Chapter One - Lost in the Woods

PREFACE

It’s taken me a lot longer than I wanted to finish my sequel. I can’t believe it’s been 11 months since I posted the last chapter of my first book. It’s been awhile since I have really felt like writing. My first book was written from Jake’s perspective. This book is written from Nia’s perspective. My goal is to make each character’s personality consistent throughout the book. So I’m going to give that a shot.

I am also shooting for 25,000 words to make this a novella like the first book. I also wanted to pretty much have the first draft done before I posted any chapters so for better or worse I’ll have a complete story to tell. I don’t want to start something and then just leave everybody hanging halfway through.

I want to thank each person in advance who is going to take the time to read all or part of my story. I hope I can keep everyone’s attention and that most people who read it will enjoy it. I’ll be posting 1 chapter per week for about 26 weeks. I know that sounds like a long time but unfortunately it will go by fast.

So here we go ......

LOST IN THE WOODS

The sun is starting to set. I am unsure of what to do. I feel like I am going to have a breakdown. The village isn’t here. My parents aren’t here. Katy isn’t here. Lidia isn’t here. Why isn’t anyone here?

“I think this is the assembly hall.” Jake says.

“Why do you think that?” I answer. It’s starting to dawn on me that something is terribly wrong and it frightens me.

“Because the AI was in that building which means that building would have been there before the village was built. So if the village had never been built, that building would be in the middle of the woods, which it is.” Jake reasons.

“The village doesn’t exist!?” I ask, starting to panic. “Nothing that I remember exists anymore? My parents, Katy, they are all dead?” The realization that my whole life and everything I know is gone hit me like a ton of bricks.

“No, they’re not dead.” Jake answers, “I don’t think they ever existed in the first place.”

“What about me? Do I exist?” I shoot back.

“Of course you exist.” Jake assures me, “But that’s only because you went back in time. If you had stayed in the future you wouldn’t exist now either.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. How is that supposed to make sense?” I start to hyperventilate. I went back in time to fix something and now everything I know is gone!

“They never existed” Jake says solemnly, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“How do we fix this? We aren’t time travelers anymore. We’re stuck, here, with nothing!” I exclaim.

“We have to figure out a way to get into this building.” Jake says.

“How are we going to do that, the door is locked!” I engage in full panic mode. Jake keeps a safe distance.

“Maybe there is something on the preacher’s body we can use.” Jake reasons. Jake starts walking back toward where we left the preacher leaving me standing there by myself. After a few minutes I realize he’s gone and I run after him to catch up. I don’t want to be left in the woods by myself. As much as I am starting to resent Jake, I need him. We walk for what seems like forever. Jake stops and looks around. We don’t see the preacher’s body anywhere.

“Why are you stopping?” I ask.

“Because this is where we left the preacher’s body” He answers.

“It can’t be. The body isn’t here.” I say.

“No, I’m sure this is where we left the body.” Jake counters.

“Then why isn’t the body here?” I ask.

“Maybe some animal took his body.” Jake says, “Or maybe the preacher got up and walked away on his own.”

“You mean the preacher could be looking for us!?” I ask as a shiver goes down my spine.

“That’s one possibility.” Jake says very calmly. How does he stay calm in a situation like this?

“What are we going to do now?” I ask. I start to cry frantically and Jake isn’t sure what to do about it. He starts looking at the area closely as if he is looking for something. The sun is not visible anymore and I start to hear noises. Jake kneels down and picks something up off of the ground.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“It might be the key to the Assembly Hall. It must have fallen off of the preacher’s body by whatever took him.” Jake says, “Let’s get back to the Assembly Hall and get inside.” Jake starts off towards the Assembly Hall and I follow him. Once we get there Jake inserts the key into the lock and tries to turn the handle but it won’t budge. I start to hear more noises in the woods.

“Hmm ... That didn’t work out quite as well as I planned.” Jake says to himself.

“Plan?! Plan?!” I finally go off on Jake, “You don’t have a plan. You’ve never had a plan. You just make stuff up as you go along. You got me into this mess. Without you I would still have my family and friends. Life wasn’t so bad in the village and you took it all away from me! I hate you! For all we know we are the last two people on Earth!”

“This isn’t my fault!” Jake says defending himself, “I didn’t ask to be dragged into this any more than you did! If you want answers to why there’s nothing here, we need to get into that building!”

Jake looks around for something. He finds a large rock and picks it up. He starts hitting the door handle with it. The door doesn’t open.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” I finally shout when I can’t take it any longer.

“I’m trying to get inside the building.” Jake answers harshly.

“And you think hitting the door handle with a rock is the way to do it!” I yell back at him.

“You have a better idea!?” Jake shoots back.

Something rustles in the woods. We both hear it and become silent instantly. The rustling gets louder and we both duck around the side of the building for cover. The noise gets closer. I feel a sense of doom wash over me. At any moment whatever is out there is going to come around the corner and kill us both. After a few minutes the rustling stops and we can hear something jiggling the door handle. After another moment we hear the door open and a moment after that we hear the door close.

Someone or something went inside the Assembly Hall. Jake goes up to the door to test it and it’s still locked.

“It had to be the preacher.” Jake whispers to me, “He knows we are around here somewhere and he doesn’t want us following him into the Assembly Hall.”