The broken gear

Exploration

Thomas and Nelle were walking through the forest trying to find a village or town. Thomas was confused on how the table and the leftovers were gone once he looked back, but decided to not question it as he had a new matter at hand.

"Our encounter was pretty strange," said Thomas.

"Yeah, it could have better" Nelle said smiling while feeling partially embarrassed.

"Don't worry, it could've also been worse."

"Fair enough."

They eventually found a small rope fence that had 2 ropes but had a gap large enough to walk through. Going through it they found a hiking trail of the Ile de France national park, the 5th biggest in the country.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find the exit now," Thomas said.

When they arrived to the main area, they were surprised to find it empty.

"Where is everyone?" asked Thomas.

"I don't know," Nelle said, grabbing a map of the park from a clear, plastic map rack.

"Hey, we have the park to ourselves so we could go to all of these places," Nelle said moving her finger around the map cheerfully.

"I think we should focus on us getting found."

"Aww," Nelle said disappointed.

"Anyway, where's the exit?" 

Nelle looked at the map and her surroundings carefully, "I have good news and bad news"

"Umm, good news?"

"We can explore the park while traveling to the exit"

"Bad news?"

"We're pretty far away from the exit."

"Well, at least we get to go sight seeing and if anyone catches us we can just say we're lost."

Nelle smiled and looked at the map again, "There's a mountain climbing we could go on"

"How far is it?"

"Never mind, it's quite far from where we are."

"What's the closest attraction or site."

"I thought you would be against this but I'm not complaining."

"Well, we should probably find a way to Switzerland, but going through this park is technically part of our journey so as long as we don't spend too much time here we should be fine."

Nelle was smiling at what Thomas said and began looking at the map again, "We could go hiking," she recommended.

"Oh! There's also a clear lake with boats."

"Both of those sound calm," Thomas wanted to relax in a calm environment yet was worried about what was going on in the world and about them being found in the park.

"Let's go hiking."

"Before we do can I see the map?"

"Sure."

"There's a lot of stuff isn't there?"

"Yep, and the map I'm holding is folded in half."

"Imagine the largest national park!" Thomas exclaimed, surprised at the size of the map. "I want to go there once this is over."

"We might"