I handed a flashlight to each of them and watched as Michelle opened the door to the shed. I exchanged glances with Peter as we heard the creaking sound the door made as it swung open.

"Come on in." She strolled in, leaving the rest of us standing outside nervously.
"Do you want a place to stay for the night or not?"

We murmured and walked into the shed. The door was so low, I had to bend. Luckily, the roof was high enough to be just a few centimetres above me.

We shone our torches around. The place was a little stuffy and smelt slightly of rotting wood but it wasn't that bad. There was a sleeping bag rolled out on the floor by a corner. At another corner there was a bunch of stuff. Lots of useful things like bars of soap, a pile of clothes, several unopened toothbrushes, a tub of toothpaste, an empty jug, a knife, some ropes, balls of string and most importantly cans of food were placed on a low table.

I reached over and picked up a can of beans.

"Aren't those things like expired?" Tanya asked.

I searched for the expiry date on the can.

"Not until a few months," Michelle said from behind us. She was already nestled in her sleeping bag.

"She's right," I said pointing my light to the imprint on the bottom of the can. "Expires next year February."

"There's a lot of these," Peter commented as I dropped the can back in the pile.

"There's a camping tent over here," Tanya said, "and some sleeping bags."

"It feels so weird to be here. Feels like I'm breaking into someone's home," I said as I sat on a rickety, wooden stool.

Peter chuckled, still looking around cautiously. "Yeah but what choice do we have? Our best choice is to stay here till the morning."

"Anyone want me to get some sleeping bags for them?" Tanya asked tiredly as she grabbed one.

"Yeah...I just realised it would be better than sleeping on the floor," I murmured.

***

I was awoken for the second time that night in the exact same way.

"Larry," someone whispered as they shook me slightly. "Larry, wake up."

When my eyes snapped open, I saw Peter staring down at me with his index finger placed on his lips. When he was sure I got the message, he gestured for me to follow him out of the shed.

“Get a flashlight quick,” he added and stood waiting for me. My anxiety levels rose high at his words but I willed myself to calm down.

I groped for the flashlight that I placed next to my sleeping bag and as I crawled stealthily out of the tarp, I glanced briefly at the direction the girls lay. We sneaked out of the shed as quietly as we could, hoping we wouldn't wake them up.

When we were both out, I glared at Peter and mouthed a what at him.

“Don't turn the light on yet,” he said and then gestured to the right, walking away immediately.

I sighed and tried to wake myself up properly as I walked behind him.

When we'd gotten some distance away from the shed, he stopped walking immediately and spoke up.

“You can turn it on now.”

I flicked the switch. The beam pointed directly at his face.

He shielded it immediately and looked away.

“Don't do that–”

“Why are we here?” I asked, pointing the beam on the floor.

“Because I found it.” He couldn't stay at a place. He was fidgeting and that made me feel a bit concerned.

Before I could ask if he meant that he found the way out of the damn woods he had already gotten the piece of paper he found the day before out of his pocket and had started to unfold it.

“Larry it's some sort of puzzle…or riddle,” he began and I tried but couldn't hide the frustrated look on my face.

“Peter, you have got to be–”

“No, wait, listen, I'm serious–” he reached for the flashlight and I drew my hand backwards.

“You woke me up in the middle of the–”

“They are chemical symbols, but I'm not so sure what they mean–”

“Peter!”

“Shh!”

I took a deep breath and let it out.

“Sorry, but Peter, what the hell? We're supposed to be sleeping so we'll have the energy that we'll use to get out of here tomorrow.”

“Larry, listen, in the end I got something like Water, Nitrogen (I) Oxide and Sodium Chloride–”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“I am Larry but guess what?”

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. “What?”

“At the bottom of this paper I saw something else apart from those lines.”

My forehead creased. “Like what?”

“The only way. That's what it said.”

“What…?” A strange sensation went through my body. “Gimme that paper.”

His hand fumbled as he straightened it out and handed it over to me. I grabbed it and pointed the flashlight at the paper.

“At the bottom.”

“Got that.”

My hands shook and I forced myself to stay calm.

My flashlight roamed the bottom of the page and I was about to call him out for waking me up for nothing when I finally spotted it.

Just at the bottom right of the page, in the same handwriting and black ink were the words “the only way”

I gave the note back to Peter and tried to calm my nerves.

“The only way to what?”

He shrugged helplessly.

“This is dumb.”

“But it might be anything! It could be important.”

“Anything like what?” I asked, folding my arms.

“I don't know. But I think we're supposed to find water. A river, stream, lake, I don't know.”

“Why?”

“Because first, we've been here for a day and I'm parched. But more importantly, the note…this paper, the sentences,” he paused and took a deep breath. “I found it!”

At this point I realised that I didn't have the energy to argue anymore so I let him explain to me what he got.

“Look here, by the sides of each sentence there are chemical symbols I wrote next to them.”

He handed me the paper and I moved the light to the middle of the page. He had scribbled beside each one like he said. I could recognise some chemical symbols.

“How do you know that they are supposed to be chemical symbols? It could be a coincidence that they relate.”

“I know but…come on, I don't think I could come up with a random sentence and somehow it'll relate to a chemical element. It all started with rekindles a glow. Now I've seen those words lots of times. In testing for oxygen gas, if a glowing splint makes contact with oxygen, the oxygen rekindles it. It doesn't really make sense, I know–”

“No…” I whispered. “You're on to something. And you're sure they're all correct? You're sure these symbols all relate to these elements?”

“I'm sure they do. I was so surprised. Look at them.”

The paper now looked like this:

Flies high into the sky- He
air I breathe- O2
All around me-O2

Laughter in the air- N2O
Rekindles a glow- O2

Yellow, sweet like butter- Na
Cloaks the metal bird- Al3
Makes up everything- C
Shiny, grey, soft, flames- Li

“Everyone knows that air I breathe has to be Oxygen right?”

I nodded slowly, my eyes going through the paper over and over again.

“And flies high into the sky,  I thought of balloons filled with helium. Cloaks up the metal bird, made me think of airplanes and their bodies are made of aluminium alloys, laughter in the air, laughing gas which is a nitrogen compound, yellow sweet like butter, soft made me think of sodium, which is a metal that is so soft that it could be cut with a knife, and yellow because it burns in air with a yellow flame, makes up everything, carbon makes up every organic compound, and that's not basically everything but we move on, shiny gray soft flames, lithium."

He took a deep breath. "And…and all around me. Yes many things are all around us, but it has to be Oxygen. And do you know how I knew I might be right? That I might be on to something?”

“How?” I asked, handing the paper over to him.

“No, keep holding it,” he said and I did, staring at him with a raised brow, trying to digest all the information he had blurted in the space of a few seconds.

“Look at those symbols.” His index finger traced the paper, starting from the first element to the last. “They all seem like random symbols of elements.”

“Yeah–”

“But they aren't. From the first three lines, I took away, the 'e'  from the helium symbol because without it, the three elements would form, H, O, O. Put that together and it forms what?”

My eyes widened. “H2O…”

“Exactly. And then I went along and took all the first letters away from all the symbols and then I got N, O, N, A, C, L.
NO, which I thought was a nitrogen compound at first–”

“What do you mean by-?”

“Hold up, and Sodium Chloride! NaCl. Now it didn't make sense. H20, NO, and NaCl. What the hell do I do with them? But then I thought what if the NO meant–”

“No?”

“No!”

“No?”

“No, no, no, like yes, no! So yes I thought it might mean no.”

“So what then? How does that–”

“Just wait.”

I sighed and kept mute.

“So we have H20 no NaCl right?”

I nodded.

“In common terms this would be water no salt right?”

“Yeah…?”

“So I racked my brain for a while until I realised that it might mean water that doesn't have salt. Like salt water, as in, oceans and seas etc. So…of course the no in there meant it'll be fresh water, like lakes, rivers, ponds, etc–”

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down,” I said, trying my best to process everything. “How the hell did you get fresh water from air I breathe and rekindles a glow?”

“It's crazy, I know,” he said with a chuckle. “Hey, I could be wrong and I might just be saying trash now but, Larry, we should look for it right now.

I placed my hands on my hips and stared at him, taking in his dishevelled appearance. His red hair was all over the place and he looked like he hadn't shut his eyes for more than five seconds throughout the night.

***

“Oh holy H2O..."

The water of the lake glistened magically in the moonlight. I pushed branches away from my path and walked further to get a great view. I didn't have the energy to gaze at the scenery so I started to fill my bottle first thing as I got to the water.

Once I was done, I washed my face up and drank a lot of water, not even caring one bit if it was hygienic or not.

I sat down at the edge of the lake and took a deep breath. The sky was getting brighter by the minute and I wish I was too.

I saw a flock of birds fly past and disappear into the clouds. I stared back at the water.

“I wish I could just swim away–” I started to murmur.

“What the fuck, no way!”

“What?” I turned to the left, where I saw him last, and pointed the flashlight at him.

“Fuck fuck fuck...it's a new note!”

I got up with my bottle and walked over. When I faced the light at him, I saw him trembling with excitement.

The beam of light landed on his hand and my stomach flipped.

"Where'd you find it?"

"Stuck in a branch just right here."

I grabbed the paper out of his hand and unfolded it with shaking hands. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I struggled to open it.

Another note?

When I had successfully unfolded the paper, I pointed the flashlight beam at it.

I shivered slightly as I took in the same handwriting, black ink and strange, random words that the last note had.

Mom and dad always got my back
Love and support, they never lack
Mom always watches me as I play in the sand
Makes me feel safe as she holds my hand
I'm proud of you, my dad always said
He lifts me up and I sit behind his head
They'll always love me, they'll never go far
When I'm around them, I feel like a star

+_+_+
A/N

Have you ever gone camping? And if you haven't, would you like to?