Adam, Wake Up

Chapter Nine

"Wh- what?" Adam stared at him in disbelief. The wispy, smoke-like colors surrounding Jerome were almost purely red. Blue was the only other, and it was just barely there.

"You heard me. They're all dead because you left. You're a traitor." Jerome's expression was stony, resolved. As if everything he was saying made sense. And it probably did, though only in his head.

"You... you can't do that. We're friends. We've known each other for a long time, right?" His eyes flicked back and fourth between Jerome's and the axe in his right hand, and his face.

"You're not my friend. Not even my ally. You're nothing to me." He swung took a step forward and swung his axe at the same time, Adam just barely managing to draw his sword and block the hit that could have torn his stomach apart.

"You can't do this!" Adam shouted over their clashed weapons, desperately trying to get this to stop before it escalated further.

"Watch me!" he broke the struggle, and then tried to swing down. Adam jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding being chopped in half. Before Jerome could attack again, Adam made a break for the door. Jerome yelled after him, "Fine, run like the coward you are!"

This can't be happening. It can't be. They couldn't have possibly warped his friend's mind all the way into killing Adam for revenge. It wasn't his fault. He ran across one swinging bridge after another, jumping the occasional missing plank and completely switching directions at random. The more distance he could put between him and Jerome, the better.

Once he realized Jerome had not followed him over the bridges, Adam made sure to keep his eyes peeled as he scanned the trees. He could jump out from anywhere and everywhere.

Adam had already decided that he wasn't going to hurt Jerome. Not yet, anyways. He would stall as long as he could. Try to convince him otherwise, to get Jerome and himself out of here if possible, anything. Checking his surroundings once again, Adam noted the small but deep-looking river that bent around and out of his veiw.

A rustle of leaves here and the crack of a tree branch there had Adam on high alert, if he wasn't already. Then, he noticed something in a nearby tree.

Red. There was red coming from the other side of the jungle tree.

Jerome pounced, and Adam put up his sword horizontally to block him. It would have worked, had he not been standing on such an unstable bridge. Their combined weight and the force of Jerome had been too much, and one of the ropes holding it up broke. It was sent tremendously off balance, and they were both tossed down what should be close to a fatal fall.

Jerome, who had grown up in the jungle and done this countless times before, grabbed hold of a nearby vine before falling very far. Adam, on the other hand, barely caught one before plummeting to his almost certain death. Through all of this struggle, he dropped his sword.

Panicking, Adam slide the next five blocks down to the forest floor to retrieve his sword before Jerome snapped out of his daze. Thankfully, he caught sight of the shining blade sticking out from underneath the bushes. He picked it up and decided that he needs to hide, if he wants the plan, the one he came up with three seconds ago, to work.

Bacca senses. They were enhanced, as Jerome had said. That means that he would have to get rid of his scent, or Jerome would find him very easily time after time. Quickly, he ran into the shadows and began to rub dirt all over his clothes and himself until he was positive that the other would be able to find him from scent alone. That basically means that Adam is thickly covered in dirt, and he smelled like plants and soil.

If Adam was correct with his assumption about Baccas, which he was, they're mostly colorblind due to being a more animalistc mutation. Which means Adam has a slight advantage if he sticks to the dark, shadowy areas and doesn't make any noise. All he would have to do it draw Jerome to him, and knock him out with the hilt of his sword. After that, he had no idea what he could do. Tie him up and try to prove that he was innocent, maybe.