Irradiated

Chapter 21: Decision

We jumped off the railing, plummeting down towards the ground with a rapid speed. Just as fast as we jumped off, we came into contact with the cold I so much feared, but the cold never came. Derrick and Angeli quickly recovered from the fall, but I felt as if walls were starting to close in on me. Tightening around my lungs, my breath was lodged in my throat.

Two strong arms hauled me up and another different arm wrapped around my lower torso. I hadn't realized that I was picked up off the ground and a sudden voice startled me.

"Come on, Mathias. Don't give in!" Angeli's voice urged me. Although my vision was unclear, I let my feet do their tricks and saw rushing figures gliding around us. Loud voices rung in my ears, mingled with the distorted profanities being screamed into the night air.

"Just a bit further." Derrick announced beside me, hauling me along with him, though I was unaware of it. We drew closer and closer to a small forested area, and the voices I had heard were fading away. My vision started to come back, along with my only other sense - hearing. As of now, tasting and feeling weren't going to function properly. At least that was clear to me.

"Did we lose them?" Angeli asked between heavy pants.

"I think so." Derrick glanced back and nodded. "We did." I plopped down onto the ground with exhaustion and that seemed to alarm them.

"I'm fine guys, don't worry. Just tired." I chuckled lightly at that. "Even if I've been asleep for five days straight." It was no laughing matter, but I still somehow found it funny. Laughing at my own misery.

"You told him?" She questioned, staring at Derrick.

"He asked." He stated. However, something different occurred to me.

"Umm... Exactly where are we?" I thought that forests were cut down all over the place in the countries, but if we weren't in a place with houses scattered all over the place, then where were we?

"Namur. We're still in Belgium, just further down in the south." Derrick explained, crouching down beside me. He wasn't going to sit, so that his entire lower half wouldn't get frozen off, but that was the least of my worries. If I suddenly couldn't walk, it wasn't like I would feel it.

"Does that mean we're closer to France?" I didn't know much about European geography and was clueless about where we would be on a map.

"Yes. You are getting a bit closer." A sudden voice replied instead of Derrick. A heavily Spanish-accented person, it seemed. Angeli tensed at the stranger, where he only leaned against a nearby tree, and stared at us while hiding within the shadows.

"Great." I mumbled under my breath, hearing the seemingly unknown voice.

"And who might you be?" Derrick's firm voice asked, sounding slightly irritated. I couldn't blame him. We were constantly being followed, bothered, or messed with. Even I was getting tired of it.

"Philipé. Or, how you gringos call it, Philip." He reluctantly gave his name, still hiding underneath the overcast shadows of the trees.

"Philipé?" Angeli probably had never heard of a name like that, same with Derrick. I couldn't blame her. In Russia, there weren't many people named Philipé.

"Si. Problem?" I could picture him raising his eyebrows in a questioning stature, but he wasn't in my field of vision for me to have confirmed it.

"No. No problem. Just wondering what you would be doing in a forest. Just when we arrive." I looked up at Angeli, intrigued with her change in mood. Actually, intrigued with her change in personality. Had the fall we just had affected her much more than I thought? I hoped not.