Young Writers Society

It took all of Evaline's willpower to not roll her eyes. Of course she wasn't going going to do the same trick; she was going to go down the rocky hill like a normal human.

And that was exactly what she did, taking slow and methodical steps down, careful to not step on anywhere that was slippery or loose. It would get her down okay, but it was at least ten times slower than the woman's slide.

Jerica watched the woman take the first few steps, and then sighed deeply. This was going to take foreverrrrrrrrr. She wandered back and forth, looking at the landscape. There was little more to see about it, at least until they got around the mountain they were approaching.

Jerica looked over and saw a nearby tree, sheltering the ground with a little ring of shade. She walked over to it and flopped down, tipping her head back against the trunk as she watched the painfully slow descent.

Evaline was getting distracted by the woman's pacing, but thankfully she stopped moving and eventually walked towards a tree. Good. Now she had more concentration to focus on taking each step carefully...

Minutes passed, and finally, she reached the end of the slope by taking a final jump over a decently-sized rock, her boots firmly touching the ground.

"Sorry for the wait," she said as she brushed herself off, although the apology was insincere. "Not all of us have super strength and endurance like you."

Jerica was on her feet the instant the woman landed on the ground. Finally. It was about fucking time. It felt like an entire lifetime had passed. She eyed the woman, not quite what she was going on about.

"Super--?" She walked past the woman, continuing the wrong-direction down the path. "What are you talking about?"

Well, that was a wrong guess. Evaline knew super strength was just a fantasy.

"Never mind," she said quickly as she followed behind, deciding to change the subject. "What's your name?"

Jerica eyed the woman for another moment, then focused on the path ahead of them. There was clearly something very strange about this woman. But, it'd be nice to at least have a name to pair with the attitude. "Jerica... you?"

Jerica...

No, she didn't recognize her name, or her face. Evaline would remember either one if she had met her before, but she was drawing a blank. She was sure she never met her before.

So why were they in some random place together? She wished she knew.

Still, she didn't want to take any risks. It was possible that Jerica didn't know her name either, but Evaline wasn't going to risk that.

"Eve," she said.

It had been a long time since she went with that nickname, but she never had to lie about her name before, so it sufficed for an answer for now.

Jerica nodded. Eve. Simple enough. If she were someone important, Jerica would have recognized her. So, random girl named Eve, who apparently had also pissed off the Fillmores. "I'd say nice to meet you, but there's not much nice about this hellhole."

Evaline breathed out ait through her nose in mild amusement. "Oh, I don't know," she said blankly. "The flowers and mountains are very divine here."

Jerica glanced around. She hadn't really noticed. She'd been so focused on figuring out where they were, she hadn't actually taken time to take in the beauty of the area. It was rather pretty, now that she was looking around for that instead.

"Yeah, I guess," she agreed with a shrug. "Beautiful hellhole."

"Right," Evaline said without breaking a smile as she stared at the path in front of them. The mountains seemed to be rockier and taller, and the grass seemed to thin out in front of them. There were no more flowers in the far distance.

It almost looked ominous, like it was nature's warning telling them to not go down this path. But that was silly... right?

"Just so we're on the same page," she said slowly, eyes still focused ahead. "We are walking this path until we reach some other clue, event, person, or something else?"

Jerica looked at the progressively uninviting landscape ahead of them. She didn't have even the first semblance of a plan. How could she? She didn't have any more idea where she was now than she did when she first woke up. But, they didn't have any food or resources or weapons -- so, they had to at least try to get into a better situation. And, it seemed like it would be better if she took control of this partnership. So she glanced over with cool confidence. "Yeah."

Evaline nodded in response. "Okay then," she said, but didn't think any more needed to be said.

There was a lot to consider. If things were uneventful, how long would they walk until they decided to call it quits? If things were eventful, what would it indicate? She knew neither of them had the answer, and it was best to keep these thought exercises to herself.

There were other things to consider, though. Namely, resources. Was there food to forage nearby? A water source? A place to sleep? Will there be aggressive creatures or people? If so, neither of them had a weapon. Although, Evaline would argue that she didn't need one. At least... it depended on the situation. And there were a lot of situations to consider. So many...

Lost in her own thoughts when considering the impending future, she let another stiff silence fall between them as they walked.

Jerica wandered what they were walking into, feeling vaguely uneasy that maybe both ends were booby trapped. Clearly, they couldn't go the way they were ordered to go. But, this way was becoming less and less enticing. And, it looked like the sun would set within a few hours.

Then they'd be screwed.

Jerica didn't have her weapons. Couldn't hear any water. Didn't have the first idea of what animals might come out at night in this region. Hopefully, nothing worse than the rhinos would appear. That didn't even make sense.

She didn't know much about mammals, but the longer she thought about it, the more convinced she was that rhinos didn't form herds. So, where had that stampede come from. She grew progressively more perplexed, but didn't share any of her other thoughts before breaking the silence with, "Aren't rhinos solitary animals?"

Jerica had interrupted Evaline's thoughts by breaking the silence and asking about the rhinos. For a moment, Evaline was silent.

"I'm not sure," she said, sounding wary as that thought added more things to worry about. "Are they?"