Sunday Short: All Along
The last time the five of us went camping together, we thought we were finally going to make up for lost time.
We had talked about doing it for years.
Life always got in the way.
Work. Relationships. Family. Bills. One person would suggest a date, another would cancel, and eventually the conversation would disappear into the group chat.
Until Daniel finally said, “Enough. I'm picking the date. Everyone's coming.”
Nobody argued.
So, four days later, we found ourselves driving toward the foothills of Gunung Kinabalu.
Daniel sat in the passenger seat, staring through the window at the mountains.
“I can't believe we actually did it,” he said.
“You mean you actually forced us to do it,” Amir replied from behind the wheel.
Daniel laughed.
“Same thing.”
Sarah leaned forward between the seats.
“Just admit it. You missed us.”
“I absolutely did.”
The others laughed.
For the first time in years, it felt like nothing had changed.
We were still the same five idiots who used to stay up until sunrise talking about nothing.
Daniel was still Daniel.
Always the loudest.
Always the first to suggest something stupid.
Always the one who somehow made everyone laugh.
We parked near the trailhead and began the hike toward the campsite.
The forest was beautiful.
Thick trees stretched toward the sky, their branches disappearing into mist. The further we walked, the quieter everything became.
Eventually, even our voices seemed swallowed by the trees.
“This place is creepy,” Sarah said.
Daniel looked around.
“That's why I picked it.”
“Of course you did.”
We laughed and continued walking.
Then the fog came.
It rolled between the trees so quickly that we could barely see twenty metres ahead.
“Maybe we should stop for a bit,” Amir said.
Daniel checked the map.
“We're almost there.”
We continued.
None of us noticed the moment Daniel disappeared from sight.
One minute he was walking beside us.
The next, the fog had swallowed him.
“Daniel?” Sarah called.
“I'm here!”
His voice came from somewhere behind us.
A few seconds later, he emerged from the fog.
“Why did you guys stop?”
“You disappeared!”
Daniel shrugged.
“Thought you guys were the ones who disappeared.”
We laughed nervously.
Then we continued toward camp.
None of us thought much about it.
Not until that night.
We were sitting around the fire when we heard footsteps.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Something was walking around our tents.
We all stopped talking.
Daniel slowly turned toward the darkness.
“Did you hear that?”
Another step.
Closer.
Crunch.
Sarah grabbed Daniel's arm.
“Tell me that's one of you.”
Nobody answered.
The footsteps stopped.
Then something whispered from inside the trees.
“Daniel.”
His face changed.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “That's not funny.”
Nobody laughed.
The fire suddenly flickered.
Then went out.
We screamed.
For several seconds, there was nothing but darkness.
Daniel quickly turned on his flashlight.
The forest was empty.
“Maybe someone else is camping nearby,” Amir said.
“Then why did it call my name?” Daniel asked.
Nobody had an answer.
We stayed inside the tents for the rest of the night.
In the morning, we decided to leave.
We packed everything and followed the trail back.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at our campsite.
Nobody spoke.
Amir looked at the map.
“No.”
He turned around and tried again.
Different direction.
Same result.
Our campsite appeared in front of us.
“What the hell?” Sarah whispered.
Daniel took the map from him.
“Maybe we took a wrong turn.”
“We've been walking in a straight line.”
Daniel looked toward the trees.
“Then let's try again.”
We did.
And somehow, we ended up back at the campsite.
Again.
By afternoon, we had stopped laughing.
The forest had become different.
The trail we had used the previous day seemed to disappear.
Trees we remembered passing were gone.
Our footprints vanished.
Even the markings we had left on branches were nowhere to be found.
Then we heard the voices.
Sometimes they sounded like people.
Sometimes they sounded like us.
Once, Sarah heard her mother's voice calling her name.
Amir heard his girlfriend.
I heard my own voice whispering from somewhere behind me.
Daniel heard nothing.
Or at least he said he didn't.
“Don't listen to it,” he told us.
“How do you know?”
“Because whatever it is, it wants us to follow it.”
That night, we didn't sleep.
Something moved around the campsite until sunrise.
Branches snapped.
Something breathed outside our tents.
At one point, we heard someone walking directly toward us.
Then stopping.
Right outside.
Daniel whispered from his sleeping bag.
“Everyone okay?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah.”
“I'm here.”
“Me too.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Then Daniel said,
“Stay together.”
We did.
For the next two days, we tried everything.
We followed the compass.
We followed the river.
We climbed higher.
We went downhill.
Nothing worked.
Every path returned us to the same place.
The same campsite.
The same trees.
The same fire pit.
By the fourth day, we were exhausted.
Our food was almost gone.
Our phones were nearly dead.
Nobody talked much anymore.
Even Daniel had stopped joking.
That afternoon, we heard something.
A car horn.
Everyone froze.
“Did you hear that?”
Another horn.
Far away.
Amir jumped to his feet.
“That's the road.”
We grabbed our bags and ran.
For the first time in four days, the forest seemed to let us move freely.
The trees thinned.
The fog disappeared.
Sunlight broke through the branches.
Then we saw it.
The trailhead.
The road.
And beyond it—
our car.
Sarah started crying.
Amir laughed.
I dropped my bag and fell to my knees.
“We're out.”
We were finally out.
After four days of being trapped inside that nightmare, we had made it.
We hugged each other.
We laughed.
We cried.
Then Sarah suddenly looked around.
“Where's Daniel?”
We turned.
He was standing several metres behind us.
At the edge of the forest.
He wasn't smiling.
“Daniel!” Amir shouted. “Come on!”
Daniel didn't move.
“What's wrong?”
He looked at us.
Then at the road.
Then back at the forest.
His expression was strangely peaceful.
“Are you guys gonna leave without me?”
Amir frowned.
“What?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Nothing.”
“No. What do you mean?”
Daniel looked down at his hands.
“I think…”
He swallowed.
“Maybe I died.”
Nobody moved.
The wind stopped.
Daniel looked toward the forest.
“I remember walking behind you guys on the first day. The fog got really thick.”
He paused.
“I remember hearing someone call me.”
His voice became quieter.
“I stepped toward it.”
Then he looked back at us.
“And I fell.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
“I don't remember what happened after that.”
Daniel gave a small laugh.
“But when I opened my eyes, you guys were already walking toward the campsite.”
He looked at each of us.
“So I followed.”
Nobody could speak.
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“I thought I was okay.”
He smiled.
“I thought I was just lucky.”
Sarah stepped toward him.
“Daniel…”
“I didn't realize.”
He looked at the forest behind him.
“Maybe some part of me knew.”
His voice cracked.
“But I didn't want to know.”
He looked at us again.
“We haven't really been together for a long time.”
Nobody said anything.
“I kept thinking about that.”
Daniel wiped his eyes.
“Once we got out, everyone would go home.”
He laughed softly.
“You'd go back to work. Sarah would go back to her family. Amir would complain about traffic again.”
Amir began crying.
“And I'd…”
Daniel stopped.
“I'd be alone.”
He looked frightened for the first time.
“I was scared.”
Sarah walked toward him.
“We're not leaving you.”
Daniel looked at her.
“We'll come back.”
“We'll get help,” Amir said.
“You're our friend,” I added.
Daniel stared at us.
“Really?”
“Really.”
For a moment, he looked exactly like the Daniel we remembered.
The same stupid smile.
The same eyes.
The same friend who had somehow managed to bring us all back together.
“Okay,” he whispered.
He took one step backward.
“Then go.”
“Daniel—”
“Go.”
He smiled.
“I'll wait.”
We didn't want to leave him.
But we knew we had to.
We ran to the car.
We called for help.
We told the rescue team everything.
And when they asked us where Daniel was, we pointed toward the forest.
“He fell somewhere near the campsite.”
The search lasted several hours.
Then one of the rescuers came toward us.
His face told us everything before he spoke.
They had found Daniel.
At the bottom of a cliff.
Less than a kilometre from where we had first entered the forest.
He had been dead for four days.
Exactly four days.
The same four days we had spent trapped in the forest.
We couldn't understand how we had walked past that place.
How we had talked to him.
How he had laughed with us.
How he had eaten with us.
How he had slept beside us.
How he had spent four days pretending everything was normal.
Or maybe he hadn't been pretending.
Maybe, for those four days, Daniel simply believed he was still alive.
That night, after the rescue team took his body away, the four of us stood near the entrance to the forest.
None of us wanted to leave.
Then Sarah suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Look.”
At the edge of the trees stood Daniel.
He looked exactly as he had four days earlier.
No injuries.
No blood.
Just Daniel.
He smiled.
And then, slowly, he walked toward us.
This time, he didn't ask us to stay.
He simply walked out of the forest.
And disappeared.
We never went camping again.
But we never forgot our promise either.
Every few weeks, we visit Daniel.
Sometimes we bring flowers.
Sometimes we sit beside his grave and talk about the stupid things we used to do.
And before we leave, we pray for him.
Because Daniel was afraid of being alone.
And we promised him he never would be.
We kept that promise.
We always will.
The last time we went camping together, we thought we were finally making up for lost time.
We didn't know that Daniel was trying to do the same thing.
And perhaps those four days were the last gift he ever gave himself—
four more days with his friends.
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