Hi.

Bye.

• • •

As much as I hate to say it, the bitch fruit don't taste very bitchy at all. They're tangy and sweet, kinda like a mango, but more acidic.

"Is it bad that I don't care if these are poisonous or not?" I ask as I lay on my back with one hand under my head.

"Probably," Noah shrugs, but he takes another bite out of his fruit which contradicts his statement.

"What do you think it's going to be like when we get there?" I ask, enjoying the feeling of the light breeze on my face.

Noah looks at me. "Get where?"

"I don't know, wherever it is that we're going."

He shrugs again, taking another bite from the bitch fruit. "Nothing like home, that's for sure." He sits up, wiping the juice from his face with the back of his hand and then throwing the spiky part of the fruit over his shoulder.

He puts the four remaining bitch fruits in the backpack, and stands up, offering me a hand. I take his hand, but instead of just pulling me up, he pulls my arm so hard that I collide with his chest.

He then wraps his arms around me and nestles his head into my shoulder. I roll my eyes at his antics, but return the hug.

"That was smooth," I comment, but my voice is muffled by his shirt.

"I haven't properly hugged someone in a long time. You know the kind of hug that gives you the fuzzies?"

I laugh. "The fuzzies?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. Everyone likes to be hugged."

I sigh. He's right, everyone does like to be hugged. And although neither of us have showered in a long time, or used deodorant for that matter, we're both sticky from the bitch fruits, and covered in dust from the cave, it's a genuine hug, and I haven't had one of those for a long time.

I sigh deeply. "So what's our next move?"

"I say we follow the tracks."

I frown, lifting my head off his chest so I can see his face. "What tracks?"

He points to the ground, where because of the softness of the moss beneath us, shoe imprints have been left behind.

"They're not ours are they?" I ask, looking at the size of the footprints. It's hard to tell how many people walked through here, but it looks as though there could've been six or seven of them.

"No," he replies. "All of those are too big to be your footprints, and too small to be mine. We should get going while we still have daylight."

I nod. It's probably about mid morning, so we have a descent amount of time to cover some ground.

We follow the footprints, which continue north. The particular set of prints I'm following obviously has a small stride due to the fact that each footprint is quite close to the next. I'm also assuming that the prints belong to a girl.

After following these for several hours they stop abruptly. The rest continue, but these ones just stop.

What the hell? Did she learn how to fly or something? I mean, anything's possible these days.

Just thinking about the possibility of flying, I look up. Bad idea.

I let out a short scream, scurrying away from the footprints.

Noah turns around. "What's wrong Princess?"

I just point high up in the tree. Noah turns his head, his eyes widening as he realises what I've seen.

"Jesus," he mutters, standing next to me. Hanging from the highest branch of a tree is a net. The net looks to be made of razor wire. Inside the net is a body, curled up in the foetal position. It's a guy with brown hair, but that's as much as I can tell.

"Do you think he could be alive?" I wonder, not being able to take my eyes off the poor guy. Even if he is one of Flynn's friends, nobody deserves to die like that.

Noah shrugs, approaching the tree. "I'll go look."

Once again, he climbs the tree with ease using his spider monkey skills. He reaches the net within a matter of minutes.

He looks down. "It's Aaron."

"Shit!" I curse. "Is he alive?"

"It's hard to tell!" He shouts. "I'm gonna try and get him down."

"Be careful," I tell him. "You aren't allowed to die."

I watch him work at the net, which is far more difficult than it sounds because the net is made of razor wire. I can tell that Noah's hands are bleeding because drops of blood fall from of side of the tree, like blood rain.

He finally loosens the net enough to pull Aaron out, and discards the net which falls out of the tree.

"How the fuck am I supposed to get down?!" Noah yells at me.

"You got up there, you can get down!" I shout back.

He groans at my response, throwing Aaron over his shoulder like he's a rag doll. It takes him much longer to get down than the last time, but he safely delivers Aaron to the ground.

Noah sits on the ground, clutching his hands together. They're ripped to shreds, but dealing to Aaron is more important right now.

I search for a pulse on his neck, but I fail to find one. I check his wrist, and almost give up hope, but I find the faintest beat. It's not much, and the rhythm isn't steady, but it's something.

"He's alive," I say quietly.

Noah leans back against the tree trunk and his whole body deflates in relief. "Thank God."

Aaron is clearly unconscious, and his whole body is covered in small cuts from the wire. The worst ones are probably on his face and hands, so I start with his hands, grabbing each of them in mine. In order for this to work, I have to take myself back to the field. It's hell for me, but the only way this will work. I close my eyes and let the memories wash over me.

It feels like thirty minutes later when my eyes finally reopen. I know it hasn't been anywhere near that long, but it sure as hell feels like it. On the up side, not only are the cuts on his hands gone, but all the skin I can see also appears to be healed.

I feel his pulse again, and I am relieved that it is beating regularly.

I look at Noah, who is still silently suffering through with his mangled hands. I sit down next to him and take both of his hands. He winces, but I can feel his skin repairing itself under my palms.

For some reason, It's easier to heal Noah than it was to heal Aaron. I don't have to revisit the painful memories anymore with Noah, which is rather odd.

Noah sighs, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and kissing the top of my head. "You saved him," he says to me.

"We both did," I correct. "There is no way I would've been able to rescue him from that tree."

He just shrugs. "How long do you think it'll take for him to wake up?"

"Dunno," I reply. "He's just unconscious, so it shouldn't be long. Half an hour at the most-"

A gasp comes from Aaron's direction and both of us rush to his side. He blinks rapidly, gazing up at us.

"Hey, it's Noah-"

"Where's your ark?" Aaron demands. "Oh, and the unicorns...I want one of those."

"Aaron, are you okay?" I ask doubtfully. Like, has this guy ever been okay?

"I have a question," he says.

"Go ahead," I reply.

"Am I dead?"

"No, you're not-"

"Because if this is heaven..." he sits up, looking at both of us. "I'm sorry, but why are you guys in heaven? Did you miss the train downstairs?"

"You're not in heaven-" Noah starts, but is cut off again.

Aaron gasps in shock, but then nods, accepting his fate. "That's why you guys are here. This is hell isn't it?"

"You're not in heaven or hell Aaron. You're alive. We just saved you," I say, desperately trying to explain to the poor boy that he isn't dead.

"Prove it," he replies sassily, narrowing his eyes as though he doesn't believe me.

How do you prove to someone that they're not dead?

Losing his patience very quickly, Noah pulls Aaron up by the shirt, and then shoves him to the ground.

"Really, did you have to-" Noah gives me a look that makes me stop talking.

Once Aaron has hauled himself off the ground, Noah looks him in the eye.

"What do you feel?" He asks Aaron.

Aaron looks at the ground like a lost puppy. "Ow."

"Right. You feel pain. If you were in heaven or hell, that would make you a ghost or a spirit, whatever you wanna call it. And to be a ghost you'd have to be dead. Ghosts don't feel pain because pain makes you human." He puts his hands in Aaron's shoulders. "That means you're alive, Aaron. You're here, on earth, with us in this moment."

Aaron just looks around at everything in wonder. "Everything is so beautiful," he says, and then he hugs Noah. Noah awkwardly pats him on the back. Aaron pulls out of the rather one sided hug, and he pats my arm. "Sorry I was mean, I thought you were a fake."

Are there Clover impersonators I don't know about?

All three of us sit down together under a tree, not the one that Aaron was stuck in, he says that one gives him the heebie jeebies.

"So, what can you tell us about the other guys?" Noah asks Aaron as he hungrily eats a bitch fruit.

"What kind of stuff do you want to know?" He asks, licking his lips.

"Whatever you remember," I reply and Noah nods in agreement.

"Okay, well there must be four of them left now. That Jasmine girl fell in the hole, and that other dude got ripped in half. There's Flynn, he's the main guy. Everyone listens to him. I don't know why, he has a really bad haircut. There's another guy too, but I forget his name. He looks a lot like Frankenstein, so I call him Frankie. There are two other girls who both look like their faces have been attacked by blenders. I don't know their names."

"What about ours? Whose left?" Noah asks anxiously.

"Well," he ponders. "They ate Stan, and then Patrick got turned into one of those things-"

I look at my feet as Patricks name is mentioned.

"-and now they're eating Garrett." He pauses for a second. "Oh yeah, Cassidy's alive. I don't know how because she talks a lot."

"What about Mae?" Noah prompts desperately.

Aaron frowns, but then his facial expression changes like a switch has flipped in his head. "Oh yeah, she's alive. They won't eat her because Flynn likes her."

Noah's eyes darken. "If he even touches her..."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be fine, okay? They're probably not even that far ahead of us."

I look to Aaron. "Did they say where they were going?"

He looks kind of hurt. "I don't know, they never told me anything. I don't know why, I'm trustworthy."

I nod doubtfully. "Uh yeah, I'm sure you are."

I stand up, holding out a hand to whoever wants to grab it. "We need to catch up to them."

Aaron grabs my hand and I pull him up. Noah remains sitting on the ground. "Come on, you're not going to find them by sitting on your ass."

He groans. "I'm sick of walking."

"Join the club," I say, holding my hand out to help him up. He takes it, but instead of using it to help him up, he yanks me down and I land on his lap.

I look into his emerald green eyes. "What are you doing?"

He grins. "Nothing."

I narrow my eyes, going to get up, but Noah holds me in place. He plants his lips on mine, and yeah. Basically we make out under a tree while Aaron stands there like a kid seeing mom and dad kiss for the first time.

• • •

Are you enjoying life? Well you should be, because I said so.

I ate ice cream from breakfast this morning and I don't even feel bad about it.

Oh, and the song that I'm playing right at this very minute is Wagon Wheel.

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Until next time.