~ The Other Side of the Storm ~

Chapter 13

The small search party was taking a short break from their searching to eat.

Creek had packed a lot of food, mostly crunchy swamp moss, but instead served everyone delicious cupcakes he had for some reason.

Poppy devoured hers within a minute, "Still tasty!" She giggled, "Thanks, Creek!"

Archer's was in two different pieces, with an uneven slice near the middle of the cupcake, "I think something cut my cupcake."

"How is that even possible? The cut is so sharp." Guy examined the cupcake's cut closely.

Creek looked at his bag and bit his lip, "My knife must've cut through it.

"A knife?" Curious, Poppy dug her hand in to the bag, to check if Creek had actually packed a knife.

Creek held her hands and carefully lead them away from the bag, "Y-Yes." He pulled only the end of the knife out, not wanting anyone to see the somewhat fresh blood on it.

"Oh, to defend is from predators and cut through brambles, right?" Poppy chuckled and booped his nose. "How sweet!"

Creek froze and forced some laughter out, "Yeah, that's exactly why." He set the cupcake he hadn't even started eating in the bag and pulled it over his shoulder, "We should start going.. to look for Biggie.."

"And Branch." Guy added.

"You didn't even eat!" Poppy frowned at her and reached for the cupcake, "Just have a little!" She nudged the cupcake against his scratched cheek.

Creek pushed the cupcake away, "I'm not hungry." He hugged himself. "I'm just not feeling too good." His guilt for the murder was practically eating him. It felt good when it was happening, but now as he thought about how it would affect others, he felt so bad.

"We can take a break today, we don't have to search for them today." Archer just wanted to be lazy.

Poppy didn't want to, thought they needed it, "Yeah, maybe we should take a break today."

"I can keep scouting the area, in case they're anywhere near." Guy saluted and marched off.

Poppy waved, "See you soon! Don't die!"

"I won't!" Guy happily waved in return.

Poppy sat next to Creek and hugged him, "I hope you feel better!"

Creek would live with lots of guilt from wrongdoings for the rest of his life. That wasn't going to happen.

~

"Branch! Biggie!" Guy shouted in the middle of the woods. "Where are you twoooOoOoO?"

He, like Poppy, had lots of hope that they were alive.

He danced through the woods, tuning out any negative thoughts that surrounded him. He was committed to finding his best friends. "I'm going to find you two, right-"

Something seemed to dart right past him.

He froze in place and looked around. "Samantha?"

He nervously laughed and continued walking, "I don't even know a Samantha!"

Still, things didn't seem right. The bush next to him was rustling.

He backed in to a tree, now terrified. "I have a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!" He went to turn to aim his butt at the bush, but what was in it, jumped out, just like the other bOyS experienced.

(Short? Very. Bored? Also very. I have nothing to do today, yaaaay.)