The Forest

Part 2-Into the Forest

*A/N* Here is a shorter chapter for you. 

"Dude I don't like this at all right now," Brennen whined.

"How long until we get to the forbidden part?" V-Ron asked nervously. The eerie silence unnerving her as the group of vloggers walked down the forest path. All around them was silence. The wind couldn't penetrate the dense tree line despite them being so close to the entrance of the national forest.

"It takes about 45 minutes to hike the trail," Elton responded.

They continued down the walkway, dead leaves and twigs crushed under their feet sounded like mini explosions in the stillness of the night.

"Do we spread out flashlights out," Jay asked reservedly.

"Yeah, let's do what Jay said," V-Ron's voice wavered with tiny tremors of fear. She knew how stupid this idea was. What they were doing was the beginning of a horror movie scenario. "Hey, you know what would be a great idea? How about we fly to a foreign nation, deliberately trespass in a haunted forest of death, then upload it to YouTube. It'll get so many views!" She muttered quietly to herself.

Colby had heard his girlfriend's mumbled rant and settled for a quiet laugh as a response.

V-Ron Squeaked out a high-pitched sound while jumping at the unexpected chuckle that rumbled beside her.

Her squeak made him laugh harder, "What was that noise! That was so cute."

Elton stopped walking to look at her. "Umm, what the fuck was that?" he asked the smaller 22-year-old.

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts, and Colby scared me," she explained.

"That sounded like a squirrel dying or something," Brennen commented.

"Haha very funny. Let's keep going; I can see something up ahead." V-Ron started walking ahead of the group to a sign hanging crookedly on a tree.

Brennen, ever curious, ran up to see what it was. "Yo this might be the suicide hotline number," his voiced as excitedly as one could when trapped in a dark forest, "Cause there's telephone numbers."

"Yeah, I think that's it. You're right," Elton agreed as he tried to focus the camera on the white sign.

"Does the number end in 9090? That's the last four digits of the hotline for Tokyo." Her question was met with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. "What, I did my research. 9090 isn't a hard number sequence to remember."

"Let's keep moving. We still have a while to go." Elton stated, and the group was once again on the move.

"For Real though," Jay addressed the group, "we have five flashlights, can we like-" "Actually spread them out," Elton finished.

"We can be close, but let's just spread the flashlights out," Jay added.

"I'll spread it on this side, you and Ron focus straight ahead, Colby you focus on your side," Brennen instructed.

They each took up their quadrant, keeping an eye out for any signs of movement in the abyss that lay in front of them.

Elton broke the relative silence they had been walking in, "There's never a point in my life that I thought I'd be taking a stroll and there was a one in three chance that we will see an actual corpse."

Jay inhaled sharply, "Can we not talk about that right now?"

"Well, we need to talk about that, because what the fuck happens if we see one," Elton insisted. His voice strained with apprehension.

"We have to cross that bridge when it comes," Brennen tried to reason.

"No. I want to know now," Elton pushed.

"When we get out we will look up who to call if we end up seeing anyone. We'll just have to remember the general area and the time it took us to get to them," V-Ron answered. "Besides, I'm not that worried about the bodies. Zombies aren't real, and as long as we don't get too close, we shouldn't have to worry about any diseases from the decay. It's not like we will have much luck with service anyway."

"What do you mean," Jay asked sharply.

"Well, it shouldn't be too big of an issue until we get closer to Mt. Fuji, but many scientists say that the iron content in the volcanic rock causes magnetic interference for satellite signals and magnets. Meaning GPS, incoming and outgoing calls, along with most compasses have a hard time working here," She nervously rambled off what she has learned in her research.

"Come on guys; we knew cell service was going to be spotty. We are in the middle of a forest," Colby urged, trying to shake off the gloom that had unintentionally settled.

He walked faster to catch up with his girlfriend. "Hey, are you doing alright," he asked as he took her hand and interlocked their fingers.

"I am right now," she replied, "I may not be tomorrow or the next day, but at this moment, I'm doing about as good as you can in this situation. I am, however, a little worried about you." She squeezed his hand in a comforting gesture.

"Why? I do stupid stuff like this all the time," Colby asked curiously.

"Well, you had a rough awakening, especially with how much you and Brennen drank last night. And now you're getting sick; your voice is shot, I just want to make sure you aren't overdoing it."

"Ronnie, I'm fine. You don't have to worry about a thing, alright Doll?" He gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head.

"Yeah, alright Stud," she playfully bumped their shoulders together.

"Aww, wasn't that cute!" She turned her head to see Elton and his camera focused on her and Colby.

"Hey L.T., if that shows up, at any time, in anyone's video, I will castrate you with a rusty spoon and feed your balls to Circle alright," Her voice dripping with intent.

"And I thought Halloween horror nights were scary. That speech mixed with this forest," Brennen exhaled, "Man this shit is terrifying."