The Travelers of the Tree

Chapter 9 - The Birds

This time, when Tommy woke up, he knew exactly where he was, and why he was there. The headache was still there. It seemed like two bricks were pounding his head steadily from both sides. But even that was an improvement from the first two times he had traveled through the tree. Even though his eyes were closed, he could tell that the sun was shining brightly. When he could, he opened his eyes, and through his hands, which he used to cover them, he could see that the other two boys lay quietly beside him.

"Hey guys, are you awake?" Silence was their only response. He grimaced. Why couldn't they ever wake up when he did? Did the answer to that question have anything to do with why he was the only one out of the three that could open the doorway to this place? Of course, he didn't know the answers to these questions, and this frustrated him greatly. He steeled himself for the pain he knew would come with his next action, and then sat up, leaning his back against the great big tree. He cradled his head in his hands. Using the tree for support, he slid up and onto his feet. When he lifted his head, a wave of dizziness almost overcame him, but he was able to remain standing. The headache started to go away.

The first thing he wanted to do was fill his cups up with water from the stream so he could wake his companions. He looked down at the ground where he had just been laying. He couldn't see his book bag. He cleared his groggy eyes, and looked at the area around where he had been. Still no sign of the bag. He looked at David, who was in the same position he had been in when Tommy had first seen him. His sports bag, with his baseball bats were nowhere to be seen. Tommy started to get a bad feeling. After checking the area in front of him completely, he rotated around the tree, with his back to it, looking for any sign of the bags. They weren't there. He remembered that the day before he had thought that his bag had fallen off when Matt had pushed him to the ground. Maybe he had been wearing it the first time they had traveled. Maybe only people were able to go through from side to side.

As much as he was disappointed with not having any of the weapons and other objects that they had intended to bring with them, Tommy also felt a measure of relief. This was because while he looked for the bags around the tree, he also had looked off into the distance, and for as far as he could see in every direction, he hadn't seen any signs of other people. He hoped that they had called off the search, especially around where the boys were now. He had no idea if they would be coming back though, so he knew that he had to hurry and get the other boys to wake up. The headache he'd had was now gone. He was so busy looking and thinking he hadn't realized it before.

He looked across at the stream. The last time he had gone to get water, he had been captured. But the only way that he knew how to wake the others fast was with water, so he knew he had to face this fear right then. As he started towards the stream, he took off his shirt, leaving his T-shirt on. He was thankful that they at least had been able to take their clothes through to this place. Before he reached the road, he was careful to look each way and make sure that he saw nothing coming. When he passed it, he ran the rest of the way to the stream. His body was still killing him from the previous night's run, but he was able to manage with it. When he got to the stream, he took a quick drink, and soaked the shirt. He then jogged back to the tree. He used the wet shirt on David first.

"Oww! Tommy? I'm awake now. Where's Matt?"

"I'm getting to him now." Matt punched in the air when the shirt hit his face. Luckily, Tommy had dropped it onto his face, and was not near the blow.

"Matt, it's Tommy. Do you know where you are?"

"Yes. Now I do. Sorry." Matt and David, with some help from Tommy, were able to get to their feet quicker then they had before. When they did, David looked at Tommy.