Sara had gotten close to catching up, but her legs and lungs were burning far too much for her to continue or even get enough of a breath to call out anymore. Her knees buckled and folded under her and the only thing keeping her upright was the tree trunk that she was leaning against.

Arlo placed his hands on his knees as he panted. It didn't seem like it should've been possible for the man and dog to lose them, but somehow they had. But what really made his skin crawl was how quiet he realized it was. Jerking into an upright position, he turned to search the direction they'd come from. Everything was too still. "Where are the others?" he asked, his alarm evident by the crack in his voice.

Sara's eyes opened and she straightened up, her exhaustion replaced by a renewed sense of urgency as she joined Arlo in surveying the area. There was no sign of Annie, or Dean, or Chris, or the dog and its owner, and definitely no sign of the trail.

"You've got to be putting me on. They were just behind us!" Sara exclaimed as she raised her hands and then let them slap against her sides in exasperation. The harder she looked, the more her concern grew, and she knew she was on the verge of panic again. "No, no. People don't just disappear. Dogs and people don't just disappear. Cars don't just disappear. This forest isn't that big. We need to pick one direction and walk. We'll get out eventually. It might not be at the cars, but that's fine."

"We thought that too... yesterday," Arlo said, unsettled by how flat and low his own words had come out, but the despair that settled heavily in his gut was real. Very real. Out of everything, he knew he could at least be sure of that.

"How long have you been in these woods?" he asked, sounding far calmer than he felt as he tried to look very closely at everything within view—hunting for any detail that could give him an indication of which way Chris and Dean should be.

"I told you—a day or two. We couldn't have been here longer than that... We didn't bring enough food or water," Sara reasoned, but the fact that she had to say it out loud to reassure herself, wasn't promising. "At most, it's been three days..." she mumbled as she paced.

Her mentioning of the food brought back Chris's warning—reiterated from the woman they'd interviewed... Don't eat the food. Wouldn't that have to imply that somehow someone, or something, had food to offer in the first place?

There was a horrible sense of finality that trickled over him, then—closing in like the suffocating darkness had last night—the grim realization that this was it. He might never find Chris and Dean. He might never reach the car. He really might die out here because something didn't want them to leave. Something actually paranormal, and he had no idea how to fight it. Hadn't been smart enough to take the warnings they'd received seriously.

Arlo took a deep breath, wringing his trembling hands. But they'd found Sara and Annie... they were alive. And if he was right, they'd been out here for an impossibly long time, so maybe they could find help. Maybe... or maybe he, Chris, and Dean found the girls yesterday because it was already too late for them as well.

Part of him wanted to question her further. To urge her to remember as much as she could, as far back as she could, but he kept his mouth shut. She'd started freaking out when he and Chris confronted her before. He didn't think he could handle a repeat right now.

It was already bad enough that they'd run off the way they had, after that man and his dog, and now didn't know where the others were. He was pretty sure he was only one panic attack away from either crying or throwing up over all of it. "I'm gonna try my phone," he mumbled, pulling it out and unlocking it.

There were two texts from Chris, only two minutes old, but his phone hadn't he hadn't alerted him.

'Are you okay? Did you find the guy?'
'Where did you go?'

'We're okay but we didn't find them,' Arlo texted back, fingers working rapidly. 'We went off to the right I think.' His second text took twice as long to send, but as soon as it had, he sent another. 'Where are you guys? Are you okay?' But that one sat there... pending, unsent—his signal too poor for the message to go through.

"We should try to backtrack. Retrace our steps," Arlo said, turning to look at Sara. "We couldn't have gone that far." He only realized after the words had left his mouth, just how fucking sick he was of hearing and or thinking that very thing.

But Sara didn't answer, she was just standing with her arms crossed and her back to Arlo, as though she were giving him the silent treatment. But as he drew closer, it became clear that was not the case. At least not entirely.

Sara was staring out into the forest, her gaze fixed and unblinking, as she peered deep into the distance. Her lips were moving a mile a minute, but the words themselves were barely whispered—far too soft for Arlo to make out what she was saying.

He was so frightened by the disturbing sight that sheer anger bubbled up into his throat. "What the shit are you doing?" he snapped. "This isn't fucking funny! We need to try to go back."

But Sara didn't flinch. In fact, if he didn't know any better, he'd almost have thought that she wasn't even breathing. Arlo shifted his weight anxiously, shooting nervous glances around them before looking back at Sara.

He could ditch her. But then he'd be completely alone, and he wasn't sure which would be worse.

"Sara? Sara!"

Finally, Sara turned her head to look at him, a smile subtly blossoming across her face. "They're coming back," she said.

Arlo's brows furrowed. "Who?" he asked tentatively, searching the distance for a red coat and a brown cap. He didn't see anyone. "The guy and Charlie?"

"It's right there," she said.

He scanned the bases of the trees and the untamed growth across the forest floor for a black lab. Nothing. "What is? The dog? Where are you looking?"

She laughed softly, but there was no amusement in the way it sounded. "Don't you see it?" She raised her arm to point into the distance ahead of them before adding in a whisper, "It's right there, Arlo."

A sharp chill shot up his spine. He still didn't see anything, but after a few seconds of hearing nothing but the rhythmic thrumming of his own pulse in his ears, a loud snap reverberated through the air. A rush of movement—a heavy shuffling like something large was charging towards them—followed it.

Arlo ran. His feet barely touched the ground as he sucked in frantic gasps; weaving through trees and trying to clear branches.

"Chris!?" he yelled, praying that he'd get a response—any indication of which way to go, as he ran. "Dean?!"

The only answer was a deranged, high-pitched cackle. Sara was following him. "What the fuck?!" he screamed, "Fuck!" As he quickly began to tire, Arlo was half tempted to turn around and just lay her ass out. He was so over this. All of this. But he was far too scared to stop running, even after her laughter had died down.

"Quickly!" Sara chimed from just behind him when he risked a glance over his shoulder. "Quickly!" Another burst of laughter escaped her. "Quickly, She-boy!"

A few minutes later, Arlo was finally forced to slow, then to stop entirely. His whole face was tingling and he was wheezing for air. He tucked himself up against a tree he'd just passed—desperately trying to catch his breath while keeping as quiet as he could. Sara did the same against a tree a few feet away; giggling before cupping her hand over her mouth, and making eye contact with Arlo.

He stared at her like she herself was some kind of monster. Why was she laughing? How was any of this funny? Were her and Annie screwing with them? Were they doing all of this somehow? And what the fuck had she called him? She-boy? Had that been a reference to his being trans? She couldn't possibly have known that. But what else could it have been alluding to? Before his thoughts could get any farther, his phone chimed in his hand, scaring him nearly to death.

"Shhh!" Sara shushed from her hiding place, although Arlo was pretty sure he couldn't hear anything pursuing them anymore. After forcing himself to wait for a few more seconds, he looked at his phone. The text was from Chris, but he still had no signal, and his last message was still unsent.

'Where are you?'

Arlo closed his eyes. What was he supposed to say? He wanted to be back with the guys so badly. His regret was physically painful in his chest. When he opened his eyes, just as he was peering down at the screen, he spotted something in the distance ahead of them and typed a reply. It went through immediately.

'The bridge.'