Badlands

Entering Badlands Chapter Six

Badlands

Part One: Entering Badlands

Chapter Six// The Search

The boy wakes up from a long sleep and looks around him. He starts being confused as everything around him is crowded with a mist. He can only see maybe one hundred feet ahead of him and then everything else is pitch black.

He holds his head with his hand and rubs it. He feels a goose egg is forming and he wonders how he is alive. He probably had a concussion. If you sleep during one there is a huge possibly of death. Everyone knows this.

Why is he here? Where is he precisely?

He looks around more and then blinks his eyes. Where is he?!?

Where am I, he thinks to himself and then looks around more. He is in a building. Some sort of buidling. But what is it. He knows it is a building regardless of the trees and plants around him. The ground feels strange. The dirt underneath his worn out vans make it feel like he is invulnerable. To anything.

He looks up and to the best of his knowledge there isn't stars in the sky. There is no sky. There are little lights going off and blinking up. Way up. He sees glass. Every where else he can't see in front of him but up.

He furrows his eyebrows and then looks ahead of him again, "hello is anyone here? Can anyone hear me?" he says out loud. Loud enough that it makes the goose egg form larger it seems and it starts to cause a headache.

"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? HELLO!?"

A sound is heard from behind him. A branch crackling. He raises his eyebrows and then starts to walk toward the sound, "hey where am I? Hello?" he says and then he hears the sound get closer. Then he sees it.

His eyes go big and he turns back around. He starts to run. Run faster and faster until his vans fall off his feet. The limbs of the ground doesn't bother him as he finds some sort of desination to go to. He goes to a tree with big branches and start to climb. He climbs higher and higher. He stops as he sees the figure is closer to him now and he looks down as the figure isn't looking at him.

He holds his hand over his mouth so he knows the figure can't hear him breathe loud. He climbs a little higher so he can rest on a big branch and when he finds a comfortable spot he settles.

The figure is fifty feet away from the tree and the boy stops his breathing again but when he looks to his left he can't help it.

He lets out a yelp. The eyes stare right into his eyes and possibly his soul. A man of not even thirty is staring into the boy's eyes but the eyes belong to the dead. His bottom half is missing and the boy starts to sob.

He hears the rustling of the tree and he stops really quickly. He almst screams but instead he sits there watching the figure until it gets closer and closer. He is watching his life flash before his eyes yet he still manages to try to keep calm. A screech of the animal echoes throughout the woods and the boy puts his hands over his ears.

He waits for it. Waits for it to kill him because he will probably be dead soon anyway.

It inches closer and closer opens it's jaws to the boy-

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"Bam!" Harley goes to Victor and does the same gesture as he did to Justin. Who actually got scared to the fact.

Victor looks at his friend and then rolls his eyes, "ah. You got me," he says in a monotone voice and then continues to walk down the terrain.

"You didn't even jump," Harley says and playfully punches his best friend as he walks beside him.

"That's because I am not in the mood for stupid jokes and pranks," Victor replies. It's like out of all his friends he is the most mature. He is the one that wnated to find Zac. He was the one that decided they should start a small club. He is the leader. So he thinks. No one is technically the leader of the group. But that doesn't matter. If there was one Victor would be it.

Although he has a stick up his butt most of the time that doesn't mean anything since he acts his age. If not even older. He looks it too. His friends look like they aren't a day older than fourteen.

Sean goes on the other side of Victor and then looks over the horizon, "who says maybe we will make this whole looking for Zac a good thing rather than a bad thing." He says as if reading Victor's mind.

Victor sighs and then nods, "yeah I guess you're right," but he doesn't seem to sure.

Harley throws his hands up in the air for defense and then goes to Sean, "how in the hell did you make it through him? It's like he has something up his ass all the time."

Sean shrugs and then continues to walk but is far enough from Victor, "you just have to give it time and space do you just go up to a dog and start petting it? Nah you let it sniff you out."

"But you smell like shit most of the time how does that-" Justin butts in but Sean puts his hand on his chest.

"Fine fine look at it this way. Do you call a girl up and start hooking up with her or do you stick it out, talk to her, then," he pauses and grabs Justin's stick, "then hook up with her."

He pokes Justin's stomach and Justin swats the stick away.

Victor looks back to his three stupid friends and then laughs, "yeah whatever you haven't even came close to a girl liking you let alone have her hook up with you."

Harley and Justin hyterically laugh while Sean looks at them with a confused look, "okay obviously no one got what I was saying. I know I am not easy with girls but come on man."

"Easy with the girls? You got to talk to them first bro," Harley says and Justin gives him a high five.

Sean continues to walk and he walks along with Victor, "any signs of finding him though? I mean we just got off topic."

Victor laughs again and then smiles as he keeps looking down and then back up, "I mean yeah I guess we have to be getting close. "

"What I don't get is why didn't we bring our bikes?" Justin asks and then Harley hits him up beside the head.

"Because we are investigating first then going for the kill or action," Harley states and then walks ahead.

They start looking in and around the bushes. Broken limbs and branches from the small trees. Litter. Any signs of clues that could lead them to believe Zac is okay.

"My mother is going be so pissed if she finds out I skipped school," Justin says and then walks to the right of all of them. They all go their separate ways and talk amongst themselves.

Harley laughs and then lifts up an item that is big enough to fit anyone in. He puts it back down and then replies, "Yeah well if she does so what. Your mother won't  ground you. She is like obsessed with making you feel happy."

Harley is right. Justin's mother kind of let's him do whatever he wants as long as he calls home before. Especially with Zac going missing she keeps making sure her son is okay and knows where he is all the time. She gets him anything he needs so it's a plus.

Once they all keep looking for a couple more minutes they were silent. Everyone remains on their side and looks through anything that could lead them to Zac.

"Uh guys," Sean says and then looks in all three of their directions. Each one of them walks to Sean with puzzled faces, "You gotta come check this out."

Harley goes to it fully first and his mouth hangs open for a second before shrugging, " Hey how do we know it's his?"

They all curve around the object and Victor points to the handle bars, "that's his. He never liked the covers they have in the bars so he always takes them off."

" Yeah and I remember my dad got him that chain for his bike," Sean adds.

They all look at each other as if they have seen a ghost. How can it be? No body? Just his bike?

"So are we still going to be positive now?" Victor asks and that obviously pointed out to Sean. Sean looks down at the bike again.

"He has to be safe. I can just feel it."