Until the Very End

Chapter One

“Maurice! Slow your fat butt down!” Laramie yelled out after her friend. They had decided to skip church on this ordinary Sunday morning the very moment they woke up. Both of them knew they would get a stern lecture from their parents and not-so-Christianly looks from the elderly church members the following Sunday, but they could handle it and certainly wouldn’t pay them any attention. 

They needed a break from all the fakers and just a plain break from Sunday. It was a busy day that left them both begging for Monday to come even quicker than an atheist stuck with his God-fearing relatives. The two girls planned a hike in the nearby woods and a relaxing picnic near the lake at the forest’s end before it shifts into rocky soil and then the insignificant Mount Puckett. 

“No, you are the one who needs to speed up, Miss Laramie Pennington,” Maurice corrected, while maintaining her brisk pace. Laramie groaned and jogged closer to her friend. 

“I am the one holding the picnic basket,” Laramie informed. “Remember? The one you had to pile full with everything in my fridge? I’m pretty sure my mom’s gonna have a cow when she sees that her cheesecake is gone. I mean, that was the one thing she looked forward to all week: grandmamma’s homemade cheesecake.” Laramie could just picture it. Her mom running into the kitchen after she gets home from church, not even bothering to change into more casual and comfortable clothes, and throws open the refrigerator door and sees that her special, spacious spot for where her cheesecake has been sitting and waiting for its time to come was empty. “She’s gonna call the cops.” 

Maurice doubled over and started laughing. She could see it as well as Laramie. 

“Oh, my dear and sweet Laramie,” she said between laughter, gripping Laramie’s shoulder, “we’re gonna be put away for good!”

“Stop laughing at me!” Laramie said and pushed her friend’s hand away. She continued to walk, leaving her friend behind who would probably be heard by the whole community of Sherwood Valley if she was any louder.

“Oh, you know I was only teasing,” Maurice said, catching up with her friend before she was fully left behind.

“Uh huh.”

The two continued to trudge through the mildly spaced woods until they came upon a sight they had never seen: a danger sign. 

Sure it was dangerous to be roaming out in the forest alone, but these woods were friendly, and quite small. No one has ever encountered a bear or a wolf. Those kinds of animals were all north of Mount Puckett. The wildest animal ever to be reported was a rabid fox and that problem was taken care of quickly and without much else to say. 

“Are you-” Laramie cut herself off. Of course they were sure they went the right way. They’ve lived here all their lives and living in Sherwood Valley meant learning the way of the woods. Everyone in town knew the woods like the back of their hand once they were old enough to go to school.

“Strange,” was all Maurice said before walking past the sign without a second glance. Laramie followed cautiously after her, watching her feet as if she was about to step on landmines.

“Are you sure we should be going this way? It says ‘danger’ if you were having a hard time reading.”

“I know what it says, but no one said anything about it in town, so it must be Philip or Roger trying to scare people like you from getting to the lake.” 

They walked on in silence while Laramie rolled the idea around in her head. Philip and Roger did have a reputation of doing things like this. Last July they put a large, professional-looking sign up a mile from entering the Valley that warned them: Radiation Testing Ahead. Continue at Your Own Risk. There weren’t any visitors for the 4th, until, that is, Aunt Joan’s stepson came to visit and told everyone about the sign, over the phone. The two got in deeper trouble than the Mariana Trench. Maurice thought it was funny. Laramie and the rest of the community didn’t.

“I guess you’re right,” Laramie finally said, even though she wasn’t a hundred percent certain.

“Huh? Oh, right.” Maurice looked at her friend and then behind them and then to her other side.

“Are you okay?” Laramie asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Maurice lied.

It wasn’t long until they reached the lake, but in Maurice’s mind it had taken years. Perhaps even a decade. 

“Finally,” the girls both sighed when they arrived at their favorite spot. It was like a cave but made out of plants. Mr. Blackburn, a former park ranger, said it was a den for deer.