Metanoia

Forest: Chapter 3

"What is he doing in there?"
"Something to do with inventing or something."
"Wow, that's all he does huh."
"I guess, that and telling everyone how wrong they are about everything."
"No wonder he has no friends. What an isolated prick."

Renjun snapped his eyes open, being awakened by the sound of voices. He jerked backwards, hitting his head against the car seat and yelping in pain. Turning his head side to side he panicked, worrying if the men ended up capturing him after all. However there seemed to be no one in sight, at least that's what he thought as his vision was incredibly blurry. And it didn't appear that he was in any building at all. In fact, it was quite possible that he was in the same spot for a long time- based on how light his surroundings were compared to the previous time he was awake.
Speaking of the 'previous time', his memory had swiftly caught up to him in the short span that he was awake. The car chase. The men. The escape. The bullets. Recalling all of it, Renjun was rather impressed by how well he evaded possible professionals whilst leaving the town at the same time.
He felt the cold breeze pass through the windows that were shattered from the gunshots. The blond flinched at the slight stinging coming from his left cheek and he immediately brought his hand up to graze a finger over it. The bullet that must've whizzed past his face had made a pretty large cut. Large enough to scar most likely. Renjun scrunched his nose as he felt the dried blood painted all across the left side of his face. He couldn't just leave the wound open an unclean.
Not if he was going to continue his trek away from Goldenleaf.
He shifted around, hissing at all his sore muscles as he opened the door. Stumbling about, the wounded teen regained his sense more clearly and straightened up to look at where he was.
His pickup was in a large ditch like area, completely surrounded by tall, sturdy pine trees. The branches were so closely woven with each other that it barely let any light into forest. Birds and squirrels must have made quick work of it as well since the sound of wildlife was extremely clear from where he stood. Renjun spotted the ample amounts of moss around the roots of the trees, accompanied by mushrooms and small flowers. The nature stretched out for a long time and he could barely see the edges of the forest. Despite it being so far away, he could see the bright light and easily deduced that it was about noon. Which meant he must've been unconscious for almost half a day.
'Oh damn, I should probably get out of here soon then and find a better place to rest for the night.'
Renjun stretched for a moment before going over to the back and reaching for his bag. His hand felt around for the backpack but he could only feel the bottom and sides. He was close to yelling out in anger. It must've fallen out at one point when he was being chased. Cursing under his breath, the blond scowled and stormed back into his truck, slamming the door closed in the process.
Hand reaching the key, he paused. The balance of the vehicle was completely off. The back tire must have gone flat. He growled and slammed his fist against the steering wheel. Where the hell would he find a spare tire?
'That was the only damn thing in the junkyard that could be used at all.'
He huffed out in expiration and got out of the car again, bringing out the large Santa bag along with him. In the end, Renjun was ultimately forced to abandon his vehicle for a while and find more appropriate shelter. Even though nothing could really beat the comfort of the truck, the sharp glass and dark cold atmosphere at night weren't all that helpful. So he had to go to higher ground and find some place else.
    As he started walking, Renjun could feel the blood pumping more to his brain. His mind instantly dwelled on the chase before that got him in this mess in the first place. The fact that these people were not like the citizens he normally saw in the city was completely obvious from their expression to the weapons they carried on their person- was a little unnerving. He shivered remembering the feeling of someone, intending to kill him, only meters away as he rushed to lose them. It probably caused a huge ruckus for the people around him at the time and was most likely going to become a huge headline.
    However the article would be pointless with the lack of evidence that stemmed from the chase. Just an alert as police 'investigated' what was going on. When in reality, they were as stumped as Renjun was while he climbed up the steep slope.
Why were they intentionally chasing him? Why did they care if a few people got hurt or killed while trying to get him? Did they know he was trying to leave? Was there a secret service that stopped anyone from leaving the town? If so was he the first person to not comply with their orders? If not..... who were they? Where did they come from? How would they even know he was leaving? Or did they want him dead for some other reason?
Their piercing gazes made Renjun flinch and glance behind him just in case they still happened to be after him. There was just something about the intensity of their gazes that seemed familiar. The solid pure emotion that dug deep into the crevices of their brain, instilling them with one goal. It was the same glaring look he had gotten from Jaemin- the day Renjun had finally snapped and hit both him and Donghyuck. The flash of something terrifying had appeared behind the innocent face of the pink haired boy. It was something instinctive and feral that seemed to run in his veins. And the two men held similar emotions in their visages, however it seemed more controlled in a way. As if they had gone through that feeling several times, enough to make them used to it.
A pit of doubt grew in Renjun's stomach, maybe he should have warned Donghyuck about it before he decided to flee  his previous life.
He made his way up and finally reached the top of the ditch. There was a large stream of light passing through a group of trees clustered in front of him along with the slight sound of  running water. Hopeful, the teen jogged forward and broke out of the trees.
There lay a ginormous lake. Filled with crystal clear waters that were transparent enough to see what was in the liquid for a long distance before becoming shrouded by the sheen of the sun. It looked to be completely abundant with fish and water grown plants that only helped the stabilization of wildlife. The outskirts of the area was filled with plenty more trees and bushes. But there was one single large tree one fourth of the way around the lake. It was large with a thick trunk and multiple chunky branches spreading around in every which way. A large gaping hole was present at the base, being hollowed out almost as if it was in previous use before.
    And on the other end of the entire lake, on a complete parallel from him was a broken down shelter.
    'I can spend my nights there....' Renjun shaded his eyes and glanced up at the sun to see it coming down quicker and quicker. 'Maybe it'd be best to stay in the tree before making the long trek to the shack.'
    Readjusting his grip on the large bag, he continued on. During the moments he had been conscious and roaming the forest he had been able to find a sufficient source of water and two decent shelters, one which could contain a good amount of supplies if it was used recently.
    The image of the two men floated around in his head. The blond furrowed his eyebrows. There was a big possibility that those two had been from elsewhere. This appearance of a shelter nearby was further proof. And if he had an inkling of clarity to know why those guys trekked through the long journey just to go after him- he might as well have been trembling in his car as his wound continued to infect.
However Renjun would never simply conform to that one thought. He needed to do more research. Find out who these guys were and why they were after him. And find out what the hell was wrong with his town.