A WALK IN THE WOODS

 Tom liked to walk. It was peaceful and gave him a chance to disconnect from his busy life. It wasn’t very exciting, and that’s what he liked about it. Nice and quiet. Boring even. 

He walked often in the same patch of woods by his house. Not an exciting patch of woods, like national parks where people are murdered and go missing. No. Just some woods by his house. Quiet and peaceful. 

Tom went for a walk one afternoon. It was a beautiful evening, not too cold, and the sun was starting to set. There was a gentle breeze. 

“Refreshing,” He thought. 

He started on his usual route. There were only a few paths through these woods since they were not very large. He knew them intimately from walking there so often, and if you struck out any direction through the woods you’d be out in around twenty minutes, or so Tom estimated. 

There wasn’t anyone else walking that evening, which wasn’t too unusual. Sometimes he saw people, sometimes he didn’t. The birds were awfully quiet, but he didn’t consciously notice. 

He walked for a while thinking about nothing in particular, when he determined it was time to turn around. “Should be dark soon” he thought, though it didn’t seem like the sun had moved at all since he started, maybe just a trick of the light in the trees. Yes, probably. 

He turned back and walked for what he thought felt like the amount of time it took to go back, but he was only halfway there. Must have lost focus, that must be it. He kept walking until he was starting to get hungry and thirsty. He looked around. He knew these trees, he was about three quarters of the way, but it had felt so much longer. He had seen everything he had expected to see, maybe he zoned out. This was the way. He was sure. The sunlight still looked the same, awfully long sunset today. The birds were distant. He didn’t notice. 

More walking. There was no way he had zoned out this long. Maybe he took a wrong turn? He turned around to see where he was. The woods behind him were unfamiliar. The same types of trees and plants, but configurations he didn’t remember. Must have been a wrong turn, but he knew every trail in these woods; maybe there was a new one? Maybe he had missed one all those walks?

It didn’t matter, he would go back the way he had come and wind up back on the main trail. The sun was still up, he must have not realized how early it was. He couldn’t hear the birds anymore but was too preoccupied with getting home that he still didn’t notice. He kept walking and the mulch trail crunched quietly under his feet. 

He walked and walked until he was sure he should intersect the main trail any second but the unfamiliar trail kept going. He didn’t hear any cars or sounds of civilization which was strange since these woods weren’t very isolated. Maybe everyone had an early evening. The sunlight danced in the branches at the same angle. Maybe he had fallen and hit his head, no that was a silly idea, but it should have gone lower by now surely?

More walking and the woods stretched on, his woods to be sure, but nowhere in them that he knew. “Strange” he thought, his first admittance that something wasn’t normal. 

The trail wound around corners, straightened out, and bent again, but he couldn’t make out a break in the trees in any direction. The light was the same. Tom noticed the birds weren’t singing. “Must be sunset starting finally” he thought, but he didn’t believe himself. 

He walked a little further, and the first drop of fear entered him “What if I’m more lost than I think?” but he quickly shook the thought away. He would find the way out, no worries. 

A little further, the woods went on. “Maybe I just need to get off the trail” he thought, this idea was exciting, something funny he could tell his coworkers ‘silly me getting turned around’. He stepped into the brush and trekked away, certain he would be out of the woods on the side of the road in no time, feeling foolish but safe. 

He pushed his way through underbrush and brambles until he saw a break in the treeline. He laughed to himself with relief as he approached it, although it seemed a little narrow the closer he got. No, it had to be the road. He stepped back onto a trail. Still unfamiliar, with no end in sight. 

This time he walked faster. The sun was still where it had always been low in the sky. “This is so unusual, what’s happening?” He was sweating “Was I drugged, am I dreaming?” He pinched himself to be sure and it certainly felt real. His hunger and thirst definitely were. 

His pace quickened with his breathing faster and faster. “I must be lost, I must have wandered into another park, I’ll find a way out, why isn’t the sun going down?” reasonable arguments convinced him less and less until he couldn’t take it any more “HELP!” he screamed as loud as he could. A cold breeze came after as if in mocking reply. “

“No no no this is just being lost, I’m lost that’s all, that’s it” He was now talking to himself. He walked at a hurried pace, the trail went on and got a little narrower, but Tom was too busy talking to himself to notice. 

The trees spread their boughs over him as he muttered onward, looking frantically behind him and at the never-changing sun. “I never really believed in God…oh God I’m sorry!” He started to cry. This must be a test, he recalled everything bad he had ever done, every white lie, every little thing. He wept and sobbed and screamed his apologies to the heavens. There was no answer but the leaves swaying gently. 

Then a voice, from nowhere and everywhere at once, “You belong to us now Tom”

“Whose there!? Where are you!?”

“We’re here Tom, and you will be too, forever”

“Where!?” What do you mean!? Oh God please…”

“Here Tom. You’ll be one of us”

“No! I won’t! I can’t!”

Tom took off running. As he went on the trail narrowed and branches tugged at his clothes, the underbrush grew thicker and thicker until there was no trail, and he was crashing through the bushes recklessly. The sun was there, where it had been the whole time. 

“You can’t escape Tom. We all thought we could, but you can’t”

“No! NO! NO!” 

Tom sprinted as hard and fast as he could through the brush. Glancing over his shoulder to see if he was being followed his foot caught on a root and he tripped head first into a tree.

He woke up. He was high up, maybe fifteen feet. 

“I..I’m alive” he thought.

He tried to stretch his legs, but nothing happened. He tried again with his arms, and this time he felt a swaying, and his arms felt much longer. He felt…different. He felt the cold damp deep in the earth and the fresh breeze above the treetops. He felt his hair…he thought, all over, dancing in the breeze. 

He saw a couple walking by on the forest path, the man pointed at him and said something to the woman but Tom couldn’t understand. 

He tried to scream, but it made no sound. 

His leaves rustled in the wind and his branches creaked as the couple passed by.