The War That Never Ends

Chapter 5

!!!Warning!!!

This chapter contains violence as well, more specifically stabbing, so be warned while going into this one.

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The three travel for another week's time before finally coming across the massive channel they need to cross. Relief spreads through them as they walk along the coastline of what they can of the channel. Zoey playfully walks with her feet in the freezing cold water, not paying attention to the scolding words James yells at her. Tyler can only give weak laughs at what they're doing, but his dream still plagues his mind.

"Zo, how far do we have to travel to get to the boat?" James asks and the girl pauses to pull the map from her pocket, stopping to not drop it in the water she wades in. She runs her finger across the map for a moment before humming.

"Maybe another mile or so. From what it says on here where it is is on the shore of a shallow bed, surrounded by trees. Let's just hope it's still sea-worthy." She tells, looking up from the map. James eyes her for a second before releasing a tight sigh and waving his hand at her.

"Okay, now get out of the water, you're freaking me out."

"What? How?"

"We don't know what's in the water and I don't want you to drop the map. Just listen to me." He groans and the girl moans herself before stomping out of the water and taking a minute to dry her feet and put her socks and shoes back on.

"Alright mister boring."

James grits his teeth playfully, reaching over to wrangle the young girl into a head lock and shove her around. She cries out in surprise, laughing and giggling in shock as she wiggles against him. "James!" She complains and he lets go of her, the two snickering. Tyler laughs quietly himself as he watches them. Bleeding eyes replace his vision for a moment. Zoey doubles back to link arms with Tyler and push him forward as they walk across the pebble beach. She grins at him before going off on a ramble about a crazy dream she had about a talking coyote the night before.

Soon enough they find themselves paused at a part of the canal that's sat in a grove of trees with pebbles still lining the beach and Zoey examining he rmap. "Yeah." She confirms, folding the map back up and pushing it into her pocket. "This is the place. Let's start looking around." They then split up, kicking around dirt and pushing around through the overgrown trees and brush. James pauses in his search, pushing some dirt away and staring at a rather large foxish print on the ground. He stares for a long moment.

"Hey! I hit something!" Tyler hollers, Zoey stumbling from digging around in a pile of dead leaves to rush over and help him. They move tree branches out of the way and pull at plant roots, brushing dirt off the belly of the small metal boat. James is still stuck where he was, only shifted a bit to stare at something else. Zoey turns around to spot him.

"James!" She shouts, making him jump and look to her. "We found the boat, come help us pull it up." He nods, a bit dazed, before clambering up and hurrying over to them to help dig it up. After several minutes of tugging, pulling and digging, they finally manage to pull the solid metal and deep-bellied boat onto the beach, panting.

"Here, let me check the motor and rutter." He tells, brushing some dirt off the motor. He wiggles the top of it off, leaving Tyler and Zoey to begin to dig a path for them to push the boat to the water in the least harmful way possible. The trees next to James shift and he jumps, looking to them. He stares a long minute before swallowing hard and returning to checking the motor. "It should work fine!" He calls out and the other two look up with a nod. They hurry over to help him turn it over before beginning to push it out toward the water.