Chapter 2

After Jacob had met back up with Daniel and Gabe, they camp out for the night to continue their journey to the Six Flags the following morning.

Making it back to the rest of the group wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated. I had managed to find a better way through the foliage rather than getting my boots stuck in four feet of mud. Since we had made it to the Six Flags, it was around one o’clock in the afternoon. But because of my trip that I had to make to the SUV and back, the time was now five o’clock. The journey, at least, wasn’t in vain; Daniel and Gabe were still waiting in the same spot and thanks to the GPS, we had met up once again. 

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Mr. Four Hours.” Daniel said sarcastically. 

“While you were gone Jacob, Danny was jerkin’ off.” Gabe replied, hitting Dan on the shoulder. 

“Anyway… I got the GPS and the camping gear. Let’s set up here and then try to find this place when we wake up, I’m too f*****g tired to walk any further.” I said to the two of them.

They both nodded and I began to unpack the camping equipment. Tents, steaks, bedrolls, and tarps were all that we had brought. Firewood was going to be easy to find because we were located in the middle of a forest. Finding firewood that was dry however, that was going to be quite the task. Daniel was in charge of finding the wood, Gabe was setting up the tents for us to sleep in while I was locating ourselves on the GPS and trying to translate it to the map that we had supposedly read wrong. Apparently, we were way off. The journey to the Six Flags was going to be another three hour walk east. And to think that we thought we were getting closer. It’s a good thing that I went back for the camping equipment and GPS when I did. If we had gone any further, it would’ve been seven o’clock by now and we still would have to travel back for the gear. Getting lost was a blessing in disguise. 

“So… champion,” Daniel said sarcastically. “What’s the plan for getting to this place?”

“Well, we were actually way off. It’s another three hours east.” I replied. 

“Jesus, we’re going to have to sleep out here?” Gabe said.

“It’s not our first time.” I replied. “Besides, this isn’t the worst place we’ve had to do it either. Remember that abandoned jewelry factory?”

“Well if we have to stay the night here then I call the small tent to myself. You both can take the bigger one.” Daniel said. “Since you two love each other so much.”

Both Gabe and I looked to each other and sighed. The three of us laughed a bit at it and Gabe put some rocks together into a ring to make a fire pit. In our bags we had food and water so for resources we were covered. The night was going to be creepy, we usually tried to avoid sleeping near our abandoned places that we were going to explore but we’ve had to do it a number of times. This was far from the worst and far from the first. We had a basic course of action in case we were caught. Leave the s**t and drive away. Not exactly the best plan but one that we’ve done before for only nothing to come of it. Gabe kept thinking that we were going to get arrested while Alyssa kept calling him a baby. Those were the good old times. Since then our plan for getting away from the police or security hadn’t changed, so there was at least something that didn’t change. It had been such a weird experience without Alyssa there with us. Everything felt different; unnatural. The others won’t say it but I’m sure that they felt it too. A friend who has always been around us no longer is alive. The very thought of that made me almost sick to my stomach. I missed her. I missed her so much. When we were talking about doing this trip for her, it crossed my mind to just drop it entirely, but I decided against it. What would one more trip out with friends hurt? For old times sake. Nothing. At least, that’s what I thought.

Plenty had passed since we began to set up our little makeshift camp. Gabe was already fast asleep while Daniel and I laid awake in the large tent. Plans on who was sleeping in which tent had come to a sudden change that nobody really seemed to mind. I spent my time lying awake, thinking of Alyssa. I wanted to talk to someone about it because I knew that it was probably affecting the others. 

“Hey Dan.” I said. “How are you feeling about the loss?”

“Jesus Jake, the f**k happened to you out there in the forest?” Daniel replied.
“Dan, please. This is serious.”
“To tell you the truth it hurts. It hurts a lot. We done?”

“Dan.” I said, rubbing my eyes with my hands for a moment. “Open up to me a bit man. This whole experience has me really fucked up and I want to know if it’s just me.”

Dan looked up to the ceiling of the tent and sighed before looking back down to me.

“Yeah. I’m not feeling too good either. I told Gabe that this wasn’t going to be a good idea but the two of you insisted.” 

“I’m not looking for pointing fingers at anyone Dan, I just want to talk a little bit about it, that’s all.” I said, making a hand gesture that suggested he calm down.

“What is there to talk about? Our best friend died a week ago and you and Gabe wanna pretend like it didn’t happen.”

“That’s not true. We just thought that this would be something that could be our last moment as a group. I didn’t want it to end with us just splitting up and never doing it again. I don’t think that Alyssa would’ve wanted it to be that way either.”

“M’kay well you don’t know what the f**k she would want because you’re not her and it’s not like you can really ask her now can you?” Daniel said, raising his voice in anger. “Don’t try to act like you’d know what she’d want for us to try and manipulate me into going on this f*****g field trip with you Jake. It’s fucked up.” 

“Daniel… I-”
“Shut up man. I don’t want to hear it.”

The two of us fell silent. I looked down and climbed into my sleeping bag before tearing up a bit. That really hurt. The talk itself was supposed to try and come to an understanding about the whole thing but that obviously didn’t happen. I kept myself quiet and lightly sobbed in my sleeping bag. The truth is, I didn’t know if this is what Alyssa would’ve wanted or not. I don’t know what she’s thinking right now. All that I do know is that after this trip that we’re making, it’s unlikely that we’ll talk to each other again. I wasn’t exactly sure why that was the case, but something deep down told me that we were drifting apart. Death is a powerful thing. It brings people together and tears them apart. In our case, I was sure that Daniel’s attitude towards me just then was a sign that perhaps the death was going to be the reason the three of us never talked again. 

Sleeping in the tent was something that I couldn’t do now that I had heard Daniel’s true feelings about the Six Flags trip. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and opened up the tent, moving past Daniel who I presumed was asleep. Stepping outside in the darkness of the forest I could hear the sound of crickets chirping and other animals singing. Everything about this trip had been flipped on its head. My original thoughts about this being something that could be something to cherish, to look back on, was now something that I wished I had never done in the first place. What Daniel said was right, I didn’t actually know for sure if this is what Alyssa would’ve wanted. I guess it was just something that told me that it was. 

“Can’t sleep either?” Gabe said abruptly.

I jumped at the sound of him. At first, I couldn’t see where he was, but then I saw his silhouette resting on a rock near his tent. 

“Gave me a f*****g heart attack man.” I replied sourly. 

“I heard what you and Daniel talked about. I gotta say that I can’t disagree with him.” Gabe got up from the rock that he was seated on and threw more wood into the fire, the front of his body and face now illuminated by the bright orange glow of the flame. “I did say that I wanted to do this but… I guess that it was just nostalgia that overtook me. I think that it overtook all of us the moment we decided that we were going to do it.”

“I suppose.” I replied. “You still up for doing this though?”

“I mean, we’ve come this far. I’m not going to hike three hours out of I-10 just to walk three hours back. We came here for a sight to see, not for leg day.” Gabe said, throwing more twigs and dead leaves into the fire. 

“Right you are.” I looked around the dead night of the forest as I spoke. “Ever since we’ve arrived here I’ve had this really unshakable feeling-”
“Like we’re being watched?” Gabe said abruptly. “Yeah… I’ve been feeling it too. It’s cliche I know but it’s the truth. You know it and I know it.” 

“When I went back to the SUV… the alarm was going off.” 

“Was someone out there?”

“That’s the thing… “ I said as I looked around, keeping my eyes on the surrounding forest. “There wasn’t anyone around. I heard things, but didn’t see anyone.”

“Jesus. Spooky s**t let me tell you.” Gabe threw more wood into the fire and then got up to go back to his tent. “Try to get some sleep Jacob, we have a hike in the morning.”

Dawn came too quick for my liking. Laying awake in the tent I could hear the sound of Daniel and Gabe talking outside. The crackling of the fire was still going which means that Gabe had kept it alive all night long. I rolled over as I felt a great pain in my back. I must have slept wrong because it ran up my back and into my neck. I felt stiff and I groaned and climbed out of my sleeping bag and then out of the tent. 

“Goodmorning champion.” Daniel said as he tossed an MRE at me. 

We had usually packed different MRE’s for eating during breakfast, lunch, and dinner just in case we’d have a full day’s trip. It took longer than that, like tonight, we packed extra just in case something like tonight would happen. You could never be too ready. 

“Thanks Dan. What’s new this morning?” I asked.

“Gabe kept having wet dreams. Left his seeds tossed.” Daniel said. 

“You’re an a*****e, first of all. Secondly, no. I was having nightmares.” Gabe replied, hitting Daniel on the shoulder.

“What were they about?” I asked. 

Gabe looked at me and made an expression that suggested whatever we had talked about last night seemed to have been the case. It made enough sense as it is. Neither him or I could shake the feeling of being watched ever since we pulled off of I-10 to go down this dirt road. It was eerie.

“I think his silence means he got someone pregnant." Daniel replied while stuffing his face full of eggs from his MRE.  

Gabe and I shook our heads while we made our MRE’s and sat, talking about our dreams and what was to come of the trip to the Six Flags. I briefly touched upon the subject of the SUV’s alarm going off when I went back for the GPS and the camping equipment. 

“So some asshat tried to rob our car?” Daniel asked.

“That’s the thing… I didn’t see anyone when I was over by the car. I kept hearing footsteps but saw nothing.” I replied, putting more eggs from my MRE into my mouth. “And what’s even weirder is that there wasn’t anything wrong with the car either, so it’s not like it was a break-in.”

“Maybe someone found the car and tried the handle?” Gabe said.
“Why would some guy be out here in the middle of the forest?” Daniel said. 

All of us looked to each other and started to laugh at the irony of that statement. Why would some guy be out here in the middle of the forest? The answer to that is that the three of us are a bunch of trouble making teenagers that can never get enough of the thrill of urban exploration. It was times like these where I loved the moment that I spent my time with Gabe and Daniel. If only Alyssa was here with us, it’d all feel just the same again.

Not long after our breakfast, we set off for the Six Flags. With the GPS in hand and the map being properly used now, we were making a great effort to find this place. Gabe was having a tough time because he was tasked with hulling the camping equipment for the next hour of the hike while Daniel and I were the Navigation Team. We had been walking for about forty five minutes and were nearing our first resting area in which we’d switch carrying the camping equipment and would have someone else help with navigating. Before we could reach our designated rest stop though, the three of us were stopped in the middle of our hike to a strange sound. If there were a fourth to see us, we’d have looked like a deer staring into the headlights of a car. Eyes wide and nerves on edge, I looked around for whatever sound I was hearing echoing through the forest. Sounded like a radio that was giving out. Like there was nothing but white noise and static coming through. It’d be like whenever we’d drive out into desolate areas when we'd explore. Sometimes we could make out some form of music or communication but it was mostly just a garbled mess of white noise and distortion.  

Daniel immediately folded up the map and put in his backpack. He batted his eyes over to me and gestured to come over to him quietly. We had developed ways of communicating in silence between ourselves. It was in case we were in a tense situation that required all of us to be quiet simultaneously. 

“You guys hear that too, right?” Daniel asked, looking around him. 

“Definetly” I said. 

“Sounds like it’s coming from over there.” Gabe pointed to a small clearing in the forest to where we could see what looked like an abandoned trailer house. “Should we go check it out?”

“F**k no. Ever seen a horror movie?” Daniel said. 

“Well we’re not in one, are we?” Gabe replied. 

“We don’t know that yet.” said Daniel. 

“How about this, we go over and check out what’s going on. This is pretty intriguing, we haven’t found anything like this before on our adventures.” I said as I looked at my GPS. 

According to the GPS, we were five minutes away from the Six Flags. I took my eyes off of the GPS and looked to the tree line to where in the distance, I could see a massive peak of a rollercoaster. The rails ran high above the treeline. We were almost there.

“Guys. Check it out.” I said as I pointed to the peak of where the rollercoaster was. 

“Hey, hey. We’ve made it this far without getting arrested or killed. Let’s keep it that way by not going into the run down trailer with the radio static.” said Gabe. 

“I agree with Gabe, Jacob. Let’s just keep moving. No sense in getting gutted on our last trip together.” Daniel replied. 

I sighed and moved on from it. We put away our equipment and just followed the treeline to where we could see the top of the rollercoaster. That would be our new map from now on until we got there. I kept my eyes in front towards the Six Flags but my ears behind me. The sound of the radio static seemed to have gotten louder from when we were closest to it. Since then, we’ve made a significant amount of distance from it, but it sounds like it was getting louder. Or like it was getting closer. Briefly, I turned my head to look at the trailer and the sound that was emitting from it. I stopped in my tracks while my eyes widened. Wanting to scream, I kept myself quiet for some odd reason. Wanting to run, my feet kept me still in place. The other continued to walk as if they didn’t know that I had stopped or as if I wasn’t even stopped in the first place. 

Its head hung down by its chest as its neck was twisted and mangled beyond functionality. Its skin was pale white with no hair on any part of its body. Its mouth was wide open, oozing a black liquid as every part of it twitched and flinched. The radio static that emitted from its mouth soon turned into what sounded like a contorted and distorted sound of a chainsaw with someone screaming. There was banging that could be heard from its mouth as if it was playing the recording of someone getting murdered. It was deafening and petrifying. The sounds that came from it played over in my head like a song on repeat. The only words that I could begin to make out from the distortion and the screaming scared me more than any noise I could have heard. 

“Jacob.”

It was Alyssa. That voice was unhearable. Her tone; gentle, caring. The moment that I heard it I began to tear up as the creature moved ever so closer to me. 

“Jacob! Jacob what the f**k are you doing man?” Daniel said, shaking me by the shoulders. 

“S- sorry… I thought that I heard something.” I replied with tears in my eyes.

“You were creeping us the f**k out. You just stopped and started saying ‘Alyssa’ over and over again.”

“I did?”

“Yeah… what the hell did you see anyway?”

“I didn’t see anything.”

Gabe and Daniel looked to each other and took a deep breath. 

“Alright… well let’s keep moving, okay? We’re almost to the place. Jesus man, learn some self control.” Gabe said. 

“You sure you don’t wanna go back after that?” Daniel said.

“I did not just walk four hours out here to walk four hours back.” Gabe replied, raising his voice.

I turned back around towards Gabe and Daniel as I wiped some tears from my eyes. We continued to walk to the Six Flags when I turned around and faced the trailer house that sat quietly now in the forest. The sound of the radio was no longer present and for a moment, I thought that I could see someone in the shattered window of the trailer house. I decided to look no longer than I needed to and continued quietly the rest of the way to the Six Flags.

Reviews

[Broken.]

Wow, I can't believe this is only 2 Chapters! The storyline flows so vividly. You should really write more, you have quite a good thing going here. I am curious to know what happens when they get to the Six Flags!

[Joseph]

Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you're enjoying my work and it is pushing me to work even harder!