Chapter 2

That afternoon, the boys started to feel thirsty. The students may have found food, but clean, fresh water was still yet to be seen. The only source of water anyone could find was the muddy water Ryan and his gang were swimming in a day ago. Ryan decided it was time to search for water. The gang approached the muddy water and checked to see if it led to any fresh water. They used shovels that they found in the red shed to dig holes and see where the muddy water was coming from. Hours passed, and there was still no luck.

"Well, there's got to be water somewhere," said Gavin.

"Look, I know you want to be optimistic and all that, but can you shut up for once?" said Ryan. "We're not playing the fucking hope game right now. We are looking for water because if we don't, we will die of thirst. Get that through your damn skull, will ya?"

Gavin said nothing and just dug another hole. As evening came, the gang was very dehydrated, and they were all going to pass out anytime. Aaron thought about assuring the others that they would find water soon, but he knew Ryan would rudely talk him down at the moment he opened his mouth.

The next day, the gang didn't wake up until noon. And they would never have woken up if they didn't hear people screaming, "WATER!! WE FOUND WATER!!" They followed the voices and saw a lake that was obscured in the middle of the woods.

"How the hell did we not find this before?" George exclaimed.

"Are you stupid or something?" Ryan rebuked. "This is almost completely hidden by trees. No one would have found it unless we opened our eyes without blinking and searched for forty-eight hours straight without stopping. I have no idea how these people actually managed to find it."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," said George.

Ryan lunged towards George and shoved him into the lake. A few seconds later, George emerged from the water, gasping for breath.

"What did you do that for!?" George exclaimed.

"Next time, don't say 'whatever' in my face like that," said Ryan. "It frankly gets on my nerves. It's not rocket science, really."

George shrugged in annoyance and climbed out of the lake. The boys walked towards the lake and drank from it.

"Excuse me, can I drink from this too?" asked a young girl.

"Can you screw off, please?" Ryan asked. "We're trying to drink here. If you're thirsty, then tough. Go online and read about all the people who got lost in the desert. Well, that is, if you can even afford a computer."

"Wow, you're so polite," the girl said as she walked away.

The gang was so thirsty that they continued drinking for almost ten minutes. Finally, they left, and other people drank from the lake. Once they were alone, George said to Ryan, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't shove me into the water like that."

"Are you seriously gonna try this with me?" Ryan responded. "Maybe you shouldn't take that 'whatever'-ish tone up to me like some kind of spoiled brat. You want out? Okay, sure. No one will want you. I can just dissect you with our knives. That will be a great way to study anatomy and pass science class. If we ever make it out of this place."

"I don't see why you should try to drown me just for saying 'whatever', but okay," said George.

"Okay, guys," Gavin interjected, "I know I'm technically not part of this conversation, but I see this as a very unnecessary argument. Just saying."

"Gavin, shut your mouth," Ryan retorted. "You're not involved in this. Anyways, George, I'm done with you. You're either going to cooperate, or I will really drown you this time."

"Fine," said George. "Have it your way."

The gang went to sleep. During the afternoon the next day, the gang went to swim in the lake. A couple other students from lower grades were swimming there too. While they were swimming, one of the students called out, "Look what I found!" Ryan, George, Gavin and Aaron immediately swam towards the kid and looked in his palm. He was holding gold.

"Okay, that's mine," said Ryan.

"I found it, though," said the kid.

"Oh, I get it," Ryan said. "The typical 'finders keepers' bullshit. Okay. But what if the finder is dead?"

Before the kid could even comprehend what was just said to him, Ryan dunked the kid's head underwater and held it down. The other person tried to scream for help, but Ryan ordered Gavin and Aaron to drown the other person too. A few minutes passed. Ryan and his gang pulled the kids' heads out of the water. They were dead.

"Well, the gold is ours now!" Ryan victoriously exclaimed.

"We should see if there's any more gold underwater!" George suggested.

"Great idea!" said Aaron.

The boys swam to the bottom of the lake and searched and searched and searched. When they swam to the corner of the lake, they found an entire pile of gold, silver, jewels, and whatnot. The gang swam back to the shore, and Ryan went to the shed to get bags. He got back to the lake, handed each of the boys bags, and collected all the treasure.

"Alright," said Ryan, "if you guys see anyone with any treasure, tell me, and we'll go get them."

"Haha, alright," said Aaron as George and Gavin nodded.

When the boys went back to their pile of hay that evening, they talked about all the things they would do with the treasure.

"We should sell these for ten thousand dollars a piece," said Ryan.

"No," said Gavin. "How about twenty thousand dollars a piece?"

"Not a bad idea," said George. "We'll sell these and get millions of dollars, and I'm going to buy a car, a mansion, a girlfriend--"

"A girlfriend?" said Aaron. "You want to buy a girlfriend?"

"Have you ever heard of prostitutes?" said George.

"They're not exactly g--"

"Whatever, that's besides the point," said George. "What I was saying is, we will become millionaires."

The next day, as Ryan walked through the woods to get more food, he saw a group of guys strangling someone for food. He suddenly realized that he was not the only person killing other people. He grinned at the thought that he could now do whatever he wanted in the woods. Because if the authorities ever found him and the other students, no one else would be able to report his actions to the authorities, since they were murderers themselves. He could use that to discredit them with almost no effort at all. But the difference between him and the other students was that the other students were killing others for survival. Food was running low, and there were no signs of being rescued any time soon. The only option everyone else had left was to kill their peers, whether they wanted to or not. In other words, they were essentially last ditch efforts. But Ryan killed and raped because it felt fun. In fact, he did many things that will make your skin crawl because they felt fun.

When he was in second grade, he stuffed dirt into his classmate's lunch (which ended with that classmate being rushed to the ER) because it felt fun. He bullied his younger brother because it felt fun. He set the school cafeteria on fire when he was in middle school because it felt fun. He killed his teacher's pet hamster because it felt fun. He threw a dog under a train once because it felt fun. And he bought child pornography because it felt fun.

Back when he was in fifth grade, he went to a camp during spring. Most other people who went on the camp were normal and charismatic. But there was one boy who was disabled. He couldn't walk and had speech problems. Ryan immediately hated him and thought of ways to get rid of him. One night, Ryan broke into the cabin that the disabled boy was in. He picked up the pillow and smothered the boy. He happened to be wearing gloves while doing that, so he grabbed the boy's friend's hand and imprinted the friend's fingerprints on the pillow. The next day, the kid's friend was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. And once again, Ryan did all this because it felt fun. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He wasn't stupid or lacking in common sense. But he did all of that anyway, because again, they felt fun.

Now back to the main story, Ryan hauled several bags of food and brought it back to where his gang was. He told the gang he saw other people committing murders.

"Haha, now we can do whatever the fuck we want," said George.

"And get away with it," Gavin added.

"Yes, yes, that's exactly what I was thinking," said Ryan. "Do you guys have any plans for today?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of tired," said Aaron. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Well, I'm not tired," said Ryan. "I can dance and jump all day."

"You guys go ahead and do whatever you will without me then," said Aaron. "I really need to get some rest."

"It's gonna be fun. Come on, Aaron, you sure about this?" said George.

"I know what I'm talking about here. I'm just too tired, okay? I can do anything tomorrow. I can even steal the sun. But just. Not. Today."

"Fine."

"Hey," said Gavin. "Maybe we can go guard the treasure, so other people won't take it."

"Sure, I guess," said Ryan.

The boys headed for the lake. Once they got there, they looked down at the water in the corner of the lake, and sure enough, there was still treasure there. Throughout the day, the boys took turns guarding the treasure. One would guard while the others swam. During noon, the boys went to get some food. George and Gavin brought the food back to the pile of hay to eat with Aaron while Ryan ate at the lake. When George and Gavin returned to the lake, they talked about something that wasn't brought up before.

"Where did all that food come from, anyway?" wondered Gavin.

"No idea," said George. "Maybe they were left there by the last person who came here."

"George, really? What idiotic asshat would even leave that much food here?" said Ryan.

"Ryan, you can at least think about it first. How in the world would a bunch of food that can last for potentially a year just end up in the middle of nowhere? It has to have ended up there somehow."

"Except there's no reason for someone to randomly leave food in the woods."

"Uh, guys?" Gavin said. Ryan and George turned around. Gavin had slipped away during their conversation and was pointing at a person lying on the ground. Ryan and George ran to where Gavin was and looked down. It wasn't a person-- well, it was, but the person wasn't alive.

"Wait, he looks far too old to be a student," said George.

"Exactly, that's why I wanted you to come over here," said Gavin. "Check this out."

Gavin handed George a driver's license. The dead person was called Michael Adderson. Ryan remembered seeing that name in the news. The man was reported missing just a month ago in February.

"Look at that crack on his forehead," said George. "He must have fallen off that tree."

"Do you think he was an explorer who was checking out the woods?" asked Gavin.

"Who else could he be?" said George. "He could even be the person who brought the food here."

"What do you mean he could be?" said Ryan. "He is definitely the one. There's no way it was someone else."

"Makes sense, I suppose," said George. "I highly doubt anyone else has been here."

"We're here, though," said Gavin. "That opens up the possibility of more people having come here."

"Okay, one, we're likely among the only people who ever ended up here. Aside from that man, of course. And two, how did the food taste like? Were they rotten? Were they decaying?" said George.

"No…" said Gavin, starting to realize what George was on about.

"Now, this man went missing just last month, right? The food is still very fresh. Even though they were refrigerated, they would still taste nasty, to say the least, if they've been here for a long time. I mean, the ice packs could still expire, so…"

"Okay, okay, you win," said Gavin.

"Wanna go back to the lake to guard the treasure now?" said Ryan.

"Oh yes, we almost forgot about that. Sure. Let's go," said George.

Ryan, George and Gavin went back to the lake and continued guarding for the rest of the day. By nightfall, they were back in their pile of hay as usual. They handed some bags of food to Aaron and ate.

"Ryan," said Gavin the morning. "Ryan."

"What?" Ryan groaned as he woke up.

"Look what I found."

Ryan snatched a crumpled piece of paper from Gavin and uncrumpled it. It was a map detailing all the locations with treasures.

"Where the fuck did you find this?" asked Ryan.

"I was digging holes to see if there was any more treasure when I found this buried," answered Gavin.

"Twenty places? There are twenty places with buried treasure?" Ryan said as he observed the map. "How? How did we only find one?"

"By all means, let's go treasure hunting!" said Aaron.

The boys followed the map as George and Gavin carried shovels, Aaron carried a bag, and Ryan held the map. Whenever they reached a supposed location that contained treasures, they would dig, and sure enough, the treasure would be there. By the time they reached the seventh location, the bag was almost full. But when they were about to dig, they realized someone else already took treasure from there.

"Oh shit," said Ryan. "I don't think we're the only ones with a copy of this map. Follow me."

"You mean someone else knows where all that treasure is?" asked Aaron.

"That's obviously what I meant?" said Ryan. "Are you deaf? Come on. Hustle up."

The gang trekked through the woods, looking for the people who could possibly have another copy of the map.

"Where could those bitches be?" Ryan wondered aloud. "Wait! I think I see something!"

The gang looked in the direction Ryan was looking, and they saw three guys looking down while talking indistinctly. The gang dashed towards the three people and saw them exchanging gold.

"Come on, we're gonna take a little walk," Ryan said to the people with the gold. "Guys."

George, Gavin and Aaron simultaneously knocked them out.