Thanatophobia

3- Call to action

"Of course you nimrod." Gort said, "I would not hesitate to rat y-" I kicked Gort in the shin as I kept comforting Taylor.

The bus stopped and, As instructed, I had to get off first. All the isles attacked my ammo sack and gun as a lion would to a gazelle. I was halfway off when the bus lady asked me.

"Where is your ID and the permit for this weapon?" She said in a boring tone.

"Right here, Let me just grab it," I say, unzipping my ammo bag pocket and reaching for the sleeve that would usually hold my Identification cards, but nothing was there. "Oh, crap. I must of lef-"

"I found them!" Taylor yelled. "You need to be more careful with your ID and weapons permit, pal."

Taylor ran up to me and handed me the cards,

"Thank you," I whispered as I handed them to him.

"You're all set ma'am, You and your group may leave." She said.

We walked out of the bus and into the courtyard of the airport. The simplistic design was boring to me. It was just waterfalls and water fountains. Some genetically modified tulips were following us to the entryway. As we walked in, our classmates scanned us, and then welcomed us into their line.

"Hey, uh. Oliver?" Gort said.

"What's up?" I spoke.

"I know Taylor is, uh, something. But-" Gort stammered.

"Are you serious right now?" I said, anger rising.

"First, you are very serious. And second," Gort spoke, "You are holding his hand for frying grasshopper's sake!"

I immediately look down and our hands are intertwined.

"Oh. Sorry!" I say, pulling away from his hand's grasp.

I looked up, and to my surprise, his cheeks were bright red. It wasn't a big deal, so I said nothing. I just walked into the plane bridge and sat in a navy blue, cushioned seat. I didn't remember eating, but I wasn't intending to eat. We played some random game, consisting of slapping the other's hand.

"1, 2, and 3. Here are your 3 food platters." The plane lady said.

"Here Taylor, You can pick the first one. There is mac-n cheese, Buffalo chicken, and lobster. The mac-n-cheese has some creamy esc sauce, and the buffalo chicken has some spicy sauce." Gort said.

"Hmm, What does Oliver want?" Taylor asked.

"Uh- You're fine! You pick." I said, "I'm not that hungry anyways."

"I'll go with the mac-n-cheese," Taylor said, and his eyes lit up the moment he was handed the cheesy noodles.

"Now Oliver. Pick." Gort grimaced.

"Uh- What one do you not want to eat," I said.

"I want the lobster!" Gort squealed like a six year old girl on helium.

I was handed the plate of buffalo chicken and forced myself to eat it. It was torture to eat. Not because it was spicy, and it wasn't to me, but eating a lot of food after starving yourself. It's not normally good for your body. After eating, a strange old man started talking to us.

"Hey! Red and black-haired lady! Are you awake?" He whispered.

"Huh? What's up?" I say, curiosity tipping in my tone.

"Did you know that there are monsters in the forests?" He said, creepily.

"No? I wasn't aware of that-" I said, but he covered my mouth with his raisin hands.

"You should know that. I saw them when I was your age. With my own, 1 eye." He said.

"Huh? 1 eye?" I say.

Then he rummaged through his little bag for a briefcase. Then he looked at me, looked at his briefcase, and opened it. There were about more than a dozen glass eyeballs.

"Uh-" Taylor and I said.

"Cool," Gort said.

"I know! It only took a weird transmutation of these animal things." The man said, then laughed maniacally while scrambling to put the briefcase back into his luggage bag.

"Uh- Back to the monster thing," Taylor said.

"Right, one of the monsters I saw was a demon. A demon! He prowled in the forest at night, his bloody drool would foam. His paws were deformed and became claws, oh and his nails were still there!!! So hecking sharp!!" The monster even had spikes everywhere. Eyes were everywhere too." The man screamed.

"And- there was a-" The man stalled.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry!" A dude said.

"Grandson, not now." He scoffed. "You aren't needed here, and someone is actually interested in what I have to say."

"I'm sorry! My grandpa Garrett has been very haywire after he visited a mental asylum." The man said. "He is very sassy too, worse than my daughter."

"He's fine with us. He gave me a thing to draw!" I said, trying to make light out of the situation. "It's nothing special."

"Really?" Grandpa Garrett said, confused, "

"Yep!" I spoke.

The art was very horrid to the eyes. A graphite sketch of the 'monster' that had the body of a lizard, with exposed ribcage bones, and spikes everywhere. Eyes dreaded his face, arms, back, and shoulders. The monster's fingers were long and slender-like, with claws sharper than a chef's knife pointed at the end of every finger and toe. They had scruffy hair, and it was very wiry. The wings were an extra set of arms, battered and torn as suspected in many battles.

"Perfect!" Grandpa said, "It looks the same… If it was a lizard."

"Oh come on!" Taylor said, "She tried her best."

"Uh- I'm not a she?" Oliver said. "I'm non-binary?"

"Oh, Correction. They tried their best." Taylor said, "Is that better?"

"Yeah, but ne-"