Forest

Chapter Three; Colby's POV

I walked with Dylan by my side. She held her knife as we began the search for our friends and/or a way out of the forest. I searched through my bag, pulling out a camera and a a voice recorder. I handed the camera to Dylan. It was a polaroid. She looked up at me confused, "Why are you giving me this?" She smiled. "I know how excited you were to go on this trip. I know that you wanted to take a bunch of pictures and find things and explore. So use this camera to take pictures or record anything that you want. Even though we are in a scary forest, I'm sure there still some cool things somewhere." I said. She smiled, " that's really optimistic... And really sweet. Thank you Colby." I nodded and just like that, she took some artsy photos of pretty flowers and weird things around.

I used the voice recorder, to keep track of everything we had experienced. "Day two in the suicide forest. We got separated from our friends Mikey Bidwell, Katelyn Jones, Jackson Millford, and Ellie Hamilton. Dylan Russel and myself, Colby Brock, are on a journey to find them and try to escape. No luck yet. Still hoping that a search team or search party will find us soon and get us the hell out of here. We have heard many strange unexplainable noises, so many dead bodies, and even found the body hanging, of a man. It's been a Trumatic and terrifying experience but we are trying to remain positive and hope we find our friends and get out of here, as soon as possible." I spoke. I ended the recording.

No matter how positive we tried to be, the situation seemed bleak and seemed to be getting worse. It made no sense. We were all together. And now are four of us were missing along with probably 100 other students and our teacher. We were sleeping, and heard nothing. But our friends have somehow vanished? It didn't add up. I prayed to myself that everybody was okay, and that we'd find a way out.
Dylan and I had been best friends since we were younger, we were almost always together. She was such a goofy happy person, who was so much fun to be around. She never failed to make me happy or put a smile on my face, even when I was at my darkest moments. I was glad that I was stuck with her. I was glad to have her by my side and on my team. She walked around recording and taking pictures of everything, even taking videos explaining everything that we had experienced since the crash.
Honestly I am surprised that the camera survived. I'm surprised that myself and Dylan survived. It was a very violent crash. I couldn't believe how many classmates had died. It was insane. It still didn't seem real. I was still somewhat in denial. It didn't make sense. It wasn't fair.

I missed my parents. I missed my little sister. I missed my dog, buddy. We were on a trip gone wrong and I just couldn't wait to get home to my family. I wasn't sure if I was even going to, but I really did try to remain calm and positive, and keep a positive mindset that I would see them again. I missed my music and my video games and my comic books. I missed playing basketball and baseball. We had only been away from home for a few days and everything was a complete disaster.

"Stop. Did you hear that?" I asked Dylan, after hearing a very strange noise a couple feet ahead of us. She looked at me, panicked. She definitely heard what I did. We exchanged looks of fear and confusion.

"I want you to stand behind this tree. Hide, right here, with your knife, and do not come out until you hear me say pineapple. That will be our SafeWord." I said, looking into Dylan's eyes. She looked up at me, confused, and as if I were crazy. "You're kidding me right?" She asked. "You can't honestly be serious."
I grabbed her hand, still looking into her eyes. " listen to me, I know you're scared. I'm scared. But I need you to promise me that you will stay here, right by this tree, and that you will not come out until you hear me say the SafeWord. Can you promise me that?" I asked. Dylan took a deep breath, but finally nodded, "I promise." I hugged her tightly, "Good."
She pulled her knife out of her boot and stood behind the tree as I started to walk forward and try to find the source of the sounds that we heard.

I walked a few feet, and scanned the surrounding area. I didn't hear any other noises, other than the regular nature sounds. And I didn't see anybody or anything. "Looks clear. Pineapple." I said.

Just then, as Dylan started to head towards me, a man came running after me. An older Chinese man, screaming in either Chinese or Japanese. The only word I could make out, was ghost or spirit. I couldn't tell if he was warning me, attacking me, or both. I pushed him off me, and he retaliated. He tackled me to the ground, still screaming. I grunted, and tried to fight him off. Then, Dylan body-slammed him off me and saw he had a gun. She took it and shot him as he approached her. After firing, she dropped the gun and covered her mouth. "W-what did I just do.." she whispered. " hey hey... Come here. It's okay. You just saved my life." I said, opening my arms and pulling Dylan in for a tight hug. I rubbed her back and tried to calm her down.

  We began to move again a few minutes later. "Mikey?" I called. "Katelyn?" Dylan sighed, "Mikey! Katelyn! Ellie! Jackson!" She cried. We looked around and walked in circles. Finding nothing. Nobody. 
  Not a minute later, we heard screaming in both directions. "Is that.. It sounds like..." Dylan said. "Go that way, I'll go that way. We meet back right here." I said, running North. Dylan nodded, heading south.
I ran as fast as I could, "Mikey? Jackson?" I called. "Where are you guys?"

I looked around, the screaming and voices stopped. I ran my fingers through my swampy hair. "Fuck.." I sighed. "What the fuck.." I said, frustrated. I didn't understand. I thought I'd find someone. Anyone. I began to worry more every second. I thought the forest was messing with me. Then, I looked ahead, there was a shadowy figure, standing about 50 feet ahead of me. Just standing. Menacingly. Then it raised it's hand, pointing at me.

    I turned around. "If you see something bad, it's not real... It's not real." I said. I kept repeating it and keeping my eyes low. I felt goosebumps all over my arms and the hair really stood up on my neck. I breathed hard and fast. "Dylan!" I thought. "Shit.." I said, taking a deep breath. I looked up. The figure was gone. I began racing back to where Dylan and I decided to meet back up. She wasn't there.

No. I couldn't lose her too. Not Dylan. This couldn't be happening. I ran around like a madman, yelling her name. "Come on.. DYLAN?" I yelled, hands on my head. There was no way I was losing her. This was not happening. I put on my purple sweater, grabbed the gun Dylan used, and began to run around, looking for her again.

"DYLAN!"