"Little White, are you awake yet?" Jhon looked at his legs, seeing a small white snake looking back at him.
"Fss... Fss," the corn snake let out a low hiss with its mouth, as if in agreement.
'Right, let's see if I can move. It's already dawning, and I'd better get as far away as I can from Hawkins Laboratory,' Jhon spoke to himself.
He picked up Little White with his broken hand and let her coil around it; using his other hand, he braced himself against the ground and slowly stood up.
With great difficulty, he managed to stand, his back aching as if he had been slammed into a tree — and he actually had been.
"And now, Little White, where should we go?" Jhonatan asked the small snake, which didn't seem to understand. "I think I'll follow until I find a river and then keep going to see if I find life."
"It's not good at all staying in this forest. In the series, those kids are always walking through this forest and find nothing. Why did I have this luck!?" He grumbled in a low shout.
"I guess there's no point complaining about something that already happened, I'll just grab the guard's gun and see if I can find a river soon."
Jhon pulled the guard's gun to his intact hand using telekinesis. He gave it a quick inspection and remembered that he had already fired quite a few shots, and since it didn't seem to be a double-stack pistol, there weren't many rounds available.
Since this pistol was quite advanced for the year 1979, its magazine was capable of holding 10 bullets. So far, he had only used three; he had just 7 shots left.
'I'd better hold onto these shots and only use them in important moments,' Jhon thought to himself, after reloading the pistol with difficulty.
"Come on, Little White, I'm already starting to get sleepy," Jhon said to the little white snake and started walking.
For about two hours, Jhon walked through that forest without knowing where he was. Jhonatan also learned a neat new trick.
It was a trick to keep his feet clean on that filthy ground.
The trick was based on the following: Jhon created a small sole of telekinesis on the bottom of his feet, letting it act like a sandal.
It's not useful in a fight, but it's extremely useful when you're walking through a forest and step on a rock every 10 minutes.
After walking for some more time, Jhon finally found a river. This river was narrow, but had no end in sight.
Now Jhon only had one doubt: go back to the left or continue forward to the right.
"I think the right is the better choice. If I go back to the left, even if I'm a bit far from Hawkins Laboratory, I'll probably run into some guard looking for me." He reasoned for a short time before making the choice and heading right.
Jhonatan walked for a long time and, when he was tired of walking, he would sit for 5 minutes, drink water from the river, and return to walking.
Finally, after so much walking, Jhon came across a farm.
He looked around and noticed a cornfield, with an old scarecrow wearing clothes and a hat in the middle of the field; apparently, the scarecrow had been there for over a decade, as its clothes were completely torn and dirty.
'Finally something to eat!' Jhon, who had been trembling with hunger for a while, celebrated internally seeing the various ears of corn.
Even if Jhon doesn't like raw corn very much, corn still fills the stomach. Jhon didn't waste time and ran to approach an ear.
The corn was green and fresh.
Jhon quickly husked the corn and started eating it greedily, without even bothering to pull off the brownish silks over the kernels.
Jhon ate one corn, then another, and then one more, stuffing himself with green corn.
The little white snake also took the opportunity to eat the corn along with Jhon.
Since the taste of the corn was already making him nauseous, Jhon decided to stop eating for now and tried to find something to store the corn.
He spent some time looking for some kind of bag, but apparently the owners of this farm were very careful with their planting, not leaving any kind of external object, like plastic bags, dirtying the field.
Jhon, then, decided to take as many corns as he could in his hands.
He approached a pile of ears and started harvesting, especially the younger ones, which were easier to eat because they were soft and fresh.
While harvesting, Jhon heard the sound of footsteps among the plants, footsteps very close to him.
He tried to prepare himself to run, but he was already tired and still wounded from the fight against the cougar.
The sound of footsteps got closer and closer. Jhon was already taking steps back; if it were some kind of animal, like a boar or a guard dog, it would be necessary to use his weapon.
He quickly grabbed the gun he left on top of the corns, dropping all the ears that were in his arms in sequence.
Whatever was walking stopped when it heard something falling on the ground. It stopped for brief seconds and, when it started walking again, this time it was slowly.
Jhon cocked the gun in the hand that wasn't broken, also slowly taking steps back.
Suddenly, the footsteps seemed to run for a second, making whoever was running appear suddenly in front of Jhon.
"Got you, little thief!" Upon shouting this, a man who appeared to be 60 years old appeared and noticed Jhon.
The man was holding a shotgun and wore old farm clothes, making him look like a total hillbilly.
After noticing Jhon, the old man slowly lowered his weapon and said: "It's just a boy..."
"Hey, kid, what are you doing stealing from my fields? Where are your parents and who gave you this damn gun!?" The man seemed irritated to see the small child with a gun.
Not afraid, but irritated.
The old man approached without appearing to be afraid and removed the gun from Jhon's hand, who was still pointing it until that moment.
The old man noticed Jhon's clothing: typical hospital clothes, but, unlike a normal outfit, his was full of holes and very grimy.
Jhon stepped out of his stance after the old man took his gun. He thought that the old man didn't seem like a bad person and there was no reason to kill an innocent person, even if he was taking his gun.
And, after all, Jhon had several ways to kill this old man with his telekinesis, if he tried something strange.
While analyzing Jhon, the old man asked another question: "Hey, boy, what's your name?"
Jhon this time didn't ignore the old man's questions and decided to answer: "I... I'm Jhonatan."
"Just Jhonatan?" The old man questioned once more.
"Yes, I don't have a last name," Jhon replied, clearing up the farmer's doubt.
"You seem to be hungry, don't you?", the old man said, pointing to the raw ears of corn eaten on the ground.
"Come with me, I'll give you something to eat and, in the meantime, you answer some things for me, right?" The old man turned his back to Jhon, starting to walk ahead, as if he were guiding him.
Jhon nodded in agreement and began to follow him to his house.
They didn't walk for long when they came across the old man's small house, where only he and his wife lived.
"Honey, did you already find who was stealing from our fields!?" An elderly lady questioned the old man, as he came out of the fields.
"No, dear, I just found a boy who was eating," he said, stepping out from in front of Jhon.
Upon seeing the boy, the lady was slightly startled by his appearance. Jhon's clothes were all torn and his body was completely dirty.
The old lady also squinted her eyes a bit and noticed a certain white animal coiled on Jhon's hand.
"Boy, is that little Loki in your hand?" The old lady asked, seeming to know the small snake.
"Fss... Fss." The little snake made hissing sounds with its mouth, as if in disagreement.
"Probably not, ma'am. I found Little White a few kilometers from here," Jhon said, ending the lady's hopes.
"I see... But, boy, what are you doing here in our field, especially dressed like that?" The old lady, this time, questioned Jhon's purposes there.
"Don't start asking questions now, wife. I told him I'd feed him first, then we'll ask the questions," the elderly man said.
"Right, come on! He arrived just in time for lunch, I just finished preparing the food!" The old lady seemed excited to know that another person would eat her food.
"Come, boy," the old man called Jhon, showing him the way.
Once inside the house, the old man took Jhon to the front of the bathroom. He told Jhon to wait there and went out to get something; when he returned, he brought a towel and clothes for Jhon — clothes a bit larger than him, but not by much.
"Before eating, take a shower, because you are very dirty, boy. And put on these clothes here; they are a bit big, but they should serve to cover you." The old man gave the clothes and the towel to Jhon, gesturing with his hand for him to go take a shower.
Jhon entered the bathroom and came across a mirror. He looked at himself and saw his face was quite dirty.
He took off the hospital gown and saw in the mirror his chest and belly full of unhealed punctures.
He turned his back and head, looking out of the corner of his eye at his back which was almost completely purple, the result of his collision with the tree.
He took the opportunity to crumple the gown with one hand and throw that junk in the trash; he also took Little White and placed her on the bathroom sink, leaving her there until he finished his shower.
After that, he approached the shower and turned it on, finally getting wet with real clean water, without it being dirty lake water.
Jhon picked up a bar of soap and started applying it to his open wounds, which hurt like hell, but he endured it anyway and continued.
After some time cleaning himself, Jhon finally finished the shower and set off to put on the clothes given to him.
He put on the denim shorts, which were particularly loose on the lower part of his thighs.
Jhon also put on a shirt that was a bit tighter, but still loose on him.
After taking the shower and getting dressed, Jhon left the bathroom with Little White in his hands, coming across the lady who was waiting for him outside.
"Are you finally finished, Jhonatan?" The old lady asked.
She asked the question using Jhonatan's name, because the old man had told her.
"My Jimmy's clothes look great on you," the old lady said, giving a little smile.
"Who is Jimmy?" Jhon asked, because until that moment he hadn't seen any other person there.
"Oh, Jimmy is my son. Right now he isn't here, because he is living with his uncle in the city." The lady clarified Jhon's doubts.
Jhon nodded his head, as if he understood.
"Come, Jhonatan, let's eat. The plates are already ready on the table," the lady said.
She then led Jhon to the table where the plates were already set. There were three plates, each with eggs, three large slices of bacon, along with a meat sandwich.
'Where are the Brazilian rice and beans!?' Jhon was surprised.
As a good Brazilian, Jhon's lunch had always consisted of rice, beans, and meat.
Seeing a lunch without that now was strange... At Hawkins Laboratory there wasn't a lunch he knew as traditional either, because most of the time, they served foods to strengthen the body and relieve brain pains.
Despite finding it strange, Jhon didn't show ungratefulness and thanked for the food as he sat down.
The old folks also sat in each of their respective chairs and finally the questions began, while Jhon ate with only one hand.
"First question, boy: what were you doing here, alone? From here to the city is 12 km," the old man questioned, emphasizing the distance from the city.
"Second: where are your parents?", the old man finished, asking again.
"I ended up getting lost in the forest. And I've been an orphan since I was little, so I don't have parents," Jhon answered the questions truthfully.
Jhon really was lost in the forest and, second, Jhon in this world really was an orphan; he lived in an orphanage before being found by Brenner. This was something he was remembering through his memories.
"That gets complicated, because if you don't have parents, we can't take you back..." The old man seemed to think for a few seconds before continuing. "Maybe we can call some orphanage and they can come pick you up."
Jhon swallowed his food hard, knowing that if he went to some orphanage, he would be easily found by Brenner.
"No! No orphanages!" Jhon shouted the two phrases, calming down a moment later.
The elderly couple was startled by Jhon's sudden shout and seemed to think for a while.
"Look, boy, we don't know why you don't want to go to an orphanage, but you must have your reasons, so we won't do that," the old man said, with a serious face. "But you have to at least explain to us why you don't want to go to one."
Jhon, hearing this, thought for a moment and decided to tell a lie: "I've been in an orphanage before and they usually don't treat us well."
The elderly couple wasn't very surprised, because the gentleman grew up an orphan in a shelter home and knows well what it's like in there; but after all these years, he thought something might have changed.
"James, why don't we let him stay? He can help you with the fields and help me with the housework," the lady suddenly said.
The old man closed his eyes, crossed his arms appearing to decide, and then said: "Alright, it shouldn't be a problem if he helps me with the field."
Jhon, who wasn't expecting this, was surprised by the fact of being suddenly adopted by an elderly couple.
The old lady, realizing she forgot to ask Jhon what he thought, finally asked the question: "And you, Jhonatan? Do you want to stay here with us?"
Jhon snapped out of his state of surprise.
"It's fine by me," he said, with a little smile on his face.
The little white snake also let out a: "Fss... Fss!", as if approving of the idea.