Mainly a sort of essay for school I made some years ago, but I still like it for some reason...

Chris sighed as he stumbled through the blinding rain. You would think that the trees in a forest as thick as this would take the most of the water, but somehow it got down to the ground anyway. Chris shuddered, it was freezing cold and now he was soaked to the skin as well. Suddenly he slipped in the mud and smashed his left knee right into a stone. He hissed in pain as he felt something hot and sticky starting to blend with the water on his leg. He forced himself to stand up and continue walking. He was almost back at the car where the others were waiting for him…

Suddenly he was back at the small road. Since there was no asphalt on it, small pools of muddy water were forming everywhere. Even though the trees were growing high on both sides of it, a freezing wind was now blowing the rain right into his face. Chris realised the forest had given him some shelter after all; the small drops of water were like nails trying to dig into his skin.

He could now see the car, lying on the side in the ditch. Damaged, dented and torn, it almost looked like some big, dead animal in the dark. He walked as fast as he could against it, trying to ignore the pain that was shooting from his knee. Soon he could see the shadowed forms of his four friends from the camp school, sitting in the shelter of the car, trying to get away from the wind. When they heard him coming, one of them stood up and started to run towards him. Chris knew, before he even could make out the face of the person, that it was Sam, his girlfriend (her real name was Samantha, but she hated it, so everyone called her Sam). She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. Chris hugged her back, he knew how scared she was and it had been bad of him to freely assign as the one who would look for the cage the camp leader had talked about. But since no one else wanted to and he was the oldest, he did it anyway.

He let go of Sam and they walked back to the car. Now Chris could make out the unmoving form of the camp leader as well.

- Has he woken up at all? Chris asked looking down at the middle-aged man in the grass. Julia shook her head;

- We know he’s alive though, we’ve checked his pulse. But nothing we do to wake him up works…

A strange sort of silence laid itself over the group. It was not some sort of tense silence when you’re shy and don’t know what to say, neither was it the silence that comes creeping when you’re alone and start to wonder if you’re followed. It was a cold, thick, vibrating silence; the one that say that words like ‘its going to be fine, they’ll find us soon’ is a lie, that anything you say to comfort will be lies.

Flashback;

Going to a camp had never been the ideal idea of a good summer to Chris, but he had to admit, this had been one of the best times in his life, and it had been going on for three weeks. Sad it was going to end in a few days. When his mother told him she’d assigned him to the Green- Woods Camp, he’d been sulking a whole afternoon. Every summer he could remember it had been the same way, and he wanted it to stay like it;

The first weeks he’d spent at the coast, at his grandparents’ house. Then he’d be home it the town for two or tree weeks with all his friends. Then his whole family would go on a vacation, with a new destiny each year. They wouldn’t be back at home until tree or four days before the school start.

But now he was grateful for his mother’s idea. The camp was fun and everyone, without exception, was nice. There were no given groups; you’d just hang out with those who were around. And he’d even fallen in love. Even to himself it sounded like something from his grandmothers romantic novels, but it was true. The fact that he got the girl he wanted and they discovered that they lived in the same town didn’t really destroy it.

However, a tradition on Green- Woods Camp was that before the ending of the time they had there, everyone would have a taste of what it was like to actually live in the forest (or why you should appreciate the military’s exercises, as Big Ben, one of the leaders, put it). So they were divided into groups of five or six, got their instructions and drove off into the wilderness with one of the leaders. Then you’d stay out there for four days, the one you arrive and leave included, and learn how to live of what you can find outdoors. Of course the leader will never leave you out there, if he/she doesn’t have to drive back someone who got sick.

Chris and his friends were no exception from this, so he, Sam, Bill, Daniel and Julia went of with George to Rivers Hill. But they never made it the whole way. You could blame it on the rain that stopped you from seeing more than eight meters away, on the moose who jumped out on the road even though it must have heard the car coming, or on Chris and Julia, who started to tickle Sam so she started to scream and distracted George from driving. If it was one of these or all at the same time didn’t matter at the moment, it wouldn’t help them even if they figured it out, as Bill put it. But the bitter fact was that now they were stuck out here and their leader was unconscious, so they didn’t have a clue of what to do. As usual, the camp-rules forbid such things as mobiles, so they had nothing they could use to contact anybody with; the old radio in the car had been destroyed in the crash.

All they could do was trying to find the cage George had talked about while he was driving and that he’d said they could look at while they got back, and do their best to stay alive for four days, which should be when they would get missed.

End flashback

Daniel was the one to break the silence;

- So, did you find it?

Before Chris could answer, a sudden flash of light washed over them. Then, as soon as it had appeared, it was gone, but soon was replaced by a roar of thunder and, if it was possible, even more rain. Julia’s eyes went wide and she screamed. She’d told them, on another rainy night when they played a game in the camp- hut, that she’d been death scared of thunder as long as she could remember. She started to shake and sat down on the ground, hugging her knees. Sam walked over to her and put a hand on her back. Julia looked up at her and started to cry. Sam did her best to comfort her but nothing seemed to help. Then Chris stood up;

- I did find it, come on, let’s go!

All the others stood up, except for Julia. She was still shaking and tears were falling from still wide open eyes, it seemed impossible to reach her. In the end Bill had to carry her. With help from Daniel, Sam was able to get Julia up on his back. She immediately buried her face in his neck and dug her nails into his shoulders. Bill winched in pain but didn’t say anything. Chris and Daniel was then in some way able to get Georges arms over their shoulders, the best way they could come up with to carry him.

As they walked through the forest Chris did his best to remember where the cage was, but rain, cold and worries usually aren’t a good combination if you want to remember anything at all and soon the group had to face the fact that they were lost. Darkness started to crawl upon them and soon you couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead. Without talking at all they decided to stop. A big- branched tree would have to work as a roof, it was only dropping occasionally down there. Everyone was too tired to talk, or even to stay awake. Soon both Bill and Sam were gone, Chris was dozing against the tree trunk. Daniel was still trying, without success, to calm down Julia. She wouldn’t stop shaking, even if she’d stopped crying, and she wouldn’t answer you even if you screamed at her.

Suddenly another flash of light split the sky in halves and Julia’s eyes went wide once again. When the rumbling came she stood up and screamed. It woke everyone, except George, and then Julia began to run. The others heard her screams echoing between the trees as she disappeared in the dark. Daniel was the first one to react. He too stood up and ran of in the same direction as Julia. He shouted her name as he tried to make out where the screams came from. He took a chance through some bushes but then realised it was a bad idea. The branches were full of thorns and he cut himself badly fighting himself through. When he finally got out from it he could only hear the echo of Julia’s screams, she was too far away. Now he realised how stupid he’d been, running off like that. Daniel decided to go back to the others, but he didn’t want to stumble through that bush again, so he’d try to get around it. But after a few steps his foot sank through the ground. He stumbled and fell. He could feel that he was surrounded by cold water; he assumed that the rain had caused a flooding or something. But as Daniel got up he realised this was nothing like the soaked lawn he used to play on at home as a kid. It had to be a really deep and muddy hole, he was standing with water up to his knees and his feet were stuck in the bottom. He tried his best to get out of it, but only stepped out of his shoe. Then his foot sank down again. Now he realised something that made him really scared. The other leg that he hadn’t moved was now in thigh- high water, he was sure it only reached to his knee a few moments ago. He almost started to panic and struggled to get up, but only sank deeper. He tried to reach a tree branch or something to pull himself up with, but they were all too high up, and all the tree- roots were buried deep in the ground. When the water reached to his stomach he began to scream for help and struggle harder, but no one came. The water was so cold; he couldn’t feel his feet or half of his legs anymore. When the water was chest- high, he began to cry. He screamed as loud as he could, but soon his voice cracked. Then he gave up…

Julia ran as fast as she could, no idea where to go and she didn’t care as long as she got away from the thunder. She was crying in fear, holding her arms in front of her face so she wouldn’t get any cuts in her face by the branches she ran right into. She stumbled and almost fell but managed to get herself up and continue even faster. She then realised the trees were gone. She looked around as good as she could with the rain-soaked hair hanging down into her face. A big hole in the ground, probably for getting gravel in. On the other side, far away over the fields, she could see a small house. If she could reach it, maybe she could be safe…

She began to climb down the steep sides, on the other side she would only have to walk up on the road- like thing on the other side, which was probably used to get wagons down and up on when people got their gravel.

Unfortunately, the side Julia tried to climb down was too steep, she put her foot on a loose stone which fell out of place and got the girl with it in its fall. Reaching the bottom Julia’s head hit a sharp stone and she quickly went into unconsciousness.

Thank to the sharp edges of the stone she also got a big cut in her head. Wounds in the head always bleed a lot, which is why Julia never woke up again…

When Daniel ran off, Bill almost followed him, but Sam grabbed his shirt;

- No, don’t! You’ll get lost!

- Won’t he then?! Let go of me!

Chris suddenly stepped in front of him;

- Sam’s right, it’s enough that two of us are gone! We should stick together, that’s what people always say you should do when you get lost!

Bill let out a big sigh and stopped struggling. Then the three of them sank back on the ground. They sat there for a good 15 minutes until George suddenly let out a groan and moved a bit. Immediately they were by his side, watching his every move. Sam warily lifted his head. Then his eyes fluttered opened and he watched them groggily. He then smiled at them.

- George! You remember us?

Sam heard herself how stupid it sounded, but the fact that George had to think for a while until he could mumble out a ‘Sam’ showed that it hadn’t been a so bad a thing to ask.

- The cage?

George then asked, Bill slightly thought that he surely remembered strange parts of what had happened.

- We can’t find it, sorry.

It seemed to take a while before the words maid any sense in George’s dim head, but then he looked around. He then took a deep breath and seemed to gather his strength.

- Have you seen a big stone, formed as a cathead?

All of them shook their heads.

- If you find it, you walk straight ahead from its nose and then…

George started to choke and then closed his eyes.

- George? GEORGE!

Sam was screaming from the top of her lungs, but the camp leader didn’t open his eyes again. She was obviously close to tears so Chris sat down behind her. Sam turned around and once again disappeared into his embrace. When she’d calmed down she looked up at him and Bill, the only once left but she didn’t pull back from the hug.

- What now?

She asked. Bill shook his head;

- What else can we do but look for that stone?

- Bill’s right.

Chris stated simply. They got up and then looked down at George.

- What should we do with him?

- Don’t think we can carry him around for much longer, we’ll have to come back for him after we’ve found the cage.

Without another word they got out from under the tree and looked around.

- Should we start by looking uphill?

Bill looked at the others, who wondered why none thought about this before. They started off with some space between themselves, but they kept on talking to each other so not another would get lost. Suddenly Sam shouted at them to stop. Chris and Bill were by her side as fast as they could. But when they arrived, they couldn’t see any cathead-shaped stone. All Sam was looking at was some plants. She pointed at them and said;

- We read about these things in school. Our teacher said that they always grow close to swamps and marshes; I don’t think we should go that way.

Bill and Chris looked away into the forest and shuddered at the thought of what could have happened if they’d walked that way.

They took off on another direction, still close enough to each other so they could hear the others. They walked for what seemed for ages when suddenly Bill came across a big round stone that, when walked around it and looked from the other side, indeed looked like a very ugly cat, at least in the dark. He screamed for the others and soon he could hear someone walk through the trees. Then Sam appeared next to him. She gave up a tired, hopeful and at the same time sad sigh and then leaned against the stone, she was so tired.

Then she realised that the rain had stopped. She slightly wondered for how long it had been gone without them noticing. Then a pale shine came upon them, and they both looked up. An almost full moon looked down at them, cold and uncaring.

They waited for almost half an hour, under which Sam only grew more worried, wondering what could have happened to her boyfriend. Then Bill suddenly sighted and said the words she never wanted to hear;

- I don’t think he’ll come…

Sam only let the tears slip out from under her eyelids, she felt like she wanted to scream, but didn’t have the energy. The trees around her whispered on a strange language and their shadows against the night-sky were slowly moving from side to side.

Sam just sank down to the ground and hit the stone hard with her fist…

Chris had walked on a fair distance from the others when he’d been forced to walk around a fallen tree, which had too many branches to climb over or crawl under. But when he got around he once again slipped in mud, his injured knee stopped him from getting back his balance and he fell down into a big hole at the root of the tree.

Since the tree stood in a hill earlier rains had washed away much of the earth under the roots until it finally had created a big underground earth-cage under the old tree. But then it didn’t have anything to hold on to when the autumn-winds started to blow and it fell. In its fall it opened the hole and revealed what had hidden under it. Other trees had taken the water that was offered and had during the dry summer almost drained the hole, now it was only a muddy mess at the bottom along with dead leaves, sticks and cones. Now, Chris too was down there. The first thing that hit him was that he couldn’t move. He just assumed that he was stuck in something, but then he realised he couldn’t move at all, only feel. The most irritating thing he felt was that root digging into his neck. A strange sort of darkness came upon him, it was warm and soothing and he began to feel drowsy. Slowly his eyes closed and his last breath came out with a whistling sound, since the small bone in his broken neck had pierced his throat…

Bill didn’t know what to do when Sam broke down like that but as fast as she’d stared, she quit crying and stood up. She looked sad but steadily at him.

- Think we should go then?

Sam just nodded, she wasn’t sure if her voice would hold if she talked.

They walked from the stone just like George had told them to. Just when Sam was sure she’d collapse on the spot, Bill said;

- There it is!

And it was; a dark gap right into the mountain. They reached it just as the wind started to blow even harder. Bill was the first one inside, Sam lacked behind; she was so tired…

When she finally managed it inside, Bill was already looking around. Sam just sat down next to a wall and tried to get comfortable.

- I think we should see if we can get further inside, it’s going to get cold here.

Sam looked at him, how come he knew so much about the cage? Bill looked back at her and then continued;

- I can feel the wind coming in and it always gets colder in the mornings, so it will be even worse later.

Sam just nodded; she was so tired she didn’t want to think. She just got up and walked longer inside with Bill.

Then the ground under her feet disappeared and she fell right down into the dark…

Sam suddenly realised she wasn’t falling anymore. She had a weird feeling in her stomach, but it was too dark to see anything. Sam realised she was stuck in a very strange position, she was leaning forward, too long to stand up but her knees weren’t touching the ground. As soon as she tried to move out of it her stomach hurt badly. She touched it and got some weird sticky thing on her hands that then dripped down her fingers. Something bubbled up her throat and she had to cough. Something was coming up her throat that tasted like iron and she didn’t like it at all.

Sam looked around, the darkness were so compact she couldn’t even see her own hands. No, wait, now she could! In the weak light she looked down on her hands. She was shocked to discover that they were dripping of something red that looked just like blood… in fear of what she would see, Sam looked down. Her whole belly was soaked in the same blood-red thing and when she concentrated she could see that she seemed to be lying on some sort of stone. But when she looked a little higher she saw the top of the pointy thing coming out of her own back, red, dripping of her own blood. Sam was too chocked to scream so she heard the voice that called her name;

- Sam… Sam!

The cage made the voice echoing, but she still recognised it as Bill’s. And there Bill was, standing only two or three meters away. From him came a strange dim light, only enough for Sam to see what had happened to herself and maybe a few meters away.

Bill leaned forward;

- Saaam…!

Sam stared at him, Bill was smiling at her!

- Finally, I’ll have some company…

He looked like a child on Christmas, getting the present it wanted the most but never expected to get.

- I’ve been waiting for so long… Thank you Sam, for being here with me!

Sam chocked again and now she could see the red drops that fell on the floor from her mouth. Bill sat down on the floor, looking at her as if he wanted or was waiting for something. Sam managed to get out a;

- Help…

But Bill only shook his head.

- I’m sorry Sam, but there’s nothing I can do. And I don’t think I want to. You see, I’ve been waiting for years for someone to come and keep me company down here…

He then pointed at something Sam hadn’t noticed before. At the wall was a pile of rags, which once might have been clothes, and some bones, here and there as if someone had been playing with them.

- I’ve been here for years… But now all of you will come and stay here with me! Even George will come; he can’t survive four days unconscious in the forest…

Sam shook her head; she didn’t want to stay here…

- I’m sorry Sam, but you don’t have any choice. Even if you get away from that stalagmite there is no way to get up from here. Believe me, I know. I’ve tried for days, and I know there is no way…

Come with me Sam, we have to get the others, they’re probably lost and scared, and we have to get them here! Maybe some searching-patrol will find your bodies, but I doubt about yours. As you can see, they didn’t find mine… but if they find the bodies and bury them properly, they won’t stay here anymore… but you will be here with me Sam, won’t you?

Suddenly Bill was gone and so was the light. Sam let out a whimper, but she could already feel her body go numb. A few tears slipped out of her eyes, then the whole girl seemed to relax, and nothing more came from her.

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