“Tanya,” Peter said carefully. “I don't think you're going to get any service.”

“You think I don't know that?” She yelled in a strangled voice that caused us all to stop and stare at her.

“I'm sorry, it's just…I'm tired okay? How are you all acting normal? We're in the middle of a forest that we can't seem to find a way out of, with people we barely know. Our families and friends are probably looking for us, we've been missing for almost two days! My legs are aching, my clothes are filthy and I'm so hungry. I don't know, maybe it's just me. And now you're all looking at me like I'm some spoiled brat! And maybe I am…but I don't care.”

Then she pushed past Peter and started to run.

“Hey!” I called out.

“Tanya!” Peter screamed and ran off after her.

I let out a sigh and sat down on the ground, with my legs crossed and my head in my palms.

“You okay?” Michelle asked in her small voice.

“I'm…fine.”

“You sure?”

I heard her plop herself on the ground next to me.

“Are any of us really fine?”

She didn't answer.

“I think Tanya spoke for all of us.” I turned to look at her. “I mean, I don't know about you.”

She looked down and nodded as she plucked the weeds beneath her.

“She spoke for all of us.” It was silent for a few minutes before she spoke up.

“Do you think…should we go after them?”

I shrugged. She got up.

“C’mon Larry. Get up, let's go find them. Peter might help you guys to get out of here.”

With a sigh, I got up and we walked down the path. Fortunately, we hadn't gone far when we saw the two of them walking back towards us.

Tanya looked fine, just a little bit annoyed and Peter seemed…relieved. I think we all were.

“Everything’s fine. Tanny's just a little upset but besides that we're great! Let's turn around and go on.” I blinked at him.

“Don't call me that.”

“Sorry.”

We resumed on our way, walking to God knows where in silence. I couldn't help but think about Peter and Tanya and what they were to each other. They could possibly be dating. But I didn't care about that. They were just a funny pair.

The portion of the woods that we were in had really dense trees and thick vegetation. I could still tell what time of the day it was, fortunately. Sometime in the afternoon.

I was really exhausted at a point and I was about to tell Peter that it would be great if we just took a break for some time before we continued on our way. But just then, I felt a raindrop land on my shoulder. And then a few more dropped on my head and slid down my face.

My heart sank. I was about pointing it out to the others but they figured it out soon enough.

“Um, guys…” Michelle started.

“Ssi-bal! We know! We need to look for shelter or something,” I shreiked as more drops fell onto my clothes and hair and skin, each drop feeling like a sharp piece of ice was piercing into them.

“Ssi- what?” Peter asked

I waved it away and started to look around frantically for anything we could use or stay under before the rain came. I found nothing.

“We should stay under these trees, they're pretty dense, they might shelter us well,” Tanya suggested.

“No, that not safe, we could go further and look for–” Peter started

“Shelter? A tent? Somewhere better?” Tanya asked and he sighed in resignation.

"There's a shed," Michelle pointed out again.

"Where?"

"It's a little far from here...if I'm not–"

"I don't think we have time," Peter told her.

“Okay, everyone under the trees," I ordered.

There was a clap of thunder. Not long after, the rain finally came down.

We all sat under a tree, shivering slightly already as raindrops dropped down on us. Great winds shook the branches of the trees, causing them to sway and spray water on us.

I was the only one with a backpack.

My backpack.

Quickly, I unzipped the second pocket from the front and sighed in relief. The small, blue tarp was still in there, folded neatly. Long story.

I grabbed it quickly and spread it out.

“You have a tarp!” Peter said.

“Yeah and I can build some kind of horrible tent out of it, I just need something like a…”

“A what?”

“Umm…” I dragged my hands through my hair, thinking fast.

“A string! Yes!” I cried excitedly but then my face fell. “But I don't have that.”

I rummaged through my backpack.

“Here, I have a few balls of string,” Michelle said and pulled a ball of string out of her pocket.

“Thank you!”

I grabbed it from her and walked over to the nearest trunk. I tied the string around it and walked over to the one we all sat under, tying it around as well. Then I took the tarp and placed it over the string so it hung from it. Next, I looked for medium sized rocks and placed them at the ends of the tarp so it would stay in place and not collapse. I stood a few feet back, wiping drops of rain from my face, ignoring how damp my clothes were, to admire my work. It wasn't bad. At least we had shelter.

Everyone else had already gotten inside. I scrambled in and sat on the floor with them. It was already a bit muddy, but we could manage it until the rain stopped.

“That was…smart, Larry,” Tanya said to me, tilting her head slightly as her eyes bored into mine.
She held my gaze but I looked away quickly.

“Yeah,” the others agreed.

I shrugged and smiled. “Thanks, but it's nothing. I uh…went camping a lot with my dad, so…”

“Oh! Must've been fun times!” Peter said.

“Yeah,” I said quietly, trying to shake off the feeling that came with the memories. “So, um, how are we feeling?”

“I'm hungry and tired and upset,” Tanya begun.

“I'm feeling anxious," Peter admitted. He was looking down at the ground, his hands were clasped together and his feet tapped on the floor.

“Michelle?” We all turned to look at her but she just shrugged. "I'm okay."

“I have some remaining packets of chocolate here. It's the only edible thing I packed. Stupid, I know.”

“Stupid? These leaves were starting to look appetising. Give me one, please,” Tanya said.

After sharing the chocolate and taking one for myself, there was only one left. I left it in the bag and took out a flashlight.

After I switched it on and placed it in the middle of the ground, we all sat there quietly, biting into bars of chocolate, listening to the sound of the rain all around us, especially the frequent taps of raindrops on the tarp above us.

“You said you packed?” Peter asked out of the blue.

My eyes widened at his question.

“Uh, yeah…I like chocolate.”

“No, like, you say it like you were preparing for…like you knew you'd need them. And that's a lot of chocolate for one person.”

I gulped and kept my eyes trained on the ground.

“I like chocolate…” I said looking up at him with a smile.

“Anyways, now we're all stuck here for a while, shouldn't we uh…get to know each other a little? To pass time.”

They all agreed.

“Okay, let's do it this way. One person chooses a random person to ask a question. And the person to the right goes next and asks…and it goes like that. Sounds good?”

They all nodded.

“I’ll go first. Uh…Tanya,” I started with a sigh of exhaustion. “What're your hobbies?”

“I love gardening,” she started. “I really like plants...I just love nature."

“That’s cute."

She smiled at me and then the smile vanished as soon as it came. Her face came to her usual bored, uninterested expression.

I was good at reading people but for some reason she was hard. She was like me. She could make herself seem so indifferent that you wouldn't have a clue what she was feeling or thinking. Doing it required great skill and there was always a reason why someone would decide to be closed off like that.

“I go next," Peter said, running a hand through his hair. “Michelle, where are you from?”

“My parents are African. Nigerian. But they moved over here after they got married and then I was born here. So yeah.”

“That's cool."

"My turn," Tanya chirped. "So my question goes to Larry."

Why did she choose me? She was starting to make me feel shy. I wasn't usually shy.

“What was that thing you said ssi…what?”

I chuckled. “It's Korean. I went to Korea plenty of times for the holiday when I was little so I learnt a bit of the language. It's ssi-bal. Means uh… fuck.”

They all burst into laughter.

“Yeah.” I felt my cheeks go hot. “I learnt a lot of curse words. I was a strange child.”

“You said you used to go when you were little,” Peter started in that tone that said gears were turning in his brain. And I waited uneasily for the question that was coming. “You don't go anymore?”

There it was. I suddenly started to feel a bit sick. I hoped the uncomfortable look on my face wasn't noticeable but I guess I was wrong.

Tanya was the only person who noticed my discomfort and she changed the subject immediately by asking a very important question.

“Guys, I think the rain has stopped. Aren't we gonna go on our way? It's already five in the evening.”

“That’s true,” I said and crawled out of the tarp.

The rain had stopped. The weather was chilly and the air was humid. Fortunately, the rain wasn't too heavy and the floor wasn't too muddy. I looked up and watched as a drop of water slid down from a leaf and landed on my forehead.

The others crawled out and stood, looking around. I folded it and stuck it back in my backpack.

“I don't think I'll know what I'll be doing. I'm really exhausted,” Peter said.

“What?” she asked, frustration clear in her voice. “Come on Peter, we just took a break for like a few minutes. And it's not that dark, please.”

A thought popped into my head suddenly. What if Peter really didn't know what he was doing and was just as clueless as we all were but was just trying to act like he did so we won't get worried?

“I promise guys, tomorrow I'll get us out. Please, trust me,” he pleaded. His eyes looked heavy.

"We should go to the shed," Michelle said.

"Lead the way," Peter said and she walked off with Tanya right behind her. Peter and I walked behind them.

There were about five feet between both of us and the girls. We were walking in silence for while until Peter whispered to me.

"Hey."

"Hi?"

“Larry, I don't think there's a way out.”

My heart dropped as he confirmed my fear.

“I thought so,” I said without looking at him.

“I'm sorry–”

“No, it's not your fault.”

“I think there's something strange about these woods,” he murmured.

“Yeah? Me too. Wierd things, the strange trap, the rope, the paper–”

“The paper!”

"What?" Tanya said, turning her head around.

"Nothing," Peter told her and she turned back around.

“What do you think about it?”

“Some kind of poem. But I don't think so. I'm a poet, actually. And this…I know poetry isn't…how do I say this. Larry, I don't think it's a poem.”

I chuckled. “Got that. What do you think it is?”

“I don't know…” he folded it open and his eyes skimmed through the strange lines.

“Yeah, me neither but that's not the most important thing to focus on right now. We cannot stay here forever. That's crazy. We need to find a way out. There's a way. There has to be. We got in through somewhere and we're gonna go out through somewhere.”

He nodded and folded the paper, sticking it back into his hoodie pocket.

We walked for a long time and it got dark soon. I took out a flashlight and stood beside Michelle. We reached a while later. The shed was really well hidden in a bunch of dense trees. It was fairly small and was made entirely out of planks of wood. The small door in the middle had a small rusted handle.

+_+_+
A/N

Do you like chocolate? (It's okay if you don't, I won't harass you)