The Order [Under Editing]

Chapter 12

Trees are painful to crash into, especially when you don't expect to.

"Owwww," Deezul moaned. He was hanging by his shirt on a tree branch. I was lying with my head pressed painfully against the trunk.

"Deezul, you okay," I asked the seven year old. He nodded. I reached up to try and get him down but couldn't quite reach his shirt collar. "Deezul, think you can wiggle your way off." He started shaking back and forth and after a bit, the tree branch broke and he fell on the one I was sitting on.

"Where are we," he asked as he sat up.

I looked around and saw nothing but trees and bushes and the occasional squirrel.

"I think we're in a forest." When I said that, I was filled with fear. "We're in a forest! Oh my gosh we're in a forest!"

"What's wrong with being in the forest," Deezul asked completely oblivious.

I stared at him like he was the stupidest kid alive. "Most Order members live in the forest! Wolves, Bears, Eagles, Spiders! They all live in forests!"

Deezul looked confused but then he laughed. "Silly Rylee! Those animals are really nice!"

Then it was my turn to be confused. "Nice?! You think they're nice?!" He smiled and nodded.

"Oh yeah, what makes those animals so much specialer than others?"

"During the Evolution they changed drastically from what they used to be."

"What's the Evolution?"

"It's what happened as a result of the Decimation, or The Decimating War as some call it."

"Well, what's the Dedication?"

I was exasperated. They taught kids in first grade about the Decimation and Deezul was around that age. I guess they never taught it at the Light House. I tried to put it as simple as possible so he wouldn't ask me anymore questions. "The Decimation was a nuclear war that happened a real long time ago and the stuff they made the weapons out of made a lot of things, even people, change." He looked satisfied with that.

I looked around. The forest was dense, spruce and oak trees towered above us like natural skyscrapers. The air was damp and smelled fresh as if rain had just come through. There didn't seem to be any sign of any danger, but that secure feeling lasted all of ten seconds.

"Hey Rylee look," he said pointing to the ground, "It's a Spider!"

Okay, so I don't know how Spiders may look as you're reading this, but the Spiders here are terrifying. They're maybe two or three feet tall and twice as long with six golf ball sized beady black eyes and hairy creepily moving legs. Females are black, males are brown. Some may be poisonous, some may be venomous, some may be acidic, some may be none, all may be deadly.

I slapped Deezul on the back of his head. "Ssh, it might hear us!"

"So," he said indifferently. "I wanna get closer. "He put his foot down to try and get on a branch below us. I wanted to follow, but I was too afraid. I hadn't  had the best history dealing with The Order.

"Hi there," he said waving at the female. "Rylee thinks you're a bad guy but I know you're really nice!" I was thinking that somehow Deezul was right. Most Spiders attack immediately, but then it knocked the blond off his branch. He hit the ground with an audible thump!

"Hey, what was that for!" Deezul exclaims as if it would answer. The Spider reels back and Deezul screams.

I didn't know what to do and felt like a coward. The Spider pressed Deezul up against the tree with its back two legs and began to spin a silky thread covering him. The whole time Deezul was screaming at me to do something and help him something about using my powers.

I thought about when I blew up my sandwich and this whole thing started. I held my hand out and concentrated on the Spider. I moved my hand forward like I was reaching for it and while it didn't explode, it jumped back from Deezul. The thing turned its attention to me. It started climbing the tree. I tried to do the hand thing again but then a heard Deezul yell. The Spider's web was smoking. I knew that meant this Spider was acidic. The Spider lunged at me and knocked me off my balance. I swept my arm out to try and regain balance but the next thing I knew, I was on my feet next to Deezul.

Instead of asking why, I started trying to tear off the web from Deezul. It burned my hands permanently but I know Deezul has it worse. To this day he still has scars on his arms, legs, and neck. Still running jagged across his young body, bright red and angry.

I was looking around as I desperately worked to free Deezul, but I didn't see the Spider. Instead I saw little bursts of flames here and there. Then I saw the source.

There was a boy, muscular build, dark hair and eyes. He was wearing jeans and a badly tattered jacket over an orange shirt. He was wielding two knives that looked as if they were on fire, his curatrix.

The boy seemed to be an ace. When the Spider would charge at him he would do the same and slash sideways with his custodes. Then he would keep charging at it. At one point he would stop moving and would just send flame burst at the Spider as it backed up. I watched him as I burned my hands by ripping the web off of Deezul. He was watching too, tears were in his eyes from the pain but the boy seemed to distract him from it.

By that time, the Spider looked ready to give up. Black it may have been, you could still see it was badly burned. It was backed all of the way against a tree when the boy finished it off. He held both knives in one hand, pointed them towards the Spider, and twisted them slightly which sent a column of orange and blue flames at the Spider. When they stopped, the insect was no more, instead replaced by torched greenery

The boy ran over to us. "Step aside please." As strange as it may sound, his voice sounded higher and more childish than I imagined. You could tell he hasn't reached puberty yet. "Close your eyes kid," he said to Deezul. Deezul did as he was told. The boy put one of his knives away and turned the remaining one so that the flat side was facing Deezul. He tapped the knife and a wave of dark red flames went over Deezul and burned off the web. Deezul was unscathed, by the fire at least. The web had caused his arms, head, and neck to turn a furious red color. Some of his shirt and pants had been eaten away allowing the web to burn small portions of his torso.

"You alright," the boy asked.  Deezul nodded. "That's great!" He looks at me, then at my hands. "That was stupidly brave thing you did. By the way, my name is Daia." Brave. That was a word I would have never used to describe myself. I still wouldn't. To this day, I believe I'm a coward.

"My name's Rylee and this is Deezul. And yes, that was very stupid of me."

"But brave," Daia says. "Hey, come with me so we can take care of those wounds." Deezul tried to move but the pain of his burned legs hurt too much. Daia picked him up on his back and we started walking in the direction where he fought the Spider. The grass was scorched.

"By the way," Daia starts, "Why are y'all out in the forest anyway?"

"I don't even know," I muttered.

"DAIA," a two girl voices screamed. It startled all three of us. Daia seems to recognize them.

"WHAT," he yelled back.

"RUN! IT'S A SWARM! IT'S A SWARM!" We wasted no time in running. I followed Daia closely as we probably broke world records but we both knew that even the fastest humans wouldn't be able to outrun the Swarm of insects dead set on ending our lives.

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Hope you enjoyed. This one needed so much editation? Editing? Editizing? IDK. Vote if that's what you'd like to do. 'Preciate it!