Into the Woods

Chapter 2

Disaster

Eliza and Amy trudged through, what felt like, never-ending mud, of the woods. They were, by now, feeling hungrier by the second, but there was nothing they could do about it.  Their situation hadn’t improved and they both had come to wish that they hadn’t bothered coming.

After a few hours had passed, Amy noticed something.  As they neared it a little more, it became clear that it was a tyre truck.

“I think we’re in luck”, said Amy, with slightly higher spirits, optimistic at coming across the truck.

“Oh come on; those tracks could have been made by anyone, anytime.  For all you know, these could have been made months ago, maybe years even,” Eliza responded, not wanting to believe in something that could be snatched away the very next moment.

“Look, we can’t take any chances; there could be a car or truck down there and I’m not about to miss our only possibility of getting home”, said Amy, with a look of desperation in her eyes.

They took the route of the tracks carefully, so they wouldn’t get lost again, until finally they came to a halt, where they found a car, that they considered must have been about 50 years old.  Still, Amy considered it gave them hope.

“Ok, I’ll look for the keys in the front; you can look in the boot”, Amy designated, taking the lead.

Eliza had no luck getting the boot of the car opened, and called to Amy for help.  Amy sighed considering it typical; as always, Eliza so often seemed unable to do anything for herself.  She got out of the car, through its open window and went to Eliza’s aid.

After a bit of a struggle, Amy finally managed to kick the boot open.  As she looked inside she immediately screamed in horror and vomited on the side of the road.  There, lying in a foetal position was the rotting corpse of a man. Green mould was growing sporadically all over him; it appeared to be living on bits of his flesh.  More uncovered parts of its skin had rotted away, leaving bone exposed, but it was the sight of the hollow, empty socket where his eye once rested, that really disturbed her, that and the rusted, bloody knife, still sticking out of his throat; where his assailant so long ago must have plunged it in.

“OH MY GOD! Eliza, you have to see this”, said Amy, calling her friend over.  She couldn’t look again at the moment and she needed her friend to confirm she hadn’t imagined it.

Eliza climbed out of the back seat of the car, where she had taken over, and approached Amy.

“What?” she said, slightly irritated at being disturbed and bumping her head on the roof of the car as she climbed out.

Amy pointed at the boot of the car.  “Tell me what you see?” she said, hoping against hope, that her friend would say anything other that the dead man she’d just seen. 

“Oh my god, I think I’m gonna be sick,” said Eliza

“I don’t think the keys are in there,” said Amy, trying to compose herself and take charge of the situation again.

“We still have to get out of here, and he’s not going to do us any harm at least”, she said, slamming the boot shut again.

They both climbed into the car, and started rummaging through things; until Eliza discovered a rusty, square metal box.  She had to pry it open; as the lid popped she dropped the box and instantly exited the car.  Amy leant down to see what had spooked her friend and quickly followed Eliza.

“This is sick, first the corpse and now a severed hand; I don’t think that the keys are here!” shouted Eliza, in extreme frustration.

“We have so got to get the hell out of here”,  retorted Amy.

“It’s easier said than done”, said Eliza sarcastically.

“Maybe we should check under the car”, suggested Amy, trying to change the subject.

“Fine, fine, yes that’s such a good idea, maybe there’ll be two bodies under there and we can take them with us”, Eliza replied, frightened, angry and wanting to be anywhere but where she was.

She knelt down and looked under the car.  There she spotted something shiny.

“Well do you see anything?” Amy called out.

“Yeah, there’s something here; I think it is the keys”, replied Eliza.

She crawled under a little and groped around with her hand to reach them.  As she scrambled out from under the car, she looked down at the object she’d found.

“Oh Christ; this is definitely not keys”, she said, whilst chucking the blood stained bullet to the ground.

“HOW THE HELL ARE WE EVER GONNA GET OUTTA HERE?” Shouted Amy, as tears of desperation welled in her eyes.

Eliza now appeared more composed, and resigned to the fact they were stuck, at least for now, to walk on foot; replied calmly to her distraught friend. 

“I don’t know Amy, but we can’t stay here; we have to keep moving.  We have to keep trying, or we could die …..”

TBC