The Pillar

Withering Forest - 3

It was hard to go through the forest without touching anything. The more they went through the forest, the more trees there were. Ronald kept squirting his di-clox thingy to all the gurgulars. There were soo many. He asked Chris to be the one in charge to anger everyone (because according to Ronald, Chris was very annoying), so Ronald could see their true form and squirt them. This would definitely be the weirdest moment of his life. Going through a forest which he couldn't touch, annoying monsters and squirting them with a poop-like substance called di-clox with a guy named Ronald Downing who looks like a typical American but is not. Yeah, definitely normal.

As they walked forward, they found a boy, with cuts on his arm, sleeping on the grass. He looked so sad and hungry. He looked about 9. Chris was tempted to give him some water because he looked so dehydrated. I woke him up and slowly gave him some water to drink.

All the other gurgulars had this slight aura, which made Chris want to puke, but this guy seemed normal.

"Dude!" Ronald's whisper-screamed into Chris's ear.

"What?" Chris questioned.

"What if he's a gurgular?"

"Well, he doesn't seem to be!"

"Oh yeah, forgot that humans are not used their aura's so they can detect them. And this guy doesn't have that?" Ronald said.

"He doesn't..." Chris answered, unsure.

The boy gulped down the last drop of the bottle.

"Thanks," said the boy.

The poor boy still looked really thirsty and extremely hungry. He longed to eat one of Chris's sandwiches that were kept in a picnic basket that was open wide. Chris took one out and gave it to him with a generous smile on his face.

"What's your name?" Ronald asked him, as the boy licked his fingers.

"E-Elijah M-Ma-Marshall." He replied hesitantly as if he did not remember his name properly.

Chris couldn't have felt sadder to see such a young boy in such bad shape. But there was something about him that seemed off. Chris couldn't really put his finger on it though.

"So, tried climbing the Pillar, eh? Even I'm here cause of that." Chris tried to sympathize.

"You came here voluntarily!? Are you crazy!?" Elijah exclaimed.

"You..didn't come here....voluntarily? And what's so bad about this place? Beautiful scenery, so much greenery, -"Chris tried to explain.

"Monsters lurking by, psychopaths with knives who want food, hunger, and starvation, ashes, and death." Elijah continued by cutting him off.

"He's right. You should probably get back down." Ronald suggested.

"Never. I am not giving up. I don't care how many monsters and psychopaths there are. I am going to survive. I'm not gonna dwell on the negative parts and miss the positive." Chris was determined to climb this impossible-looking Pillar.

A moment of silence commenced.

"So you coming or not?" Chris turned towards Elijah, breaking the silence. 

"Where are you guys going?" Elijah questioned.

"To the Factory. To get weapons." Ronald answered.

"Wait there's a place like that!?" Elijah stared at him with a quizzical expression. "Cool. That could've helped me. C'mon, let's go!" he continued excitedly before Chris stopped him.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'You came here voluntarily'?" Chris looked at him worriedly.

He started at Chris silently.

"Can we talk about it on the way?" Elijah asked, his lips quivering with fright.

Chris looked at Ronald questionably. Ronald gave him a stern look and shook his head with concern.

"Alright. No worries if you don't want to talk about it." Chris sighed.

He wanted to help this poor boy. He couldn't do that if he was never open.

"Thanks." Elijah smiled and started walking.

"This way." Ronald smiled at him.

Elijah laughed and quickly ran towards Ronald, as they continued their journey.