The Forest: Part 1

“It’s getting too dark. I don’t know which way they went.” Deputy Walker says nervously.

The sun is setting fast on the officers, especially with the giant oak trees found in the Hollow Creek Forest. As soon as the sun gets low enough the forest trees consume the light, and the entire area is engulfed in darkness. Sheriff Pearson starts to slow his pace from a sprint to a jog and when he reaches the edge of the Hollow Creek Forest he stops completely. Deputy Walker slowly catches up to the sheriff. He stands next to Pearson and bends over, placing both hands on his knees. He takes this brief moment of rest to try and catch his breath and let his heart calm down slightly. The two officers have been chasing these two on foot for close to ten minutes and the Deputy is exhausted.

“They must’ve gone through there.” The sheriff says, pointing to a small opening in the trees that form the beginning of a trail leading into the forest. The trees are so thick in this part of the forest that there is no way the perps could have gone any other way. Walker hopes with the combination of the thickness of the forest and the darkness settling in that maybe the perps aren’t too far ahead. Walking through these woods during the day can be tough hike, at night it is almost impossible. Walker finally catches his breath and goes to speak but hesitates. He tries to find the right way to tell the sheriff that maybe they should wait for backup. He finally gets the nerves to speak but sees Pearson take off into the darkness down the path.

“Alright, let’s go!” Pearson says, on his way into the forest. The words go faint as the sheriff gets further down the path. Walker is left alone standing in the opening, he takes a deep breath and lowers his hand down to his belt and pulls out his flashlight. He takes off after the sheriff, his nerves taking over his body.

Walker tries to keep pace with the sprinting sheriff. The deputy can use Pearson’s bouncing light as a guide. Walker sees the light from the sheriff growing. As he gets closer, he sees the sheriff stopped.

“How you doing back there deputy?” Pearson asks.

“I’m good,” the deputy responds, trying to catch his breath.

“Do you think maybe we should wait for backup? It’s getting dark and even with our lights it’s hard to see the trail.” Walker asks. His nerves have now turned into fear and all he wants to do is get out of these woods. He would never admit to the sheriff that he was scared though. He has too much respect for Pearson and would never turn his back on him. Pearson is the one that pushed for Walker to take over as deputy after Pearson became sheriff. They have worked together for years, even going through the academy at the same time.

“We can’t afford to lose any more time.” The sheriff says. “We can do this deputy. As long as we have each other’s back we’ll be fine. There aren’t too many places they can get too. They either had to keep going on the trail through or turn back. If they turned back, we would have seen them. Let’s just keep following the trail a little longer.”

Pearson leads the men down the narrow path that winds through this part of the forest. Walker is a few steps behind the sheriff, struggling to keep up at times. As the men jog down the path, they each take a side of the trail to search. The sheriff scanning the left side of the woods and Walker looking off to the right. Every so often they stop to listen, trying to hear footsteps, branches breaking, anything that lets them know the men they are searching for are close by. The first few times the officers stop the only noises they can hear are the faint rumblings of small animals running across the ground. Probably just a rabbit or squirrel, Walker thinks too himself, nothing to be worried about. With every step they take Walker tries to calm his nerves. He doesn’t want to show that he’s scared but right now he would be ok with turning back. He just wants out of these woods but mostly he wants out of the darkness. Ever since he was a little kid he has been terrified of the dark.

After a few more minutes of running Pearson starts to slow down, going to a brisk jog and then stopping completely. The deputy, standing behind the sheriff, sees the man twist his head back and forth scanning either side of the trail. Walker sees that the sheriff is lost, or at least he doesn’t know what they should do now. Walker takes this time to try and convince Pearson to turn back.

“Maybe we should just turn back and wait for backup. We can drive around and wait for them to come out the other side.” Walker says, hopeful the sheriff will take his advice.

“You know what, maybe you’re right. It’s so quiet out here we should’ve been able to hear them if they decided to run. Either they found a way to turn back or they’re hiding. If that’s the case, we can wait them out till morning and get a chopper in here to find them. All right deputy, you got your wish, let’s turn back.” Pearson places a hand on the deputy’s shoulder and nods back down the trail from where they came from.

“Let’s go.” Pearson says, almost sounding defeated.

Walker takes the lead on the way back. He walks with authority down the trail just wanting to get out of the woods as quickly as possible. After a few more steps Walker comes too a stop. He does not see the sheriff’s light coming from behind him and turns to see what is going on. He raises his light back towards where the two men just came from and notices the sheriff is stopped. He his waving his light back and forth from the left side of the trail and then back to the right.

“Everything ok sheriff?” Walker asks as he starts to slowly walk back towards the sheriff. Pearson does not respond; he continues standing at the edge of the trail shining his light back and forth. Walker notices a look of concern on the sheriff’s face. Pearson is looking back the way they just came from. He brings his free hand up to his face and rubs his eyes. He is hoping that maybe that will bring clarity to what he is seeing.

“Did we pass a fork in the trail on our way in?” the sheriff asks. “This doesn’t look right.”

“I don’t remember seeing one, but we must’ve, right? There’s only one way to go. Maybe we just didn’t see it. It’s smaller than the trail we are on.” Walker says.

The confusion and concern on Walker’s face is now matching that of the sheriffs. Walker thinks hard trying to remember if they passed any type of fork in the trail when they first came in. He tries telling himself that they did, trying whatever he can to calm his nerves. Deep down though he knows that they never came across a fork in the trail and now fears that they might be lost.

Walker watches as Pearson holds still for a few more seconds trying to figure out which way to go. He sees the sheriff turn and raise his light to look down the wider of the two paths.

“I think you’re right. The darkness is just messing with my mind, I think. Let’s just get out of here.” The sheriff says.

Pearson turns to face Walker, both men ready to leave these woods, the deputy more than ready leave. The sheriff gives a quick nod, signaling it’s time to move on. Just then he hears the sound of large branches breaking and then a loud scream coming from down the smaller trail. The scream was so quick that it took Walker a few seconds to realize what he had just heard but when he did, he knew exactly what it was.

“What the hell was that!” Walker shouts.

“It has to be them, let’s go.” Sheriff Pearson says without even looking at the deputy.

Both men start sprinting down the narrower of the two paths. Walker is having a hard time keeping pace with the skinnier more agile sheriff. Walker sees Pearson curve to the right as the trail winds around a giant oak. The deputy rounds the bend in the trail and sees the path widen back out in a straight line. He comes to a sudden stop and kicks up dirt from off the trail and almost trips himself as he stumbles slightly. He shines his light while spinning in a slow circle trying to find where the sheriff went.

He calls out to Pearson and waits a few seconds to hear a response. The sheriff does not answer, and Walker calls out again, this time a little louder. Again, he hears nothing but the sound of wind rustling the leaves of the oak trees.

Walker starts to slowly continue down the path, hoping the sheriff is just up ahead. He suddenly hears some rustling in the bushes that sit just off the path on the left. He quickly shines his light over to the bushes,

“Sheriff, is that you?”

Just as he asks the question, he feels a gentle touch on his shoulder and a faint whisper in his ear. He couldn’t make out what the whisper said but the voice was soft and calming. It reminded him of his mother’s voice, whispering in his ear, I love you, while she tucked him into bed. His body is trembling with fear and goose flesh runs down his entire body. He lets out a loud scream and spins around as fast as he can, not knowing what to expect to see. Then his body stiffens, and his heart starts to race as he stares at nothing. He frantically flashes his light all around the area, but he sees nothing there. The fear inside of him reaches its end and the deputy falls to the dirt and starts to cry.

He tries to calm himself down, now that he is alone it is on him to get out of these woods. He takes a few deep breaths, stands back up and turns around to head back down the path. He takes a few steps and hears a voice; this one is loud enough to understand, and it is a voice he recognizes.

“Deputy where are you going? I think I found where they went.” The sheriff says.

Walker turns back around to see Pearson standing a few feet down the trail.

To Be Continued...