16

Once you're sure they're all gone, you slip out of your hiding place. Not wanting to stick around in case they come back, you start to make your way quickly and quietly towards the outskirts of the forest.

It's only when you're sure you've safely left the people behind that you begin to slow down. The trees are thinning now, letting in a little more sunlight as you approach the edge. It's quiet, peaceful—beautiful.

But all the while, your mind is a hurricane of confusion, uncertainty—fear. The box was strange enough on its own, but you're still reeling after what you just heard. You have no idea what to make of any of it. All you can be sure of is that box was put there by Mr. Clarence's company—and that they're using it to gather data of some kind.

You have no idea what this could mean in the scheme of things, but you're almost certain that whatever's going on here is a little outside the remit of the woodland resort they were planning to build. At the same time, you have no way of knowing if all of this is a secret to the Town Council, or if all of this going on behind the scenes is something they're fully on board with.

In the end, you still feel like you don't know much of anything about what's going on. You just know—you're certain—that something's going on.

You're so caught up in your thoughts that you stop paying attention to where you're going—but when you hear footsteps, you come to a sudden stop.

For a moment, you wonder if you've somehow circled around and accidentally ended up where you started—but just glancing around, you know you can't have. Just looking through the trees ahead of you, you can see the rough green smudge that represents the land surrounding the forest.

You keep walking, still aware that there are footsteps growing ever closer to yours. You just tell yourself to act normal; it's not like you're doing anything wrong by walking through the woods. But then, as you glance at the thicket of trees to your right, you see a flash of someone moving—and then crouching down. For all you know they could just be tying their shoelace, but thinking of that metal box, you move ahead without pause, wanting to get a head start.

In the same instant that you reach a fork in the trail, however, somebody else steps out from behind a tree, and you jump backwards—

Only to see Nic jolt back in shock as well, instinctively gripping the straps of her backpack.

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