Komahina Angstober

Day 8:

Note: I am writing these one per day, I just upload them all on a day I can

Hajime tipped the water bottle back to drink some water when he realized the bottle was empty. Hajime tapped the bottom, hoping to get a few stray drops, but there was nothing. "Guys!" Hajime whined. "We're out of water!"

Hajime and Nagito had agreed to go on a three-day backpacking trip with their friends Kazuichi, Sonia, Akane, and Nekomaru. One day had passed and they were heading to their next campsite, but unfortunately, they had run out of water.

"Did you seriously just drink the last of our water?!" Kazuichi yelled.

"Hey! It was empty when I started drinking!" Hajime said in defense.

"Now we're out of water!" Kazuichi huffed.

"Never fear!" Sonia declared as she reached into her backpack and pulled something out. "I have a water filter here! You all can go get some water and meet us back here!"

"That's a great idea!" Nekomaru boomed from the front. "But who's gonna get the water?" All eyes turned on Hajime.

"M-me?" Hajime squeaked.

"Yes, you! You're the one who drank the last of our water!" Kazuichi countered.

"I didn't- *sigh* I don't want to go out there by myself!" The idea of wandering around the woods by himself seemed terrifying.

"Then let Nagito go with you!" Kazuichi said. Nagito looked up from admiring a patch of wildflowers. "Where am I going?" He asked innocently.

"To fetch and purify some water, with Hajime," Sonia said, handing Nagito the filter. Nagito nodded.

"Be back soon!" Kazuichi yelled as Hajime and Nagito headed off. At first, Hajime was grumbling to himself about being the one having to go off on an "adventure", but lightened up after starting a conversation with Nagito. Going anywhere with his boyfriend always made Hajime feel better. After about 15 minutes though, there was no water to be found.

"What kind of forest doesn't have water?" Hajime groaned.

"It has water, silly, we just have to listen for it," Nagito said, then closed his eyes and stopped moving. Hajime watched, very curious, and a little weirded out. Hajime was about to ask Nagito what the heck he was doing when Nagito opened his eyes again. "There's water in this direction." Nagito pointed northeast and continued on. Hajime followed, asking, "How do you know?"

"I can hear it," Nagito smiled, and continued on. Hajime was about to ask what that meant when he realized that water made noise when it was running down a creek or a river. So Hajime trusted Nagito's instinct. And sure enough, they found a beautiful babbling brook.

Nagito smiled and filled up some water bottles, then handed them to Hajime to purify. As Hajime and Nagito sat there filtering the water, they didn't notice the sun slowly creeping behind the trees until it was almost dark. Hajime looked up to see the sun was almost gone, then nervously tugged at Nagito's jacket. "Nagito...."

"Hmm?" Hajime motioned to the sky. "Oh." Nagito didn't seem all that fazed. He packed up the now full water bottles and stood up. "I guess that means it's time to go," he smiled, and then took off again, Hajime nervously following. The woods were a whole lot darker, and scarier, at night. There were the unidentified rustling of leaves or snaps of twigs that made Hajime jump and want to hide, but Nagito said they were just natural forest sounds. It was after 30 minutes of trekking that Nagito started to grow worried.

"You do know the way back... right?" Hajime quivered, clutching Nagito's arm like a lifeline. It was now completely dark, and Nagito and Hajime had to use headlamps so they could see. An ominous owl hooted as Nagito answered, "O-of course I do..." but he sounded unsure as well. Hajime pulled out his phone, ready to call Kazuichi when he realized he had lost service. "No... damnit..." he muttered.

"What's wrong?" Nagito asked, sounding unsure of his words.

"There's no service." Nagito froze. Then he immediately reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen was blank. "Mines dead," he murmured. Both boys stood there, huddled close together in the darkness as the forest sounds became more ominous, and scarier. That rustle of leaves could be a hoard of bats coming to get them, or the snap of the twig could be a vampire out to suck them dry off their blood.

"Are we lost?" Hajime shivered. Even in the darkness, Hajime could make out Nagito's nod. Great. They were in trouble now. Their phones were dead, they had no idea where the trail or their friends were, and it was pitch black.

Hajime decided to use his final resort. He took a deep breath and yelled, "KAZUICHI! AKANE! NEKOMARU! SONIA! HELP US!" Hajime screamed for as loud and as long as he possibly could, but it was useless. No one could hear them. No one was coming to look for them.

"Wh-what are we going to do?" Hajime trembled.

"Unless you have some flares with you, the only thing we can do." Hajime didn't have flares. Then, Nagito rummaged around his bag and pulled out a tent.

"You expect us to sleep here?!"

"What else are we going to do?"

"Uh, try to find everyone!"

"Okay, you do that," Nagito said as unraveled the tent, "but I don't want to be caught roaming around the woods in the middle of the night by a wolf or a bear or a-"

"Okay okay, I'll help!" Hajime scoffed and started helping Nagito with the tent. Hajime tried acting brave but he was really terrified. He was cold and lost in the middle of the woods with nobody besides Nagito and god knows what kind of bloodthirsty animals.

In a short amount of time, the boys got the tent set up and crawled inside. Nagito unrolled his sleeping bag as Hajime worriedly munched on some beef jerky. When Nagito was about to unroll Hajime's sleeping bag, Hajime stopped him. "C-can we share a sleeping bag?" Hajime chattered, holding his arms around himself and shivering. The temperature was dropping significantly, and Hajime wanted the extra body warmth. And, Hajime admitted to himself, sleeping next to Nagito might calm Hajime down. Nagito looked surprised but gave a slight nod.

Soon, both boys were settled down in the sleeping bag. They were both shivering and scared as the noises of the woods echoed around them. Nagito wrapped his arms around Hajime. "We'll find them in the morning, I'm sure." But Hajime wasn't sure. He had heard horror stories of people being lost in the woods for a week up to a month before being found.

Hajime tried his best to go to sleep but always jumped at the slightest sound. It seemed Nagito wasn't having a good time either. "Nagito... are you-"

SNAP!

Both boys froze at the sound.

"It was p-probably an animal," Nagito murmured, trying to reassure Hajime. Hajime nodded, but then heard something else. At first, Hajime thought he was mistaken, but the sound became clearer. Footsteps. Footsteps were inching closer to the tent.

The boys were silent as the dead, not daring to move or make a sound. Nagito hoped it was a wild animal that would just sniff the tent and leave. Hajime hoped it was someone who would help them, but he didn't want to risk alerting it in case it was bad news. The boys then saw the things shadow right in front of their tent. It looked big. And gave a low growl. That confirmed it was some sort of animal. Nagito glanced at the meat jerky Hajime accidentally left out. Hajime saw it too and cursed to himself.

Nagito buried his face in Hajime's back while squeezing him tighter, mumbling something that sounded like a prayer. Nagito never prayed. Despite the sleeping bag warming them up, both boys Shivered in fear. Then the animal let out another growl and banged into the tent. Oh god, Hajime thought to himself. This is the end. We never should have gone for that water. This would never have happened. We would have been fine. We would have never gotten lost.