I try to look into the forest, and I don’t see much. The forest is thick, and the canopy doesn’t let a ton of light in, just enough to not need a flashlight.
“Well, this is the point of no return, gentlemen. If you want to head back, do it now.”
Daniel looks at each of us for a few seconds, waiting for one of us to leave.
It doesn’t happen. All of us have resolved to see this through.
He smiles and nods his head at us, clearly approving of our decision.
“Good, follow me then.”
“We’ll move with me in front, then Ray, Clark, and Jared at the back.” Daniel says, turning around to walk into the woods.
We do as told and follow him into the forest in the order he said. It’s the same as the last time, dark and quiet. Very creepy.
We walk slowly, jumping at every stick breaking, expecting something to jump out from behind every tree.
Well, all of us but our gun-wielding leader.
He is valiantly holding the front line.
And by that I mean he checks out anything the rest of us spot.
The forest is uneventful, and we wander around for a while with Daniel marking trees with his knife.
It would suck to get lost in this forest, probably.
Well, I guess we are lost. It’s not like any of us know where we are, just where the bus is.
After nearly an hour we find something.
Jared alerts us to what looks like deer droppings, and Daniel finds tracks nearby.
“This is a good sign.” The veteran says, “If you see any animals, let me know. I can try to shoot a deer. That should be able to feed us for a while.”
We continue to search the forest, mostly finding old signs of animal life. Claw marks on trees, more bear footprints, and plenty of bones.
This worries me quite a lot, and my hands start to sweat even more. I’m sure that something is going to pop out and eat us any second.
Daniel stops at a tree that has huge scratches going ten feet up the trunk. He runs his hand down them. A contemplative look is on his face as he turns around to talk to us.
“We are in the territory of the bear, I think. But these scratches are old, and I doubt something that big can sneak up on us. So we should be fine as long as we stay vigilant.”
That’s right, we don't have to kill the bear, just escape it if it shows up.
Jared chimes in next, from the rear of the group.
“I think I can hear a stream over there.” He says while pointing out the direction.
“We can check it out. Follow me.”
Daniel leads us in the previously mentioned direction, and soon we come across a small stream.
It has a deer drinking out of it, about fifty feet downstream.
The deer looks like any that I’ve ever seen. Tan and white, mostly.
As soon as the deer hears us come close, it raises its head and looks in our direction.
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Daniel raises his gun up to shoot, but the deer turns and flees into the forest, gone after just a few seconds.
The gunman lowers his revolver, sighs, and says.
“Well, at least we know for sure there are deer to hunt. And we even found water, too. Good ears, Jared.”
“Yeah, good job, Jared.” Clark says to the man, who stands up straighter at the two men's praise.
“Ah, no worries, guys. All in a day's work for a guy like me.” He says with a dismissive wave, a smirk on his face.
I take out my water bottle and drink the rest of it, as this trip into the forest has made me quite thirsty. Hungry too, but I don’t have any food.
Daniel and Clark also take out bottles and follow suit, all of us refilling them at the stream after.
The water in the stream is clear, and it’s running fairly fast.
I think both of those are good things, but I will boil it first to be sure. No need to get dysentery or something equally awful.
Probably super dysentery, if this place wants to keep up its mean streak.
After a few more minutes of silent rest, all of us too wary to make too much noise, Clark speaks up.
“Should we go back now? It’s just after one, so we’ve been out here for nearly three hours.”
“Yeah, let's head back. It should take us another hour or so until we get back.” Daniel says as he sits up, taking the lead once again.
We walk back through the forest, still as creepy and dark as before, following Daniel, who is using the marks he made from earlier to find his way back. And true to his word, it takes us a little over an hour to get back to the clearing with the bus.
As soon as we all get sight of the bus, we stop dead in our tracks.
The bus is on fire.
The goddamned bus is spitting flames from every window, clearly having been burning for a while.
The grass around the bus is burned in a big circle, but it looks like they stomped it out before it could burn the entire field.
At least they managed that.
A group of people are standing about fifty feet from the fire, most watching it burn, with a few, like Stella, watching the forest.
Clark is the first of us to move, sprinting towards the group, shouting.
“Duncan! Duncan! Where are you?”
Duncan appears from the other side of the group and runs up to meet his brother.
Clark wraps him up in a big hug while asking him something I can’t hear.
“Well, this blows big time. I was planning on sleeping in the bus.” Daniel chimes in from next to me, slightly solemn.
“How the hell does a bus just catch on fire? Especially when there are almost twenty people around? Jared asks from my other side, nothing but confusion in his voice.
I start to walk towards the group, hoping one of them can tell us what’s happening.
Stella walks over to meet us before we reach the big group, with the two brothers joining us a few seconds later.
“What the hell happened? We were only gone for four hours?” Daniel asks as soon as Stella joins us.
She lets out a big sigh, shaking her head.
“Someone set the bus on fire.”
Ah, that’ll do it. I guess I should have expected one asshole to ruin literally the only thing we had going for us. Looks like it’s sleeping out in the wilderness for us.
“Who? Why?” Our self-appointed leader asks with frustration clear in his voice.
“We don’t know for sure, but some people said they saw a man run into the forest with the bus’s fire extinguisher right when the flames were starting to grow.” She pauses for a few moments before continuing. “Some people said that he had just kept to himself the entire time. Duncan and I had to jump off the roof of the bus when we noticed the flames. Apparently he started the fire from under the bus somewhere. With a ton of people still on board.”
She has an exasperated expression, and I can't blame her. What kind of psycho tries to set a bus full of people on fire? And in this situation too?
Some people.
Daniel looks at me, and for the first time I can see fear on his face.
Then it hits me.
Oh fuck, we have nothing now. There is also no reason to stay here in this clearing anymore.
“I… need to eat something,” Daniel says while he takes his backpack off.
He sits on the ground and takes a bag of beef jerky out, opening it and shoving a piece into his mouth. He offers me and Jared some too.
We accept. And soon, all of us are sitting on the ground eating beef jerky while watching the bus burn.
We sit there for hours, silently watching the bus burn.
None of us know what to do anymore, so we decide to wait until morning and explore more of the surroundings from there.
As the sun sets, the giant moon from earlier is the only thing left in the sky. It shines bright, giving a decent amount of light to the nighttime of this planet.
My thoughts are interrupted by a horn blaring from the forest behind me.
Screams erupt from the larger group of people.