𝐢𝐝𝐲𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐜 | 𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐩𝐧

𝟐𝟒| 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞.

   𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭. The trees were enormous and looked nothing like the trees they were weaving through before. Everyone slowly maneuvered around the large roots coming from the trees. Ray climbed over one and was helping Y/n when they both whipped their heads around to try and locate the shadow they had seen in the corner of their eyes. "You... you saw that, right?" Y/n asked.

   "Yeah," he pulled her over the root and closer to him, "just stay close." She nodded and continued to follow everyone else. The children's pace was starting to drop, given they had been walking non-stop for over three hours. The group stopped when they found a small clearing between the trees.

   "Okay everyone! Time to rest," Emma shouted, "Let's eat breakfast here!"

   Everyone sat down while Gilda made sure to tell everyone not to eat everything at once, "we want to make sure our food lasts as long as possible."

   Y/n had started to walk off, needing to catch her breath along with keeping watch. Eugene chased after her, "Y/n, aren't you eating with us?"

   "No, I'll stand here and keep watch. So go back and don't worry about staying alert!"

   "Okay!" He ran back off to enjoy his meal with everyone else.

   Y/n sat down and took a deep breath, letting her mind catch up with everything that happened. We're free. Our work isn't anywhere close to being done, but we just got over one of the biggest hurdles. We won't be seeing everyone else for a while but we have to go back for them, for everyone else. I just can't believe we got this far. Norman would've loved it out here. Thanks to him and his plan we made it out here. Thanks to him I found out what Ray was planning. Thanks to him...

   Her train of thought was interrupted by a hard glass jar of water hitting her head, "heyoooo," the familiar voice called. Speak of the devil.

   "...heyo...?"

   "Y/n, we're gonna be fine. At the very least there aren't any wild predators in the area. I can't find any footprints or droppings in the area. So don't get all anxious. Just rest a little," he sat next to her and took her hand, playing with her fingers. She laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes a little. "I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

   "Hm?"

   "If I had been a part of the plan from the start... maybe you wouldn't have had to hurt your hand and ear... and I'm sorry for scaring you like that."

   "It's okay, Ray... I'm just glad you're alive. I don't know if I would've been able to move on if you had died..."

   I'll never be able to leave you, Y/n... I love you too much. I'll never believe I was ready to leave everyone else as well... despite that, everyone is so nice to me. "I'm going to live. I'm going to live and protect my family. Same as you, I'm going to protect every single one of them. This time... This time I truly promise. No matter what happens, I won't cut them off.

   "Ray..." she smiled up at him.

   He smiled back and shook his head, "so don't think too hard on your own. Let's do it together. Let's create a world where we can all safely survive... with the help of our family."

   "Yeah!" She rested her head back on his shoulder for a little while longer before Emma called everyone to regroup and keep moving forward.

   "So what now?" Ray asked Emma.

   "We need water first. You saw the stream from that view above, right? I want to check and see if it's pure enough."

   "Logical. I've read somewhere once that humans die within 3 days without water. It's definitely a priority we need to tackle. If all goes well we might be able to get a hold of food. So what's after that? Do you have a plan for where we should head?"

   Y/n and Emma nodded, "Yup! We're heading south," Y/n answered, rummaging through her bag in search of an item.

   "South?"

   "We have to go see Mr. Minerva in area B 06-32," she said, pulling out a pen.

   "What's that pen? Area B 06-32?"

   "Here!" She handed the pen over for him to inspect.

   "Emma said that Sister Krone gave it to Norman. There's more. Emma told me that he took it apart after trying to write with it," Ray fidgeted with the pen, "try twisting it once more." Suddenly, a projection came from the pen. It had a green tint to it and showed a picture of an owl along with 'B 01-14'.

   "Wha- what in the world..?"

   While the three eldest were distracted with the pen, they had failed to notice Lannion missing. That was until Thoma yelled his name out.

   "What's up, Thoma? What's wrong?"

   "Ray! This is bad! Lani disappeared!"

   "D- disappeared? What's going on? Was he attacked? Did he get lost?" Emma panicked.

   "No, no, no! He suddenly vanished into thin air! We were walking together just a second ago... but then just now I looked over and he was gone!" They all searched for him, "Lani, quit playing games! Come out!"

   "Lani, answer if you hear us!"

   "Ray, I'm gonna go look for h-" Emma started.

   "Wait! This is weird... Emma, Y/n, something isn't right."

   Y/n shuddered, catching on to what he was saying, "he's right... there's no response. Not only from Lani. Why isn't anybody else saying anything either?" Ray and Y/n dashed into a clearing.

   Emma caught up, carrying Eugene and keeping Thoma close, "no way... Don, Gilda... Where's everyone else?"

   "Where did everyone else go?"

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𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫

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