Necklace of Solitude

NoS - Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Charlie whined and stood close to his owner.

"Let's just make our way back to the van, we can call the police from the shop." Ricky suggested.

Jamie looked up at him, "Police?" and to Sophie, "why the police?"

"It's nothing to worry about." she smiled to her sister.

Jamie glanced to where they'd come from and stood beside Sophie, holding her hand, likely putting the pieces together.

"Why don't you take some photo's of the woods whilst we're walking back?" Claire said to Jamie, offering a distraction.

The little girl took the lens cap off of the camera and started pressing buttons half-heartedly.

Neil and Ricky started to walk first, closely followed by the rest of the gang. After a couple of twists and turns Ricky felt a tug on his arm, and turned to see Jamie handing him the camera.

"It's not working."

"What's wrong with it?" he asked and took it from her.

"It won't turn on."

Ricky didn't need to test the camera. With the phones being dead it wasn't a great surprise that the camera had died too. The only puzzle was why. "I should have changed the batteries before we left the van." he said and tried not to worry her more.

Jamie slowed until she was back with Sophie.

"This is weird." Ricky said to Neil in a hushed tone.

"I know." Neil didn't want to show that he was feeling creeped out. He always felt as though he had to be stronger for Ricky, and often put his own feelings aside to support him.

"I've seen EMP's in the field but I don't think that's what this is."

"Me neither."

"Why would everything stop working at the same time?" he slid his camera over his neck so he could put his hands in the pockets.

Neil linked his arm through Ricky's and shrugged.

"You alright?" Ricky asked.

"I just have a bad feeling about this." he said, "but I'm okay."

They had been walking for about fifteen minutes when they came to a crossing in the pathway which they didn't recognise.

"Did we go the wrong way?" Nadia asked and stepped out to look up each of the paths.

"No, we definitely went back the way we came." Ricky said confidently.

"Do we go straight ahead or...?" Claire asked.

Sophie hugged Jamie close to her and appeared to be anxious. "How big is the woods? We weren't even walking for that long."

"It's honestly not even that deep, I looked at the aerial shots of it and it's pretty small." Claire said, "I should have printed photographs of it, or a map or something."

"Okay, so if we just keep heading straight, surely we'll come out of the woods one side or the other, right?" Nadia asked.

"Presuming it's as small as you said it is." Sophie said to Claire, who just nodded, "then yes." she seemed tense.

Nadia took a deep breath and turned around, leading the group down the footpath until they came to a familiar location. The gang slowed down and glanced at the surrounding shrubbery.