ALL NOVEL 45. A Quiet Little Hike
"That's what you're wearing?" Paige asked in a pointed tone as I climbed into the back row of the mini-van. "This is what you picked as appropriate clothing to go hiking in the woods?"
I shrugged as I straightened my skirt and took my seat, "What's wrong with my clothes? It's not like we're climbing mountains or crossing rivers. We're not blazing our own trails through untouched wilderness either. We'll be following established hiking and skiing trails, and we probably won't even be doing that more than an hour or two."
"I suppose it's not any worse than what Marissa's wearing," Brooke responded.
Needless to say, the younger blonde was in her usual Touhou cosplay outfit. Her giant hat was on her lap though since she couldn't wear it in the van. And honestly I was dressed a lot more normally than her, so I wasn't sure what Paige was complaining about. I figured it was just because most of my friends hadn't seen me in a skirt before.
I liked it though, it felt fun and sort of carefree. It was a black and white plaid pattern that didn't quite reach my knees, with pleats that made it look kind of cute as far as I was concerned. On top I was wearing a cute bra and a tight white short-sleeve blouse. I left the top few buttons undone since it was another hot day out. And the main thing was I had comfy sneakers on since we'd be walking.
Meanwhile both Nina and Kaylee were dressed in their usual sort of style. Sneakers, leggings, and a loose baggy top for my girlfriend, a cute t-shirt for my little sis. Melanie was in her typical get-up too, with boots and jeans and a t-shirt. Only Brooke and Paige had actually dressed for hiking, but I figured as the two athletic girls they probably did serious hiking for fun.
By the time I'd finished checking out how my friends were all dressed Nina was beside me in the middle of the back row and Kaylee was on the other side of her. Melanie slid the door shut and we all got our seatbelts on as Paige backed out of the driveway.
"Did any of you think to at least bring water bottles?" Brooke asked.
Melanie replied, "I've got a canteen on my belt."
"I have a bottle of spring water in my purse," Kaylee added.
Me and Marissa and Nina were quiet. I didn't bother bringing anything like that since it wouldn't fit in my cute little purse, and I didn't know if Nina even needed normal food and water anyways. She ate with the family for meals and stuff, but I'd never heard her say she was hungry or thirsty.
Paige finally commented, "It's a good thing me and Brooke thought ahead. We've both got small hiking packs with water bottles in them, and there's a case of spring water in the back of the van."
Nobody had anything to say about that, so I changed the subject since I had a question.
"Hey Marissa?" I asked the young blonde, "I've been wondering, how is it you're the one who always finds out about all this stuff? Like you always seem to know when there's something supernatural going on."
She grinned, "I keep my eyes and ears open, and I take everything at face value. Like if people say they see strange lights in the forest, I accept that they're seeing strange lights in the forest. I don't automatically assume they don't know what fireflies look like, or that they're confused, or telling lies."
Her grin faded as she continued, "Brooke and Paige and Kaylee will tell you, that sort of thing got me in trouble for a while? Like I'd come to club meetings with all sorts of fantastic stories and ideas and stuff, and they were usually wrong. That's why they stopped listening to me. But it taught me to do my homework first. So yeah, I still accept things at face value, but before I bring it to the club I look into stuff and do my own research first."
"What sort of research?" Kaylee asked. I wasn't sure if she was upset since that was supposed to be her thing, or maybe she was just curious. She frowned as she added, "And actually, how do you hear about this stuff in the first place? Like who's been seeing strange lights? A friend of yours?"
By that point we'd arrived. Paige parked the minivan and we all climbed out, while Marissa answered Kaylee's question.
"I listen to people around me," she explained. "Family, friends, neighbours. But I'm also on over a dozen different local social media groups. Like neighbourhood watch groups, hobby groups, that sort of thing? And I follow a bunch of local people and organizations. Like the police have their own social media account, same with the public works, the municipality, all that stuff. So I spend maybe thirty or forty minutes every day going through all that to see if anything interesting's come up."
"And if I find something I look for cross-references," she added. "Like the strange lights were seen more than once, by a few people who's backyards overlook the forest. They had a little discussion about it online. Then I searched for other weird stuff at Monora Forest and found out about the two missing people and the police searches. Our local weekly newspaper had articles about both of them."
By the time she was done we were all sort of staring at her, and I couldn't help feeling like at least a few of us were looking at the brash young witch in a new light.
"Ok Marissa," Paige finally spoke up. "So we're here, where do you figure we need to be looking?"
The young blonde pulled out some folded paper from one of her vest pockets. She handed one to Paige and another to Kaylee while keeping the last one for herself.
And as all three of them unfolded the sheets she explained, "Incase we split up I made extra copies, like if we split into groups or something? Anyways nobody knows exactly where the hiker disappeared, but the last known spot the girl and her horse were seen is by that small pond sort of in the middle of the top half of the park."
"She and her boyfriend were heading north on the trail that passes just east of the pond," Marissa continued, "And the boyfriend realized she was missing by the time he got to that communications tower about two hundred meters north of the pond. There's a trail marker number eight that's pretty much the middle of the target area."
She added, "That kind of fits with the reports of strange lights too? The folks who were talking about seeing lights on social media all live in those houses to the east of that stretch. The houses are on high ground and there's some low wetland between there and the forest. So even though they're more than a quarter kilometre from that trail, they have a good line of sight to that part of the woods."
Brooke and Paige were studying their map, while me and Nina looked at the one Kaylee was holding.
Once we all had a feel for the site Paige suggested, "Ok. There's no direct path from the parking lot here to that spot, so it's a bit of a round-about trek. And the way all these paths criss-cross and run parallel to each other, I bet it's actually pretty easy for some people to get lost."
"I'll be honest," Brooke added, "I know how to read maps and this looks like a mess to me. Like there's gaps in the trails, it looks like details have been erased. I can see where we want to go but I literally can't see an easy way of getting there. Which is crazy, considering it's probably only eight hundred meters away in a direct line. I mean look, the communications tower is right there. You can't miss it."
Kaylee asked, "Marissa, where'd you find this map?"
"I got it from the town's official website," the young blonde replied. "I know the map's kind of weird, but this is the official thing."
That led to all of us exchanging some uncertain looks. Finally Paige decided, "Ok we're all going to stick together. Nobody goes off on their own. We'll try and take the most direct route, such as it is. Melanie, if you pick up any unusual scents let us know. Cass, say something if you spot anything magical. Everyone else, keep your eyes and ears open."
With that decided, we all set off together. It didn't take long to fall into our usual sort of groups, with Marissa and Melanie up front, Brooke and Paige in the middle, and me and Kaylee at the back. Nina hung back as well, but ended up walking a few paces ahead, between us and the two taller girls.
We were all fairly quiet at first too, following the trail south from the parking lot before it curved to the west. It was only a few minutes before we hit our first fork in the trail, and Paige noted there were no markings or indications that she could see. Still, she and Brooke seemed to know which path to take so the seven of us took the right fork. And that sort of set the tone for the next little while.
I quickly lost count of how many times the trails branched and merged. Nothing was marked, and there were all sorts of little twists and turns that made it hard to keep track which way we were going. The trees and underbrush varied from sparse to thick, and the terrain had enough little hills and dales that it was hard to see more than a few dozen meters in any direction.
"I know the whole forest is only about a kilometre north to south," Kaylee commented after what felt like a half hour. "And where we're supposed to be going it's even less than that east to west? But honestly, I could totally believe someone getting lost in here. And it'd be easy to get turned around too, the way these paths twist and turn. And with all the forks and junctions and stuff, I bet it's not hard to end up going in circles."
I nodded, "Yeah. I can't even see the communications tower anymore. I don't even know which way to look for it?"
Brooke frowned, "I should have brought my compass, but I honestly didn't think we'd be doing any orienteering."
"Most smartphones have a compass app built in," Paige pointed out. "Or if they don't have it pre-installed you can download one. Along with the GPS, it should be literally impossible to get lost here."
I pulled out my phone to see if it had a compass app, but forgot about that when I saw the screen. "No signal. How can there be no signal, we can't be more than a half kilometre away from the tower! Unless we're already completely lost."
"Most towers are optimized for range, so the signals propagate horizontally. That probably leaves a dead zone right underneath them," Paige responded. She didn't sound entirely sure of herself though.
Then Melanie spoke up, "Y'all are getting worked up about nothing. If we went in a circle I'd pick up our scent on the path ahead of us. And worse comes to worse, I can follow our trail right back to the parking lot."
"Yeah," Marissa grinned. "I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Werewolf girlfriend for the win!"
As if taking that as an invitation, Melanie's form shifted slightly as she changed to her wolfgirl form. Her human ears vanished as her triangular fuzzy ears appeared on top of her head, and her black furry tail emerged from the top of her jeans below her t-shirt.
That made the younger blonde smile even wider. She put an arm around her girlfriend and pulled her into a side-hug as she said, "Yeah! Wolf-girlfriend is the best girlfriend."
There were a couple eye-rolls but also a few smiles among the rest of the club. Nobody said anything against Melanie or Marissa though, and I was pretty sure they were all happy to have the werewolf and her nose with us. I definitely felt a little better knowing she could lead us back home no matter how confusing the trails got.
We all started moving again, while I found the compass app on my phone. It didn't seem to work right though, the indicator sort of swung around at random. Kaylee was watching, she frowned and mentioned that to the others.
Our new leader hesitated, "Ok the compasses in phones probably aren't the best to begin with? And if this is the first time you've used it then it's probably not calibrated. And finally, we know that communications tower is around here somewhere right? So there's probably a pretty strong EM field, which might be interfering with the phone's electronics."
"If there's a strong enough field to mess with the phone then why's there no signal?" Marissa asked.
Paige explained, "That tower is more than just cellphones. It's also got long-range microwave dishes on it, and who knows what else? It might even be the base for the town's police and emergency services radios. Even though it's outside town, it's a tall tower on high ground so it'll provide better coverage than a lower location in the middle of town."
It was a plausible explanation, but it didn't make any of us feel better. I finally put my phone back in my purse since it wasn't any help, and paid more attention to our surroundings again. It all kind of looked the same though. Like it was pretty and woodsy and stuff, but that's all it was. So after the first five minutes it was just kind of the same.
After walking a while more we came to yet another fork in the trail, but this time Brooke said "I think we want to take this branch? It heads uphill, which should get us onto the right trail where the tower is. Then we can get our bearings and find the pond."
Nobody had a problem with that, so we all took the left fork and started following that trail upwards. It wasn't too steep, but you definitely knew you were climbing a hill.
"Melanie what do you plan on telling people if we run into other hikers and they ask about the ears and tail?" Kaylee asked.
The wolfgirl shrugged, "It's none of their business. Or I guess I could say it's cosplay, to go along with Marissa's Kirisame outfit."
Then I commented, "What other hikers? We haven't seen anyone else since we left the parking lot."
Suddenly our whole group came to a halt as the others all stared at me.
"Cass is right," Paige responded in a soft voice. "It's a beautiful sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, this is supposed to be a popular location for hiking and horseback riding, and we haven't seen any sign of anyone else."
Kaylee added, "Come to think of it, it's been really quiet too right? We should be less than a few hundred meters from a major road on a weekday afternoon, but I haven't noticed any sounds of traffic at all."
Six of us sort of exchanged uneasy looks, while Nina just stood quietly next to me and looked curious.
