A LEAP OF FAITH

Chapter 29: The maze of illusions.

One by one, everyone began to slowly wake up. As per usual, Ari was the first to awaken. Back in SpringBrook, he was expected to wake up extremely early, so by now, it was a habit. It was terrible looking around, seeing the number of people in the group decrease. Two people of great importance have died, but it didn't matter. Ari knew that there was no way to bring the two back. He heard shuffling from near him. He snapped his head towards the noise, noticing that it was just Mugi. He was doing his morning ritual of waking up and coughing up... who-knows-what.

Mugi stood up, slapping his hand over his mouth to stifle the coughing. He ran into the forest, the dense trees covering him. He crumpled to the floor, coughing and gagging. It was getting worse. A lot worse. He gasped for air as the flowers got stuck in his throat, not allowing him to breath. His eyes watered as petals fell from his face, shriveling up before they even hit the ground. Finally, he coughed up several flowers onto the grass, desperately taking in large gulps of air. With shaky hands, he wiped the crimson blood from his mouth. He muttered something under his breath before standing up, stomping back over to the others.

By now, Sugar had woken everyone up, they were all packing their things. She gave Mugi a soft, sad smile as she knew what had happened. He shrugged and picked up his backpack, shoving his sleeping bag back into it. Ari decided that now's a good time to wake Maverick up. He opened his control panel, hitting the power button. He shot up, looking around frantically. Maverick always seemed troubled when he was awoken. He looked up at Ari, his nerves immediately calming.

"Good morning," he said softly.

"Good morning. It turns out that I need a computer to access your memory files, so it'll take a bit to wipe your memory," he explained as he pulled him into a gentle hug.

"Oh, right..." Maverick gave a soft nod before his eyes widened. He looked down at his hands before making his left arm shoot out into the open. He had figured out his extendable limbs worked, he grinned widely.

"I thought you could use those..." Ari chuckled softly.

"Thanks, Ari!" He thanked before fully extending both of his arms. They reached out to several feet; he used every inch of his arms to wrap Ari in a tight hug. He smiled and tried to ignore the fact that his insides were being crushed.

"Those'll be useful in fighting people," Sugar pointed out.

Maverick gave a soft nod, "I'm not experienced in fighting, but I'll try." He shrugged.

After a few minutes, everyone had gathered their things and set off again. Sugar had explained that they had to go to some kind of ruins underground.

"So... just a bunch of tunnels underground-? This sounds like the sewer system, minus the stink." Kiren scoffed.

"I guess so." Sugar shrugged, not really knowing what was down there either. They walked several miles throughout the day, stopping in between every four hours or so to take a break. About two days passed, and Sugar noted that they were getting closer. "If we hurry up, we can get there in a few hours." She glanced around, everyone nodded.

"So, you're saying that we should run there?" Sharlet asked, tilting her head to the side.

"What? No, that'll make us hella tired. We won't be able to fight that way." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh." Sharlet smiled goofily, embarrassed of her denseness.

"Who do you think will be down there? Remembering what Calypso said, there should be someone in each area," Ari inquired.

"A big cave monster." Kiren grinned, glancing back at him.

"You never know, I suppose." Ari chuckled softly.