Attached [Rewritten Version]

6. The Miller Woods

Saturday, September 24th, 2016

They crawled until they reached bushes that would hide them from sight before they got up and walked a bit further; all in complete silence.

They were probably all equally excited over the fact they managed to trespass a forest that was guarded by the army, not taking in account how stupid and illegal their actions were.

"We're actually here," Edward said in disbelief, taking in their surroundings. But Sid bet he couldn't see much, since there was no light. The moon was almost completely behind the leaves of the trees, making it harder to see where they were walking. In response, Sid handed out the first set of flashlights. They had three extra flashlights, a power bank and fully charged phones in case needed.

"Let's agree on using one at a time, only when necessary," he told them, not wanting to waste the batteries.

"Got it, save the batteries." Davy nodded, grabbing his phone. "Let's take a picture to prove we were here to the girls."

Sid smirked, posing next to Edward, while Davy held out the phone to take a selfie of them. They took two or three serious pictures, but then goofed around by pulling scared faces, chuckling as they watched the pictures.

"Okay, let's go and find out what is so scary about these woods." Davy pulled out a map he had in his backpack, a compass, and his flashlight to take a look at the map. He placed a dot at the location of entry. Since he had been a boy's scout for years, Edward and Sid just let him do his thing and guide them further into the woods, every so often leaving a trace in a tree with bright coloured fabric that they ripped off an old shirt, mapping the spots on the map to know where they were.

They weren't fools. They went over this, again, and again, and again, coming up with safety precautions and whatnot to make sure they would find their way back out again.

It was all they did for a while, playing boy's scout while making their way over to lake Legis in the midst of the forest.

"This is boring, dude," Edward complained, whiny voice to empower his state of boredom. "It's just a fucking forest, nothing scary about."

"I know, man," Sid complained along with him while holding the flashlight for Davy to mark their location on the map again. "What the hell caused Cory to freak out and end up in a ward for over two years?" As an act of futile rebellion, he kicked away a pebble.

"So far, I would say those doctors are right, and he is a loon—"

Sid swirled around on his feet when he heard cracking sounds behind Edward, and they all silenced instantly. "What was that?"

"Sounded like someone stepping on twigs," Davy muttered, slowly getting up from the ground while Sid turned his flashlight to see behind Edward. There was nothing there.

"Ed, you fucking idiot!" Davy scowled, shining his own light towards Edward's feet. "You're the one stepping on twigs."

Sid chuckled at the broken twigs under his feet, but then he heard the same sound again, now close behind himself. They all turned in unison, shining light in three different directions: nothing.

"I swear, I wasn't moving," Sid defended himself, but he already saw that Davy knew he wasn't the one making the sounds. But while they remained silent, there was no sound coming from breaking twigs again.

"It's probably an animal," Sid rationalized, trying to calm himself down at the same time. "Let's keep moving."

Edward and Davy agreed with a nod, and the three of them started moving again, towards lake Legis. They reached it without any trouble, relieved because they made it faster than they had calculated for the walk. They needed to be back in town before the sun would rise. They took pictures as evidence they made it all the way to the banks of the lake without an issue before they sat down.