Dark Forest

3.Bus travel

Hi! This story is still alive and written by me, so here comes chapter number 3. I hope you will enjoy it and have fun while reading ;-)

On the day that, according to their invitation tickets, their camping trip was supposted to begin, Sam got up early enough to pack and get to the bus stop at the agreed time, where he was to meet his friends to ride together to Newtown, where they would get more information than what was written on their tickets. From what Sam had learned so far, from Newtown they still had to take a train to Oldtown, and only from there they would walk to the beginning of the path that would lead them from one campsite to the next until they turned around and finished their vacation.

Repeating the plan of the trip to himself, he blindly walked all the way to the bus stop. The sun was just rising, although he realized that it was still relatively dark around him when he managed to sit down on a bus stop bench that was wet with dew. Without thinking, he reached into the side pocket of his backpack and pulled out a torch. He silently thanked himself that it hadn't occurred to him to put it inside his backpack among the rest of his things. Then he would definitely be sitting in the dark.

With the light on, he immediately felt more confident. He had never been afraid of the dark, but he couldn't remember ever sitting at a bus stop at such an hour with his backpack packed to the brim. In order not to fall asleep, he began to shift the flashlight from hand to hand without thinking, at least until someone's loud protest stopped him in his tracks.

"Sam, don't shine it in my eyes," Penny groaned, covering her eyes with her hand.

"Sorry," Sam replied immediately, ashamed, lowering the flashlight so that its beam of light now illuminated the pavement beneath his feet. "We're alone for now," he informed simply as Penny sat down on the bench next to him.

"Did you get the time wrong, as usual?" Penny asked him teasingly, showing him the screen of her phone.

"Oh no!" Sam sighed, covering his face with his hand in embarrassment when Penny couldn't hold back her laughter any longer.

"I thought I'd be the first to come, since I live the furthest out of all of us. You're the closest," she explained, but the cheeky smile didn't leave her face.

"You mean I could have slept in at least another half hour?" Sam, pausing, looked at her in surprise, only now realizing he had miscalculated.

"We both know that wouldn't happen, Sam," Penny patted his shoulder comfortingly. "You couldn't sleep, because being ready for action would successfully keep you awake."

"How do you know me so well?" Sam asked curiously.

"You can't sleep a wink on the night shifts, no matter how long you're up on your feet," Penny explained briefly.

"You're watching me?" Sam asked, surprised.

"No," Penny replied with no less surprise, gently backing away. "It's just... It's hard not to notice the light on when you choose nights to finish up your backlog of reports."

"Sorry if I wake you, but, you know best that on the day shifts there's usually no time to deal with things like that," Sam tried to explain.

"I understand. I prefer to take most of my reports home and finish them there on my days off," Penny admitted.

"But you know that days off are for rest," Sam reminded teasingly.

"I know, smartass," she laughed dryly. "I was supposed to bring another folder of reports today too, but... they didn't fit in my backpack."

"What do you mean they didn't fit?" Sam asked, astonished. "Yours looks like it's half empty compared to mine," he joked, pointing to the two backpacks that were now standing next to each other.