Chapter 4 Cracked Forest

When Zack hit the ground it was obvious from the sound that he had injured himself. Zack felt immense pain shooting through his knee as it twisted in an unnatural way, causing the popping sound. Zack didn't want to know why there was a crunch as well.

Zack tried his best to stop himself from screaming but in the end... "AAAHHHH!! MY KNEE!" Leo quickly knelt beside Zack and covered his mouth, waiting for his now muffled screams of pain to subside.

Zacks leg did not look good. The full extent of the damage was hard to tell through his pants but their was blood on the hand he used to grip his leg. After a minute had passed Zack started to calm down. Just then from over the wall they heard someone shout.

"I'm sure I heard the shout come from over here somewhere!" then another voice in reply "Do you think they got over the wall, I can't imagine they did!?" The first voice spoke again "We'll just have to go look for ourselves, I'll get the gate open, you go grab some more men! " with that they started moving inside.

" Zack, we have to get going. The gate is on the north side of the camp so we have some time since it's the opposite end from us, but that will only give us a few minutes headstart at most."

Zacks breathing is rapid and sharp, the pain can clearly be heard in his voice," I... Understand that... But I can't walk... Let alone run. " Leo stands up and turns around, staring into the forest. ' He's going to leave me...I don't blame him, I'm nothing but a burden now. ' Zack thinks to himself. His heart sank and a creeping depression washed over him.

His father abandoned him, or atleast that's what it felt like for Zack, so why would Leo be any different? ' Leo has no reason to put so much effort in to help me... Since the day we got here all I've done is hide behind him. I'm nothing but a burden' These are the thoughts rampaging through Zacks head as his face saddens and he looks to the floor.

" Hey, Zack, come on we haven't got all day."

Looking up from the ground, he can see that Leo is crouched on the floor facing away from himself with his arms stretched behind him.

"Hurry up and get on already" Leo says with a slight amount of annoyance but mostly panic.

Zack clings onto Leo's back and holds on tight as Leo begins to walk into the forest. 'Leo didn't abandon me...' tears stream down Zacks face as they continue onward. Part of Zack is ecstatic that Leo didn't leave him behind, while another part feels guilty for having thought he would in the first place.

Due to it being the middle of the night, there is essentially no light. The small wisps of white that stream down from the half moon in the sky are mostly blocked by the canopy of trees within the forest.

After running for 10 minutes, Leo slows to a walk to catch his breathe. The sound of howling can be heard in the distance behind them, coming from multiple creatures. Their break only lasts about 30 seconds before Leo starts moving again.

Another 5 minutes pass and Leo's overall pace has slowed. He's somewhere around the speed of a slow jog. Zack can see that Leo is tired from having to carry him for so long so he says something, "You should take a break for a bit, if we don't slow down you'll end up collapsing. And if that happens then..."

A tree to their right that they just passed is suddenly piercing by something flying through the air. Leo assumes they are being attacked from afar and starts running, while Zack just confirms Leo's theory," It's an arrow, they've found us! "

Multiple arrows are flying through the air, constantly striking at the trees around them. Leo is purposefully running in a zigzag to avoid being hit. After a minute of running and the arrows narrowly missing them, Leo runs between 2 trees and is now in what looks like an open field or clearing in the forest.

The area around him is illuminated by the moon as the trees no longer block the light. The ground is jagged and black, it looks similar to glass. Leo knows immediately that this is obsidian. The obsidian is covered in cracks and at some places there are large fissures running along the ground, some as big as 8 meters wide and 30 meters long.

Running along the obsidian, Leo does his best to avoid the fissures. He stumbles on the bigger cracks from time to time bit none are bigger than his feet so as long as he doesn't completely step into one he will be fine, that's his thought process anyways.

Once Leo is about 400m into the open field, that seemingly stretches on for kilometers, a group of 7 figures break through the into the clearing. 6 of the figures have bows in their hands and quivers on their backs filled with arrows.

The one person in front of the others has no such weapon. He has no weapons at all. He is 2.2 meters tall with huge bulging muscles, he doesn't have any hair on his body and isnt wearing clothing on his torso. He's got a giant scar running along his face from the center of his eyebrows, under his left eye and down his cheek and left side of his neck.

After peering back at the group of people behind him, Leo turns to face the front again and keep running, but when he turns, he comes face to face with the large man smiling at him. 'How the fuck...' Leo shouts in his head.

Unable to stop in time, Leo runs right into the large man, who doesn't budge an inch while Leo and Zack get flung to the right after bouncing off the large man's chest, landing 2 meters away from one of the bigger fissures. This one being around 4 meters wide and 20 meters long.

While Leo was trying to recover from the hard collision he just endured, the 6 men with bows formed a U shape around him and Zack with the large man in the middle and the fissure behind Leo.

Unable to move in any other direction Leo starts dragging Zack backwards towards the fissure until they reach the edge and he stops. 'What am I supposed to do now?'

The large man takes two steps forward and stops, he opens his mouth and starts speaking with a deep and rough voice, "You have nowhere to go, just come quietly and I won't torture you... As much." when he says the last part a smile forms on his face.

Leo can't help but think, 'Whats wrong with these people, all they want to do is inflict pain, no matter the reason... They don't even need a reason. They're monsters.'

Leo grabs a hold of Zack by placing his left arm under Zacks right arm to prop him up. He then looks towards the large man and speaks, " You think we have nowhere to go? Go fuck yourself."

Doing the only thing he thought could lead to an escape of the situation, Leo turns and jumps with Zack in tow slightly behind him, being dragged by the arm.

About 1.5 meters across the gap, the large man's arm reaches out and tries to grab onto Leo. Leo can see a large hand moving towards his arm at high speed, almost too fast for him to follow, but thanks to the momentum of the jump, the hand is unable to grab his arm.

That's when Leo felt a tug and felt his body stopped moving forward. He turned to look behind him as he started descending into the fissure. The last thing he could see as his and Zacks arms slipped apart was a large hand wrapped around Zacks neck.

The next moment Leo's head hit the wall of the fissure and his vision went black.