She's heading deeper into the woods.

Jen felt that waiting for everyone to leave was too risky of an option. She’d already lost a lot of time getting back to her clothes, and these teens could potentially be sitting here for hours. If she didn’t get moving now, she’d eventually lose patience and go around them then.

She slowly stood from her hiding spot and planned her movement. After planning out where to step to reach the next sizeable tree to her right she slipped out from behind the tree and began moving. She kept an eye towards the teens and could rarely see them through the trees. She was on a good direction.

After several moves from tree to tree she could no longer see the groups of teens at all. Their voices occasionally still carried through to her but they were clearly distant from her. If she happened to accidentally nudge a branch and make some leaves shake, she was confident it wouldn’t draw much attention.

She stepped several yards further east then turned north. Keeping the voices on her right side she moved cautiously but quickly. She repeatedly looked to her side to make sure she couldn’t see anyone but otherwise only glanced to the ground to make sure she didn’t step on anything except maybe the smallest of sticks.

Despite the detours, Jen felt like she was finally making decent time. She was trying to estimate how far north she had walked as best she could. The teens had been in groups spread out across approximately twenty or thirty yards and Jen wanted to get at least twenty yards north of them before she began moving back in that direction.

Another few minutes passed as Jen kept walking. Her feet were aching from walking on raw ground but she didn’t let this bother her. She could rest them when she was dressed and back in her car.

“Dude,” she heard a distant voice, louder than any other voices had been. “I swear there’s something back there in the woods.”

Immediately Jen scurried to a large tree and cowered behind it.

“It’s probably just a chipmunk or something,” another voice said. “What, you think some crazed killer’s sneaking up on us or something?”

“No, just… something bigger than a chipmunk.”

“A really fat chipmunk,” the second voice said, meeting a smattering of laughter.

“Naw, man. Do deer ever live out here?”

“I have no clue. Man, is this stuff making you paranoid? Does that happen to you when you smoke?”

“Not… normally.”

“Well chill. Fat chipmunk, deer, whatever.”

Jen was worried she had walked too close to the teens. She knew that she’d let herself get a bit reckless the last minute or two and didn’t pay as much attention to avoiding brushing against leaves. Leaving the temporary refuge of the tree she chose to move further away from the teens to better cover any noise she might make, and went back to her previous habits of moving more carefully.

After walking what she felt was a safe distance east she returned to skirting around the teens and get back on course. She allowed herself a decent pace but took better care to not bump into anything that might cause some noise. Eventually, when she felt she was a reasonable distance north of the teens she turned left and started moving carefully, not wanting to accidentally just walk into view of anyone. Despite the circumstances she believed that she’d managed to keep her total nudity hidden so far and had no intention of changing this.

After traveling for some distance Jen began to grow confused. She’d expected to see trees thinning out and the park ahead, or worst case scenario start to hear the chattering teens again. But all she had encountered was more forest.

Maybe I was further east than I realized, she thought. I’m bound to come to the edge of this forest soon though.

She kept walking, now with a slight hint of concern in her movement. Every few yards she paused to listen. She may have walked well beyond where the teens had been sitting and could be out of earshot, but strangely hearing them talking would now be a tiny bit of comfort.

As she crept forward she realized that she was hearing something but she couldn’t place it. A light humming, droning noise. She kept moving forward, mystified about what she could be approaching.

Another ten yards and the sound became recognizable. A few more yards beyond that and she started to see beyond the trees.

Cars. Cars, trucks, the occasional semi, moving at speed on a six lane road.

Oh shit, Jen thought. The highway! How did I get this far off course?

She knew the region well enough, and knew this was a thoroughfare that ran along the eastern and northern ends of the park and forest. The highway ran north and south for miles but it turned east-west at the northerly area of the park before turning again. If one was travelling north, they would curve west for a mile and then be routed northwest, before being turned back northwards.

Jen crept closer to the road, taking care to make sure she had a fairly wide tree to hide behind in case any drivers happened to look her way. She knew the chances were slim, and she would be far enough away that most motorists wouldn’t register having seen another human, much less a naked one, but her modesty still demanded she not risk it.

Gazing out across the roads, Jen tried to get her bearings by the buildings beyond. Several office buildings, ranging from 3 to 7 stories littered the land, with the occasional fast food joint or gas station sitting at an intersection. She felt that she was at the portion of the highway running north and south but she felt she couldn’t be certain. She’d driven the highway several times over the years. But she’d never had much reason to go to this part of the city so it was unfamiliar. She had only a vague inkling of where she should be. Not strong enough to trust it. Regardless of where she was, she had lost even more time getting to her clothes.

Let’s take a moment to think. If this is the north-south run of the road then if you turn around one-eighty and walk straight then you’ll be heading back to the park. But if you’re wrong and this runs east and west, you’d then be going south, about the worst possible direction right now. Otherwise I could try to follow the road. If that takes me north that wouldn’t be ideal, but I couldn’t get lost again. And if that method has me heading west, all the better.

Jen leaned against the tree, rough bark lightly scratching her chest, and wondered what she should do.