Chapter Text
Labyrinth
Warnings; getting lost in the bush
Mike’s trail had disappeared a while ago, the little scraps of paper he’d been leaving behind him seemingly petering off. Albert had no idea if the wind had run off with them or if Mike had run out of paper.
Any other tracks that Mike could have made seemed to have poofed off into nothing, no broken twigs or crushed leaves or anything else that could tell him that a posh British twit had clomped his way through the bush.
Albert rolls his eyes as he keeps walking. He will never understand what possessed him to follow Mike on his foolish quest to find the girls. His days off are worth basically their weight in gold and he cannot for the love of god figure out what possessed him to give one up (ignoring the way his heart raced when the two of them hung out together).
He brought his hand up to his mouth and yelled, “Coo-ee!”
The sound just echoes off the trees, followed by a flurry of disturbed birds shrieking off into the sky.
Stepping over a fallen branch, Albert keeps walking. When he looks back, the path behind him seems to vanish into the mesh of trees behind him, leaving no clue that he had even been there.
As he walks, the only sounds are the leaves and sticks crackling as they break under his boots and the calls of birds bouncing back and forth between the trees, occasionally interrupted by the sound of Albert yelling Mike’s name to no response . He takes a swig of water and keeps walking.
He passes what seems like the same tree for the third time. He stops and stares at it. It's definitely the same tree. Albert groans. This whole situation keeps getting worse. Not only is he wasting his day stomping around in the sun looking for Mike but now not one but both of them are completely and utterly lost.
He keeps walking, trying to head in the completely opposite direction to the tree.
He ends up back in front of the tree.
Albert has no clue what it is about this tree that has it sticking in his mind so clearly, but every time he passes it, the tree sticks out in his mind. It's not particularly big or tall or anything that could have it sticking like glue in his brain.
Albert turns around and walks around in the opposite direction. Trying to get as far away from this stupid tree as possible.
He doesn’t know if he’s get turned around or what, because he seems doomed to end up staring back at that blasted tree. He has normally got a pretty good sense of direction if he does say so himself, so getting himself tied up in knots like this is wildly out of character.
“Mike!” he yells, “where the hell are you!”
“Jeez Albert” a familiar voice sounds from behind him, “thanks for coming out looking for me”.
Albert spins around on the spot, to see Mike standing behind him with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“There you are”, Albert says. “Let's get the hell out of here”.