One night out of the week a group of three friends take the time out of their busy college lives to meet up and go hiking together since they don’t see each other for most of the week. They came up with this tradition to make sure they never lose the bond they have with each other and to just take the time to unwind and take a nice walk. Tonight was supposed to be the same.

“What’s going on Mike?” One of the friends exclaimed excitedly.

“What’s good Davey!” Mike replied “Where’s Teo?”

“Yoooo” said a voice they heard from behind them. It was Teo!

“Yoooooo” Dave and Mike responded in sync

“You guys ready?” Teo said with a smile on his face

“Yeah!” Dave and Mike both responded once again in sync. Then they started their walk on the usual forest trail nearby the college campus.

“So how was school for you guys this week?” Dave asked the other two

“Man, this week has been so stressful with all these tests” Teo said while facing the ground, “I’ve had 4 tests and an essay due this week alone.”

“My week has been pretty calm actually, nothing too bad,” Mike responded, “Even got hang out with a few girls.”

“Sometimes I think we don’t go to the same school because HOW?” Teo said loudly but trying not to yell. “What about you Davey?”

“Same old same old” Dave replied smiling hard

They continued to walk down the trail until suddenly in the distance they’re was a series of flashing lights in the distance off the trail.

“But you know me” Dave said while trying to hold in his laugh, “I don’t mess with nobody ugly.”

This elicited a laughter among the whole group.

“Wait… Do y’all see that?” Mike said in confusion since he was the first to notice the light.

“Notice what?” Dave said. He then looked over and noticed it too, “What the hell?”

“Duddddeee. We gotta go see what it is!” Teo starts going towards it, “Come on!”

“Wait!” Dave tried to call out to Teo but Teo was not listening and kept moving forward. “That idiot.” He said right before going off trail following him.

“I guess” Mike shrugged then followed behind Dave

The three of them ran towards the flashing lights stepping on what felt and sounded like a thousand leaves and branches before it felt like it was just a few trees away. But it was strange. This area that they were in was illuminated as if someone had lit a bonfire. But it couldn’t be a campfire since the light that was coming from the area was more of a bluish green light. Teo was the first to make it to the source of the light and Dave was behind him and Dave noticed Teo didn’t say anything, instead he just stood there stunned.

“Teo what the hel…” Dave said when he and Mike caught up to him but then they saw what Teo saw and they too were stunned. It was a glowing blue green rock that looked like it could barely fit inside the palm of someone’s hand. This rock was the source of the light and it was flashing, cycling through a dim and bright light every 5 or so seconds.

“You guys see that too right?” Teo asked, eyes still fixed on the mysterious object, “I’m not trippin am I?”

“We see it too man” Mike responded

Everyone stood looking at it for what felt like an eternity until Teo started taking steps towards the object.

“What are you doing?!” Dave yelled silently

“We can’t just keep looking at it.” Teo responded trying to hide his excitement.

“Yes we can? We don’t know what it is or what it could do.”

“That’s why we gotta see obviously.” Teo says while continuing to walk towards it.

“Okay. we’ll stay over here” Mike says

“Why are you encouraging this?” Dave says baffled that they are even thinking this through.

“Chill out Davey. Whats the worst that could happen it’s just a rock.” Mike responds with a care free attitude.

“Just be careful Teo” Dave says after he sighs nervously

Teo nods his head in agreement then starts approaching the mysterious glowing rock slowly. His heart starts beating faster and faster with a mixture of excitement, anticipation, and nervousness. Increasing with every step, every leaf stepped on, and every time the light goes off and comes on. Then he finally arrives right above the rock. He looks at it deeply first. This is when he notices that the rock is so shiny and metallic he can almost see his reflection and he does when it dims. He goes to pick it up, hesitates, and then goes through with it, holding it in his hand. At first when he picks it up he notices that the texture is about what he expects it to be, metallic and solid and but then the light starts to shine and dim at a quicker pace than usual? lt keeps going faster and faster until it stops dimming and it only lights up but this time it doesn’t stop lighting up. It keeps getting brighter and brighter!

“Watch out!” Dave shouts out as he and Mike start running over to him

“Teo!!!” Mike screams out

But they couldn’t reach him in time. BOOM! The rock exploded.