The next morning, or early in the morning, Duncan was standing outside the forest, waiting for Jo and Alejandro to arrive at the entrance. The punk paced around the front of the entrance, wondering where his other two friends are. Hopefully, they weren't taken by the person who's killed Scott and Lightning. If they were, then it looks like Duncan would be going into the forest by himself.
He waited a couple more moments, until Jo and Alejandro finally arrived at the spot where he was standing. They both had backpacks on their backs, ready to head into the forest to find this hangar that Duncan was talking about. Jo and Alejandro approached Duncan as the punk stopped walking.
"It's about time. Where the hell were you two?" Duncan asked the two of them.
"We were packing our stuff, Dun Prick." Jo said, crossing her arms. "You could wait a good few minutes until we got here." Duncan rolled his eyes at the fact that Jo gave him that name, again. He didn't like it the first time she used that as an insult. "Anyways, enough standing around, we hitting this hangar place or what?"
"We are. I got all that we need to go to the hangar out there. I got us food, I got us baseball bats..."
"If Lightning died since me and him used baseball bats, I don't think those bats are going to be safe options for us." The punk glares at her, before speaking again.
"Are you done?" Jo nods. "Thank you. Well...other things that I brought along are flashlights, a map, and a couple air-horns."
"Why would you bring air-horns for?" Alejandro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"In case one of us gets lost, then we can use that to guide our way back. You know, how they use the North Star in that one story? Except we are using these things to guide our way back to ourselves."
"Right...then the killer will hear those horns, and then he or she will come find us, and then end our lives." Jo said.
"Look, unless you think this is suddenly a bad idea, then stay here. If you want to just go ahead with this anyway, then go right ahead." Duncan places his backpack on himself, then points to the forest ahead of them. "Me and Alejandro will be off. Follow along if you're still willing to."
Duncan started to walk into the forest by himself, then Alejandro followed along. Jo, on the other hand, wasn't too sure if all of what Duncan packed was such a smart idea of not. She knew that Justin guy got lost in the woods those years back, but is getting lost in the forest better than waiting in the same neighborhood where there's a person out there, most likely killing everyone? Jo knew this was a lose lose situation regardless.
"Screw it..." Jo mutters to herself, before following the two boys. "Hey, wait up!" Duncan smirked, looking back at the sporty girl coming for him and Alejandro.
"Finally changed your mind, huh?" Duncan asked in his usual sly tone. "It's about time you did."
"Shut up before you wish you're lost in the woods right now, Dork Can."
"Yeah...whatever..."
From a distance, the same shadowy figure from last time watched Duncan and his friends entering the forest. Once the three of them were out of the person's sights, the figure walks back into the hedge that he was hiding near.
A couple moments later, Noah and his friends finally made it to the entrance to the forest as well. The four of them stood there waiting for Izzy and Owen, wondering where the two of them were right now. Even more so, Cody was expecting Gwen to be here, since he called her last night so that she can help in some sort of way.
It felt like ages, waiting for Izzy and Owen to finally get to their spot. Cody was getting more impatient, waiting for Gwen to finally arrive at their spot. Cody kept on looking at his phone time to time, wondering where his goth crush is.
"God damn it...where is Gwen? I thought she was going to be here by now." Cody asked, muttering all of this to himself. Noah looks over to Cody.
"Gwen called me minutes ago. She said that she was going to Detective McLean to try to stop those bullies from leaving the town." Noah told his best friend. "Hopefully, Chris won't get too angry with us for getting involved in this shit, despite he said we shouldn't get ourselves involved in something like this."
Noah then walks over to one of the trees that were to the left side of the entrance. Kitty looks behind herself, seeing the sarcastic boy standing by the entrance, waiting for Izzy and Owen to arrive. Kitty taps Emma on her shoulder, pointing at Noah behind herself.
This made Emma want to go over to Noah to see how things are going with him. Clearly, she knew that everyone, including herself, are stressed out by the situation at hand. Despite this, she decided to go and at least, try to comfort her friends in this whole ordeal. Emma stood next to Noah, looking deep into the forest, wondering what her friend is thinking right now.
"Duncan, Jo, and Lightning should be somewhere in there, huh?" Emma asked Noah. The boy nodded. "Well...I'm a little worried if we will find them either dead or alive in that forest."
"Even though I hate Duncan..." Noah said, nearly growling those words. "...I actually hope we don't find him dead in there. He might be a total prick, but I don't want him dead."
"Guess that's a good thing."
"Yeah." Noah sighed, before looking down to the ground, shaking his head. "You know...I'm actually a little hesitate about...actually trying to go deep into this forest, knowing that on foot, we could get easily lost. As a kid in this town, I always looked at these forests, and just think...if I were to walk into those woods, and plan to go somewhere else...will I get lost, and probably be..." Noah gulps. "...Dead. I even had a nightmare about going into the forest, alone..." Emma looks at her friend with a face full of sympathy.
"I'm sorry to hear about that, Noah. Truthfully...I had nightmares of...losing my sister to...somebody like that...that guy..." Noah looks over to the more serious of the sisters. "I mean...now that there's one that's...lurking around here...who knows where..." Emma suddenly looked very afraid at how the future is going to be like for them. "I fear that whoever that is will go for my sister."
Noah looks behind himself, looking at Kitty talking to Cody by the street sign. He took a deep breath, before looking over to Emma. He turns towards her direction, brushing some hair out of her eyes, trying to make her look into his eyes.
"Look, Emma...I promise that no matter what, you and your sister, me and Cody will keep you safe." Noah said to her. "You guys have been a huge help to us, and...really...that's what I like about you." Emma blinked a couple times, before blushing. Noah took notice of this, then sighed. "You know what? I think since...both of us are going into the forest...I feel like something should be off of my chest, before...death..."
"What is it?" Emma asked him.
With a deep breath, Noah spoke. "I...actually kind of liked you Emma. From the day we met, I just...fell in love with you." Noah confesses to her. "The reason I didn't say anything before is because...I'm a coward...that's why. I mean...people say Cody's the bigger coward between me and him, but...I can't say what feelings I have on my mind to a girl I love and..." Noah threw a hand into the air. "...Can't believe now, when we're going into certain death, is the moment I bring this up." Emma frowned, before smiling again, placing a hand on her friend's cheek.
"Do you want my perspective of this?" Noah stood there silently, looking at Emma still. "To me...it's never too late to reveal your love for somebody." The boy smiled at her, before giving a chuckle.
"So...if we survive this...we're...together?"
"I...guess so."
The two smiled at each other, before attempting to lean into each other almost kissing. The two were about to kiss, eyes closed, and everything. But that was when the sound of an interruption was heard from afar.
"NOAH! GUYS! WE'RE HERE!" Owen shouts from the distance.
'Damn it!' Noah shouts in his thoughts, as he glared over to the direction of Owen and Izzy, walking their way over to the two of them.
"Sorry it took so long, we had to find a bus! But then we couldn't find one! But then we found a car, but it wasn't ours..." Izzy said, before looking out to the forest, ready to go out there to find Duncan and his friends. "Anyways, are we going to go out there and find Duncan and his buddies?! Because me and Owen are prepared to go out there and find them!"
"Save the talk, we're going to find them." Cody said, holding up a hand, signaling Izzy to be quiet. "Hey Noah, are we ready to go out there?!" Noah looks over to the many people that he was with right now.
"Yeah! Yeah! Totally!" Noah shouts back. "We can go into the forest now...oh no..." Owen came out of the nowhere, hugging Noah very tightly. "Y-Yeah, hey there, Owen...uh...you know I can't breath, right?"
"Oh, sorry Noah." Owen said, placing Noah on the ground. "It's just been so long since me and you hung out together. When was the last time we even talked together, huh? Since Daycare? It's been like...super long since we've talked. Oh boy!"
"With that amount of excitement, you kind of wonder why..." Noah said, brushing himself off.
"So what have you been doing for so long, anyway?! I heard from Izzy that you and that Cody guy have been becoming friends lately, and playing video games, and talking about girls, and..."
"Guess Izzy said a lot of things, huh?"
"Pretty much." Izzy said. Izzy then points at Emma. "Oh, Noah! I forgot to ask! What were you and your buddy here talking about?! What was your name?"
"Emma..." The serious sister said, before Izzy stops her there.
"Emma! Okay! That's a beautiful name! Given good enough to be with you, Noah!" This was when the two of them were getting embarrassed by the crazy girl's words. "I mean, beautiful eyes, beautiful hair, neat clothes, and sexy..."
"As you know!" Noah shouts, immediately stopping the girl in her words. "Me and Emma are just friends." Noah looks over to Emma, winking at her, signaling her that he's trying to keep Izzy from speaking out about this. "Can we just go out and get Duncan out of there?" Izzy nods her head.
"Yeah. Okay." Izzy said, smiling.
"Finally. Let's get out there already." Cody said, as the group began to walk into the forest. "Besides, the last thing I want to be doing is going out there at night. Then getting ourselves killed out there."
"You're overreacting, Cody. Just as long as we keep alert at all costs." Kitty said.
"Exactly." Izzy said, elbowing the girl in her arm, friendly. "Who knows what dangers could be out here! I mean, there's bugs, there's bears, there's a ton of other animals that could feast upon our bodies when we're..." The other stare at Izzy with horrified faces. "...And this is the part where I stop talking...good point..."
"Yeah. Let's just find those three before things get worse." Noah said, just as they entered the forest.