After what seemed like forever, Lytton Ferry stopped running and panted hard, putting his hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. He looked around him and adjusted his glasses, wondering where he was in the course of the forest. Just as he was about to explore his new environment, he heard a scream and someone running through the bushes. He turned just as someone ran into him and they both fell to the ground. Lytton shook his head and focused on who was on top of him.

"Keila?" he asked, confused.

Keila Bear looked down at who she had ran over and then made a face, pulling back quickly and standing up.

"Ew, gross, how come I had to end up being paired with *you?"

"It's not like I planned it..." he grumbled, sitting up and adjusting his glasses again. "Besides, better to be paired up than out here by yourself."

The sound of the wind in the trees made both of them jump and Keila shivered, rubbing her exposed arms with her hands since she was in a tank top.

"I... I guess that's true... Well, you're a nerd, so how do we get out of this place?"

"I might know a lot but I'm not a topographer." Keila stared at him. "I can't read maps and I can't read the landscape."

"Oh... Well then what use are you?"

Lytton just shrugged as Keila scoffed at him, undoing her messed up brown ponytail and putting it back up. Lytton was shy and didn't speak to a lot of people, so being paired up with an especially pretty girl like Keila was a dream come true for him. She was a gorgeous caramel color and had rich dark brown hair. Her eyes were almond shaped and housed brown eyes that went on for days. She was on the cheerleading squad.

"Will you stop ogling at me, weirdo, and at least think of something for us to do in the time being? I mean, unless you want to get eaten by those fucked up deer?"

"No, um... how about we just go this way?" he said, pointing.

"Whatever, loser, just lead the way."

They began walking deeper into the forest.

********************

The hours seemed to drag as the two of them followed a path that seemed strangely marked out for them. Lytton thought that that was a bit odd, considering that the forest didn't really seem that accommodating to the rest of the world. A scream echoed in the forest and Lytton stopped, Keila right behind him. She grabbed a hold of his hoodie he was wearing and he looked over his shoulder at her.

"Don't get any ideas, nerd."

"You don't have to be mean to me. No one's here to judge you..."

"If we get out of this mess, I don't want you to think we had some sort of bonding moment or whatever. Seriously, I don't even know your name."

"It's Lytton Ferry. I sit behind you in English class... you always steal my homework and copy it..."

"Oh, is that who you are? I honestly didn't notice because I didn't *care."

Lytton pulled away from her fingers and brushed out the hoodie.

"You're a serious bitch, you know?"

"Well you were the one who said we should stick together."

"That doesn't mean that I will accept you being mean to me. Seriously, do you even have a brain in that head of yours?"

"I don't know, do you have balls in those pants of yours? It's not like you could save me if something happened to me. I'd rather be saved by Valerie than to have to rely on you."

Lytton scoffed and turned to go back down the path when he stopped. Keila ran into him again and was about to go off on him when she saw what he was looking at. The deer turned to them, a piece of flesh hanging out of it's mouth as the animal below it was still twitching.

"Shit, what do we do?" Keila asked.

"Oh, so *now I matter?"

"I take it back, Nerd, please protect me!" she hissed in his ear as he backed into her.

Surprisingly, the deer just turned back to the suffering animal and shoved its antler into it. The animal stopped twitching and the two sighed in relief. Lytton turned back to Keila.

"If you're going to stick with me then you need to stop being such a bitch. My name is Lytton, not nerd or weirdo, okay?"

"Fine... you can call me Keila."

"That's your *name. I knew that already."

"Are you stalking me?"

"We're in the same class, fool!" he hissed, pulling away from her again. "Gee whiz you're dense. Here, let's go now before the deer changes its mind about continuing with that animal."

He grabbed her hand and they walked away from the deer, hoping it wouldn't turn around and eat them.

********************

After a few more hours, they finally couldn't take walking anymore and Keila leaned on her knees.

"I'm so thirsty. Did you happen to bring anything with you?"

"Yes, because my magic skills have increased since I ran away from the weird plant thing like everyone else." Lytton growled.

"You know, you're the most sensitive guy I've ever met and I don't mean that in a good way. You're always taking everything so serious."

"Keila, take a look around you. We're in a forest in the middle of nowhere that has crazy deer in it and creepy plants that shoot out of the ground. I don't have time to care about your ego or your popularity or whatever you sadly believe is important here. The thing we need to do is try to stay alive."

"I know that, that's why I asked for water, duh."

"Do you see me with water?!" he yelled.

Suddenly a twig snapped and Lytton looked around. There were some noises that caught him off guard and he grabbed Keila by the hand, pulling her into the bushes. She started to say something but Lytton threw his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. She was going to try and fight him but then she saw the dead racoon. Well... the almost dead racoon. She started to hyperventilate as she watched in horror through the bushes as undead animals scurried along the pathway.

"You need to stay calm." Lytton said softly, although he was scared as well.

Lytton was a gamer and he had played plenty of zombie games to know the protocols regarding survival. Even so, he could have never expected this or to have to bring up the basic rules of zombie apocalypse survival. Plus, they were zombie animals, the worst and hardest type the keep away from.

"Listen to me." He said to Keila in her ear behind her. "When I tell you to, I'm going to let go of you. When I do, I need you to run to the nearest tree you can climb."

Keila tried to say something and he made a face.

"If I take my hand from your mouth, do you promise to be quiet and speak softly?"

She nodded and he took his hand off of her mouth. She made a face and then breathed in a little.

"I don't know how to climb a tree."

"Are you serious right now?" he asked, narrowing his brown eyes as he pushed up his glasses.

"Do you think I'm going to go gallivanting up a tree with nails like this?" she hissed, showing him her fake nails.

"I think if you don't want to become a zombie you will. What's your grip like?"

"It's decent."

"All you have to do is try to get up the tree and away from the zombanimals."

"Zombanimals?"

"That's what they are. Stop arguing with me."

"Fine. What's the plan?"

"Okay, so do you see that tree over there with the low-lying branch?" he asked, pointing to a tree across the way.

"Yeah."

"I need you to run over there and try to grab onto it so that you can get into the tree."

The zombie animals suddenly seemed spooked and started going quicker across the path and Lytton looked over at where they were running from. He cursed and pushed Keila down on the ground with him to where they were both in the dirt.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"People..."

They were silent, no wind blowing and nothing making any noise. It was dead silent, the worst kind. Suddenly, the sound of shuffling and grunting permeated the air and Lytton breathed in, hoping these zombies were just regular zombies. Keila breathed in and almost gagged, the smell of decaying flesh filling her lungs. She threw her hands over her mouth and nose to try and stave the smell, but as the zombies got closer, the smell just got stronger. She gagged again and Lyton looked over at her, putting his hand over hers to try and keep her from throwing up. She couldn't do it though, and she moved quickly as she gagged again and threw up beside her.

Lytton looked at her with wide eyes as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked at him and then looked at the pathway where all of the zombies were looking at her since she had revealed herself by not only sound, but smell and sight.

"Don't move a muscle." He whispered.

"They aren't T-rexes, Leonard." She grumbled.

"It's Lytton, and it doesn't matter. Just don't move."

Keila did as he asked, trying to keep her stomach from roiling at the horrendous dead smell. There weren't as many people as Lytton thought there'd be, but then again, it was a forest so he hoped that no many humans would be around. Once of the people started sniffing and then the others began to follow.

"Keila, I need you to slowly head towards that tree I told you to go to."

"Like hell!" she hissed. "They're sniffing me out!"

"Your vomit might be covering your natural scent. The bile and acid make the smell stronger. If you can round the bushes, you might be able to make it."

"Then why don't you- Oh my god."

"What?"

"Shhh!"

"What is it?" he mouthed.

Keila pointed behind him and Lytton gulped, afraid of what he would see behind him. He ever so slowly turned to see what Keila was even more afraid of and found himself shaking. Oh my God! he screamed in his head as he came face to face with the giant 'face' of a Venus flytrap. The large lobes seemed to be aware of him but didn't lunge or do anything out of the ordinary. It sat there for a moment as Lytton peed himself, the uncertainty of the intelligence of the plant making him fear for his life.

"Gross!" Keila hissed.

The flytrap seemed to hear her and moved its lobes in her direction. She clamped her mouth closed as the zombies seemed to be sniffing in their direction, catching a whiff of Lytton's urine. The flytrap turned its attention back to Lytton and he gestured for her to leave while they had time. Just as Keila was turning around to take him up on the direction, the Venus flytrap slowly opened its lobes, revealing the pink insides of a usually Venus flytrap, except this one had bones still stuck to the insides of it as well as fur and other ungodly things. Lytton screamed like a little girl and hauled ass, passing Keila as he headed for the tree she was supposed to be going to. Seeing him fly past her, Keila screamed too, following Lytton.

****************

The screaming set off the zombies and they started to follow them all the way to the tree but Lytton was able to get in using his adrenaline to not care about scratching his way up the tree with his bare hands. He scrambled onto the branch and sat on it, breathing hard. Keila on the other hand, was having a hard time getting a grip on the tree and looked up at her companion.

"Could you maybe help me?!" she screamed.

Lytton crawled over to her just as one of the zombies went to reach out for her. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her up onto the branch. They both sat there breathing hard as Lytton looked over from where they were.

"Where's the flytrap?" he asked.

They looked around when they felt the ground rumble under them. The rumbling caused Keila to lose her balance and she almost fell from the branch, but grabbed onto it with all her might, dangling right above the zombies. Her weight pulling on the branch plus Lytton's own weight was bowing it, making it hard for him to get a hold of her. She screamed and kicked, pulling her legs up just as the zombies jumped to try and get her legs.

"Help me!" she screamed as Lytton tried to figure out how to grab a hold of her without causing anymore weight on the center of the branch.

Suddenly, the zombies stopped jumping at her and seemed to shuffle off. Lytton looked around to make sure they weren't going to come back and he looked at Keila.

"Okay, I need you to shimmy over to the larger part of the branch so that I have a thicker part to put all my weight on and haul you up."

"I'm not fat, Lytton." She growled.

"That's not what I said. You're dangling dead weight and if I try to put my weight on the branch to get enough leverage to pull you up, the branch will snap. Just come to the thicker part of the branch and I can pull you over like I did the first time."

Keila scoffed. "Good thing I took gymnastics..."

"I wonder what that rumbling was. It seemed to spook the zombies."

"That's fine by me. I'd rather have an earthquake than be turned into a zombie."

Just as Keila got to a meatier part of the branch, the ground shook again and she had to hold on for dear life.

"Is it just me or is this forest trying to kill us?"

"I have a feeling it's just trying to kill us."

Lytton held out his hand and Keila reached out to take it when the ground shook again and suddenly a small mount of dirt seemed to almost boil up from the ground. Lytton saw it and pulled back as Keila held onto the branch again.

"Ugh, forget it, I'll get up here myself, Pee Boy."

"Hey, you didn't come face to face with a sentient carnivorous plant."

"No, but I almost got eaten by zombies and you don't see me pissing all over the place- what is that?"

Lytton looked and saw that a long tendril had slinked up from the mound in the ground and was swaying soothingly beside Keila. It was green and a pinkish color and had long spines with a dewy blob at the end of it. The plant looked familiar to Lytton. Something he had learned in that short botany class he took for a 9-week course.

"I don't know but I feel like you shouldn't piss it off. Hurry up." He said, holding out his hand again.

Keila wasn't pay attention though, staring at the plant. It smelled so good! She couldn't get enough of the smell coming off of it.

"It smells like heaven." She said, seeming to go into a daze.

"Keila, hey! I don't think lingering is a good idea! Come on, just give me your hand."

Keila was ignoring him as the swaying seemed to stop. Lytton pulled back, leaning back against the tree, sensing something was wrong.

"Keila! Keila! Shimmy back this way! Hey! Are you even listening to me?!"

"It smells so good!"

Just then, the tendril seemed to whip out and snatch Keila from the branch. Lytton yelled again as the tendril wrapped around her, pulling her down to the ground. She started screaming as a large hole opened up and the tendril flicked her inside. The sound of a splat was heard but Lytton didn't want to know as the tendril sunk back down into the ground, it closing over like it had never been disturbed.

Lytton knew Keila was dead.

She had to be.

++++++++++++++++++

ah, here we are again with another tale from the forest. what will happen in this segment? here's a guess: plants...