The Observers (Part 3) The Forest of Decay

Part 1

Part 2

Hey everybody, it’s me again.

I won’t take up too much of your time before getting to the next part of the mystery emails. I’m still hopeful that my cousin Carrie is okay, but I’ve read through these next few parts and things definitely start sounding more and more dangerous with the dead woman aboard the “magic tour bus.”

Despite my constant phone calls and persistent internet searches, I’m no closer to finding her than when I started posting these, but I can still hold out hope that maybe somehow this will help.

Maybe someone will see this and will know what the hell is going on.

​

The Observers (First Draft)

May 2020

The smell of decay emanating from the woman sitting in front of us is overwhelming, and Ramone and I quickly stand up and change seats to get away from it, moving towards the front of the bus to sit closer to Carrie and Garrett.

He had said that he wanted privacy for the early stages of this trip, so that he could calibrate equipment as necessary and make any adjustments that were needed, but he seems to be doing nothing except sitting and talking to Carrie, his lab assistant. Any adjustments are being made by her, using a large tablet device she is holding. The bus controls are also voice operated, as we witnessed earlier.

We walk up the aisle of the bus as it glides quickly down the road on its immaculate suspension system. The lack of bumps and jostling despite the rough terrain is surreal. It’s the next thing I plan to ask Garrett about.

Woman in Black: You shouldn’t trust him, you know. He isn’t who he says he is.

Ramone and I look back at the woman in black, seeing again the worms crawling in and out of her face through the sheer black veil she is wearing.

I realize what the smell reminds me of suddenly.

My family owns a cabin. It’s just a little shack in the woods, but it sits at the end of a peninsula which we have all to ourselves, so it’s quite pleasant and peaceful up there.

One year I went up and discovered a horrible stink permeating the place. We couldn’t figure out what it was despite our efforts to discover the source of it. By the second day we were desperate, searching everywhere to try to find what rotten food someone had left behind, or what could possibly cause such an odour.

Then we found it. Hiding in the bottom of a steel bucket in the corner of the kitchen, deep in the shadows beneath a counter. A mouse had fallen in and died, unable to escape. And his corpse had begun to rot. I realized then what the smell was, and why it was such a relief to finally get away from the sickly sweetness of it. It was the stink of death.

That is what the odour wafting from the woman in black reminds me of. Only a hundred times worse.

After a quick look back, we continue towards the front of the bus, unsure what to say or how to respond to her.

Garrett: Don’t talk to her. It’s better if we just ignore her. Clearly she has some supernatural abilities if she was able to override our security systems and come aboard the bus.

Nassir: It would appear that way. She said not to trust you. That you aren’t who you say you are. Is there anything to that? Since she’s got these supernatural abilities maybe she can sense things that we aren’t able to discern.

Garrett: I’m sure my lab assistant and other colleagues can vouch for my identity. She is clearly not a *good* being, whatever she is. Hence why my instructions were to resist the urge to speak to her or listen to anything she says.

Carrie: We are making good progress on our return trajectory. If all goes well we should be on target to reach the city with only a 4.5 hour time dilation.

Nassir: Time dilation? What does that mean exactly?

Garrett shoots Carrie a look and she turns red in the face for a second, as if caught in a lie.

Garrett: Just means we’re delayed slightly, so we’ll need to adjust our schedule. That’s all.

Nassir: I see. Now, I was wondering if it would be alright if I ask you a few more questions, since we seem to have a bit of time on our hands right now?

Garrett: Sure, why not. Go right ahead.

Nassir: Regarding these other expeditions you’ve made into these parallel worlds – what exactly have you seen? And how do you know that it’s safe before you go through? If there are infinite dimensions, I would assume that the majority of them are not inhabitable.

Garrett: You would think that, but you would be wrong. As I said before, each time we go through, we find that the version of Earth on the other side is just as welcoming and nurturing of human life as it is in our world. Regardless, we run a number of calculations before venturing through. The bus is so sophisticated that it will stop on a dime practically and go into reverse if it detects that the world being entered is not suitable, but that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe we’ve just gotten lucky so far.

On the inside I am an emotional wreck but the journalist in me is insisting that this is a once in a lifetime story, so I catch myself acting like this is just another interview. Even though it’s anything but. Maybe I’m just trying to distract myself from the surreal facts which surround me. The dead woman sitting on the bus five rows back. The horde of shadow people following us. The trees in the forest and the fact that they are alive and watching us, clearly capable of intelligent thought and locomotion.

Not to mention – we’re in a different dimension. That’s a weird one to wrap my head around.

Nassir: Are you excited, now that this project is finally going to see the light of day, after all your years of hard work?

Garrett: Excited is perhaps not the best word for it. I feel – justified, in a way. Like all of the money and effort I put into this has not been in vain. That would be difficult, if not impossible for me to wrap my head around.

Woman in black: There is a secret way through the trees here if you wish to take it. To bring us to the city faster. To them.

Her voice is dry and empty but impossible to ignore. I know they will listen to her somehow before they say anything. It is imperative that they make up the lost time, I realize with increasing alarm. The time dilation comment and the way Garrett looked at Carrie when she mentioned it makes that obvious.

Garrett: I see no road intersecting this one. Are you sure?

Woman in Black: Slow down. I will show you.

She stands up and I see maggots and worms fall to the ground like crumbs from the lap of a sloppy eater. Only these crumbs lay in the aisle and all over the floor, squirming. Her steps are slow and purposeful as she approaches the front of the bus, and the smell of her overwhelms me once again.

I see her wave her hand and the door at the front opens up again and Garrett calls for the driver to stop. The woman gets off the bus and as she stands by the side of the road I see the vegetation around her die immediately as she approaches it.

The grass turns yellow, then brown, then black. The trees begin to wither and deform and they shrink back from her in fear. Her boney hands making hypnotic dancing motions that make my eyelids heavy to look at, and the grass and dead leaves open up to reveal a dirt road which had been covered over by growth.

Beneath her veil I can see her smiling at the death and destruction she was wrought. Outside the bus everything now appears dead and rotten, and I am suddenly much more afraid to be near this woman. If she can do that to grass and trees with just her presence, what is she doing to us by being near us?

I get the feeling that smelling her B.O. was about a million times worse than any second-hand smoke.

Looking at Ramone, I can tell he’s having the same thought. He lifts his shirt up over his face to cover his nose and his eyes are full of fear and tears.

Ramone: What is she?

The woman joins us on the bus again and the dead smell follows her. She sits down slightly closer to us this time and I hate her for it.

Within a few minutes I find myself standing up and going to the back of the bus to try and get away from the stink, despite the fact that I also don’t like being around Ted and Wayne.

At the very back of the bus, I find myself relieved to be in somewhat fresher air, and I turn on the little fan above me. Wishing that I could open a window, I close my eyes and try to think of the outdoors. The outdoors on earth.

Following the right turn onto the road the witch-woman had uncovered, we begin gradually leaving the depths of the forest. Occasional glades and fields come into view and eventually we are free from the constant shroud of shadow that accompanied the woods.

Garrett: Ah! Finally out of the forest! If my calculations are correct the road which intersects this one will take us to the city. Whatever version of that we find here will be interesting to see.

He seems oddly unbothered by the smell.

Despite my concerns, I feel powerless to stop our progress as the bus makes its way towards the road that will take us into this dark dimension’s capitol.

I look out the back window and see in the distance the forest disappearing behind us.

Like a colony of ants, the shadow people emerge and pour out of the trees, pursuing us.

No matter how fast we are, they are just behind us.

On our heels. Like our very own shadows.

JG

TCC