I had always enjoyed being outside in nature and the woods, until that fateful day. Our last class was a boring history class about how the Duke of Wellington was defeated by Napoleon at Waterloo. I and my two friends went to the old forest to the south of town to drink some beers to celebrate the ending of school and welcome the summer holiday.
Also, we had already made plans for the upcoming summer vacation.
As we stepped into the forest, we were full of joy and laughter. We exchanged stories about our classmates that we weren’t so fond of. The sun was shining and a cool breeze was blowing, every leaf was a vibrant green, and the aroma of blooming flowers filled the air. We had to be careful not to trample over the thick undergrowth. The ground was soft with pine needles and green moss. Our feet sunk into the brown green ground as we walked deeper into the forest, marvelling at how simple it was to escape the world we knew and sit beneath a canopy of trees, away from buzzing fluorescent lights and stale air. Trees blocked our way, and we had to push past their branches. Golden pollen littered the ground in a thick blanket. Bees buzzed around us, and flowers of every colour lined the dirt path.
We were making our way to the meadow hidden inside the forest—the one we both adored. It was our special hideaway.
As we entered the meadow, something odd immediately caught our attention. In the middle of the clearing, there stood an unfamiliar circle-shaped object which had never been there before. As we were approaching it slowly, it became clear that it was a smaller building, about five meters across with a door in the middle that looked like a mouth. For some reason, we all felt drawn to the object, like it was calling to us.
We stepped into the object, and it was clear that there were no windows.
‘What is this place?’ I asked, my friends, but Matt and Noah were just standing there in shock.
The strangest thing was that the room was brightly lit but we couldn’t see a source for the illumination. There were no corners or edges anywhere; everything appeared to be rounded and smooth, like metal.
All of a sudden the door slammed shut, leaving us terrified. We felt a vibration for ten seconds after which the door reopened and we were able to escape. My friend remarked that it felt like being inside a broken spaceship that was no longer able to fly, and having been there, I have to agree. It was a very strange experience.
‘Let’s get the hell out of here and tell the police about this thing.’ - my buddy said and we all agreed. We were relieved to be leaving the peculiar object behind, but our journey back to town seemed to have put us in a completely different forest. The trees seemed to have been rearranged, and the mountain range was altered in the horizon. It felt like a different forest.
‘Are you sure we are heading back on the right path?’ - Matt asked.
‘Just keep going’ - I replied. Although the forest looked different, I could still navigate because I was still aware of the directions.
The sound of dead leaves crunching underfoot filled the otherwise still forest. Our heads snapped up at the same time and we froze in fear. Adrenaline surged through our veins as we slowly turned to see a large, black, furry beast with razor-sharp teeth barreling towards us. We screamed and took off running, but the monster was quickly catching up.
‘Whatever this is, it must have come from that thing!’ - Matt shouted.
The creature was still on our tail, growling and snarling as we ran. For a moment I caught a glimpse of its sharp claws as it scrambled behind us.
We sprinted as quickly as our legs could carry us until we eventually made it to the main road. At that moment, a large truck drove past us, its roar scaring away the monster we were fleeing from. When we reached our town, we told everyone about our adventure and the police sent a search group to the forest but they never found the object or the monster. We have also been searching for the object every single week but we just can’t find it.
What matters is that we are all right now, safe and sound.
Except for the fact that the US is on a different continent in our world and Joe Biden had never been president. Or the fact that the Internet is called the Cybernet in our world. Or the fact that we are not the same Mark, Matt and Noah and we have been playing their roles since that day because nobody has ever believed us. Or the fact that we have no idea what happened to the “original” three of us who belonged to this world.
Or the fact that there are no such animals as black bears in our world.
Or the fact that Napoleon was never defeated at Waterloo.