We need to give them that: deciding that a plan would be more useful than panicking, it helped them move on from the latter relatively fast. They vaguely introduced themselves. The boy living in Tom’s street was called John, the girl was Lizzie – and as soon as she said her name, Tom remembered that they did have classes together but that was in lower school – and the younger boy was Jamie and he seemed to be the most shaken of all of them. Tom couldn’t know for sure, but he had a feeling that it was him who screamed.

None of the seven knew where they were, their surrounding didn’t seem familiar, and few of them were actually outdoorsy. Claire was but she had barely just moved in, and Jamie often went camping with his family but this place didn’t ring a bell. Tom doubted anyone could learn a forest off by heart anyway.

Their first reflex had obviously been to check their phones but none of them had any signal. Not even for emergencies or to access their localization. Technology was great until you didn’t know what to do when you couldn’t rely on it.

The only thing they could do was to start walking until they came across a road. Or a trail. Something human-made that would lead them to civilization.

Their first problem, of course, was figuring out which way they should get going. Sure, the forest couldn’t be endless whichever way they went, but they’d rather walk an hour than ten days.

“We need to go south,” Edwin decided.

“Why?”

“Because the nearest forest to our town is north.”

“Right, because we’ve clearly teleported close to home,” Lizzy replied sarcastically.

“No, but if we got high or something and walked off, we’re probably close to home,” John pointed out.

“Normal people don’t just get high in the middle of the day, you know?” she said. And even if they did, Tom didn’t particularly picture Maya getting high at a school’s open house…

“Maybe we’ve been kidnapped or something,” Jamie suggested and, at the time, that didn’t sound like a completely stupid idea.

“Okay, let’s just… walk south,” Tom decided. It’s the only potential lead we have and arguing about what we don’t know isn’t productive and just wastes our time.”

“Somewhere fancy to be?” Lizzy asked.

“No, but I’d like to find help while we still have a bit of daylight.”

Lizzy looked as if she was going to reply something but Maya asked: “How do we know where the south is? Do we need to check the moss on the trees or something?”

“We could,” Edwin agreed but Tom had a feeling that he was being polite more than anything else. “But that’s not always reliable. We should follow the sun.”

“The sun?” John replied, a little incredulous.

“Yes, the sun. It has the very reliable feature of rising and setting at the same place every day.”

“It’s doing neither right now.”

Claire rolled her eyes at him and said: “There. The south is over there.” And before anyone could argue again, she started walking, setting the entire group in motion.

Tom didn’t mind walking. When he knew where he was going, which route to take, how long it would take him, and when the floor was even. Hiking, however… he never saw the point. Of course, he understood why people would want to do that, just the same way he understood why some people might start crochet or candle making, but it definitely wasn't for him.

It had been less than fifty minutes and his calves were aching, his ankles were on fire, and he was pretty sure he was getting blisters on both his heels.

“Do you think we made the right call or are we going deeper into the woods?” he asked Edwin when all the others were slightly too far to hear, partly because he wanted to know and partly not to think about his out of shape; hurting body.

“I don’t know,” Edwin replied, voice a little tight.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked.

“We have a problem.”

“Yes, I am well aware of that. But we’ll find a road soon enough, it will be fine!”  Tom was actually not sure how much of that he actually believed but he wasn’t willing to listen to the scared voice in his head. Not just yet.

“Fine, then we have two problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“The trees. They’re weird.”

Tom looked around and, if he were perfectly honest, thought that the trees looked like trees.

“I’m still not sure what you mean.”

“Look at the leaves.”

Tom obeyed and focused on the leaves. “Man, they look like leaves.”

“Not the kind we can find anywhere near where we live. The last time I saw leaves like that was at the botanical garden  when we took that biological school trip.”

“Hey, it doesn’t mean anything. People import pets and plants all the time.”

“To create a forest?”

“I don’t know. But we can’t be too far from the school, right?”

“Where does that logic come from? Because I’d like to remind you that the only thing that would make sense right now would be to be in the school.”

Tom was hearing him, of course he was, but he wasn’t ready to abandon hope yet. Even if Edwin had a point when he said that none of this made sense and that they had the exact same chances of being a mile from school as they did being in Asia. But his mind was stubborn and he wouldn’t give up until he was forced to or until he had proof slightly more convincing than leaves.

“Guys?” Lizzy called She had stopped, behind everyone, looking at something in the distance. “Is that a castle?”