Daniel groaned as he felt a cold and uncomfortable sensation on his face and neck. It was wet, like mud. He inhaled deeply at the sudden realization and awoke to full awareness. Small bits of the damp soil caught in his throat, and he coughed violently. Daniel sat up. He blinked away the fog in his mind and realized he was in the middle of what looked like a dark forest.
“What the?” he said aloud, looking from side to side. He panicked as he patted himself down, looking for his phone. After several moments of searching, Daniel cursed, not feeling the familiar shape in one of his pockets. Instead, he settled for pulling out his keys, upon which was a small LED flashlight that he lifted and activated. Confusion set in as the bright beam illuminated the dark silhouettes ahead. The trees before him looked very strange. The bark was a pale color, almost like human skin, and though he was too far away to see any details, what should have been leaves hanging from the branches, looked almost like long and thick strands of hair. With another glance around, Daniel realized he was in a clearing. Where the hell am I? he thought. He stood with a grunt, his chilled and stiff joints protesting the effort.
His mind then began to assess the current situation. What’s the last thing I remember? he thought. There was a convention; he had driven there with several friends. Then, there was a bright flash of light. His eyes widened as he brought his flashlight around him, searching.
“Henry! Angelo!” he yelled, frantically searching for the two friends he had with him. After realizing they weren’t in the clearing with him, he returned to his mental assessment of his situation. He was alone, in a dark forest, in the middle of the night, without his phone or any food or supplies.
“Shit,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. His mind was still racing, thinking about how he got here and what or where exactly ‘here’ could be. Daniel always reverted to his training in times of stress and danger, and this situation was a prime example. He had served in the United States Marine Corps for eight years. He had seen many strange and terrible things throughout his career, granting him mental resilience in times of strife or confusion, like this.
A high-pitched scream shattered the silence of the night. Daniel’s heart began beating heavily in his chest, and he perked up to listen. There was a long pregnant pause as he stood perfectly still, holding his breath. The forest was silent again, eerily so, as there should have been an abundance of nocturnal wildlife making sounds. Then he heard the scream again. It sounded like a woman and a lot like a cry for help. He looked in the direction of the scream. Steeling his resolve, he dashed into the strange forest.
Daniel made his way through the forest, trying his best to avoid any contact with the trees or their bizarre hair-like leaves. Again he heard the scream; it was close. Rushing forward, he entered another clearing. Daniel scanned the area.
“Hello?” he called out.
“Here! We’re here!”
Daniel aimed his flashlight at the far side of the clearing, where against the tree line he could see a young woman crouched next to a prone man. Breathing heavily, Daniel approached them. The woman held her hand in front of her eyes to protect herself from his flashlight. He recognized her from before the bright flash. She had bumped into him as it was happening.
“Thank God you’re here,” she said, standing up to approach Daniel. “I don’t know what happened, we just appeared here. Robert needs help, he’s hurt.”
“Calm down,” Daniel said, lowering his light to look at the man lying in the mud. “Let me take a look.” Stepping past the woman, he knelt beside Robert. At first glance, he just looked unconscious. Daniel saw a large gash above his left eye; it was deep.
“Is he going to be alright?” the young woman asked, wiping tears from her eyes, and sniffing.
Daniel remained silent as he scanned the young man again, trying to observe any other wounds that may be present. There were slow streams of clear fluid dripping from his ears and nostrils. Daniel pressed his fingers against the artery in Robert’s neck. He had a weak and irregular pulse and haggard breathing. Shining his light on the head wound, Daniel realized it was deeper than he had first thought. Opening one of the young man’s eyes, Daniel shone his light into it, checking to see if there was any reaction. There was none, the pupil large and unresponsive.
Daniel pulled the light away and thought for a moment. Clearly, this man was the victim of a severe head injury, and probably even with medical help, there was no hope for him. He glanced at the young woman beside him—her eyes were filled with tears.
“I think he was just knocked out,” Daniel finally said, reassuring her and cursing himself secretly for his dishonesty. “Let’s elevate his head and shoulders for a little while before we try to move him. See if he regains consciousness.”
Daniel removed his coat and bundled it like a pillow, carefully placing it under the unconscious man’s head. At least he will die without pain, He thought.
The young woman leaned in and wrapped her arms around the injured man. Daniel stood and began to once again ponder his situation.
“What do you remember about the convention?” he asked, looking down at the girl.
“I just…” She sat up. “I’m not sure… I remember a bright light…” She looked at Daniel. “I woke up here next to Robert. I saw a lot of blood and… I thought he was dead.” Tears began to well up again as she spoke. “Where are we?”
Daniel gazed off into the darkness, still in deep thought. “I’m not sure. But we have to make some sort of shelter.” He was again reminded of the cold as it pricked at his skin. He looked up at the night sky through the canopy of the forest, attempting to find some sense of direction.
“My name is Katrina,” the young woman said, looking down at the unconscious man beside her. “And this is Robert. He’s, my boyfriend.”
Katrina looked again at Daniel. He was spinning slowly and looking straight up to the sky. No matter how strange their situation was, finding any sense of direction would give him something to work with.
“What are you doing?” she asked curiously.
“I’m looking for the little dipper,” he said, still focused on the sky.
“The what?”
“You know, the star formation? At the end of the little dipper is a star called Polaris. Below that is the big dipper. Take the two stars at the end of the big dipper and make a straight line to Polaris. That always points north.” Daniel scanned the canopy of stars above and managed only to frustrate himself. There was nothing he recognized. While in the military, land navigation was one of the key elements of survival. But what he now saw made no sense. “Where the hell are all of the constellations?”
“Are you an astronomer or something?”
“No… I’m not.” Daniel hung his head and sat beside Katrina, unsure what to do next. “My name is Daniel, I would say it’s nice to meet you, but honestly, I don’t think…” he gestured to their surroundings, “…now would be an appropriate time to say that. I was at the convention with you and Robert.”
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The young woman twitched a smile. “Well, I don’t remember you, but I figured you were there since you asked about it.”
“You and Robert bumped into me during that bright flash.”
Katrina just shrugged, and pulled her legs up, hugging her knees; she was obviously cold.
Daniel stood up. “I’d better find something to use as a shelter or at least start a fire.” He walked off into the forest’s darkness from the small clearing. With each step, he took long breaths, calming his mind and steadying himself. He knew there were questions, but his priority was making it through the night. He used his flashlight on the forest floor to find some sticks or twigs dry enough to start a fire, but the alien forest refused to relinquish anything. Daniel examined the forest floor now, more closely as he moved. Some bushes seemed to react to his light. The sight froze him as he looked on at this unusual behavior. Turning his light on and off recreated the reaction every time.
The bushes seemed to curl in on themselves as if to escape this unnatural light.
“What the hell...?” he said to himself. But before he could investigate further, he heard a faint whisper and a cracking noise behind him.
Daniel whirled around, shining his light at a tree. There were what looked like several long and thick strands of the strange black hair growing out of the trunk. Daniel’s eyes widened at the unnerving sight, and he stepped back as his pulse quickened. What the fuck? He thought. They continued to grow outward several feet until stopping and falling to the ground. Daniel slowly approached the tree; he had never seen anything like it. Several more hair-like branches began to extend from some of the trees before Daniel. They writhed like tentacles as they pushed out of the trunk and fell to the muddy ground. The tree looked smooth, like there was a skin covering it rather than the rough bark he was used to seeing. Strange aromas began to fill the air. Sweet smells confused his senses, and again, the faint sound of whispers and laughter haunted the night.
Daniel looked at the towering trees surrounding him, and an unbelievable fear began to claw at his mind; the darkness taunted his thoughts and played with his perceptions. Finally, close enough to inspect, he knelt to the branches on the ground. Steeling himself, he reached down and picked one up.
~
Katrina was still sitting on the ground, clutching her knees tightly; she was shivering now from the cold and had fallen into despair. Daniel had been gone for nearly twenty minutes in his search for firewood, and for all she knew, he was lost. More tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of home. Her parents, her pet, her apartment. What the hell is going on? she thought. It seemed as though she was stuck in some nightmare, unable to wake.
“Pull it together, Kat…” she whispered. With weary eyes, she looked down, at Robert. His skin was now pale and slick with sweat. Seeing him in such a condition brought more waves of grief and sadness. She sniffed again, attempting to push it to the back of her mind.
Katrina heard footsteps approaching from the darkness. She looked up quickly in fear and put her hand on Robert’s chest. Then she saw Daniel’s flashlight, its bright glow partially hidden by the trees. Katrina sighed in relief as he entered the clearing and placed several large pieces of what looked like wood, on the ground. He sat down beside her with a faraway look on his face.
“Wow… That’s a lot of woo—” Katrina paused as she noticed how odd it looked. “Is this wood?” She picked a piece up and examined it.
“It came out of a tree,” he said slowly. “Look.” He lifted his light to point toward the forest’s canopy.
Katrina looked at him, confused, but followed the direction of his beam. Her jaw dropped as she saw the skin-like bark, the hair-like branches, and the leaves. A primal shiver of fear pulsed through her body like a bolt of lightning.
“What is this?” she said, frantically pulling Robert away from the tree he was lying next to. She had been so preoccupied with his well-being that she managed to miss the details of her surroundings. “Where the hell are we!?”
“Calm down,” Daniel said, doing his best to sound confident and in control. “I don’t think they’re dangerous. Just strange looking.”
“Are they alive?” she asked, her panic beginning to subside.
“Well, trees are alive.” He paused. “But we aren’t sure if these actually are trees. So, who knows.” He pointed his light away from the trees and back to the strange branches on the ground. “Like I said, these things grew out of a tree, right in front of me. Like tentacles or something, then fell on the ground.”
Katrina shivered at the mention of it and leaned in to look at them again. “It looks like some sort of hair.”
“That’s not the worst of it,” Daniel paused. “There’s something out there; I could swear there were voices in the wind. Laughter and some other creepy shit.” Daniel shook his head and pressed his hand over his eyes.
“Voices?” she said, her mind beginning to numb to every new detail. “Like this is some sort of Goddamned haunted forest?”
“I don’t know, ok?” Daniel continued to massage his brow. “One thing I’m one hundred percent sure of is that we aren’t in California anymore.”
The two sat in silence for a time, until a frigid gust of wind caused them to huddle. Katrina picked one of the branches out of the pile; shivering, she looked at Daniel. “Well, I don’t care what the hell it is, as long as it burns. Can we get a fire going?”
He nodded. “Sure.” He started to dig into the muddy ground with his hands.
“What are you digging for?” she asked, her teeth starting to chatter.
“I’m making a fire pit. The last thing we need here is to burn down this forest while we sleep.”
Katrina looked at their surroundings. It was still too dark to fully grasp the forest, but there was clearly damp mud beneath them. “It seems pretty wet here; I don’t think we have to worry about a fire.”
Daniel just continued to work, placing rocks around the edge of the newly dug pit. “From my experience, you can never be too careful.”
Katrina didn’t reply; she just focused on warming herself up any way she could. She was wearing a light sweater, but it did little to keep out the cold.
He finally began to place the strange wood in the pit and prepared the site for a flame.
“How long will it take to make a fire like this?” Katrina asked, expecting him to pull two sticks out and rub them together. Then she realized that there weren’t any real sticks around anywhere. “Can you even make one with these?”
“I’ve got it covered,” Daniel said, pulling a zippo lighter from his pocket.
Katrina laughed a little, causing Daniel’s grin to become a full-blown smile. The light laughter brought a much-needed change in the atmosphere. Still, it faded too quickly as he attempted to ignite the strange hair-like substance. The stubborn material refused to burn, even after several minutes of constant attempts.
“What the hell is this stuff?” Daniel finally said, frustrated.
“Well, it sure as hell isn’t wood.” Katrina sighed.
Daniel held his lighter to the branch until the little flame started to burn his fingers. Annoyed, he threw the lighter to the ground.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled.
Then, in an instant, the pile of branches burst into flames.
“Holy shit!” Daniel yelled, falling back. Katrina screamed, her pitch high enough to ring Daniel’s ears. The two then sat silent and wide-eyed. The material crackled and popped as the fire whirled about, warming all who were near.
“How the hell?” Daniel shouted, jumping back from the intense flame. Katrina did the same but in the opposite direction.
Confusion swirled in Katrina’s mind and was only amplified by the bright red inferno that danced between them. Whispers emanated from the dark tree line around them, this time louder and now clearly in a strange language.
Daniel’s eyes met Katrina’s, and she saw the same terror she felt in his eyes. A cold wind howled past their shoulders, stinging their bare skin. Katrina experienced a sharp pain in her head, like someone was pushing a long needle into her brain. She winced at the sudden and invasive agony. Glancing at Daniel, she saw he was experiencing something similar.
She pressed her hands to her ears as the numerous voices started to get louder. She couldn’t even tell if it was in her head or not. “Stop…” she whimpered in futility. “Please, stop!”
Then in a moment, the voices ceased. She opened her eyes in surprise but heard movement below her. She glanced to see Robert’s hair and clothing blowing as if there was a much more powerful gust focused on the unconscious man. She crouched by his side in a feeble effort to shield him from the frigid assault, but as she did so, Robert’s head shot up and he gasped. His eyes opened wide, and Katrina let out a startled cry. The wind ceased instantly, and the three were left in silence.
Robert began frantically looking from side to side, mumbling as if confused. “Where am I?” he asked through chattering teeth. “What’s going on, Kat?”
Robert was obviously confused, cold, and scared, but Daniel looked more so.
Katrina broke his daze, calling to him. “Help me calm him down!” She was smiling, and tears dripped from her eyes.
Daniel quickly moved around the fire and knelt by Robert, grabbing his shoulder. It took several minutes, but Katrina’s frantic boyfriend eventually calmed down and sat up to look at her face. She pulled him in, wrapped her arms around his neck, and embraced him.
Robert looked as though he was carefully scanning his surroundings, looking at the dark tree line around them, the bright fire that warmed them, and then at Daniel, who sat with his legs crossed.
Katrina released him and shifted to the side, the three of them now in a small circle, facing each other.
Robert asked again, this time with more clarity. “What the hell happened?”