"Peter!” I heard Tanya's voice call out. She must have seen him through the trees or heard the crunching sound of our feet on the ground.
“Larry's with you right?”
We increased our pace.
“No, a bear ate him, bummer. He was such a good guy,” I murmured as we stepped through the trees and came out in front of her and Michelle.
“Thank goodness. He was so annoying,” she replied with an eye roll.
“If it's like that then you would've been a tastier meal,” I shot back.
“Well, I think the bear was looking for dumb victims–”
“Did you guys find anything?” Peter cut in.
We glared at each other before looking back at him.
“Yeah, we found some stones,” Michelle said, turning around and crouching to pick up three flat stones that lay on the floor behind a tree.
My eyes widened and Peter and I exchanged glances.
She dropped the stones between us and took a step back.
“They slid off a boulder we found somewhere and we thought it might mean something. It's stupid I know. It should've been a paper or–”
“No, no that's perfect!” Peter exclaimed. “Larry and I found the exact same thing.”
“Wait seriously?” Tanya asked, her face lighting up in surprise.
“Larry, show them.”
In a few seconds our own set of stones were lying on the floor next to theirs.
“What do you think they are?” Tanya asked and crouched next to her and Michelle's set. She spread them out on the floor next to one another. They were all roughly the same size as ours. The first one was roundish, like a roughly carved oval shape. The second was a circle missing a minor segment and the third was just a rectangle.
I crouched down beside her and spread Peter and I's set out.
“I don't know, weird shapes that weren't carved out well.”
“Yeah, but the thing is, they weren't carved. They broke off from the giant rock we found.”
“You think so?” I said turning to face her. “Did they break off or did they slide off the boulder?”
She pondered on it for a while.
“They slid off,” Michelle said suddenly from behind and Tanya turned to look at her.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” she answered with a nod. “We didn't use much force on it. It doesn't make sense.”
“Exactly our thoughts,” Peter said. “It's like they were meant to come off the rock with just little force applied.”
“So…all of us finding huge rocks, getting these flat pieces of stone that slid off…does this mean that we're on the right track?” Tanya asked.
“I hope so,” Peter answered, walking over to us. “Honestly I expected to find a piece of paper. I didn't expect to find some flat stones that probably lead to some other clue.”
“What do we do with them now?” I asked.
We were all crouched in front of the stones, staring at them intently.
“Maybe the shapes mean something when put in a particular order?” I suggested.
“Hey…” Michelle started and we all turned to face her.
YOU ARE READING
Fall in San Diego
Adventure[Editing] Haunted by the death of his family that he caused, Larry cuts himself off from the world and relapses into depression, subconsciously craving anything that would make him happy. He finds himself lost in the woods after his swirling emotion...
