Chapter 6

Alex POV

"So when do I get to find out what else you've planned?" I asked Riker.

"Right now. We have to walk back, and then I'm taking you somewhere else."

"Wait. I want to look at the stars for a few more minutes."

Riker laid down on the blanket, looking at the stars. I laid down next to him, with my head on his chest. He put his hand on my shoulder, and we just laid there for a while.

"Ok, are you ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

I helped Riker put everything back into his backpack, but I think he lost something…

"Riker?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you looking for?"

"The flashlight."

"Did you check your backpack?"

"Yeah, it's not there. I can't find it anywhere. I wish I had a flashlight, so I could find my flashlight."

We looked around for a few minutes, but Riker eventually gave up. I could tell he just wanted to get out of here and back to the safety of his car. I remembered he was afraid of the dark, but that was one of the things that made him so cute!

"Let's just go, Riker. You can buy another flashlight."

"Ok. But I don't know how we're going to see the trail."

"I'm sure we'll be fine."

Yeah, guess what? We weren't.

Riker POV

"This can't be right," I said, stopping to think for a moment.

"What?"

"I don't think we're on the trail anymore."

"What!?"

"I think we might have gotten lost in the dark."

"We're lost!?"

"Yeah, I think so."

I could barely see Alex close her eyes through the darkness. She looked annoyed, scared, and like she wanted to cry all at the same time.

"We're lost in the woods. Nobody knows we're here. It's nighttime. Could this get any worse!?" Alex shouted, angrily.

"Uh well if you don't have your cell phone, then yes…"

"No I don't have it! Don't you have yours!?"

"No… That's how the situation could be worse…"

"Why don't you have it!?"

"Why don't you have yours?"

"Because I was mad at you and I didn't want to bring it. Now why don't you have yours!?"

"I broke it."

"How?"

"After the second time I swam from the docks to the shore, you went back up to your house. Remember that day?"

"Yeah. And I'm really sorry I didn't help you. I was mad, and really irresponsible. I shouldn't have done that to you. I should've done something when you said you were tired…"

"Well do you remember that day though?"

"Yeah, I just said I did. I left you laying on the beach."

"Sorry I can't think straight. I'm just… having trouble listening… Well later when I went back up to my house, I realized I had probably made the situation worse. So I kind of… threw my phone at the wall…"

"And it broke!?"

"Yeah…"

"Really? How hard did you throw it!?"

"Pretty hard… There's also a hole in the wall now. Just don't tell my dad. Ross put a poster over it to hide it."

"Well how do we get out of here?"

"Uh… I'm not exactly sure… We'll just try to find our way back."

"Riker? Are you scared?"

"Extremely."

"We're going to be alright. We can find our way out."

"I hope so. I just… hate the dark, and the woods, and everything in them."

"We'll be fine. Just don't think about that stuff."

"I don't know how you stay so calm."

"Well, being with you is helping."

Later…

Alex POV

We had been walking for a while now. Even though Riker hadn't said much of anything, I could tell, every minute we were still walking in the woods, he was getting more and more anxious and freaked out. I could feel the tension between us as we walked. Neither one of us wanted to say anything that would push the other over the edge, and make them explode from anxiety. I'll admit, it was getting to me too, now.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you… think we're close?"

"I hope so."

We heard some twigs breaking behind us, so we stopped walking and turned around, not that we'd be able to see anything.

"Did you hear that?" Riker whispered, only inches away from my ear.

"Yeah. It was probably just a deer or something. Let's keep walking," I whispered back.

"But what if it's-"

"Shhh! Don't talk like that. Now come on. Let's go."

"Wait."

"What?"

"Give me your hand."

So Riker and I continued walking, holding hands. Even though I knew the only reason he wanted to hold my hand was because he was scared, I still thought it was sweet and, a good idea too. We could barely see anything, and we wouldn't want to get separated by mistake.

We were still holding hands, but Riker was walking in front of me now, leading the way. He stopped suddenly, and turned around. Being as dark as it was, I didn't notice, and crashed right into him.

"AH! Riker!"

"Sorry."

"What are you doing?"

"Did you hear that?"

"No! I was too busy crashing into you!"

"Well… Ok. Let's just keep going."

So we kept walking. How big was this park anyway?

"Riker?"

"Yeah? Did you hear something?"

"No. I was just wondering if we could take a break for a minute."

"Oh. Yeah sure."

"Aren't you tired?"

"No. There's too much adrenaline in my body."

Riker and I sat down on the ground in the middle of wherever we were. I scooched closer to him until our shoulders were touching.

"Riker! You're shaking!"

"You don't know how terrified I am!"

And… Here is comes. I could tell by the tone of his voice, he'd gone off the edge. He couldn't hold himself together anymore, and he started crying. Not that cute crying either. The kind of crying where you can barely control yourself. You can't speak properly, and you just completely lose it.

"If something happens, like a wild animal shows up, I have to protect you, Alex! I'm scared of the dark, the woods, the animals in the woods, and most importantly, keeping you safe. If something ever happened to you, and it was because I didn't protect you, I could never live with myself!"

"Riker, we're going to be fine. We can't be far, now. Try to calm down."

I found Riker's hand in the dark, and intertwined our fingers. Riker rested his head on my shoulder, trying to calm down a little. I rubbed his back slowly, wishing that this was just a dream. But it wasn't. Riker and I were really lost in the woods of some park, about an hour away from home, without a flashlight, or cellphones. This was one of the worst possible situations we could be in right now.