Sweet Revenge

Not Expecting That

We had been following the tunnel for a while and didn't know what to expect next, especially since it was really dark with no chance of creating our own light in any way shape or form. The worst of it was that there was no light coming from windows either, I could hear the wind and feel rain drops every now and then but I couldn't see anything. Every time a hoot from an owl or a loud howl from the window coming in a hole happened Abby would squeal a bit and jump closer to me grabbing my shirt.

I was glad that we couldn't hear anyone coming towards us because that meant they had ate soup I left behind,, we wouldn't have to worry about them for a while. As I felt the bricks on the wall, I'm sure Abby felt my body relax a bit as my hand found a door and when the door handle turned we could see moon light shinning through more and more the more I opened it.

I turned my head to look at her and my heart stopped for a moment, I couldn't let her see what was behind us though so I picked her up and stuffed her face into my shoulder as I turned around quietly and walked out of the door, tossing the pheasant and rabbit bones as I closed the door and listening to the click as it latched.

I slid down the wall slowly as I realized that we had been walking through the tunnels of those crazy murderous things the lady had called dogs. "What's wrong?" Abby asked quietly.

I pulled her in for a hug and as I let her go said, "Nothing is, it's all perfect... I had thought for a moment we were dog food though...." the look on her face showed realization on why I acted that way a moment ago but she smiled as she realized we made it out of the dark.

Neither of us had really looked around since we got here and once we did we were in awe. The room we were in was flooded with moon light and it was reflecting off of a group of white butterflies as they floated from flower to flower, it kind of reminded me of a greenhouse now that I could see.

The walls were made of glass and I could see the stars and moon, I wondered if those were mountains I could see in the distance. This looked like a medical herbs and roots garden, which was the coolest thing I had seen in a very long time. I loved using fresh herbs and spices but this place was the literal library of fresh ingredients, not to mention the plants were older than most people I knew by the looks of them. I had never seen anything like this place and I knew being here at night wouldn't do it justice but then again someone might see us if it was day time. As we walked through the lush vegetation and fluffy hanging plants I snagged a bit of this and a bit of that for when I got to cook again or any other use they may or may not be useful for.

The further we got in the huge glass room the more pungent a smell of citrus got and I looked up to see if I could spot where it was coming from, when I found what I was looking for I lead the way. Abby followed along, looking as happy as could be to be in an area that we could see and was pretty, holding my hoody with one hand and the blanket I had wrapped around her with the other.

When we got to the large tree I realized that it was not just one tree, whoever had designed this garden had twisted lemon, lime, apple, pear, peach and orange trees together to make a tree with a tunnel through the center. It was very pretty and I really wanted to climb it and get some fruit out of its branches.

"Are you good at climbing?" I asked Abby.

She nodded and smiled which I figured meant she enjoyed climbing trees, I wasn't surprised since I had always loved to climb trees and my daughter did also. Meet me at that branch," I pointed to a large branch that looked to be a lemon tree intertwined with a peach tree," I'll follow you up, sit on that branch until I join you." she nodded and started going up the tree as I watched her. She was very nimble and had wonderful posture as she climbed, I was glad she was good at this because it was something I did regularly and I'd have an easier time keeping her safe while training her. She made it up there pretty fast and was eating a peach by the time I got to her, I handed her a small back pack that was in the duffle bag," If you fill it and carry it you can eat anything you want, I'll be packing a bag of my own to add with other things I've found. Be careful not to fall please..."

I wanted to go up further and investigate from above for a moment. When I got to the top, I found another bag but I figured I'd investigate it when I got back to Abby. The top of the tree showed me an exit a bit away from us but an exit regardless so I tossed the pack over my shoulder and went back down to Abby. We filled our bags up and sat at the bottom of the tree munching on sweet juicy deliciousness and then found a fountain near by, that I assumed was watering the trees, to wash our hands and faces of the sticky mess it all had made.

I had spotted another tree halfway to our exit so I wanted to make it there and find out what kind of tree it was. It seemed that the other side of the tree we just traveled through was a park of some sort, it had flowers, an area to run and play or kick a ball around, then a bit down there was a play ground with a huge castle and slides from each level. It took us a while to get to the playground, why would someone have a huge park inside a greenhouse in the middle of a huge forest? I'm guessing we're still in Montana so I mean with all the land it's really cool and I'd love to live here but it's empty and looked a bit grown over. With the situation at hand I would hope this lady doesn't have children of her own playground age or grandchildren.... the son's I've heard speaking are not people I'd want to be friends with anyways and if the oaf that had Abby was her friend than she's a worthless person that shouldn't raise any child ever.

When we got to the playground, I looked around for the tree so we could keep going and then I saw them..... this was going to be fun! "You want to learn to hunt fowl?" I asked without a second thought. She looked at me quizzically. "Birds, sorry, I forget that they aren't called fowl by everyone." she smirked.

"Can I just watch?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, just follow me and be very quiet." she nodded and got her pack on her back then waited patiently. I got down into an army crawl and set my cross vow up, it was a small arm cross bow but it would do the job. I went slowly and she followed quietly, when I got a good looking duck in my sights I shot an arrow and hit it right in the skull. I worked my way to it as quietly as I could, with the greenhouse being dark this was a pretty easy game of cat and mouse. I saw another one and shot it before ending my hunt, I needed to get it all dealt with and put up so nothing attracted anything that might be in here with us. When I was done I scouted for the tree and we made our way there as fast as we could, morning would be here soon and we wanted to be out of this place by then. At this point, I was lost and had no idea where to find the gates she was talking about but I also knew that we were already on the wrong side of the fence we weren't suppose to cross. There was always that awesome thought that maybe, just maybe we had ended up on the right side of the gate without knowing that we did.

Now that I had everything for duck stew, I was excited to find somewhere to make some food but I wasn't stopping while we were still in here. I climbed the tree with Abby close behind and showed her the exit, we had gotten pretty far and it wasn't far away but we'd have to climb a wall and then get through the maze on the other side. We could also climb trees if we'd rather, it looked like the trees all connected in a strange but interesting way along the edge of the maze. We decided to climb the wall and find our way through the maze, it looked like a fun way to spend some time anyways. As we climbed through the tree we found another bag and decided we would go through everything before we got through the exit, maybe leave things behind if it came down to it.

The problem we came across was the over growth of plants but we ventured through it and got to know some of the plants that had been bonded together. It was mainly roses and berry bushes, which made for another pack being filled up so I could make some magic happen. When we got the exit door I decided to take a bit of a rest. We hadn't seen anyone the whole way through the greenhouse and we had no idea what we'd find in the next area so I wanted to make sure we were completely ready.

I was so glad that we climbed those trees because there was a one time use worth of hot plate, which means I was given enough propane to keep it lit long enough for our food to be cooked. That would come in handy, I started setting food up to be cooked and then went through the bag a bit more. I found a bigger back pack which would fit more to go on my back and I found two fanny packs, we moved everything around and I made drinks with some of the things we had gathered. I found a good place to hide all of our leftover pieces as fertilizer since we didn't want leave evidence that we were here and then I pulled out a few knives that I found places for and a hatchet that looked just like the one I already had. After we ate I had Abby come lay next to me for a little bit and get some sleep, I couldn't sleep so I sat there thinking about home.

My daughter would be so worried about me, after already being gone a month and only getting to talk to her the one time which was right before I woke up here. Which made me wonder what they would tell everyone about our disappearance, that's a great deal of people to just vanish from a hotel. Would they stop looking after two days? Would my mom survive the news, knowing that she had a bad heart and cancer was a major concern for me right now but there was nothing I could do until I figured out how to get home. As I thought I drifted off to sleep.