2. Road Trip

ELLIS
Darkness settles in and the sky lights up. You’re far enough from town, and any major city, for the stars to be impacted by light pollution.

Something streaks across the sky. Most likely a falling star. Then another. Six more falling stars flame across your vision.

A dog begins barking. It’s most likely at a far off neighbour, the sound muffled by distance. It seems to have found something of interest. The barking is incessant.

That’s when you notice the silence. The buzzing of insects, which had filled the night, have gone quiet.

MARCUS

MARCUS
Something about those lights nag at you.

They couldn’t have been flashlights. They were colourful. Almost as if changing colour during the flashes.

It was subtle, but the lights definitely changed - white, blue, green, pink. It was so quick. Maybe it was your eyes playing tricks on you in the light of dusk. Maybe.

MARCUS
The others gather around as you describe what you saw in the forest.

"I’ll come with you." Little Rod says. "I don’t like the idea of people watching us." He gives Marcus a reassuring smile.

"Yeah. I’ll come with you too." Noakes steps in beside Little Rod, his normally easy-going disposition showing concern.

"Don’t be stupid." Laslow scoffs. "Flashing multicoloured lights in the forest? I think you’re seeing things."

He settles back into his cot. "I’m not going traipsing around the forest - day or night."

Turning his back to the group, he adds. "It’s getting late and we have an early morning. I’d appreciate it if you’d all be quiet now so I can get some sleep."

The back door opens. Looking around, you note that Trent is missing.

JOCELYN
You awake as you step out of the thick undergrowth and into a clearing. Your feet ache from cuts and bruises. Thorn bushes have scratched your legs and arms. Somewhere along the way you lost a toenail, leaving a caked mess of blood and dirt.

You have no knowledge of where you are, or how you got here. The farmhouse is not visible from this vantage point.

Your last memory was in your room - maybe just after midnight. You must have been wandering for hours. The darkness of night is slowly being pushed back by a new sunrise.

At the centre of the clearing is a wide, low mound - some twenty or thirty feet across. Circling the mound are five standing stones, facing inwards towards a heavy stone slab. The standing stones are ancient - ranging from five to six feet in height. Some have strange symbols carved into them. The center slab is stained a dark brown.

Shivering and in a daze, Jocelyn's curiosity gets the better of her and she steps forward to examine the stones.

Marcus is surprised at Little Rod and Noakes' intent of going out to investigate in the dark.
"Hey folks, are you sure it isn't better to go and look in daylight? For all we know, whatever happened to the disappeared students, could happen to us, if we are not careful," he tries to dissuade them.

Then, the absence of Trent is noticed. "Wait. Nobody goes out until we find Trent... he was here only recently..."

Marcus looks around the shared house, calling Trent's name. "Jason? Trent? Come on guys, we have to find him..."

JOCELYN
A closer view of the stones reveal they’re not carved with symbols, but pictograms. Each stone has a scene carved into it.

One shows a group of people encountering a large beast. Another shows a group worshipping, or collapsing in front of the beast. Yet another shows members of the group killing, or sacrificing, other members.

The meaning behind the stones and carvings are hard to decipher without expert knowledge.

Near the center stone is evidence of a fire pit. Charred logs, almost fully burned to dust, lay in a pile of to the side.

Jocelyn can see a path leading away from the stones. It disappears around a bend choked in underbrush.

ELLIS
Shooting stars are not unusual. You’ve seen them many times before.

These, though. These were unusual.

The meteors streaked across the sky in almost the exact same path. All seven objects couldn’t have been more than a few yards away from each other.

While not impossible, the event was strange enough to catch your attention.

They also slowed as they progressed through their path - the lights disappearing somewhere in the hills beyond the trees.

MARCUS
"I don’t like the idea of someone spying on us." Little Rod says, frowning.

"Yeah." Noakes agrees. "It’s probably the sheriff and deputy checking up on us."

"That sheriff really has it out for us." Louis adds.

It takes a bit of convincing. Eventually, they all agree to hold off.

It’s about that time when you notice Jason missing. You’re about to split up to search for him when the back door bangs closed.

Jason Trent steps into the front room - stopping just inside the doorway. He stares uneasily, his wide eyes magnified by his lenses. He pushes his glasses up on his nose, and opens his mouth as if to say something. Instead, he slinks over to his cot and avoids eye contact.

The first thing Jocelyn thinks of is to take rubbings of the pictograms. She pats at her pockets as if she might have brought some paper and rubbing wax, or at least a soft pencil. But of course she hasn't. In fact, she now realizes she is in her camisole - not intending to leave her room after she started reading, she had got herself ready for bed.

She is horrified to find herself out here alone in her nighty; and she feels extremely vulnerable.

Pulling her arms around her shoulders, Jocelyn realizes she is also wearing a light dressing gown. Her hands automatically go to her pockets and there she finds a notebook. Letting out a laugh at her fortune, she opens it and pulls out a double page from the very middle, where she hopefully won't damage the string binding. Then another and another, enough she thinks to record everything. Stepping over to the firepit, she kicks some charcoal away then bends down and picks that up.

She takes a moment to hold her hand over the firepit, just in case it is still warm.

Then she sets to taking rubbings of the pictograms. Remembering the boy's drawing in the diner, she looks at the trees, expecting to see gaping mouths in their trunks. Shivering again, she curses herself for a fool, but she does wonder if the boy had been here and seen something here.

Finishing her rubbings, she finds she needs to relieve herself. She'd rather do that back at base, but she's not sure she knows where that is. She looks around, trying to work out the way home. The path looks inviting, but she is rather hoping it isn't that way.