You Don't Know

Chapter sixteen

"I think we are a little off course. I'd say we have to go a little more this way now." Albert pointed slightly to his left, while looking back and forth between the compass in Nick's hand and the map in his.

We all trusted Albert and Nick, because they were the ones with the most experience in wandering through the woods, so no one said anything and just followed them.

After that we walked straight for a while again. It was nice, because the forest was beautiful. Now and then we saw some animals. Little ones like gorgeous butterflies but also bigger ones like mice and rabbits.

And the strong green of the leaves at the shine of the sun, shimmered like a green ocean. But not just the view was nice, also the people. We all talked a lot and got to know each other better. We talked about our current life's, about what it was like before and about what we wanted it to be like in the future. But we also talked about the trip we were on in that moment. How we were thinking on planning to handle all that. All the risks we were taking and what we would have to expect.

Because the ones without a map were looking on their phones, as long they had a signal, in addition, after an hour the first phone died.

"Shit. My phone is dead." Lia exclaimed.

"Oh. Maybe we should just use one at a time, then. I mean we are getting by with the map and the compass, so if we need a phone later, than it would be better if we'd save them now." Collin trusted Nick completely with the compass. And I thought his plan was good. If we'd have an emergency later, we'd be glad if we'd still have a phone.

"For an emergency for example." Albert added.

"Assuming we'll be able to call someone out there." Lia said, rather to herself than to us.

"Better than not having a phone at all." I answered anyway.

"Okay. So who's phone are we using?" Albert turned around to look at all the phones available. As did the others.

*

In the end we decided to use Mona's phone, and everyone was fine until we had walked for over two hours.

"Guys, wait. Can we please take a break now? You said it would be two hours, and it's been more than two now. I'm done. I'm so done. I can't walk another step." Mona complained, while she already sat down, in the middle of the group.

"But it shouldn't be much longer now." Albert tried to comfort her, but Mona had already decided for everyone that we would just have to take a break right there, where she sat.

"Okay then. Let's take a break!" Albert proclaimed.

We used all our jackets to build something like a blanket, so we could sit down on the ground.

"I'll be right back... just a second..." I made sure I was far enough away, so that no one could see or hear me peeing from where I was standing and after I finished, I walked back, but I didn't quite know where to. I just walked in the direction I thought I came from but after a few steps I wasn't so sure anymore. And after some more, I got really scared until...

"Hey." Nick said.

"Oh Nick. Thank God! I thought I was lost." I turned around to Nick, realizing that I had indeed been walking in the wrong direction.

"Oh shit. Well, I'm glad I found you then." Nick exhaled in relieve.

"Yeah. Thanks... But what are you doing here? Did you miss me already?" I made it sound a little teasing, though I could imagine that it was a bit true.

"Nah... I was away for the same reason as you, I imagine. But yeah, kind of scared you'd ran off again."

"I'm sorry." I replied with my head down, after I understood what he meant by that. The past few weeks I have lied to my friends, betrayed them and went places, putting me in danger, without telling them. I could imagine that they didn't trust me anymore after that.