Like the town, the forest looked much less foreboding in the daylight. The mountaintop loomed above the highway, the sun glinting off the leftover winter snowpack. Murphy didn’t let it fool him this time, though. He kept an eye out for the curve, Axel’s bike, and anything that might be hiding in the woods. He knew there was something dangerous in there, and he never let his guard down.
Luckily, Axel’s bike was right where they left it, though Murphy had the strange feeling no one had been up that road since them anyway. He pulled over on the flat area they’d found the night before. It turned out to be an old, overgrown road.
Murphy pulled his bike into the woods. The road wasn’t passable, though, so he left it and continued on foot. He kept a hunting knife in his saddle bag and took it with him, just in case.
The woods were quieter than the ones he lived in. He was surprised not to hear more birds and squirrels, or the sounds of twigs snapping and brush being disturbed. It was almost as if sound had been swallowed up once he stepped into the trees.
He walked slowly and deliberately, hunting knife at the ready. He didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, though, until he spotted a structure in the distance. It was a house. Seedlings had started to crowd around it, and leaves cluttered the roof.
Murphy was certain that no human had attacked Axel, but he was cautious anyway. Before walking up to the door, he covertly circled the house, listening for signs of life and peeking in windows. Some of them were broken, and it looked like no one had lived there in a long time.
He walked up to the front door, which was open a crack, and took the handle. With the knife held up in his other hand, he opened it just a little further.
“Hello?” he called out.
There was as much clutter inside the house as there was on the roof. Leaves had blown in through the broken windows, and everything inside was a mess. He carefully walked inside a few steps and took everything in. He shook his head at the state of the place. It looked like whoever lived there just walked out the door one day and left everything behind.
There was a large dining table next to a fireplace. He crept closer, noticing something out of the corner of his eye. When he got close enough to see what it was, he gasped, and his knife fell to the floor.
Back at the hospital, Linc and Maurice stood outside in the cool mountain air. Maurice took a drag from his cigarette and watched a frustrated Linc try to call Murphy again.
“Dammit,” Linc said, realization dawning on him.
“Still not answering?” Maurice asked.
“It’s not that. He forgot his charger. We were gonna stop and buy one, but with everything that happened…His phone’s probably dead.”
“Great. So we have no idea where he is and no way to reach him.”
Linc sighed. “This trip just keeps getting better and better.”
The doctors managed to get Axel stable again and had him on medicines for the pain, fever, and infection. The Club didn’t like to hear that it was now a matter of waiting to see how he’d react, but they were at least allowed to see him. He was unconscious with new monitors hooked up to him, and various bags dripping fluids into his arm.
“He’s gonna be alright, though, right, Doc?” Maurice asked.
The doctor didn’t give him a yes or no. “He’s young and strong,” he said instead. “I have hopes he’ll make a full recovery.”
The doctor disappears again, and the members of the Club watch him go. Then Linc turned back toward the waiting room in disbelief.
“He was just fine this morning,” he breathed. “He was sitting up, joking like always, and stuffing his mouth with scrambled eggs.”
“Maybe it was the hospital food,” Maurice said, trying to lighten the mood.
Linc smiled weakly. “Nah, me and Murphy ate it too.”
“Speaking of Murphy,” Maurice’s brother said and pointed to the front door.
A moment later, Murphy came bursting through the hospital door, triumphant smile on his face, and made a beeline for the rest of the guys.
“You aren’t gonna believe what I found,” he blurted out. “There’s a road out there. You know, where we stopped? And I found…”
Linc held up his hand. “Whoa, whoa.” When his friend tried to keep going, he angrily spat, “Murphy!”
“What?” he answered and held up his hands.
“Axel’s not doing too good,” Linc replied, his voice low.
Murphy scoffed. “What are you talking about? He’s doing great.”
“Not anymore,” Dominic said.
“His wound’s infected,” Linc added. “They warned us it could happen.”
Their friend’s face fell, and he shook his head, not wanting to believe it.
“Well, have you seen him?”
“Not yet. I guess they just got him stable,” Linc said with an exhausted sigh.
After that, it was back to waiting. Linc and Murphy started to feel like they lived in the hospital waiting room. Unfortunately, the other guys had lives they had to get back to, but they promised to come back when they could.
Eventually, a nurse came out from the ward and said they could see Axel, but just for a few minutes.
Linc and Murphy walked into Axel’s room again, this time cautiously, as if they might cause something bad to happen. They looked over at their friend, now hooked up to IVs and even more machines, and the bandages on his wound were starting to seep.
“Can we…?” Linc said and gestured toward the bed. When the nurse nodded, he and Murphy walked over, standing to each side.
“I don’t understand it,” Linc whispered. “It was just supposed to be a fun trip. How could this happen?”
Murphy shrugged, holding back tears. “Shit happens, man.”
“Yeah.” Linc looked down at Axel and saw his face twitch. His eyes were racing back and forth like he was dreaming. “What’s going on in there, buddy?”
