Stubborn Love: Lost In The Amazon (Sonadow)

What Do I Do Now

Day 12

The next morning, Sonic slowly opened his eyes as he awoke. He was completely drained, his sleep having been restless for his fear of the jaguar or some other predator finding him. He was so tired, he barely had the strength to even push himself off the ground. His arms shook so much as he pushed himself up, that they slipped on the ground, his body flopping back down.

Sonic panted at the effort. Why was he so weak all of a sudden?

“Maybe… just a few more minutes.” He said to himself, his eyes closing into sleep again, unaware of the danger coming right for him.

…

The ebony hedgehog grunted as he pushed through more ferns. He still had yet to find the river again, and he was growing anxious the more he stayed away from it.

“Come on, where are you?” He hissed to himself as he pushed through the jungle.

The hedgehog hadn't thought he went that far into the jungle to circle around the canyon, but the big slab of rock blocking his path was a bit larger than he thought. Shadow was actually starting to get worried. What if he never found the river? Would he ever find Sonic again? Was Sonic even alive right now? Shadow had no way of knowing an answer to any of these questions.

“Just keep pushing forward, Shads.” Shadow said to himself, jumping when he realized that he just called himself by Sonic's nickname for him. Why did I just call myself that? Maybe he really is rubbing off on me.

Shadow pushed through another bush and stopped. His ears twitched from side to side as he detected sounds up ahead. He leaned his ears forward, a frown of concentration on his face as he tried to depict what it was.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gasped when he finally realized what the sound was.

Trickling water from the river!

Quickly, the ebony hedgehog pushed through the jungle, getting closer and closer to the river. As he pushed through the last bits of fern, he smiled and laughed joyfully when he saw the river right in front of him.

“Ha! I knew I'd find it again.” Shadow humphed with a smile. “Now to get back to Sonic.”

Shadow turned to follow the river downwards again, when something caught his eye.

It was a tree, but there was something off about it. As Shadow stepped closer to it, he suddenly realized what it was. There a was a mark on its trunk, clearly made by a machete.

“Well I'll be damned.” Shadow frowned. “His little tactic with the tin cans worked after all.”

Of course, Shadow was only talking about Sonic, as the ebony knew that the blue was the only one he knew who was carrying the machete with his supplies. But as he marveled at this fact, he noticed another.

If a machete mark was here on this tree, then where was Sonic?

“He must be trying to find me too!” He gasped, turning back the way he came. “And he must be leaving marks on the trees for me to see in case we overpass each other!”

Thinking over this logic, Shadow looked around to see if there were anymore marked trunks. Finally, he found one that was about ten feet away from the previous one.

Determined, Shadow started to follow the marked trees, in hopes that they would lead him to Sonic.

…

Back with Sonic, the said hedgehog was still sleeping in his little shelter that he built only just last night. The blue blur still had yet to wake up after his failed attempt earlier that morning, but that honestly wasn't gonna be a problem for much longer.

Suddenly, Sonic felt a sharp bite on his arm. He yelped and smacked at the area, bringing his hand back to reveal a little bit of blood on his hand and a small hole on his arm. He yelped again as he felt another bite on his leg, then on his other arm, then on his back, tail, legs!

“What the hell?!” The azure hedgehog yelled as he sat up. He looked around to figure out what was attacking him, and he gasped.

Right in front of him, surrounding his whole entire camp, was a swarming red carpet of ants! But not just any ants… leaf-cutter ants!

Sonic remembered how Karl had said that their pincers were strong enough to bite through leather, and right now, they were biting through his soft, delicate skin!

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!” He cried out as the ants continued to eat him alive. He jumped up to his feet and began shaking himself off, trying to dislodge the many ants that were already crawling all over his body. He smacked at his body in various places, sweeping or killing the ants that dared to touch him. In his haste to save himself, he reached into his bag and pulled out the insect repellent again. Ants were insects, so this should help, right?

Sonic couldn't think straight, he was panicking too much. He took the insect repellent and started spraying his body and all around him, trying to get the ants to scatter away from him… they kept coming.

“GET OFF OF ME!” The blue hero screamed, still swatting and spraying at the ants.

Alas, Sonic couldn't take it anymore. The swarm just kept coming, so he did the only other thing he knew how to do.

Run.

Quickly, doing a quick sweepover his pack, the hedgehog grabbed his backpack and started running upriver, trying to get as far away from the leaf-cutter ants as he could. Some still stuck to his body, but he easily slapped them away when he felt their pincers go through his skin. After about maybe 20 minutes, Sonic finally stopped running, and for the first time since he's ever run in his life, he doubled over himself, hands on his knees as he panted, fear washing over him as he tried to catch his breath.

“never again… never again… never again…” He whispered to himself, clearly delusional after the whole ordeal.

The hedgehog dropped the insect repellent that he still had in his hand, knowing full well that after his crazy panic attack, the only can left was already empty. This struck even more fear into his heart, because now, it was even more prominent that he would get Malaria before the mission was even over.

“What do I do now?”

...

Back with Shadow, the ebony hedgehog was still following the trees that had machete marks on them, which seemed to be appearing less and less the more he followed them.

“Why is Faker spacing these out so much?” He wondered aloud. “Is he that confident that I'll just know where he's going?”

Before Shadow could ponder anymore on these thoughts, he looked ahead and saw another mark on another tree. Shrugging his shoulders, he sped up to the tree to continue the path. But as he got closer to it, he noticed something off.

Shadow slowed down to a walk as he studied the tree, then the surrounding area around it. Everything looked exactly the same, like it should in a jungle, but there was just something really familiar about this tree.

Then suddenly, he heard it.

His head swiveled to the sound and he gasped in shock at the river that he could've sworn he left behind when he started following the machete marks. Quickly, Shadow looked down to the ground, and he made a small yelp of surprise when he saw footprints, but not just any footprints… his footprints.

“This whole time… I've been going around… in CIRCLES?!” He screeched at himself, feeling so stupid about his mistake. “SONIC WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Like before, the ebony got no answer. Shadow sighed as he placed his head in his hands, a deep sense of longing filling his heart.

“What do I do now?”