A Loss of Direction

“I knew this was a bad idea. Why couldn’t you have just been happy floating near the beach? This was a really bad idea.”

“Jeff, you need to shut up.” whispered Luke. “If you don’t keep your mouth shut we are going to end up buried in this forest somewhere.”

Jeff sat there sobbing into his hands and shaking uncontrollably. I watched him quietly, a knot starting to build in my stomach. The volume of his sobs were increasing and we had to maintain our composure. Looking into the distance, I could see the small blur of where our boat sat; docked, next to the borders of the forest, overlooking the far side of the lake.

“You seriously need to calm down. Things are going to be okay, we can get out of this. If you don’t settle down, we are going to attract attention. I am going to do everything I can to get us out of this mess okay?”

Jeff looked up with a look of fear and trust. “Did you know things like this went on here?”

“Do you think that I’d bring you here if I knew this was going on? I’m not completely out of my mind.”

“What is this; some kind of cult or something? These people are going to kill us. What if they find our boat before we get a chance to get out of here?”

“Jeff listen; I’m as scared as you are but if you don’t keep your cool this may be our last night alive. Please, please, please just relax, take a couple of deep breaths and try to think about something good.”

“Think about something good!? Stumbling into a situation like this cannot spark a positive feeling. Look around you. There are people being carried into some underground pits that these people must have been digging for months. Those weren’t machine dug pits and you seen how far they went down. There was no end to them. There are people in suits standing all over an abandoned forest. Anything could happen here. Anything!”

“I’m not going to take this. I’m going to get home and sleep in my own bed tonight and so are you. Follow my lead.” Luke slowly stood up from the hiding spot behind the brush. He took a couple slow steps towards the water where the boat was anchored, but before he had a chance to make a run to it, voices in the distance caused him to become paralyzed in fear.

“Boss; I found something.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a boat or something parked against shore. We’re not here alone. You think it could be cops or something?”

“I have no idea, but we can’t take our chances. Find whoever is in this forest.”

“We are dead, we are dead, we are dead. I wish that I could tell Mandy that I love her one last time.”

“Jeff. We are not going to die. We are going to find a way out of this mess.”