Chapter Text
Finally, after several hours of driving time, the train held at the station situated in the middle of nowhere by the looks of it – there were no buildings to be seen left and right, just an endless expanse of trees, and the train tracks continuing on in the distance. Nobody else except the trio got out at that stop, their inventories filled to the brim with supplies that should last them for at least a week.
“Huh. Looks like we’s da first ones here!”
The smallest scoffed, unfolding the map of the area, “We obviously aren’t, idiot”, he furrowed his brow as he turned the paper around in his hands a few times. “They probably all came here by car or maybe with a taxi if I had to guess.” His suspicions grew when he spotted a parking area marked right near their future destination.
Pluey approached and looked over the Pippins’ shoulder to try and make themselves familiar with the general layout of this place. Jongler stayed where they were, knowing they wouldn’t be of much help with their subpar orientation skills – but that’s why they had the other two! They were lucky they didn’t get lost in their own apartment.
The studio the three worked at had organized a company camping trip to a secluded place near the woods – a “team building exercise”, as their bosses called it. While the Pippins wasn’t exactly a fan of camping, a few days away from work were nothing if not a welcome break from their (in his own opinion, underappreciated) jobs.
Battat studied the map, lightly tracing an imaginary path with his claw. There seemed to be a rather narrow looking footpath going directly to the camping grounds – a flat area almost entirely encircled by a dense forest. But from where they were standing, even getting to that path would take ages, and the three were already running late.
“If we go straight through the woods from here we’ll be there way faster”, he already started walking ahead, barely paying attention to the ground underneath him.
“Ya sure? ‘S already gettin’ dark out…”, his roommate worried, “’n what if dere’s ghosts ‘n stuff in dere?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”, Battat turned over, glancing to the sky to confirm the Zapper’s previous statement, “We’re just gonna go straight through, no problem. And even if ghosts were real, they wouldn’t even get a chance to catch us, that’s how fast we’ll be there!” With a smug grin he turned around once more, ducking under a branch to finally enter the forest.
“If ya says so…” His two companions quickly followed, always close by as to not lose sight of one another. The woods were dense and the trio barely made it through some of the narrower places, especially the two taller of the three. Jongler especially had a bit more trouble with their tail, but somehow they managed, even if they had to break through a few twigs along the way.
It felt like an eternity until they found a clearing – just big enough for the three of them to rest if needed – yet still no sign of the camping grounds anywhere. Battat scratched the side of his face, they should have already arrived, shouldn’t they? Or did he underestimate the size of the area they were in? Wouldn’t be the first time.
He shook his head, straightened out the map in his hands, and continued on his way, his roommates obediently following. Surely, it wasn’t that far anymore. Just a few minutes and they’d be able to join their colleagues.
Another long trek and the forest cleared once more. But again, only a small clearance stood now in front of them, oddly familiar looking. Then again, they were in a forest, those were bound to look quite similar or even the same. Nothing unusual as far as the Pippins was concerned.
By the fifth time they passed a clearing, Battat finally suspected something wasn’t quite right. Maybe he held the map upside down? Did they somehow already pass the camping grounds and walked in a circle without noticing anything? But he was so careful to only walk in a straight line, this shouldn’t have been possible!
A tap on his shoulders, and he flinched, shooting an accusatory glare at the Shadowguy who pointed behind themselves to the other.
“Um. Youse sure ya know where ya goin?”, Jongler pressed their index fingers together, looking off to the side.
“Of course I am!”, he huffed, “We just- we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, alright?!” His face immediately buried deep within the map, he tried to look for any possible indication of where exactly they’d gotten off the right path. It was barely possible to even discern any pathways at all besides that one they’d intentionally ignored in the beginning.
But for them to have strayed so many times, and to have always ended up in this specific place? Were his map-reading skills really that bad all of a sudden?
No, he must be getting tired, that’s all! Trees tended to all look the same the darker it got, it was only natural to think this was the same place! And to prove this to himself, he crouched down, scratching a big X into the soil with his claw. If they left and came across this little mark (which he knew they definitely won’t!!), they’d know they were going in circles.
So the trio, careful not to accidentally erase the mark the smallest had left, headed forwards once more, determined to reach their destination this time.
They found the same clearing once more.
“Okay, what the hell is happening??”, the Pippins vocalized the three’s collective thoughts, “I know we didn’t take any turns, how did we-” He took a breath, crumpling the map in his hands in irritation, having to restrain himself from ripping it to shreds. A gentle hand landed on his shoulder, the Zapper staring at him with exhaustion clearly written in their face.
“D’ya fink ‘s better ta go back n’ see if we’s can get on dat otha path?”
Battat hated when they were right. It would probably take another few hours but they clearly weren’t going to get to the camping grounds by continuing to go this way. Going back and onto the actual right path would be the smartest choice in their situation.
He sighed, admitting defeat. Even if he was sure they weren’t that far from their goal, he was quickly growing tired of seeing the same place over and over again, without even taking a turn. Well, and from the whole walking around they had to do.
Without another word, the Pippins turned the other way to guide the three of them out of this strange place. They dodged trees, branches, the occasional shrubbery, the two taller ones linking their arms together so they wouldn’t lose each other in the dark. The Shadowguy held a flashlight in their hand, which flickered from time to time as it illuminated the way in front of them. They had walked for another long while, and finally…
It was the exact same clearing once again. X-shaped mark in the ground and everything.
Battat was about to scream, crumpling the map into a ball and tossing it onto the ground in anger. How did they keep coming back to that same area over and over again?! This shouldn’t be possible!
He turned around towards his companions, looking as exhausted and frustrated as he was, and he promptly threw his hands in the air.
“You know what, who cares anymore?!”, crossing his arms, he plopped down onto the ground like a stubborn toddler, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m staying here! This is fucking ridiculous!”
His friends shared a quick look, then slowly sat down beside him. Even if they’d rather be somewhere a little less secluded from their peers, they didn’t think they could walk any longer. And with the way this evening had been going, they weren’t sure they’d get out of these woods any time soon anyway. Perhaps they were just too tired to be able to properly navigate this place, a bit of rest would surely help them. And, well, they’d surely be able to spot the right way when it wasn’t as dark out as right now.
“Which one of you had the walkie-talkie again?”, the Pippins asked into the round, “We should probably tell the others we won’t be coming today.” He refused to even think about saying they were lost, not just to preserve his dignity. It was only a temporary setback, he knew they’d be out of here tomorrow, no big deal!
Pluey fished the device out of their inventory, and Battat ignored the irony of the only one of them who didn’t even talk holding on to it as they handed it to him. He typed in the four digit code to connect to their boss’ frequency, which was written down on a piece of paper with it. Since they were all supposed to be in groups of at least two people, every group was provided with a walkie-talkie, exactly for cases like these or other activities they’d have planned throughout their trip.
“Green Pippins to Tenna, can you hear me?” Battat tended to use the descriptor in favor of his actual name with his boss, since he would probably not even know who he was. At least he would know who was trying to reach him this way, being that he was the only green one in the entirety of the studio.
After a minute of silence, he tried once more with the same result. Maybe he was already asleep? Or busy with the mailman-
Before his brain made him imagine things he didn’t want to see or think about, he shook his head, connecting to another frequency – Ramb was the next obvious choice, as the weather duo were probably too busy flirting with each other to notice anything. Also, he seemed to be the most competent out of everyone else by a long shot.
“Ramb, you there? It’s Battat, uh- Greenie? Ugh, green Pippins, you know.”
Again, there was no answer. The device didn’t even give off any static noises. But the batteries were full when they left home, they couldn’t have drained this much already! He furrowed his brow, trying a few more times. Somebody over there had to still be awake, right?
The camping grounds were quite full considering the studio only traveled with a small part of their staff. Tents were provided for each individual group, as well as sleeping bags and blankets. Curiously, one of the tents still stood empty, and it was already late in the evening.
Ramb recounted the people already present on the grounds in his head, going through each individual group one by one. There were the two bosses, a Zapper and a Pippins pair, the weather duo, and the trio he was a part of – consisting of himself, that grouchy Pippins that usually sat at his bar, and the Pippins wearing Sunglasses all the time. He knew there was one more group of three that should have already been there, the only other one besides his own. Maybe they were just a bit late? Although the Pippins of their group was always so diligent about being on time, so something was definitely odd about that.
A bit concerned, he punched in the other trio’s code, trying to reach them that way. Perhaps they were just stuck in traffic, or the train or whatever they came with had some kind of accident or delay.
“’Ello, lads? Ramb here, ya on your way?”
There was nothing but silence on the other end, and he grew more worried for the three. It was unusual for them to be late in the first place, but then without even saying anything or even replying at all was even stranger.
“Lads? Are ya there?”, he tried once more, again without any response.
“What’s up? Greenie ignoring you?”, the shades wearing Pippins approached, her arms crossed as her brow raised, a smirk on her lips. She liked to tease and annoy the old bartender from time to time, or really anyone for that matter. Unfortunately for her, he never really took her attempts too seriously.
“Those other three aren’t there yet.”
“Yeah, so?”, Sunny shrugged, “They probably just stayed back so they could fuck all day-”
A pillow was thrown at her head, her shades falling to the tent floor.
“Nobody needed to fucking hear that!”, the other Pippins glared at her, “I’m never getting those pictures out of my head now, asshole!”
“What? I’m just saying what we were all thinking!” Sunny placed her shades back onto her face after Ramb picked them up and handed them over to her.
“I’m just hopin’ they didn’t go through the woods at this hour…”
A scoff from the grumpy Pippins, their arms crossed over their chest, “What, you think they’re haunted or some bullshit?”
“No”, the power strip looked away, folding his paws on top of his lap as he mumbled to himself, “I know they are.”
His two Pippins companions didn’t seem to have heard his words at all, Sunny now making exaggerated ghost noises at the other, who only rolled their eyes while trying to hide an amused grin.
Maybe the two are right, Ramb thought to himself, maybe they just skipped out on the trip…