Run From Your Troubles

[Casey the Undead†]

"Right here. South of the swamp and north of the woods you came through. It looks like we can avoid the swamp and that forest entirely and make our way further inland to the Inland Woods. I'm sick of water, and I'd rather go into a place that has a chance of nice people being there instead of a place where we know people are going around guns blazing."

Rena nodded weakly at this, refusing to look at her leg. It still stung, but she wasn't going to check if it was bleeding because the very thought of the crimson liquid was making her nauseous. She remembered the first time she'd ever seen her own blood, when Jake had pushed her into the sandbox. The scar was still above her eye, and it only now occurred to her that her leg would probably have a scar now too. Great. Of course, Rena didn't know that no one besides herself could see her eye scar, and she didn't want to think about the fact that she probably wasn't going to live long enough for her leg wound to scar over.

But Jake had pushed her into a sandbox, and she'd been covered in this sickly red ooze, and she'd screamed for hours and hours. After that, the very thought of blood was enough to do Rena in. And now, by all cruel irony, she was stuck on an island that pretty much only had blood and death on it.

But she wasn't going to think about her leg, or Jake, or her eye, or anything because none of that mattered. All that mattered was helping Ridley find his girlfriend. She made a promise and she wasn't going to go back on it.

She snapped her mind back to reality in time to catch the rest of what Ridley was saying. "Anyway, uh, if we lay low and take it step by step, we should make it to the Inland Woods in a couple hours."

Rena took the map, nodding as he handed it back to her, before sticking it back in her pack. Girl 114. She cringed slightly. A dim thought pushed its way into her mind, something Jake had said once. "A single death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic." She was sure he was quoting something, as Jake wasn't smart enough to say something like that on his own, but she had never really given it much thought. She was a number on a bag now. A statistic.

This doesn't matter! What matters is this Raine person. What matters is finding her, and making an alliance or something, and staying alive. What matters is getting home.

Ridley was eating some of his crackers, and Rena supposed it would be a good idea, but she still felt a little sick. She took another swig of water instead. She took his hand when he gave it to her, standing up slowly.

"Okay, let's go."

"Sounds good to me."

She followed Ridley out of the swamp. Here's hoping we don't find any trouble.

(Rena Peters continued in Accidental Acrophobia)