The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.3

Definitely Not Lost

It had been six hours since the beginning of the second stage. You were now traveling at a much more steady pace.

"Who is that person?" Johnny watched Mrs. Robinson through his spyglass. "There's something weird hanging from his ears. I can't see them too well." He let out a long sigh. "So far this route has been filled with nothing but weirdos!"

"Well, you should probably get used to it... Do you mind if I take a look?" Once Johnny passed you the spyglass, you took a look at the person for yourself. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure those are eyeballs hanging from their ears. I wonder if they're human eyes..."

"Really?" Johnny's face contorted in disgust. "Let's just hope that guy keeps his distance. Also, according to this map, we should be reaching the top by now. As long as we've been heading in the right direction this entire time.. at the very worst, it should only be about 80 km before we can get our hands on some fresh water! I just want to make sure we're on the right trail... just to be on the safe side. Because there is no way we'll be able to ride over those mountains over there."

Gyro snatched the map from Johnny's hand, staring at the paper intently. He proceeded to rotate it around a few times and then handed it back. "Yeah, it's fine! Everything's perfect! We're on the right trail! Absolutely!" His voice then dropped to a whisper. "Maybe..."

"Eh?!" Johnny was not impressed with Gyro's laid back behavior. "What did you just say right now?! Right now it sounded like you muttered a maybe! Maybe?!"

"Relax for a second." You took the map for yourself, looking it over. "Yeah, as long as we continue along this pathway, we should probably be fine..."

"Probably? Probably?!" Johnny was starting to wonder if he was the one who actual cared about surviving the desert.

You folded the map back up and returned it him. "This is the right route, so don't worry about that. What I mean is that outside factors might cause us a few problems." You pointed behind yourself to Mrs. Robinson who was still maintaining their distance. "I don't know about you guys, but I tend not to trust people who wear body parts as jewelry. So be careful, they could attack us at any-"

Something wizzed past you. The three of you took a quick look around for the source, but didn't see anything that particularly caught your eyes.

"What the hell was that?!" Johnny was about as confused as the rest of you.

"It seemed like it came from in front of us." Noticed Gyro.

"(Y-Y/N)!" Johnny was suddenly drenched in a cold sweat. "Y-Your ear!"

As soon as he pointed it out, the feeling of pain caught up. "Shit..." You brought a hand up to your ear that had been littered with holes, the blood splurting out.

There wasn't any time for the group to organize their thoughts when a wave of tiny projectiles blasted toward all of you, easily tearing through the skin of Johnny's arms and Gyro's face.

"Whatever it is, it's coming from ahead of us!" But Gyro couldn't seem to see the cause, "(Y/N), is this one of those ghost things?"

"As far as I can tell, no." But that didn't mean it was entirely out of the question. "Mrs. Robinson is running parallel to us right now. Even so, I bet they're the ones doing this."

"You think he's shooting us with something?" Gyro had a hand on his cheek, trying to stop the bleeding. "He must be trying to interfere with our progress!"

"Calm down, Gyro." Johnny knew well enough to keep a cool head in situations such as the one he was in now. "They have to be attacking from the shadows or something. Try to have your horse not make any sudden movements." Taking a peak at his wounded arm for the first time, he noticed something sticking out. "Hey, wait, aren't these cactus needles?" He plucked one out of his flesh. "I don't know how familiar you guys are with the desert, but I think I remember hearing stories of a cactus that can shoot out its needles."