The Forest of No Return

“Why do bad guys always have to live in creepy looking places?” I asked.

It looked like it was appropriately named, and Mills had told me that everyone usually detoured around the place.  The reason for the detour was that it was a reserve or national park of some sort.  Really, it was just downright scary.

“We are definitely going to get lost,” Mills said as he stared up at the redwood-like trees.

The backpack tugged on him in assurance.  “Argyle thinks he can get us back out,” Mills interpreted.  “But he doesn’t seem completely convinced.”

“Well, it’s not like we can turn back now,” I observed.

Mills nodded grimly and we carefully stepped into the forest that bordered the edge of the Village.  We held onto each other’s hand to make sure we didn’t lose each other, and mostly because we were getting jumpy.  Mills only knew rumors of this place, not actually information that Chaz would have known.  And rumors about a scary looking forest didn’t help quell any fears.

It wasn’t that the forest was dead silent.  In fact, I almost would have preferred that.  Instead the forest had the sounds of haunted house: creaking wood, rusty springs, wails and screams, and it even had the minor key background music.

“I bet this place is big on Halloween,” I tried to joke.

“Huge,” Mills nodded.  “It’s the only time people pay attention to this place.  My parents grounded me for a few years after I snuck out with some friends to go here one Halloween.  I would definitely never suggest going to this place at night.  It’s even worse.”

“Well, it looks like the sun is setting,” I pointed out.  “At least, from what I can see through the trees.”

“We only have about four hours left.”

“We only have one,” I corrected, quickly checking my pocket to make sure the hour was still there.

“I meant for our Christmas Day deadline,” Mills explained.  “Set up for a big day like Christmas takes a while.  Not to mention my grandfather is probably going to have to personally look at all the hours to check their condition.”

“Can we do it with only twenty-three?”

Mills bit his lip as he thought about it.  “I think so.  We’ll probably have to anyway because running from here to the Time Factory is going to take a while.”

The conversation was helping a lot.  The forest was still creepy, and even Argyle was starting to act a little unsure, but at least I wasn’t dwelling on getting scared out of my wits.  I had to rescue Chaz, so I didn’t have time to be scared.  Still, I was probably crushing Mills’ hand with how nervous I was.

Argyle stopped Mills for a little bit and then dragged us both to hide behind a tree.  There were voices; voices that weren’t apart of the haunted house soundtrack that was playing through the forest.  I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I did recognize two of them.  Even though I had only heard Slokha and Boeman arguing once, they kind of had a distinctive cadence.  One look at Mills’ face confirmed my guess.

“How do we get past them?” I hissed.

“Pray we run into Rode,” Mills whispered back.  “He’d be the only one who’d let us go.  Of course, it would take a bit of convincing.  He’s terrified of his boss.”

“Can we just avoid them all together?”

“I hope so.”  We waited for a few moments and then Mills looked over his shoulder.  “Argyle’s scared.  He can’t focus on finding the trail.”

We were so close, and yet here we were with so much between us and saving Chaz.  Without Argyle guiding us we would have to blindly pick a direction, and the best direction seemed to be toward the arguing voices.  I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down.  There was no way I was going to just leave Chaz.  In fact, I was going to slap any thief who got in my way.  I didn’t want to run into them, but if I did I wasn’t going to back down.  I didn’t have time to be afraid.

“This way,” I said, pulling on Mills.