Chapter 64

At first, we walked through the area where we had played our little hunting game earlier. When we went past the ferns where I had been hiding, I mentioned this to John and Nele. I also told them how Brad’s group had found me there and how another group had missed me.

Brad said, “I think we would also have missed you if those other guys hadn’t left so many tracks everywhere. It made me wonder if any of those tracks could have been made by you. But I must confess, it was also a little luck that we found you. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

From here, we walked farther in the direction of the street until we reached the trail that went to the left and right. One led to the entrance to this area where I had come from, and the other led to the other side. We took the one to the right.

The closer we came to the edge of the fence, the smaller the path became. The bushes started overgrowing the trail, so we needed to walk single-file. Brad was at the front, followed by Felix. I followed them, with Nele behind me and Patrick and John at the end.

We all went through the gate and followed an even smaller path on the other side. Here, the leaves of the shrubs along the trail often brushed over my skin. It was apparent that almost nobody walked on this path in this part of the forest.

We walked a rather long while on this path until Brad suddenly stopped, turned, and said, “From here, we walk into the forest.” He then took a piece of red plastic hanging down a branch of a shrub and said, “We have marked the path towards the building with these markers. Look out for them, and you won’t get lost.”

“Aren’t we staying together?” Patrick asked, sounding surprised.

“Of course,” Brad responded. “I only tell this in case one of you guys should need to go for help if something should happen.”

“Hmm, I see,” Patrick responded. He looked a little upset by what Brad had just said.

“Come, follow me,” Brad encouraged us.

We walked straight into the forest from here, and I was happy I had my sneakers on. This part of the forest looked much rougher than the forest behind my house. Obviously, this part of the forest had been left to nature, and the plants could grow here however they wanted.

I’m glad we could follow those ribbons to wherever Brad was taking us because I could easily see how you could get lost here. Sometimes, a group of bushes just blocked our passage, and we needed to walk around it, or a group of trees and other things made us turn left or right. After a while, it was hard to say in which direction we were going because of the turns we had made.

I also lost track of time because I seldom wear a watch. I had no clue how long we had been walking, but eventually, I saw that we were walking towards a massive wall in the distance. From afar, the only thing I could see behind that wall were more trees.

When we reached the wall, we all noticed it was built with boulders stacked on each other.

“From here, we just need to follow the wall to the left,” Brad said. “Up ahead, the wall turns to the right, and we must follow it to get to the gate.”

“Patrick, do you know anything about this place?” John asked.

“No, nothing at all,” Patrick said. “My aunt or my dad has never said anything about this.”

“Since my brother told me about this place,” Felix explained, “I tried to find some information but never found anything specific. Only one book mentioned that an eccentric European lord had built something inside the forest, but nothing else was mentioned. I only know it must be about 250 to 300 years old. But the text never mentioned when it had been abandoned. I only know from my brother that the building was still very sturdy when he found it. However, he also didn’t explore it too much with his friends. It took them most of the day to find a way in. At least, this part is going to be easier for us.”

Brad had mentioned that following the wall toward the gate was relatively easy, and he had been right. We quickly stood before a tall and closed metal gate.

“Hey,” Patrick said, who had gone to inspect the gate. “This gate is locked with a chain and padlock. They also don’t look old.”

Brad went standing next to Patrick and took the lock in his hands. “That’s strange,” he said. “This wasn’t here the other day. In fact, I’m sure the gate stood a little ajar the other day. Somebody must have been here to lock it.”

We all looked around, and John asked, “Do you think somebody could be around?”

We all kept looking away from the gate toward the forest around us. I’m sure none of us expected someone to walk out of it toward us, but still... Why would somebody lock the gate of an abandoned building? I wondered.

“What are we going to do now?” Brad asked Felix.

Felix pulled on the lock, making the chain rattle against the gate. “This is too sturdy to break open with the things we have with us.”

“You’re still thinking of going to the building?” John asked.

Felix looked through the metal gate into the forest behind the gate and said, “I still want to try to get to the building.”

Brad then looked up at the top of the gate and the walls on either side and said, “I think we can climb the wall if we want to. I’m sure we could throw a rope over that branch sticking out over the wall. It’s only three meters high, so it should be possible.”

“Don’t you think whoever added this lock wants us to keep out of here?” Patrick asked Brad. “And ... what if they are still around?”

Before Brad could answer, Felix said, “Look, I’m still going to try to get to that building. You guys don’t have to come with me and can wait for me here.”

“I’m not going to let you go alone,” Brad said.

“I’m also coming with you,” Patrick added.

The three boys, who had said they were still going, looked at me, John, and Nele.

“What do you want to do?” John asked me.

“Umm...” I let out thinking. I then looked at Nele, smiled, and asked, “Are you up for it?”

Nele just smiled and said, “Of course! This is too much fun to miss out on!”

I then looked at John and smiled at him.

“That’s decided, then. We are all going,” John answered the three boys looking at us.

“Okay, then, we better start getting over this wall,” Patrick said. I only wished we had brought a camera with us. This could have been fun to add to the website.”

Felix smiled and said, “Well, I have this with me.” He undid his backpack, opened it, and then pulled out not one but two GoPro Hero 16 cameras with handhelds.

“Oh, WOW! Cool!” Patrick said, accepting one of them when Felix offered it to him.

“They are fully charged. So they should be good for at least 8 hours of footage,” Felix told Patrick.

Patrick looked at me, smiled, and said, “So! Ready for an adventure video?”

I smiled at him and said, “Sure, why not!”

So, it was a done deal. Of course, to make it an exciting video, we first needed to get over this wall.

While Felix explained to Patrick how to use the powerful mini camera, the others started to see if we could climb over the wall.

Brad took his long rope out of his backpack. He then looked around him until he found a stick, thick and sturdy enough for its purpose, and attached the rope to it. By the time he was ready, Patrick was also prepared to start recording.

Brad needed a few attempts, but eventually, he threw the stick over the overhanging branch at the wall. Because of the weight of the stick, he could just feed more rope to lower the stick to the ground again. Brad then checked if the branch could hold his weight by hanging on the rope. Content with the result, he removed the stick, made a loop at the rope’s end, and put the other end through it. He pulled on the rope until it was firmly attached to the tree; he gave it another few pulls and said, “I think this branch will hold us. So? Who goes first?”

“Let me go first?” Felix said. “So I can film everything from the top of the wall while Patrick films everything down here.”

“Smart,” Patrick responded.

Felix started climbing the rope after putting his GoPro away and his backpack back on his back. The branch was sturdy enough to almost not move when he climbed it.

Once at the top of the wall, he sat on it and scooted a little to the side. He twisted his body and got his GoPro out of his backpack. “Okay, ready!” he shouted to us.

The next person to climb the rope was Nele. I was impressed by how easily she pulled herself onto the wall.

John then followed Nele, and he was even more impressive at climbing that rope. He only used his arms and pulled himself up like it was nothing.

And then it was my turn. While Nele and John had done it mainly by using their arms, I knew I couldn’t do it like that. Instead, I trapped the rope between my feet so I could use my legs to help my arms while climbing the rope.

Ultimately, I hope I also impressed these younger guys by reaching the top of the wall relatively quickly. It had been a while since I had done any rope climbing, but I’m glad to say that I still could perform the technique I had been taught in high school.

Then Brad climbed up on top of the wall, and Patrick came up in the end.