Fantasy

32 - Levina

Aaron awakes at around 6:00am. We switched shifts at around 2:30am this morning. He seems a little disoriented at first, until he remembers where he's at. His hair is messy from sleeping on the ground and it flops in front of his face. Honestly, it looks kind of cute. I suddenly wonder about my own hair. It's probably a nightmare, especially since when I run my fingers through it I pull out a few crumbled leaves. It's a good thing it's short. As Aaron gets up, my stomach rumbles. "Hey, are you hungry?" he asks, patting his own stomach.

"Yeah, you?"

"Uh-huh." I frown, and then remember that I stuck a snack in my pocket before Jayce and I left the apartment

"Hey, I have a cereal bar and a bottle of water," I tell him, pulling out the bar and a mini bottle of water. "We can share." Before he can protest, I rip the package off the cereal bar and break it in half. I hand part to him. We eat in silence, but it doesn't take very long. I uncap the water and offer him some.

He accepts it with a simple, "Thanks," takes a drink of the water, and then hands it back. Aaron's always been pretty quiet.

"Do you have Mononucleosis, Rabies, Ebola or some other disease transferred by saliva?" I ask a bit jokingly.

"Uh, no, not that I know of," he answers awkwardly. Great, now he just thinks I'm weird—though I suppose I am, so I shrug and take a swig of the water before capping it.

"Well, where to?" Aaron asks.

"Just away from the CMRA, I guess."

"Yeah, uh, which way is that?"

"Umm," I look around and then I look up. "I'm not sure, but couldn't we find out if we climb a tree?"

"That's a good idea," Aaron says. I stare up a giant oak tree.

"Follow me," I instruct, then grab a low branch. I pull myself up and swing my leg over a sturdier one. I plant my other leg's foot on the branch and stand up and then grab two branches above me for balance. Aaron wraps his hands around the low branch, but struggles to pull himself up. He manages to walk up the trunk while holding onto the branch only to fall to the ground again. He has no upper body strength. I reach my hand down and he, after a few more attempts, grabs it. I help pull him up to where I'm standing, and then push my feet off the branch using the branches my hands are on like parallel bars on a playground. I swing back and forth a few times before pulling my feet up on the same branches as my hands. I probably look some type of weird frog crouching on the branches. Releasing my hands, I stand up. Beside me is a branch at around my waist. I turn around and sit on it. Once there I reach down and help pull Aaron onto the parallel bar branches. From there I think he can make it, so I stand up and step onto the next branch, then the next. Looking down I see I'm at least a story above the ground, and I keep climbing. Aaron is slower than me, so I have to wait for him occasionally, but we eventually make it to the top. By the time the branches get too small for me to trust with my weight we are about three stories high. Looking around I can see a field on one side and a small collection of buildings on the other side of the forest. The direction of the field is the CMRA, so we want to go to the buildings. I tell Aaron this and he nods in agreement. Having gotten what we came for, we start down the tree.

o4H