Prisoner of the Forest

Chapter 1

"Come on, let's get going already!" rang through my ears as my best friend, Lance, shouted from the driver's seat of his pickup truck.

We were finally done with college; every man's dream, right? With those degrees in our hands and the endless possibilities in front of us, nothing could stop our success, or so they said. The only rightful thing to do now would be to celebrate, right? That's where the camping came in. They were more interested in it than me, but who can turn down quality time with your boys? And.... their girlfriends. They said they had a good friend there to meet me, so in a way, my "celebration" was like a blind date.

It seemed everything in my life without Anna has been just that: blind. My twin sister was my best friend and she was taken from me at the age of 19 by a drunk driver whom I never met and never forgave. No girlfriends would follow her passing, no deep connections, nothing of that sort, only a barrier between me and everyone I loved. It was so different now. While they were laughing, and partying, and carrying on, they didn't realize how quickly it could all slip through their fingertips. One moment they were there and the next gone, or even worse, the loss of someone they loved.

I accompanied them on these types of trips because after 5 years, the death of a family member begins to lose its place as an excuse for not living your life, especially to your friends, and this was a part of my life. Lance, Alec, and James were the biggest parts of my life. Being 23,000 miles away from the only family you have forces you to find new people to be around and they were that comfort for me. Always pushing me to "put myself out there", they put me in some of the craziest experiences of my life, and I had a feeling this weekend would be one of them.

"Hey Dawson, will you grab that water bottle from the cooler before we get moving?" Alec asked from the backseat.

"Sure, no problem." I responded as I reached my hand into the cooler and felt for a plastic bottle. I tossed it to him and jumped up into the shotgun seat to begin our weekend.

After about half an hour of jokes and laughing about the possibility of me meeting a girl I liked, we reached our destination: Lake Michigan. The thick forest provided the perfect camping trip with long hikes, and ponds for fishing, as well as swimming and boating in the great lake itself.

We met up with the rest of our group at the shore where we parked our vehicles and loaded up for the 12 mile hike into the nearly untouched part of the wilderness. The privacy there was said to be indescribable. But I wondered how the wilderness would feel about our disturbance of its peace for the next 3 days. It didn't matter though, I knew I would be the only one in my party thinking of that anyways.

A shining silver car sped into the lot and whizzed around to park by the truck. I watched Leah, Jade, and Elise step out of the small car. Their familiar faces searched routinely for my friends as I was very used to.

James and Leah were the first to embrace one another; they clung tightly as if they hadn't seen the other in weeks when they had, in fact, been together the night before. Leah was new to our group of friends, only knowing James for a couple of months but the couple acted as if they had known each other all their lives. Their devotion to one another was felt by those around them and at times it could be off-putting due to the short nature of their relationship and the lack of fully knowing Leah. However, their high energy personalities made them quite enjoyable to be around so I ignored the occasional annoyance I got each time they saw each other and reunited as if he had just returned from war.

Alec and Jade kissed gently on the lips when Jade approached the truck to help unload. She was the most practical of my three friends' girlfriends and I often appreciated it. Though she and Alec looked more like siblings than a couple with their matching black hair and blue eyes, they were good together and good for each other. Jade's determination and strong values seemed to motivate my friend to want something more than what was happening in the right now. In a way, it was like she was his motivation, or at least some kind of inspiration.