What's Out There?

Chapter 31

Sarah's POV

I woke up in what looks like the inside of a tent. I am laying in a sleeping bag. I can feel the cold metal of my gun against my back. I quickly get out of the sleeping bag and crouch down because the low top of the tent.
I move towards the side that would open, but it was zipped up and the only zipper was on the outside.
I look around the tent and see only the sleeping bag and a black backpack.
I quietly move towards it and start unzipping the bag.
In the bag, I see pairs of jeans and shorts, tshirts, a pair of sneakers, a small hair brush, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a first aid kit which contains a pocket-knife.
I grab the pocket-knife and put everything else back in the bag.
I crawl towards the door quietly, and then I stick the pocket-knife's blade through the tent. As I do so, I hear a frightened gasp from the other side. I pull the blade in only to see blood on it.
"Are you okay?" I ask, my voice quivering in fear that I hurt someone I care for.
The tent gets unzipped, and I see my dad clutching his left arm.
"Oh my... I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" I say quickly.
He says, "I'll be okay."
As he says this, he walks towards the backpack and pulls out the first aid kit.
"Fern, come see," he yells.
She comes running in, "What's... oh." She sees the injury and tends to it quickly.
~
After she finishes, she turns to me and asks, "What happened?"
"She stabbed the tent, just as I was going to open it," dad says glancing at me.
"Sorry," I say.
"Go get some rest Chief," Fern tells him.
"Okay," dad says and walks out of the tent and into another one.
"What the hell happened?" Fern yells in a somewhat quiet voice.
"Okay. So I wanted to get out, but I couldn't open it. I kinda looked into the backpack, found a pocket-knife, and was going to cut an opening to get out," I explain.
"You could have just said something," Fern said.
I say, "Well I didn't know where I was or who I was with."
"Oh," Fern replies.
"So what now?" I ask nervously.
"I don't know," Fern answers.
"I have some questions for you," I tell Fern.
She asks, "What are they?"
"What happened after I left? What happened with Danny? Last one, where is Danny?" I ask.
"Well, after you left, we all went back to sitting down; all of us but Danny. He walked into the woods and left the gun, not saying a word to us. Then about five minutes later, we got worried. I stayed with Clay whenever Chief went to find Danny. A couple minutes later, he walked into the clearing holding you in his arms while Danny followed him. Two other people followed after Danny, a girl and a boy. Danny is in his tent now. For whatever happened to him, I don't know. Maybe just hearing about her finally made him crack. He never cried when Sarah went missing; not like the rest of us," Fern explains.
"So you still don't believe I'm Sarah," I say.
"That's tricky. You see my heart wants to. Yet my brain tells me all the information that I've been given, and I don't know what to do with it," Fern answers.
"The girl and boy, did they say their names?" I ask.
"Yeah. The girl's Taylor. The boy's Jackson. Why?" Fern says.
"They came with me from the place I was at," I say, "I need to go see them."
"Go on ahead," Fern says, "but first I need that pocket-knife back."
I grab it from the floor of the tent and hand it to her. I guess she thought I had it.
The minute I walk out I see them.
"Sasha, are you okay?" Taylor asks.
"Yeah I'm fine," I answer.
"Why were you calling yourself Sarah?" Taylor asks me.
I wince at that. She is going to hate me for lying, maybe Jackson too. "It's a long story," I say.
"What is your real name?" Jackson asked.
"Sarah," I replied.
"Why did you lie to us?" Taylor asked.
"Luke made me," I answer.
"But why?" Jackson asked.
"That's the long story," I say.
"I need to know why," she said.
"I know, but it will have to wait," I say.
"I can't believe you right now," Taylor said.
"I can't talk about it now. Okay? I have a lot going on," I stress.
"Fine," she replies.
She turns to Jackson and starts whispering to him.
I walk off, back to Fern and ask, "Which tent is Danny in?"
"I don't know if he wants to see anyone right now. He looked pretty embarrassed about the whole thing," Fern replied.
"I don't care if he doesn't want to see me. What tent is he in?" I ask.
"The red one," she answers.
"Thanks," I say as I walk out. I walk over to the red tent and call out, "Danny, open up."
No response.
"Come on Danny, please open up," I call out again.
I quietly unzip the tent and I see Danny sound asleep. He looks completely normal except for the fact that his right eye was black.
Who did this to you? I wonder.
I go to zip the tent back up, but he wakes up.
"Danny, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," I quickly say.
"It's okay," he responds.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Mentally or physically?" Danny asks.
"Both," I say.
He drifts off staring at me but not at my face. At my neck.
"I'm fine physically, but I'm not too sure about the mentally part," he answers.
"I'm okay, if you were wondering," I say, "I'll let you get back to sleep. Bye Danny."
"Bye Sarah," he responds so quietly that I could barely hear it.
"What?" I ask.
"Bye Sarah," Danny said in a normal voice.
"Bye," I said as I closed the tent, smiling.