"How long has it been since we saw someone else?" Arlo pulled his phone out of his back pocket to save Chris the task of checking the time.

"Seen or heard?" Chris asked as he took the tiniest taste of water from his bottle. It was near empty, and he didn't want to finish it off just yet. "Because I heard a few people talking a while back."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, same."

"You did? Why didn't you say anything?"

Chris's brow furrowed. "I figured we all heard them."

"No! I haven't heard shit besides us walking and leaves or branches. We could've called out to them or something," Arlo reasoned, exasperated. "Instead of still being lost."

"Dude, chill." Chris tucked the plastic bottle back into his bag.

"Honestly, we need to figure out something, though," Dean said. "He isn't the only one getting angry."

"Well, I really gotta take a leak, so..." Arlo grumbled, tugging off his bag and fishing out the pack of wet wipes he had with him.

"We'll hang tight," Dean reassured as Arlo trudged off towards a slightly thicker grouping of trees.

It had really been Arlo's bladder screaming at him more than his stomach that'd tanked his mood. It wouldn't even be a thing if he could just relieve himself as conveniently as the other guys, but it was a distinct disadvantage of being trans. Sure, he could've brought his STP, but he'd found in the past that it was more work than it was worth when they were camping.

As he rounded a tree, checking to see that he was mostly out of sight of the guys, he squatted down, pressing his back against the trunk to support his light frame. He kept glancing around, senses on high alert. With his luck, this was exactly when they'd find someone else.

"Do you really think we're lost, lost?" Chris asked.

"Man," Dean shook his head, gathering up his braids into a ponytail that he fixed with a long elastic. "I keep thinking we gotta be getting close to finding a landmark or something... Something we've been by before."

"Yeah," Chris said, fussing with his own hair, not that it was really necessary. They hadn't filmed anything in what felt like hours aside from the occasional nature shot.

Dean turned his attention to the direction Arlo had gone. "Where's he at?"

"Right around that tree right there," Chris said, pointing. "Take your time, Grandma," Chris called. "No rush."

"Fuck you," came Arlo's response, though there was no malic behind it. In fact, Chris could practically hear the smile in his best friend's words, but his own grin melted away when he took in Dean's ashen face after he'd placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What?"

"I swear I just saw someone," Dean whispered.

Chris whirled around to look, his pulse quickening. "For real?" He would've been overwhelmed with relief if it wasn't for how creeped out his friend looked. " ...Where?"

Dean pointed, but Chris still didn't see anyone.

"The ducked behind that tree," Dean mumbled before calling out, "Hey! Who's over there?"

"Hello?" Chris gave Dean a sidelong look.

"If y'all are just trying to scare me," Arlo said from the opposite direction, "Then you're both assholes!"

Dean let go of Chris's shoulder and pulled off his backpack, weighted with their cameras and equipment, handing it to Chris, before taking a few steps forwards. "Yo, this isn't funny. If someone's over there, come out!"

Dean's demands were answered by a sudden, and distinctly female, giggle that was alarming on more than one level. Both Chris and Dean had to exchange looks again to confirm that they'd both heard the sound.

Arlo rejoined them, out of breath from yanking his boxer briefs and skinny jeans up in what had to be record time before sprinting back to them. "What was that?" he whispered, but Chris just shook his head, setting down Dean's bag.

"We can hear you," Chris called, "We know you're there."

The three of them were dead silent for a moment, just listening. Everything sounded unnaturally quiet until Arlo inched closer to Dean, and Chris followed.

"Hello?" Arlo called, echoing Chris moments before.

"I swear to god, someone's over there," Dean insisted under his breath.

"There is," Chris reassured. "We heard them. Trees and bears don't giggle."

"Then what the hell are they doing?" Dean asked.

"Maybe they don't speak English?" Arlo said. "Or maybe they're trying to scare us."

That was when the snapping of twigs and crunching of leaves drew the three's attention as two girls gingerly picked their way out from between some trees—one of them still snickering.

"Shush, Annie!" her friend scolded as the two of them made it to the narrow path.

"But did you see their faces!?" said the second girl. "We so got them!"

"Sorry," the first girl apologized, "We're fans of your show..."

"Ha–whew." Dean turned away, rubbing his eyes as he breathed a huge sigh of relief. Fucking Fans.

"Yep, you definitely did," Arlo laughed, though Chris could tell it was strained. This kind of situation just never seemed to get any less cringe or any less awkward to deal with. The upside though was that at least this time, they actually could use someone who knew where the hell they were.

"Are you two from around here?" Chris asked, raising a brow. They did have accents, but they weren't nearly as heavy as what they'd encountered in town.

"Mhm! Actually, you spoke to my aunt already... That's how we knew you were in town and—" the first girl was cut off by her energetic friend.

"You picked a great place because there's a lot of dodgy things that go on around here," said Annie.

"So, you two know your way around this forest?" Arlo asked, hopeful. Maybe they really weren't as lost as they'd thought.

"Ah, yeah, a little bit!" said the first girl, eager to make herself useful. "I mean, we don't come here every day or anything..."

"We uhh... We actually got a little turned around, do you know which way leads back towards the road?" Dean asked, wasting no time with chit-chat. The sun was going down. It was already starting to look a little darker than it had, and the shadows cast by the rays that were able to pierce the canopy were growing longer.

"Should be that way," she said pointing back the opposite way of the setting sun.

"Great," Dean said, turning to look at Chris.

"So, Annie," Arlo said, pointing at one of them, before pointing to the other. "And...?"

"Oh, Sara," she said, looking a little embarrassed that she'd not bothered to introduce herself on her own. "Sorry, and we... well, of course, we know who you are."

"Except for this one! I don't remember seeing him in any videos!" Annie said looking pointedly at Dean.

Dean's attention wasn't even there, though. He hadn't heard her over his own question to Chris. "Where'd you set it?"

"It was right over here!" Chris said as they paced a couple of steps. "Like, literally, right here. We didn't even move five feet from it."

Arlo gave both girls an apologetic look before moving towards his friends. "Set what?"

"My bag!" Dean said, throwing his hands into the air, only for one to come back down to slap the side of his thigh while his other rested on his forehead.

"No, it's gotta be right here," Chris said, panic rising in his tone.

"Well, I don't see a fucking backpack, man, it isn't exactly small!" Dean said.

"Guys, okay. Chill," Arlo rattled off before turning towards Annie and Sara, "I'm sorry, today has been a—well, it's been a day."

"There are wild animals in these woods..." Sara trailed off as if to suggest that was the obvious culprit.

"Well, let's just do a quick once over to see if they just misplaced it?" Annie suggested.

"I didn't misplace it, though," Chris said, his gut coiling with guilt. They were losing daylight and they knew which way to go, but they couldn't just leave without their cameras.

Arlo did a slow circle before he spotted something next to one of the trees a yard or so away. "Guys!" he said, jogging towards it. He picked up speed the closer he got, but as he reached the deep purple Jansport backpack, he only got more confused.

Dean picked it up to open it, finding all of their stuff was there. "How the hell did it get over here?" he muttered, looking at Chris, then Arlo. It was easily farther than Arlo had gone to pee, and definitely way farther than he or Chris had moved in the time that he'd given it to the blond when they'd found the girls.

"It's just the two of you, right?" Dean asked, "You don't gotta friend who's in on the joke and better at not giggling?"

"No, just us," Annie insisted.

"We were here before," Chris said, crouching down. He could just faintly make out the marks in the soft, black dirt where he'd set his water. "When we shot our first take."

"So then we are close." Arlo sighed. "That's a relief."

Chris nodded, but he didn't feel very relieved. If that was right, then... the way the girls had pointed was about the same way they'd been walking... when they were looking for the circle—before they'd turned around.

"You're lucky! I heard stories where people's things ended up at the tops of trees!" Annie said excitedly before she was shot a scolding look from Sara. She doubted that these three wanted to hear that, they already seemed pretty fed up.

"It might be faster to just go back to our campsite..." Sara suggested, hugging her arms around herself. "It'll be dark soon."

"You already have a camp set up?" Dean asked. His back and feet were aching, and he was pretty sure the other two were uncomfortable by now as well. He caught the glances Chris and Arlo gave him.

It wasn't a normal thing for them to entertain the company of fans for long. Of course, they appreciated every single one of them. But what it boiled down to was that they were still strangers. Strangers who felt like they knew them, and on top of that, these two young women were just that—young women. Staying at a campsite with them overnight could be asking for trouble. Not that he thought for a second that he, Chris, or Arlo would do anything stupid, but you never knew what people were waiting to say about you—what rumors or even lies they were willing to tell if they felt scorned.

"Uh, that's definitely an option," Dean said, nodding.

"How far would you say the road is, though, from here?" Chris wondered, filling Dean with confidence. They needed to watch out for themselves. "Like how long-ish would it take?"

"Oh, I'm not sure... half hour at best, but probably longer to be safe. Not before sundown..." said Sara.

"Yeah, it gets dark fast..." her friend added.

Dean sighed. Half an hour wasn't bad, but if they somehow got off the path again...

"How far is your camp?" Arlo asked, hesitance evident in his voice.

"About ten minutes that way," Annie said, pointing the other direction.

Just wanna give a quick, huge thank you to everyone who read, voted, and commented on chapter 1! We hoped you've enjoyed chapter 2, and will be uploading the next few chapters (hopefully xD ) before this Thursday!

What would you do if you were in the boys' situation? Are you gonna chance the thirty-minute walk in the direction the girls told you with the sun setting? Or are you going with them back to their camp?