It was a Monday morning in the middle of August when Paul and his brother Mark decided to go for a walk in the woods. Paul and his brother had to wait for their parents to get up before they could leave the house. The minute his parents awoke Paul asks, “Mom, can we go for a walk in the woods?”
“Yes you can, but you have to be home before dinner,” said his mom. So at about ten o’clock, the boys left to go for a walk in the woods.
Paul and his little brother had forgotten that the forest they were entering was the same forest where some people had disappeared. As they explored deeper and deeper into the forest, Paul noticed a small tree that looked very odd. When he finally walked up to it, he saw a small opening in the side of the tree and decided to look inside.
Mark asked, “What are you going to look in an old tree stump for?” Paul ignored his little brother and looked inside to find small groundhog-like creatures that were whining.
Following behind, Mark peered over his brother’s shoulder and asked, “Are you going to pull the poor little things out of that dark hole, Paul?”
“Yes I am because they are all whining,” Paul said.
After pulling all the groundhog-like creatures out of the hole, the two boys continued deeper and deeper into the forest. All of a sudden, Paul stumbled upon a piece of paper that read:
Billy- August 8, 2008
If you find this letter before it is too late, call for help!!!! ASAP!!!!!
Love your brother.
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Paul.
“I haven’t a clue at all,” said Mark. “What do you think we should do?”
“That letter was written last Monday,” said Paul. “Do you think that there is someone actually in trouble?”
“Is that the same guy that disappeared in this forest last week and hasn’t been found?” asked Mark.
“I think that there is something awful creepy going on. First, we found the little groundhogs that did not want to come out of the hole. Now, we find this paper on the ground,” explained Paul.
Liking mysteries, Paul and his brother continued deeper and deeper into the forest. As they came to a small creek, Paul stumbled upon another letter on the same type of paper as the last one. He read it aloud:
Billy- August 9, 2008
If you find this letter, you know that I am still alive. I am being followed. I am going to continue deeper into the forest. Leave and come back tomorrow. I will leave another letter revealing my position.
Love your brother.
“This is the second letter written to this Billy person. I think we should continue further into the forest to see if we can find another letter. What do you think?” asked Paul.
“We should!” exclaimed Mark.
“Then let’s get moving!” shouted Paul.
So they ventured further into the forest. As they walked, they could only hear the sounds of nature and branches crackling under their feet. According to Paul’s watch, an hour had passed when they started to hear the sounds of a waterfall in the distance. Paul and Mark came upon another letter that read:
Billy- August 11, 2008
Sorry it was not there when I told you it would be. I have been running from the maniac that is chasing me. I am hiding in a secret cave just behind the waterfall that you see in front of you. Please come and make sure there is no one else with you.
Love your brother.
“Is this the letter that Billy was supposed to find if he had come into the forest again?” asked Mark
“I think so,” stated Paul.
“Do you think we should go to where he talked about in his letter?” questioned Mark.
“Yes we should! Let’s see if we can help this man,” replied Paul.
So they wandered over to the other side of the waterfall to see if they could find a secret entrance into the cave. It took a little over a half-hour to finally find the entrance. Both of the boys were scared to go into the cave. Acting like brothers, they fought over who would enter the cave first. Finally, Paul agreed he would go first because he was the oldest. Once they were inside the cave, they could smell the smoke of a fire. Eyes drawn down to the ground, Paul found another letter that read:
Billy- August 11, 2010
Take four hundred steps into the cave and you will find the fire that I have built. I may be sitting there or I could be deeper into the cave.
Love your brother.
Paul and his brother took four hundred steps into the cave. They found a small plump little man sitting on a rock looking at the fire.
“Are you Billy’s brother?” asked Paul.
“Yes I am, but who are you?” asked the stranger.
“My name is Paul and this is my brother Mark. We found your letters as we were walking through the forest today and came to see if we could help. What is your name?” questioned Paul.
“My name is Ron and you can help me. I have been trapped in this cave for two days without any food because I finished what I had in my backpack. You read my letters, so you are probably wondering what is causing me to not leave the forest. I am running from this guy who seems to want to hurt me for some reason.” Ron stirred the fire to keep it alive and continued, “Was there anyone behind you when you came in the cave?”
Mark replied, “I don’t think there was anyone behind us. Right, Paul?”
“I didn’t see anyone,” Paul spoke quietly.
“Hello! Hello!” a creepy voice shouted.
“Whooo… are you….?” asked Ron in a stuttered voice.
“I am the one that has been following you and want to find out why you are running from me,” said the stranger.
“What is your name?” questioned Ron. “I have been running from you because you scared me and appeared to want to harm me.”
“My name is Will. I’ve been running from someone who has been chasing me in this forest,” stated Will.
“Do you guys think you have been running from each other?” interjected Paul.
“You could be right,” uttered Will. “How could we be so stupid?”
Once everything was straightened out, Ron, Paul, Will, and Mark walked to the opening of the cave to find that the waterfall had started coming into the cave. They needed to get out as soon as possible. When they finally reached dry land, they found that they were in the middle of a forest fire.
Paul looked around and said, “We should probably go back toward the cave and try to find another way out.”
They walked back toward the waterfall, but found that the cave had started to fill with water. Now they needed to find another way. As they walked in a different direction, they soon found a hiking trail with a wooden sign map. Paul then volunteered to memorize the map so they could get out of the forest. All of them then traveled down the trail only to find that the trail was in the path of the fire. Paul, Mark, Will, and Ron started to walk faster so they could make it out before the fire got to them.
“We need to hurry as fast as we can so we are not stuck in here,” Ron stated.
“That is true because I really don’t want to be stuck in here with all of you guys. I’m not saying you guys are bad, but I really want to go home and eat some warm food,” Paul acknowledged.
All of them pushed on to see if they could beat the fire. For one hour, they moved through areas where the fire could potentially trap them. Luckily, they were able to get out safely before the raging fire reached them. Out on the street, they could see the fire department working to try to keep the fire contained. Paul then saw his mother and father yelling at the fire department to work faster. She thought that Paul and his little brother were stuck in the fire. Paul thanked Ron and Will then ran over to see his mother and father so they would not worry.
“MOM! DAD! We got out of the fire safely,” screamed Mark.
“Mark! Paul! We are so glad to see you. We thought that you were in the middle of the fire and could not get out,” said Paul’s worried mother. “I’m so glad you are safe. How was your hike before the fire?”
“It was great! We met a guy named Ron who was running from another guy that he thought was stalking him. But they were really running from each other,” Mark quickly explained.
“Why would you run from another person when you don’t know why they are chasing you?” asked his father.
“Because they were both walking through the forest and somehow they thought that they were chasing each other,” said Paul.
“Well, do you guys want to get some dinner to eat since you are probably hungry after your big adventure?” asked their mother.
“YEAH!” shouted Mark, Paul, and their dad.
“Well, let’s get going then and hopefully this fire will be out soon,” replied their mother.
Meanwhile, Ron and Will were talking about how silly it was that they were running from each other.
When Paul and his family returned from dinner, a fire fighter came over to tell them the fire was almost contained. He also told the boys to not go into the forest for awhile because there might be dangers from falling trees.
Little did the fire fighter know that other things were just as scary and creepy in the forest!
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