The Lost Ones Book 2: Welcome Home

Chapter 13

Jerome woke up in a field of grass. He sat up, the breeze flowing through his fur. To his left was his axe, it's diamond head gleaming in the sun. And to his right was Mitch, still asleep. Jerome stood up, stretching out his back and yawning. Still on the ground Mitch began to wake up.

"Hm...?"

"Morning Mitch." Jerome smiled.

"Morning..." Mitch stood and looked at his feet, a bow and a quiver arrow resting beside his foot. He picked them up and put the quiver around his waist.

"Where are we?" Mitch asked.

"I don't know..." Jerome frowned. "Guess there's only one way to find out." He began walking through the field towards a forest with Mitch trailing shortly behind.

The forest looked different, as if it wasn't natural terrain. It had gravel paths flowing through it and chest littered about, all filled with junk such as stone tools and leather armor. The chests looked like they had already been rummaged through, containing items that no one would take unless they desperately needed them.

One the trees became scarce they found themselves in another clearing, but this one had a very familiar structure in the middle. Twenty four platforms formed a circle around a large collection of chests.

"Mitch this is..." Jerome's eyes widened.

"The cornucopia." Mitch responded. They had just found themselves in the middle of the Survival Games.

Before their eyes a large holographic screen flickered to life, displaying the amount of players left in this game of life and death. In large letters it stated "Two tributes remain".

Mitch and Jerome's stomachs dropped, they we're the only two left.

"What do we...?" Mitch started.

"I don't know..."

"Do you remember joining a game? I thought it's been a few months?" Jerome asked.

"No! Last thing I remember is you spending the night at my house!" Mitch responded.

"Same here."

"But... Now we're here. This doesn't feel right. We were asleep, who falls asleep in the middle of a game?"

Jerome stayed silent.

"Also there's no player roster. And there's... blood on the ground, servers don't do that!"

Silence.

"Jerome? C'mon dude we can't do this! This whole thing is just weird."

Jerome was looking at the ground, appearing to be thinking.

"As much fun as it would be we aren't fighting each other! I wanna find out-"

Mitch was tackled to the ground, Jerome's knee resting on the other's chest. His paw tightened around his axe, claws extending.

"B-Biggums?!"

Jerome's fur stood on edge, his eyes narrowed and fangs seemed sharper than ever before. His axe swung through the air, the blade landing right beside Mitch's face. Mitch kicked Jerome's leg, causing him to lose balance and fall over.

Mitch took out his bow and aimed it at Jerome. "H-hey! We're not doing this!"

Jerome only growled and advanced towards him, axe in one hand and his large, bear-like claws out in the other.

Jordan talked with Sqaishey as they walked for what felt like hours when he saw something ahead of them. "Come on! There's something up here!"

They ran inside the area and into what appeared to be stands to watch a fight and stared in shock seeing Mitch fighting Jerome.