I found this leather journal in my fire lookout in the back of the cupboard. It seems to be written by someone called Alex Matthews and it’s pretty disturbing, I’ll write the entries below
“March 2nd, 1997”
Today is my first day of being a ranger? Fire watcher? Well whatever it is i’m out here by myself with the forest. I should get some clearer instructions tomorrow from my partner, I think his name is Jonathan?
“March 4th, 1997”
Well I didn’t write yesterday, it’s been a lot of Integrating into my new routine. A lot of watching for smoke and keeping my radio open if a hiker gets lost in my ‘sector’ which is just the area around my tower. Other than that I check temps, wind speed, precipitation and all that stuff. I get supplies from a helicopter that comes once a month, I don’t really expect much to happen so I imagine this notebook will be unused.
“March 5th, 1997”
Today there was a campfire I got called to stop, got over there and had to stop a teenage party. I felt like an ass being about their age but I needed to get money somehow, directed them to get out of there and I stomped out their fire and they left me to grab their trash. On the way back I heard something in the woods, I imagine it’s just a deer or something but first time I explicitly heard something
“March 6, 1997”
I’m writing this early in the morning, last night there was something outside my ranger station. I heard what sounded like footsteps and muffled talking. Then outside my door was a deer skull, I found out it was the one outside the outhouse on the ground floor. I’m certain it was the teenagers I pissed off yesterday. I did report it and Jonathan said it was normal, he talked about how once a pissed off teenager smashed his window with a rock
“March 9th, 1997”
This job pays well but it is so boring! Today I helped an old man who got lost on the mountain track. I pointed the old geezer back to the car park even though the trails are NAMED. He even had a cane, I don’t know why he’s out here walking these trails. At Least I’ve had time to d I’ve just got a call from Jonathan, he normally doesn’t call this late so I knew something was off. Turns out someone’s father was walking the trail today and hadn’t come home. Tomorrow police are going to come over to do a search and I’m meant to help
“March 10th, 1997”
We found the guy, it was the same old man as yesterday. He must’ve fallen down the side of the trail and broke his leg. I’m happy we found him but still I didn’t need to be woken up so early for this. The police handled getting him home and to the hospital or whatever, I didn’t pay too much attention after we found him. Jonathan didn’t like how I just pointed him in the direction of the car park, and not walk with him so he suggested I walk the trails periodically to get them in my head
“March 12th, 1997”
I’ve been walking the trails, specifically the mountain trail and found these strange stacked stones which I called in to Jonathan but he said it was just probably kids messing around, I knocked them down and then just collected trash on the trails.
“March 15th, 1997”
Today there was fucking blood underneath my ranger station, I freaked the fuck out and called Jonathan and he simply brushed it off as an animal or something. I mean it kind of makes sense? There are still wild animals but I thought they would’ve learned to stay away from the ranger stations. Still have to clean it off so I’ve had to go collect water and bring it back and scrub it down, horrible smell as well
“March 17th, 1997”
I’ve walked through most of the trails by now, especially the ones in my sector. So now I get to go back and begin walking through them again. God I love my job soooooo much, at least i’m getting more in shape
“March 18th, 1997”
Holy jesus fuck, I walked the mountain trail and there was animals in the trees. I was walking and near where the stacked stones were and they had been put back, except there was blood on/near them. I went to get a closer look in case it was just someone with red paint, but a warm, single drip fell onto the back of my neck. I looked up and it was a massive deer, its head was pointed up and it looked… crucified? The stomach was sliced and disembowelled with the intestines draped in the trees like christmas decorations. I was frozen, staring at this thing at least 15 feet in the air, I slowly got my walkie to call this in. Midway through talking to Jonathan I heard a loud crack in the forest and I just ran. I kept running, hearing these loud footsteps right behind me. I was almost at my ranger station but I tripped and turned around but it was just… gone, I called Jonathan and he said to just get some sleep. That was the first night I slept with the curtains closed
“March 19th, 1997”
I didn’t sleep, and I didn’t leave my station nor open my curtains. Jonathan was oddly calm about it, he said something about paranoia or just trauma from seeing that. He said that he’ll call the police if that’ll make me feel better, they also had to get it out of the tree anyway
“March 20th, 1997”
I had to lead the police down to where the body was, we found footprints on our way there. They were a mix of my footprints with the shoes I was still wearing and these large impressions, three toed that the toes alone were at least the size of my foot. We decided to continue to the deer, the blood was still scattered around the area but the carcass was gone. Some of the intestines were still hanging but the main cadaver wasn’t there, it seemed whoever came back to get it waited until it was dry. I talked with the police, they decided maybe it was just… a fucked up hunter? It doesn’t seem right, and I talked about what I heard but they dismissed it as ‘teenage anxiety.’ Maybe it was, god I feel stupid and maybe I was just overreacting. They didn’t even acknowledge the footprints, maybe I’m just going crazy out here
“March 22nd, 1997”
We’ve got our first missing person’s report, a hiker named David Green. Jonathan informed me that it’s pretty common and they’ll turn up in a couple days, just gotta keep an eye out for them and keep walking the trails
“March 23rd, 1997”
Been walking the trails a lot lately searching for David Green, not much has happened and I’ve checked the spot where the deer was and nothing. Since it’s been warmer I’ve been walking a bit later into the night. I know it’s stupid with what has happened but I want to find David Green. Maybe I might get a raise or it’ll help me… somehow? I just want to find him
“March 24th, 1997”
I found him but not in the way I wanted to. Me and Jonathan have lately been working closely with the police, for me specifically officer Davis and his dog spike. We were walking down a trail known as the sledge track when his dog picked up a scent and we followed it down the side of the trail. The dog led to a large open clearance, in the middle of the clearance was a body. The body seemed badly damaged but I didn’t get a good look at it before officer Davis called for help. I guess I just need to wait for the autopsy
“March 26th, 1997”
I got the autopsy report early, specifically from officer Davis and immediately shared it with Jonathan as well. Me and Jonathan talked extensively about the report, but essentially it goes like this, David Green was 37 years old with brown hair yadda yadda. All the normal stuff relating to his weight, height but the actual part about what condition his body was in goes as this: Head is mostly intact with slight bruising on the back and left side. Right arm is intact with slight bruising. Left arm is absolutely shattered, from forearm to shoulder from a blunt force. The rib cage is also shattered from the left side, possibly the same force that eviscerated David Green’s left arm. The hips, pelvis and top part of the legs on the left side are also heavily damaged. The right leg is intact although dislodged. The top portion of the left leg is heavily damaged, possibly from the same force that eviscerated David Green’s left arm, but the bottom portion is more intact. That was the main portion of the autopsy report, there was a small excerpt at the bottom that all the blood from his body was removed or dried. The cause of death was listed as exsanguination, which I learned from Jonathan that means bleeding out. I’ve written enough today and just need to lie down after this
I’ll post more, but it takes a while to write these entries down. The journal isn’t in perfect condition. I had to post this again as I saw I had messed up some of the sentences and/or wording in this, also I have now written down a few more entries