The Crooked Tree

Chapter One

Carter
     The bell rang loudly, snapping me out of my daydreams and bringing me back to reality. Eighth period was over now, so I picked up my notebooks and walked out of my science classroom.

     I walked through the halls of my school, passing groups of kids who were putting away their books in their lockers and chatting about what they were going to do over the weekend, even though it was only Thursday. Continuing down the hallway until I stopped at my locker, 402, I threw my stuff inside and slammed the door shut, locking it. All of a sudden, a pair of arms wrapped around my neck. I was scared for a few seconds until I realized that it was my friend, Elliot.

     "Hah, got you, Carter! I put you in a choke hold, but it was just a joke, so I guess you could say it's a JOKE-HOLD!!"

     I sighed, then laughed hysterically at his joke. We both laughed for a long time. When he let go of me, I turned around to greet him. He had sandy long hair, which was really messy, and bright green eyes. He had lots of freckles on his face and big glasses, so lots of people labeled him as a nerd. It was probably because he also wore a lot of band and anime t-shirts. And, to be honest, he kind of was, but he wasn't really the kid who liked studying or learning.

     "Hey, do you want to walk home together today?" Elliot asked me.

     "Sure," I replied with a smile on my face, "We can take the shortcut through the woods, if you want."

     "Awesome!" he said, clearly excited to take a different path today. He gets excited easily.

     We walked out the door of our school, Lincoln high. I was tired from the boring Thursday, and I just wanted to go home and relax. Elliot and I lived in the same neighborhood, and that's how we met. We had both taken the shortcut through the woods almost everyday, and Elliot eventually came to talk to me. At first, since I was pretty anti-social, it was a little awkward, until Eliot made a joke, and he broke the ice with one hit. We talked for so much longer after that, and he became one of my best friends.

     The forest we walked through was thick, with lots of leaves on the ground, which were many different colors because it was fall. There was a chilly breeze in the air, and I gladly accepted it as it raced against my skin.

     Elliot and I came upon a twisted tree. It was about the time that we usually took a break and sat down at a random tree. Sometimes we did homework, other times we just talked. We sat down at the base of the tree and Elliot grabbed a granola bar from his backpack. He handed me one and I ate it quickly. School lunch wasn't good at all, so any snack you could get after school was great.

     "You seem quieter than usual. Was Ms. Crist hard on you guys today?

     "Yep." Ms. Crist was my science teacher. She was not a good person, but she was even worse at the end of the day. She was yelling for almost the entire period for absolutely no reason. She was obviously my least favorite teacher.

After finishing our snack and talking for a while, we stood up, and that's when it happened. I still kind of regret it today. I leaned against the tree, and I heard something. It sounded like talking. I put my ear to the tree, but I immediately backed away. The tree was... cold. Colder than a tree should be, even at this time of year.

Elliot noticed my strange behavior, so he asked me, "Hey, Carter, are you okay?"

"Elliot, I think there's something in this tree."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, take a look." I pulled him closer to the tree and put his ear against it. He was confused for a moment, but then his eyes grew wide as he heard what I did.

"What is that? Are there people in there?" Elliot asked me, obviously scared.

"I have no idea. What should we do?"

"I don't know." He turned and leaned against the tree. "Maybe we should ju-"

He was cut off as we heard the sound of screeching metal. We looked to each other. What was going on? We walked around the tree to follow the noise, and we were shocked to find what had made the noise.

A panel of what we thought was wood had slid open, revealing a flight of stairs leading underground. It was too dark, so it was hard to see what was down there, but we could see that the inside was made completely of steel.

"What is this?" I asked aloud, confused and frightened.

"Should we go down?"

I stared at Elliot with fear. "What?! Why?"

Before he could answer, we heard voices coming from within the bunker, but this time, they were shouting. And then we heard intense footsteps coming up the staircase. Our minds were clouded with fear, and all we could do was run. We didn't want to take the consequences of what would have happened if we had stayed. But we made the stupidest decision in our whole lives.

We were going to return.

And we were going to find out what was going out here.