"Well now what are we gonna do?" Jacob asked. He was a 13 year old boy, he had bright blue eyes. and blond hair. he had a backpack filled with snacks. His mom told him "If you go out hiking you need to bring extra snacks."

"Guess nobody told her that the trip was only half an hour long." he thought

With him was his best friend James, who had large black eyes with thick black hair. He didn't have any snacks packed.

"Well I guess we need to head back." James replied bleakly.

The hike had been boring. it was the shortest trail around the area, and barren of life. even most of the trees were dead. The trail had a bunch of rock in it, and the view was mostly brown, even during the spring. Jacob hated this trail.

“We ought to build a fort or something out here” James said.

“No, how would we build it?” Jacob replied.

“Dunno, just a thought” James said.

They continued to walk back. It seemed uneventful. They saw rabbit scurry across the path,but otherwise there was no sign of life. They were nearing Jacobs house when James stopped suddenly.

“What's that?” James said while pointing at a small trail to the side.

“I've never seen that before” Jacob said. “Lets check it out.”

“No, I'm not gonna get myself stuck in another pipe.” James said. Jacob knew what he was referring to. It was a time that when they were both eight Jacob dared James to go into a large pipe. It turned out though that the pipe was too small and he got himself stuck. In the end he got out because his uncle jerry poured gallons of cooking oil in there. James never knew which was worse, getting stuck in the pipe or cleaning of the oil afterwards.

“It's not like that, we are just gonna go down the trail a little ways, then head back home.”

“No.”

“Fine then I'll go alone”

“NO!”

Jacob started walking down the trail, and just as he expected James ran after him. The trail was twisting and bending this way and that. The trees were just as dead as the other ones.

“We should head back.” James said.

“But we just got here.” Jacob relied, he was lightly irritated, but calm nonetheless.

“But we don't want to get lost.” James said.

“No but we don't have to worry there is this trail.” Jacob said.

They were nearing the edge of a downward slope. It had a lot of large boulders on it, and smaller rock between. At the bottom were burnt trees and and ash. Jacob started heading down.

“Wait look at that do you really think we should be heading down to a bunch of ash?” James yelled.

“Well yeah, I want to know why it's all burned.”

“No, we are going walk back and talk to your mom. It's getting late!”

“I'm going.” Jacob said.

He headed down With James waiting above.

“You can still turn back.” James said.

“Don't want to.”

“Yes you do, don't be stupid.” James said.

Just then the boulder that Jacob was leaning on slipped from him, and tumbled down the hill. Suddenly the whole world was tumbling around Jacob as he fell down the hill. The last thing he saw was rock tumbling after him, and James running down the hill.

__.....__

He woke up To see James standing beside him. James had a terrified look on his face. It was dark out, and cloudy. Jacob Mumbled something that wasn't audible and sat up. He looked at his legs and saw the pant legs were torn up. He stodd up and stumbled back to his knees in pain.

“It's isn't broken” James said.

“I gathered that.” Jacob replied.

“We ain't going back.” James said.

“What?” Jacob said questioningly

“The path is gone. I looked for close to a mile but I never found it. We're lost.” James said.

“We have to find it.” Jacob said, slightly panicked.

“We have to find shelter fast. It looks like a storm is brewing.” James said. “There is a cave to east of here”

“Ok we'll try and find the trail when there is daylight out.”

They started walking, and stumbling around in the dark. James tripped a couple of times over a few rocks. They finally came to a small cleft in the Rock wall. They walked into it. Jacob took off his backpack and set it on a small ledge.

“We ought to get some sleep.” James said.

“No, I have to eat first.” Jacob said.

“We have nothing to eat.”

“Um my mom seems to always think that I'm gonna wonder off to another planet.” Jacob said as he pulled twelve bags of trail mix. He then pulled out some Pb&J sandwiches and some sport bottles filled with water.

“Here.” He said tossing a sandwich at James.

“Thanks.” James said as he pulled th sandwich out of the bag.

Jacob took a bite out of his sandwich and said “Have you noticed something odd?”

“Other than a mysterious trail that leads us to a burned forest and then the trail vanished, no.”

“Well, other than that. The air smells horrible, and it's very hot for fall.” Jacob said.

“Now that I think about it, you're absolutely right.”

“It smells like sulfur.” Jacob said.

“You're right, but why?”

“Volcano?” Jacob said.

James gave hi the “You're stupid” look then went to reply: “No, probably gun powder.”

“Gun Powder? The don't use that anymore.” Jacob said.

“Well maybe a stash was blown up and that's why all those trees were burned.” James said.

“That's crazy.” Jacob said.

Suddenly there was a slight rumble, like an explosion in the distance. The rumble grew louder, then calmed down. James looked terrified.

“You were saying about a volcano?” Jacob said.

“That was an explosion. Are we being bombed?” James said franticly.

“Calm down, you're gonna make me crazy.” Jacob said.

“We need sleep.” Said James.

They both laid awake for a couple of hours, neither talking, and both thinking the other was asleap, then the both drifted to sleep.