Chapter 36 part 2

While Ralph enjoyed this exchange, he was starting to get bored with it. Besides, they'd already had a majority in favor of finding Charlie, so he figured they might as well get started on following her. Ralph glanced at Beth as he thought about it. At the very least, Beth's borderline stalker behavior would at least spee up the process of finding Charlie. Which meant that they'd be able to get back to finding more food that much sooner.

"Well, if it turns out that she's walking in circles, we'll catch up to her sooner than later," Amelia said. "If Beth really can track her, we can just make a direct path to her while she'd still be walking around in the circle you mentioned. It actually would make finding her that much faster."

"Well, if we're ready to go, let's go!" Ralph said.

"Uh, we still need to take our tents down," Beth reminded Ralph.

"Ugh, you know what I mean," he protested. Though, he got the feeling that the others didn't find his protest as credible as he'd like.

Despite Ralph's feelings about the matter, it still took them about ten minutes to collapse their tents and stow them away in their packs. During which, Ralph had been ready to walk while taking care of his tent.

"So, which way to Charlie?" he asked as soon as their tents were taken down, put away, and their fire pit had been dowsed with water and stirred before being dowsed again.

"Let's see," Beth said, looking at the sun that could barely be see through the mist above them. "I'm pretty sure it's going to be north by northeast."

"You sure you can sense her well enough?" Ralph remarked before he could stop himself. "I mean, 'pretty sure' isn't exactly reassuring."

Beth just rolled her eyes. "It's not the direction that I'm worried about getting wrong," she said, holding her arm and hand out, pointing in the distance. "What I'm not really sure about is that the cardinal direction is north by northeast." Beth then started shaking her arm and hand as if to emphasize the direction they were pointing.

"Ignore him," Amelia advised. "You know he's just going to be a pain, no matter what you say to him."

"Yeah, but it would still be nice to get him to act more intelligently," Beth merely replied. "Though, I'm sure that's asking for too much."

Ralph slapped his right hand to his chest, over his heart, as if he was hurt right there. He collapsed to the ground and started moaning. Though, he smirked when his friends just ignored him and walked on.

Ralph lay on the ground for a minute before getting up to rejoin the group. Not that he was surprised they left him like that. They'd been doing that since even before they entered middle school.

Ralph was bored shortly after they started, not that was any different from how he'd been when they started walking most days. Even when they'd read while they walked, Ralph quickly found himself getting bored. It wasn't so much that he didn't like walking, it was just that he'd preferred being able to see the scenery change faster than when they started.

It wasn't until they'd been walking around three hours before they found any sign of Charlie. Though, the sign they found didn't help them feel like they'd find her. At least any time soon.

What they came across was her pack. It was just laying on the ground. There weren't any signs of distress or a struggle, so it was clear that she had just either set it down or dropped it as she rounded a tree. Which even Ralph couldn't understand.

"What's up with this?" he asked. "Why would she just leave her pack like that?"

"Uh, guys?" Amelia said, looking around the tree. "It only gets weirder."

Ralph looked and he couldn't deny something strange happened. Not only did she leave her pack, but apparently she'd taken her clothing off. Her shorts were laying on the ground, followed by her shoes and socks, then her shirt, ending finally with her underwear and bra.

"What the hell happened to her?" Ralph said, staring at her clothing on the ground, looking like it was just dropped there as she would have continued to walk along. He couldn't wrap his mind around that fact.

Not only had Charlie been the most conscious of her modesty of their entire group, but Ralph was sure that she would have fought tooth and nail to keep from even being stripped down to her underwear, let alone having her underwear get removed too.

"Maybe she had another encounter with the spores from the fungaloids?" Wes suggested.

Beth glared at Wes.

"What?" he protested. "What other explanation would explain why she took her clothes off? I only remember the only time she did something like that had been when she was under the influence of those spores."

"Wes does have a point," Hannah remarked.

"Yeah, but we know there's no gate around here and I really can't see a fungaloid making their way to this point in this world, or at least not by themselves," Beth replied.

"Well, what else would you suggest?" Tim asked. "I mean, it doesn't look like she was taken by force or anything."

For reasons Ralph couldn't explain, what Tim just said triggered something in his memory and he suddenly recalled one of the things the voices he heard when he first woke up that morning. He had mostly forgotten about that up to this point. After all, it wasn't something that had really struck him as important.

"Uh, you guys remember what I told you as we started out about the voices I heard when I woke up?" he asked, not sure if this meant anything or not.

"Yeah, what about it?" Amelia asked. "Do you think they took her?"

"No, it's something else," he said, wondering why he had to be the one who heard it, and why he also had to be the only one who could understand the language he knew that they had to have been speaking. "They said something about that no one wants to get taken by the Lost."

"What're the 'Lost?'" Tim asked.

"No idea," Ralph freely admitted. "All I can say is that it sounded to me like a local superstition or something."

"Yeah, it does kinda sound like the thing a parent would tell their kid to keep them from getting to trouble," Hannah remarked.

"Well, whatever happened, the ground should be soft enough to have left footprints," Beth said.

"Any idea how long that would take?" Wes asked, clearly getting tired of searching for Charlie.

"Yeah, we're burning daylight here," Ralph added, though he was a little surprised to find that he really didn't care. He was fine with them wasting time, as it would at least keep him from having to continue walking to who knows where.

"I just have to find Charlie's footprints, then we should be able to move at about our same pace earlier," Beth said. "Ah, here we are!" Ralph watched Beth looking closely at the ground by where Charlie's clothing was just laying.

Ralph couldn't say why, but he had a feeling that they should just move on. He wasn't sure why, just that whatever happened to Charlie could happen to them and he really didn't want to be here if that happened.

"Uh, guys?" Beth called out. We have another problem,

"What is it this time?" Tim asked.

"Well, you can see where Charlie took her socks and shoes off that she started going barefoot, right?"

Beth got a general assent, though Ralph didn't really bother looking. He had other things he'd rather deal with. Which wasn't something he thought would be good to say aloud. At least at the moment.

"Well, as we go along here," Beth said, moving farther away from where Charlie's clothing had been left discarded, "her footprints just disappear. Like she disappeared herself."

"Couldn't she have retraced her steps backwards?" Ralph asked, not seeing where Beth was going with this. "I mean, I've seen it on some shows."

Beth shook her head. Her shoes are ten feet back," she said. "If she did what you suggested, then she'd either have to put her shoes back on or we'd see her own tracks covered by the ones of her with bare feet. Neither happened."

Ralph had to admit. That was a difficult one. He certainly didn't have an explanation for it. He looked at his friends and couldn't help notice Flare running around, exploring as if they were here just so she could have a fun time.

Stupid mutt, Ralph thought to himself as he pushed the thoughts of what Flare was doing out of his mind.

"What if she developed some magic that allowed her to fly, or maybe even change shape?" Amelia asked. "If she changed shape, at least that would explain why she took her clothes off."

"It's possible, but that still leaves us with the problem of where do we go from here? Beth asked. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just not one that helps us figure out how to continue following her."

"Well, what if we don't try following her?" Hannah asked. "We gave it our best shot, so what if we just, say, continued in this same direction and see what we find? I think we'll probably find a way out of this forest sooner or later and any direction is as good as another when we don't know the area."

"Hannah's right," Tim added. "We can't say if Charlie was taken by someone or something or if she'd learned to change her shape or something. Either way, her trail's run cold."

"Alright, but I think we should put her clothing in her pack," Beth said, clearly unhappy with the conclusion. "If she did get taken by these 'lost' then based on how she'd taken her clothing off, I'd bet she's not aware she did that. So, if we leave her pack here for her, and leave her clothing, then she should be able to at least be able to put it back one when she's able to."

"Beth," Wes sighed. "You're overthinking this."

Beth glared at Wes. "It's not like it's going to take very long to do," she remarked.

"Maybe, but your explanation went on longer than you really needed to," Wes said, putting his hand on Beth's shoulder, as if he was trying to help her see a problem she had. "We'll put Charlie's clothes in her pack, but you need to relax. You're not going to be able to help Charlie if you stress yourself out."

Beth merely rolled her eyes as Ralph turned away as he started chuckling over that. He was perfectly fine with leaving Charlie's clothing as it was, but wasn't going to try to stop the others from putting it in Charlie's pack.

Personally, he felt tracking Charlie had been a waste of time anyway. It wasn't like they would have gained anything if they'd found her. If anything, she'd probably take off again the first chance she got. Regardless of if they apologized or not.

Though, he couldn't argue with Hannah's idea of continuing in the same direction they'd been traveling in. it wasn't like they had anything to go on of which would be the best path to take, so it wasn't like they could just look at what options each direction would lead them to.

"Well, whenever you're ready to go, let's get a move on," Ralph commented, already getting bored. "We're burning daylight here."

"Hold your horses, Ralph," Amelia snapped. "We'll get moving when we get moving."

Ralph wasn't really interested in waiting. Part of it was because he was hungry and they were pretty much running out of things to eat, and he really didn't want to eat more of the mushrooms Charlie had said were safe to eat.

Not that it took them long to put Charlie's clothing in her pack. They were off in less than a couple minutes and were continuing on at their usual pace. Ralph wasn't bothered by the complaints his friends had about him in regards to his disregard for Charlie, but it wasn't like he expected them to have a high regard for him in the first place.

While they kept a steady pace and were continually moving, aside from when the sun went down and they went to sleep, it took them until the sun was going down the second time for them to reach the edge of the forest.

Though, it wasn't until they saw a break in the trees that they realized the mist above them had cleared and they could see the early evening sky above them, through the trees.

When Ralph became aware of it, he stopped walking and just looked up at the sky. It was a sky filled with yellows, oranges, and pinks against clouds that floated across the endless expanse of the sky.

Ralph wasn't sure how long he spent staring at the sight above him. Just that when he finally looked back down around him, his friends had already started walking ahead. Though, while he was annoyed at that fact, he didn't say anything as he jogged to catch up. He wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't noticed that he hadn't been paying attention.

When they got closer to the edge, of the forest, Ralph noticed it opened to another forest, after about fifty feet of field or a meadow, but this one was of regular sized trees. Not giant ones that looked like they were leftover from the Return of the Jedi movie. Oh, and the Ewoks movies too. Ralph's felt like his thoughts were a little bit scattered at the moment with getting out from under that lousy mist.

Though, above the trees outside the giant forest, he noticed what looked like a small column of smoke. Which indicated someone either living nearby or someone had set up a camp nearby.

"You guys see that?" Ralph asked, pointing to the smoke.

"What do you want to do about it?" Beth asked. "As far as we know it'll be more people like the ones you mentioned you heard a couple mornings ago."

"Doesn't matter what he wants to do about it," Hannah remarked. "We still need to talk with the locals to see if we can get anything for food. I mean, all we have for dinner tonight is the saltine crackers otherwise."

"We could still see if there's any of those red spotted mushrooms," Wes commented.

"As I said, all we have is saltine crackers," Hannah repeated, giving Wes a pointed look who merely chuckled and looked away.

"Well, what if we approach in two groups," Tim suggested. "Ralph, Amelia, and Wes can leave their packs with us as they go to see if they can talk with anyone there while Hannah, Beth, and I wait from a distance. Then if something happens we can come in to get you guys out of there."

"Wait, why do I have to go?" Amelia asked, startled. "And why should I leave my pack?"

"Because we need someone who can keep Ralph in line, and I'm not confident Wes won't join with him if he gets something in mind," Tim explained. "So, if he gets out of hand, you'll just have to… deal with him. As for your packs, if you need to run, the less weight you're carrying, the better."

"Ugh," Amelia complained. "Why can't Beth do that? She's much better at it than me."

"Because You're better at dealing with both Ralph and Wes. Wes doesn't seem to be as affected by Beth as we'd need if he assists Ralph in being a pain," Hannah answered for Tim.

"Come on! I'm not that bad!" Wes protested.

"Well, if we've got it figured out, we should head out then!" Ralph exclaimed.

"Well, he's certainly enthusiastic about it," Tim remarked.

"He could at least be a little more laid back," Beth said, "but at least he's not a problem right now."

Ralph led the way to where the column of smoke was coming from. Though, as they approached, Ralph also notice more columns, as the sky got darker, but those were farther away and he only saw them through small breaks in the trees.

"You know, I think these are oak trees," Beth remarked.

Ralph glanced back at her as she was looking closely at the much smaller trees that now surrounded them. While he was glad to be out from the giant trees, and that pervasive mist, he would be happier if they could get away from trees altogether. Just a field for a distance would be so nice at the moment. Especially if they could just rest there for a few days at least.

No one responded to Beth's remark, so she apparently just let it go, which Ralph was perfectly fine with. While he wouldn't admit it to his friends, he couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive at approaching whoever might be living here.

He accepted that he was one of those to approach them, since he had already stepped forward and said that they needed to meet with whoever lived here, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Especially since Tim already gave him a vote of no confidence by explaining his reasons for sending Amelia along. Not that Ralph could blame him. He hadn't given his friends much reason to expect that he wouldn't do something off the wall.

Part of him couldn't help but wonder if he should work at changing that part of him. It was at least something to think about later on. Besides, at the moment he couldn't think of why he should change right now. It wasn't like they were pretty much knocking on death's door. At least not since they recovered from that disease.