The Narrator
Alice and Kirt followed the footsteps that they discovered after finding a watch on the mud-flooded forest floor. It was chilly in the forest. There were a few hours left before sunrise. The clouds that veiled the full moon were thick, promising a fresh outburst of stormy rain within the next few hours before sunrise that morning. The gentle, cold breezes that started blowing through the forest, as Kirt and Alice walked in search of Timothy, foreshadowed the arrival of severe, branch-breaking, tree-uprooting winds.
It wasn't easy for the two of them to walk through that forest floor. They had to wade through the ankle-deep slush or they had to lift their foot and put it down many times as they tried to make their way towards where the footprints led.
Timothy never was the type of person who prefers to go on adventures, unlike Kirt and Alice. Timothy would never intentionally venture very far from the camp. Even though the duo (Kirt and Alice) didn't know where the camp was, they knew that they had the intuition that they had ventured very far away from the camp. Both Kirt and Alice knew that even if Timothy would have gone in search for Kirt, he wouldn't have gone very far away from the camp. Timothy was the type of person who usually would prefer to sit in his tent and listen to Travis Scott on Spotify, instead of going out, whenever they would go camping in the wilderness in Wyoming.
For a long time, Kirt and Alice had been following the footsteps. The thick mud was impeding their advance. Occasionally Alice and Kirt yelled, "Timothy!" as they walked through the muddy forest floor, with the lamp in Kirt's hand and Timothy's watch worn by Alice.
The lamp ran out of battery.
"Arghhh," grumbled Kirt as he hit the lamp thrice, to no avail.
"Don't break it!" said Alice, looking at Kirt vehemently trying to resuscitate the light that just stopped shining.
"Guess we've gotta manage without this," Kirt mumbled.
With the light gone, it took a while for the duo's eyes to get adjusted to the moonlight.
Once their eyes were adjusted to the dim lighting of the cloud-veiled moon, they continue to walk in pursuit of Timothy, whose whereabouts they knew not.
That was when a bloodcurdling reverberated throughout the jungle. The voice sounded like that of a boy.
"Timothy," muttered Alice, recognizing the voice.
Grabbing the lamp, Kirt followed Alice as she ran towards the source of the sound.
Kirt ignored the branches that scraped against his cheek, as he ran through the forest.
Even though Kirt slipped many times because of running on the thick mud, he got up and continued running to be in time to save Timothy McAllister. His heart was racing.
"Shhh!" said Alice as they came near the source of the sound, behind a bush
"What?" whispered Kirt.
"We've gotta hide," Alice whispered in response, implying that the duo must hind behind the bushes.
The duo hid under the cover of bushes.
After finding a comfortable spot among the bushes, Kirt peeped through the leaves.
Timothy was there. On the ground, he lay, bound hand and foot. The movement of his cheeks revealed that he tried to shout but the cloth tied around his mouth prevented his sound from being heard.
Kirt then looked a little bit to the left of where Timothy was bound.
There was a shabbily dressed man with a hat on his head and a rope slung over his shoulder.
He was eating an orange, sitting on a rock.
In his hand was a shotgun.
The man seemed to be looking far away from Timothy.
Suddenly, Alice pulled Kirt back. Before Kirt could say anything, she covered his mouth with her hand.
Kirt then peeped through the leaves and saw that the man had gotten up, and gone towards Timothy.
"[Explicit] Gringo" he cursed as he stood in front of a terrified Timothy. He then said, "If you want to live, you better be quiet. I'll release you after your ransom is paid. They give good money, your [explicit] American people. You'll make me good money, [Explicit] American! [Explicit] your President Trump!"
When that man said "[explicit] American people", Kirt's blood boiled. There were some Americans in Wolfgang who hated America and President Trump, but Kirt wasn't one of them. He loved America. He would have dashed in anger and punched the man on his lips if Timothy's life wasn't in danger. Kirt was certainly someone in front of whom you must never insult America. You can hate America but never insult it. He loved America. He was someone who would always stand up and salute when sees Old Glory flying. That was the nation that he loved, and he couldn't take an insult to his nation.
After slandering the American people and threatening Timothy, the thug went to attend nature's call.
He slung his shotgun on his shoulder and went somewhere to relieve himself.
He had just started urinating as he whistled when…Thud!
Alice had vehemently swung the lamp before smacking the thug's head (intending to knock him out of his senses), while Kirt ran to untie poor Timothy. The smack was so forceful that the lamp resuscitated after striking the thug's head. The thug fell onto the ground and fainted.
"I need help, Alice!" said Kirt.
After confirming that the thug had passed out, Alice ran to use the skills that she learned in the Girls' Scouts to untie the ropes that bound Timothy.
With much effort, they freed poor Timothy who thanked them.
That was when Timothy suddenly screamed once again pointing in a direction behind Alice and Kirt, "Alice look out!"
They looked back.
The man that Alice had just knocked out of senses had come back to consciousness.
He had his gun in hand, pointing its muzzle at Alice.
To impede his advances, Kirt desperately grabbed the lamp and threw it towards the man.
With a swing of his arm, even though the impact hurt him, the thug hit the lamp away like hitting a tennis ball away with a bat.
The lamp fell on the muddy forest floor and broke.
Alice, Kirt, and Timothy hugged each other.
Alice took a stone and threw it towards the man's head.
He dodged it and the stone fell somewhere behind him, making noise as it splashed into the mud and slush covering the forest floor. His head was bleeding because Alice had struck him very hard.
The three heard a click.
He placed his hand on the trigger.
The three hugged each other tightly. They thought they were going to die. There were no more rocks or debris in an arm's length that they could use to defend their undefended selves.
Kirt held his breath.
Alice shut her eyes, hoping to die painlessly.
Kirt heard another click.
Timothy began crushing his friends while hugging them.
Alice was sweating
Kirt was breathing heavily, after letting go of the breath that he held.
They saw the man place his hand on the trigger.
The last thing that Kirt saw before he closed his eyes was the shotgun's trigger being pulled.
Bang!
The birds in the nearby trees took flight.
It began pouring heavily after four peals of loud thunder.