As Mark, Liam, Sarah, and Chloe prepared to venture out, a sense of quiet purpose settled over them. They gathered the available light sources – Liam's powerful LED flashlight, Chloe's slightly less potent one, and Sarah's tiny keychain beam, which they knew would be of limited use but better than nothing. They checked their phones, knowing the signal bars were likely to remain stubbornly empty, but acknowledging the utility of their flashlights and the faint hope of a stray signal if they got closer to civilization. "We'll make a trail," Mark reiterated, pulling a bright orange sports bandana from his bag. He tied it to the side mirror of the bus, a small, vibrant flag against the gloom. "So we can find our way back." Stepping away from the relative safety of the bus, the darkness immediately felt more profound. The air was cooler, carrying the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves. The chirping of insects seemed to intensify, a relentless symphony of the wild. Liam swept his powerful flashlight beam across the uneven terrain, revealing a tangle of weeds and undergrowth that choked the verge of the road. The abandoned logging road, as Earl had described, was barely discernible, a faint indentation in the landscape, almost entirely reclaimed by nature. "This is it," Mark said, pointing the beam towards the barely visible path. "Looks like it hasn't been used in years." Sarah shivered, pulling her jacket tighter around her. "It's… really dark." "We've got the lights," Liam reassured her, his own beam cutting a steady path ahead. "And we've got each other." They moved slowly, Mark leading the way, his boots crunching on dry leaves and snapping twigs. Liam followed, his flashlight beam dancing ahead, illuminating potential hazards – fallen branches, unseen dips in the ground, the unsettling shapes of gnarled tree roots. Sarah and Chloe brought up the rear, their steps hesitant but firm, their eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. The silence, punctuated only by their own movements and the pervasive hum of insects, was unnerving. It was a silence that amplified every rustle, every distant hoot of an owl, every snap of a twig that wasn't theirs. The further they moved from the bus, the more the oppressive weight of the darkness seemed to press in. The faint glow they had seen earlier seemed to recede, its promise becoming more distant, more ethereal. "Are we sure this is the right way?" Sarah whispered, her voice tight with apprehension. "We're following the most likely path," Mark replied, his voice calm, but his gaze was also fixed on the distant, faint glimmer. "And we're heading towards the light. That's all we can do right now." Chloe, surprisingly, was the one to offer a touch of reassurance. "Remember that time we got lost in the woods on that camping trip, Liam? We found our way back then." Liam smiled, a small, tight smile. "Yeah. We did. This is… a little different though." The memory, while comforting, also highlighted the stakes. That had been a planned excursion, with proper gear and a general knowledge of the area. This was an unplanned, desperate venture into the unknown. They pushed deeper into the undergrowth, the abandoned logging road becoming more defined in places, then vanishing entirely for stretches, forcing them to navigate by instinct and the faint light of their beams.
