Finches

Chapter 13 - Into The Fire

Colt and Shelly wandered into the trees cautiously, half expecting something to instantly jump out and attack them. According to Shelly, who'd been so kind as to inform him, there were many stories about the forests of Goldtown and what happened in them. Some of them, Colt thought, were fairly ordinary. People getting abducted and killed and stuff like that. Others were a reach, to say the least. Shelly told him about stories of ghosts, and even about a man who had an army of monkeys at his disposal. This particular story actually helped Colt's mood, because if the townspeople exaggerated some of the stories they probably did the others too. At least that was what he was telling himself.

Before they were fully immersed in the forest, Colt took one last look back at the town. Or more specifically, the sky. Ahead there was a dimness caused by the massive roof of leaves, so he didn't know when he'd be able to get a full glimpse at the bright sky again. It might be a matter of entire days before he made it out of the maze of trees.

"What are you doing?"

Colt turned back and walked fully into the forest. "Nothing," he said. "Just looking at the sky."

Shelly looked between Colt and the sky, then remarked, "Weird."

And with that they trudged out of the daylight and into the forest. They walked quickly but with great attentiveness. Colt analyzed everything in front of him, scanning the area constantly to make sure nothing was moving near them. He'd even look behind them every now and then, just to make sure.

Shelly did the same thing. She tried to hide it more than Colt, but he could tell that she was just as on edge as he was. Despite the face she tried to put on, she was out of her area. This wasn't the center of town anymore and she knew that, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

Colt and Shelly stuck to the dirt path, which the trees seemed to mostly obey. They'd have to swat away a couple of branches now and again, but for the most part the trees stayed to the side of the path.

Colt had his map in hand, and was doing his best to track where they were at all times. The path they were taking went in the direction they needed to go in, thankfully, and Colt hoped it stayed like that. The last thing he needed was to stray off the path and fight trees and whatever else might be lurking just to walk in the direction that he needed to go. Shelly assured him that the path probably led right up to the doorstep of the Authority base, since it was likely formed for the purpose of making that journey. Colt hoped she was right, but wasn't entirely convinced himself.

As they continued to walk, nothing particularly exciting happened. No one jumped out and murdered them, which Colt thought was rather nice, and they didn't even come across anything dangerous. Except for a small tree in the center of the path that would have killed Colt if he hadn't looked up from the map at the exact right time.

But all good things had to come to an end. Eventually they came upon an area that was extremely overgrown, with bushes and branches sometimes completely covering up the path. Colt was searching for a landmark in the forest that he could cross-reference with his map when he noticed something odd on the ground before them. It took him a moment, but when he realized what it was he grabbed Shelly by the arm and pulled her backwards to keep her from running straight into it.

"Hey!" she protested, spinning around to face him. "What're you doing?"

Colt pointed his head in the direction he was looking. "What do you suppose that is?"

Shelly looked down at it and scrunched her eyebrows. "That? Looks like a lump of dirt."

Colt studied the thing. Shelly was right; at first glance it did look like nothing more than a lump of dirt. Unless you focused on it, you might not even notice it was there. It was a slightly raised bit of ground that almost fit in perfectly with its surroundings. But Colt had his suspicions.