Scatter

"Haah Haah."

Zane was desperately running through the forest. He quickly hid behind a tree and took a breather. 'Does this guy never get tired?' He then peeked from the tree and looked back to the way he came from. He couldn't see anyone. '*Phew* Did I finally lose him?'

*Crash* Just as Zane thought that, a tree fell down and dust rose everywhere. "Oh you're not here either? You can't hide forever kid. Better come out now!" The leader of the cult came out of the dust. His hood was down and his face was clearly visible. He had a short brown hair and a big nose. He looked at the ground and saw a trail of blood leading towards a tree and smirked. He started approaching the tree slowly.

"Do you think you've escaped? I know where you are..... You are right here!" The leader appeared behind the tree in an instant. But there was no one there. Just then, he heard something from above. Zane had climbed the tree and thrown the rope knife towards him at an angle. He immediately backed away, but due to the angle of the knife, it was like the knife was following him.

The knife dug into the leader's stomach. While Zane had a grin on his face, the leader's face contorted and he pulled on the rope, taking out the knife. Zane also pulled the rope towards him retrieving the knife. "I'm going to kill you!" The leader clenched his teeth, dashed towards the tree and punched it. The tree began falling slowly. Zane immediately jumped towards the branch of another tree. The leader began punching the trees that Zane jumped on and Zane began escaping by jumping from tree to tree.

After some time, Zane jumped on a tree and looked ahead. There was no tree ahead but a ruin. 'A ruin inside the forest?' Just as he was thinking this, the leader punched the tree he was on and the tree slowly started falling down. Zane jumped and rolled on the floor as the tree was about to hit the ground.

"Nowhere to run now!" The leader dashed towards Zane. Zane took out the daggers and held it in front of him. The leader struck the dagger and Zane went flying back and fell flat on the ground. As he was trying to get up, the leader appeared in front of him and punched at his face. Zane moved his head at the last moment but his cheek was grazed by the leaders fist.

Zane kicked the leader and rolled to the side. He got up and slashed the dagger towards the leader. He stepped to the side and punched Zane on his stomach. Zane spat out a mouthful of blood and stepped back. But the leader grabbed Zane's shirt and pulled him towards himself. He kept on grabbing Zane and punched his stomach repeatedly. Zane dropped the daggers he held. Each time he was punched, he spat out blood. "Consider yourself lucky boy. You and your town got to be sacrificed to the Almighty God of Mayhem for a great cause." He smiled widely. "To make me more powerful!"

Just as he was monologuing, Zane punched him on the wound he inflicted with the rope knife. His fist went inside the stomach wound. The leader's face contorted and he grabbed Zane by his neck and lifted him up. "What did you do just now? What did you put inside me?" He spat. Zane struggled to remove the leader's hand from his neck. He scratched the leader's hand with his nails but the leader didn't budge an inch. Zane moved his legs and tried to kick, but his legs couldn't reach him. Then slowly, his legs and hands both stopped moving. His eyes closed and his breathing stopped.

The leader glanced at Zane. "Pitiful to the end." He threw Zane towards the ground and turned towards the forest they came from. He then reached inside the wound in his stomach and began sifting through his organs. Then he grabbed something. The instant he grabbed it, he could tell what it was, the clapper of the mayhem bell. "Hehehehehe" The moment he grabbed the clapper, he could hear a creepy laughter from behind. Hand still in his wound, grabbing the clapper, he slowly turned his head.

He saw Zane, standing up, arms extended, a bell with a mouth on his hand. "NO!" Just as he screamed and was about to take out the clapper, Zane gave a huge grin showing off his sharp teeth and shook the bell. Right after he shook the bell, the leader exploded, his body parts scattered around everywhere. Zane was also caught up in the explosion and he flew back towards the ruin due to the impact. He fell on the ground and his consciousness slowly started fading away.

---

Zane opened his eyes several minutes later. *Ugh.. What happened...* He got up slowly and looked ahead and on the ground. He could see blood splattered all over the ground and small bits and pieces of flesh scattered everywhere. 'Ohh right...Haha..' He grinned. "Hahahahahhaha I won! I knew that bell would come handy!" After seeing the "corpse" of the leader, Zane laughed. He calmed down some time later and checked his surroundings. He could see destroyed houses everywhere. He turned towards the ruin and something caught his eye.

He could see a house that was different from the other destroyed houses. It was charred black, like it was burned. The other houses were totally destroyed. You could see the insides of the houses because there were no walls left anymore. But this house was intact. It was only burned and some of it's pieces were falling.

Curious, he tried to walk towards the house but he staggered and fell. Then he felt all the pain from his body. He had small wounds and cuts all over his body and his stomach was heavily bruised. *Cough.* He put his hand on his mouth and coughed. Looking at his hands, he could see that he had coughed up a lot of blood. *'Crap... I better get to the town first. I can ask Mrs. Callie to treat my wounds.'* He barely stood up with the support of his hands. Just as he was about to head towards the forest, he heard wolves howl from that direction.

Zane widened his eyes. 'They must've heard the explosion! I need to hide for now.' He looked around for a spot to hide. As the destroyed houses had little to no walls, he immediately headed towards the charred house. He dragged his legs and reached towards the house. He slowly pushed the door open and went inside. Then he closed the door and sighed in relief. "Haah..." *Howl* He heard the howl very close to the ruin. 'Damn they're already so close.' He tried to go further inside the house but it was very dark. He put his hands in front of him and walked in the darkness. Just as he stepped on the middle of the floor, it collapsed and Zane fell inside the floor.

"AAAHH!!!" *Thud!* Zane landed on the ground on his bottom. He slowly got himself up and looked ahead. He couldn't see anything as it was pitch black. Squinting a bit and letting his eyes get used to the dark, he could finally make out that he was in a tunnel. He looked up and could faintly see the hole he fell from. 'I can't see anything, I must have fell quite deep.' He then looked ahead. 'A tunnel this deep? *Sigh* I have no choice but to go forward and find the exit.' Then he began going further inside the dark tunnel.