They slept uneasily that night. Some didn't sleep at all. They had almost forgotten the reason they went into the woods.
Eli began to feel tense, Sav's Shoulder directly on his in that tiny tent didn't help either. He tried to go to sleep, but the thought of being lost in the woods, no! The thought of being lost in the haunted woods during their break? "What are you saying?" he thought, "C'mon ghosts? We just wanted a reason to go on a camping trip." He chuckled to himself "Silly Adam, he's always one jumping to conclusion, irrational or not."
That made him feel better, he closed his eyes and was able to get comfortable. The silence of the night, wasn't frightening…..it was…..peaceful….That peace didn't last long enough.
Cracking noises outside the tent became louder and louder as they appeared from the woods. Some sort of distinctive loud crack awoke a nearly-dreaming Eli. Groggily, he slumped up a little rubbing his eyes, wondering if he HAD dreamed it.
He sat up and stared at the layer of the tent so he could see outside. It felt like hours when it was only 17 minutes he sat up hoping it was nothing.
Silence….
…...
He laid back down and eventually fell asleep.
He felt something fumble. He opened his eyes once again, annoyed. It was Bianca, who was on the other side of him. Who was staring outside the tent.
Eli whispered/yelled, "Bianca, what the hell are you doing?"
She crawled back into the tent, "I thought I heard something".
Eli felt his heart jump, "What did it sound like?"
"Some sort of cracking.. like a stick breaking"
Oh my God… "Crap, we have to wake everyone up."
Bianca winced, "Wait what? Why?"
Eli raised his voice to a normal speaking voice, "Hey everyone! Come on! We have to go!"
Adam, Drew, Sav and Clare (all annoyed) all turned over/sat up.
Sav wined, "Eli, what's wrong?" he said wiping the sleep dust from his eyes.
"We gotta go! There IS something out there"
Clare nodded her head, she wasn't one to complain, but she was tired "Eli, we're too tired to care right now, and you were probably dreaming." she started to lay back down and the others began to copy.
"NO I WASN'T! BIANCA, HEARD IT TO!"
Everyone eyed at Bianca, "Um….yeah, I guess. I just heard a stick outside our tent crack or something."
"That's my point, we have to go NOW-" just then, he felt a chill down his spine. His face became pale….a death pale….he swallowed….showing he was now very afraid.
He couldn't speak just wince and whimper.
Adam grew worried, he suddenly became pale to. "Eli…?" He could see his own breath. He could see everyone's breaths.
Clare felt something from the outside of the tent hit her back. She let out a yell and frantically crawled next to Eli wrapping her arms around him. "What was that? WHAT WAS THAT?" She yelled on the verge of crying.
Drew raised his head, "It wasn't the wind…"
Suddenly all sides of the tent began to fumble, like a bunch of hands were swiping it, hitting it.
At this point, the whole tent moved like it was alive. No one was a happy camper at this point.
"WHAT NOW?" Adam yelled in a panic.
Drew took a few breaths "On the count of three we all run…."
Clare grabbed Eli's hand, the other Drew's.
"1.….."
Drew grabbed Adam's hand as Adam held Sav's
"2.…"
Bianca, frightened held up her shaking hand, and gently grabbed Eli's hand.
…...
"3!"
The gang leaped out of the tent all hand in hand, although they let go as they were running, screaming like hell, swearing and begging god for help.
"WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE HELL!" They could hear Bianca's screams from far behind. As if she lost them.
Sav was able to look back and yell "BIANCA! YOU HAVE TO KEEP UP!"
All they could hear were her screams and swears grow more and more distant.
The rest shoved their way through tree's and through the rocky dirty path, they finally (somehow all at the same time) collapsed and took heavy, deep breaths.
"Its over….." Drew tried to comfort himself "please god, please…please…its over….."
The five woke up. It was broad daylight. The sun was shining out. Unable to think of what was happening the night before, or what happened to Bianca.
Eli, the last to wake up, he saw everyone with wide eyes, shaking, squeezing themselves, and Adam slumped up close to Drew, slightly rocking back and forth.
"We have to call for help." He said calmly, thinking of the best plan he could.
Sav gave him a look as if he had just said, 'lets go jump off a cliff'. "WITH WHAT RECEPTION?" We're in the middle of the friggin woods!"
There was an awkward moment of silence…. "Besides, we tried it, none of us have bars. What are the odds you'll have any?"
They seemed hopeless now, their cell phones were the only way they could call for help.
Eli stood up "We have to go back"
Clare immediately objected; "NO! I'm not going back there! What if whatever that was is still there!"
Adam agreed "I'm not going back there either…..you can call me a coward if you want, but absolutely not…"
"We have to go back that way, and cross the creek, it's the only way we can get back!"
Sav, Drew, Adam and Clare all looked at each other, like they were telepathically discussing it.
"Alright…" Drew said now trying to act wise. "We'll head East, and we can find our own way back to the log….'Cause we are NOT going back there."
Eli gave a smirk, "Ok. I guess we're homeward bound."
Adam still curious, "What ever happened to Bianca?"
Sav turned to him "Don't know, she disappeared, and for good reasons I hope we don't find her…."
Adam looked down, trying not to think of what could've happened to her….hoping it wouldn't happen to them.
For hours they walked, the sun was high in the sky, they were sweaty, hungry, and in need of just a few minutes rest, which was impossible.
"I have to piss"
"Very nice Drew…" Eli was disgusted
"C'mon just a little pee break?"
Eli noticed a creek near by. "Alright, pee break lets go."
The five slid down the hill toward the lake, Clare went to a far side near a tree, Adam just stood….not even daring, while Eli, Sav, and Drew enjoyed themselves. Eventually they ended up breaking from there whole trip. A little longer and they could've forgotten they were lost. Drew saw something vaguely familiar in the lake…a rock?
Shit…
He picked it up and wiped wet dirt off of it…..
He called Adam over and showed it to him.
"Go home. NOW" It read in tiny print.
Adam looked at Drew, "Is this some part of a collection or something?" he said trying to joke.
"Bro, this thing is starting to drive me crazy."
"Well, where's the first one?"
"I threw it…into a lake…"
There eyes widened, Clare called them over saying they had to go. Drew had left his pack (and everything else) at the campsite so he squeezed it into his pocket, before catching up to the rest of them.