Death In A Mile

Chapter 11: Dark Green

Ten feet into the forest and I felt like I was already about to piss my pants. Behind everybody I walked, and I felt the most vunerable. Maybe it was a monster behind me, a vengeful spirit, someone from the village, or my own anxiety. We weren't even to the bad part, the part which everybody fears.

Night had begun to creep it's way up as we finally arrived at the edge. By this time I had assumed responsibility to lead the way, with the others close behind. I stopped everybody and asked if they wanted to say their last words, kind of as a joke but deep down I meant it.

Madi pulled out her map that will prove to be useless once we pass the dark green trees.

"Here we are," she expressed as everybody crowded around and she pointed. They all looked confused as to how she got this map. The look on their faces confused her as well, but she soon remembered that she had only shown me the map.

"It looks like an eye," Questa said.

"This is the perimeter of the forest we are in, this darker green part is the edge. My parents were in charge of taking inventory of the resources in the village and I always went along. Inventory is a big job so it took forever to finish. I was always bored so it gave me time to map everything out because I had nothing better to do."

Everybody looked at her wanting to applaud at her for this daunting task but they did it subliminally to each other.

"Shall we move on now?" Spark interrupted politely. We all exchanged glances at each other for approval and without words we followed one by one.

I let everybody go first, as a gentlemen's act, but really it was just delaying the inevitable. I had never stepped foot into this part of the forest before, and stepping through it was almost like stepping through an imaginary barrier, but instead of it being completely intangible I could almost feel it as I walked in, and I had to push myself slightly to pass.

I was in, and I feel like everybody else felt the barrier too but just kept walking. Immediately I got a chill run down my spine, but this time it wasn't nerves, it the temperature. It was also much darker, and I am not talking about the light reflection from the color of the trees, it was like night had sped itself up.

We all kept walking as I desperately wanted someone to start the conversation. I didn't like silence, especially when I am fearful for my life, but nobody does.

Once again I made myself up to the front and stopped everybody to make camp. I had found a relatively open part of the forest with a few bolders and lots of sticks. We all agreed on the spot and got to work.

I had put myself in charge of gathering the sticks and firewood, along with the shelter supplies. Stupidly enough I went alone, but I had to get used to this forest sooner or later, so I decided I was going to be the first to do so.

I kept walking until I could barely hear the mumbling from our camp. It was quiet enough that the snapping twigs from under me as I walked blocked out any of the noise they made. I felt alone, but I knew they could hear my scream.

I had gathered as much as I could in two arms and walked back. I quickly began to realize that I was lost. There is no way I thought as I had only traveled in a straight line.

I slowly walked back as I remembered all of the common landmarks. There was the tree with the wide trunk and moss to my left, and to my right was an egg shaped boulder, exactly as I remembered it. I know I am going in the right direction.

A few seconds later I arrived at the camp, but everybody was gone, it was like no one was ever there. I was super confused and oddly, my heart wasn't racing out of my chest, and I was calm.

I dropped my firewood and started to look around in 360 degrees. As far as the eye could see: nothing. Slowly, I turned back around towards our camp and a tall figure stood in black which I could hardly make out. It blended in so well it is as if it weren't there.

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and the figure was closer, like it teleported and my eyes were the trigger. Then I blinked; even closer. Without blinking I stared conflicting myself internally. Instantly, it jumped at me faster than light, and showed it's ugly face laughing under its hood. My heart rate spiked as it jumped at me. I had blinked like if someone were to clap in my face, and everybody was there. They were all staring at me.

"What are you doing there Lloyd?" Questa asked suspiciously and innocently.

"Uh nothing." I had no intention to tell them the hurtful truth and scare them right off the bat.

"You have been staring off into the deep forest for the past thirty seconds, not even bothering to acknowledge us," Ostro added.

"Oh sorry, my bad. I was just being dumb that's all," I lied. With suspicion, they all went with it and got back to whatever they were doing. I didn't understand it either and I didn't want to bother to explain.

Quite a while had passed and we were ready to start a fire. Madi had pulled out her matches as she started striking the box. Ostro stopped her almost in a panic.

"Hey hey what are you doing??" He exclaimed.

"She is trying to keep us warm genius. What are you afraid of?" I replied sarcastically. I was always somewhat sarcastic at the most random moments.

"No Lloyd, I am concerned that if we use all of our matches we aren't going to have any left and we will be to dumbfounded to start a fire with sticks. So we don't get into the luxury, we should learn how to start a fire with other materials from the forest," Ostro emphasized.

"Thanks for the speech Ostro, and I don't want to argue, so we will go with it for now," Madi said as she put the matches away and shoved them in her back pocket.

She had proceeded to make the fire with assistance from Ostro, as Spark and I had fixed up the final touches everybody's shelters, and Questa and Ivy prepared the food.

"Don't get used to premade food either," Ostro had turned around and said. "I know I am not the official leader but I say we get in some hunting practice tomorrow as we proceed forward. We will run out of food too and the forest has an endless supply." We all kind of silently agreed but at the same time calling him a control freak.

Eventually everything had died down and we all curled up in our shelters we built around the fire. The warmth traveling through everybody's shelters knocked everybody out quick, except me.

After an hour I was still awake and a rainstorm started to brew. Luckily we had figured out a way to protect the fire from any expected rainstorm by putting a makeshift tarp over it which was hooked up to all of our shelters. I had finally started to sleep as the day concluded and the rain roared.