The Survival

Chapter 12

We quickly came up with a way to how to go back. When we were running we didn't make any curves we always went straight. Our first idea was to do the exact same way back on the tracks, till Sarah reminded us of our "little encounter" with the dark figure, since none of us wanted to cross paths with it again, we decided that we would circle it.

To explain better, we are going to make our way back like we did to reach here, but when we acknowledge that we are closer to the verge of the woods we are going to make a sharp turn and instead of going forward we are going to do kind of a zig zag.

Okay I suck at explaining something, never mind.

I regained the energy my body needed, I'm still exhausted but it doesn't matter, because right now, all I want is to leave this place.

I adjust Beth's arm on my shoulder and try to have a better hold on her waist with my other arm, Nathan is on the other side doing the exact same thing. She woke up not long before we came up with our plan to go back, in another situation we would let her rest more after she was awake, but this isn't a normal thing. She doesn't have any strength on her limbs, and she is dizzy from the impact her head had on the floor when she fell, so when we were getting everything ready to go back, I volunteered to help carrying her.

Her head is leaning on her arm that is being supported by Nathan, her eyes are closed, once in a while she tries to straighten herself up, yet she never can, her legs have barely any force and her arms are flat, which leaves me and Nathan with the difficult task of trying to not let them slip from our shoulders while carrying her body.

"I'm sorry Beth." I look at her and what I see is a vulnerable girl, a broken friend. Her eyes flutters open and her blue orbs lock with my green ones, but only for a small fraction of time before she closes them.

"For what?" Her voice huskily for not using her for so long.

"This is my fault." I feel a pair of eyes on me and I know that they don't belong to Beth but to Nathan, and sure enough, when I look at him, I discover that he was already looking at me, while Beth's eyes remain closed.

"How is this your fault?" Beth mumbles.

"I said that this was Ed's fault, and yes, he is guilty in some way. We wouldn't be here if he hadn't had the idea of us coming and if he had left the trail of bread we would have found our way back by now," I pause to take a deep breath, I can feel my eyes getting watery. "But I had chance to say no, twice. The first one was at the hotel when the idea to come here came up and the second one was when we heard those moans and noises from this supposed woman, when we were still on the tracks. If I had said no, we could have been safe, just maybe if I had said no they would have thought about it and wouldn't even go into the forest, you wouldn't be in this state Beth." I feel a single tear leave my eye. The pressure I feel, the guilt, the shame is so much to hold back.

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known this."

"No, but I could have guessed that something would happen, you had the feeling, you warned me, and I brushed it off." Beth doesn't say anything after that knowing that I'm right, at times like this I wish I wasn't.

"Still, it is not your fault." This time a male's voice that answers me. "If we are going to see who's at fault, then I also am. At the hotel, I forced you to accept while calling you a chicken and saying that you were afraid."

Another tear leaves my eye and runs down my cheek, I probably look horrible now. My nose must be red, my eyes bloodshot and puffy and my face stained with the little amount of makeup on my face, all in all I look like a big baby.

"Hey, no need to cry." His thumb starts to caress my arm that it's around Beth's waist, where his arm also is. "Shh, cupcake. Don't cry" he continues to draw little circles on my skin while telling me sweet words.