The forest dwellers (part3)

Part 3
Tents. Tents that looked just like ours. Were there other people who were camping here? I had to make sure, so I went in closer, avoiding any sticks that might have alerted someone to my presence. And then I saw the logo on the tent. It was the same brand as my tent. I stood there in shock. Of course, someone camping could still have the same tent I use, but as I looked around, I realised I recognised this place. It was the same place where I had slept the day before. My mind was running in overdrive, throwing around hundreds of thoughts, none of them coming up with an answer I could be satisfied with. As I was thinking of a possible logical explanation, I realised that I was doing the exact same thing like the figure standing next to my tent. I debated slashing the tent just to see who was in there. If I could see the inside of the tent, would I see a terrified me? Baffled by my existence? Or would I see a monster in my clothes? Either way, I decided that I needed to get the hell out of there. As I was slinking away, I tried to take my flashlight out of my pocket when something fell out of it. I didn’t pay any attention to it and just tried to get back to Bill as quickly and softly as possible. When I got back, I saw that Bill had woken Darek up, guess he was getting worried about me, but was too scared to go alone. I still appreciated the gesture. They asked me what I found, so I told them. “Bill, tell him your theory.” “ What? No, that shit was crazy talk, man. I was just spiraling. “Based on what I saw back there? I think you might’ve been right.” We woke up Swansey and Lucy. Bill and I shared our observations and the theory. Obviously, everyone was apprehensive, even Bill and I still were. But we just told them to keep it in mind since the theory is utterly insane and we don’t have enough proof just yet. Lucy asked me a question, “Could you show me the note Darek found in the morning?” As I reached into my pocket to pull it out, I realised it was gone. “I don’t have it. I must’ve dropped it somewhere…” After giving it some thought, I realised I had left it back at the camp. Before Lucy could say what she was preparing to say, we heard a loud snap deeper within the forest. We all stopped and turned towards the sound that echoed between the dark trees. “Let’s grab our shit and leave, I don’t feel safe here,” Bill said in a hushed voice. We agreed and started to pack our things, glancing towards the direction of the sound and camp every few seconds. Based on the camp, I found we sort of knew where to go, so we made a line and started hiking carefully. It was still dark, but based on the time, it should brighten up soon. It seemed like I could sometimes hear whispering, but I wasn’t sure if it was us or something else. While sneaking, we heard another stick that seemed to break directly to our right. I turned on my flashlight and immediately started shining it in that direction. There were two deer. Both staring right at us. We all stopped dead in our tracks. Usually, deer wouldn’t scare us, but in this situation, we couldn’t eve be sure it was a deer. Darek took one fast step forward to scare them. They both slowly blinked, showing they were not entertained in the slightest, but they turned away, moving in sync. Before disappearing into the darkness, they turned back to look at us one last time, eyes shining from the flashlight. It was really off-putting how they moved in the same manner. Like they were one in the same. And then they disappeared. I couldn’t wait for daylight any longer. I asked Darek for the time. He looked at his watch, and a confused frown formed on his face. “So?” I asked again, but he just started shaking his head very slightly. “Someone check their phone, I think my watch is broken?” Lucy took out her phone. “It’s 3:33.” “Damn, we’ve only been walking for 5 minutes? It feels like it’s been at least half an hour…” Darek spoke up. “It SHOULD be half an hour later. My watch… I checked it a few minutes ago, and It showed 3:46, now it’s also 3:33.” I looked at Bill with a concerned grimace. “ Dude, don’t fucking look at me, I know as much as you do!” Bill was the only one actively showing that he was panicking, but we were all panicking internally. Nothing made sense, and our hope of getting out was starting to waver, but one thing we were certain about was that if we got out of this forest, everything would return to normal. Bill was quieter but not less fidgety; it looked like anything would set him off. Darek tried to keep his straight, stern face, but I could still see fear in his eyes and his jumpy reactions. Swansey was no longer recording; that’s how you know he was scared, he never puts down his camera. And Lucy was obviously still stuck to him, shaking. We realised that with the time going by, fluctuating, the night might never end, the daylight never reaching us. We continued forward. While walking, we encountered a bloody branch. It was still dripping, the blood was fresh, and there was a lot, but not enough for it to suggest someone had died here. This did not help our anxiety, but we didn’t say anything about it. We just looked at each other, grimaced, and continued at an even faster pace. I swear I could hear whispering all around us. I was starting to imagine eyes in the bushes, hair peeking over mounds, fingers instead of branches scratching my head. My paranoia was getting the better of me. But then a real noise happened, and I knew it was real because all of us turned towards it. It was a bush, and when I pointed my flashlight at it, I could see some leaves falling from it, as if it were just moving. Darek picked up a rock, wanting to throw it. Bill whispered a quick no, but Darek threw it anyway, hoping to scare away, hopefully, a rabbit. After he threw it, no rabbit came out, and strangely enough, we didn’t hear the rock hit the ground. We were already prepared to book it before I looked down. I saw it. Although bearly visible, I could see multiple footprints, and blood that was heading towards the bush. I pointed it out, and everyone in the blink of an eye unanimously agreed we should run. That was the only thing I could think of, so I did, we all did. Yet again, we were running from a monster that might not even exist, we didn’t know for certain there was something behind that bush, and we didn’t know if that something was chasing us, but that did not stop us. I was running in front, my flashlight swinging up and down as I ran. It was hard to see anything, but luckily, just before the collision, I saw a pointy branch appear right in front of me. I dodged, the branch scratching me, but before I could warn the others. Sweansey ran straight into the branch. His shoulder getting impaled by it, causing him to scream and stop suddenly, which Lucy did not expect, causing her to smash into him, lodging the branch even deeper into his shoulder. The others managed to stop before crashing into them. Everyone stumbled back as they noticed what had just happened. We were all shocked and didn’t know what to do. Darek looked away and gagged at the sight of blood, Lucy silently apologized while crying, and Bill was shaking his head as if calculating something. “Do we leave in the branch or take it out?” I looked at him, trying to think while Swansey writhed in pain. Before we could make a decision, Swansey fell back, dislodging the branch from his shoulder; the answer was chosen for us. The hole that the branch left was about the size of a quarter, and it was deep. We tried thinking rationally and made a tourniquet from the rags that we had to stop the bleeding, which was leaking much more blood than we’ve ever seen. Once we finished the tourniquet, fashioning it in a way that limited his shoulder mobility, we tried to get back on track as fast as we could, since we still felt in danger. And our worries became real as we could see a flashlight behind us approaching, without thinking we tried running, but we were already tired and Sweanseys bleeding arm couldn’t handle more running, so I turned towards an oddly familiar bush with a mound that was big enough to hide us, and motioned everyone to hide behind it turning off my flashlight while everyone was scrambling to get behind the bush, the unfamiliar flashlight nearly catching Sweansey. The flashlight kept still locked on us, blocking our view. Then suddenly a rock came down and hit Lucie’s back, she almost made a noise, but stopped herself. And then I realized what had just happened. I knew in a few seconds they would start running, and they did. As soon as the flashlight quickly moved away from us, I peeked between the leaves of the bush to try to get a look at “us”. It was dark, and they were moving quite fast, but from the glimpse I could see. It was them. It was us. “Did you see them?” Bill asked with a trembling voice. I debated whether to say it. I was still uncertain and didn’t want to stoke the flame of our theory and our fear. But after looking at Bills pleading eye’s I decided to fess up “I’m not sure… They looked like our group but I didn’t get a good look at them.” With a sharp, shaking inhale Darek pointed out “I threw that rock, I threw it just a minute ago. How did we end up back at the same place?” Before anyone could even try to think of answer we heard a scream coming from the left side, where “they” went. The same god damn scream we’ve already heard for the second time. Sweansey’s scream. We quickly got up, Lucy helping Sweansey. “Don’t go on the same path twice,” I reminded everyone. They nodded, and we chose a different path. As we stepped on the beaten path, something crunched under my foot that sounded like a leaf. But when I looked down, it was a paper. Another note. I grabbed it. I showed them what I found and unwrapped the note like a Christmas gift. With hope and excitement, that maybe this note will hold the answer to our problems, that will highlight an exit out of this situation. It read “When Lucy falls, do not help her up.” After staring at that sentence for a little bit, I looked up. Meeting eyes with Lucy. With an uncertain and anxious voice, she asked me, “What does it say?” I looked at her, I looked straight into her eyes, and answered “Nothing… It’s the same note that I dropped earlier at the camp. Maybe the ones that found it dropped it here.” I could tell from her eyes, she knew I was lying. It wasn’t an accusatory look, but curiosity. She was looking into my eyes, my shame filled eyes that were begging her not to question me. But before she could, Bill interupted our short staring competition “Are you sure it’s the same one? Give me a look at it!” I stepped back, hiding the note in my pocket, but Lucy stopped Bill, putting her hand on his shoulder, “Cmon, we don’t have all night, we should go”. The forest agreed with Lucy,as it let out another Swansey like scream. This time, from the right. Once they turned around to continue trekking, I dropped the note where I found it and joined the group. Now, the feeling of being stared at not only came from the forest, but also from those around me. Since we chose a different path, we do not know where exactly we are going. But one thing is for certain. Time is no longer passing based on our phones and watches, and the forest is intensifying. We keep hearing Lucies whistling, Darek swearing, Sweansey screaming, and sometimes, we do hear something new. Footsteps, whispering and sometimes, the one that brings us the most worry. Crying. I think it’s Sweansey’s, but I’m not sure. It’s driving us crazy. We no longer have the strength to keep running; we’re just walking, until something seems a little too close to us, then we jog. Sweansey’s getting worse; we can tell he's bleeding out. He’s a lot slower and a lot paler. Lucie is helping him walk, but sometimes Darek helps him when she gets tired. When they switch, I can see how much pain Sweansey is in, but most of all, I can also see how guilty and embarrassed he is to be carried like dead weight. I can’t stop thinking about that note. What did it mean? Is it really talking about OUR Lucy? It’s making me question if the Lucy that is next to us is our Lucy. Maybe she switched during the first night we were sleeping, maybe we just didn’t notice as she was queitly dragged away and replaced. All this thinking is wearing me out, I don’t want to think about it anymore. We ditched our backpacks and only took our essentials. We knew this was going to be our final night, whether we made it out of here or not. Sometimes we keep coming back to the same place, sometimes it’s flipped, sometimes it’s not, we’re too tired to think anything of it, either way, we can’t explain it. After a couple of hours of walking, we reached an unfamiliar place. It’s an open field, a small one, hidden between the trees, and at the end of it, there’s a cabin, Darek and Bill went towards the cabin while I stayed behind. I was in the middle of them and the others. While looking around the new place I could hear Sweansey and Lucy start bickering “I don’t need you carrying me around all the time, I can walk around fine right now” “There’s litterally no reason to be so pridefull right now, you’re not even that heavy, cmon” “I said I’m fine! Carrying me around is just going to tire you out!” Lucy scoffed “You think I don’t know that? I’m doing this not to survive, but because I care, asshole!” As she tried to grab him, he shouted “I’m fine!” and shoved her. She stumbled back, her leg getting caught on a root, causing her to trip, she hit her head hard on the ground. Just as Swansey immediately bent down to help her, the ground beneath her crumbled, revealing a huge pitfall. We were a little far away from them, so we couldn’t react fast enough. Swansey began screaming for help. We all started sprinting towards them.I was the closest one to them, but as I was running, there was one sentence that just kept ringing in my mind. ”Do not help her up”. Swansey was screaming for me to hurry. “She’s slipping! Hurry god damnit!” Just before reaching them, my leg got caught on something, and I came tumbling down. I was so close to them, I hurried to help, I was so close I could see Lucy. I was so close I could see her hand slip. And her fall into the tall darkness below. Swansey screamed and cried, almost flinging himself into the hole as well, but I stopped him. He wouldn’t stop wailing, screaming her name. Darek and Bill who just got there pulled Swansey away from the hole, holding him back from throwing himslef after her. Afterwards we sat next to the hole, comforting Swansey in a fetal position. We stayed there trying to calm Swansey down, and at the same time, ourselves. The whole time, he was blaming himself for being stupid, for pushing her, for being too weak to pull her up. We wanted to rest there a little longer, to process and to mourn her death longer, but we knew we couldn’t; strange noises were getting closer, and sometimes, we would see a slight glint of a flashlight. Even if we didn’t want to, even if we felt bad leaving her that quickly. There was something deep inside of us that kept urging us on. Wheather it was our survival instincts or just adrenaline, it didn’t matter. We knew, we had to push forward. So, Darek and Bill pulled Swansey to his feet, urging him to move along. He still wept, but didn’t fight it, when they dragged him along. Before walking away from the field, I tried finding what I tripped on, something I could blame, something that would make me feel a little less guilty about failing to save Lucy. It was a rock, a tiny little rock, and this tiny little rock was the difference between Lucy living and her dying. I picked it up, wanting to throw it out of frustration. But when I picked it up, there was a note below it. I looked at it. I felt soemthing between fear and disgust looking at the note, I was conflicted, I didn’t know wheather to pick it up or leave it. Is it going to tell me to leave another one of my friends? Was it going to mock me for my failure? I wanted to walk away from the note, I really did. But some unknown urge dragged my hand over to it. I picked it up, and unfolded it. The notes never brought me clarity, only confusion. This time was no different, but the note itself did feel different. It wrote “I told you not to help her up”. At first, I thought it was mocking me for trying and not getting there in time, but it didn’t feel like that. The words were written more sharply, as if they were mad writing this, as if I really did help her up. For the time being, I put the note away and joined up with the rest. Swansey seemed to have calmed down a little bit; he was no longer crying, but his eyes seemed dead, he was walking along with us, but it seemed like he no longer cared if he lived. We were silent, much more than usual, and it was no longer just out of caution; it was also out of sorrow and respect. And because of the silence. We heard them following us. We heard footsteps, right behind us, and they seemed to be slightly gaining on us. Once we realised that, Darek and I grabbed Swansey from both sides and started running. And as soon as we started running, the people behind us also did. So we started running faster, and so did they. We ran as hard as we could. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping us going. Then, suddenly, we immediately stop dead in our tracks as we meet another version of us right in front of us. We turned back to run the other way, but yet again it was us. I look back, but we’re still there. We're surrounded from both sides. But none of us are moving. But one thing is clear. We are not disappearing. I don't know what I thought would happen. I thought maybe because of how time worked, we couldn’t meet each other, but I was wrong. After staring and turning around so much my head started to spin I noticed one difference, the one’s behind are slightly delayed from us. If I move the front “Me” moves first after almost a second, and then the one in the back moves 2 seconds later. As my mind is racing, trying to figure out what the fuck is happening, all of a sudden, all Swanseys drop to their knees and whisper one word. "How?". I look up to understand what he’s talking about and... Fuck, how did I not see that? How did I not see her? It's Lucy, one side still has a Lucy. We all start staring at her in shock. She’s looking around, as if she’s trying to find our Lucy. After a few moments of her looking around I think she realised that she wasn’t there. That she was the only Lucy there. Once she realised that, she started crying. She droped to her knees and started screaming and wailing. All of us were queitly staring  at her in utter shock. She stands up still crying and screams “WHY!” and suddenly, plunges into her eyes with her dirty fingers. "NOOOOO!" All three Swansea's scream. But she doesn't stop, she doesn't even flinch as she grips her bottom eyelids and starts peeling them from her eye socket’s to the bottom of her chin, leaving streaks of visible flesh. Bill and Darek look away, while I gag in horror, but I don't look away. I can't. So I watch. I watch as she puts her bloody fingers into her mouth and rips her cheeks wide open, leaving her mouth agape. She is still crying, not tears, but blood. The only noise that manages to escape from her is a bunch of gurgling as she’s choking on her own blood. As she slowly bleeds out, I finally manage to look away. I look at Swansey, who's frozen in shock, trembling, mouth agape. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to say, so I looked away. I looked everywhere but at Lucy or at Swansey. I looked at myself, and he was already staring at me. It creeped me out, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to test my theory all over again. I started moving, and I checked how close he was to my movement. Every time I raised my hand, it seemed like he raised his hand a little faster than the last. I was panicking. I pleaded with the others, for any idea that would get us out of this situation. “I don’t know, maybe if we move perpendicular, they won't get closer?” Bill blurted out, his words repeating. He looked at himself worn out, and he pleaded with him “Please.. leave us alone” After his words, there was a still quiet forced by shock and fear. The other Bill said his words first. A soon as we realised what had just happened, a gigantic smile appeared on their face. I stepped back, the other me stepping back first. They looked elated, smiling with their whole teeth. My teeth.  A cold sweat ran down my face, and my instincts were screaming at me to run away. But before I could, the smiling ones in front of us bent down to stand on all fours, moving without needing us to dictate their moves any longer. Their knees snapping back, making their physique more like a quadruped. It was disgusting. Darek was the first one to snap back, he shouted, “RUUUN!” And we all started sprinting away from them, as they pounced on the ones behind us. I looked back for just a second to see them ripping us to shreds, easily tearing arms and legs away from the bodies. I had to look away before seeing any more. As we were running, I ran past Swansey. I could see he was already out of breath; he was too injured to continue like this. I stopped, wanting to help Swansey, but before I could, a beast that reminisced Swansey jumped from behind him onto him and bit into his neck. Almost separating his whole head in one bite. He no longer looked like Swansey but like a shaved dog with makeup up, that was supposed to make him look like a person. I saw the others running behind him, so I started sprinting again.  While running, I could still hear screams around me, sticks and branches being broken behind, growls and barks that were coming closer. They were gaining on us, and fast. I had to think of something. So as I was running, I picked up a stubby branch and threw it behind me at my four legged self. But it quickly swiped it away as if it knew where and how I would throw it. I looked to my right, and I saw Darek and his beastial form right behind him. I had to help, so as I was running, I yet again quickly bent down to grab another branch and threw it as hard as I could at the beast. I somehow hit the creature right in its eye. It screamed in a raspy, throaty Darek-like voice. Mine was catching up to me. It seemed like it was getting used to its own body, its own will. I couldn't slow down enough for Darek to help me or even throw me a branch; I was faster and further along than him, and we were both already gasping for air. But then I noticed that Ben was somehow gaining on me. He was running and crying, tears streaming down his face, but his face also seemed incredibally determined.

He was right behind my beast and gaining on him, even though he himself was about to be caught. He screamed as he leaped, grabbing the beast's leg and tripping it up. He sacrificed himself for me. I wanted to turn around for him, but I knew he was already dead. And even if I didn’t want to hear it. I had no choice. The sound of his flesh ripping and his bones cracking echoed through the whole forest. And as I had to listen to that, knowing it was because of me, the only thing I could do was hope he died fast. I started sobbing while running. Darek's beast was back, with an injured right eye but still as fast. Even if I could bearly breathe or see, I ran with my life on the line. We kept running with no time to spare for even a single thought; we were too tired to think. Darek's beast was already caught up and tried to leap at him, but hit a branch instead. It seems like the messed-up eye was messing with him. Either way, I knew that it was still just a matter of time. With my lungs burning, legs losing feeling, I started to lose hope, I would ever get out alive. But when I squinted, I could see, a little farther in the distance, what seemed to be a clearing. I didn't know if it was just a short clearing leading back into the woods, or if it was the way out. But I didn’t care, I kept running towards it, no matter what it was. I squeezed whatever energy I had left just to keep up the pace. As we got closer, the clearing turned wider, and it shone like nothing I had ever seen before. Just a few meters from what seemed to be an exit, Darek tripped on a branch. I slowed down for a second before seeing my monster. I knew that if I helped Darek, I would die. And even if Bill sacrificed himself for me, I couldn’t do the same for Darek. As I exited out into the clearing, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were no trees ahead of me. I was out of the forest. I immediately collapsed, tears running down my face. Even if I left Darek, I didn’t feel like a coward in that moment. I felt like a survivor. I could feel I was about to pass out from exhaustion and lack of oxygen. But a sense of danger that I couldn’t shake off made me look back at the forest. I thought for the longest time that if I made it out of the forest, I would be safe, but I had no proof. I prayed nothing came out of there. I didn’t know if it was my blurry, shaking vision or reality, but something did emerge from the forest. I wanted to move, but my body had already exhausted all the energy it had for that week. I hear sluggish footsteps approach me, and just before I passed out, I could see Darek collapse next to me. He was all torn up and bloody. But he made it out. I woke up suddenly. With fear, I was still in that hellhole. But as I sat up and looked around, I quickly gathered where I was. I was in a hospital. Next to me sat an IV drip bag that was connected to my arm. Each move I made made my muscles scream in pain. Even if everything around me seemed normal. I didn’t feel safe. My body was still in survival mode. Then a nurse came by. As soon as he saw I was awake, he called the doctor. After talking to him, I finally felt safe. It seemed I spent so long afraid that I forgot how it felt to be relaxed. After I answered some questions, he told me to relax and left me alone. But before he exited, he remarked that it was a miracle that the two of us survived. I’ve never felt such relief after hearing Darek survived. Even though I felt guilty for leaving him, I still wanted to see him, so I asked the doctor if he could bring him here. He obliged, “He’s been waiting for you, you know?” I lay down, my head drowning in thoughts. Did they find the others? How am I going to explain this situation? As I was spiraling, I heard a knocking on the doorway. “Morning, sleepy head”. I turned over to look at him. I could feel my eyes tearing up as I saw him standing there in the doorway, holding a stand with an IV drip bag. He walked over to me and hugged me. “I’m so happy we made it out in one piece,” I said with a shaky voice. He pulled away from me and looked me in my eyes and said something endearing, I’m sure. I just didn’t hear. I was a little distracted. Wondering. Where did he hurt his right eye?