***
Jesse ascended the slope and slogged through tangled vegetation. Thick, thick growth of mountain laurel and rhododendrons, saplings, and thorny vines obscured a view of the ground just as the lush canopy blocked a view of the sky. The dense forest rapidly absorbed the daylight, but the dwindling light was secondary on Jesse’s mind. What concerned him most was what might be crawling, slinking and hiding in the undergrowth that hid his view of the ground. Shane hadn’t seen that snake and it had been right beside him.
Jesse picked up the pace. He felt safer rushing through the growth, telling himself that he could move too quickly for a snake to strike. He knew this was nonsense but he felt safer moving briskly, and of course he would reach the mountaintop faster.
The dappled sunlight that once permeated the forest began to vanish as darkness ate its way down the mountain. Jesse looked up to see dark clouds billow in and swallow the sun. The temperature dropped ten degrees in fifteen minutes, giving Jesse a chill and intensifying his anxiety. As Jesse’s eyes fell from the cloudy sky to the forest floor he saw a hill crest fifty yards ahead. He picked up the pace and marched toward the spot where the slope leveled out. As he crested the hill he found that he stood atop a level mound that sloped away in all directions. There was no “up.”
“What the…” He thought for a moment and then hung his head in exasperation. Of course. There are lots of slopes, ridges, and ravines in the forest. Not all the hills go to the top, some just go to other hills, he thought. Jesse surveyed his surroundings, peering through deep vegetation and towering trees as he tried to determine which direction was up. He nervously chuckled at that as he admonished himself. You don’t even know which way up is, dumb ass!
He continued the way he had been going, reasoning that he had perhaps ascended 700 feet or so from where he began. He didn’t know for sure how high he had climbed but he knew that it was getting much colder at this altitude. “I wish I had my—”
Jacket? Oh you’re going to need that tonight, when the storm comes and you’re all alone. Well...maybe not all alone, Jesse, but no one to help you.
“SHUT UP! Stop thinking that way!” Jesse smacked himself in the head with the palm of his hand. At the movement of doing so, something shiny and black wriggled quickly as a legless shape scrambled in the leaves at Jesse’s feet and slithered under a downed tree. A tree in front of him that he had to cross.
“Snake!” Jesse shrieked.
Jesse’s heart jumped right into his throat and stayed there as it choked his breath. He couldn’t move for a moment until he realized that something, anything could be wriggling behind him, beside him, around his feet right now if he didn’t move. Jesse danced around and lifted his feet off the ground in a motion that would have suggested to an observer that he was running in place. He was afraid to leave his feet on the ground, but couldn’t keep in one place. He had to move on. He sprinted ahead and lunged for the tree, more afraid of what could be on the ground at his feet than what might be under the tree.
The downed oak stood about waist high, but the bottom was a foot off the ground, owing to the limbs and uneven terrain that supported it. Jesse picked up the pace and prepared to leap, hoping to land on top of the tree so he could survey his surroundings. He eyed the tree from twenty feet away the way a long jumper eyes the line, and took off on a sprint, hurling his flailing legs through the air toward the downed oak. His feet planted perfectly near the crest of the tree, but he should have landed just short of that mark. Waving his arms violently, he began thrusting his upper torso and head backwards as he tried to balance himself. Gravity lassoed him over the tree and pulled him to the damp soil. He landed nearly completely prone, but fear gave him enough arm strength to remain bent over just past the tree.
Coiled just to his left was a four-foot long Black Racer. Jesse and the snake eyed one other for a second, each petrified of the other. The snake made the first move as it slinked right across the hand that supported him. Jesse’s heart raced as he picked up his hand, shaking it and his entire body as he tried to rid the feeling of the slithering snake. Fear drove him ahead at a breakneck pace through snarling mountain laurels that hid every view. He was no longer pursuing the mountaintop; just a cove or an opening would do fine. Anything as long as he could see around him, could see what’s out there.
Oh, you don’t want to know what’s out there, Jesse.
“Shut—” His response to his inner voice was abruptly silenced as he tripped over a rock pile hidden in the vegetation. Jesse careened through a hedge of rhododendrons atop a bluff that overlooked a very small brook. Flailing his legs through the air, Jesse landed on one ankle with a thud and tumbled into the stream.
“Ow!” he screamed as he grabbed his ankle. The ten-foot fall was not enough to break his ankle, but landing with all his weight on the hard, uneven rocks punished him with a severe sprain. He sat for a moment in the stream grimacing with pain as he caught his breath. He knew he should move, should do something, but he just sat there and darted his eyes around to see if anything was wriggling around.
A bright streak of light high above illuminated the forest and shook him to his core. The treetops began swaying as the storm approached and motivated him to push himself up as he screamed in agony. After a few seconds, thunder rumbled in the distance, indicating that the lighting had struck on the other side of the mountain.
Shifting his weight to his left leg, Jesse hobbled to a nearby tree for support and to think. And to cry. He sobbed as he hadn’t for fifteen years, since he was seven years old. He had held back the tears racing through the woods even when confronted by the Black Racer. Who cares if it wasn’t venomous? He didn’t want to see another snake as long as he lived. As he cried he tried to think coherently, but fear and confusion suffocated him, like damp fog cascading over a bridge. Indeed he felt as if he were in a fog, a horrible fog laced with suffering and death. Daylight was waning and now this storm? “Third one this week!” he said, finding that talking aloud kept his thoughts more rational, leaving any irrational thoughts for—
Me?
Leaning against the tree, Jesse panicked and finally gave way to the fear. “HELP!” He screamed as loud as he could and listened to his frantic cry echo through a sea of serrated ravines. “HELP! HELP ME!”
He slumped his shoulders and cried some more, knowing that no one would be able to hear him. Surrounded by sound-robbing, hilly vegetation, and drowning in isolation miles away from anyone, Jesse tried to calm himself and think his way out of his nightmare. If I can just find some shelter until the storm clears or even until the morning if I have to, I can follow this stream down the mountain, Jesse thought.
Limping, he looked around until he found a branch he could use for a walking cane and began hobbling downstream, letting the walking stick serve as his right foot. A strong gust of wind whipped through the trees and caused them to rustle more briskly. Hopping along, he followed the stream, keeping his eyes peeled. Stay sharp and keep moving, he thought to himself.
The dark green vegetation and black floor sucked up any light that managed to leak through the forest canopy. Jesse squinted to see, staying close to the sound of the bubbling brook, but discerned nothing. No rock overhangs, no caves...no Ramada Inns! The walls on each side of the creek slope began to steepen and the creek slowly increased its flow, a good sign, Jesse thought. But the storm approached, and as it did the wind moaned fiercely through the ravine Jesse entered. The wind howled and sounded somewhat like owls, but more and more it sounded to Jesse like—