James Moore - The Haunted Forest Tour

“Okay, that sounds good to me.”

“I’ll search the building,” said Barbara. “There might be a more secure place for us to hide out. Eddie, do you want to help me?”

Eddie shook his head. “I should head back to the tracks. If they’ve got things working again and send another tram, I want to be there.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Christopher asked.

“No, I’ll probably get eaten.”

“You should at least wait until Tina and I scope out our location. Like I said, we could be close to the edge.”

Eddie shrugged. “Fine. You two let me know if it’s a merry little stroll to safety, then I’ll head off to the tracks. Anybody want to come with me for bait?”

“I’d go, but I think I’d slow you down,” said Lee.

“Yeah, I think you would, too. Maybe I’ll bring Brad along.”

“That’s not funny,” said Tina.

Eddie glared at her, then softened a bit. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. Okay, so, you and momma’s boy are going to climb a tree. Barbara’s going to look for a better hideout…”

“I’ll help her,” said Lee.

“…with Lee as her chaperone.”

“Mom, do you want to stay here and make sure nothing happens to Tommy and Brad?”

“I can do that, sure.”

“Good. So let’s go.”

“You know, this may be a terrible idea,” said Christopher, gazing up into the tall pine tree. Not much light streamed through the branches. Lots of places for nasty things to hide. And, even if the tree was monster-free, he could always have a nice long fall and break his neck.

“Yep, definitely a terrible idea,” Eddie agreed. “I sure as hell wouldn’t go up there. Have fun.”

“We’re trusting you, Eddie,,” said Christopher. “If anything scurries toward us, shoot it.”

Eddie nodded. “No problem. What percentage of your body do you want to be eaten away before I deliver the mercy shot?”

“You’re a very grim man.”

“It’s a very grim forest.”

Christopher turned to Tina. “You ready?”

“Sure.” She sounded like this was a big fat lie, but Christopher wasn’t about to call her on it. “If we watch each other’s backs, we’ll be fine, right?”

“Absolutely. Which side do you want?”

“The one with the fewest monsters.”

“Fair enough. What do you think: slow and easy, so we don’t wake anything up, or as fast as we can?”

“Slow and easy.”

“Hey, if you want me to spot you, you’d better go with the ‘as fast as you can’ idea,” said Eddie. “I’m not hanging around here much longer.”

“Well, that answers that,” said Christopher, reaching up and grabbing the lowest branch. “Let’s get a move on.”

Tina walked around to the other side of the tree. Christopher pulled himself up and stood on the lowest branch. It seemed to be perfectly sturdy. He could only see Tina’s arm as she pulled herself up to the lowest branch as well.

They began to climb.

The branches were thick and difficult to maneuver around, but there didn’t seem to be anything living in them. Nor did any of the branches spring to life and try to impale Christopher or toss him into the air, which was nice. He asked Tina how she was doing every minute or so, even though she was outpacing him by a full body-length.

“Oh, gross,” said Tina from the other side.

“What?”

“Sap. But it’s green. Kind of looks like snot.”

“Maybe the tree has a cold.”

“That would be our luck. It’ll probably sneeze.”

“Stop talking about sneezing trees and climb, dammit!” Eddie called out.

They continued to climb. The first sign of life crawled over Christopher’s arm when they were about fifty feet high.

It looked like a ladybug, although it was one hell of a ladybug, approximately the size of a computer mouse. It left Christopher’s arm before he could even flinch and moved around to the other side of the tree.

“Watch out for the bug,” he said.

He heard Tina gasp. Seconds later, the ladybug flew past him and fluttered away.

“See, not every creature in the forest wants to devour us,” Christopher remarked. “Some of them are rather… oh, crap…”

Hundreds of oversized ladybugs streamed down the tree towards him. They washed over him like a ladybug shower, as Christopher squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to panic. It’s okay… it’s okay… they’re probably not carnivorous…

Tina screamed on the other side.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the flood of ladybugs ended. Christopher watched as the red tide moved down to the bottom of the tree. Eddie stomped a few times as they moved past him.

“You okay?” Christopher asked Tina.

“Delightful.”

They resumed climbing, picking up the pace. The trees were all very similar heights, so it looked like they were going to have to go all the way to the top—two hundred feet or so—to get a good vantage point.

“You okay?” Christopher asked.

“Quit asking me that.”

“Sorry.”

Christopher froze and stared up into the darkness. Had something moved above him, or was that just a rustling in the wind? He didn’t see any glowing eyes or gleaming fangs. Probably just a rustling in the wind. Definitely just a rustling in the wind. Best to be optimistic.

He looked down and was suddenly much less optimistic.

The panther—at least it looked like a panther—struck Eddie from behind before Christopher could even start to call out a warning. Eddie hit the ground hard, but quickly rolled over on his back as the panther lashed out at him with its front paw.

Christopher let go of the branch with his left arm and waved it in the air. “Hey! Hey, you! Up here!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Tina asked.

“Drawing it away from him!”

“Well, don’t !”

Eddie squeezed off a shot. The panther yelped as a streak of red appeared on its side. The beast leapt off of Eddie and onto the tree that Christopher and Tina currently occupied. It started to climb at a much more rapid pace than Christopher had been able to achieve.

“Shit!” he shouted, because it seemed appropriate, as he frantically grabbed for the next higher branch. “Eddie, shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot the damn thing!”

Christopher heard the shot as Eddie fired. The bullet sliced across his upper arm. It took a moment for the realization to sink in (" That son of a bitch shot me !") and another moment for the pain to kick in.

He’d just been grazed, but damn, it stung.

The panther was climbing fast.

Another shot. The panther yelped and stopped climbing… but only for a second. Then it let out a loud, unnerving snarl and resumed its upward movement. Christopher tried to grab the next higher branch, but his arm wasn’t working right and he missed. He tried again and managed to get hold of it, and a bolt of pain shot through his arm as he pulled himself up, enough to make him feel dizzy. He was going to have to do this with one arm.

Tina was now two full body-lengths above him. He thought about the old joke with the two friends and the bear: “I don’t have to outrun the bear; I just have to outrun you .”

“Crap!” he heard Eddie say. Christopher was pretty sure this meant “Crap, I’m out of ammunition.”

At least it’s going to be a macho death , he thought. How many people get killed by panthers, after all ? There was no shame in going that way.

The panther snarled once more, and then opened its mouth wide. Its tongue shot out, frog-style, and wrapped around Christopher’s foot. He hadn’t expected that. He smashed his other foot against the tongue, and it quickly withdrew back into the panther’s mouth.