Claudette had let out a groan and pulled over to the side of the road. It did not sound good whatsoever. In fact, it sounded really bad. I took a glance at everyone to see if I was able to gauge anyone’s reactions and everyone either seemed disgruntled, worried, or just didn’t care. Though, Jeffrey was not happy at all. I don’t understand why for he wasn’t the one driving. I’m not really one to judge. He was the only one who was willing to hop out of the vehicle to check the wheel which was cool of him. It was clearly a quick check for Jeff had appeared at the driver’s side window. He didn’t look like he had good news to share either from the look that was on his face. Even made eye contact with everyone including myself.

“Well, I got some bad news. There is a flat tire.” Jeff finally announced to everyone in the van.

“Isn’t there a spare tire in the back?” I heard Dwight ask which surprised me. He had taken the initiative to ask what everyone was possibly thinking. That would have been an obvious thing too. Why wouldn’t there be a spare tire? Didn’t all if not most cars come with one?

“Sadly no. I hadn’t thought to bring one.” The driver admitted which made me roll my eyes in response. As the so-called leader, shouldn’t she have thought of that before leaving? Hopefully there was a town nearby with a repair shop. If not, then they were screwed unless someone called for a towing service. Thinking quickly, I pulled out my android and turned the screen on only to find there were no bars for service. I was in a dead zone for my service.

“Does anyone have any service on their phones? Maybe we could call for help to get a tire.” I had suggested out loud. One after another, I saw the group pull out their phones to check for service. I heard a few sighs of disappointment and another saying “no service.” With disappointment and feeling cramped, I hopped out of the vehicle to stretch my legs. It felt really good to be able to stand once more. “Is there a town nearby that we can go to at least?”

“I checked the map and it looks like the nearest town is about four hours away. It could take a while to get there on foot.” Claudette answered while folding the map back up with frustration. With a sigh, I leaned my back against the van when I had spotted fog rolling in. That was odd. It was clear the whole day with no chance of rain or anything. How was there fog? Did anyone else notice it? Or was it only me? A small shiver went down my spine which I took as a sign for me to get back into the van with the others. I’m not a superstitious person, but if something doesn’t feel right to me, it’s better to listen to my instincts. With trepidation, I climbed back into the vehicle and shut the door before locking myself in. For safety of course. When I gazed out the window, I could have sworn I saw someone. A silhouette of a tall man.

“Did anyone else see that?” I asked loud enough for everyone to hear. A few people looked out the window themselves out of curiosity.

“I don’t see anything Feng. It was probably just a bear or something. It’s hard to tell with all this fog.” Kate answered. I turned my head back to the window to see if the man was still out there, but there really was no one. How was that even possible? He was there one moment and gone the next? Something was telling me that the flat tire may have been deliberate and we have become like those teenagers you see in horror films.

“With the flat tire and no way to change it ourselves along with no phone service, we have little choice but to walk.” Claudette, the reasonable one, said which made some people sigh and of course one complains about wearing heels. I really regret coming along on this stupid trip and should have stayed home to practice League of Legends to get ready for the competition. But no, I’m stuck out in the middle of freaking nowhere.

I climbed out of the van again with my phone in my back pocket. As a small group of five, we all began to walk in the direction where we needed to go, following the girl with the map and Dwight next to her. The fog was rolling in fast and thick towards the road they are walking on. It had already covered the golden corn on our right. That did not look good. Not at all. It was clear to her that everyone was feeling the same way I was as we all looked at each other. There was something clearly wrong going on and now it wasn’t just me who was feeling it. Even Kate had stopped complaining about walking in heels. We heard a sound to our left that sounds like something crashing. It was loud and quite close, too close. I couldn’t help but jump with a couple of others as we continued to walk.

The fog had encompassed all of us to the point we couldn’t see anything, not even where we were going anymore. I couldn’t tell if I was on the road anymore. On either side of me, I still felt Jeff and Kate beside me which brought me great comfort. It told me that we were all together still. With my hands, I reached for theirs to make sure that we don’t split up at all. Were we safe still? Maybe I was getting a bit paranoid, it was fairly to become so when one is lost in the middle of nowhere and forced to walk to get help. At the same time, what is stopping some cannibal or murderer to get us? There would be no one who would hear our cries for help. We were too far out in the country.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Does anyone else feel like this is creepy and that we should go back to the van?” Kate asked quietly among the group. Her voice quivered in fear like she was afraid of someone or something over hearing her.

“I know I do, but really, we are surrounded by fog. Who is to say we won’t get lost trying to find it?” I asked while also trying to keep a level head which wasn’t an easy feat. In fact, in the situation we were in, it was quite difficult. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be stuck out here near some sketchy farmland. But if we did try going back to the van, I’m sure we’d lose our way if we haven’t already. It was quite an eerie thought to be lost. What if we never see our families again? I really shouldn’t be thinking so morbidly. So far there has been no evidence that anything bad was out here.

“We should be turning onto a different road up here soon, make sure you all stay close.” We were informed by Claudette. I can only assume that Dwight had grabbed Jeff’s hand for we were being lead somehow in the same direction as the people ahead of us. It soon felt like I was walking on a dirt path or road. It sure didn’t feel nor sound like we were walking on pavement anymore. From the near distance, I heard a crow croak which is quite common anywhere so, it was a bit of comfort to know there was some form of life besides the crops that we saw.

But still, being surrounded by the fog was utterly dreadful. When was it going to let up? It would be nice to see where we were going again. I heard sounds of the wind making the corn stalks hitting each other due to the breeze. It is now official; I am beyond creeped out and scared to be out here.

“You know… it would be cool to see a werewolf out here. Things that you see in those shows that talk about the things people have experienced when they were driving. Sometimes they recorded a bigfoot or a werewolf in locations like this.” A shudder went down my spine when I heard Jeff speak about such things. It was definitely not the time to bring such things up, but I also knew what he was talking about. I always had a show or a movie on as background noise when I was practicing my gaming skills preparing for the next competition.

“Now is not the time to bring such things up, Jeff. Social awareness; you should think before you speak. If you haven’t noticed we may be lost and this area is creepy as hell at night. And I, quite frankly, don’t care about the stupid shit you watch. Though, I could eventually turn this experience into a country song.” I couldn’t help but shake my head. If we got out of here just fine, she can do what she wanted, but right now… no. We should be focusing on making it out of this country land and heading to the next town. That was our goal to begin with which was why we were walking out in the middle of nowhere.

“There is nothing out here to be worried about. It’s just farmland that someone has taken well care of, nothing to be scared about.” Dwight said, sounding quite cheery. That was adorable, how he can be so positive in the predicament we are in. He is someone that everyone could rely on. Yet, he seemed quite naïve. But at least he was helping us calm our nerves down since we were doing a really bad job at it ourselves. And this was the reason why Claudette and Dwight were the leaders and the rest of us just have the things we are good at.

“We should be leaving the area soon. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we should be out of this stretch, though, we still have a long way to go.” Everyone, including myself let out a groan. It was clear we wanted out of here and soon. But soon was not going to be soon enough especially on the long stretch of road that we were on. When was the last time a main road was made out of dirt? Hell, even highways were made out of pavement, so, why were we walking on dirt?

Finally, the fog was letting up and away from us. I was finally able to see a bit of my surroundings and immediately, something didn’t look right. Actually, something was incredibly wrong. There was a large two-story white house that looks like it needs some upkeep done to it. I turn around to look behind us to see the dirt drive way we had been walking on. The surrounding area was filled with corn and bales of hay. If I squint my eyes, I can see a barn in the distance. I should have listened to my instincts! We were somewhere we shouldn’t be. And to top it all off, we were lost since there were quite a few dirt paths. We could go back if we knew what direction that was.

“Perhaps we could turn back…” Kate suggested hesitantly. It was clear that even she was baffled how they got on someone’s property and were trespassing.

“Do you know which way is back?” Jeff asked as he also looked around. I looked the ground to see if I could see our footprints in the ground, but the dirt road was so packed that there were hardly any signs that someone has been there. I turned back around to look at the house that was in front of us as I shook my head. So far, being in that house may be safer than being outdoors.

“There are too many dirt paths, if we took one, we may get more lost than we already are. Lets just wait till daylight comes and make a choice then.” It was my turn to speak, I just hoped they would listen to me…