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  Little by little the light began to spread around me and as it did, my heart began to beat heavily and painfully in my chest. Tremors shook my body, almost convulsing with fear and dread. I nudged Harper with my foot, afraid to speak. He moaned low and shifted. I nudged harder, practically kicking him. He shifted and I could see his eyes flutter open in the filtered light.

  He looked at me confused, like he didn’t know me, and I realized that he really didn’t know me. I don’t think we got a good look at each other yesterday. At least I think it was yesterday. He slowly sat up, wiping his face, as though he was trying to wipe the sleep and confusion away. At least I hope it was that and not my vomit. Eww!

  “What?” His voice cracked with sleep.

  “Look around, Harper.” I said, my voice shaking and I could feel the tears fighting to take over and panic.

  He did and his mouth fell open. “What the hell?”

  I nodded stupidly, and looked around too. We sat in the middle of a forest. A huge forest, with trees all around us. There was undergrowth, but not a whole lot and it was an old forest. Something primeval, not like the forest you see now a days. Huge thick trees that rose above us. The canopy was so dense, I couldn’t see the sky beyond.

  Some of the tree trunks had to be as big around as one of those big round picnic tables, if not bigger. The trees towered above us, I could only guestimate them to be well over one hundred feet high. I’d never seen anything like this or even close to it.

  I didn’t know if they were hemlocks, or some kind of white pine, or some other kind of conifer. I just didn’t know, but what I did know, is that I’d never seen anything this mammoth before. At least not in Virginia. And as far as my eyes could see into the forest, there were trees and trees and more trees. All huge, all the trunks that were enormous.

  “Where the hell are we?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, but we are nowhere near I64. This is a scary big-ass forest.” I said, handing him the water bottle. I noticed that his hand was shaking badly. The light was growing brighter and the birds were becoming louder and more raucous. I tracked several blue jays as they flew low under the branches and heard their strident calls. It was a familiar sound and it made me feel better. I also heard the echoing rhythmic drumming of a woodpecker, somewhere in the distant timberland.

  I decided to open my backpack and see what I had in there, in the way of food and water. Something deep within me said I should, like a cautioning that I needed to listen to. That thought made the hair on my arms prickle. I didn’t like it. My body was sending me messages that I couldn’t interpret.

  Harper was now sitting up, his head turning this way and that, his long dark hair draped around his shoulders.

  “What are you doing?” He asked, sipping from the bottle.

  “I’m seeing what I have in my backpack.” I unzipped the backpack and he watched as I dumped it out in front of me, away from the vomit. Everything coming out in a tangled clump, I moved it around with my hand. Harper watched me as I did it, but kept quiet. I began to sort through everything. I’d packed munchies for my trip to pick up the girls, we were heading down to Orlando. I had planned to take them to lunch.

  The thought of them waiting for me, but my not showing up, broke my heart. Even now, I wasn’t there and they were wondering what had happened. I could feel the tears begin to bite. I brought my hand up to my nose and tried to keep the tears at bay, but it didn’t help.

  “You okay?” Harper asked quietly.

  “No, my daughters were expecting me yesterday morning. At least, I think it was yesterday, I don’t know how much time has passed since that stupid hill on the interstate. I know they have to be worried now. I don’t know if anyone found our cars.”

  “I’m sorry Ivy. I can’t imagine. I’m hoping someone is looking for us and my dad and the old lady. There has to be some kind of clue or an answer for that mound. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones to come across it.”

  Once more, I felt a small nibble of guilt. How could I tell him his father had been torn apart? And was he really? I mean, I didn’t see any blood. Just disintegration in a really gross way. All I could do was nod and my hands began once more to rifle through the mess between my legs.

  “You have a wife or girlfriend, or boyfriend that might be worried about you?” I asked.

  “Naw, just me and my dad. My mom passed away from breast cancer, when I was a kid. It’s just been me and my dad.”

  “I’m sorry about your mom.” I said, softly.

  “Me too, I was twelve and it hurt for a long time. I think it affects my relationships with women. No steady girl. I worry you know? That hurt is always in the back of my mind. Sorry, too much information for you.” He said, a crooked smile seamed his face.

  “Yeah, I understand, it’s okay for TMI.” I said, feeling a little awkward. I tried to focus on the task at hand and away from the sad subject, shoving things around on the ground.

  I usually kept some kind of snack food or trail mix in my bag. I was always busy and on the go. Sometimes, I’d get hungry at the oddest times. I also had workout clothes and sneakers. I picked up my gym clothes and shook them out. I folded them neatly and placed them back in the bag. I tucked the sneakers in beside them at the bottom. I took a large hand towel that I used at the gym and folded it too, and put it back in, along with an extra pair of thick white socks. I also quickly snatched a pair of clean underwear and shoved that in behind. I could feel my face burning, but I didn’t look up.

  I then picked up the large plastic bag filled with about two cups of trail mix. I opened it and took a small handful and handed the bag to Harper.

  “Thanks.” He said and began to nibble slowly on the trail mix.

  I’m not sure why I said it, perhaps my amygdala was telling me something, but I said, “Let’s be conservative on the food and water.”

  Harper looked at me for a long moment, his face inscrutable and nodded and handed the bag back to me. I closed the bag and put it back into the backpack. I found a small bottle if ibuprofen and opened it. Nearly full. Then I found a tube of Chapstick, opened it and put some on, and offered it up to Harper, but he shook his head, smiling. I put it in the bag. I found my comb, two stretchy hair ties, and handed one to Harper, who pulled his long dark hair back and put it into a knot at the back of his head.

  I had three pens, my journal and two of my spiral notebooks, and as you can see, this is what I’ve written my story on, that is if you ever find it. And I ask you once more, please find my daughters and give this journal to them. Writing all these thoughts down feels so hopeless, now that I have an idea of what is going on. But more of that later.

  I found fingernail clippers, a small swiss army knife and a lighter. Those I put in my front pocket. I’d given up smoking a year ago but forgot I had the lighter. I could use a cigarette about now. My girls wouldn’t be happy about that, so I crushed that urge.

  I found a snack bag of toasted seaweed, a bag of cheese crackers, two peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, badly squished, two small boxes of raisins and an apple. Three bottles of water, besides the one we were currently drinking from. Seven tampons, which I shoved deep into the bag. Once more I could feel my face flaming. I found two handkerchiefs I got from my girlfriend, who had lived in Japan. She’d sent them to me, and I treasured them. I also found a pack of tissues and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. I found twelve dirty pennies, two really nasty and sticky cough drops, five quarters, a dime.

  I also found a bag of almonds, but they’d been in there for over a year I was sure. I put them back in the pack anyway. I picked up my wallet, it had my license, a debit card and a visa. I also had about $30 in cash. The wallet also had a picture of my girls. And I could feel the tears start to come, so I kissed the picture and put the wallet back into the bag. That was it. It wasn’t much. I dug in my pockets and came up with some change and lint.

  I looked up at Harper, he was also going through the pockets of his jacket and hi
s jeans. He pulled out his wallet, a half empty pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a bigger swiss army type of knife, a small multi-tool folding utility knife that was hooked on his belt loop, a small measuring tape, a pair of compound plyers, several ticket stubs, and lint.

  “What do we do now?” I asked.

  “I guess we look for a way out of here, where ever the hell here is.” He said and got up gingerly. He held out a hand, and I took it, and I used the tree behind me to pull me up. My body hurt from being slumped over all night on the hard ground. I checked the pockets of my jacket and found nothing in them. I sighed heavily and looked around.

  “I need to go to the bathroom, I’m going to head over there, but not too far away.” I said, and I could feel heat rising. It had been a while since I had to explain bodily needs to a man. Harper was good about it and headed off to find a tree for himself.

  I walked about fifty feet away, looking for a likely place to squat. I only had the small packet of tissues and I wanted to save those for a real emergency. I found a bush and picked some of the leaves. I hoped like hell they weren’t some kind of poison oak or ivy. After relieving myself, I felt better. My stomach rumbled and although I was hungry, I was afraid if we didn’t find our way out of this forest, we might need the food.

  As I walked back, I found a large dried branch, about as tall as me. I broke the smaller branches from it and made a walking stick. I’m not an outdoors person, but I did feel better for having it in my hand. This place was wild, and deep down I knew there were wild things that lived here.

  I joined back up with Harper. He was looking around like I was. He was a tall man, or at least taller than me. Around six foot, I think. He had long dark hair, about down past his shoulders, which was now pulled back. I could see now that his eyes were gray and he had heavy and mobile dark brows. His ears stuck out a bit, and I thought that was why he looked so young. Like some kid, but I thought perhaps he wasn’t as young as I thought.

  “How old are you Harper? Just curious and I’m thirty-seven.”

  “I’m thirty-three, and which way do you think we should walk?”

  I looked around, the sun was at our backs, though we couldn’t see it for all of the trees, so that was east. I pointed west, it was as good a direction as any and might lead us to Norfolk.

  Harper nodded. “If we can maybe walk in a straight a line as possible, that may keep us from going around in circles. Also, the sun will travel west so we can be cognizant of that as we go.” He suggested.

  I agreed, and no, I’m not a nature girl, but I do watch a lot of NatGo and Discovery and that show about being dropped off in the middle of nowhere butt-ass naked. He was right, if we could keep our bearing, we should come to Norfolk or someplace close to that.

  “So, what do you do for a living?” I asked, trying to keep my mind from panic, because ideas and bad thoughts were trying to creep in.

  “Me and my Dad work construction.” He said and I was immediately sorry I’d asked, since his dad was missing.

  “Oh shit, I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I just don’t understand what happened to him. If we can find our way back to the interstate, maybe we can find someone who knows what’s going on. How about you? What do you do?”

  “I’m a part time student…ish, and I work nights as a night auditor for a hotel. It is nice, because it is mostly quiet at night, except for guests checking in. It allows me to work on my school work.”

  “That sounds good. What are you going to school for?” He asked, stepping around a large tree and looking back at me. I watched as he too picked up a large limb and stripped it of all its smaller branches. He swung it around a bit, nodded and used it to walk with.

  “I’m not sure right now, I’m thinking about business, maybe eventually become a supervisor at work. For now, I’m just taking History, you know, Western Civilization, and also Social Sciences. I’ve finished a math course, which I hated. I can only take two a semester, the courses cost a lot, even online.”

  “Yeah, I hear ya. I did a couple years at community college, but I like working with my hands, so I teamed up with my father.”

  I was glad to see that he wasn’t grieving. Worried, I was sure, just like me, but not grieving. Of course, he didn’t see what I had seen, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to enlighten him. That would have been cruel.

  “So those are some of your tools?” I asked, indicating the utility knife and compound plyers in his jacket pocket.

  “Yeah, I usually carry junk on me all the time. At the end of the day, I empty out my pockets and put stuff back into the tool box.” He laughed. He’d shortened his stride when I started to fall behind. We stopped talking for a bit, the world was so quiet around us. Though we could hear the birds and insects around us, it was remarkably silent in the forest. Even our footsteps were muffled by the leaf litter on the ground. All of a sudden, we heard a rattling, and both of us froze.

  “Rattlesnake.” He whispered harshly. Both of us stood still as statues and our eyes looking all around. It was near and it was loud. My eyes scanned the ground, but I couldn’t see anything and no movement. Harper lifted his branch and nearly hit me when he brought his walking stick down on something coiled to his right, three feet away.

  I screamed when I saw the snake, and I damned near fainted. That thing was huge. I’d never seen a rattlesnake, so I didn’t know what to expect, but this wasn’t it. I could see him straining to keep the branch down on the snake’s head, its body coiling in on itself in a frenzy.

  “Quick, get the knife out of my pocket and cut its head off, fast.” He yelled, his face red with effort. I nearly said no, but we needed to kill this thing, because if its head got lose, one of us was going to get bit. I shoved my hand down his front pocket and pulled the knife out. I opened the blade and stood off to the side.

  “Hurry, he is going to get out.” Harper yelled, fear lacing his voice.

  My hand was shaking so badly I dropped the knife. I picked it back up and with a shaking hand, sank the blade into the back of the snake’s neck, just behind the branch and its head. I sawed at it for all I was worth and the heavy coiling body hit me with such force, it knocked the knife from my hand.

  I screamed a curse and grabbed the knife and went back to sawing the neck, bits of flesh and blood spattering as the snake writhed. It was tough as hell, thick muscles and bone. My arm worked like a piston, going back and forth until the body was completely severed and I jumped back as the body of the snake that still continued to move.

  Harley lifted the branch from the snake’s head. The mouth of the snake opened but that was it. Then it slowly closed, its sharp fangs long and lethal looking. I slowly sat down on the ground, about five feet away. I dropped the knife between my legs. I wiped the blood on my hands from the snake onto the ground and then on my jeans.

  I watched as Harper walked over and kicked the snake’s head away. He bent down and picked the snake’s body up. The thing was massive, and thick as hell. He held it high, but it still dragged the ground.

  “Jesus, I think this thing is seven feet. Look at the rattle, seven inches at least.” He said, holding the rattle and shaking it, making that horrible rattle noise. I shuddered with revulsion and I could feel the hair still raised all over my body.

  “I’ve never seen a rattler this big, and I think it might be a timber rattler. Well, we at least have dinner and lunch.” He said grinning down at me.

  “You know how to cook that stuff?” I asked, not sure I wanted to eat it. I was still shaken with the knowledge that I had been a breath away from the business end of that deadly mouth. I was amazed that Harper was relaxed now, he seemed a resilient man.

  “Sure, me and my dad have gone hunting since I was a little kid. I’ve had snake before, its good. Tastes like chicken.” He laughed again.

  “Its body is so thick, like a python’s, I didn’t think rattlesnakes got that big.”

  “I’m sure they do, I’ve just not seen it. Mos
t are around four or five feet. This must have been a well-fed boy.” Harper said.

  “I think we should be very careful from now on, let’s lead with our walking sticks, hit the bushes and such. That thing could have killed us fast.” I said and shuddered again.

  “Yeah, you’re too right about that. Christ, I almost stepped on him.” He shook his head.

  Harper coiled the snake’s body into a heavy loop and hung it off his shoulder. He let the headless part hang down so the blood would drain out of it. We continued our walk, but now in silence. Our heavy walking sticks waving back and forth, like a blind man’s staff. Our eyes looking everywhere for more threats.

  “What time is it?” I asked, I didn’t have a watch. We’d been walking for a few hours and I was thirsty and hungry. My stomach growled just then to add its vote.

  Harper looked at his watch and shook his wrist and looked again. He looked up at me frowning.

  “My watch stopped working.”

  “Maybe you broke it when you fell yesterday.”

  “Maybe. I’d give a guess and say it is near ten or eleven. Want to stop for a rest and some food? I’m kind of hungry too.” He grinned.

  “Yeah, me too.” We looked around but found nothing to sit on but the ground, so we just plopped down. I groaned, it felt good to sit for a bit. I rotated my ankles, I was glad my boots were good for walking, because we’d been walking for a while. I’d not had that kind of a workout for a long time. I opened my backpack and handed him a squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

  I also took out the second bottle of water, I only had two left. We needed to find a water source. I took a sip and handed it to Harper. We sat in companionable silence eating our lunch, the snake coiled by his side. I tried not to look at it.