A Map For Tomorrow

Chapter 2 (Update 1): Ahead

      You could hear the sound of the wheels grinding against the gravel road as he turned. The wheels made a little bit of a screeching noise as the rubber ground against it. During the turn, Jack had fallen off, scraping his arm nonetheless. This, however, made Simon stop.  "Jack, are you okay?" He asked, voice full of concern. Jack got up slowly, but quickly, not wanting to worry Simon whatsoever.
      "Yeah, I'm fine." He said, brushing off his now dusted clothing. "A little scrape never hurt anyone too bad." He said, turning his head and lifting his arm to see how bad it really was. Simon's expression softened slightly as he made a small smile, happy that his friend was alright.
      "Well, if it doesn't hurt very much, we might want to keep moving. Just make sure you don't put too much pressure on your arms while riding." Said Simon worriedly.
      "Yeah, yeah." Jack said in a playfully annoyed tone, getting back on his bike. He rolled his sleeves down just in case any more blood would come out of his arm and trickle down. He started pedaling slowly, waiting for Simon to catch up. Simon stayed at Jack's pace, trying to keep it steady.
      Before long, they had arrived at Colby's place. "Took you guys long enough!" Colby yelled to them across the street.

      "Sorry we're a couple minutes late. Jack just had to fall off the bike and scrape his arm." Simon teased, slightly punching Jack's arm. This got a "tch" out of Jack as he hopped off of his bike.
      "So, you guys ready to finally move on to the spooky house?" Colby asked, putting emphasis on the word spooky and waving his hands in a manner to keep his tone.
      Why not?" Jack said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Because we're all TOTALLY ready." At this point both Simon and Colby could tell that Jack was not very amused at this moment. He was trying to be in a more serious mindset for this. Jack casually hopped off of his bike, Simon following shortly after as they both found a place to set their bikes up against. Jack slung his backpack over his shoulder as he followed Simon into Colby's house.
      "Got everything?" Asked Colby, shutting the door behind him.
      "Yeah," Jack answered, slipping his bag onto the counter and unzipping the main pocket. "all the essentials." He pulls out the main things they'll need. Mouth masks, bug spray, flashlights, and more.
      "Good, good." Colby said, checking items off of his list to make sure. "Seems like we have everything we need. Did you add other items as well?" Jack nodded, and so did Simon, who had already put on a mask.
      "Mind if I film an intro here?" Asked Simon.
      "Go ahead. I don't mind." Said Colby, with a goofy grin on his face. "Just promote me and Jack's channel." He continued, beginning to head upstairs to grab his own bag. Jack sat on the couch calmly, pulling out his phone to pass some time before they left.

"Hey everyone! It's ya boy, Simon! Here with my friends Jack and Colby!" Simon angled the camera to face Colby, who was holding up his Gameboy Color proudly. "Wait, where'd Jack go?" Simon questioned, turning around with the camera still in hand. Jack raised his arm.

"I'm alive, I swear." He said, tone deeper than normal, but still a joking one.

"Go follow their channel, 'ColbyJack Cheezits'. They do explorations every once in a while, some very low quality how-to's-" Simon paused for a second.

"Hey!" Colby said, not enjoying what Simon was saying. "I personally think we do very well at what we do on our channel!" he stood proudly, pointing at himself. He lowered his head, still facing the camera. He managed to get a somewhat dark tone to his voice as he said, "You ready guys? It's time to explore the deep dark woods..."

//660 words//