No Title - Chapter 1 Scene 1

It was just another Friday as a group of friends celebrated the end of exams and the beginning of summer. They sat around a fire in Nicole's backyard, near the woods. They had just finished their junior year of high school, sitting around laughing and reminiscing about their days together in middle school. They sat around telling jokes and stories, laughing with wide grins.

The group had a wide variety of personalities, but they all had a few things in common: each member had a few odd quirks that would make the others glance at each other in a way that clearly said "Is this kid taking any medications that we should know about; and they all loved to laugh and have a good time.

In this group there was the football player: Dave. He was the one who had tied to groups of people together after elementary school. He was friends with the people in both groups, but they saw each other as enemies. The battle of boys versus girls raged many times with tales of make-believe, races, fights, and just flat out creeping each other out. Dave was tall with wavy light-brown hair. He was friends with just about everyone and probably the second strangest member of the group. He sat at the fire with his arm around his girlfriend, Renee.

Renee was an ex-cheerleader and ex-singer. She now focused her attention more on FFA and drama. Renee was average height with not quite shoulder-length brown hair. Renee's ideas were often considered stupid by her friends. Common reactions to her ideas were head-shaking, annoyed sighs, and rolling eyes; but she was accepted as one of them because, honestly, she fit right in.

Nicole was another member of the crew, and every teacher's dream. She was tall for a girl, brown hair with blond streaks. In middle school, people often told her that her "blond hair was showing" suggesting she just said something really stupid. She wasn't someone you wanted to piss off. Nicole was strong and if you made her mad a overwhelming wave of PMS would come flying at you. None of which knew better than Joe.

Joe was by far the strangest member of the group. An ex-burnout, Joe and Nicole had often clashed in elementary school, but slowly became friends in middle school, where they still had many conflicts. Joe was the tallest of the group, and because of which people usually thought he played basketball, which got on his nerves. He wasn't athletic and rather skinny, with dark-brown hair that reaches down to his eyes. His jokes were often mean but nobody ever took him seriously, so he was accepted as well.

Lee joined this crew in middle school. He was short for a guy, fairly muscular, with brown hair around the same length as Joe's. Lee was a guy who was really friends with everybody. He could get along with the rebels, the jocks, the emo kids, the burnouts, and the geeks (which is quite honestly another thing that tied this group together: their good grades). Lee ran track and cross-country, and was fairly athletic. He had a dark complexion that had earned him the title: Brown Kid.

The last person sitting by the fire was Shea. She was around Renee's height, with brown hair that was once blond. Shea was a dancer and spent most of her free time in classes for the subject. Although, the group undoubtedly were often reminded her previous hair color, for she was the type of person who could get distracted by something shiny. She had once tailgated a car in front of her because there was a TV in it and she wanted to try to figure out what show it was playing. While trying to defend herself she said that it was mostly because it was so bright against the night that it distracted her. Joe and Nicole had just walked away.

The laughter had died down around the fire. The sky was slowly darkening, but at the moment there was still plenty of light out. Everyone sat with small, contented smiles left by the earlier laughter. Joe let out a sigh.

"So what are the plans for tonight?" Joe asked looking around the circle.

"I don't know," replied Dave. "What're our options?"

"Well," said Nicole, the host of this little get-together, "we could sit out here and roast s'mores, and talk like we do at lunchtime at school. Or we could go inside and watch a movie."

"I kinda wanna go for a walk," Joe commented. "A romp through the woods before it gets too dark doesn't sound bad."

"Oh!" chimed in Renee. "The lazy man wants to go for a walk?"
"It's a sign of the apocalypse," added Shea.

"She has a point," said Lee, nodding with his all-knowing look.

"I go far walks often enough," shrugged Joe.

Dave laughed. "Well, it's not like we have anything else to do. I say we go."

"I don't know..." started Shea.

"Oh come on, Shea." said Nicole. "Where's you sense of adventure?"

"At home," came Shea's response.

Renee whined, "It'll be an adventure, Charlie."

Lee rolled his eyes. "Not this again."

"We're not going to Candy Mountain damnit," stated Joe. "Seriously,
you'll lose a fucking kidney. It's no laughing matter."

"Shun the non-believer!" countered Dave.

"Ssshuunnn!" encouraged Renee. And soon the two of them were engaged in a duet of annoying proportions.

"Fine!" shouted Shea. "I'll go if you two just shut up!"

"Alright," said Nicole. "Good job, guys. Now let's go. Follow me."

"And you two aren't allowed to talk for the rest of the night," stated Joe. The group laughed at his comment and trudged on. "Seriously."

The group moved steadily through the forest. Joe jumped up and walked across fallen trees. Lee wandered here and there, looking distracted. Renee and Dave walked hand in hand through the trees, whispering little things to each other as they often did. Nicole and Shea talked about their schedules and what they planned to do over summer. They sauntered into a meadow and strolled through the waist-high grass.

Joe grabbed Dave's shoulder. "Grass ninja!" he shouted and dived into the plants. A little later he popped his head up just to the point where his eyes were able to peer over at them. Afterwards, he sank back into the grass, disappearing.

Dave laughed at his friend and dived in after him. Shea looked at Nicole. "This scares me. We don't know where they are."

Lee chuckled nervously. "You know they're gonna try to- Holy shit!" Joe had jumped him from the grass and they both soon disappeared. A few seconds later, Lee stood up mumbling, "You son of a bitch." Joe responded with a rather creepy laugh, already several yards away from his previous target.

Renee moved cautiously. "Dave?" she called nervously.

Nicole and Shea heard her scream. They whipped around, but Renee was already gone. Then they heard a hushed voice, but they couldn't make out the words.

The two girls stood there together in fear. They moved closer together. Both girls felt there heart beat speed up. Shea swallowed nervously. Nicole cleared her throat to break the horrible silence. Then they heard in.

Whispered words carried from the grass by the wind. The boys spoke lowly. Some of the grass--a good distance away--began to rustle quickly. Their hearts quickened all the while. It became a rhythm you could dance to. The hushed voices stopped. The girls looked around. Where could Dave and Joe have gone? How close were they?

Renee groaned and stood up. Nicole and Shea flinched together, then sighed with relief and risked a glance at each other as she muttered "Asshole" and brushed herself off. Lee chuckled to himself, waiting in anticipation. That's when it happened.

"Boom!" yelled Joe, jumping up from behind them. The girls screamed and jumped back, and tripped over Dave's strategically placed self. They screamed again, and fell with a crash. Dave, Renee, Lee, and Joe began to laugh hysterically.

Nicole kicked Dave as she sat up. "I hate you!" she yelled, frustrated. Dave just laughed harder and started to toss from side to side.

Shea muttered "Crap" under her breath as she pushed herself off the ground.

Nicole held up her hand and said, "Joe!" Joe grabbed her hand and pulled her up, snickering all the while. Nicole pushed him away when she got to her feet saying "Jerk."

The gang continued on their hike. They reentered the forest and it became very similar to when they began the trip, except the girls kept a closer eye and Dave and Joe, who didn't try anything. They'd had their fun already.

"What's that?" Renee asked eventually, pointing through the trees.

"What?" inquired Dave straining to find what she was referring to.

Renee didn't answer. She walked forward. The others grew nervous. What could be out here in the middle of the woods? The remaining members of the gang looked at each other, worried. Dave shrugged at them and followed after his girlfriend. The rest went soon after.

They found Renee standing in a clearing. It didn't take long to figure out what she had meant: standing there in the middle of the quickly darkening woods, was an enormous, rundown factory.
Nicole moved forward. "When the hell did a factory get out here?"

"These are the woods behind your house. How would we know?" countered Lee.

"Oh shut up," replied Nicole.

"Now, children," Joe said, "let's all play nice."

Nicole glared at him.

"Or not," Joe said quickly. "You know, whatever you’re comfortable with."

Dave started moving towards the factory.

"You’re not going in there, are you?" asked Shea.

Dave turned around. "I don't see why not," he said, continuing towards the facility backwards.

"Uh, because it's creepy," countered Nicole.

"You know you want to explore it. Joe. Lee. Let's go." The two guys shrugged at each other and followed their friend.

Renee groaned, vocalizing her dislike. "Come on," she said softly to the other two girls, and the three of them went after their friends.

The met up at the main doors. The girls were standing there with their arms crossed with displeased looks on their faces, obviously against entering the factory. Joe grabbed the door knob only to find it immovable.

"See guys," chimed in Renee, "it won't open let's just go."

"Now just wait a minute," explained Dave as he moved up to the door. "We haven't tried everything yet." He grabbed the handle and ripped his arm to the side. The knob broke off with a clang. The two other guys laughed. "Oops," replied Dave lifting the knob to his face.

"Way to go," said Lee walking up to the door.

"Now can we go?" whined Nicole.

"We're not done yet, Nic," replied Joe.

As he said this, Lee knocked on the large metal door. The door creaked and tilted back. Lee raised his hand and knocked again. The door groaned all the way to the floor. Lee was left standing there, blinking, with his hand still raised.

"That was relatively simple," commented Renee.

"Don't encourage them," snapped Shea.

Lee lowered his hand at looked back at his friends with a stupid grin on his face. Then, he cautiously walked inside.

The factory had greatly deteriorated. It's layout looked like a school's: a long narrow hallway with doors at regular intervals on each side. The cluster of friends could see other hallways branching off, leading to who knows where. The placed looked as if it had been there for decades. Dirt and dust covered everything. None of the doors stood upright on their hinges, some didn't stand at all. Most of the windows were smashed, and what remained of the glass was too dirty to see through.

Joe opened the closest door and peered in. "Nothing exciting," he reported.

Dave went to the next room and did the same. "Same over here," he announced. "It just looks like a boring old office."

Soon all the members were moving from door to door, just looking for something interesting, something they didn't expect. They would find something "interesting" soon enough.

They reached the end of main hallway. It branched off to both sides. Dave walked up the wall hindering the progress turned back towards his friends and held out his arms. "Which way do we go now?" he asked his companions.

"I say we go back," announced Nic.

"I agree," reported Shea.

Lee looked at Joe and said knowingly, "Kid's these days are so needy."

Nicole shot him a dirty look. He shrugged in defense.

"Let's vote on it then. All for exploring further?" The three guys raised their hands. "All opposed?" The three girls raised their hands.

"It seems we are at an impasse," exclaimed Joe, in a voice that seemed to make his choice of words sound natural.

"Since these are the woods behind my house, my vote counts as two," stated Nic, pointing at the boys defiantly.

"What are you? Two?" countered Joe.

"Oh, shut up! Both of you!" shouted Shea.

Renee stood there watching both groups argue. "So what are we actually going to do?" she asked sheepishly.

Bang! The group whipped around. Nothing was there.

"What was that?" asked Nic meekly.

"I don't see anything," replied Lee.

Dave moved forward, squinting back at the entrance. "The door," he stated nervously. "The door's back up."

The others looked closely. It was true. The metal door that had collapsed to allow the six entrance, now stood straight upright, in its intended place. The friends all shot quick looks to each other.

Joe lurched forward. His friends followed right behind him. His head was slightly tilted to the side as he stared at the door. As he touched the handle when he reached the door it fell to the floor. He looked at Dave. "This is your fault," he muttered in mock anger. He took a step back and kicked the door with everything he had. The door didn't budge. He sighed as he leaned down and looked through the empty hole that had previously held the door knob. An eye peered back at him from the other side.

"Holy shit," burst Joe, retreating from the door too quickly, causing him to fall.

"What?" asked Dave leaning to see what had startled his friend. "There's nothing there," he stated turning back to Joe.

Joe got on his knees and glared through the hole again. It was gone.

"Joe, you're scaring me," said Shea, retreating from the group.

Her friend got back on his feet and kicked the door again. "Get back here!" he bellowed at the door. "Let us out! Open the fucking door!" He delivered another kick with each sentence.