UNTAMED (The True Color of Adventure)

Chapter 4

We began our journey to the Dark Zone, packed with all our needs; food supplies, weapons, and a few clothes for sleep. I asked Uncle Tom earlier if there would be hotels to pass the night, but he replied, “We sleep anywhere the sun sets; in the forest, on a plain, anywhere just to lay our heads till day breaks. This is the life of a soldier and not a young civilian's, it's not too late for a change of mind.”
Knowing well that he was looking for all means to discourage me, I replied “Oh good, that's more fun,” though I dreaded the imaginations already.
Moving farther from the castle, I wished we could go by cars or better still horses, I loved horses! It's been my dream kind of adventure to be on a horse, but this time, they said we must be discreet. Joe kept making us laugh as his clumsiness could be cute and he was good at cracking us up.
At intervals, Lucas carried me on his back whenever he noticed that my legs ached. Now I see what it takes to be a soldier, we had been on the road for approximately five hours and they were still going as if their strength was renewed every moment. Even Joe, as fragile as I thought he was, was still moving.
We approached the Alc Valley, the legendary valley of bandits and all kinds of atrocities. Lucas put me down and handed me a weapon which wasn't much of a sword but a big knife.
“Brace up, guys. Hold your weapons and guard the supplies, we may enter into an ambush…” before Uncle Tom completed his words, we saw things flying above us like kites.
“They are distractions, be careful,” he said pulling me in the middle for protection. I held fast to the weapon, supporting my trembling left hand with the right, trainings differ from reality. It was all looking so tense as everywhere was so quiet, my ears erect and the hair behind my neck stood.
Suddenly, there was a battle cry, six bandits surrounded us within a few seconds. A man whose torso ostentated how much he worked-out, faced Uncle Tom in a challenge.
In an instant, the man lunged at him with his sharp blade. Uncle Tom, with his eyes closed, could take on twenty men all at once, that was the popular saying back at the castle. Uncle Tom swiftly moved against an erect structure beside us, took four steps up the surface, somersaulted backwards, and regained his balance on the ground instantly behind the man.
Dodging the blade thrusted at him, he bent towards the lower part of the man's body, giving him a hard punch in his abdomen. The man staggered backwards bending as he felt the pain of the punch. Uncle Tom threw himself up, landed on the man and wrapped himself around the man's neck, he flung the man in a twist with his legs and the latter fell hard to the ground, hitting his head against a big rock. His blood gushed.
Lucas, who was also well built and good at martial art took on two men at once. He dodged every thrust of their blades and slashed them with his sword at once.
Joe muddled up all kinds of martial arts in a single combat. Though he knew how it worked best for him, I just couldn't help but laugh at the moment. Laughing on a battlefield soon landed me on the ground as I was hit from the back. I fell to the ground, quickly turning to face the danger behind me. Still on the floor, the size of my eyes was doubled. I was holding a weapon in my hands but I had no idea of how to enact all my training now that a sword was aimed at me to take my life for real.
I crawled backwards in fear as the fierce-looking man kept moving closer, trying to intimidate me with his dirty look and smirk. As he raised his sword to strike me, a knife penetrated through his left temple and he fell to the ground.
Am I sure I'm meant to be here? I asked in my  thought. This was sure scarier than it was in the movies.
Lucas who saved me ran towards me as he saw that I looked petrified on the floor.
“Hey, you good?” he asked as he pulled me up. “Kevin,” Uncle Tom also said running towards me.
“I'm.. I'm fine. No scratch, see…” I said as I displayed my unscathed arms.
Joe jogged up to us, smiled at me and collected my blade from me. I noticed he was missing a bag.
“Where is the food supplies bag, Joe?” I asked. Uncle Tom and Lucas also looked at him asking the same question with their miens. Apparently, he lost the bag to one bandit that escaped. Now we were left with little food in a small bag with him. Uncle Tom and Lucas were the ones carrying all the weaponry aid we would need for the mission.
After a few hours, the sun began to set, we arrived at a glade. “We camp here tonight and continue at dawn guys. We are getting close to the thick part of the forest and it's dangerous to travel at night.” Uncle Tom said as he dropped the contents of his hands. Following his action, the rest of us also dropped things in our hands simultaneously. I had been waiting for the time to sleep.
Lucas went nearby in search of woods, soon he returned and made fire with the others. They made sure the fire was enough to warm us and keep us through the night, and we soon drifted to sleep.
Uncle Tom stayed awake for three hours watching the place and keeping the fire burning but he soon drifted to sleep too.
We were jerked awake as we heard a scream and an animal roaring. We gathered together in the middle, beside the fire but Lucas wasn't there.
“Lucas!” Uncle Tom shouted as we heard another scream, this time we could hear Lucas' voice clearly as he screamed in pain in the distance. Seemingly, the animal attacked while we were asleep and dragged Lucas away. Uncle Tom and Joe picked up their weapons and took a formation with me in the middle, I also took a stick as that was the next thing to me.

Suddenly, there appeared a bear from the forest with blood in the corners of its mouth and claws. “Kevin, pick a burning wood and make sure you move it around you!”
Uncle Tom shouted and he distracted the bear from my side, he and Joe in sync tackled the bear. Joe slid towards the feet of the bear and slashed its foot with his sword, and Uncle Tom immediately hurled a blade into its eye, digging deep into it. The bear roared in pain, holding its eye with one hand, uprooting a tree with the other and slinging it towards Uncle Tom.
Giving Uncle Tom a weapon, he dodged the tree and climbed it as fast as he could in the air as the bear could not see him. He then fell on top of the bear, dug his sword into its head and it fell down dead. Uncle Tom also jumped down from the dead bear and pulled out the blade in its eye. We lost Lucas. Joe moved towards the bags Lucas was carrying, held them in his hands and cried, I also joined him to mourn Lucas' death.