FOREST OF THE LOST

PART TWENTY THREE

42.

A more difficult option is being taken over an apparent simple one. Leaving the town park is the goal and when one exit is close by their current position, another exit is chosen on feeling and perhaps something else is intervening despite the fact that the chosen destination is quite the distance away. The spirit within the group, as it exists, may have strengthened, or it might have weakened with that decision being made.

For Karen, explanations are needed for in a way she is more lost than any other member of the group. The exit the group are now heading to is indeed a fair distance away, so Terrence says he will fill Karen in along the way though he no more than begins to do this when Collie the German Shepard once again begins barking.

The group had only just begun walking when the dog began barking again. Something or someone has grabbed its attention. Collie doesn't ever react in such a way to anyone whether they be familiar or stranger though for some reason or other, he is reacting now to someone or something. The reason why he is doing soon becomes apparent.

'What is it boy?' Karen asks.

This is the second time the dog has reacted to something; the first time was back up by the church and this time something back in that direct has caught his attention. First time round Karen couldn't see anything that may cause a reaction, this time however she can see something or this time it is someone she sees rather than something.

'Dale?'

Terrence looks right at Karen for a moment or two. He questions himself as to if she spoke the name Dale. She doesn't mean Dale Blake, does she? The man who was her partner at the time she entered the park? Terrence looks in the direction Karen had been looking in and sees nothing but that doesn't mean there hadn't been someone there. Terrence doesn't get to ask her anything for she has begun to move off in that direction.

'Great', speaks Jason. 'We have only just begun in this direction and already something has happened. I knew it would be an effort of a journey.'

Karen did see someone, and she was sure that this someone was or is Dale Blake, only he looks to be so much older, like quite a bit older than what she knows him to be. On top of that too. he appeared to be wearing a dressing gown and slippers. There was no hanging around either for as soon as he had been spotted, he began to retreat in behind a few trees.

The dog moves with Karen as if he too is sure of who it is he had seen hence the reaction he had. Karen has also moved so quick that Terrence could not do anything to ensure she remains part of the group. If she moves out of view, will he have to begin again with her as in find her once more and start over with her?

Yeah, when Terrence had met Karen for a second time, to her it may as well have been the first time they meet. Karen has moved beyond those trees where she is sure Dale had been and gone past where she had seen Dale fade behind. When Terrence gets to this spot it would also appear that Karen and Collie have both also gone.

'No' Terrence speaks out loud.

This is the last thing he wanted, to lose one or more of this little group of the lost. Looking beyond those trees in the hopes of seeing Karen near-by, he sees something else. From the corner of his eye, he sees someone move quickly behind him. How did she move so quick to be behind him from possibly being somewhere up ahead of him?

He turns his head to see Karen running and he is surprised by the fact that she and the dog are not slowing down. They just continue on running as if they do not know anyone within the group for as she passed everyone else, they all clearly are in her line of sight and soon both runner and dog are out of view.

'The hell?' Terrence speaks out loud.

As if all this isn't crazy enough Karen and Collie emerge back out from beyond the trees that Terrence still stands almost at a loss in this moment, she is aware that she is part of a group. Had the passing Karen been a previous incarnation, a Karen yet to have become part of the group? Or some element of the loop Terrence felt she may have been in?