The Wild Hike: Part I

The group reached the top of the hill. Beth let go of the limb she’d pushed aside to pass through. It whipped back and struck Jessie in the neck. “Ow! Shit, that’s like the third time,” Jessie whimpered. She did have several welts on her shoulder and neckline. “God, this was a terrible idea.”

Beth turned around and gasped. From their new height, she could see out over the miles they’d hiked. A lush forest of vibrant green rolling along with the rise and fall of the hilltops. Beyond, she could make out the hint of the small town where they’d started their journey. Her sweaty and irritated friend did slightly ruin the moment. “Sorry, sorry,” Beth said. “Really though, you should have worn a full shirt.”

Jessie had chosen an olive tank top under the assumption they would be getting sun on their hike. That had been partially true. The first mile took them over a pretty open field. After that, they’d been under tree canopy for the majority of the day. The bugs didn’t mind the shade. Among the few welts from errant tree limbs or weeds, Jessie had a good collection of bug bites. Normally, Jessie had a messy, though carefully chosen, assemblage of punk colors and glossy tones hugging her curvy figure while she glared around at the world with sardonic eyes. After a few hours in the wilderness, she was a sweaty, miserable mess with her tits half hanging out. It made Beth giggle.

“What’re you two doing back there?” David called from up ahead. They both heard the irritation in his voice. A few feet ahead of him, Liam stood drinking water while surveying whatever waited beyond the hilltop.

“Catching our breath,” Jessie called. “You prick,” she added under her breath.

Beth frowned. “You promised to be nice to him.”

“This is an awful lot to ask to get Liam to notice you have a vagina.”

The other girl waved her hands frantically in front of Jessie, trying to quiet her. “You agreed to all this, you know. Hell, you said it was a great idea.”

“That’s because I thought we were going for a quick jog into wine country, not a two day hike into the fucking jungle of North America. I thought I’d get a nice tan while looking at Liam’s tight butt in jogging shorts. Hey, looking is fair game. But no, they’re wearing fucking cargo shorts, I’ve got a trench of sweat between my boobs, and I have to play wingwoman with Liam’s misanthropic friend. Which is a nice way of saying thanks for sticking me with the asshole.”

Beth crossed her arms while her friend vented. “You done?”

“Yeah, I’m done. He better marry you or at least have a massive dick.”

They adjusted their packs and continued up to join the guys. David cut his eyes at them as they approached, but Liam smiled broadly, like a giddy school kid. Of the four, Liam truly seemed in his element. Nature didn’t pose any barrier to him. He wasn’t drenched in sweat, swarmed by bugs, or even tired. He looked invigorated and excited, to the point that his mood was infectious, at least to Beth. “We’re lucky,” Liam said. “River is dry. Well, for a river.”

Beth followed his gesture to look down between the trees at the foot of the hill. A small river waited in their path. She could see a bridge directly ahead of them. Their path had not indicated any rhyme or reason, but clearly Liam had navigated them with clear direction in mind. “How is it dry for a river?”

David answered, “It’s a snow melt river. Depends on the season, but it can get as high as where we’re standing. You can see the watermarks on the trees when we’re closer.”

Beth didn’t blame her friend for not liking David. She’d become somewhat numb to his dismissive and patronizing tone from the time she’d already spent with him. Beth didn’t think David liked her very much either, but he found Jessie especially unpleasant. At least the two of them had that in common. “So, are we stopping here?”

Liam shook his head and pointed to some nondescript place beyond the river. “The place I heard about it is over that direction. Can’t get to it most of the year because of the flooding. Supposed to be a good clearing for a campsite. Nearby small stream for fresh water, that kind of thing. You two hanging in all right?”

“We’re great,” Beth said. She didn’t want to let on that she felt as miserable as Jessie looked. She turned to her friend for backup, and Jessie managed a smile.

“Good, let’s get moving,” David grumbled. “You three aren’t lugging around ten gallons of booze.”

They set off down the hill, Liam once again leading the way with David cutting a huge swath through the forest behind him. Beth and Jessie followed along in tandem a few feet further back. The guys didn’t have trouble stepping over briars or small limbs, but Beth did. She was the shortest of the group, two inches under Jessie. Normally she wore heels to compensate, but that didn’t work out in the wilderness. The petite height helped duck under some of the limbs, but having to take two steps for each of David’s made it worse.

Beth hadn’t expected the trip to be so rigorous, no matter what brave face she put on for Jessie. She too thought it would be a short, but difficult hike on a well traveled path. They’d have a nice picnic, get drunk, and maybe Liam would finally make a move. Now she wondered if she would collapse from fatigue before reaching the campsite.

Tromping down the hill, which was surprisingly steeper than she realized, Beth once again had the opportunity to reflect on how she had wound up in the middle of the forest with two guys she didn’t even know that well. She met Liam at a bar three months earlier. They knew each other through friends and took a liking to each other right away. At least, Beth thought so. She struck up conversations with him through texts, and Liam responded. Some nights they actually called each other and talked for hours.

It never moved forward though. Even when they hung out together, things stayed weird. One night, Liam spent a whole evening chatting her up at the bar only to abruptly leave, effectively stranding Beth with Jessie. Another night, he ignored her for most of the evening until last call when he wrapped his arm around her while they were walking to a new party. He leaned his forehead against hers, and she was convinced he would finally kiss her. Nothing happened. They reached the party, found a couch, and Liam fell asleep on her shoulder. Beth didn’t mind, at least not too much.

The whole relationship made her question whether she was sending mixed signals. Jessie told her to be more direct, which is what led to winding up in the woods. She went with Liam and David to lunch the previous week. They’d been talking about a hiking trip they had planned, eventually mentioning it would be more fun if others went with them. Beth piped up with, “Jessie and I love to camp.” The girls spent the next four days researching how to camp and buying hiking gear. All of it would be worth it if Liam pulled Beth close to him under the starry sky, leaned his head against hers, and finally told her how he felt. Assuming his feelings would be romantic, otherwise the rest of the two day trip would be an awkward nightmare.

“It looks like rain,” Jesse said, utter defeat in her voice.

Beth looked up at the dark sky and frowned. Liam obsessed over the weather all week, ecstatic that it would be bright and sunny for the duration of their trip. “Maybe just heavy cloud cover.”

“God, I hope so. Something needs to go our way on this trip.”

An hour later, they arrived at the bridge. Up close, the old wooden structure instilled much less confidence. “This thing has been here for years,” Liam said, trying to head off the wavering confidence of the group.

“Everything has been somewhere for years, right up until it collapses,” David murmured.

“It’s not going to collapse. They built it to survive the flooding. Besides, the water isn’t that deep. We could wade across if it falls in.” Liam looked at the other guy who shrugged. “You go first though.”

“What? Why?”

“You’re the heaviest. If you can make it across, the rest of us won’t have a problem. You’ll be fine. Go carefully for the first few steps to match the sway of the bridge, then watch out for any weak boards.” Liam stood aside like a game show host introducing the grand prize.

David continued to grumble, but hoisted his pack up and ambled across the bridge. The other three watched with tense nerves as the wooden and wire structure swayed over the gentle waters. David reached the other side without issue, stuck out his hands in a “ta-da” fashion, and spun around. “Right,” Liam said, “After you, girls.”

Jessie trundled forward, leaving Beth lingering with Liam. “Do we need to let her go first?”

“I don’t think so,” Liam said. “Worry was about one or two planks. The wires are fine.” Nevertheless, they waited for Jessie to be more than halfway across before they followed. Beth went first, but Liam came right behind her. “Beth, I’ve been meaning to tell you, but we haven’t had much chance to talk all morning. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Oh? Yeah, I’m glad I’m here, too.” Oh my god, why would he pick now, on the middle of a fucking bridge, to tell me this?

“I think everyone should really experience nature from time to time, you know? I like taking people out on trips like this. Used to go with my dad a lot. It’s always a bit rough at first, but every single person finds the joy in it by the end. Even David. He may seem to hate it, but if you catch him when he’s off guard, you’ll see a sort of serene peace about him.”

Of course, he’s rambling about nature, not me.

“I am especially glad that you’re here, though.”

God dammit.

“Oi! Liam, what the fuck is this?” David and Jessie stood a few yards ahead of the bridge staring into the forest. Liam trotted over to join them, and Beth followed at a snail’s pace, somewhat sulking. “Some kind of art installation way the hell out here?” David pointed at a statue peering out from between the trees.

“Huh, must be. Looks old, doesn’t it?” Liam stepped toward the statue, pulling aside some of the brush for a better look. It was a wolf, about twice Liam’s size, made of smooth, black stone. The animal posed in a seated position with its front paws close together and its tail wrapped around its flank. The muzzle was shut, and the eyes oddly lifelike as it looked down on them. “This thing is old. Must have been put out here in the fifties.”

Jessie moved forward and ran her hands over the statue. “How? It didn’t come across that bridge. This thing isn’t plaster, it’s solid rock. Must weigh a few tons.”

“Maybe they dropped it in with a helicopter?” Beth suggested. She didn’t care about the dumb statue. She wanted to tell Jessie about yet another irritating interaction with Liam. The more she looked at the stone beast, though, the more she found it unnerving. Beth had the distinct impression that the statue was happy to see her. Which was silly, of course. Turning away from it, she saw another dark shape in the nearby woods. “There’s another one.”

The others all turned their heads in sync to look. A small path laid ahead of them, but the next statue was ten yards off of it. Beth didn’t know how she’d seen it at all. David pushed through the small growth and started pulling vines off of what they soon saw to be a large cat. “Mountain lion?”

Beth moved into the brush to get a better look. She put her hand on the stone and spoke quietly, “No, these are older than the fifties.” Speaking up, “It’s a panther.”

“How can you tell?” David asked.

“Not sure. Mountain lions are bigger, I think. Leaner too.”

Jessie stood back on the trail and called toward them, “Technically, it’s a jaguar. No such thing as a panther. That’s what we call black jaguars. Leopards are similar, but those live in Asia. And we don’t really get jaguars this far north, but Beth’s right, it’s not big enough to be a mountain lion.” She noticed Liam eyeing her with amazement. “What? I had a thing for big cats as a kid.”

Beth continued to run her hand over the creature’s massive, cold paw. “They’re so lifelike. They’re carved to be this, too. Can you imagine? Starting from a block of stone and pulling this out of it. Whoever did this was insanely talented.”

“Guys,” Liam called. “There’s more.”

They fanned out into the woods. Over the next half hour, they discovered another ten statues. A stallion half as tall as the surrounding trees, a rabbit made of green stone, a bear that created a long argument between David and Jessie over its species, an ox or bull that was half buried, a fox peeking out from between two old oaks, a life size eagle which had somehow fallen into a nearby stream, a rat discovered between the hooves of the stallion by Liam, a boar with tusks sharp enough to make a small cut on Jessie’s finger, a deer which stared with alert eyes across the forest at the large cat statue, and a final twelfth statue that had been shattered. Each of them gave the human visitors an uneasy feeling. They all seemed to be frozen in stone rather than sculpted from it, as though they might spring to life in the next instant. As they noted the statue’s positions, they saw the twelve stones formed a circle.

“I heard a podcast a while back,” Liam said as they gathered back on the trail. Their forays into the brush left them a little more scuffed, but their moods had improved dramatically after the long morning. “One of those ‘spooky’ kinds, you know. They tell ghost stories, but a few of them were about these old houses built by crazy rich people during the early 1800s. They would make hedge mazes and topiaries and all that stuff we think of as creepy.”

“Like the Overlook Hotel,” David mused.

“Right. So maybe that’s what happened here. This would be a great spot for some whacko rich guy who thought the mountain air would clear his lungs of tuberculosis.”

“So where’s the house?” Beth asked.

Liam shrugged. “Never got built? Burned down? Who knows, a lot can happen in two hundred years. Even one of these statues didn’t make it.”

“They give me the creeps,” Jessie said, finally giving voice to the feeling that lurked in all their minds. “The more you look at them, the more they look real.”

They paused their conversation, keenly aware of the blank eyes looking at them from all directions. A boom of thunder interrupted the moment. “We better keep moving,” Liam said. “Clearing is supposed to be about two miles from the bridge. If we want to make it before the rain, we’ll need to make good time.”

“Yay,” David said, flatly.

They spent a few minutes readjusting their packs before heading down the trail into the heart of the forest. While they all appreciated getting some distance between themselves and the statues, none of them completely shook the feeling of the eyes watching them. The lingering thoughts about the strange art pushed Beth’s short conversation with Liam on the bridge out of her head. Instead, she now worried about things in the woods. She knew the area could have mountain cats and other usual animals like coyotes and bobcats, even a few bears. She wouldn’t mind seeing a rabbit or a deer, but thinking about the wolf loping along beside them in the shadows made her blood run cold.

By the time they arrived at the campsite, they’d been walking in a steady drizzle for twenty minutes. Liam remained cheerful in his rain slicker, but the other three looked a bedraggled mess. The campsite sat on top of a small hill, giving them enough elevation over the surrounding forest to get a good view out over the valley and mountains. The site itself was nothing more than a flat, grassy area with a shallow pit at its center for campfires. Beth knew they would be roughing it, but it still surprised her. If Jessie had any good humor left, it wasn’t evident.

“Ah, this place is great!” Liam said. “I think there’s some logs over there we can drag in to sit around the fire. Isn’t this place great?”

“Yeah, it’s way better than any other single spot in this cursed, fucking forest,” David grumbled.

“Looks like the real rain is going to stay north of us, but we should get set up no matter what,” Liam continued. “You girls need help with your tent?”

“No. We’ll be fine,” Jessie said, slinging her pack to the wet grass.

They’d practiced setting up the tent back in civilization, though they hadn’t exactly succeeded. The rain didn’t help. The next thirty minutes became a flurry of tarp, stakes, ropes, and surprisingly resilient tubing. Liam managed his tent in less than five minutes, though he worried audibly about the wet ground undermining his stakes. He moved on to help David, and then the two of them built up a fire from scrounging relatively dry wood from the nearby underbrush. While they worked, the rain picked up, and the temperature dropped. With their three tents assembled and the fire fighting back the growing gloom of a drizzling, rainy night, they all retreated into their new temporary homes.

The inside of the tent gave them a surprising amount of room. David and Liam opted for smaller pup tents, but since they’d decided to share one, the girls brought a sixty square foot model meant to suit four adults. Unfortunately, they’d only been able to carry small bedrolls which provided little cushion against the ground. They spent a few minutes spreading out their things, setting aside the ones which needed to dry. Luckily, both girls managed to keep a change of clothes from the rain.

Beth zipped up the tent door, but still felt a thrill when she wriggled out of her wet shorts. Jessie had not bothered to wait for the flap to close, pulling off her shirt and sports bra to let her breasts breathe after a very long day in confinement. Beth had seen her friend naked more than a few times, but the low light and strange setting made it seem surreal. They were both stripping out of wet clothes mere inches away from the guy she had a crush on. Liam and David could most likely see their silhouettes cast from the small lantern. The thrill quieted when Beth realized her silhouette would look rather plain compared to Jessie’s. The other girl’s breasts were twice as big as Beth’s. Frowning, she pulled on her dry clothes and made her impatience clear to her friend. Jessie pulled on an oversized shirt that hid her figure, leaving her as an unkempt mess who would be thankful for the low light.

The rain stopped, but thunder and lightning rolled in the distance. The guys changed as well, but only from one set of nondescript shirt and shorts to another. Liam built up the fire to drive back the chill while David hauled out the booze and food. Jessie made the bold peace offering of moving to sit beside David. He handed her a plastic cup half filled with whiskey as the two commiserated in silence. Beth sat on the log in front of their tent, wishing Liam would come over and sit beside her. He didn’t, but he did give her a drink. The food was more meager. Liam moved around the fire roasting hot dogs. Hiking off into the wilderness didn’t lead any of them to expect a full course meal, but the smell of the blistering meat made each of them ravenous. David passed around small bags of chips, and Beth made silent plans to raid her trail mix stash whenever they had a moment back in the tent.

“Remember to keep all your trash,” Liam said. “Pass it over to me, and I’ll bag it. Wouldn’t want bears waking us up.”

“Is that a real possibility?” Jessie asked, a dreary gloom in her tone, as though being assaulted by a bear would be par for the course at this point.

“Possible, sure. Not a lot of bears this far down the mountain range, but they’re out there. Humans don’t come out here often though, so they’ll probably be spooked by our scent. I’m not worried about it, but better safe than —”

“Mauled by a bear, got it.” She drained her drink and held out the empty cup to David who filled it again.

They sat in silence, listening to the pop and crackle of the wet wood in the fire. Clouds rolled overhead, but the rain didn’t pick up again. Still, they could all smell the scent of it on the wind. They ate and moved on to roasting marshmallows. As they warmed up from the fire and the booze, their moods improved. The ache of the hike settled into their muscles. While they all doubted they’d be able to move in the morning, at the moment the ache provided a satisfied exhaustion. “Alright then,” David said as he peeled the roasted skin off of a marshmallow. “How about a ghost story?”

Jessie moved over to sit down beside Beth, leaning into her friend’s shoulder. “Hatchet murderers in the woods? Going to have to do better than that Dave.”

David’s one attempt at good humor soured immediately. His face fell, and he nursed his drink in silence. Liam didn’t notice, “I have one. The guy who told me about this campsite also told me about the spirits that live in the woods. I think he did it to sell the whole mystique of the adventure. You see, this land has had humans on it for thousands of years. We think about the world like it started when Europeans showed up, but thousands of years before any of that, people lived on this land. Nomadic tribes came across the Bering Strait and settled all over the place. They found new gods and new spirits in the wilds of the new continent. Some were kind and taught the people things like farming and hunting. Some were cruel and hated the humans. One of the cruel ones lived here. The old man who told me the story called the forest god Faulon.”

“Didn’t you say you heard about this place from your cousin or something?” David interjected.

“Shut up. Go with the story.”

“Yeah, David, shut up,” Jessie added with a giggle. The whiskey had started to get to her. Beth gently took the cup from her friend’s hand.

“Anyway,” Liam continued, “Faulon was a trickster god who hated the humans encroaching on his lands. Faulon wanted to keep the land for the other creatures of nature, so he sent the predators of the land to harass and kill the invading humans. The animals, though, were not so driven by cruelty. They did not see a difference between themselves and the humans. Faulon’s instructions were a violation of the natural laws, and so the creatures rebelled. Faulon took and captured their leaders, turning them to stone and imprisoning them in the forest. But this weakened Faulon, leaving him vulnerable. A human hunter battled the forest spirit and won, slaying Faulon and casting his spirit to the winds.”

“How exactly is this a ghost story?” Beth asked. Bitterly, she realized she’d heard enough of Liam’s nonsense for one day.

“I’m getting to that part. Faulon’s body was destroyed, but his spirit remained. He’d been robbed of his mind, but his malice persisted. The spirit lived on in its new form, an entity known as the Stranger. Tribes came and went to this region, and all of them could tell the same story over the years. On dark nights, when the rain and wind died down, their tribal leaders would gather around the campfire to discuss the next choices for the tribe. Four would come to the fire and sit, but as the night progressed and as the fire turned to embers, each would see that not four sat around the fire, but five. The four tribal leaders and a fifth, the Stranger.

“Over time, the tribes learned to let the spirit sit the night around the fire, even to offer it food or water. This would appease the entity’s wrath, and it would allow the tribe to pass through the lands safely. Others would cast out the spirit, but that was a mistake. Faulon’s malicious spirit would haunt the tribe, stealing away people and making them vanish into the forest. Of course, the Stranger still visits campfires in the forest to this day. It comes entirely unnoticed and many who see it believe it was always there. Those that survive anyway.”

They all thought it was a silly story, cobbled together on the fly by their slightly tipsy friend. Still, all ghost stories feel true while sitting around a campfire. Each of the four felt a prickling of their skin as they scanned the ring of light. The shadows moved with the wind. Each of the hikers had a moment of distilled fear as their eyes resolved a figure in the darkness. The light changed, and the figures disappeared into nothingness. Beth found herself thinking not of ghosts or spirits, but of other travelers or beasts lurking in the woods. “How about music?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, let’s dance!” Jessie agreed. She rolled off the log and crawled into the tent to retrieve a small Bluetooth speaker they’d brought along with them. The guys excused themselves to the edge of the firelight to relieve their bladders before refilling their cups. The speaker crackled to life and music filled the forest. It sounded distant and tinny even right beside the speaker, but the sound of civilization drove away the darker thoughts and brought back some cheerfulness to the party. Lightning continued to flash in the distance, sometimes bright enough to light the whole clearing. The foursome cheered after each boom of thunder.

Eventually, they turned to drinking games. Liam finally moved over to Beth’s log. His hand went to her knee occasionally, thrilling her with each moment that it lingered. The liquor soothed her hesitations about him and left her wanting his lips to linger near her ear as he invited her into his tent for the night. But that moment never came. The fire died down, Jessie and David’s temporary allegiance once again devolved into a petty argument, and Liam grew sleepy. They all retired to their tents, and Beth curled up on her bedroll wishing she had Liam’s arms wrapped around her.

The music shut off, and her half drunk mind heard many things in the forest night, almost all pleasant sounds of nature. Jessie passed out quickly, the liquor and fatigue winning out over the ground’s hardness. Beth did not so easily escape the discomfort of her body. She also had a strong need to pee. As quietly as she could, she slipped out of the tent.

David remained by the fire, his head lolled to the side. Her movement caused him to wake up long enough to look at her and smirk. “He’s as dumb as a brick, you know. Could have his dick in your mouth, and he’d still be worried you didn’t like him.” He yawned and flopped over like a rag doll, lapsing into some muffled giggles. Beth watched with amusement and mild concern as David slowly crawled into his tent.

Once he was gone, an urge to do something bold and dramatic crept over Beth. She thought about barging into Liam’s tent and snuggling up against him. She still had to pee, though. Nor did she see a way of resolving that choice in the pale morning reality only a few hours away. She also didn’t know if she could trust David, let alone drunk David. He was rarely helpful and often malicious in either state of mind. He could be passing it off as a joke. As confused as ever, she walked into the shadows beyond the clearing and let nature take its course.

As she stood, her eyes drifted to the shadows a little further in the tree. For a moment, she thought she saw a figure standing among the brush, staring back at her. A man in pilgrim’s garb with stone discs for eyes. It gave her a jolt of fright, but as quickly as she’d seen it, the shadows resolved into a small sapling shaking in the wind. “You’re being silly, Beth,” she muttered walking back toward the fire. She did walk with a hurried pace, though, and did not want to look behind her. She crawled into the tent, dragged her bedroll closer to Jessie, and curled up beside her friend.

She fell asleep quickly, and she dreamed.