They had been walking for about 20 minutes, although they hadn't been able to cover a great deal of ground on account of the large rocks and logs that littered the riverbanks which forced them to slow their pace. Till felt thankful that whoever had placed him there had given him hiking boots. Nobody had spoken yet. Due to the enormity of the situation at hand, Till feared that trying to engage in small talk would only feel forced.
Doug was the first to break the silence.
"What was the last thing any of you remember happening before you woke up here?"
"Walking back to my aunt's place from this bar," Aaron replied.
"Heading back home after seeing a friend," Till answered.
"I was down by the pier taking some photos," Kate responded.
"Damn," Doug shook his head.
"Hey, Till," Aaron asked, "How many sandwiches and granola bars exactly do you have?"
"One sec," he took off and opened his backpack. "Looks like...20 sandwiches. The box says 24 on the side and...yeah, there's 24."
"So how are we supposed to split those between the four of us?"
"I guess if each meal is one sandwich and one granola bar, we can stretch that for almost two days."
"That's asking quite a lot," Doug interjected, "Each of us only having three sandwiches and three granola bars a day."
"Well, we can use Kate's fishing net. Or at least try to use it."
Till put his backpack back on and the four of them resumed walking.
"What if we end up being in here for longer than two days?" Aaron asked.
"I guess one of us is going to have to be eaten then," Till responded, thinking a bit of humor might help the situation.
"I volunteer to sacrifice myself if that ends up happening," said Doug, which garnered chuckles from everyone. Kate even smiled a bit, Till noticed.
"Surely we've got to come across something before we end up having to do that," Aaron said.
"We definitely will. I know this forest, it's not too far from Astoria. I've hiked it plenty of times before Haven't you guys?"
"No, I'm not from here originally," Aaron said.
"Me neither," said Doug and Kate simultaneously.
"Neither am I, but I guess I just hike a lot," Till chuckled, "Where are you guys from?"
"Santa Fe," Aaron said,
"New Orleans," said Doug.
"Boston," said Kate.
"I've visited two out of those three," Till nodded, "Sorry, Aaron."
"None taken," Aaron said, taking off and opening his backpack. "Let me drink some water real quick," he pulled out the filter device.
"I'm a little thirsty too, I might as well have some," said Till.
"We should all probably have a drink. We need to stay hydrated." Doug suggested.
"Good idea," Aaron replied, "So it looks like you just fill up this little pouch, put the top on, and squeeze it out. Simple enough."
Aaron filled it up, and each of them took a gulp of water from it, after which they continued walking.
"You think maybe our memories were messed with?" Till asked.
"What do you mean?" Doug replied.
"Well, since none of us remember anything weird happening, maybe whoever put us here wiped our memories or something."
"You're making me think of Men in Black."
"The Will Smith movie?"
"Yeah. They had those red flash sticks that would make you forget what just happened. Maybe those were used on us."
"We would still remember what happened immediately after that," Aaron interjected, "So unless someone used that on us, then immediately sprinted away, it wouldn't work."
"Just spitballing ideas," Doug shrugged.
"Maybe we were hit with tranquilizers or something, then kept sedated."
"Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess."
"What do you think these collars on our neck are?" Till asked.
"Tracking devices?" Aaron suggested.
"I guess so. I'm still not sure why we're here in the first place."
"Maybe it's some sort of test," Doug suggested.
"What would they be testing?"
"Maybe to see how long people can survive off just granola bars and pb&js."
"Hey, what's that?" Kate suddenly asked.
She pointed to a bush on the side of the riverbank where there appeared to be a metal cylinder.
"Let me see," Aaron picked it up, "Maybe a can of some kind. There's some text on the side," Everyone gathered around, "I-D-C."
Till's eyebrows shot up. He quickly took off his backpack and looked at the front.
"That's the same text as on the backpacks!" He exclaimed.
"Really?" Aaron asked, taking off his own and looking, "Oh damn, you're right!"
"Maybe the same company made them?" Doug suggested.
"What kind of company makes both backpacks and cans?" Till asked.
"Well, I'm not sure what other reason there could be."
"I guess so. Eh, it's probably nothing. Let me put it in my bag. I can throw it away once we find a trash can"
They then started walking again.
When the sun went down, they decided to stop for the day and set up camp. After dropping their backpacks, Doug clapped his hands loudly.
"Alright, guys. Let's try to get a fire going," he said.
"How do we do that?" Kate asked.
"Have you not gone camping before?"
"No."
"Tell you what. You and Aaron go look for some rocks and branches. Till, you try to find some kindling. Twigs, bark, dry grass, stuff like that. I'll dig a hole for a fire pit."
Till grabbed a flashlight from Kate's backpack and started walking back along the riverbed, grabbing handfuls of dry looking grass. After he had about two pockets worth of grass, he stepped into the trees to look for twigs. While scouring the ground, he noticed something strange. It looked at first like just a stray piece of rubber, but upon looking more closely, it was the sole of a hiking boot, the exact same model that he and the others were wearing.
Seeing this made him feel confused, but he quickly brushed it off. Hiking boots fall apart eventually, and some people do unfortunately leave behind trash when they visit public areas, he told himself. He resumed looking for fire material, and within a few minutes, returned to the site, where he saw Kate and Aaron already returned.
"Here's a bunch of dry grass and some twigs," he said.
"Perfect," Doug replied, "Aaron and Kate found some branches and rocks, so we should be able to make a fire, no problem.."
"You sure you know how to do this?"
"Of course! My dad used to take me camping, and I've gone with my boys a few times."
This caught Till's attention.
"You have kids?"
"Yeah! Two sons. One is 14, and the other is 10."
"What are their names?" Kate asked.
"The older one's named after me, Doug Jr, but we call him 'DJ'. The younger one is Mike, after my father-in-law. I wasn't hot on it, but my wife insisted. She's the kind of woman who gets her way." Doug chuckled. "I can still remember that conversation. 'We had a deal! You got to name our first kid, and I got the second. Oh, you say my dad never liked you? Well maybe if you go along with this, he finally will!' He didn't, but it was worth a shot. Besides, I grew to like the name. Didn't hurt that it was attached to a great kid."
It was difficult to see given that all they had were their flashlights, but Till could see Doug smiling a heartfelt smile. In fact, he could just barely make out a tear rolling down his face before he quickly composed himself.
"What about you guys? Any of y'all have kids?"
"Nuh-uh," Till shook his head
"Nope," Kate said,
"Not that I know of," Aaron replied,
"Well, I can say for a fact it definitely changes you."
"I want to wait a bit," Till said, "It's a big choice, and I want to know that I'm ready for it. Right now, I'm just not."
"There's no rush," replied Doug, "My dad was a little old when he had me, and he still did a good job."
"My dad definitely didn't wait long enough," Aaron said, "That'd explain some things he did and a lot of the things he didn't."
"Well, you'll do better than he did," Till replied. "At least this way you know which mistakes to avoid."
Aaron chuckled.
"That's one way of looking at it."
Till turned towards Kate.
"Obviously, you don't have to worry about any of this."
"Even if I can't be a father, being a mother would still be pretty damn hard."
"Fair enough."
"Hey, I just realized," Aaron interjected, "How are we going to sleep? We can't just lie on the ground, right?"
Nobody said anything for a few moments. Till could tell they were all thinking, as was he.
"Well," Till began, "I read somewhere that your first priority should be getting something between you and the ground since cold earth lowers your body temperature."
"I have that tarp in my backpack," Doug said, "We can place that on the ground and sleep on it."
"Good idea."
Doug then took out the tarp and laid it on the ground.
"That should be big enough. We'll definitely be shoulder to shoulder, but that'll help us stay warm."
"Let's put some long grass and branches under there just to be safe," Till suggested, "More distance between us and the ground."
"I'm just thankful it's a warm time of the year. The sweatshirts definitely help."
Doug turned to Kate.
"Are you comfortable, you know, sleeping so close to three men?"
"If the alternative is hypothermia, then sure," she said with a slight grin.
"Alright, just checking in."
"Do you think we'll be able to be back in the city by tomorrow, Till?" Aaron asked.
Till rubbed his head.
"I mean...I kind of figured we'd already be out by now. I guess this forest is just bigger than I remembered."
"That's reassuring."
"Don't worry, we'll definitely be out by tomorrow night."
"You better be right."
There wasn't much else to do, so they all lay down and fell asleep.
Till was awoken the next morning when the sun began to peak over the mountains and shone on his face. His body felt sore from sleeping on such a hard surface, but more importantly, he wasn't hypothermic, at least not that he could tell. He lay there until the others awoke and started to get up.
"Till, I'm assuming that food bag of yours doesn't have a thermos full of coffee?" Doug asked.
"I'm afraid not. Who knows, maybe we're actually in South America and we'll come across a coffee bean plant."
"If we were in South America, then this would be a rainforest." Kate pointed out.
"Well, then I guess we're out of luck."
"Come on," Aaron butted in, "Let's pack things up so we can get moving."
"Well look at you up and at 'em. Don't worry, we're not going to die in here just because we took an extra minute or so getting ready."
"Can we eat before we get going?" Doug asked, "We'll need the energy."
"Sure thing. To spread our food out, let's not eat again until the sun looks to be about at its peak in the sky."
With that, they packed, ate, and went on their way.