There was a howling in the air as the winds were swirling. It was not a night to be walking out in the woods, but Rye and Jack had no choice, their car had just broken down about a mile and a half away.
It was early Friday evening, with no special plans, they decided to go out for a drive. Rye wanted Jack to go up to the north side where the lake was.
Rye had heard stories about strange happenings that occurred around there which peaked his interest.
“We have never driven there before,” Rye said, let’s check it out!
Strange happenings? Well, Jack wasn’t exactly sure what Rye had meant by that, but to a 17-year-old, it was enough to peak his curiosity. All was going great as they were heading up to the north side, with the windows down, music playing, driving through hills lined with tall trees and large rocks.
As they were driving all of a sudden the car was starting to run erratic, it didn’t have the energy it had earlier, but they continued to go on. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Jacks car had slowed down to crawl, eventually not running at all. The car finally died out about 2 to 3 miles away from the lake.
Jack opened the hood to see what was going wrong but couldn’t find anything. The car was only 13 years old with over 95,000 miles on it. It was a gift from his dad who bought the car from an auction about 4 months ago. Realizing they wouldn’t be able to start the car they were pondering their next move when almost instantly they both yelled out “cell phones!”.
After several attempts, they finally realized they were not going to get a signal of any kind from where they were. So they locked all the doors took their personal belongings and started to walk, but which way?
Not being familiar with this area they weren’t sure which way they should go. While driving towards the lake area they didn’t remember seeing anything that they could go back to for help, so they decided to continue towards the lake, they felt confident that they would run into someone that could help them. Plus there was still enough daylight left for them to go back if needed, so off they went towards the lake.
Jack said to Rye “it was a good thing they both wore their sneakers” with all the rocks, hills, and mud lined grounds, it was easier for them to move around. They have been walking for a while now with no cars driving by or any people. Rye was starting to wonder why, as he always heard that teens would frequent the area for drinking and partying, especially since it was Friday with the weekend just starting.
The winds were getting stronger with the trees shaking as they both were getting thirsty and tired. They stopped for a bit to finish whatever was left in their water bottles before they started their journey again. All they saw were trees, rocks, more trees, old empty beer cans, bottles were all along the road as they were walking through it.
With the clouds moving in it was getting darker sooner than they expected, with no ability to contact or find anyone for help, things were getting a little tense for both of them. As Jack was walking along, he noticed something near the wooded area on the right side of the road. He went to get a closer look and noticed there were footprints, a set of small and large footprints, that looked that they were recently made. Jack yelled out “RYE! check this out!” Rye ran over and looked at Jack and said “holy crap” these look fresh”
They both let their imaginations get the best of them as they remember watching many a movie about being stuck in the woods. Upon looking at the prints again something seemed a little off about them.
Yes, they looked like barefoot prints or perhaps some kind of footwear that would make prints like that; but why would anyone walk in the bare feet out here? Would they?
At this point, they both agreed to follow the prints because they were running out of options. So off they went, following the footprints, hoping for the best.
Meanwhile, all the way, down the hill, near the entrance where Jack and Rye entered the area, a Jeep pulled over and a man got out. He was a local ranger who noticed that the sign prohibiting entrance to the area was missing. He looked around and found it behind the rocks, where branches had fallen over it.
He picked it up and moved it back to the entrance and hoped no one entered the area. He looked at his watch, he was running late, so he placed the sign back up, secured it to the best of his ability and drove off.
The sign read, DO NOT ENTER AREA CLOSED DUE TO…
To be continued…
What happened to Jack and Rye in the woods?