Chapter 7 Talking Amongst The Trees

We finally made it to the teleportation pad, and needless to say, I was not looking forward to the feeling of being pulled apart. I looked down at the warriors still chasing after us as Marcus slammed his bloody hand on the podium.

Once the blue light disappeared from existence, we were met with a forest of trees that scraped across the fading sky. The orange and red colors that combined at the end of the sinking sky only served to add to its beauty. A sight that I welcomed into my eyes after the grim events that transpired. The landscape below the trees remained untamed and grew as it saw fit. The sight would throw any artist with a blank canvas into a frenzy.

The sight was marvelous, but it gave me no indication of my location. I've been to all nine sectors of Hell and could identify them at a glance. This place, however, was unknown even to me. These were my last thoughts before I lost consciousness due to my extreme blood loss. With the power of my bloodline, I healed exponentially faster than others, but the damage was too extensive for that to matter this time. I could hear Marcus and Vera calling out my name as everything around me turned black.

When I finally came to, my head was elevated on Vera's lap, as she applied a cool cloth to my forehead. Looking past her large chest and into her green eyes, I felt at ease.

"Hey, I called dibs."

I could hear Marcus saying, as he was walking from the tree line with firewood cradled in his arms. With those words, my at ease feeling faded away.

"You called what?" Vera asked in the tone of an angry mother.

Marcus was caught off guard and for the first time since I've known him he was speechless, he unnecessarily cleared his throat and said.

"Just a joke between friends, nothing to concern yourself about." Ending with a nervous smile as Vera eyed him.

I made an effort to laugh at his misfortune but found myself holding my stomach in pain. I reached into the storage ring I had collected from one of the guards we killed in sector five and pulled out one of the low-level healing pills. I looked at Marcus and Vera as if asking if they needed one, but they both shook their heads insinuating they were fine. While Marcus was starting the fire, I placed my back on a nearby tree. We didn't need the fire to keep us warm, it was just more comforting to have one.

"Do either of you know where we are?" I asked.

"I have no idea. I was hoping you would have the answer." Marcus replied, while Vera only shook her head.

"Damn, well this sucks. How far are we from the teleportation pad?"

"We are about thirty miles north of it, but we're planning to move further north tomorrow." Marcus replied.

"Good, that was my exact thoughts. The further away the better." I said.

The reason being is because we may not know where we are, but with enough time someone is bound to follow the coordinates we left on the teleportation pad.

"With that out of the way, Vera what did your Patxi tell you before the attack started?"

Her eyes started to water at the mention of her father's name but immediately buried the feeling deep inside. She clearly understood that now was not the time for tears, as we had more pressing matters to attend to.

"He told me the location of the portal that will transport us out of Hell but told me not to tell you two until absolutely necessary." She said, while still trying to keep the tears from falling off of her cheek with her hand.

"Why would he say that?" Marcus asked.

"He feared that you might leave me behind if I held no use to you. I believe the term he said you used was "dead weight"." She replied while looking at me.

"Fair enough, but did he at least give you the blood gem?" I asked.

"Yes he did." she said while pulling it out of her cleavage.

After sighing in relief, I tossed her one of my extra storage rings.

"That isn't very practical, use this until we can perform the transfer of power on you." I said.

From my understanding we didn't need anything besides the blood gem to do the transfer. The problem was I didn't know how long the process would take to complete. With us being so close to the teleportation pad it wasn't a risk I wanted to take, especially while still licking my wounds.