As we began the journey, the first hour passed quickly. Since we were still close to the base of the mountain, the real adventure had not begun yet.
At first William talked a lot, pointing at random things and explaining small details about the terrain, but after a while he suddenly went quiet—and I knew exactly why.
We let Erik walk ahead of us, happily talking about the trek and explaining things no one had asked about. He kept blabbering anyway, completely unaware that none of us were actually listening.
"You're still thinking about the chip, aren't you?" I whispered into William's ear.
"No… it's nothing. I'm good," William replied, though the tone of his voice clearly suggested otherwise.
"Maybe the professor was lying," I said quietly, even though deep down I knew he wasn't. I just needed to pull William out of whatever thoughts were weighing on him.
"I don't know, man… I just need some time," William said while staring ahead at the trail.
I looked toward Anthony.
I didn't say a word, and neither did he.
But we both knew exactly what to do.
"Hey—what are you doing? Hey, stop!" William shouted as we suddenly grabbed him.
I held his legs while Anthony lifted his arms, and before he could react properly he was already in the air.
"Time for a fucking ride! Woooh !" Anthony yelled with excitement.
"Guys, it's dangerous—drop me now! What the fu—"
But we weren't exactly the type to listen.
Laughing like idiots, we ran uphill while carrying William between us as he continued shouting and threatening to throw us off the mountain.
Even Erik joined in, grabbing William from one side to help us lift him higher.
We ran for nearly a hundred meters—which is a lot when you're running uphill on a mountain.
Finally we stopped.
Sigh.
All of us bent forward slightly, breathing heavily while sweat covered our faces and arms.
The moment William touched the ground again, he pulled out his water bottle and immediately started chasing Anthony.
"Get back here!" he shouted.
"Wait for us!" I yelled while Erik and I ran after them.
"You guys can't be serious," William shouted while running. "You even got Erik involved in this?"
"Hehehe," Anthony laughed while looking back at him.
Soon all four of us were laughing again.
After around ten minutes, however, the real adventure finally began.
The terrain slowly changed. The open path narrowed into dense forests and thinner trails, though they were still wide enough to keep us from falling down the slopes.
We moved carefully now, stepping over roots and rocks, dodging thorny bushes, and helping each other cross the occasional gaps between uneven stones. At one point we even encountered a small stream flowing gently across the trail.
It was beautiful.
In a world like ours, scenes like these had become rare. Most countries had replaced natural landscapes with artificial forests and controlled environments.
Only a few regions—perhaps thirty or forty countries in the world, including Norway—still preserved natural places like this.
Eventually the trail split.
Three different paths appeared in front of us.
Erik looked confused at first, scratching his head as he tried to remember the correct route.
William, on the other hand, didn't hesitate for a second. He pulled out his phone and quickly opened the browser to search for directions.
The internet suggested taking the left route.
But Erik insisted otherwise.
He recommended the right path, saying he believed that was the correct one.
Naturally, we ignored him.
I mean… who would trust a man instead of the internet?
But there was one small mistake William had made.
A piece of information had slipped past his eyes.... And it was something we would only realize much later.
We continued walking along the route, choosing the left path even though Erik had looked uncertain about it. Anthony and William trusted the browser directions more than Erik's memory, and after a short argument we followed what the internet suggested.
The forest thickened quickly as we moved deeper into the trail.
At first everything still felt normal. We even encountered a massive waterfall halfway through the route, its roaring water cutting across the mountainside, and Anthony immediately insisted we stop to take pictures.
Naturally he pulled out the HoloFrame camera, the kind that instantly connected to our homes in the United States and displayed the photos directly inside the glass frames installed there.
Buzz. Buzz.
"Not again," William muttered.
Anthony and I burst out laughing as William pulled his phone out once more. During the trek this was already the fifth call from his mother, and by now the joke had become routine.
Finally William sighed, pressed the power button, and switched the phone off.
"There," he said while sliding it back into his pocket, "peace."
We resumed the climb.
The first three hours passed quickly, but the terrain slowly began changing—the trail narrowed, the trees grew thicker, and the ground beneath our feet became uneven with loose rocks and roots twisting across the path.
Seven hours later we were still climbing.
Erik suddenly stopped walking.
"Something's wrong," he said quietly.
Even the longest route shouldn't take this long, he explained. From this elevation the cliffs should already be visible, yet the forest around us looked endless.
For a moment we assumed he was mistaken, so we continued walking.
Another hour passed.
Still nothing.
The trail we had been following slowly faded beneath fallen leaves and loose soil until it was barely visible anymore.
That was when William pulled out his phone again and tried opening the map.
"No signal," he muttered.
Anthony frowned and looked at him.
"Try the map."
"It's not loading."
Erik slowly turned in a circle, scanning the forest in every direction.
"I don't recognize this part of the route," he admitted.
Silence settled over the group. The air had grown colder, and beneath the heavy canopy of trees the sky had begun darkening much earlier than expected.
Then the ground suddenly shifted.
Anthony stepped forward and his foot slipped on loose gravel hidden beneath a thick layer of leaves.
"Whoa—!"
Before any of us could react, he slid sideways down the slope.
"Anthony!" I shouted.
He tumbled several meters down the rocky incline before crashing into a small tree that finally stopped his fall.
William and I rushed down toward him while Erik followed carefully behind us.
Anthony groaned, pushed himself upright, and waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm good… I'm good," he said quickly, though his arm was scraped badly and his shirt had torn open along the shoulder.
But when we looked back up the slope—
the path was gone.
The steep slide had forced us into a different section of the forest, and the trail we had been following had completely disappeared behind us.
Erik climbed halfway back up the slope and began brushing leaves aside desperately.
"There should be a marker here," he said while searching the ground. "Every tourist trail has markers."
There were none.
Only dense forest.
William studied the terrain quietly for several seconds before slowly shaking his head.
"Guys…" he said.
"We're not just off the trail."
He paused while staring deeper into the trees.
"We're completely lost."
The wind moved gently through the branches above us, and somewhere deep inside the forest—far away from any visible trail—
something echoed through the valley.