Zootopia Adventures

The Stranger III: The Encounter

It was around eight thirty in the morning when we finally reached the local woods. Our excursion buses had driven off the minute all of us alighted with our belongings as the bus conductors apparently were in a rush; perhaps to the next pick up point for another school. Setting up tents was the first activity over at the forest besides the usual attendance roll call. Thankfully, we were given tents for two to sleep in and not the spacious family ones which I personally despised of. Undeniably, I was quite the introvert – and personal space and privacy were important requirements else I would not be comfortable. It was fun watching students experiencing their first attempt at pitching a tent; especially when their finished product somehow manages to not resemble a triangular prism but a weird oblong volume that appears to be on the verge of collapsing or exploding. Due to this, Mr. Green announced that the start of the camping activities would start after an hour long break. As for us, Darren and I managed ours within a professional record time of five minutes. Not to brag like a kid but I do have to say that my knowledge about camping obtained from wilderness documentaries were of great help when we were setting our tent up. Unfortunately, we were beaten by a girl pairing – and to add salt to our wounds, Stacey was one of them. According to the other classmates, they were already long done with theirs and had decided to do a bit of exploration around the campsite beyond the dense wall of trees.

I silently cursed under my breath. I had totally forgotten the fact that Stacey was not the kind of girl who you would expect to see hosting pretentious tea parties or gossiping hot fashion trends with other girls. She was the outgoing kind; always thirsty for adventure. Now I have discovered that she shared similar interests as I do. And I thought I was the special one eh? Not wanting to be left out of the game, I turned to Darren, who was admiring our tent in pride. "Hey, seems like Stacey and her partner went out to explore around, let's try to find them," I said softly, not wanting to catch our teacher's attention.

Darren frowned. "I would like to but question is, do we know exactly where they headed off to?" he asked, gesturing his arm at the thick layers of forest foliage. "We might be the ones lost in there and not them if we were to be unfortunate," he theorized.

"Relax! I had asked Stacey's classmates and they told me that she had ventured downhill to the nearby river in hopes of discovering wild life," I assured him. Darren looked at me, sceptical. "Seriously. You do not believe me?" I sighed inwardly.

Darren laughed as he pat my back firmly, making me trip a few steps forward. "Just kidding man, loosen up!" he exclaimed before retrieving his water bottle for a quick sip. Quenching his thirst, he grabbed my backpack inside our tent and casually tossed it at me. I caught hold of the cumbersome load; this time the force of the heavy weight making me stumble backwards. Darren chuckled. "That's the wrong way Richard!"

I smiled disapprovingly as I hefted my bag over my shoulders. "You better not do that if I am near the edge of a Cliffside," I joked. "Unless you desire to be known as the new murderer in the woods."

Darren shrugged. "Maybe I would, who knows?" He answered cunningly.

Waving the conversational jests aside, I proceeded to walk in the direction where Stacey had went. "Quickly, we only have an hour's worth of time before the camp rangers join with Mr. Green. Once they arrive, there would be no other opportunities like this anymore!" I noted at Darren strictly.

With that, we stealthily left the camping grounds right as Mr. Green attended to a struggling pair of students who were having difficulties with pitching their tent. We had made sure to zip our tent close in order to fake the impression that we were inside doing our own business. If he were to notice anyone missing from the campsite, it would be an upright emergency as the school was held responsible for the safety and well-being of the students. Darren and I quickened our pace the moment the campsite was out of view. I pulled out a rolled up print of the forest's map from my backpack's pocket as we traversed through the overgrown shrubbery that interlaced the dirt track which was gradually narrowing. I halted as we came across a set of footprints in the wet soil, suggestively belonging to Stacey's as we can see the same branding of her shoe on the muddy imprint. I studied the map. "Seems like they did take this route. Let's try to sneak up on them and give them a surprise shall we?" I mused. Darren smirked at the thought of it.