I Have To Protect Them - Cleofis Drisen

Chapter Five: Trapped and Alone Part 2

We got home and I made some toast while Greg had a bowl of cereal. We had barely finished eating, when our phones buzzed. I received a text from Allie while Greg got one from Cassandra. They both asked us to meet them at the bridge on the edge of town. I sighed as we got up and went to the car. When we got to the bridge we saw Harry, Luke, Clark, and Grizz standing by Harry's convertible car. I felt my heart ping when Grizz glanced at me, but my gaze went past him to the end of the road. The road was cut off by a massive thick forest and I felt the knot in my stomach from earlier return. The thing that scared me most was the fact that there are no woods around here, you'd have to drive at least an hour to get to a thick forest like the one that's in front of us now. My nerves about Griss and I's conversation last night were completely replaced by new ones. Greg got out of the car and he took a few steps towards them. "What the fuck?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows. I sheepishly got out of the car like the forest was going to attack me and I walked around the front of the car. Clark chuckled and said "yeah that's what we said. What are you two doing here?" Greg didn't appear to have heard him, but he must have because he responded, "Allie and Cassandra texted us." I looked over to my left and saw that the train tracks that were underneath the bridge were cut off by the forest too. I felt my heart sink as I instinctively walked over to the railing and just stared off into the distance.

Just then a few people came running over to where we were. After a few minutes everyone was there, including Allie, Cassandra, Will, Gordie, Kelly, Helena, Luke, Grizz, Clark, Harry, Sam, Becca, and Campbell. I was frozen staring at the forest from the bridge, while listening to the conversation that was going on behind me. Cassandra was silently standing beside me and I could tell she was just as worried as I was. "There's only so many options" I heard Gordie's voice speak and Allie stated "maybe we're dreaming. It's the best option." I scoffed at her and shook my head. "Maybe this is some elaborate fucking game. Like someone built an exact replica of our town and just put it in the middle of nowhere. And if we just walk like this way or that way or anyway, eventually get back to the real world. I'm not saying that it makes any sense" Harry tried to come up with an explanation. Cassandra left my side as she spoke, clearly thinking out loud. "There was a smell, then it went away, then it came back, and the buses came for us-" Harry cut her off and I let out a sigh. Why was it every time Cassandra said something that he had to argue with her. "You just gonna work this out, Cassandra. Like some logic problem. I mean not a flicker of doubt." "The world doesn't just turn upside down without a reason. We're not in some play within a play. Okay, clever is not the same thing as true. There is a point to everything. There are answers." Cassandra stated strongly and I completely agreed with her. There had to be an explanation and we need to find it. I wasn't the only one that agreed with her because Helena spoke up, "that's right. God doesn't just play games with people for fun." I scoffed at her like I did with Harry and thought 'not true, God does. My life was completely ripped apart and I had to hurt everyone that I care about to save them. So if that's Gods big plan for me, it sucks.' I was taken out of my thoughts when I hear Luke say "alright look, Grizz and I will get a group together and we'll go hike out here through the woods. Like a search party." I slowly turned around and my thoughts took off again. 'Grizz's leaving! He's going into the woods? What if there's an animal out there and it attacks? What if there's nothing out there and they get lost? What if he never comes back?' I swallowed hard and I realized I was staring at Grizz. He noticed, giving me a confused look and awkwardly looked away. I noticed the knuckles on his right hand had bruises and cuts on them. I'm guessing they were from the fight and I instantly felt guilty. "I think that's a good idea" Helena said and I stared at the ground. "Do you think it's safe?" Cassandra asked and Grizz responded making me look up at him again. "Yeah sure." He was looking at Cassandra then his eyes moved over to me, as if comforting me in some way. Luke followed his gaze, then when his eyes landed on me he smirked making me blush and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He nodded at me, almost like he was promising me that he'd keep Grizz safe and said looking away, "Grizz knows what he's doing and if there's people out there we got to find 'em right? Get help." Suddenly and weirdly a thought just occurred to me. 'If we can't reach anyone, does that include my doctors?'