Chapter 3 - A forest adrift.

Chapter 3 - A forest adrift.

To my surprise it feels like the walk back takes a lot longer than it did on our way there. Could be because we are all tired after not having a good night’s worth of sleep, could be my imagination. Looking in the distance all I can see are more trees, but whatever the reason I suspect we should reach the road rather sooner than later. Luckily the journey is kept interesting by discussing our plans once we arrive in Budapest and an occasional stop here and there for some pictures of the beautiful scenery. Just having so much fun talking and laughing endlessly makes us fail to notice the situation we´re in.

The moment I want to make a comment on how weird it is that the walk is taking so long, Sarah suddenly blurts out;

“Hey, um, guys, not trying to be stereotypical or anything, but I get the feeling we should have already reached the road by now.”
“Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing.” I reply.
“We couldn’t be lost” Peter says “All we did was walk back in one straight line.”
“Is there any way to find out where we are right now?” Sarah asks.

Everybody grabs their phones at the same time to see if there is a signal or anything to find out our current location. To nobody’s surprise it’s the same as last night. 

“We are in the middle of nowhere” Alex states “in a country that is not exactly known for having great cellphone service.”
“Okay, so now what, Should we just keep going and hope we reach something familiar?” Noah asks.
“From what I can tell we haven’t been walking much longer than we did yesterday.” I reply “Maybe we started walking in the wrong direction after taking those pictures.”
“That is possible.” Max says.

He goes on to explain that there isn’t much we can do except to keep on walking and hope we reach a road, that we then follow trying to find our car or maybe a village that can help us find our car. Everybody agrees and resumes walking. This time less focused on the beautiful scenery or what we might do when we reach Budapest. From what I can tell everybody is a bit on edge now, they walk faster and talk less. Completely understandable but it could easily change into panic. Lost in the middle of nowhere. Walking deep in a forest, in a country none of us ever visited before.

- I can still remember the feeling of despair that slowly started setting in. -

This stop was my idea so I hope we find something real soon. From what I can tell we have been walking around for almost two hours now. When we were searching for a place to camp yesterday it took us maybe twenty or thirty minutes.
I look at my watch and confirm it’s been actually two hours and thirty minutes since we left camp. The sun is standing high in the sky at this point, making it easier to see into the distance now that it isn’t so dark anymore. Sadly this just made everybody tenser seeing as it looks like there is no end to this forest.
After walking a while longer we agreed to stop so we could eat and drink and discuss our current situation. I sat down my backpack, light up a cigarette and go on to proclaim that we are officially lost.

“I never thought I would get in a situation like this.” Alex says. “Maybe if I did we could have prepared some sort of navigation device, something that isn’t an app on my cellphone. How stereotypical that we have no connection out here in the middle of f*****g nowhere.”
“I agree” Noah replies, “I actually thought that we would end up dead in a hostel in Bratislava, Not lost in a forest in Croatia.”

Everyone laughed a bit but soon went dead silent when in the near distance the sound of, from what I can tell, metal smashing into each other was heard.

“What the f**k was that?” Sarah mutters.
“I have no idea.” Max replies quietly “Should we, um, maybe check it out?”
“You go check it out.” Sarah says. You could hear in her voice that she was scared.
“We’ll go and check it out.” I say to Sarah. She nods and sits down next to Noah.
“Alex, you and Max stay with the girls, Peter and I will go and see what that sound was.”

As soon as I said that you could hear the same sound again, and again. I throw away my cigarette and grab from my bag my Swiss knife, Peter does the same. We nod to each other and walk towards from where the sound was coming from. It seems to have stopped but I got a good sense of what direction it came from.
Peter and I tread carefully, walking from one tree to the next. We don’t know what made that sound, could be friendly, could mean danger, but it being here in the middle of the forest makes me think the latter. Suddenly Peter stops, looks at me and put his finger in front of his mouth as to gesture that we should be quiet from this moment forth.

“Look.” Peter says quietly. He then points his finger towards something. “There in the distance. I think I see someone sitting beneath that tree.”

After taking a good look in the direction he’s pointing at I can definitely see something underneath that tree. It could be a person.

                “Should we check it out?” I ask Peter.
                “No wait.” He replies “Let me confirm something.”

I can see Peter looking for something on the ground.

                “What are you looking for?” I ask him
                He looks up and shushes me.
                I stay quiet and wait to see what he is going to do.

After a brief moment Peter grabs a small stone from the ground. He shows me the stone and we look at each other. I understand what he means and gesture him to go for it.
He takes a step away from the tree we are hiding behind and throws the stone in the direction of where he was just pointing a moment ago. I take a look from behind the tree and see the stone falling on the floor right in front of what might be a person. It made a little noise when it hit the floor but nothing happened after that. No movement, nothing.

“This must be where we heard the noises coming from,” I say to Peter “but it seems we missed whatever happened here.”
                “I agree,” Peter responds “but if that is a person he must be sleeping, or worse.”

We look at each other and then proceed to investigate further. We cautiously step forward and try to get as close as we can. There are maybe four trees between us and whatever is on the ground over there. We follow the same method and walk from tree to tree. Until we reach the last tree standing in between us and the unknown.  It’s been a good couple of minutes already since we left the group, so I hope that they aren’t getting worried. I look at Peter as if to ask; what now? He tries to look around the tree and I can see him looking at something. His facial expression just changed from cautious to frightened. My curiosity gets the better of me and I try to get a look for myself. I carefully try to move my head to the side so I can look past the tree. Now, just a bit in the distance, I can see it very clearly now. There is someone lying over there. That person doesn’t seem to move at all. Not since we tried to throw a rock at it.
After taking a good look I move my head back and look at Peter. He is now sitting on the ground with his back against the tree. His face is without expression.

“Do you think he’s dead?” I ask him.
                He looks up at me and says “I don’t know man, what the hell happened over here and what was that noise we heard? It sounded like something made of metal was slammed against another thing made of metal.”
“I was thinking the exact same thing. But I don’t know if he’s dead and I don’t know what that sound was. Best thing to do is go near and see if we can find out. I mean; if he is alive he might know where we are right now.”

“Just to get this out of my mind,” Peter suddenly says “but I once read about people doing shrooms in a forest just like this one.”
“This isn’t the time to talk about doing drugs Pete.” I cut him short.
“I know, I know, but hear me out man.” Peter goes on “These guys had like this crazy adventure that seemed so real to them, while thinking that they were sober. But in reality they were all actually still trippin’ their balls off. You understand what I mean?”
“I get what you mean, but Pete we took shrooms a lot of times together and this is nothing like that.”
“Well, whatever the reason I just wanted you to know that I think this might be us still having hallucinations on shrooms.”
“Right. And what makes you think that?”
“Well for starters; there might be a dead guy lying over there, and maybe that we have been walking in this forest for hours now already and haven’t reached anything yet. Even though everyone was convinced we’ve been walking in a straight line.”
“You make some good points.” I reply. “But even so, I think we should check out if what is lying over there is a hallucination or not. And See if it might tell us where we are.”
“Yeah you’re right.” Peter replies relieved “But you go first okay?”

I really didn´t want to go first, this scenario is something straight out of a horror movie. But we were lost and the only one that has a slight chance of knowing where we are is sitting against a tree, right over there on the ground, a few feet away from where Peter and I were hiding. After looking left and right I confirm there is no one in sight, nobody that could harm is. Someone may be hiding somewhere so, just to be safe, I grab my Swiss army knife from out of my pocket and unclip the knife piece. Peter does the same. We nod to each other and I carefully approach the person lying on the ground. I look back and see peter following closely. Step by step we come closer and closer. By now I´m close enough to see it is indeed a man. Taking one step closer I now see that this man was attacked. There is something pierced in his chest and he is covered in blood. At this moment I freeze, never saw a dead person before in my life. My hand comes up to cover my mouth.
Am I in shock? I can’t seem to take another step. Peter comes up to my side, his hand also covering his mouth. We look at each other and I can see an expression on Peter’s face I’ve never seen before. The expression I am making must look the same. A combination of anguish and distress.
Looking back at the man I see that what is pierced in his chest is some sort of giant knife, a dagger maybe. I further investigate the man and it now dawns on me that he is wearing pieces of fabric, like a homeless person, yet the pieces are woven together. He looks really old, with long messy grey hair and the dirtiest beard I have ever seen. Does this man live in the forest? Now, more confused than scared, I get the urge to help this man.  Suddenly the man makes a coughing sound. It makes me jolt up. I look back at Peter again and see his eyes completely widened in fear. At this moment I think to myself what I should do, so many thoughts at once. Should I help? Can I help? Should I get help? Will help be here on time? Is there even anyone around who can help? Is this what panic feels like? I could feel my legs shaking.
Suddenly hearing another cough reels me back into reality. Quickly I turn my head back to look at the man. His eyes now opened and looking straight at me and then down to the knife in my hand. I can see blood coming from his mouth. I take a step closer and see the man reacts scared by painfully trying to move away. I turn to Peter and hand him my knife.

“What are you doing?” He asks surprised.
                “He isn’t dead yet but he will be if no one will help him soon.” My voice trembles.
                “Do you even know what to do?!”
“Of course I don’t! You run back and get Sarah; she will know what to do.”

Peter looks me in the eyes for a couple of seconds, and then looks at the man. I could see him thinking about what would be the best course of action. Is it really smart to leave me here alone? He looks at me, hands me back my knife and says;

                “You better still be here when I come back.”

With that said he starts running towards where we left the others. I put the knife back in my pocket and turn to face the man again. I put my hands up and say to the man;

“Don’t worry, the knife was for my own protection, I’m not here to hurt you. If you let me, I could try to help.”

He coughs once more and this time his hand quickly covers his mouth. I can clearly see that he is coughing up blood. He looks back at me and I can hear him mutter something. I can’t understand what he’s saying so I try to move in closer. Luckily this time he doesn’t react like I’m here to hurt him. I squad down in front of him and can clearly see that this man needs a hospital. Now close enough to understand what the man is trying to say I’m also close enough to see the damage this man has sustained. I am afraid that in this forest, underneath this tree, he will breathe his last breath.

“Please don’t try to move.” I say to the man “You are in really bad shape. What happened to you?”
“Are you….” He tries to say “Are you…. Here to finish the job?”

Surprised by what this man just asked of me I couldn’t find the right words to answer with;

“I… No… Me and my friends we were just camping and… no… I’m not here to, um, finish the job.” I could hardly speak so stunned was I by what this man just said.  “We are lost actually and Peter, um… my friend just now, he um… he is getting someone who might help. She’s a nurse so just hold on tight okay?”

He suddenly grabs my shoulder and for a dying man; he still has a strong grip. So strong it took me by surprise. Because of this I stumble and land on one hand. He makes use of this to pull me in closer, so close that he can now whisper in my ear.

“I got him good.” He says while coughing. “He left without finishing me off, bless the gods.”

Slowly dying while coughing up blood is not something I would be thankful for, I think to myself.

“Take the dagger from my chest, it shows his insignia.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.” I reply.

He suddenly let’s go of my shoulder and moves his hand towards his other arm. With effort I see him try to get his hands together. He then takes the ring that was on his finger and moves his arm towards mine.

“Take this ring.” He mutters. “Get it to the mine, they will know what it means, and show them the dagger.”
I nod to him and take the ring, but then remember that I have no idea where we are. “I will try but I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about this mine, or where it is.”
“Go east.” He replies. “And if you can…” he continues while coughing up blood. “If you can… Find my book. He took it from me.”
“I don’t know if I can promise you that. I’m not from here, but I will go east and inform the police about your book.”
“Someone betrayed me.” He goes on to say. “He knew I was trying to use the crystals.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Please take it easy, I can see you’re in a lot of pain.”

He mutters some more things but I can’t understand what he is trying to say. His speech is becoming harder and harder to hear, I believe he is nearing his end.
Then, from in the distance, I can hear Sarah shouting my name. I look back and see the rest of the group running towards us. I sigh with relief but realize there is probably nothing we can do to save His life.
I turn to face the old man and look him in the eyes. It hurts me deeply to see someone in such agony and despair. I tell him everything will be okay now and that I´m sorry I couldn´t be here sooner. He closes his eyes and lets his head rest back against the tree.

                - When seeing someone die right in front of you, something inside of you dies as well. -