You and some of your friends have been planning this trip for quite some time. The stressors of everyday life have been getting you down so you opted to organize a camping trip. What better way to de-stress than to unplug in the great outdoors for a couple of days.

 

When you and your friends reach the campsite it is about 7:30 PM on a Friday. The sun is setting and it will be dark very soon so you and your friends decide to set up camp for the night. You guys found a clearing in the middle of a circle of trees. It isn’t completely empty because of the occasional bush and rock, but it is more than enough room for you guys to pitch a couple of tents and to set up a campfire. You are enjoying yourself quite a bit as you sit around the campfire making small talk while cooking hotdogs and marshmallows over the open flame. A bit of ash gets in your eye because the wind decided to blow a certain way around the campfire, but that isn’t unexpected in this situation. After you finish your food and the conversation concludes you decide it is time to call it a day and get some sleep with plans to rise early in the morning. At this point it is about 10:30 PM. You go inside of your tent, zip it up, get into your sleeping bag, and you are out within minutes. What a good day this has been you think as you drift off.

 

You wake up in a cold sweat. What were you dreaming about? Was it a nightmare? You can’t clearly remember, but since you are now awake you notice that you have to go to the bathroom. Kind of annoying to have to get up in the middle of the night to do this, but it isn’t a huge issue you think to yourself. You get out of your sleeping bag, grab a flashlight, and unzip your tent to head out to do your business.

 

You don’t want to go near the campsite so you head slightly into the ring of trees that surround the clearing. Just as you are about to start you notice something out of the corner of your eye. You look off to your right to see a bit of rustling in the bushes? Was it a squirrel, maybe a raccoon? You don’t exactly know for sure. It doesn’t bother you too much, but you admit it does unnerve you a bit since you are in the woods in the middle of the night out in the middle of nowhere. After pondering what it could have been for another moment you get back to your business.

 

As you finish up and are about to walk back to camp you hear the rustling again. It is coming from the same direction as before. Now your mind is starting to race with more wild ideas than before. Was it a bear? A murderer? Something else entirely? As a chill starts to run up your spine you decide to fast walk back to camp.

 

One of your friends hears you coming back. After he opens his tent he is standing out in the middle of the campsite right next to the extinguished campfire.

 

“What are you doing up at this hour?”

 

“Had to go take a leak?”

 

“Alright. If that was all I’m going back to sleep.”

 

“Actually there was something else. As I was going I think I might have seen something out in the woods.”

 

“You’ve been watching too many scary movies bro. Your mind is playing with you.”

 

“Yeah you're probably right. It would be too convenient for something weird to be out there. Like what are the odds of that?”

 

“Exactly. It was probably just a fox or something. I mean we are literally in the woods right now. Animals live out here.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Yeah. Now if you're good I am heading back to sleep.”

 

“Alright. Night man.”

 

“Goodnight. See you tomorrow.”

 

Your friend zips his tent back up and drifts back to sleep. You try to do the same, but you hear rustling out in the bushes again.

 

You grab your flashlight to go over to see what it is. It’s probably nothing, and even if it is something your friends are literally right there. If you scream they can come help if you need it. As you steel your nerves you walk back out into the brush again.

 

You aim your flashlight right.

 

Nothing.

 

Left.

 

Nothing again.

 

After waving it to the right again you do spot something this time and you freeze.

 

There. Right behind the bush you definitely see something. You don’t know exactly what it is yet it is definitely there.

 

It appears to be humanoid. It is hunched over and is on its knees in an almost sitting position. It has very pale skin, some strands of long hair on the top of its head yet was mostly bald.

 

Were you staring at a human? Maybe a very disheveled homeless person?

 

No. Absolutely not. That is what your gut is telling you anyways.

 

After what feels like an eternity you break eye contact and sprint back to your tent. Luckily for you whatever that thing was decides to scamper in the opposite direction into the forest.

 

You make it back to your tent and unzip the entryway, close it back up, and enter your sleeping bag. You were loud so you wouldn’t be surprised if you woke up one of your friends, but you don’t care about that right now. You are just glad to be back in your tent feeling marginally more safe than what you felt before.

 

You can’t go back to sleep. Not after what you just saw you can’t. So you just decide to lay there until morning.

 

As soon as the sun starts rising at what you assume is about 6:30 AM or so you decide to finally leave your tent and get ready for the day. You open up the lunchbox you took with you and pull out a bag of beef jerky. You don’t have the energy to cook something right now so you are glad that you brought a lot of ready to eat snack foods with you.

 

As you sit there next to the extinguished campfire you wait as your friends slowly yet surely rouse themselves from sleep.

 

After they get themselves dressed and prepared for the day ahead they go to grab something to eat. Now you and your two friends are sitting around the campfire.

 

You seal your bag of jerky and place it beside you on the ground crunching a leaf as you do so.

 

You decide to start a conversation.

 

“So how did you guys sleep last night?”

 

“Fine for camping I suppose.”

 

“Decently enough after you woke me up.”

 

“Sorry about that by the way.”

 

“It’s cool man. Just gonna be a little groggy today because of it.”

 

“Okay. I didn’t sleep much at all last night.”

 

“Why? What up?”

 

“It probably has something to do with him scaring himself after marathoning those horror movies a couple of days ago.”

 

“Actually I did end up seeing something last night.”

 

“Wait. Don’t tell me you think you actually saw a monster in the woods last night or something cliche like that.”

 

“What if I said I did?”

 

“It was probably a nightmare then. Not too unexpected because of how paranoid you were acting last night.”

 

“No. I definitely saw something last night.”

 

“Okay I’ll entertain you. What did you see?”

 

“I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it looked human yet…wasn’t…Kind of hard to explain. Basically it looked like a hunched over zombie person.”

 

“Uh huh. And where did you see this ‘hunched over zombie person’ last night.

 

“It was right over there” You say as you point to the brush at the beginning of the woods on your left.

 

“Alright Jason Hawes. If this is the only way that will make you let this go then let’s go investigate.”

 

You walk over into the woods where you clearly remember seeing that…thing last night. It obviously isn’t there nor is there any trace that it ever was.

 

“See. Nothing. I understand your spiraling after getting the Monster Mash stuck in your head and playing on loop, but there isn’t anything here.”

 

You don’t believe him, but you decide to drop it for now seeing that they don’t believe you and this is going nowhere.

 

“Fine. Fine. I concede. You were right. I was just getting a little stuck in my own head I suppose.”

 

“Aight. Now that that’s settled let's get going.”

 

To get your mind off of that encounter last night you and your friends go about doing what you actually planned to do which was going for a nice relaxing hike through wilderness in broad daylight.

 

For the last couple of hours you and your friends and just walking along chatting about nothing in particular.

 

You realize that you have to go to the bathroom again.

 

“Hey guys. I need to pee. Mind if we stop for a bit?”

 

“Sure man. Go ahead.”

 

I walk a bit into the brush so that my friends can’t see what I am doing. As I am about to start doing my business I hear rustling in the bushes.

 

I turned to walk over to where I heard the noise and there it was.

 

That was definitely the same creature I saw last night, but this time it was quite a ways further away from me. As soon as it notices me it runs off again, but I need to know what it is. I don’t even warn my friends about where I am going this time. I just started jogging after it.

 

Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Chasing who knows what to who knows where. I was just tired and wanted to find closure in the situation I was in. Was my choice of actions stupid. Absolutely, but I just needed to know! And even if I didn’t chase after it, what then. Would I just pretend that this never happened? I couldn’t imagine just going back to what I was doing after seeing something like that. Otherwise it would be bothering me for quite possibly the rest of my life. So that was my excuse for why I was blindly following this thing right now.

 

After following the thing for…how long has it been…20, maybe 30 minutes it enters a cave. There is no turning back for me at this point so I decide to follow it.

 

Okay. I have completely lost sign of whatever was chasing me and I have also lost the entrance of the cave. I don’t know where I am or what I am even doing so I am going to just try to make my way back out of here. Shouldn’t be too difficult right. I just have to retrace my steps. Now which way is backwards again?

 

Honestly I am now absolutely scared for my life at this point. I don’t have any food or water left in my bag. I also didn’t have any spare clothes in my bag. A couple of turns back I slipped on a rock and now what I am wearing is tattered and completely unpresentable. At least I still have my phone in my backpack, but it has no signal so I just have to keep looking for a way out, or at least a place where my phone signal is better. I have no other choices.

 

What even is time anymore? I can’t tell you whether it has been minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months from when I came into this cave at this point. Luckily enough I have been able to find sustenance in the cave. I have come across a couple of small animals and bugs to eat and some small pools of dripping water in the cave to hydrate myself. It isn’t sustainable, but it is enough to keep me going. Still. I am determined to find my way out of this cave.

 

I think I see a light. After all this time have I finally found the exit? Yes, there it is! After all of this time I have finally beaten this cave! No more cave water and small lizards for me!

 

As I exit the cave I start to think about where I was and why I was here in the first place. I was…yes, that was it. Me and my friends were camping. It has been so long though. My friends have probably left at this point. Hopefully they sent someone to rescue me. They know I am out here. Right? Okay, you're spiraling. One thing at a time. First, try to find out where you are.

 

Exploring the forest was much better than exploring that dirty old cave. Even at night I can see better because at least it is not pitch black all the time. River water is much cleaner than cave water and I think my body also missed the vitamins that it was supposed to be getting so I am glad I found a berry bush out here. Still need to hunt and kill small animals for protein, but that is fine because I am used to it at this point.

 

This…this area is starting to look familiar to me. Was this where we set up camp? Yes! I believe it was! And the camp is still here! I am shocked, but I am happy to see that my friends haven’t forgotten about me.

 

Okay. Someone is definitely still at camp. One of my old buddies seems to be leaving their tent, but I can’t recognize who it is yet. Actually, they seem to be walking right towards me. How convenient. I’ll just wait here to see who it is.

 

I forgot how bright flashlights are. That is too bright and it is kind of burning my eyes.