Ship Falling

Chapter 7

It was a foggy (I forgot what day of the weekend it was but yeah) morning and everyone was there. Ted, Mary, Oliver, Katherine, and Anya all stared at each other, still half asleep but ready for adventure. Katherine was the first one to start talking after all the halfhearted greetings from the group. "Alright, it's the day, guys. We're going to find that deer and take it to the vet. Everyone got the stuff they need? Oliver?" He held up 2 bags of trail mix and a few water bottles proudly. Kath turned to Ted. "Looks like we're not going to need flashlights, but did you bring some just in case?" He unzipped his backpack with some hassle and pulled out two flashlights, one of which looked battered and old. "Fair enough, I guess," Kath said. "Wait, what did you bring?" Ted glowered. "We brought all the stuff and you didn't bring anything yourself. Seems a little hypocritical to me." She glared at him and unzipped her backpack, revealing a first aid kit and granola bars. Anya applauded her. "But wasn't Mary supposed to bring all the gauze or whatever?" "I got grounded for the weekend. I barely got out of my house today, so we better find that animal," Mary said as she stood up. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she swung open the door. Turning around and looking at everyone, she shouted, "To Narnia we go!"

It had been an hour since the group had left their house. Mary had gone with Oliver, while Katherine went with Anya and Ted went alone. He made sure his phone was charged, since everyone kind of knew that the only reason he wanted to go alone was to prove he wasn't scared of the woods (which he most definitely was). Mary and Oliver were trekking through a particularly rough part of the woods. "Damn it, can these branches leave me alone? What did I ever do to them?" he stopped to put a bandaid on an open cut that had recently formed on his arm. "Just look at your surroundings, man. You keep staring off into space and I have to be the one making sure you don't fall down a rabbit hole every 5 minutes." He got up and shrugged on his backpack. "Yeah, yeah, it's not like it's 9 AM right now or anything. Do you know how late I stayed up last night?" Mary bent down to throw a large branch out of the way. "You should've gone to bed earlier. Then you wouldn't be such a clutz right now." Oliver was about to make a comeback, but then stopped in his tracks. She kept walking, but then realized it was unusual that he wasn't talking. She looked back to him. "What is it?" "I think there's a lake over there." "A lake? Are you serious?" She stopped to think for a moment. "Well, we've never come this far before. Wouldn't someone have told us if there was a lake near the edge of the forest?" Oliver started walking again. "I'll check to see if it's safe to swim in. Just stay there." She rolled her eyes. "What, do you think there could be crocodiles in there or something? What would-" she froze. Something was in the trees. She gripped the straps on her backpack and started walking Towards the fading image of Oliver in the trees. "Hey, Oli? Did anyone mention there being bears in this forest?" She looked around her. It was deathly quiet, Her heart sped up. "Oliver?" Something was in the trees, and it was big. She shuddered and kept walking, losing direction. Flipping open her cell phone, she dialed Oliver's number and hit call. Was he really not smart enough to check if she was following him? The phone rang once, twice, then went to an automated message. Something was happening, and it wasn't good. She exited out of the phone app and went into the group chat. Hey guys, I got separated from Oliver. I'm going to try to find him. Anyone see the deer yet? A couple seconds later, a pang ran through the otherwise soundless woods. Mary thanked God for the internet. Hey, it's Kath, Anya's phone died but she's next to me. no sign of the deer yet, we've been walking around the perimeter of the forest. Keep us updated. Mary sighed in relief. Stay safe, guys. See you. Closing her phone, she looked around for the dark figure that had been circling her. It was nowhere to be found. Carefully and quietly, she speedwalked to where Oliver had pointed. Hopefully he was alright.

"Hey Mary!" Oliver had rolled up his jeans and had his feet dangling in the lake. "Why didn't you find me sooner?" She stomped through the cramped trees to the clearing where Oliver had thrown down his backpack. "Oli, you big jerk! You told me to wait there and something almost got me. It was double Kath's height, You should've seen it!" He stayed where he was while Mary set her bag down and grabbed a half-eaten bag of trail mix from his bag. "Oh, you mean bigfoot? I'll believe it when I see it, Mary." She considered saying a comeback but her mouth was already stuffed with M&Ms and dried raisins. She took off her socks and shoes and sat beside him, putting her feet in the water. "Kath and Anya are alright, I haven't heard from Ted though." "He must be checking for little elves in every bush he sees. Maybe a fairy now and then." She gave him a cut-the-crap face. "I think I should call him to see if he's alright." She stood up and walked over to her backpack, pulling her phone out of one of the pockets. Dialing Ted's number, she walked back to Oliver and sat down, concentrated. It clicked and Ted's voice came on. "Hey Mary. Are you good?" She put the phone up to her ear. "I'm fine, Oliver's with me and from the last I heard, Kath and Anya are fine. What about you?" "I wandered around for a while but I couldn't find anything. By the way, did you know there's a lake by the end of the forest?" She was surprised. Was he talking about the lake they were in now? "No way, you found it too? We're by the clearing on the edge of it, can you see us?" She started waving her hands around. "Yeah, I'll be there in a second." Ted hung up and she turned off her cell. "Ted found this lake too. I don't think anyone in town knows about it." Oliver straightened up and narrowed his eyes at the blue lake. "We should name it... Lake Lysol." She cackled. "What, you mean like the cleaning brand?" "Well, do you have a better idea?" Mary went quiet. She looked around at the clearing they were in, at the forest beyond filled with vines and weeds. "Green Lake." Mary whispered. Oliver turned to her. "What?" "Green Lake! It's a perfect name. Have you ever seen a lake more surrounded by green plants than this one?" He sighed. "That's the most boring name i've ever heard. What about - get this - Monster Lake." She cocked her head like a dog and gave him a questioning expression. "This lake isn't big enough for a fish over 2 feet, much less a Loch Ness monster. Naming it that would just make people scared of the lake." He grinned at her. "Exactly! The only ones who would know that it's harmless are us. I mean, I've had my feet in here for a solid 20 minutes and I haven't seen any fish at all." "You know that's not a good sign, right? I think that means there's too much salt in here." Just as Oliver was about to respond, they both heard a sound right behind them. For a split second, Mary thought the shadow she saw in the woods had found her again, but fortunately it was just Ted. "Geez, making a creepy entrance like always," Mary said, trying to calm down her fast-beating heart. He nodded at her. "That's me." Oliver stood up and went over to him. "Mary named this Green Lake. it's dumb, but accurate. How did you go this far, anyway? I thought you were just wandering around." Ted walked over to the lake and kicked off his shoes. "Well, it's kind of a long story. First, I saw birds flying out of some trees all at once about a few dozen yards away from me. I went there to see what was up, but whatever had happened there was clearly over. I kept going for a while, and I kept seeing that same flock of birds flying overhead, but the weird thing was, they were going in different directions every time I saw them. Either there were dozens of identical flocks of birds, or they were running from something that kept finding them." Mary's interest had peaked; she stared at Ted with curiosity. She gestured for him to keep going, while Oliver just rolled his eyes."That wasn't the weird part, though. I was walking along minding my own business, and I saw the birds yet again, but this time, they weren't moving their wings. It was like they were frozen in midair. Normally if they just stopped flying, they would fall to the ground, but it was like they were puppets and someone had them all on invisible strings." Everyone was silent for a bit while processing it. Ted didn't wait for their response. "I freaked out and tried to climb a tree and get them down, but as soon as I grabbed on the first branch, the birds unfroze and kept moving. I didn't care about finding the deer anymore, I just wanted to see what the hell was going on. I followed the birds who were flying weirdly slow and they eventually led me to the lake. Just when I set my backpack down, you called me." This time, Oliver was the first to speak. "So you saw frozen birds, followed them through a quarter of the woods, and ended up here. Sounds suspicious if you ask me. I mean, you probably just wanted to see something weird so it could fit into your 'haunted forest' theory." Ted looked like he was going to snap back, then decided against it. "I know what I saw. Let's just head back to the cabin before whatever had a hold on those birds finds us next."