14 Days Remain

Grant smiled broadly in response to Hailey's question but didn't immediately respond.

The people from Hailey's camp however, quickly gathered towards the front of the procession, doing their best to get a look at whatever Hailey had been talking about.

Just like Hailey, they were all surprised, amazed, and mildly terrified by the sight of massive trees slowly moving.

Suddenly from within the crowd, someone yelled, "Are they dangerous?! I thought you said this place was safer than where we were!"

Knowing full well that wouldn't be the end of it, Grant continued to remain silent.

Sure enough, questions began to pour out from the crowd.

"Is this LOTR?! Since when did Tree's walk around?!"

"You said we were going to a dungeon in a park, is that the park?!"

"Are they invading your settlement?! Way to make a bad first impression for your "safe haven"!"

"Are you guys blind?! Fuck the trees! Do you not see the Skeleton standing right outside that cave structure?!"

"Fuck the trees!? Bro you need help..."

"What did you say?!"

Before the last two could escalate their confrontation any further, Grant raised his voice so that everyone in the group could hear and began to speak, quickly grabbing everyone's attention.

"Please calm down everyone. The trees you see are allies I have formed a cooperative relationship with.

They are not hostile to humans, for the most part. They are a passive 'race' and will only attack if they are threatened. I promise you they will bring you no harm as long as you do not mean to harm them.

As for the skeleton, he is an ally."

Grant gave a moment for the crowd to murmur amongst themselves and digest the information before he continued.

"The opening you see that appears to be a cave structure is the dungeon. That dungeon is connected directly to the planet that the skeleton you see originates from.

His people are in need of help to save their planet and we have the means to assist them in doing so: in return for their services in defending our own planet.

I know some of you have questions, concerns, and comments. But I request that you keep them to yourself until we are inside the dungeon.

You have my word, if at any time you do not feel safe inside the dungeon due to the other 'residents' you are free to leave. But I urge you to only make that decision once you have fully experienced what my safe haven has to offer."

Without even giving the people any chance to react, Grant turned around and began walking towards the dungeon entrance.

Ally and the kids quickly joined him and they began to walk side by side, but Hailey and her people remained unmoving.

After a few seconds, Hailey seemed to snap out of her daze and.. actually cheered!

"THIS IS AMAZZZINGGG!!!"

Everyone around Hailey looked at her in surprise and confusion. All with the same thought coursing through their minds; [HOW IS THIS AMAZING?!]

While Hailey was giggling to herself in excitement, she realized it was deathly quiet all around her, which prompted her to raise her head and look at everyone around her.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Hailey started to laugh, "Come on guys! There are walking trees, 'living' skeletons, and a freaking dungeon! This is so fantasy! How is this not exciting to you?!"

Everyone could only shake their heads back and forth at the childish behavior of their leader.

No one bothered to argue with her or even contradict what she had said.

They had spent enough time with her at this point to know that she was just optimistic and positive about pretty much everything so they simply let her revel in her excitement.

Realizing no one was going to say anything, Hailey suddenly rushed towards the backs of the now somewhat distant Grant and Ally, while waving at the rest of the people to follow.

After a few more seconds of reservation, the collective group of survivors took a step forward and followed behind the leadership group.

It took only a handful of minutes before the group finally reached the area where Spruce Springtree and Skit were having another one of their passionate back and forth discussions.

Grant couldn't stop himself from clearing his throat and, "It's nice to see you two getting along so well, but could you not flirt right outside the entrance to the dungeon? We need to get past."

If looks from 'lifeforms' without eyeballs could kill, Grant would have died a thousand times over in the first millisecond that Spruce and Skit glared at him after his comment.

Before the two could even speak though, Hailey came rushing out from behind Grant and stood right in front of Skit and Spruce.

"HELLO! My name is Hailey, Grant said that you two are going to be living in the dungeon with us! It's nice to meet you two! I hope we get along!"

Skit and Spruce were both caught off guard by how forward the little girl in front of them was behaving and didn't know how to react at first.

Skit just looked back and forth between Grant and Hailey with what Grant assumed was a confused expression.

Grant could imagine that nearly everyone who had met Skit was probably terrified of him when they first met, yet here was this little girl happily introducing herself and lookin excited to do it!

Skit couldn't help but let out a deep 'sigh'.. "You humans are truly strange."

When Skit finally spoke, not just the group of survivors but even Hailey suddenly seized up and stopped moving.

Clearly none of them had expected the skeleton to have the ability to talk. Though Grant wasn't sure why they would assume he couldn't.

He had already explained that they had a cooperative relationship, so how would they have formed that without being able to communicate?

Nonetheless - a mere moment later, Hailey was staring up at Skit with sparkles practically shooting out of her eyes.

"OH MY GOD! You can talk!? What's your name?! I'm Hailey! Oh wait, I already told you that! Tehehe I forgot! This is just so amazing! Are there more of you?! Can the Treant talk too?! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!"

For the first time since Grant had met him; Skit looked truly overwhelmed.

Grant couldn't help but laugh and think to himself, [It appears that energetic little girls have the power to overwhelm even the most seasoned veterans.]

He also knew that if he was somehow dragged into Hailey's excitement, he would likely end up spending the next few hours answering questions and indulging Hailey's childlike enthusiasm, so he quickly and quietly disappeared into the entrance of the dungeon.

Skit wanted to stop Grant, but he was being bombarded left and right by so many questions that he didn't even get a chance. Spruce, for his part, seemed amused at the enthusiasm of the little girl in front of him, but still hadn't gotten the opportunity to introduce himself, so he simply remained silent.

As Grant disappeared into the dungeon, Ally and the kids followed closely behind.

Once inside, the first thing Grant saw, were massive piles of different materials and goods that had been brought back by the different teams.

There were many different piles, ranging from wood and metal, to clothing and footwear, to different foods and beverages, all the way to different electronics like washing machines and computers.

Grant admired the effort the teams had been putting in but he knew that no amount of building materials would be enough and eventually they would run out of things to bring back.

With 14 days remaining until the Earth stepped onto its Path, they needed to do everything in their power to prepare for what was to come.