We've made it to the campsite parking lot. They haven't begun to follow us yet; I continue relaying information to Jason about their distance. Mr. Radek takes the car and parks it in a non-conspicuous spot, in the actual camping zone.
He'd come up with a few conclusions as to why they haven't followed us yet and begins telling me as we get ready to walk through the dense forest toward our makeshift camp.
One, the people who were attacking were the owners of the vehicle they drove to the 500m location with.
Two, they're regrouping and planning an offensive.
Three, they're not sure of how to press a new attack. They likely used the supplies they had on hand and need to determine if they can afford to continue the attack today.
Four, the bombs were made beforehand and were going to be used on our homes at night.
Whatever the case might be, Jason concluded they won't immediately attack us. But he doesn't know if they'll attack tonight.
Their plan was well thought out. They knew our movements due to Spencer and planned for any situation. There must be an adult, or maybe even two. And that Spencer was used as bait to lure us out. Someone must have made the decision to attack the way they did; their teamwork was impeccable.
Mr. Radek thought he'd be one of the only people to seek out a teammate quickly, but he realizes now that he was wrong. It's not just us moving, everyone in the game must be moving and conspiring with one another as well.
There are enemies who currently know who I am, and no matter what, they'll be coming for us. We're going to have to make our final stand in the forest. Mr. Radek has been racking his brain on how to defend against them.
Due to the mark left on me by Spencer, no matter where we go, they'll know where we are. Or at least they'll know where I am. They're using tactics as a team to coordinate attacks and manipulated the rules of the game to their own benefit.
They worked out that I'd only be able to tell when Spencer came into range due to the mark being attuned to a single target, but they knew that the radius of the generic sensor would coincide with Spencer as I relayed information to my own teammate.
So, when Spencer came into range, Mr. Radek would only see the generic sensor, I saw both. But I didn't know that it meant there were multiple enemies. I was under the impression that only Spencer would be coming.
We were naïve. Jason had created plans to attack and defend and make a stronghold of an isolated house. He had hoped that Spencer would approach the house from the road, and we would have a clean shot on him and end the confrontation with minimal resistance.
He was wrong. The home where we were to defend almost became a coffin we wouldn't escape.
The walk to the campsite is exhausting on our already tired bones. My body is aching, and I feel like my throat is closing from the house fire. My clothes are covered in soot and dust, and the wet ground of the forest floor is making it difficult to walk. My rifle keeps getting caught on nearby trees and slowing me down, I don't know why I'm carrying this fucking thing.
I barely know how to shoot it anyway. I keep thinking I'm going to slip and fall; my leg is hurting right now. My stupid weak leg, didn't Austin say I'd gotten hurt as kids, and that Spencer was with us?
I don't have good memories of him, I feel like we hung out with a lot of neighborhood kids, but only me and Austin stuck to each other as we grew up. Others moved, or we just grew distant. Normal life things.
The forest is dense and wet, Jason is using his flashlight on his phone to watch his movements, I have my phone too, but I'm trying to conserve the battery life so I'm following tightly behind him. I've been trying to ignore my fatigue and listen to the sound of the lake to our left. The sound of waves crashing against the shore is calming. The forest is also calm and quiet. I hope we don't get eaten by a bear.
It's approaching twilight, the clouded skies block out any light that could seep into the forest from the moon or stars. There are occasional gaps in the clouds, revealing a waxing moon. Maybe 80% of it is illuminated.
How nice it must feel to be on the moon, not literally. Metaphorically, being so far away from the acts of the Earth would be so calming.
It'll quickly become jet black, and our ability to move will be greatly hindered.
Before I knew it, we'd made it to the campsite. After a strenuous walk through the forest, we reached the clearing. Our camp is here, the fireplace I'd set up is beside the tent Mr. Radek had pitched between two large trees.
"I don't know what to do, Danny." Jason sounds dejected, he'd placed his rifle down beside the fireplace and sat down, letting out a large sigh as he did.
I follow suit and do the same as him.
"We'll figure something out, how about we make this fire and try to come up with a plan?" I ask him.
Mr. Radek points towards an axe that he'd brought last time. I go to pick it up and see the waterproof package of fireworks beside it. We've got no use for those right now.
"I hope my wife and daughter are in the hotel right now." He says while looking up towards the sky, longingly.
"I hope so too, and I hope Spencer didn't go after Emma or any of my friends," I say while I grip the handle of the axe and bring it up to my shoulder.
Both of us are staring at the sky, watching clouds overhead, Jason looks cold, he's at that age. I'll chop up some firewood as quickly as I can.
"Danny, how far is Spencer right now? The sensor went down for me, I don't know where they are." He speaks in a low voice.
Jason stands up to grab a bag of supplies he'd left behind during our last visit to this campsite.
"Spencer is more than 5km away, it says 5km~, there's a little squiggly line after the 5km. So, I think that means there must be a threshold to how far the sensor can measure. Or something." I say to him while trying to catch a glimpse of what he's grabbing.
He passes me a bottle of water.
Surprisingly, it's not frozen. It's cold. But at least it's drinkable.
I take a drink, then a gulp. Then I finish the entire thing. I didn't know how thirsty I was.
"... I never thought how difficult these situations would be..." Mr. Radek says in a deep and bellowing voice.
The forest is cold, and it's getting darker by the minute. There won't be any light if I keep wasting time.
"We don't have much in the way of supplies. I didn't leave enough to hold out for an extended period. I wish we had brought more food, but there's only hotdogs and some cold bread, and canned food. Not much we can do about that either. You remember the rules, right?" Jason lets out a sigh.
"We can't be seen killing, we can't talk about the game, and something else."
"We can't hide and isolate ourselves. I don't think that rule currently applies to us right now though. We are isolated, but we're marked so I think we're well within the rules of the game." He stares off into the distance and the silence between us is deafening.
My body has begun to calm down, as much as it can. I start to feel cold from the November air. It doesn't help that we're beside the lake either.
The nearby trees are beginning to fade from my vision from the lack of light. They sway and rock in the wind, we can hear the splintering of wood and the movement of leaves howling throughout the forest. I can barely see in front of my own face.
Let's get this woodcut.
"I'll grab some firewood; it'd be ironic if we were to freeze to death instead," I tell Jason.
I still have the lighter that I took from the table at home. I can use that to light it.
Jason says he'll help me, he's not old enough to just let me do everything.
We go separate ways into the forest and begin looking for suitable wood for the fire. I begin to break off skinny branches from dead trees and snap them into smaller pieces for kindling and look for any trees that are small enough to break into firewood with the axe.
Jason is doing the same thing a few feet away from me. There aren't very many suitable trees or deadfall to use. I don't want to get too far away from the campsite either, just in case I get lost while being in this exhausted and absent-minded state.
It feels, almost relaxing, looking for wood, it's like we're going back to our ancestral roots or something.
I hear a thudding noise coming from behind my back, and the dull sound hits the soil, I turn to see Jason walking with a large log in hand, that he's holding at his side.
After making and grabbing a suitable amount of kindling and dragging along behind me like Jason, I walk them to the campsite. This thing is fuckin heavy. It's hard to grip, the sap left behind the bark stings in my palm.
I forgot, I cut my palm up while I was freaking the fuck out. Can't believe I gripped my own hand that hard. I should've cut my nails before I came out. My nails themselves are filled with dirt, my hands are covered in soot from the ashes of the home, and my pants and shirt smell like shit.
We probably inhaled some asbestos in that old home. Or maybe the lead piping reacted with the fire or something and combusted into an aerosol state.
I don't know if that's how lead works.
After thinking stupid things, I made it beside Jason, and we begin to chop the wood.
I start first, but Jason interrupts me and grabs the axe, and tells me:
"You gotta swing with your legs, use the momentum and gravity of the axe coming down, it'll make it easier on your arms and back." He says before showing me the proper technique for chopping wood.
We both take turns splitting the wood, and Jason gathers up the kindling I'd collected and shows me how to start a fire.
The flame starts out low, before erupting into a suitable campfire for us to warm up with. The sky has gone dark, we didn't know just how dark though, our eyes became adjusted to the night. But now we can clearly see our immediate surroundings.
The clouded sky above brings an unwanted and unforgiving wind, it sweeps up the embers of the fire and carries them off into the forest. The rocks that I'd gathered before lighting up the fire, and I'm able to see what kind of rocks they are.
Claire taught me rock names, not that it matters.
I and Jason sit down and breathe our first breath of relief.
We look at each other and smile. At least we're still alive.
We still have a chance to fight back, a chance to turn the tides. At least that's what I feel in my heart.
I don't know if optimism will help us, but pessimism certainly won't. And pessimism won't stop a bullet from cracking the backs of our skulls upon impact either.
If they come tonight.
The fire we'd lit dances and reminds me of the abandoned house. Will I go to jail for Arson? My fingerprints are on that gun. Or will the water from the fire department erase any evidence of us being there? Guess we won't know anytime soon.
We sit together in silence before Jason stands up and gestures to me to give him the knife. I do so.
He walks a few steps away, plucks a branch off a tree with ease, and begins carving it.
We sit in silence at the fire. It feels warm, it feels refreshing. I feel so tired. I could fall asleep at any moment. I wonder what time it even is.
It's ethereal out here, just a few miles away, is a bustling city. I wouldn't call my hometown bustling, exactly... But it's a city that is very much alive.
We spend a few minutes warming up, festering our emotions in our guts, and thinking.
I wonder what everyone else is doing right now.
Are Mom and dad, and even that little asshole Thea eating supper together right now?
Did Claire say yes to Charlie?
And what about Josh and Kelly? Kelly's probably sending him stupid anime things to him right now, it's just the way he is. I wonder if they're all playing games together, or if they're hanging out at Josh's place. I wonder if they finished their Dungeons and dragons campaign without me.
What I wouldn't give to sit with them all, and not have to worry, in a warm house, listening to music with them and dicking around.
I'd ask Anna for help with my biology homework, and Claire could go on some weird rant about how jellyfish are immortal, or be scolded by Anna for talking too much. And Kelly would suggest some shitty anime we could all watch together, and Charlie, being him, would oblige Kelly.
We could all cook something weird and stupid together, while Claire yells out instructions from a recipe she read online. Her chicken waffles were great though...
I and Charlie could play a game of chess, we've got a 20-30 record now, that first game was a fluke. I think he was just distracted by Claire.
Or maybe I could just be at home with Emma. To feel her warmth by my side, interlocking our hands together while we watch a movie, I'd rest my head on her shoulders and smell her perfume.
What if Spencer already killed her? What if their group killed all my friends? What if my mom is lying on the kitchen floor bleeding out from a shotgun round to the chest... Or if they've been kidnapped...
I don't think Spencer would kill Emma.
If anything, he's probably viewing her as some fucked up prize for killing me and eliminating me from this timeline. With me gone, and all memories of me gone, there's no one standing in the way of his fucked up desires.
I'm pretty fucked up too. I shouldn't exist here. I should be dead.
I uncurled the hands of fate and reverted them to a time when I could change, and I really believed it, too.
People like me now, the teachers don't think I'm a piece of shit, strangers say hi to me, I don't live day to day, controlled by my addiction.
I have my mom back.
Is this really living though? The everyday paranoia is killing me.
I've been absent-mindedly staring into the din of the fire for quite a few minutes. The smoke is starting to make my eyes burn.
Jason looks depressed, and it makes sense. We had an overwhelming failure at the house.
He suddenly gets up to grab some more firewood that we'd chopped together. We aren't even sitting on anything, just the dirt. We should pull up a log or something.
When he throws the log into the fire, he finally breaks the silence.
"Who'd have thought we'd be here huh? We died and got to come back in time. We have our memories back for all the future events. If I knew any lottery numbers, I'd be rich by the end of the week."
He gives a lighthearted laugh.
"I know right, we know everything that's going to happen. At least the big events, if only we could somehow use our knowledge to make the world a better place or something." I laugh with him too.
"If only we had a real second chance, with no need for all this fighting bullshit. I wish I never accepted the offer from that... demon."
"But of course, then I'd never see Maria again..."
He looks into the fire; his face is partially illuminated by the light. I can see the shadows of each individual beard hair on his face.
"I got to save my Maria. I got to hold her like I wanted to. To hear her laugh, see her gentle smile. Her quirky little behaviors. I got better at doing the things I always wanted to do, getting healthy and taking out more time for my family. Now they could be in danger because of my decision to be a part of this."
Jason takes his phone from his pocket and points it toward the sky.
"There's no service out here. I can't even check on how they're doing. I just hope they're okay."
His face looks defeated.
I feel defeated too. It's like we're just waiting to be slaughtered. That any minute the distance on the sensor could decline again, bringing about our deaths when they arrive.
Maybe it's how things should be.
No, it isn't.
I want to live.
"Well, when we survive. Which we will. We can invest in something and get rich. You'll be able to give Maria everything she'll ever want and spoil her to bits." I say while trying to lighten his mood.
"Right, we could make big investments. Couldn't we? Manipulate the stock market because we'll already know the big companies worth investing in. It's like inside trading, but we're time travelers so we'll have no connections to anything. There isn't much the government can do if they ever investigate our trades, we can just say we got lucky."
He looks like he's thinking of all the nice things he'd buy Maria.
"Yeah, we could try investing in bitcoin. I heard that term a lot before I died. Or warn the people of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370."
He looks confused.
"Bitcoin? Do you mean what they use on the dark web to sell drugs and firearms? I remember reading about that, didn't think it was worth buying though."
"But, Flight 370, huh... Danny..."
Mr. Radek stares at me blankly.
He begins muttering words to himself.
"I've never heard of that. When did that happen?"
"What do you mean? I might have been an addict, but I still heard the news, it was fucking tragic. Are you alright in there, old man?"
"Danny, you never mentioned how old you were when you died."
"I was 20. So, in about 4 years...Why?"
He stares blankly at me for a minute.
"Danny... you were 20, you're 16 right now..."
"So, you died in 2015? When? What day?"
He's begun talking faster.
"I don't know, I think it was in December, why does it matter?"
"I died in 2013... during the summer of 2013. A little over a year from now. I was 34."
He looks shocked.
"So that means... we aren't all from the same time?"
We never bothered to tell each other when we died. We had just assumed that we must've been taken at the same time. Or maybe we were too emotional when talking about our deaths.
The implications of which means that maybe nobody is from the same time. We all reverted to this year...
I and Jason had some sort of trauma this year specifically... he lost his daughter. I started my addiction. But we don't really know anything about anyone else. Or how their lives turned out...
The dawning of this revelation became immediately apparent to both of us.
But there's nothing we can do about that right now.
"We'll have time to think about what this means later. Right now... let's try to survive any attack that could happen." He says while talking with his hands.
He's right, we're going to survive, and we're going to talk about this. We need to survive first, none of that matters if we aren't alive for it.
Jason is drawing a blank. And my ideas aren't fully realized on what we can do, or how to turn the tables and change our defensive position into an offensive one.