He had been hiking in the countryside for hours and the bucolic silence and unending emptiness was no longer the novelty it had been. He was tired, he wanted a proper meal (the trail mix was long gone), and he wanted to sit and relax. 

Why had he gone off-piste all the way back there? he asked himself, not for the first time, bitterly. He had a map of the area and all sorts of suggested trails and directions that he had downloaded onto his phone before embarking but decided on a whim when he got to the start of the trail that he would throw caution to the wind and go with his gut. The weather was nice - sunny but not too hot - and he had the whole day ahead of him. 

It was now mid-to-late afternoon and his off-trail ramblings had taken him to a series of strange dead-ends. One path led to a dense field of overgrown thickets and unexpectedly boggy ground that he took a few steps into before turning back. Another had led him to a small tent city of homeless people (the area looked too lived-in to be campers there for the night), but no people, and he had turned away before he saw any. 

He was hopelessly lost. So he was relieved to find himself off of empty dirt paths and onto a small country road with a bench and a bus stop. He sat down on the bench gratefully and took out his water bottle, taking a swig of the warm water, before glancing around. The sign said “bus stop” and nothing else. There was no timetable or other information to indicate how often buses appeared on this road. 

He was also done walking and so decided to sit and wait for a while. 

“There’s a monster in the woods,”

The voice was so unexpected and close, he nearly yelled in fright. 

He turned and saw a child standing directly behind him, looking intently at him. He looked around - nothing but fields, no houses. Where had this girl come from? 

“What’s that?” he said. 

She pointed to the forest. “Over there. A monster is in the woods there. Some men are going to fight it,” and started humming a tune that sounded familiar. 

He followed where she was pointing and saw nothing but trees. Before he could ask her any other questions, he heard a vehicle approaching, but unfortunately it wasn’t the bus. A truck filled with men drove by and he saw there were guns in the truck. 

“Is one of those men your father?” he asked, but turned back to see that she had gone. 

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That was the only noteworthy incident for a couple of hours as he sat on the bench, regaining his strength but also feeling more despair. He felt like he had probably missed the bus and he would have to walk back after all. On the one hand, he’s getting what he wanted - to be in nature again - it’s good exercise and he’s learned a lot of valuable lessons today. On the other hand, he wished it was all over and done with and he could be comfortable again. 

What a strange thing to say, he thought, about the girl’s comments. 

They may have had guns but they were either probably hunters or forestry workers. Monster killers? Of course not. 

There was no signal out here for his phone - that was part of the initial appeal but it annoyed him now - and so boredom got the better of him. He decided to walk over to the woods and see what was what. The bus, assuming it was even coming today, wasn’t coming for him. Probably. 

He jumped the turnstile and walked across the field up to the woods. A path wide enough for the truck led into a clearing but saw neither the truck nor the men. He turned back to see a small rickety bus drive past the bus stop and continue on its way down the road. He sprinted back to the road shouting in vain for the driver to stop, but it didn’t. 

Bent over, leaning on his knees trying to catch his breath and cursing his luck, he forced himself to laugh at once again being the victim of Murphy’s Law. 

The sun was definitely hanging low in the sky now with an increasing red/orange glow to it. Well, if that was the bus, there’s no way it’s coming down this route again today, so I may as well just get on with it, he thought, hoisting his backpack up again and resigning himself to more walking. He followed the road in the direction the bus had gone. There must be a town down that way, he reasoned. 

As he walked, he looked over his shoulder hoping to catch sight of another bus or car coming along that he could flag down, but he saw no-one. He finally happened upon a house but the place, while modern-looking, didn’t seem to have anyone home - it had the atmosphere of a family on holiday. Everything was locked up and he briefly considered breaking in before catching himself and dismissing it from his mind. 

As darkness fell, he was still no nearer to any other buildings but the evening dimness highlighted the light he saw in the distance. Oddly, it didn’t seem to appear in line with the road but across several fields instead. He ignored it at first, walking down the never-ending country road but he kept stopping and glancing at the light across the fields, wondering if he was only headed down another dead-end with this road. Maybe it eventually circled around to the light, presumably a town or farm, or maybe it didn’t. 

He decided his predicament had started when he had gone off of the defined path and that approach would get him out of it too. He jumped over a gate and walked across the fields towards the light. 

The fields gave way to woods that felt familiar - he saw a wide path leading in that was big enough for a truck. He had his phone’s light if he needed it but there was still enough light in the early evening gloom, to see his way through. He passed a clearing like one he had seen earlier only this time he kept going. 

The path went on for a while until he came across another clearing - there was the truck! He hurried over to it but saw that no-one was there. No sign of the guns either. He looked around. A parting of the trees revealed a pond - quite a scenic-looking pond. 

He called out - no reply. 

The men must be coming back soon to pack up and drive off, he thought. Unless they were camping and were elsewhere, cooking and preparing for the night. He decided to sit on a large stone by the pond while he waited - he’d give them half an hour and then carry on if he didn’t see anyone. 

Tiredness was starting to overtake him more fervently but he was snapped out of his dozing state by a young girl’s voice humming a tune. He tried standing up but his backpack threw off his balance and he fell into the pond. 

Before panic and then numbing blackness fatally overwhelmed his consciousness, he finally remembered the tune she was humming.