“Why the hell is there so much shrubbery out here?” Butterfly cursed as he pushed a group of bushes out of his way.
“It's a forest, Butterfly. What else would there be?” Panther rolled her eyes.
“Hey, hey! No need to get smart with me, Jungle Book.” Butterfly glared at the girl, who said nothing else in response. I could practically see her plotting his murder.
It was only the four of us. Panther, Butterfly, Red Panda and me. The others stayed back so we can watch the food and tents.
“Alright guys, let's not fight. Why can't you guys be more like Peacock. He doesn't fight with his friends and yell at them when they only offered to help him.” Red Panda said as he broke a branch sticking from the tree in front of him.
“Oh really, Red?” Butterfly sarcastically asked. The two stared at each other for a good 2 minutes before continuing to walk.
I looked to Panther, who was investigating a flower.
“Are we there yet?” I questioned as we walked through bush after bush.
“Actually, we are.” Red Panda pushed a bunch of leaves to the side. The four of us looked up at the building in front of us.
The building was very large covered in green vines, dangling from the many boarded-up windows. The metal walls were rusted beyond belief and some of it was even bent.
“Huh, I thought it would be more...scary facility looking.” Butterfly shrugged and continued walking forward from where we were.
I reached out to grab his collar but missed as he ran through the bushes and up to the building. The rest of us followed cautiously with our fists out, ready to take on anything that might be coming.
“So, what’s the plan of action?” Red Panda mumbled to the group once we got over to Butterfly.
“We get inside. How though…?” Butterfly asked.
“Come on, let’s get goin’ then.” Panther said, running away from us to get to the other parts of the building. We nodded and began the search. I ran to the east side and pulled away vines and bushes that were stuck to the metal of the building.
“Hm? What’s this?” I moved over a group of vines and revealed a tile of metal that was a bit lopsided.
“Oh! I think this is an entrance!” I exclaimed as I pushed the metal out of the way and crouched down to get a good look inside.
It was dark. That’s all I could really describe it as. The darkness almost seemed to move out of the small passageway.
“Guys! I think I found something!” I yelled out to the others. Once they finally ran over, they crouched down behind me to get a good look as well.
“Well, that’s a vent passage. If we go in here, we might find a way to the inside.” Butterfly mentioned as he moved a few bushes away.
“I’m goin’ in first. Follow behind me.” Panther crawled into the vent considerably fast, disappearing into the darkness.
“I’ll go next. Peacock behind me and Red goes after that.” Butterfly crawled in after Panther. I then crawled in after and Red came in a few seconds behind me. After some time of crawling in the dark with the cobwebs and the loose nails and screws, we finally made it to a loose hatch.
“Does anyone have anything to unscrew this with?” Panther asked, turning his heads to the rest of us. We all shook our heads.
“Wait! I have a trick for that! Let me in the front.” Butterfly shoved past us and got to the front of the group. He used his nails to untwist the screws on the hatch and pulled it off.
“It’s a library, I think. There’s a shelf we can land on. We have to be careful about it though. I don’t know who might be there.” Butterfly shushed us as he softly, and pretty gracefully, let himself down onto the bookshelf.
After looking around at his surroundings, he climbed off the shelf and made a thumbs up at us from the ground. One by one, we each made our way out the hatch, onto the shelf and then onto the ground. I’ll admit, I had a few problems with getting off. So, Butterfly held me by my waist and lifted me off the shelf as I was climbing down. He winked at me and put his arm around my shoulders.
“Alright, let’s go explore!” Butterfly suggested gleefully as he pulled me out of the library and into a semi-lit hallway with a blue-tiled floor. I could practically hear Red Panda growl as we walked out.
“Sorry I had to pull you out of there, Peacock. I couldn’t stand being with that...guy.” Butterfly mumbled as we ran through the hallway into a small room.
“It’s fine, I guess,” I responded.
I looked around the room and saw some bookshelves. Not as many as the library though. There were only four and a large desk sat in the middle of the room.
“An office. For who though?” Butterfly asked as he walked up to the desk and lifted up a stack of papers. He examined it with a raised eyebrow.
“Perhaps whoever owned the building? It seems like a school.” I added.
“Are you sure? I saw a science lab down the hall. It didn’t look like a school lab.” Butterfly looked at a pen that sat in a small pen holder on the desk.
“Maybe we should go check that out? We can find something.” I walked to the desk and picked up the papers that Butterfly once held. I looked at the papers and read the first line on the page.
“The Kujuko...Gala? What’s that?” I mumbled to myself.
“Wait...Kujuko? That sounds so familiar! Wait, let me see that!” Butterfly snatched the stack away and read through the sentences on the page, his face changing with every minute. I waited in anticipation as my heart began to beat faster and faster.
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