James Moore - The Haunted Forest Tour

Lee looked out the open door and smelled the mixture of blood and cordite wafting through the air. As much as he hated the idea, there weren’t a whole lot of options left. Stay inside and die, or go outside and die. He was in good shape for a sixty-three-year-old man, but he wasn’t looking forward to having to outrun anything with more than two legs.

He shook his head and shot a withering glare at Eddie, then gingerly stepped through the bloodied remains of several monsters and down the small flight of stairs leading to the outside world.

All my life I’ve been looking for monsters. I wish I’d been a butterfly enthusiast instead. He held his rifle diagonally in front of his body and waited for the next person to get off the tram.

The woods were hardly deserted, but most of the things out there seemed like they weren’t really in a hurry to get close to anything that bit as hard as the driver’s grenade. The ground was littered with pieces of different creatures and a few human remains as well. Most of the pieces were still, but a couple were moving, despite not being attached to their respective bodies any longer.

“You folks better get your butts moving!” Lee announced. “They’re not gonna leave us alone forever!” He eyed the woods warily and tried to at least pretend he was brave. He had four, maybe five bullets left, and he didn’t want to waste them if he didn’t have to.

A teenaged girl and her father came out. The man was sporting another rifle and had a look in his eyes that promised a quick and painful death to anything that came near his little girl. His daughter was wound so tightly around his waist that she could have been a fashion accessory.

A man stumbled on his way out, moving almost like he was drunk as his wife held onto him. His arms both dangled uselessly and his face was so white it almost seemed to glow. His eyes had a glassy glare that made it clear that shock had set in, big time. Right behind them, the poor bastard who’d had his face torn open was stepping away from the vehicle, his shirt caked in blood and a couple of unsightly strips of flesh.

Eddie the tram driver was next. He was sporting a small belt wrapped around one shoulder like a bandolier, but the belt only held two more grenades.

“That’s everything,” Eddie said as he looked around. “No more weapons and no backup clips of ammunition. We’ve got to be careful what we fire at.” He was trying to sound commanding, but like everyone else, all he managed was to sound scared.

“Maybe next time, you dumb asses will remember a tank or two.” That was the man with the little girl. He looked less scared and more pissed off. Of course, judging by the way he carried himself, he’d probably seen a decent amount of time in combat, either as a soldier or a cop. There was an air about him that said he’d managed to handle every ugly situation that had ever come his way.

Several more people poured out of the tram, including a cute little kid whose eyes were currently so wide that Lee feared his eyeballs might roll right out of their sockets. The woman with him kept looking over her shoulder with a deep frown on her face. “Perry? Come on! We have to go!”

Lee turned away from the woman as something moved off to his right. A careful look showed him that something was sliding in closer. He couldn’t quite make it out, but it had large eyes that barely even blinked.

“We really have to go now,” he emphasized.

Next to him, the man with his daughter in tow took careful aim at the eyes in the distance. “Yeah, bud. I’m with you.”

Lee risked a look over his shoulder and saw that a fair-sized crowd had gathered. The redhead with the little boy was looking back at the tram and chewing nervously on her full, lower lip. “Perry? Come on. Seriously. We have to go.”

A man poked his head out from inside the tram and shook it vigorously. “No fucking way! Get your ass back in here, Jeanie. We’re not going out into the woods!”

“Well, we’re not staying here to get eaten!” The boy standing next to Jeanie looked from his mother to his father like an avid fan watching a tennis match.

Eddie grabbed the woman’s arm and shook his head. “Listen. No offense, but we don’t have time for this bullshit. If you’re coming with us—”

“Perry, please! ” Her voice cracked as she looked back at the man in the tram’s entrance. He was pushed aside as Barbara the tour guide climbed down, now wearing a small backpack. Lee could see that at least a few more people were still inside.

“Don’t be an idiot, Jeanie! Get back in here.” The man’s voice was soft but urgent, a desperate whisper that didn’t want to draw too much attention.

Lee looked out into the woods and saw it was far too late for that. The monsters were coming back, surrounding the area, and it was only a matter of time before they came forward again.

His thoughts became fact a moment later, when something landed on top of the damaged tram and let out a warbling roar that was almost loud enough to deafen. Before he could bring his weapon around, the tram driver had opened fire. The first bullet bounced off the top of the tram, but the second struck the creature in the chest and sent it sailing backward.

“That’s it. We’re outta here.” Without another word, Eddie started forward, and the twenty-odd people outside of the tram, Lee included, followed him.

The woman with her child hesitated for a moment, and her face made it clear how desperately she wanted her husband with her, but in the end, she turned and moved into the woods as well.

Not far away, the living severed head, larger than the vehicle that hit it, was bleeding out from the wounds it had suffered—collision, gunfire and shrapnel alike—but it looked like it was trying not to laugh.

They’d only made it a hundred yards from the tram car, tops, when the people who’d remained behind began to scream. Two of those who’d stayed behind had weapons, and the report from their rifles was dulled by the ululations of the dying.

The sounds were enough to convince even the stragglers to move a bit faster. Unfortunately, running didn’t seem to be enough.

The shadows, the trees, even the air seemed to vibrate with menace, and all around him, Lee could hear the sounds of larger things moving through the Haunted Forest.

A high-pitched, cackling laugh cut through the air to his left and was answered from high up in a tree. Despite himself, Lee looked up and saw something moving, leaping from the limbs of an ancient-looking (but of course, only four-year-old) pine and into the branches of a tree Lee couldn’t hope to identify.

More of the same insane laughter came from other areas, sending feverish chills running down his spine. He couldn’t see what made the sounds, but he had no doubt that they were close and in large quantities.

Just as unsettlingly, the sounds of the other monsters had stopped. The only other noises besides the laughter were the harsh breathing of the other people around him and an occasional curse or whimper.

Lee was feeling every last second of his age, with a bonus decade added on top of it. He paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder, puzzled by the fact that none of the younger folks had passed him yet.

And realized for the first time that there was a good reason for that. Somewhere along the way, he’d stepped away from the others.

He was by himself. In the woods. Surrounded by laughing things that he still hadn’t seen.

The creatures surrounding him laughed again as they slowly moved in closer.

“I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die.” A man who was short and pudgy enough to make Christopher feel positively macho was loping along a few feet to his left, speaking the words on everyone’s minds as he moved.