To Kill a Cactus - Heroes part 2

Heroes part 1: HERE

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Darkness, just a lot of nothing, I had to force my eyes to open, something had struck me to the head at a very fast speed, I felt dizzy and disoriented, it took me a while to understand that a pair of dark green eyes were staring at me at a too close distance.

"Good, you're up, I thought you were one of the cacti people," said a strange slightly raspy young man's voice.

"No, I think I'm down," I answered, as I tried to get up, but fell right down on the ground due to the dizziness.

"Of course your down, I expected you to fight back, but you have one of the slowest reflexes I have ever seen, I'm surprised you have survived for so long, but at least I could understand right away you definitely weren't one of the cacti people," he laughed as if somehow this was all very funny, I was still trying to recover, I could feel a bump forming where he hit me in the back of the head.

"Aren't you going to get up?" he asked, for the first time sounding slightly concerned.

"I'm good," I said. The heaviness of my head was still holding me down.

"You have to get up, you can't just lay here like a free meal," he forced me to get up and I could for a moment maintain my balance before I got a far too close look of his red and black squared flanel.

I just nodded and tried to push myself back up, but he still had to hold me upright or I would've landed right back.

"Fine, we can take a little brake, let's have lunch," he sort of smiled, sort of looked concerned as he helped me sit down and lean against a tree.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" I mumbled to myself, trying to make a joke, but not succeeding, he just looked uncomfortable.

He decided to completly disregard what I had said and started to lay down a blanket for us to have lunch on. That gave me the first chance to examine what the looked like. He had fairly dark hair, one gray strand poking out on the side, couldn't tell if it was dyed or not. He looked a few years older than me, tall, but then again most people seemed tall to me. He had dust and dry pieces of plants stuck to his clothes and hair and he was fairly tan. As I had already previously mentioned he was wearing a flanel and plain black jeans, he sat down next to me and offered me a piece of bread. I hadn't seen bread in ages, I just stared at it for a while, feeling the soft texture underneath my fingers.

"I'm not going to poison you, don't worry," he said as he started eating his half of the bread.

"Thanks," I bit into it and felt it melt into a sticky glob in my mouth. It was surprisingly good, of course compared to what I was eating before it was heavenly.

We sat in silence and ate our bread for a little while, I was really talented at creating awkward silences and I was really using that talent to the fullest while we were having our lunch. He finished his half way faster than me and I felt guilty the entire time he was sitting there with no food. He didn't seem too bothered, he was just staring into the distance. I could see that he was carrying a large bag with him, also a few weapons, like an odd spiky metal bar, an axe and a baseball bat, which was probably what landed on my head. I was happy he hadn't chosen any of the other options.

I finished my piece of bread within the next ten minutes or so and then he stood up, for a moment I thought he was just going to leave and I'd be all alone again, I didn't want him to go, it was nice to have some human interaction again, but obviously I did nothing to stop him either, because my brain turned into mashed cabbage.

"Where are you heading?" he asked me, packing his things back into his bag.

"To Exitium, I hope to find a chemistry lab there and maybe find a cure for this all," the moment I said it out loud, I realised how stupid I sounded, it made so much more sense inside my head. I just looked down trying to unsay what I had just said, it didn't work.

He was silent for a while, I thought perhaps he really left, but when I looked up, he was still there, nodding to himself.

"That explains it," he said, "smart people are rarely good at fighting."

"Me obviously being the exception," he added quickly and seemed far too happy with himself.

"I'll help you then, that happens to be where I'm going as well," he helped me back up and to my delight the dizziness had passed.

"Okay, shall we get going then?" I asked pulling my bag back onto my back.

"Yeah, we should get a good few hours of travel in before the sun sets, but I need to restock first, I have a few hiding spots in the forest. Let's go through there. It's safer as well than walking where everyone can see you and sneak up on you."

He laughed again, clearly thinking that he was very humorous, I just smiled slightly and followed him towards the shadows of the forest.
At this point I did realise that I was being a complete fool, a strange person attacked me, then fed me something suspicious and dragged me into a dark forest where I could never find my way out of. Even I was surprised I had survived for this long, but just as I was thinking of turning around and trying to run off, I managed to twist my ankle behind a root sticking out from the ground, I grabbed for a branch, which broke under my weight and landed face first into mud.
He looked back and seemed confused. 
"What are you doing?" he asked and offered me a hand to help me get up.
"I don't know," I shook my head trying to get some of the mud off my hair.
"Obviously, did someone hit you at the head?" he asked and laughed to himself again. By then I started wondering if he had been finding some dodgy mushrooms in this forest. Luckily before I managed to embarass myself by saying something silly about it, I managed to say something else probably more silly.
"There's mud here," I mumbled and slid my fingers through the soil underneath me.
"You really had to have a close look to figure that one out," I don't think I even have to add that he also laughed at that.
"But that means there has to be water around here?" I asked him and finally got up.
"I told you we have to stock up, this is one of the best areas to get fresh water and we also grow some crops here, so we'll pack some up for the journey. You see, my family lives in this forest, we have for generations, my grandmother could see the future and she had made preparations for the end of the world ever since she was a child, she also had a business of selling haunted dolls, my mother has taken over the business by now in case you're in need of one," he said it in the most serious tone that he had used during the entire time he had said anything.
"I think I'm good for now," I answered
"Great, then let the adventure begin," he pushed a stone beneath his feet and all of a sudden we were falling underground.
I begun to seriously regret my decissions as I fell downwards screaming the whole way there.

...

To be continued