The Dark Forest

Chapter 2
Chapter Two: The Eerie Chill

Chapter Description: The search party arrives at the dark forest. While Alex and Amy unwind, everyone else is very tense.

The trees were dull and lifeless. Any hint of wildlife was scarce. As the van containing the search party came to a halt, the forest grew ever quieter, watching and waiting. Justin felt the eerie chill as Alex opened the passenger door. He had never felt this way before. His foreboding chill was akin to the dread of walking to a switch to turn on the light in the dark as a child. Knowing that nothing was there had helped him to get over his fear, but Justin felt that there actually was something out there, and that it wasn’t just his imagination. He wanted to warn the others, but felt as though he could not speak.

Everyone but Justin had climbed out of the car. Justin found himself paralyzed with fear. He felt a sinister evil presence which loomed over the whole forest, which made him wonder why the hell Melvin had recommended his nephew vacation here. It was this premonition which testified to Justin that if Mike were gone, it was not because of wildlife. Justin’s trance was broken as he felt the van shake. “Hey, Justin, we’re here already! Help us unpack.” Alex called. Feeling his body had regained movement, Justin slowly climbed out of the car.

“You fall asleep in there or something?” Alex pressed on, “I thought Jordan announced that we were stopping here.” Justin ignored him. He knew it would piss off his drinking buddy to no end and he’d probably end up regretting it sooner rather than later, but he felt as though he couldn’t let down his guard for a second. The presence he had felt had weakened its grasp over him, but he still felt it.

“Haha, he was sleeping like a baby the whole ride up. I hope baby Justin isn’t gonna slow us down.” Amy teased. Justin still had no idea how Amy got tied into the search and rescue operation. Her presence was agitating, and so was Alex’s. Justin hoped they wouldn’t get friendly out here, but knew the odds were stacked against him.

Ignoring her prior statement, Justin asked, “So… how did you get involved in all this again?” He spotted a look of denial in her eyes which he took to mean she hadn’t come to terms with the purpose of this trip. She straightened up before answering, “Melvin told me I could come along… I hope we find Mike soon!” He knew it… she was just along for the ride. “I see.” he said while turning to help unload the van.

***

After unloading the car, everyone got to work on setting up their tent, with the exception of Alex and Amy, who had gone off to explore and gather fire wood, leaving Justin alone with Melvin’s acquaintances. Justin had never met any of them before now. He offered his hand to each of them, only to receive a nod every time. “I’m Justin,” he said nervously, sensing that he probably wasn’t going to fit with this crowd either. ‘Shit, I’m not gonna get along with anyone here,’ he thought.

“You sure took you’re time waking up when we got here,” Ed replied, “You do realize the rest of us can’t take time out of work to search out here. I believe we gave fair notice when we arrived.” Justin wanted to mention the presence he felt in the van, but knew they’d only scorn him for that too. “I wasn’t asleep, I was just thinking. I got out as soon as I could.” He hoped they’d drop it. “You were in there for over ten minutes,” Jordan said, “I hope you’re not planning to hold us up when we start searching.” Justin decided that he probably wasn’t going to get anywhere talking with them, so he excused himself.

As Justin assembled his poles, he watched for spiders. On his first camping trip he‘d been bitten by a spider. It wasn‘t a poisonous spider, but it hurt like hell, so it was always a habit to inspect his gear for bugs that could bite before he began setting up camp. He found it odd that there weren‘t any. He usually almost always brushed off a bug or two before setting things up. As he finished setting up his tent he overheard the older guys bicker about how the younger members of the team wouldn‘t pull their weight..

Justin waited for Alex and Amy to return. He didn’t think he’d get along with them a lot better than he was with the older guys, but maybe he could brush up on some school work with Amy or something. He spied them laughing as they walked in while carrying firewood and decided he didn’t want to talk with them, knowing that they were probably past the ‘friends/getting to know each other’ aspect of Alex’s fling with Amy. He decided to slap an invisible mosquito on his arm. Justin then looked around to find that there were no mosquitoes in sight, and hoped no one else would notice.

***

The car was unloaded. The tents were up. The group sat around the camp fire as they ate dinner. The older guys remained silent. Alex and Amy tried to avoid speaking to each other, and Justin didn’t feel too warm towards any of them, so they ate in silence.

Amy was the first to break the silence, “So I noticed that there’s a three-man, and two one-man tents…” she began. She was cut off by Ed “Did you not bring your own tent? That is one of the basic necessities you need when going camping,.” After an awkward pause, Alex proposed, “She can sleep in my tent.” Amy shot a warm, thankful smile at Alex, only for Ed to continue, “Where were you planning to sleep? It’s too dangerous out here to sleep under the stars and Rick doesn’t like to put up his van as a hotel.” Alex turned red before answering, “Well, I’m obviously gonna sleep in my tent…”

No one responded to that. Justin knew that Alex and Amy weren’t going to be very quiet that night. He decided that it was time to ask the question that had been bugging him ever since they got out of the car. “Why didn’t we find Mike’s truck before we set up camp? We took the whole afternoon to set up camp and it’ll take a few hours to pack up tomorrow morning before we continue. If Mike’s injured we’re wasting time here.”

Jordan was the one who answered him, “If you hadn’t been sleeping the whole ride then you would have heard Ed explain that there are three peaks in this area, meaning it could take days without the stops. If we’re all well rested then the search will be easier, and we’ll be less likely to fall prey to bears.” Justin wanted to bring up the fact that if they were so bent on caution, then maybe they shouldn’t have gotten on to him about the time he took to get out of the van, but knew better. Instead he decided to bring up a finer point: he had yet to see a single animal out here.

“I haven’t even seen a squirrel out here,” countered Justin. “I haven’t heard a single cricket. I haven’t seen or heard anything but us since we arrived.” He put his eating utensils down. “I don’t think there’s any other life out here that isn’t vegetation.” Everyone looked around as they considered what Justin claimed.

“I’m sure there’s animals out here,” Amy said, “I mean, come on, they’re everywhere. If this is supposed to be the start of a ghost story around the campfire, you’ve failed miserably.”

Justin looked over at Amy. “While you were out with Alex, how many deer did you see?” He knew she wasn’t guaranteed to have seen a deer just from having gone exploring, but spotting a deer isn’t something one would forget.

“Um, we weren’t paying much attention to the wildlife,” she admitted sheepishly. Alex finally cut her off, “Yeah, the firewood took a pretty long time to gather, so we didn’t have long to pay attention to much else.”

Rick started laughing. “The kids get all wound up just because they haven’t noticed any wildlife. How CUTE.” Justin decided it would be in his best interest to drop the issue.

***

As Justin lay down in his sleeping bag, he wondered how long they’d have to search for Mike before finding him. He really didn’t have the time to come out and look, but the reward seemed like it would outweigh the lost time. He heard moans coming from Alex’s tent. ‘that didn’t take very long,’ he thought to himself. He figured they’d at least wait until after dark, but they proved him wrong.

The night grew darker. It felt as though the light were being stifled by the darkness. Justin felt the eerie sense of the other presence in the dark forest surface once again. He tossed and turned, trying to blot it out, only to find the presence getting stronger. He decided to go investigate for himself. Grateful that this time he could move, Justin left his tent.

It was very dark outside his tent. Justin couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. He turned around and felt for the door to his tent. After finding it, he stumbled in and groped around for his bag where he had his flashlight. Justin turned it on. The light was dim. ’Damn, I didn’t buy new batteries,’ thought Justin. He had never planned on going camping anytime soon and had half-considered selling his current gear online, but hadn’t gotten around to it. He was grateful he at least had his flashlight. Maybe he’d see if Alex had spare batteries.

Justin left the tent. The ominous presence he felt before was weak, so it must have moved further away. At any rate, Justin had to figure out what it was. It had paralyzed him earlier, but he figured he was prepared for it this time and would not be caught off guard again. Justin set out in the direction where he felt the darkness come from. ’This is crazy,’ thought Justin to himself after a while of tracking the presence, ’I don’t believe in psychic bullshit or religion, but I’m definitely feeling some evil presence here’. The presence was now weak at best. Justin was frustrated. He definitely felt like something was there, but wasn’t sensitive enough to find it. He didn’t even know why it appealed to him so much. All he could figure was that he was tracking some evil presence with some sort of sixth sense he’d developed upon arriving at this mountain.

The presence completely faded. Justin decided to head back to camp so he could get some sleep out of what remained of the night. It was difficult, but Justin remembered the way he came. He’d arrived at a point to where he was a five minute walk from the camp site before his light started to flicker. "Shit... please fuck no." The batteries died and his light went out. He squinted to see if maybe there were any way he could find his way back. To Justin’s dismay, the night here was almost as dark as a cave. His eyes were now useless.

Justin figured if he kept walking in a forward direction, he’d eventually come close to camp.

Justin froze. There was a rustle in the leaves. Since he hadn’t seen any animals, he found it very suspicious. Suddenly the presence returned full force. It wasn’t just evil now. It was hungry. It wanted to feed on human flesh. Justin ran in the opposite direction.