Night Vale Unsolved

16

"Ryan!"
Shane called after his friend, who walked, trance-like, towards the distant trees. Shane paused to catch his breath, and Carlos jumped in to stop him.
"Shane, I know you're worried, but yelling isn't going to help. We have to get to him before he gets to the Forest."
Before Carlos had even finished, Shane had taken off across the open, uneven field. His long legs carried him pretty quickly, but his feet kept getting caught on rocks or in holes. Carlos, who was in a more sensible state of mind, followed a bit more cautiously. By the time he had caught up to Shane, and the two of them had caught up to Ryan, they were halfway to the Forest.
"Ryan, can you hear me?"
Ryan glanced at Shane, but didn't say anything. His steps faltered, but he didn't stop.
"Ok," Carlos began, "Shane, the first thing we have to do is to not listen to the trees. We can't help anyone if we join them. Now, we have to find a way to distract Ryan from whatever the trees are saying."
"What are they saying?"
"We can't be sure exactly, but it's usually compliments and praise."
"Ok...how do we distract him?"
"Let's see...oh!" Carlos snapped his fingers, getting a slight reaction from Ryan, but much less so than before. "Larry Leroy, out on the edge of town. He almost joined the Forest, but then he remembered, uh, I think it was his cable TV? And that snapped him out of it, apparently."
"So we...talk about TV?" Shane looked very unsure about this idea.
"No, no," Carlos assured him, "What's something that he really enjoys, something that excited him?"
Shane thought, then straightened up with an idea. "I think I have an idea," he sighed, turning to Ryan.
Placing his hands on Ryan's shoulders, Shane got him to stop walking. Ryan made a slight sound of protest, trying to move beyond Shane or at least see around him, but their difference in height - along with Ryan's dazed state - gave Shane a clear edge.
"Ryan, listen to me." Shane began, staring straight into his friend's eyes with a look that made Carlos take a step back. "I don't know what these trees are telling you, buddy, but I know you gotta stop listening to them. Listen to me instead, alright? Why are we here? Can you remember that? We're here to see if anything weird is going on here and hey! Apparently there is some weird shit going on! And it's our job - your job - to find it, alright? You've done it before. Old City Jail? You might have found a ghost! I mean, it's a hard maybe, but that's like, your whole deal with this series!"
Shane seemed to just be rambling at this point, but just then, another voice cut him off.
"Might have found a ghost?" Ryan asked.