* FoUr * Saving the Day...?

A Chapter by Allison

Everyone can be a hero.

Because the Mainland did not allow buses through, we had to actually travel town to town to get there. That meant we had to go through forests and scary places during night and day. Traveling with Shylo... made things "exciting." I guess I could put it that way. I'm not sure if she liked Tai or just liked to bug him, but at least she made him be respectful.

We went on our way, starting through the Forest of Crickets at the beginning fall of the sun. It was quiet between all four of us, which made the crickets' chirping more audible. The crickets' chirping sounded like a very relaxing bedtime song, but in a way it sounded like a beautiful piano melody. I listened in awe and looked around to see the fireflies crowding the air with their bright small lights. "So cool!" I said still looking around, then ran into Kei in front of me. "Huh? Why did you stop?" I looked past him to see a man, who looked in his early twenties. He was standing in the middle of the path and staring at us through the dark. He was wearing a dark suit and a hat, he looked like a mafia man . . . or a pimp. Either way he was trying to look fancy or something. "Do you know him, Kei?" I asked, hoping he would answer.
"I'm not sure, but his look makes me think he's either evil or just playing dress-up," he replied and stepped toward the man. "Hello, sir? Are you stuck in mud?"
"What?! What kind of question is that?!" Tai said, while coming quickly to stand beside Kei.
"Silly children, I'm stuck in a trap actually. Could you please help me?" the man said, pulling out a cellphone. The light from the cellphone showed is face in a pained expression. He pointed the light to his right leg, "I wonder who puts a bear trap in the middle of the path?" There at his legs was a bear trap dug into his right leg and blood in a puddle underneath.
I gasped and rushed over to pull it off. Right after me, Kei came over and pulled it apart quickly, and the man pulled his foot out quickly then fell to the ground, "Ahhhh, I have been standing there for so long! I thought I'd bleed to death. Thank you so much!"
"Here I'll bandage you!" Shylo said with a smile.

While Shylo was cleaning his leg up and bandaging it, the man told us who he is. "My name is Elias, sorry if I looked creepy or something just standing there. Haha!"
I chuckled, thinking how that's what we thought, "It's ok, at least you're not buff and scary."
The man chuckled softly then winced in pain.
"Sorry," Shylo said, still concentrating on his leg.
"So where were you going?" Tai finally decided to speak.
"The town that way, I don't know the name. I'm truthfully kind of lost," he said, pointing to where we are headed.
"Well we can help you there. We're going that way,too," Kei said, watching the forest.
"Do you think something's out there?" I asked, walking to Kei.
"You never know."
After Shylo finished bandaging Elias, we heard a very loud girl's scream from inside the forest.
"What's that?!" Tai asked with wide eyes.
"I don't know, but let's go see!" I said and started running toward the screams.
"Taryn, wait!" I heard Kei yell then heard his rustling behind me. "Stay with Elias, you two! We'll check it out!"
"Aw, no way! I want action!" Tai yelled and must have started running and was stopped; because Shylo started yelling at him.

I was running, jumping over logs, and dodging branches. The screams were getting closer and closer. Soon I was run into hard and flat on the ground with someone on top of me. I tried to get free, but the person on me wouldn't budge.
"Shhh," I heard Kei whisper in my ear. I looked up as far as I could and saw two ugly big men with a huge cage wagon full of women. They both had two pistols and an axe. The women were crying, screaming, and trying to break the cage but failing. "Shut up, women!" the blue shirt man yelled, whacking the cage with his axe's handle. "Just think what you'll be when you get your minds hypnotized . . . calm and obedient!"
By this time, Kei finally got off me and pulled me up. We hid behind a bush and whispered plans. "Let's just shoot them in the head," I suggested.
"No, that won't work."
"Why not?"
"They're like the big man who took me. Their only weakness is melee attacks," Kei said, looking around the place.
"What? How do you know that? You only killed one of them," I said with confusion.
"No, I killed others when the big guy took me to that mansion. I woke up and killed two but was knocked out again," he explained.
"How did you kill two with no weapons?"
"They were in the kitchen so there was some cooking knives."
"Ohhh, that explains-" but I was cut off by Kei pushing me to the ground again. I heard a huge "whoosh!" of something being swung over head. I opened my eyes to see the gray shirt man hovering above us. He was about to cut us, but we rolled away from where he was aiming. We eventually stood up quickly and I pulled out my katana, while Kei pulled out his big hunting knife. The man rushed to swing at me but I ducked and stabbed his right leg making him collapse on that knee. I cut his throat quickly and he fell like a giant in slow motion. After I finished him, I put my katana away and looked where Kei was. The blue shirt man, was pulling his arm with the knife. I looked down on the ground at my feet and saw one of the axes. I bent to pick it up, but the gray shirt guy grabbed my leg and pulled me down. I screamed of surprise and fell with a "thunk!" I heard a gun shot and quickly kicked the guy's head to make him let go. I looked up to see Kei on the ground and the other man coming at me. I pulled my katana out and sliced his throat as deep as I could and he fell right beside me. I ran to Kei to see him sitting up but holding his side, which was bleeding heavily. I knew he was fine for right now, so I ran to the cage where the women were. I opened it with my katana and helped them out.
"Thank you so much!" a women around her thirties said, grabbing my hands and smiling.
"No problem, but you need to hurry to your village. There might be more."
"I'm a doctor, would you like me to help your friend though?"
"Oh, you'd do that? Thank you!" I said, smiling widely.

After about two hours, the women were all gone; and the doctor helped Kei and Elias a bit then headed to the Coby region. We said thanks and we started to the direction of the Mainland.
"Man, I should have been there with you guys, no one would have gotten hurt!" Tai said, punching the air in front of him.
"Yeah, whatever, Tai," I said, rolling my eyes. "Elias and Kei, are you two feeling better?"
"Yeah, lots. Sorry for ramming you twice, Taryn," Kei said, chuckling.
"Nah, it's okay. I've gone though worse," I said with a small chuckle.

After about twenty more minutes, we arrived at the village. Elias said he's stopping at the next town. So we said he could come with us tomorrow. Then the next day, we headed off. Elias's cellphone rang and he talked, while we chatted. Tai and Kei were arguing about something useless, so Shylo and I talked a bit.
"So why did Kei ram you exactly?" she asked.
"Well there were big buff guys. Then the second time was because one almost cut us in half!"
"Whoa! So he like acted like those heroes on movies? He jumped on the girl to save her and they ended up making out!" Shylo said with enthusiasm.
I stared at her with disbelief.
"What? You two didn't do that?"
"Of course not! Even if we wanted to, there was no time for that at that moment!" I shouted for some reason that I don't know.
"So you wanted to?"
"Yes! Wait-NO!" I said with outrage.
"You wanted to!" Shylo teased.
"I was worried about our lives!"
"In the future?!" Shylo said, perking up.
"Oh my-just stop!" I said, relaxing. Then I started laughing, and she joined in.
"Is that how it is then?" I heard Kei's voice.
"Huh?" I turned to look at him, but was knocked out.

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