Word of the day:

Gobbledygook -
language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms; nonsense

“Calico.”

Still Danielle’s POV:

He stretched more hands from his mouth and into the waters below. He pulled the three out of the strange sea monster's grasp and into my hands- no literally, he basically threw them at me. I grabbed a hold of most of them, the dog jumped out of my hands and landed on one of the larger branches as he shook the mucky water out of his fur coat. I looked over to Damien, “Damien! Damien, wake up!” He groaned as he slowly sat up, coughing out the water that filled his lungs. “Jesus- Danielle?” “Oh thank god, I thought you drowned for a second there.” He looked around at his surroundings, I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. “Is Hazel alright?”

Hazel.

I looked at the girl laying still in my lap, she looked like a ghost. I shook her a bit, shouting her name.

Unresponsive.

I shook her more, shouting her name louder.

Unresponsive.

I laid her across one of the bigger branches, “Damien, hold her still. I’m going to try to do chest compressions.” Damien nodded and held her so she wouldn’t fall… I took a deep breath, praying- no hoping for this to work. I positioned myself and my hands, I took one more deep breath and began doing CPR.

One, two, three, “Come on.” Eleven, twelve, thirteen, “Stay with me.” Twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, “Hazel, you can do this, come on.” Twenty nine- Thirty! I covered her nose and opened her mouth. I began to give her air. One, two, three, four, five- again.

Unresponsive.

I stopped and began to give her chest compressions again. Damien was crying, begging for her to breathe; the dog was barking. I was about to have a panic attack. Too much, too damn much. Twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty. I covered her nose and opened her mouth once again. I gave her air, “Come on-”

COUGH COUGH

She was alive.

“What the fuc- GAH!” Damien tackled her into a hug, not too hard, they almost fell out of the tree though. “Damien! What the hell!? Off! Now!” “Shut up whore!” “WHO YOU CALLIN’-” It was nice to see things were normal around here. “Wait, how do we get to the end of the route? We ain’t got no boat.” Damien said petting the dog like it’s his royal pet. “Well- um- Wait.” I look down to the water below me. The somewhat green, clear water was now stained red, water rushing and splashing in all directions. Calico, nowhere to be seen.

I looked closer into the water, trying to catch a glimpse of the battle below. The water was too unclear to see anything, but if I had to guess, Calico has been underwater for quite some time. “Damien, pass me a long branch.” “Say please, bitch.” “DAMIEN.” “Yes ma’am.” He broke off the nearest, longest branch that he could find and handed it to me. “What are you going to do with that?” Hazel asked. “I am going to distract those things in the water with this big ass… stick.” They looked at me, obvious disappointment filled their eyes as they judged me. “Got a better fuckin’ idea?!” They looked away.

I took the stick and stabbed it into the water... After that everything went still. We waited for something, anything. “Did something happen-” Calico quickly came out of the water and onto a large root. He looked absolutely destroyed: fresh cuts covered his body, leaking blood; some of the cuts were covered in leeches. He tried to take them off but it was too painful. He looked around drastically, I’m guessing to look for us. “Up here!” He looks up, his face immediately turning into a calm one. He climbed up the tree as the things below began to become active again. “I’m so sorry, we ain’t the best at driving boats.” I laughed awkwardly. He grabs everybody, including the dog, and tries to jump, but fails. The pain he’s in is too unbearable.

“It’s alright, we can try to climb through the trees. It wouldn’t take too long-” “No, let’s go.” He jumped from tree to tree, taking a break every three trees to catch his breath. He was in so much pain but, once again, there was nothing I could do about it. We finally made it out of the route and onto a large tree near the edge of the lake the route leads to. Calico was completely worn out. He sat us down in the tree- and passed out. We just stared at him, this was when I realized how helpless we were. We completely depended on him for everything... but that stops now.

“I’ll climb down the tree and you guys toss him over to me, alright?” I climbed down the tree and stretched my arms out. “Are you kindin’ me?! This guy probably weighs one thousand pounds or somethin’!” “I don’t care, just toss em’!” The kids shrug and carefully push him down the tree. I was expecting something heavy, something arm breaking, something-...... he was as light as a feather. “Oh wow. Guys, he’s light as hell!” The two peaked from the top of the tree, “Really?” They made their way down the tree and set their feet on the ground.  “Let me see!” “No, he’s hurt. We’ll have to carry him somewhere-” I looked at the murky waters, so peaceful, yet so dangerous “-away from the water.”

I look around. I had zero idea of where we were. A shoreline, a lake, trees, more trees, even more trees, smoke- wait. “Guys, there’s smoke over there.” I hinted to the location over the tall trees: smoke was visible and it looked controlled. “Maybe it’s a campfire?” Hazel spoke up.

I was very hesitant at first. A camp, which means someone is there, probably with a gun, a gun that won't hesitate to fire at Calico. I looked behind me, “I don’t think we should-” “FINALLY!” “-HUH?!” The two kids were running off towards the campfire. “Guys! Hold on!” I ran after the idiots as fast as I could, Cal wasn’t too much of a bother since he was literally 6 pounds.

…..

Their cheers died down as I began to become more tired from the amount of running I’ve been doing. My shoes were destroyed, the twigs and vines tore my legs, my lungs were burning, my arms were tired. I felt like passing out. Running, running, running, running, falling- I tripped over something on the ground, it was soft yet stiff. I looked at the thing that caused me to fall: yellow, white jacket with blonde, short hair, “Hazel?” She looked up at me, having a look of distress, “Oh- Hi! I- uh... fell.” “You fell? Then why are you just laying there?” She looked around, I couldn’t tell what expression she had on her face. “I forgot to tell you this, but- uh, I have this thing where I can’t move some of my muscles for a period of time, forgot what it’s called.” “Um, are you okay?” “Me? Oh yeah. Just vibin’.” I got on my feet and looked around. I know that Hazel is here, but- where is Damien? “Have you seen Damien?” “Him? Oh yeah. Just- uh-” she looked around, “-I don’t know.” Great.

“Can you still move your arms?” She looked back up at me, confusion washing her face. “Yeah?” “Here I’ll bend down and you can get on my back, alright?” “No.” She crawled the other direction- like a fucking animal. “Are you fuckin’ kindin’ me? He could in danger!” “Okay, boo hoo. If I were to get on your back, you would croak and die.” “I’m not even that old!” She still refused to look at me. I groan. She’s such a pain in the ass. I turn around to walk awa- “HOLY-'' I whip around.

Hazel was still on the ground, but she was trying to move away from something. I look ahead of her: Nothing. Above her: Nothing. What is she so afraid of? That’s when I look right in front of her and see, “Is that a wolf spider?” She looked back at me, “No, it’s a crab spider- OF COURSE IT’S A WOLF SPIDER!! Help me get away from it.” I smirk. “Welllll, you said you didn’t want my help.” “I didn’t say that, I just didn’t want to get on your old ass back!” “I’m 27!” “Still old!”

I look towards the wolf spider again while making my way behind it. It was chilling on a leaf away from any other trees that would disturb it. “What are you doing-” I began to blow on it. “AY, WHAT THE HELL?!” “Come on, Hazel. Corporate with me.” I said in a co voice. “Fine- FINE! STOP!” “Alright, alright. Come on.”

I pulled Hazel up onto my back, she wrapped her hands around my neck as I walked towards Calico. I still couldn’t get over how light he was, he was twice my size, but half my height. I looked around at the trees and other plants that surrounded me. It was large and vast, I don’t know how I’ll be able to find Damien in such an environment.

I called his name desperately, Hazel was also calling his name behind me. The only thing I could hear was each other and the periodic chirping of the birds around us. It was nice to finally see some animals around. I called for him again, “Damie- Ouch! What the hell?!” “What?” I put Cal on the ground as I checked my legs. “Damn mosquitoes.” My legs were covered in mosquitos, crawling around and sucking the blood that caked my legs. I looked over to Cal, he too was getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I have to do something. “Oh, I’m starting to feel my legs again. You don’t have to worry about carrying me anymore!” Hazel shouted in my ear. “I can fuckin’ hear you!” “Sorry, you start to lose hearing once you get old- oh jeez, your leg!” I contained my built up anger and tried to wipe some of the mosquitos away, hurting myself in the process. I got most of them away, but I had to worry about Cal- “Woah!”

I looked over towards Hazel’s voice, she was looking at Calico. He was no longer covered in blood and mosquitos, I actually didn’t see any cuts at all; he was completely healed. “Does that mean he’ll wake up soon?” She broke the silence, looking over to meet my gaze. “Hopefully, we still gotta find Damien.” “Oh, right.” She walked over and helped me to my feet, but stopped me when I went to pick up Cal. “Can I pleaseeeee carry him?” “Why does it matter?” “I just wanna, It’ll make me feel special!” I gave her a ‘are you serious’ look. “Fine.” She squealed and went to pick him up- “OH MY GOD!” She couldn’t pick him up at all. “I thought you said he was light?!” “He is?” I went to pick him up, he was still as light as a feather, “Huh?! Here, give em to me.” She held her hands out and snatched him from my grasp- and then fell to the forest ground. I sighed and picked him up, leaving Hazel to throw her tantrum. ‘I guess I’m the only one that can hold him.’

We went back to calling out Damien’s name again, not noticing that we were closing in on the camp we saw earlier. “You hear that?” Hazel spoke up. “Hear what?” “I may be wrong, but I can hear two people calling our names, don’t know where it’s coming from though.” I stopped to listen, Hazel copying my actions. I could hear birds, leaves and trees rustling, the wind, and- “DANIELLE, HAZEL!” Two voices. One of them was Damien’s and the other is unknown. “OVER HERE!” Hazel called back.

Two pairs of footsteps could be heard running our direction and I quickly tensed up. Thankfully, Damien came running over untouched, the other person; however, stopped and froze. They had short, blonde hair and wore a somewhat torn up, short-sleeved, red and white striped shirt and blue jean shorts; they looked like they were the same age as Hazel. They looked like a boy, but had the chest of a girl- I’m guessing they’re trans. They were looking at her with wide eyes, almost as if they knew her from somewhere. “Lesly?” “Hazel? You’re- you’re still alive?” The kid answered in a raspy voice. “Yeah- um, where's everybody else?” “Well, Ashley, Amari, and Phillip are- um- dead. Sarah- she gave up her life to save me, A-Amari Davis, and Markus” He began to tear up. “That.. That thing came back again and tore up our camp. It was talking to Amari but I couldn’t make out what they were saying, then it took them and- and-” He stopped and began to sob.

Another poor soul hurt by that thing, I felt awful. Hazel went to go hug him and he immediately sobbed into her shoulder, they must’ve had a good friendship before this shit all happened. Damien walked over to me, “You’re probably wondering so I’ll answer your question: Markus is fine, we found him while looking for you guys. He’s passed out at the camp now.” “Who the hell is Markus?” Damien deadpanned, “The dog!” “THAT’S HIS NAME?!” “DUMBASS!” “SHUT UP!” Hazel yelled over us. “Jeez- well, we should head back to my camp. It’s getting dark.” The kid was right, it was getting dark.

We all walked back to his camp, the walk was very tense as no one talked or mentioned anything that has happened before. “So-” Lesly spoke up. “What's that thing you guys are carrying?” “Oh yeah, that’s Calico, the thing I told you about.” Damien answered. “Oh, at first I thought you were talking about a pet- I didn’t think you were talking about a giant, human-like bunny.” A few giggles escaped our mouths. “Yeah, I don’t think anybody would have thought about that.” Hazel added. It fell quiet again, but thankfully we were near the campsite so it didn’t last long.

“Nice place you got here, kid.” There weren't tents or a small shack- instead there was a school bus. A big ass school bus with spray painted designs all over it. “Thanks, we found it in a parking lot near one of the abandoned schools. It still had it’s keys in it so we snatched it up.” He opened the doors, the inside looked like a kid’s dream. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling, blankets and kilts cover the ground and the windows, the middle of the bus had no seats, instead couches and shelves laid evenly. It was beautiful, breathtaking even. “WOAH! This is so cool!” Hazel looked around in awe. “Thanks! We had a lot of time on our hands.” Markus was laying on the floor, there was a campfire laying in the only spot that had no blankets and quilts: the fire exit in the back. “You can place your friend on the couch here, I’ll make some Green Tea to help you guys heal and relax.” With that, he walked over to the campfire.

I was sitting in one of the seats staring at the ceiling and the lights above me. It was surprisingly relaxing considering the fact that Hazel and Damien were arguing over who drew the best picture. “It’s done!” Lesly walked in with a tray of small clay cups, steam coming out of all of them. The two kids stopped and ran over to him as I slowly got out of my seat. They grabbed their cups and headed back to the middle of the bus. I decided to be the one who would say thanks, “Thanks for the tea-” “Woah- Good Morn’, Coconut!” I whipped around and saw Cal up and looking over at Lesly. “Ah- Hi Cal, this is Lesly. He’s letting us take shelter here.” He tilted his head, “Cal? Lesly?” “Yeah, this is Lesly and-” Wait, I just noticed that this whole time I was calling him Cal instead of Calico. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was calling you that. It’s just a small nickname, my bad.” I scratched the back of my head. “It is fine, hello Lesly.” “Hello Calico, it’s nice to meet you.” Calico nodded his head and sat back down at the couch.

I sat next to him and sipped on my Green Tea. Although he wasn’t a talker, or human, he was still a calming person- thing- I don’t know. Lesly came over and held out a cup to Calico. “I don’t know if you can drink this or not, but I made some Green Tea for you too- um- Oh! Sorry I didn’t realized you didn’t have arms!-” He looked at the cup for a few seconds before taking it and blowing on it. Lesly was shocked and stood there looking at him. Calico took a sip of it, looked at the boy, and smiled. “Thanks.” “Oh!- um, no problem! Tell me if you need anything else!” He walked back over to the fire to clean up his mess.

“He is kind.”

“Agreed. We better get some sleep.”

Sorry for saying that I’ll post soon and then leaving for a while, I’m still trying to get better.

But- putting all that aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! To make up for being gone, I’ll give you guys some facts about the characters!

Calico

Cal has promised himself to help anybody he comes across that is injured, whether it’s mentally or physically- but, that’s kinda hard due to his appearance.

One of the kids at the town showed him one of their favorite songs, the song then became his favorite song. He would hum it here and there to calm himself down. The song is Tea Errors by Jack Stauber.

He loves hugs, it makes him feel warm inside.

Hazel tried to make a ‘deez nuts’ joke with him but he didn’t understand.

He’s half blind because the eye he has on his face are just one of his eyes….. The other one’s at the end of his tongue.

I’m posting his backstory at the end of this story, it’s pretty fucked up.

Danielle

She had to teach Calico how to cook. During the whole process, Hazel kept stealing food or small ingredients to see how they would react.

She actually had a child when she was 23 named Winry, but the father left her and the child later died due to heart failure.

She thinks of Hazel and Damien as her kids and every other night she would cry in memory of her own child.

She falls in love very easily.

Damien

He doesn’t like too much physical contact.

When Calico ran off to the coordinates that Hazel described to him a few chapters ago, Damien was the one to snap him back into reality to save Hazel.

He thinks of Hazel as a big sister- but he will never tell her that.

His parents argued a lot, which is how he knows how to curse.

Hazel (Uh oh)

She is 5’3 with 11 men size shoes- and she’s allergic to black pepper, cats, pollen, poison ivy, and dust.

Favorite songs are Pretty Cvnt and Wriggle (slowed & reverb).

Loves to get yelled at by kids because she finds it hilarious, but hates getting yelled at by adults.

When they were at the abandoned church, she woke up one day from a horrible nightmare and she went to Calico to calm down. She fell asleep hugging him and ever since then, she would go to him when she couldn't fall asleep at night.

She had a emo phase in middle school

Mother would alter her schizophrenia, so whenever she was around, Hazel would hear more, see more, smell more, etc.

Markus

He was rescued by Phillip years ago and was given the role of her emotional support dog.

He is a Shiba Inu

He has trouble rolling on his back so he prefers being pet on the head

In my dream, he originally was supposed to be a German Shepherd with dwarfism, but that would have been the cause of his death earlier on when the sea monsters (深い墓 or Fukai haka was the name of the sea monsters) attacked.

Lesly

Lesly had an obvious crush on Sarah, but after her death, he couldn’t stop crying.

He was originally a girl but he was uncomfortable with his gender and wanted to change. When he told Hazel and the others, they all saved up for his surgery in secret because his parents were homophobic. He told them the morning of the surgery but they did not accept it. They kicked him out of the house and he ended up having to cancel the therapy. He went to live with one of his old friends back in middle and didn’t speak to his friends for about two weeks.

He’s Lactose but he still eats dairy because he doesn’t give two shits

He had a guinea pig but she died of old age

Andddd that’s it! This took way too damn long.

Word count - 3582 - Holy ass