Survival

by Chris Wright

  Jarrah’s House

  James pulled up outside Jarrah's house and saw him peeping out his front window. Within a few seconds he was at the front door, swiftly closing it behind him. He darted along his path towards James and gave him a big grin and a thumbs up as he opened the passenger door.

  “I really need this Jim, I appreciate it” he said, “Is Mike coming?”

  “Yeah, I was going to pick him up on the way to you but I forgot I had to fill up, so we'll just swing by and pick him up on the way out of town”.

  Jarrah had the day off today, he knew he was going to feel a bit woozy after one of Monique's little parties, he couldn't handle alcohol like he used to, so he felt it was a wise choice to take the day off. Jarrah took after his relatives and loved to be outside in nature, like their ancestors lived, in the big wide-open spaces. As much as he loved his job, the countryside called to him frequently and he often roped in one of his friends to take a short weekend camping trip with. They were supposed to be setting off after James finished work, but James got tetchy so pulled a few strings and managed to get the afternoon off. He was going to have to make it up to his colleagues though, but he'd worry about that at a later date.

  “I hope you're faring better than me today” Jarred laughed looking at James.

  “Yeah I felt ok when I woke up, surprisingly” He replied.

  “I don't know why, but I have been feeling really weird all day, I'm sure it's just the alcohol” Jarrah said.

  “Weird how?” asked James.

  “A bit spacey, I guess. Not really with it, I keep noticing that when I looked at the time it was always much later than I thought it was. At first it was nothing, but after about eight times it was getting really weird. I think I definitely need a break in the outdoors”

  “Sounds like it yeah. It'll just be the alcohol doing its next day thing. Nothing some fresh air in the wilderness won't fix” James replied, “There's Mike”

  They had turned the corner into Mike's street to find him stood at the end of his driveway waiting patiently with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Mike had the unusual vocation out of all of them and wasn't tied to nine to five working. He did lots of courses in the summer, showing kids how to survive in different outdoor environments, and the rest of the year took groups of business men into the wilderness and did the same thing, taught them how to catch their own food, make their own shelters and so on. The business men called it team building, Mike called it basic life skills. He was currently writing up a book on survival techniques and was hoping to get it published, but the call of the outdoors was always there, so any chance to be immersed in it again he would take. The book writing could wait until Monday. James and Jarrah invited Mike as he was always interesting to have with you. He could point out all the interesting plants and explain the benefits that they had to the human body, plus if anything went pear-shaped in the forest, Mike was the one you wanted there. He had encountered most wildlife and knew how to deal with them. They knew they would be in safe hands with him around.

  Mike jumped in the back behind the driver's seat and flung his backpack behind Jarrah.

  “Afternoon Gents” He said authoritatively.

  They both greeted him back and James set the car back in motion. They hadn't decided exactly what part of the forest they were going to be camping in, they guessed they would leave that up to Mike's recommendation. They turned out of the town and on to the main highway to the National Forest, debating where to drive to. They eventually settled on an area to the North of the Forest. There were a few dramatic lakes and picturesque cliffs as well as some great mountain hikes they could do to take in the valley below them, which sounded perfect. They meandered round bends as they ascended higher into the forest, the roads lined with lush rows of trees and blossoming bushes. It only took ten minutes to feel like they had completely left the city behind as the signs of civilisation dispersed into the odd remote outpost, before there were no buildings in sight at all. It took an hour to get to their final destination and they pulled the car over to a small clearing after taking a slow rambling dirt track for a mile and took a deep relaxing sigh. It was good to be out in the forest, they could feel all the stress melt away the second the engine was turned off.

  They gathered their gear and started a short trek to set up their camp for the next few nights. Mike knew this area well and knew a good place to set their tents up. They decided to do this straight away and then take a hike up to a viewpoint afterwards, planning to get back to the camp before sunset.

  Mike set his tent up in less than two minutes while both Jarrah and James fiddled with a number of items that seemed to bemuse each one of them. They had both bought new tents recently. They were the latest design and were supposedly easy to assemble. It was a great idea James told Jarrah at the time. Of course, they would have been easy to assemble if you knew what all these randomly odd shaped items were, for all they knew they could be parts to a spaceship. Mike took pity on them and helped both of them out, making all the odd-looking paraphernalia converge into something coherently tent-like. They hadn't seen this high-tech design before so James was still convinced it was actually a spaceship. They had a short rest, pouring themselves a cup of tea each from their flasks and sitting on their collapsible chairs, smelling the alluring fragrance of the greenery around them and inhaling the energizing air. It was definitely good to be back here.

  After a short while they decided to start their hike. It was nearing three in the afternoon and it took a good hour to get to the viewpoint, and with the sun setting around six they wanted to give themselves enough time to appreciate the splendour from the vantage point when they got there. So off they went, backpacks on, water bottles filled, hiking poles grasped firmly. It was a fairly strenuous walk to the top, the ground below them was deceiving and the forest floor hid all sorts of undulating rocks and random craters. It was an enjoyable hike, they laughed about some of the crazy situations they had got themselves into at University, like the time Mike was playing a trick on Brandon. They had organised a blind date for him and Mike turned up wearing a gimp suit, pretending to be his date. The restaurant staff were all let in on the practical joke. Jarrah and James had stayed out of site at the restaurant to see it all and how Brandon would react. Brandon knew the restaurant staff though and had already been tipped off. So instead of him arriving for the date, he had arranged for Mike's newly divorced mum to turn up, thinking she was on a real blind date with someone else. It was difficult to make out who was most mortified, Mike sitting there on a date with his mum or his mum thinking her beautiful son was into kinky things and had no shame about it.

  They carried on laughing, joking and reminiscing as they gradually climbed higher. They were having so much fun that it took their minds off how brutally steep it was in places and before they knew it, they had reached the top where the viewpoint was. They looked out over the view as the forest cascaded away from them in each direction, the canopy shimmering with the breeze in the rippling late afternoon sunlight. It was a breath-taking sight, almost too beautiful for words. They each took their turn taking pictures of the startling view, and then each other with the startling view behind them, and then an ambitious attempt to take a picture of all of them with the view behind, but due to forgetting a selfie-stick they were mainly obscured by Mike's big arm.

  “Well its four thirty, we should maybe start heading back” said Jarrah.

  Mike and James agreed and they turned back to descend the steep track they had just struggled up.

  “I'm glad you brought us here Mike, I wasn't aware of this place existing” Said Jarrah.

  “Yeah it's wonderful isn't it” Mike replied, “You should see the view from the top of the peak slightly south, the one you could just make out in the distance from back there. We should do that tomorrow, it's a much longer hike so I'd say we'll need about eight hours there and back”.

  They all agreed it was a good idea. The view from here had whet their appe
tite and they were keen to see more. It was a slow journey back down, parts were so steep that they really had to take their time. Except Mike of course, who was like a mountain goat, and could probably walk up the side of a wall if he had to. Mike gradually got further and further away in front of them. They told him to go at his own pace, the route back to the camp was easy and straight, it was just the steep decline that they had to traverse, and they’d see him back at camp. They were about two thirds of the way down when Jarrah said he heard something. He looked round to where he thought he heard rustling and thought he saw something moving in the bushes.

  “There's something just over there, I saw the bushes move” He said.

  “Probably just a rodent or something, let's keep going, come on”

  They continued on briefly before James stopped dead in his tracks. He thought he saw something moving to the left of him, but when he glanced round there was nothing there.

  “Did you see something too?” asked Jarrah.

  “I'm not sure, I thought I did but there's nothing there”

  They both brushed it off as their overactive imaginations due to being tired, it had been an exhausting hike up and they just wanted to get down, so figured that their minds were playing tricks on them. They still got a sense of unease though and decided to hurry up. Another fifty metres further and they heard what they thought was a growling sound, but almost mechanical, somewhere between a mix of gears grinding and an unearthly low grunt. They were now convinced that something was near, something tracking them, a bear maybe? Both of their minds started working overtime as their imaginations ran wild as to what could be following them, each of them now completely silent as their panicked minds went into flight mode. Their quickened pace made them short of breath, but they figured that having a heart attack was less painful than being mauled by a wild creature, so we're determined to get to the bottom. They continued on, faster and faster, the ethereal grunts splitting the silence around them like hammer blows, bushes and trees shaking randomly from different directions and what felt like low rumbles bouncing at them from one side and then another. This was now really getting strange and they were in full flight mode, desperately trying to outrun whatever it was that was chasing them. They finally reached the bottom and turned their desperation into a sprint. They were hoping to catch up with Mike, but he was still nowhere in sight along the track.

  There was suddenly a body-shaking roar as if a hundred trees had dropped to the floor and this made them both look round, terrified but curious as they had never encountered anything like it. There in front of them was what looked like a green pulsing morphing lattice-like figure, as if the forest itself was bending itself into a creature. It seemed to have no eyes, no mouth but was unmistakeably in the shape of something that seemed alive, the green pulses flashing like blood pumping through veins. The green pulses gradually started to change into a light blue. They flashed with more and more intensity, before whatever the creature was seemed to lurch forward, accompanied by what sounded like the forest floor tearing itself apart.

  James turned back to the direction of the camp and began to run, terrified and confused. He shouted to Jarrah to run too, but when he glanced back round, he found Jarrah routed to the spot, unable to move, his limbs frozen, his eyes getting wider and wider. The forest creature got closer and closer to him and Jarrah slowly began to lift off the ground as if levitating. He began to scream, and James shouted him once more, not sure what to do, as the entity seemed to wrap around Jarrah, it's pulsing blue veins rippling through Jarrah's torso before suddenly letting out a magnificent ethereal roar as if the fabric of the forest was being torn in two. Within a few seconds Jarrah's body splintered into a thousand parts and disappeared deep into the blue pulses, as a screeching sound echoed around James.

  He could only look on in horror before he turned and ran as fast as he could, he didn't know what else to do. He ran and ran, careful not to fall, his mind in full concentration, focused solely on getting back to the camp. He couldn't hear anything following him anymore, but it was difficult to hear much over his heartbeat, that felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest. He could see the camp up ahead and screamed Mike's name desperately. Mike appeared out of his tent as James reached the makeshift fireplace set up in the centre of the campsite, choking for breath.

  “Where's Jarrah?” Mike asked.

  James didn't know what to say, it didn't make any sense, any of it.

  “He just broke apart, he -”

  “What?”

  “I couldn't do anything, it's impossible” shrieked James, “Something followed us down the mountain, it was, I don't know what the fuck it was, it just appeared. I've never seen anything like it”

  Mike was understandably confused, they had encountered a wild animal of some type, but this description made no sense.

  “Come and show me” said Mike as he started walking out of camp holding his shotgun that he brought in case of an emergency.

  “No, wait, we can't go back there, the thing will still be out there somewhere”

  “I'm not leaving Jarrah out there with whatever the creature is, can you give me a better description of it? What you said, well, think hard and try and describe it” Mike said.

  James was still trying to get his breath back and shook his head.

  “I know it sounds crazy, it's hard to describe, but it's what the forest would look like if it decided to grow a body. Sorry I know it sounds insane, it had blue veins, it made the weirdest noises. I don't know what more to say” James said still shaking his head.

  Mike beckoned James to follow him, to which he reluctantly did.

  “You're right, it does sound crazy, you're probably just imaging things due to the shock. Trauma can do funny things to a man you know” Mike said not believing the strange events James was relaying.

  They frantically retraced their steps back along the track, Mike trying to explain the creature away as some kind of bear or perhaps a big cat, they were both known to roam these forests but rarely attacked humans. James wildly denied it, sounding crazed but adamant that he saw what he saw.

  Dr Monroe’s

  Danny sat back in the psychiatrist's chair, looking around the office adorned with the clichéd wall of certificates. Dr.Monroe was not what he typically expected a psychiatrist to be, he was younger than him, and dressed from head to toe in designer gear. Danny was expecting tweed and thick rimmed glasses.

  “So, Sam recommended me to you” Dr Monroe said, “That's why I slotted you in so quickly, he phoned me and explained how you two were good friends so I promised him I'd see you as soon as I could. He seemed pretty worried about you”

  “Did he tell you about it all?” Danny asked.

  “Of course not, as doctors we all have confidentiality to contend with” he laughed, “he just explained that he really thought you could do with my help. So, do you want to tell me what the problem is?”

  Danny cleared his throat, this was going to be difficult but he had to do it. He started from the start. Olivia going missing, her house being empty, no one remembering her and her disappearing from old photos. The way he had full memories of her and the things they had done. Dr.Monroe listened carefully, and found it all very interesting.

  “Has anything like this happened before” He asked.

  Danny told him that this was the first time. He then explained how earlier that morning Samir was also doubting the existence of his other friend David, but Danny thought he must have been playing games with him, perhaps to make sure he came to see Dr.Monroe. He couldn't think of any other explanation, as David was his friend.

  “Ok, apart from missing friends, is there anything else unusual that has been happening?”

  Danny thought about it for a moment. He mentioned his sudden lack of sticking to times, that the clocks always showed a later time than he was expecting, as well as seeing someone as Julie, when it clearly wasn't. He also mentioned that he was noticing small things chang
ing, like the colour of a wall, the make of a car on a neighbour's drive; just small details that hadn't alarmed him until he was relaying them all in the context of this conversation. Dr.Monroe took copious notes and asked lots of other questions about his childhood, his work, any stress he was under and if he was self-medicating. After about thirty minutes of this Dr.Monroe jotted some points down on his computer and scratched his chin for a moment.

  “So, am I crazy?” Danny asked.

  “Ha, well we don't use that word” Dr.Monroe replied, "It's hard to determine at this stage. Well I have to be honest, as why else would you be here other than for me to help you, so I would say it appears you are exhibiting early signs of a delusional disorder. Typically, sufferers do encounter the same experiences you have described. They are unable to tell what is real and what isn't real. I don't think you're having a full-blown psychosis, I think you may have some triggers that are causing it buried deep in your mind somewhere. I think the best course of action for now is some cognitive behavioural therapy and some psychotherapy sessions, so I'd like to have an appointment with you twice a week.”

  “So, no magic pills?” Laughed Danny.

  “Not at such an early stage no, I believe that you are treatable at this stage. If you were exhibiting more severe symptoms and signs then I'd prescribe anti-psychotics but I don't think that's necessary. The only medication I would recommend is some Valerian, which you can take if the stress starts to gnaw at you, but you don't need me to prescribe that you can just pick it up yourself” Dr.Monroe replied.

  “Okay, well you're the Doc”

  Danny thanked him for his time and Dr.Monroe told him to make an appointment with his secretary for his first session. It was good to possibly have an end in sight to his confusion. Danny still thought that it all sounded just too neat though, he still had the clear memories, and it was a struggle to convince himself that none of those things ever happened. He made the appointment for the following Tuesday, hopeful that it would at least begin to solve things. He just had to hope that nothing else strange would happen between now and then that would cause any problems with his friendships. It was only now that he was starting to feel embarrassed, as he thought about what his friends must have been thinking about him. Despite this, he still couldn't shake off how real his memories were. If false memories could seem this real then it could be easy to question anything. That unnerved Danny and he decided not to think about it any longer.