“Or it might go underground, with our luck,” Mershad said dourly. “But it might be worth a try.”
“I think it is worth a try, and we were about to follow its course for awhile. We also need to plan for food, shelter, and everything else. We don’t even know if the water is safe to drink. I really hope one of you two is a woodland expert,” Logan queried. “I hope your degrees were in forestry, and that at least one of you is an aspiring forest ranger.”
“At the moment, I wish that were so, but I’m afraid that neither of us is. But there are more minds working together now. Maybe that can offset our lack of knowledge regarding all of this,” Erika replied.
“Maybe it can,” Logan said. He stepped forward and extended his hand, his somewhat stern countenance allowing a modest grin to emerge. “It is good to meet the two of you, and I’m glad that our paths crossed pretty quickly. It looks like we are going to be in this thing together.”
Erika responded congenially, with a firm handshake, the others following suit.
“I’m not happy that you had to go through all of this, but we are very glad to find you as well,” she said, the relief very evident in her expressive smile.
“Likewise,” Logan replied, holding her deep gaze for a moment.
It took him a second to draw back from her warm, striking eyes. In the wake of his edgy nerves, he was starting to take more note of her considerable attractiveness.
With refreshed spirits and higher hopes, the foursome started along one side of the narrow brook, heading downstream. They compared their experiences and observations. From their collective best guess, the course of the creek meandered near to the outer border of the forest.
About an hour later, near to a cluster of oak trees, they stopped for a short respite. Taking their cue from Erika and Mershad, Logan and Antonio fashioned their own stout walking sticks out of branches during the break.
The quartet then resumed their travel at an easy pace, indulging in some light conversation as they began to relate more of their backgrounds and insights to each other.
The temperate flow of the creek next to them established a continual, relaxing backdrop, which further soothed Logan’s wearied and harried mind. Yet despite the tranquil environs, they did not ignore caution. All continued to keep their eyes open for any signs of danger, and their voices remained subdued.
When the creek continued out beyond the edge of the forest, it was decided that they would keep within the cover of the trees. Turning to the left, they altered their path to shadow the forest’s edge.
LEE
“Exactly what I was expecting on a Saturday night,” Ryan said in frustration, taking a half-hearted stab at the ground with his crude spear. His voice was thick with sarcasm as he continued, “A nice, long nature hike, under a pretty aqua sky. Just what I was wanting.”
The young man sat down heavily upon the trunk of a fallen tree, as Lee sat down close to him. Lee extended his legs out, to rest them and perhaps recoup some energy after several hours of what felt like aimless wandering. His stomach felt as if it were about to cramp, and a faint dizziness brought on by hunger and fatigue was just beginning to creep in.
“Not what you were expecting when you left the restaurant?” queried Lee ruefully.
“Didn’t expect to go hiking, that’s for sure,” Ryan replied, with a bittersweet grin.
The youth slumped to the ground, leaning backwards against the prone trunk and letting out a fatigued groan. They sat together in silence for several minutes, as they both took in the serenity of their immediate surroundings. Breathing in the fresh air, they gradually allowed the aches and tingles in their muscles to settle down.
At long last, Ryan glanced up at Lee. “What’s next?”
“There’s the obvious. I know we’re both getting hungry. And we should assume we’re going to be here for awhile, so we’d better start thinking about things like that,” Lee responded evenly.
“We barely know what is out there, and what we’ve already seen is not that encouraging,” Ryan said.
“No, it’s not,” Lee said, thinking of the flying creature that had startled Ryan when he had climbed the high tree to espy their surroundings.
The broad forest, contoured by low hills and blanketed by teeming masses of trees, seemed to go on forever in all directions around them. As much as the forest seemed peaceable enough, that discovery was deeply troubling and weighed heavier with each passing hour upon Lee’s mind.
“Should we stop and try to make some sort of camp then?” Ryan asked him.
“Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. And we will have to hunt soon, or take a chance on some berries, roots, or plants,” Lee said. “I’m not familiar with a lot of things about this area, so we’ll have to hope that we find some things that we are familiar with. Luckily, I know a little about mushrooms, herbs, and some things like that. We should…”
“Hey! Lee!” Ryan exclaimed curtly, in a hushed voice, jolting his hand up abruptly in a gesture that demanded silence.
“What is it?” Lee asked in a whisper.
Ryan slowly got up to his feet, tilting his head slightly to the side, appearing to be listening to something.
Ryan finally whispered, “Something is coming… this way.”
Turning, he pointed emphatically over the tree trunk, in the direction to Lee’s back. Lee quietly slid off of the tree trunk, and placed one knee on the ground as he rotated to face the woods alongside Ryan.
The fallen tree served as a capable barrier in front of them, easily large enough to hide behind. They remained as still as the thick length of dead wood lying right before them.
At first, Lee heard the unmistakable crunch of leaves and breaking twigs. Something larger, and not altogether stealthy, was indeed moving resolutely towards them through the woods. At a fair distance, Lee then caught sight of two human figures through breaks in the trees.
As they drew closer, Lee saw that the figures were two younger females. His hopes rose sharply with the recognition, instantly relieved to see the presence of other people within the strange woodlands.
Even so, he was not about to counsel recklessness, and wanted to make sure that Ryan retained some caution as well. He turned to Ryan before the other did something that might give away their hiding place.
“Let’s go over there, a little more out of the way,” Lee said, indicating the end of the fallen section of tree trunk, where it had broken off from its lower, rooted base. A narrow swath of arched wood and bark still attached the fallen section to the jagged lower portion that was still firmly anchored to the ground. “We can watch them coming with even less risk of being seen.”
A small, triangular opening was formed near the ground, at the juncture between the fallen portion of the tree and the rooted lower trunk. To Lee, it appeared highly advantageous for engaging in concealed observation.
“Just keep down,” Lee cautioned, as he took the lead.
Lee and Ryan crawled down towards the end of the tree, keeping to their bellies. Lee took painstaking care, and undertook a little extra exertion, so as not to cause much rustling as they moved across the leaves and brush lying beneath their knees and stomachs.
When he reached the small opening, he crouched to one side and left the other free for Ryan. He found that he had guessed correctly. The new vantage point did indeed offer an ideal place from which to watch and await the females without being too exposed.
Lee noticed right away that the dress of the women was contemporary, which came as further relief given the confounding nature of their experience so far. The recognition of that fueled Lee’s hopes that everything was ultimately going to turn out to be some type of strange aberration, and that soon he and Ryan would be well on their way to forgetting about it all.
He got a good look at the full-faced young woman to the left, who had dark hair with streaks of deep red dyed into it. Her face and neck were glistening with sweat. As the women neared, he could see that her cheeks were flushed and that her eyes were reddened. Lee guessed this was the result of sustained crying, exhaustion, or a combination of both.