It’s looking for me and I don’t know how much time remains before it will take its claim on me. Just like it did everyone else that came here as part of our group. Even now I hear the shrieks and screams of its victims from my rescue team as it approaches. I don’t know how many of us remain, but I doubt any of us will escape.
Have you ever realized how terrifying a forest actually is? No matter how familiar you are with the wilderness or how well you know that particular forest, it can always turn against you. Especially if you disrespect it and treat it unkindly like we did. I can already picture you, sitting safely while you read this from your phone or laptop and rolling your eyes at me. Let me paint you a picture, bear with me.
The paths twist and turn, and it doesn’t matter how straight of a line you walk if the forest has decided to keep you there. You’ll wander within the trees, forever lost just like I am, you’ll never escape. The entire time, you’ll hear the screams that might be a fox but you can’t entirely be sure because something about it sounds just uncannily off.
A family from the city had wanted to go camping off the grid, probably inspired by some influencer on social media, and had chosen one of the rare public lands still available. They missed their scheduled check in date with their friend back home, then the next day passed without a check in before their friend finally called in a missing person report. The fool waited too long, the stupid myth about waiting twenty four hours has hurt so many. If they’d only called sooner, when the family missed their first check in, we may have had some chance at finding the family.
I’ve long given up the search at this point. I just want to get out of the forest and return home to my own family waiting for me. I no longer see the copter that had flown over the previous days to keep watch on the search party. It’s not because the canopy is too thick either, I think they just gave up looking for us. Perhaps they can’t keep looking for us and our doomed fate is sealed.
I need to move faster. The last scream wasn’t as far away as other screams before had been. Whatever hunts us cannot be too far from me. I have thought about finding a place where I can hide, but I fear that will only trap me so that my end arrives sooner. As long as I keep moving forward, maybe I will yet find an exit to this accursed forest.
There were hundreds of us that came into this forest to find the family. I don’t know if we’ll be reported in the news, the family wasn’t but they were a much smaller group. The only reason I even knew about the family, two teenage girls and their parents, is because of my volunteer position as a search and rescuer. None of the locals had heard anything more than the forest was temporarily closed to the public. The ranger even tried to stop me until I showed him my pass, and he still didn’t really want to let me in.
I have no clue what hunts us, I haven’t seen it yet. As far as I know it could just be a rabbit with sharp pointy teeth. Hell of a terrifying rabbit if you ask me. I had seen the remains from a few of its attacks and it turned my stomach in disgust and fear. One in particular stands out in my memory, her face was frozen in a perpetual scream, while her eyes shifted wildly from side to side.
I was intrigued, much like stumbling upon a horrible accident. It was upsetting to see yet I found that I couldn’t look away. The attack was so recent that I doubted anything had arrived to alter the details. I was frozen, my heart pounded in my chest and my breath was short rapid gasps as I witnessed just what will become of me in time. A horsefly landed on my exposed skin and chomped down, which pulled me to my senses. If the attack was this recent, then the creature mustn’t be far. I increased my speed and haven’t slowed much since.
Everything was fine at first, nothing out of the ordinary happened until after our first night. Quite a few of us had set up our tents close together to avoid being alone out here. We had another three days to finish our comb of the forest unless we found them sooner. The forest is huge, and I could see other campfires in the far distance marking other groups that had come together. I wonder if they escaped our fate, or if they are hunted as well.
Our camp spot was probably the largest, about sixty of us all together. Though a few were sharing their tents so we didn’t have as many tents put together. I was one of the few that was alone in their tent. Either because the tent was too small to share, or because the tent owner didn’t bring their spouse with them, or both. My wife had stayed home while I searched in order to tend to our children. I missed her that first night, but now I am glad she’s back home. Whatever happens, I can rest knowing that she doesn’t share my fate as that would destroy me. I wish I could call her, but the reception out here isn’t strong enough to make any calls.
We packed up the next morning, and I left before all of the trash had been picked up though none of the remaining trash was mine. However, I was in the group and I assume the forest considered me a member of the guilty party. If I had stayed and ensured everything was picked up, maybe none of us would be running terrified through a forest from some unknown horror. Maybe it wasn’t just the trash, but also how rowdy and loud we’d been the night before as we belted out songs and blasted our music which upset some local fauna trying to nest in the trees.
I didn’t realize anything was off until that afternoon when I began to hear screams of pain and fear. I don’t know how many dead I have stumbled upon since that first attack, nor how many still remain. We all ran to the first screams of agony that echoed through the trees. Nobody saw the creature, but we all saw the scattered body parts that had been torn apart and flung. Nothing looked as though it had been eaten, and the only thing missing were their supplies. We searched nearby but shortly after heard another scream, as I turned to help an arm smacked into my face hard enough to bring blood to my lip. The hand was still twitching as blood pooled from the end. I turned towards where I remembered the entrance to be and ran.
It’s been two days now, I run full out for a bit then slow down to a steady jog. Occasionally I stopped to make sure the line I traveled remained straight. I shouldn’t be lost. I grew up playing in this very forest and I know it just as well as you know your neighborhood, probably better. Yet the familiar trees don’t seem to be in the place I know they belong, as if they move around when I am not looking in order to confuse and keep me within.
I’ve now found a cavern that I will hide in for the night. The sun is setting and I need my rest, besides it is dangerous to run through the forest at night. You could trip or run straight into the very thing that is hunting you. I think I found the missing supplies from all the victims. There’s fifty-three, which means that six others are still out there running. The creature won’t think to look for me among its trophy collection.
It’s here! It’s in the cave, I can hear it snuffling around. I think it can smell me or knows that I am here because it keeps coming near and sniffing near my hiding place. Hopefully it will decide that all it smells is the victims’ scent on their bags and I can.. no, it’s throwing the bags to clear out the area. I am going to post this now so the world may know what happened to us, then I will turn my phone’s light on and see what hunts me. I will die with my question answered.
Respect the forest, it has had enough of our shit.