropped. Everyone else stared in awe and horror as multiple wolf-like animals were chasing us from the other end of the field. The plant juice I had just drank earlier sank into my bladder and I almost peed out of pure anguish. Nevertheless, Angel grabbed my hand and suddenly just like that, we were on the run for our lives.

Luckily the field was well, a field. Barely anything stood in our way apart from a couple of shrubs here and there. The main problem though wasn't our slow pacing, surprisingly enough we were fast runners that day. Even Fron was keeping pace with us under his circumstances.

No, it was the temperature. It was boiling hot, I could barely focus on one thing at a time between my friends, my safety, and the wolves fast approaching us.

"How much—GASP!—farther?!—EXHALE!" Steve asked between gasps.

"Just a little more!" I exclaimed, exhausted. The wolves were right on our tail (no pun intended for their bushy tails) as we fringed closer to the end of the field. My legs started to give out. I was lacking behind and Emily was the first to cross over the field. She turned around and helped Robert cross over back to the jungle. Alice and Peo ran after him hand in hand while Fron soon after ran straight ahead and continued to run through the jungle before bumping himself into a tree. Jack came after him while Aquafene and Maurice came after Jack. Soon enough, it was only me and Steve left.

"I... I can't! I can't continue!" He stated, gasping for air as we were only a few feet from the rim of the field.

I knew I had to save him since I got us into this mess in the first place. So, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward the edge of the field. Everyone else was too exhausted to help us and I grabbed my club and prepared to fight the first wolf charging at me. It was the leader of the pack and while it approached, it slowed down. The other wolves came around him and surrounded me in a rough semi-circle. I pulled Steve up and pushed him just the extra couple of feet he needed to get to the other side. He stumbled and fell at the entrance back into the jungle. I was now alone with the wolves as they fully surrounded me.

"I'm guessing, you're not ordinary wolves are you?" I breathed in and out heavily. The leader of the pack puffed out his chest and stared directly into my eyes.

I was exhausted yes, but I was in no way about to give up. The wolf growled at me and I sized itself up. It was about the same height as me, or so I guessed, he wasn't exactly standing now, was he?

I pulled out my club and tossed it onto the ground out of pure instinct and faced the leader of the pack head-on. Since my friends were on the other side of the field inside the jungle, I somehow couldn't tell what they were saying since there was some sort of audio barrier between the field and the jungle. But if I had to bet by their facial expressions, they were fearful and infuriated I had thrown the club away. I could tell they were ready to go in but I exclaimed,

"Don't go in! I got this." I was hopelessly optimistic at the time.

I faced the wolf and we paced around each other for a slice of time. It was like two strangers seeing each other for the first while. Both were bewildered by one another.

"I can tell you're an honorable animal. So I must ask, what do you want from me?" I asked, bowing in respect. I was guessing on what to do by this point based on improvisation but since the wolf looked like he might've been extremely important—since it was the leader of the pack—I didn't want to disrespect it before being eaten alive.

I tried to think of an escape plan but with every wolf standing with their spiky chests puffed out, I couldn't exactly move anywhere.

The leader responded to my question by walking towards where I was standing and bowing before me. I looked behind me to my friends and they were all baffled and in utter stupefaction. The wolf went back after he bowed and spoke in a low and growling tone,

"No one has ever bowed for me in a millennia. Who are you if I may humbly ask?" The wolf asked me without even using his jaw. I was stunned and my ears were assumably going insane, but I said,

"I-I'm George. Those people there are my friends." I pointed towards the rest of my bewildered friends on the other side between the field and the jungle.

"Hmph. I apologize for my rude intrusion. You see, this field is my homeland." I couldn't exactly believe that because of the amount of fur on their coats but could I really argue that right now?

"Ah, I understand. Me and my friends are trying to find our homeland too." I stated. The wolf nodded in agreement and stated, again without using his mouth,

"I see. You have earned my respect for not blindly attacking my fellow Junisks and instead bowing before me. I will let you go on your way now, George. Have a safe travel. I do hope we will see each other again soon. And please, make sure you hold onto your friends dearly. They may provide you something in return." The wolf said in a booming tone in my brain. The two wolves behind me parted ways which allowed me to get out of this scorching field. Before I went through, I stated back to the wolf,

"I hope you and your kind are safe as well." The wolf seemingly smiled and nodded back at me. I exited out of the field and collapsed, falling asleep.

**————————————————————————————**

Once I woke up I...

Actually, let me backtrack.

I never fully slept. I was in a state of slipping into and out of consciousness. The most I saw when I was conscious was us running through considerable amounts of shrubs, bushes, trees, rivers, and the jungle's hot climate that made all of us extremely thirsty. I could feel the sweat trickle down my neck and body. I heard Peo try to devise a plan to keep ourselves alive but I slipped back into unconsciousness before I could hear anything more from her plan.

I opened my eyes fully for the first time in a long while and saw the night sky in the air after a few hours of slipping in and out of consciousness. I had no concept of timing, which made it impossible for me to tell the time by this point.

Anyways, we were in a little opening between two massive bushes. But they didn't look anything like the bushes that had entrapped us earlier in the day. I had on my forehead a wet piece of cloth and looked around. Crickets in all shapes and colors were everywhere around me while a fire was burning brightly in the distance. I got up slowly from the comfy grass ground and walked over to the fire where Emily sat. I made no noise while moving towards her.

"OH SHIT! It's you, George, phew." She exclaimed in relief.

"Yeah. Where's everybody?" I asked, looking around I didn't see a single person other than Emily.

"They all went to a creek not far from here. Originally, Peo made a plan for her, Alice, and Fron to go out looking for water while the rest of us would build a small encampment to rest. But since all of us desperately needed water after that wolf incident, they all went."

"And what about you?" I asked her.

"I decided to stay. I can wait for water if one of my closest friends could be hurt or stolen by anything or anyone." I smiled warmly as I bucked up to the sky.

"I'm going to guess none of you knew how to build a tent?" I asked her. Looking around me I saw absolutely no signs of a tent and instead, a mish-mash of sticks and leaves spread around the area.

"Yeah, none of us went camping other than Jack. With his dad always buying an already made tent, he wasn't much help." She said, throwing a small branch into the fire. It crackled once the branch hit the flames.

"Hey. We were worried about you, you know that right?" Emily said reassuringly. I looked at her and smirked weakly.

"I knew that. I took a massive chance standing up to those wolves—no. Junisks." I stated.

"Junisks?" She asked me, she was confused.

"Yeah. Didn't you hear our conversation?" I asked her back.

"Nope, there was some kind of force protecting the field to the point where we couldn't listen to you and those "Junisks" without risking your life. So we stayed put. I felt all of our hearts pounding intensely when they came closer to you. Although, I'm still confused on why they didn't attack you in the first place?" She asked me.

"Let me counter that with another question. Why does this jungle exist? Why did we see that monster yesterday? Why did the factory explode? What happened to those capsules and the spirits that... went into us?" I said with a gulp. I didn't want to think about these questions but now, I needed answers more than anything else. Especially rather than more questions.

"I don't know anymore. I don't know why Fron can't see, I can't seem to shake the answer out of my brain." She said, grunting. I nodded.

"Well neither can I," I stated back, looking at the fire I asked her a question I knew she had the answer to,

"How are you?" She looked at me, startled by me suddenly asking me this. She sunk back into the log we were sitting on.

"Bad. Just... god, I'm not good at all. I can't explain the words that show how afraid I am and how confused I am at my surroundings. I mean our lives just got ripped apart, George!" She exclaimed in frustration, I nodded and worried for my family and what they were going through right now. I could just imagine one of those bush plant monsters surrounding the house...

"Most of all, I'm afraid that Ethan might've gotten to our families before us. I can just visualize what would happen. He would try to interrogate them, they would know nothing. Then he would confiscate their home phones and by then..." She drifted off toward the fire. Her face was twisted in outrage and sorrow. I wished I could reconcile her, tell her everything was going to be okay. But it wasn't, I knew that for a fact. We didn't even know where we were going.

"We better check up on the rest and tell them I'm okay and awake now. They'll probably have a lot of questions for me that include 'Why didn't you get attacked by those wolves?!'"
Emily chuckled softly as I got up with her help and walked off to where they had gone.

We didn't travel far, probably 100-200 feet before we finally got to an opening and saw Alice using our net and stick idea for getting water. Everyone else was drenching and washing themselves in the river. I would've too deeming the warm climate but I was still afraid I would sink in the river water.

"Alright, see y'all later!" Peo said, she walked through the path that had led us to the river.

"Bye! Good luck!" Jack replied.

She looked at us and simply waved. Then, she double-checked directly at us and her eyes opened in shock.

"GEORGE!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around me. I chuckled lightly and hugged her back.

"Hey, Peo. I'm happy to see you too. Don't squeeze too hard though!" I winced, she let go of me and made sure I was okay.

"I can't believe you're alright! I thought for sure you were going to be eaten by those vicious wolves!" I wouldn't necessarily call them vicious, more like looked down on. But she was just expressing her agreeable opinion, I couldn't exactly argue that the wolves could talk with me and were nice now, could I? Still, I appreciated her concern and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Is everyone else at the river?" I asked her. I didn't realize it until I heard Peo but my voice, as well as Emily's, were completely parched.

"Mhm! Just go to Alice and she'll give you a cup of water. And don't worry, the river's safe. Oh! One more thing." She got close to my ears as Emily went ahead of me.

"Thank you for saving Steve. He's the only relative I can cling to right now." She whispered in my ear. I nodded and was too tired and thirsty to say anything else. So, I walked off to Alice where everyone else saw me, and made sure I was okay.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked me.

"I was worried about you!" Aquafene exclaimed.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Angel exclaimed, also hugging me.

Truth be told their concern calmed my heart, but you know else would calm my heart and my throat at the same time?

A nice DRINK OF WATER!!!

I walked over to Alice and I was on the verge of screaming at everyone else to stop worrying about me. I hoped Alice wasn't the same.

"Glad you're okay. Want a cup?"

"Gladly," I said. I was happy that she only made one comment about my safety. She gave me a cup of water and I drank it swiftly.

"Another! Uhm, please?" I stated out of care.

She nodded and swigged my cup into the net. She gave me the cup back and I drank it again. Meanwhile, I saw Emily happily splashing in the river. If anything, this looked like a nice summer vacation in a jungle. Apart from the deadly bushes, Junisks, the other deadly creatures within the jungle, and the fact that Ethan Redwood was still actively looking for us. But for now, I felt like I was at peace. I was in tranquility.

"How's your brother?" I asked Alice. She looked up at me and then at her brother looking down at the water, his eyes still blackened.

"Can I be honest with you?" She asked me. I nodded calmly as I placed my head closer to hers. She said in a low voice that wasn't exactly a whisper,

"I'm scared George. But since I'm the oldest out of all of you I have to keep calm and cool. After everything we've been through though, including even before the factory exploded, I'm on the verge of breaking apart. I don't have any control over anything. I feel so... fucking useless." I grabbed her right hand and clasped it between my two hands.

"Look around us. A jungle literally exploded around us. We barely escaped a bush that looked innocent enough. You two survived the worst heat I've ever experienced in my life. You can survive this... I mean. We can survive this. You just have to be an optimist, even through these troubling times." I stated. She looked down at the net and saw her reflection on the water in the net.

"Was it worth it?" She asked me. I didn't need any clarification on that question, I knew exactly what she meant. But I decided to paraphrase it anyway.

"You mean was it worth it to go to the factory out of curiosity, only for us to nearly die three times in a row and now be in this situation? In my opinion, yeah." I stated. She surprisingly understood and looked at her hands. They were scratched up, likely from the rough landing she had when she escaped from the field and looked up at me.

"Why didn't the wolves attack—"

"MANNNN, I'm bored! Here Jack, wanna play a game?" Steve asked so loud it disrupted my conversation with Alice. We looked up at him.

"Sure I guess, what's the game called?" Jack said.

"It's called... TAG!" Steve said as he tapped Jack on the shoulder and ran away.

"Ugh... alright then. Come here!" Jack sprinted towards Steve and they went on a wild goose chase, tagging each other here, there, and everywhere.

"See? Everything's fine. And please no more questions, I already have enough in my brain anyway." I stated to Alice. She kept her mouth shut about questions and instead glanced around us for the first time.

"You know, even for a jungle as dangerous as this one with its many illusions, it looks so peaceful."  She said.

"A misleading jungle can do that for you I guess." I shrugged, getting a third cup of water myself. I drank it until it was half full and placed it between me and Alice. Jack nearly hit himself with a low-hanging branch and avoided it just in time as Steve tripped over the branch and face-planted into the dirt, getting a mouthful of dirt in his mouth.

Emily and Maurice were giggling at how stupid they were and Robert and Angel were playing patty cake with each other to pass the time. I decided that I wanted some peace and went into the forest, sitting down beside a tree with my half-full cup.

Once I sat down, I looked up to the sky which was covered by leaves upon leaves by the enormous trees. I looked at the trees above me, then at my hands, then around my surroundment. I felt.. afraid, not of someone. But something, lurking around in the forest, maybe in my mind. But whatever it was, it felt strong. I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to get rid of this presence yet it seemingly grew closer and closer until...

I hurled my guts up.

I puked a tremendous amount of liquid and other... disgusting fluids in front of me. I felt different as if I had a great amount of energy at my fingertips. After I threw up, I played with my fingerstips and Alice walked up to me from behind the tree, exclaiming,

"George what happened!? You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit of vomit is all. You've seen this before with Maurice so don't act so surprised! It's probably from the fact that it's so hot right now." I said.

"Alright.." She said with a hint of concern. She sat down beside me and asked,

"Can I ask you a question?" I nodded and with a deep breath, she asked,

"Have you been feeling this... surge of energy lately?"

"Pfft, you're going to have to be more specific than a surge of energy. Between the factory and right now I've had so many surges of energy, I can barely recount all of them." I said, lying through my teeth, I had no energy when we were in those bushes nor when we were running through the field nor when we were still in the factory.

"Ah, well this surge of energy is a little different. It's... how do I explain this? It's as if I drank the most delicious juice in the entire world and felt immediately refreshed." She stated. I never had that kind of surge of energy but I was curious about what she meant. So instead of telling the truth, I regretfully told a lie.

"Uh-huh yeah, I've felt that too. At least for me, I feel a large presence. Like something is watching over me. Though I don't know what." I said. I might've told her a little bit of the truth with the big presence but I felt like I owed it to her for lying in the first place.

"Hm, that's interesting. Maybe when I get home we can figure out what's been going on with us. For now though, I see Peo coming back in the distance." Alice said, looking through the trees in front of us.

"That's weird, I can't see that far," I stated.

However, I saw Peo carrying what looked like the sticks from the fire from earlier as well as stumbling across the pathway. I wondered how Alice was able to see that far away without any type of binoculars or just anything to zoom in on her.

I ran to Peo and helped her carry the sticks to the small area where we were staying at the creekbank. As Emily saw us she alerted the rest of our friends and we each placed the sticks in a pile. Jack started to make another fire as well as Aquafene putting some water in extra cups she had created and placing them carefully in a small pouch made up of twigs, large leaves, and a large rope she had gotten from...

Wait a minute. A rope!?

"Aquafene. Where did you get that rope?!" I tried to hide my alertness but it accidentally slipped.

"Uhm.. I got it from that tree over there." She stated in confusion. I looked at the tree and saw the bush next to it. It was burnt.

Son of a bitch.

I looked at the bush carefully and crouched beside it. Aquafene was curious and also crouched beside it alongside me. I was looking for one thing and one thing only, that damn charred paper. I searched inside the bush far and deep until I felt something solid. I grabbed for it and pulled it out, it was the blazed piece of paper! How it didn't burn completely, I had no idea. Maybe Veronica had fortunately made it out of fire-resistant paper?

After everyone else drank out the water from the net I grabbed the paper out and showed it to them.

"Uh, George. What's that?" Emily asked me.

"This, Emily, is hopefully our ticket home." I said, setting the charred paper slowly on the ground so as to not accidentally break it. I knew I had only one try at this or else the possibility of it breaking would become worse.

With a deep breath, I lifted my foot swiftly and smashed the paper under my foot. The cracked holographic screen showed up right in front of me displaying where we were and how far away from Altandor we were.

We were actually heading in the right direction for once! The only problem was that we had to cross the creek completely and take a left it seemed. But before I could explain what this was, everyone else was crowded around me, asking the questions I was just about to answer. Fron and Alice sat in silence though.

"George, how did you get this piece of paper?" Emily asked.

"George, how did you know it was in that bush?" Jack asked.

"George, why didn't you find this piece of paper sooner?" Robert stupidly asked.

"George—"

"CAN YOU GUYS CALM IT!?" I shouted.

"No! How the hell did you know that paper was there?" Aquafene asked.

"Oh my god do you wanna know why?! FINE! I was trapped from that tree using that rope you're using for your pouch! I tried to burn the rope with the paper but it didn't work and I shot the rope with the rifle I had gotten. I swear I've explained this to you guys before! You can even see the point when the bullet entered the rope there!" I exclaimed, proving that Ethan had nearly kidnapped me. Everyone else realized I had said this beforehand and rubbed the back of their heads and necks.

"Sorry George," Angel stated.

"It's fine. Just believe me when I say something, please." I pleaded. Looking at the holographic screen now, no one bothered to ask where I got the paper from and instead took a good look at it.

"So this is where we're supposed to go. To go back home." Jack stated, cracking his knuckles.

"Yup, we better go now before Ethan or anything else for that matter gets to our families before we do."

The "anything else" I was referring to was that monster with its purple, mesmerizing eyes and its multitude of teeth. The holographic screen shut off for the final time after a few more seconds. Everyone else packed it up and we cleared out the fire before we crossed the creek. It luckily didn't suck us in and no fish monster was trying to eat us as we crossed.

I then had a horrific thought as we crossed. If the rope was here, then the jungle should've been right next to the city and near the pond right!? But surely not, it had to have ended near here if the rope and paper still survived somehow.

We ventured further into the horizon and once we walked around a quarter of a mile or so, we encountered a distinguishing hill. Each one of us helped Fron climb up the hill and we climbed up the hill ourselves one by one.

Once we got to the top of the hill, however, I saw how much the jungle had devastated the place we once called our home. I also saw that we were near a waterfall and strawberry plants had been crushed under new plants and trees.

I looked down and saw the Waterway Café. Utterly. Destroyed.

"Oh my god," Robert stated as he looked down in shock. The entire town was a mess of green with broken wood and glass everywhere on the streets below.

"Heh... at least we got out of that factory. Right?" Aquafene asked, staring down at home.