The Wisely Christ and Five Pretties

Ego

"Now tell me, Murphy," Mads paused his sentence. He pointed to the route Christ had drawn on the back of the map. A drawing that he couldn't even figure out where started and ended. "Is this your drawing skill?"

At such a crucial moment, the other three had exchanged opinions about starting an expedition out of the forest, but got an unimportant question from Mads, who hadn't even been active at all in the previous conversation.

It wasn't just Christ who was annoyed. Even Anne cleared her throat to warn the now annoying Mads.

"Shouldn't you have joined in our conversation? You didn't even have an expert opinion when you doubted Christ's ability, Mads."

Mads grabbed the map in the center, which was surrounded by them to show. "Don't you see this? It's not that difficult, Anne! I mean, look at our route and Redmayne's! They're almost adjacent at the first intersection. And it's not far enough. It could be the same route. We can try it first, right?"

Christ obliged. His eyes were already too heavy from enduring the day's sleepiness after downing the painkiller earlier. So he didn't have the energy to argue with Mads, who was careless and didn't seem to want to be directed.

"You can try it yourself. Then tell me what you find."

Mads laughed. He grabbed his phone and pointed out the compass feature. Unfortunately, the compass on his phone didn't even stop spinning.

"Even your cell phone doesn't support you at all, Miller."

Mads' eyebrows shot up, showing his blazing anger. He pulled Christ's arm to rise from his comfortable seating position.

"Then let's go together, Murphy, no excuses! There's no way I'm asking these wounded women to try the route they found, right?"

"Are you getting crazy? Didn't I say we should save on food? If we find the unfavorable route, we'll get tired and hungry easily. So it's better to save your energy to look for firewood and try to set up a tent using things we can get from the surroundings."

Unfortunately, Mads Miller didn't listen to Christ at all and ignored him. His hand was still pulling Christ away to find a best route at the intersection.

"Who the hell are you to micromanage someone else's actions, Murphy?"

Christ stayed where he was. He threw his hands up to release Mads' tug. It was about to lose its mind.

"I'm just me. It's getting late. We can't leave them here alone. Go look for firewood and check the route at the nearest intersection. I'll stay here to set up the tent with what I can find."

Mads grew angrier and spat more harshly. He even approached quickly and tugged on Christ's shirt collar in warning.

"We're a team, so don't act like you're the boss!"

Seeing that the situation was getting tense, Clarissa and Anne agreed to break up. Unfortunately, each of the two women were busy breaking up and were right by Christ's side as if intimidating Mads at the same time.

"Stop fighting, Mads!"

"Aren't you the one who wanted to check the route at the intersection? Go and bring back the information and firewood!"

Mads laughed. He no longer even cared about Anne, who was giving him an annoyed look.

"What is this? You're siding with him? You're trying to make him the boss? I'm even more deserving of being called a leader! You know me very well, Anne! I was even the first to know that he survived and was trying to find food! And you turn your back on me?"

Anne glanced nervously at Christ, then approached Mads while glaring and hissing softly. "Why do you have to bring it up here, Mads? Shouldn't you be showing me your loyalty?"

"f**k off with loyalty!" Mads pulled Anne aside, then kicked Christ's leg so hard and fast that Christ fell down. But he was stopped in his tracks when he noticed something in his leg kick.

Clarissa slapped Mads hard, before crouching down to check on Christ, who was in obvious pain. "Are you okay?"

"I'm ok. Don't worry—"

Christ didn't have time to finish his sentence when Mads tugged on his shirt collar again, forcing him to stand up before getting hit in the face with a bruise.

"Argh!"

Anne was getting out of control. She pushed Mads away until he hit the nearest tree. Meanwhile, Clarissa helped Christ move away for a while.

"What exactly do you want to do, Mads?"

"He hid a lot of food in his pocket! That's why he wants me out of here! He wants to eat it himself! This selfish man wants to be full of himself! He just wants to live and survive on his own!"

Christ rubbed the corner of his bleeding lip, asking Clarissa to let go. Both sleeves of his shirt were pulled up, while his neck was relaxed while he was in a standby position.

"You want to fight? Tell me what you want? Do you want this bread when you win? You want to stay here and build a tent? You want to go with the two of them and leave me alone? Do what you want after winning. But if I win, you'll just follow what I say."

Mads spat, disgusted by Christ's sudden boldness. Let alone accepting the challenge, he looked at Christ from toe to head in disdain.

"You dare to fight me? I'll teach you a lesson, Christ! You know the boxer Fog Todd? He's an old friend of mine! You've trained together, and I've won over him! And you're trying to make me lose? You want to attract women at a time like this? You don't even deserve to brag about coming face-to-face with me this time, Murphy!"

Long ago, when Christ was still a teenager, he had learned street fighting in the street deeps. A place where a group of street fighters often practiced and often emerged victorious in MMA.

Unfortunately, Christ never trained again after moving from Virginia, where he was born, ten years ago. It wasn't he didn't have the time, but he was traumatized by the loss of his mother when he started fighting. His cell phone rang loudly, but he ignored it and was more concerned about fighting. His mother was a hit-and-run victim who could have been saved if only he could have been contacted.

But this time, the trauma suddenly did not come to mind. There was only the instinct for self-preservation to survive until help arrived. Although he himself could not be sure when he would get out of this confusing situation in the middle of a forest, he did not even recognize it.

"Stop it, please," Anne pleaded pleadingly. Her hands clasped over her chest, begging and pleading.

Clarissa held Anne back from coming closer. Instead, she pulled Anne back while shaking her head lightly. "Let them solve their own problems as men. If it's not resolved now, maybe they'll fight again another time. Or even kill each other when no one knows in the dark of night."

Christ and Mads did not want to give in. Enough of their silence. The time had come for both of them to feed their respective egos.

"Come on, Murphy, if you're scared, you can step back and give me a packet of bread from your long pants pocket."

Christ paused, watching as Mads started jumping up and down, trying to get a fist in his face. Instead of jumping up and down to dodge, Christ was busy backing up and playing the pace without losing much energy.

His much taller body was an advantage for Christ in protection. He did not need to cover his face when Mads repeatedly attacked him. His feet took a step back, then turned around, and then hit Mads squarely in the stomach.

Mads cried out, bending down to soothe his hungry and painful stomach. Unfortunately, his body immediately fell back as Christ's hand-delivered a crushing blow to his head, causing Mads to fall and bleed from hitting the recent shoots of a fallen tree.

"Oh s**t! You're going to hurt me on purpose. Just because of a loaf of bread, are you going to hurt someone else? What kind of leader thinks only of himself, Mur—"

Suddenly, Mads' shouting stopped. The rustling of leaves sounded very close, then moved away quickly from the opposite direction. Right where the wreckage of the plane fell with several injured crew members. Mads' index finger was raised, pointing at the source of the sound. His eyes bulged as he realized someone was there!

Christ turned around and gave chase. He could still hear the crunching of leaves as they made their way further into the forest. Christ gave chase with all his might, ignoring the many things that seemed odd.

Christ's breath caught in his throat. He saw the light, but the sound of rustling leaves was getting fainter. There was great hope. A local settlement. Christ took a plunge and jumped over the last obstacle, a large fallen tree trunk.

"Can anyone help me, please?"