With a sharp tug, the weight of his father’s hiking pack dug into his shoulders, but Eugen carried it with little difficulty. A quick glance at his friend Otto, and he was off entering the trail that was curtained by endless deciduous trees decorated with bushes and vines. Glee blossomed in his chest as he heard his friend protest behind him.
“Hey Eugen! Wait up for me, will you?” said Otto. Huffs and puffs sounding behind him along with the jingle of their small tin pot.
“Nah. Slowpokes have to make their own way,” Eugen grinned over his shoulder at Otto. The air was already reasonably cooler beneath the covers of leaves, and he couldn’t help but to inhale the rich scents of the forest. “Hurry up! We have to make it to camp before sundown.”
“With that attitude, you’ll be lucky if I make you food,” said Otto, sounding slightly offended. Bright songs of birds responded to Otto, along with his laughter. He stopped for a moment so Otto would catch up, then continued along the path that arched upwards at a more measured pace.
“Let’s set up the fire first when we make camp,” said Eugen, a smirk forming on his face. Otto was quiet for a bit. They had scoped out the area they would camp at a week ago through the internet and common tent areas posted on reddit. Five minutes away from a river, but surrounded by a protective grove of trees.
“Didn’t we agree on clearing the area first, food after?”
“Yeah, but how else can I lighten up your mood? There’s no need to be so serious! We’re camping! It’s an exciting new experience,” replied Eugen, slinging his arm over the bulky bag Otto carried. He leaned over to give Otto’s head a little knuckle sandwich.
“Yes, new experience... Why did I agree to this again?” sighed Otto, looking unconvinced at Eugen’s boisterous mood.
“It’s precious bonding time. Think about it: no parents, or bothersome siblings. Just you and I, talking about as many girls as we can, sharing scary stories at two AM to keep us awake without getting yelled at to sleep,” he said, excitement pitching his tone as he kept thinking of the relaxing night they’ll have away from civilization. He brought Otto along since they did everything together. A night deep in the woods was a great break from the regular flow of life. “It’ll be a night to remember.”
If only he knew how accurate that would be.
☘
A heavy sigh came out as Eugen sat down on a nearby tree trunk. The back of his calves were aching, along with the arch of his foot. Otto was somehow still standing, holding the map they were following. Eugen hoisted his bag off of his shoulders, immediately feeling lighter with racing pain running down his shoulders. He looked at Otto as he frowned at the map, and leaned his head back up at the canopy of trees.
“How much farther?” he asked Otto, shaking his shoulders out. He pulled his canteen off his pack and began to drink the water inside. A gentle breeze danced through the trees, bringing faint ‘whooshing’ sounds to their ears.
“Not much longer man. The river we were planning on sleeping near is a little farther up the path. We can make it there by lunch,” claimed Otto, folding up the map and returning it to his pocket. He took the canteen from Eugen’s grip, causing water to spill on his pants –– the cool liquid quickly warmed against his body.
“Really? You could have just asked for it,” said Eugen, trying to shake the water out of his clothes to no avail.
“At the rate you were drinking, you’d finish it all before I said anything,” with that, Otto tipped the canteen back, and the remaining water poured into his mouth. Drops of water hit Otto’s cheek, and he shook the canteen upside down at Eugen, before throwing it at his chest. With a shake of his head, he clipped the canteen back onto his backpack. “Great, you drank it all.”
“We can fill it up again at the river,” replied Eugen, pushing down on his knees as he stood up.
“You owe me the first sip. I’ll die of thirst by the time we get there!” said Otto, dramatically swooning like a damsel in distress. Eugen punched him in the arm, and Otto winced at his punch. Eugen slung his bag back on, and gestured for Otto to guide them through the forest. “Ow! Why’d you punch me so hard?”
“Just lead the way Otto,” said Eugen. Otto raised his hands in surrender, and guided Eugen through low-hanging branches, and across large roots that broke through the dirt. A bird call happily sang through the air, getting suddenly blocked out by the buzzing of mosquitoes flying near Eugen’s face. He smacked the base of his neck, irritated that despite the heat of the day, the pesky flies were coming out for a snack.
For twenty minutes, all that came out of him and Otto were huffs as they climbed their way up and down through the root and rock filled terrain of the forest. Eugen was focused on putting his weight on his right leg as he rose up the current incline they were travelling on, when his face scraped against the back of Otto’s backpack. The tin pot rattled with the momentum of Eugen’s face smashing into his friend’s bag. He quickly looked up at his friend’s face, and felt unsettled seeing the disgusted look in Otto’s eyes.
There were a lot of flies flying around them, but he didn’t understand why until he turned his head to what Otto was looking at. Shock grinded against his stomach: a large bear carcass had its intestines sprawled out all over the place, at places the intestine ripped in half showcasing the inner cavity to the sky. Flies were happily buzzing all over the carcass, its eyes glassy with its muscles and fur sagging into the large bone structure it had. Red painted the ground, some blood had even landed on the nearby bushes.
“Oh my god,” said Otto, his hand clutching at his stomach. “What do you think happened to it?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t really want to find out,” said Eugen, aghast at the corpse. The intestines seemed to have been pulled out from the base of the body, but there were no footprints anywhere near the body. Eugen picked up a stick from nearby. He walked forwards, wondering if there was any clue hidden inside it.
“Don’t go close to it!” shouted Otto, grabbing at his arm. Despite how nasty it was, Eugen felt the need to check for clues, no matter how disgusting it was.
“Let me just…” muttered Eugen. He took his stick, and leaned towards the desecrated body with his hand plugging his nose. The smell caused his throat to clog up a couple times. The tip of the stick poked the fur covering the bear’s ribs, and the muscles sank further through the spaces of the bones. “Ugh. Nevermind, let’s continue on.”
With that, Eugen and Otto turned their backs on the body, and continued along the path. The rushing triumph of the river sounding closer at each step, before they stepped into a clearing. The flowing river just at the edge of the clearing, with trees and bushes decorating the surrounding.
“What do you think did that to such a big bear?” asked Otto, pure horror sounding in his voice. They sat down, resting their legs in their soon-to-be camp site, dropping their heavy bags beside them.
“I don’t know. I hope we don’t find out. Come on, let’s just focus on setting up camp. I’m sure whatever it was has passed through this area, and we’ll be fine for the night,” replied Eugen with confidence in his voice, even though inside, he felt queasy at the thought of whatever did that was roaming the woods around them. This was their time to relax: to get away from the world. There’s no reason to focus on what had happened to some bear. They would be fine, he assured himself.
“Yeah, okay. Let me see which bag has our tent,” said Otto, heaving himself up with a bit of effort. Otto started to dig through their bags, and Eugen got up to go fill up his canteen.
☘
Sparks flew away from the crackle of the fire. Cold seeped into Eugen’s knees, contrasting the smoky heat assaulting his face and chest, as he poked and prodded the campfire to perfection. Crickets cried in harmonies with the sounds of other wildlife surrounding him and Otto. Otto was laying on his sleeping bag. It lay a reasonable distance from the fire inside their tent, but still close enough to feel the warmth of the fire in the dark of night.
The flames were dying out as Eugen kept trying to keep it alive. However, the stubborn flame kept shrinking further away from the air as he prodded the wood around it.
“Can you get us some more firewood?” he asked, trying to feed the flames more dead grass and leaves. Within seconds they started smoking and crumbled to ash, but nothing caught flame.
“Ugh. You just had to ask me after I relaxed. Fine, fine. I’ll do it,” said Otto, quickly conceding at the look he sent Otto. Eugen turned back towards the fire, and heard his friend shuffling behind him, before footsteps receded into the sounds of nighttime wildlife around him.
The light sounds of crickets hugged Eugen in calmness. Sitting in front of the heat of the fire in the middle of nowhere with his best friend, made Eugen feel incredibly peaceful and happy. When his mother said yes, he was just so excited to come here. Growing up, Eugen and his father always came here to —
A shrill scream.
Startled, Eugen rose. He surveyed their small camp: two sleeping blankets lay horizontal to the river a couple paces away, their bags hung up on tall tree branches away from critters. The trees appeared more ominous as he looked into the dark voids around them, the dying flame lighting up nothing around him.
He gripped the stick tight in his hand, the bark scratching the inside of his palm. Approaching the edge of the clearing, he felt as if eyes were crawling down his spine. The beating of his heart rushed him forwards, stumbling through the darkness of the forest surrounding him.
“Otto? Are you there?!” he yelled into the woods. An eerie quiet hushed through his surroundings. Every step he took echoed in the dark. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him with flashes of red here and there when he looked at a bush. The red was round like berries, so he must be surrounded by berry bushes.
Eugen kept yelling Otto’s name. Anxiety and fear paced deep inside his belly, his back arching straighter at how scary the forest seemed to him now that it swallowed his friend up. Otto must just be up ahead: there’s no way that he travelled so deep into the woods for firewood. Eugen kept tripping over pieces of branches and roots — there was more than enough wood around to keep the fire going well into the night.
“Where are you man?” he yelled out for his friend. There was no reply. He was panicking now, his breaths quick with the pulse of his anxiety skyrocketing. An especially large root wrapped around his foot with his next step.
His chest smashed harshly into the ground beneath him, stopping his racing breathing suddenly. Gasping for the next moment of oxygen, he looks up near his hands, to push his body up when he sees the base of a shoe laying on the ground near his fingertips. Was that Otto?
“Otto?” he rasped, struggling to push himself into a standing position. Getting onto his knees, he kept his eyes focused on the shoe which turned into a foot, then a leg, then a similar scene of the dead bear. Except this time, the demolished carcass was his best friend Otto. Vomit rushed out of him, and he fell back onto the ground, leaning on his hands, right beside the legs. Small pinpricks hit him in the base of his eyes, and he raised one shaking dirt covered hand to feel his cheek to realize he was crying. Otto was dead.
Horror was his only friend now. What was he going to tell Otto’s family? God, what was he thinking inviting Otto out camping? Eugen was thrown out of his train of thought with something that felt like a softball drilling into his stomach. He crumpled over himself groaning, rolling on his side holding his stomach in a fetal pose. When his hand met his stomach, it pressed onto a moist, mushy substance that coated his shirt.
Bringing his hand up to his face, he gave it a sniff and immediately started coughing. The putrid smell of poop assaulted his nose. A trickle of blood came down the side of his mouth, pain radiating deep within his body as bones creaked and cracked with each movement.
“What… Did I get hit by poop?” he muttered to himself, trying to wipe off the poop on his hand off on the grass of the forest floor beneath him. “That’s just odd… It hurt so much too.”
He tried getting up again, raising his head to survey the surroundings when he locked onto a bush. It seemed normal, but different. There was red peering through the leaves of the bush, and it kind of looked like an eye? It stared at him, and he stared back at whatever it was within the leaves. A rustle sounded beside him, and he quickly shot his head over to see another eye peeking out from a bush except this time he could see more of what was there.
A big green fungi had a bright red eye in the middle of its head, with a wide stalk that was hidden beneath the bush. Another rustle, and when he glanced over, a thin twig was reaching towards Otto’s carcas, where his large intestines were scattered over the forest floor. It reached for them, and when the twig came back, it was wrapped around a big ball of Otto’s poop.
The twig raised up in the air, and became the last thing Eugen saw as poop was hurled at a speed he couldn’t imagine towards his face, feeling pain for a moment, hearing a crunch of his skull bones, before the world fell to black.
