Hannah woke up, startled by the rustling of the leaves. The forest had gone quiet again so just a breeze pushing dead leaves about was enough to sound louder than usual. She looked around and looked at Ferris in front of her. She suddenly remembered where she was and what had transpired the night before and was surprised that she wasn't crying. Then she remembered that she had cried almost nonstop into the night and fell asleep crying. She looked at Ferris' body and just for shits and giggles, she gave it a little kick. Of course he didn't move and she sighed, standing up and stretching. Her legs were sore from being scrunched up all night and she knew she had to try and find a way out of the forest. The trees rustled and she stopped stretching midway, watching the leaves. A small rodent rushed out and she sighed when her stomach grumbled. She sighed, knowing that she would have to stay hungry for a bit.
"I don't trust anything in this friggin forest." She mumbled to herself as her stomach grumbled again.
She put her hand over it to stop it when she heard a small moan. Hannah turned around but saw nothing out of the ordinary... at least according to this forest.
"Ugh... shit..." she heard someone say below her and she looked down.
Ferris' arm flopped over his distorted torso and then he sat up, his body still twisted. He looked down and made a face.
"What the fuck?" He said and then turned hard, the discs in his spine aligning back into place with a series of loud pops and cracks.
He screamed in agony and laid back on the ground, his body back to its normal position. Then he whimpered, realizing what had just happened.
"What the hell's going on?" He asked pitifully.
"F-Ferris?"
Ferris turned his head to see Hannah looking down at him with a confused and scared expression. He smiled at her.
"Hey, Han..."
Tears she thought she'd used up began to build up and she burst into tears, falling beside her boyfriend and sobbing on his chest. He smiled and put his arm around her.
"I thought I'd lost you! I thought I was going to be alone!"
"Never..." he coughed. "What happened?"
Hannah looked up. "You don't remember?"
"I remember the boars and getting hit but otherwise it's pretty much blank until I woke up." His eyes widened a little. "Shit... I... I died didn't I?"
Hannah nodded. "The boars started attacking you simultaneously and then you got thrown into the air and landed... all wrong... they just kept pummeling you over and over again. They finally ran away and when I came down you were dead."
Ferris tried to sit up and Hannah helped him up. He swayed a little and put his hand on his back.
"I was twisted like a pretzel... I mean... I don't even know how I got the strength and guts to twist myself-"
He gagged and Hannah helped him lean over so that he could vomit. He did it a couple more times and breathed heavily.
"Let's get away from here. I dunno what I just threw up, but it reeks."
Hannah nodded and helped him stand up. His legs felt numb but he chocked it up to his spine literally being twisted like a rope. He put his arm around her neck as she went under him to help him walk.
"If you're alive then do you think Guthrie is too?"
"I dunno. Even if he was, we have no idea where he'd be. I mean, the bear could have dragged him off or it could have dismembered him and made it where he couldn't come back to life... either way, trying to find him won't do us any good."
"Yeah... it was just a hope..."
Ferris kissed her forehead.
"Don't worry. You've got me."
She nodded and they walked along the path.

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

After a few hours of walking, Hannah tripped for the third time and Ferris (well enough to walk now) caught her arm before she fell.
"You okay?"
"I'm so hungry but I'm afraid to even try to look for something. I don't trust anything in this forest."
Ferris sniffed around for a second and grabbed her hand.
"There's a fresh and non-killy stream over this way."
"How do you know?"
"I just do..."
Hannah made a face but let him drag her to the stream. As he said, there was a clear stream running through a small bank valley.
"You drink up and ill see if I can't find something to eat."
"And... how are you going to tell if it's bad or not?"
"Just trust me."
Hannah made another face but Ferris ran off. She sighed and hoped he was right about this stream...She dipped her hand into the stream and drank a handful of water as she looked around. She hoped Guthrie's luck was as good as Ferris' and he was able to come back to life too.
Now that she thought about it though, was it really Ferris that was with her? Considering that Bethany and Allegra didn't come back to life after their horrible demise, what made Ferris different? As if it would make a difference, Hannah gave the surroundings the stink eye. Something isn't right here... For a forest who is trying to kill us at every turn, what would make it want to bring Ferris back to life?
"I'm watching you, creepy forest."
"Who are you talking to?"
Hannah turned as Ferris made a face at her.
"The forest... things aren't right."
Ferris frowned. "Are you afraid I'm not me?"
Hannah looked away as Ferris smiled a little.
"I get it, Han. It's not like I'm mad at you. I've been thinking about it myself, actually. It's really weird and I don't know what happened, but the thing I'm just gonna focus on is just that I am alive. I'll take whatever luck the forest wants to throw, ya know?"
"Yeah..."
"I found these birds to eat. We'll have to make a fire."
"Um... the wood?"
"Hannah." Ferris walked over to her and put his free hand on her shoulder. "Just trust me with anything I'm doing. I know it's weird but ever since I... 'woke up' I am able to figure out what is effected by the forest and what's not."
"Effected by the forest?"
"Yeah, some of the creatures and things are just normal things while others are like the deer and stuff. There's a certain smell they the effected stuff gives up and will have a booby trap in it."
A loud hoot echoed in the woods and Ferris looked up swiftly. He suddenly grabbed Hannah and ducked beside a bush.
"Ferris?"
"Shhh. Something is coming."
The owl hooted again and the sound of moans and shuffling started to fill the air. Ferris practically wrapped around Hannah like a coat as she leaned into his chest between his legs. A few minutes later a horde of what looked like zombies lumbered their way passed them. There was all sorts of creatures within the group from raccoons to bears to humans. All of them were rotting in various degrees of decay.
"Those people don't look they're from school... Does that mean that people have been getting trapped here for a while?" Hannah asked, looking behind her.
"It wouldn't surprise me. This is a pretty fucked up forest so..."
One of the animals stopped and turned in their direction. Hannah sunk deeper into Ferris' embrace and closed her eyes.
Ferris sniffed her hair and gave a small snort as he relished in it. The zombie animal seemed to become disinterested and went back to the horde, walking past them. Hannah looked up at Ferris.
"What happened?"
"Dunno. Does it matter?"
"No... Did you see the people? They didn't look like kids."
"Yeah they looked like they had been here for a while."
"This is one fucked up forest."
"You said it. Come on, let's keep trying to get out of here."
He stood up and held his hand out to her and she took it, noticing his nails were black. She chocked it up to him being dead for a bit but when she stood up, Ferris pulled her closer and sniffed her neck. He made a snorting sound and nuzzled it for a second.
"God, you smell amazing..."
"Um, Ferris?"
"Hmm?"
"What are you doing?"
"Delighting in your scent... Why, do I bother you?"
"No it's just... not like you. And um... I know you want to get of here and it might be a moot point but... since your sense of smell is heightened or whatever um... I was thinking maybe we could look for Guthrie."
Ferris snorted loudly and pulled away from Hannah, glaring at her.
"Go look for Guthrie? What am I a dog now?" He growled.
"No! No... Nothing like that. I mean... your sense of smell is really good and you'd be able to smell his scent and see if he's dead or alive."
Ferris sighed angrily. "I'm fairly certain that if he were alive, he would have tried to find us and if that was the case, he could be practically anywhere. As for if he were dead, I wouldn't be able to smell his scent anyway because he's dead."
"Right... I just..."
Ferris put his hands on her shoulders and then touched her face gently.
"Hannah, isn't it enough that I'm here with you? Hell, girl, I came back from the dead for you... Don't you think that's good enough?"
Hannah nodded and Ferris leaned over and kissed her forehead.

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

They traveled a good distance from where they had been, following the stream. Eventually, the forest got dark again and it looked like Ferris was having some trouble keeping focused. Hannah noticed his stomach growling for the fifth time that day and Ferris was holding his stomach.
"Ferris?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Of course I am. Why do you ask?"
"You're holding your stomach like you've got some stomach issues."
"It just keeps growling and it's loud. I'm trying to keep it from doing that."
"Oh... Why don't we stop? It's been a long day and we really haven't found any type of road."
"I guess so... Besides, I'm sore all over. I feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer like twenty times."
"Well... you were dead and your body wasn't exactly in the best of conditions."
"Well, yeah, my back hurts and stuff but I mean, my whole body is aching. My teeth are sore, my muscles feel like planks of wood..."
"Then we should take a rest..."
The two decided to climb up into a gnarled up oak tree and Ferris sat in it, massaging his shoulders.
"Do you want me to give you a massage? Help you loosen up?"
"Yeah, sure..."
Hannah moved to where his back was and started to massage his shoulders. He was really tense and she noticed he seemed to have an excess amount of hair on his back. Ferris wasn't very hairy so it was kind of surprising to see.
"Um... not to alarm you, but you've got a massive amount of hair growing on your back."
"What? Stop joking around..." he said, putting his hand back to feel.
Unfortunately, Hannah wasn't joking around and he felt the hair back there. He frowned.
"What the hell?"
"Maybe it has to do with you dying and all? They say the hair grows a little after you die."
"That's because your skin shrinks. Mmm..." he moaned, touching his privates. "That's weird..."
"What, get a boner?" she asked.
"No... it's not pleasant in the least. Feels like they're throbbing."
"Like in one of those Regency novels? 'His throbbing member'?"
"I'm being serious, Hannah." He growled, moving away from her. "It's not good when a man's balls throb."
"I never did ask to check your wounds and see if you needed anything."
"I don't have any wounds. If you don't believe me, check for yourself."
Hannah nodded and lifted up her boyfriend's shirt. There wasn't a scratch on him and neither was there any abs.
"Dying make you fat too?"
"What?"
"Didn't you used to have a few abs?"
Ferris grabbed his shirt and shoved it down over his stomach.
"I thought you were checking for wounds, not wounding my ego."
"I wasn't trying to be a bitch about it. I just remember them being there and now they're not."
"Not eating for a while causes your body to start storing fat to keep the vital organs alive. Maybe that's what happened."
"Maybe... I didn't mean to make fun of you."
"I know... Let's just go to sleep and hope for the best tomorrow."
Hannah nodded and nestled in the crook of Ferris' arm. She was still confused about the way the forest was working and was wary about what else it had in store for the two of them.