Trip to the moor

   As Morton walked along the mud path, he noticed the heavy dew all around him. At night, as he slept in his tent, a colder climate had been battling with the creatures all around him. The morning had a white tone that came from the frost on some of the leaves and dead insects that hadn’t been properly prepared for the cold. He looked at it all in wonder, as it was the first time in his trip in which he saw such a thing. Granted, he had been out in the wilderness for only a week, but he already felt like a proper explorer.

 His next assignment was to look for a lake or a pond in order to wash his body. He hadn’t been able to properly clean himself since he had entered the moors, and it was time for it, judging by a small cloud formed by many tiny mosquitoes. It was a little bit funny to be followed by those creatures all over the place, no matter if he stumbled to the ground or if he climbed down or up a wall. They were as resistant as him and, after a couple of days; they became little more than his own shadow.

 At the end of the mud path, a large amount of tall bushes covered what lay beyond. The sun was casting its first few rays onto the world and it seemed it was going to be a great day for his expedition. He had been granted a permit to explore for two weeks but he intended to traverse the park in order to reach the north border post before the two-week mark and there he would ask for another permit of the same amount of time. He needed at least one month, or that’s what he thought anyways.

 Morton had asked for the month period at first but he had only received a laugh and a severe look from the guard that was supposed to be giving the permits. They were not available online, so people had to go to the post and just make an exposé about why they wanted to enter the park and how would they spend their time in there. They also asked for people to have a proper plan for sleeping and eating. Even if they granted the permit, one had to sign several papers before going in.

 He didn’t mind at all. He signed everything they wanted because he needed that place; he needed to get lost in there for at least one month. He couldn’t deal with the real world, with the urban settings anymore. He had found the natural park while surfing the Internet and he had decided that was the perfect place to go. Besides, he could say he needed to go in there to take pictures and have some video footage of the place for a documentary. He had a degree in cinema but he had never used it. Not until it became relevant to get the damn permit.

 Once everything had been set, he prepared himself by watching several videos on the matter of camping and exploring. He had signed on for rock climbing lessons and he got only the basics before it was time to leave. The only people that knew what he was doing were his parents but they didn’t say anything besides wishing him good luck. After all, that trip had not cost them a dime and all the camping equipment had been bought in a second hand specialized store. Morton had done everything correctly.

 He left very early one day before they woke up, leaving only a handwritten letter on his bed. In it, he told his parents that he loved them but that he needed time to get his mind and his life in order. He needed to get away from every single thing that, according to him, was poisoning his life and his mind. He wanted to be well, he wanted to try and have a proper life. Not that he hadn’t tried before but all his attempts had proven unsuccessful and the trip to the moors was just an idea that seemed perfect.

 In the cabin on the south entrance, he received every single piece of advice every other person entering the moors had received before him: how to properly put off fires for cooking, how to dispose of bones and other proteins, where not to go, what not to do, what animals to be aware of, which plants could cause his eyes to pop and several other nice anecdotes and advices like those. Once he actually crossed the gate, every other person around him was getting ready for lunch.

 He remembered all that as he pulled out a survival knife from his backpack and started slashing at the bushes on the mud path. He smiled at the memory of his first day there, as if he had become an experienced hiker in just a few days. The smile went away when he realized cutting branches with such a small knife would take several hours. He decided to put the knife away and try to do it by hand. In a matter of minutes, he got both his hands covered in shallow and deep cuts.

 In a way, it was nice to feel the pain. It was strange and gross and fantastic to see blood on his hands. He rarely ever cut himself shaving at home or something like that. Looking at what was inside his veins was very bizarre but it somehow made him felt like the trips was worth every single one of those cuts, every single pain he had felt since he had gotten in the wilderness. His feet got swollen often and his skin was getting rashes all over the place but it was part of something much more important that he definitely wanted to go through.

 He decided to rest for a while. Morton wanted to walk more before the sun was on its highest point but he decided eating before the long road ahead would be much better for his energy. He took out a couple of granola bars from his backpack and started eating them slowly, as if he wanted to flavor them and enjoy their texture. To be honest, he was fed up with the taste and aspect of the bars but it was the only thing that he had on his bag, as he hadn’t prepared himself as well as he had expected.

 Before coming in, the people from the park had told him that, in case of severe malnutrition or lack of proper food, he would be allowed to kill certain animals in order to cook and eat them. He would have to dispose of them correctly and hunt them with proper care. So he did. Morton had never hunted or done anything that even remotely similar. But on the second day of his trip, just to try his skills out, he was able to kill a rabbit with a bow and arrow he had been given by the owner of the second hand store.

 It had been more a toy than a proper weapon but Morton had received the gift with great enthusiasm. He had always wanted to use one of those but had never been given the opportunity. Now, a week after the beginning of his journey, he had killed several animals and had disposed of every non-usable part in the proper way. He had cooked the meat with some bags of tomato sauce he had brought and the flavor was just perfect. Had become a great hunter and a pretty good cook.

 There, in the middle of nowhere, he had felt for the first time how it was to be someone that was worth something. It was the first time that he realized that he might know something that most people don’t and that, if hunting and cooking a rabbit was seen as a handy skill in daily life, he would be regarded as more than he had ever been regarded as. He had been a failure for half of his life and now he finally thought he could he be changing that dynamic. He felt he could be becoming someone.

 After eater the granola bars and putting the wraps on his litter bag, he continued to tear down the branches until, finally, the bushes gave in and he was able to pass to the other side. What he saw made him yell in happiness, even if he wasn’t supposed to do that.

 A green valley covered by some mist could be seen below, between tall mountains and ridges. Morton was standing on a cliff looking at the majestic of nature. There, he felt special for the very first time in his life and he couldn’t do much else than crying in silence.

Secret in the mist

   Mist covered most of the terrain. People could barely see what they were stepping on, so the group that was going through the area had to put a rope around their bodies so they would avoid getting lost. They walked very slowly and they all secretly prayed for the situation to improve. But it had been raining for almost a week, always at sunrise, so the possibility of less mist was far from reality. The group of five people, all botanists, were running out of food and knew very well that if they got lost in that region, they could really endanger themselves as there was only one way out that was easy to follow. There might have been others but no one knew them well and with rain, they may have been cut off.

 One morning, they stopped on top of a mountain that had a very smooth surface and decided to drink some water and look around. Again, they couldn’t see much but they had some high-tech equipment that could tell them where it was they were, at least approximately.  But all the devices that they had brought weren’t going to live forever as batteries ran out and they were not of the kind that you can replace. The group leader, Gregorio, was the one that announced that their GPS system had run put of battery and that the last portion of their journey had to be done with other equipment, more inexact, and by a typical map which was not nearly as good as a GPS. But none in the group had lost hope of getting home soon. But they were tired and hungry.

That day, again, they walked into the mist trying to find the path that would lead them to a military post in the high mountains. From there, they could easily ask for help to get them into the city and far away from that marvelous but mysterious world. They had discovered many plants, some new insects and even a mammal that no human had seen before. They were pretty happy with their discoveries but all specimens could get ruined if they did not get to their lab fast. And in only a couple of days that would start to happen and it was their major concern. So they just walked and walked, nonstop every day, trying to get out of the moorland. But everyday the mist seemed thicker, more dangerous.

 By the fourth day of their expedition to get out of the area, they found some ruins. At first, they thought they were ancient but when they got closer they realized the building that once stood there had to be from the twentieth century and no earlier. They even found the remains of a phone and lots of metal. What was weirder was when Rebecca, one of the two women in the party, discovered many boxes containing medical supplies. They had dates so they could pinpoint that the facility had been in operation eighty years ago. But what did they do there? That facility had never been mentioned in any maps or reports by explorers. And the area were the remains were scattered was all but small.

 The group decided to stay in that area for the night. It was getting colder each passing day and they had to keep the walking controlled because if they got tired, water would run out faster. Only one person, the young Mathias, stayed awake in order to watch out for wild life. Some snakes and even bears were known to inhabit the place and they had to leave someone awake to alert the other if something went on. But when everyone woke up, Mathias was gone. They screamed and walk around looking for him but he would only appear an hour later, with all the bottles and canteens filled with fresh water. He told the group that at night he had heard something and went to fin out what it was and then he discovered a small fall of fresh water.

 Gregorio asked him to show them and they all walked by the edge of a cliff until they saw a tiny stream of water going down the rocks and moss into the cliff. It was like a small waterfall and they all drank from it. Water was fresh, as always in these altitudes. They were so happy for the discovery, they all praised Mathias and laughed at jokes and so on. That was until they heard a sound, a sound that traveled up their spines and to their brain. It was an animal but a horrible animal that made a sound, which was a mixture between a wolf’s growl, a bat’s squeal and a human’s scream. It was the most awful thing they had heard and it was close. The group decided to go up again and just continue through the mist, beyond the ruins.

 But the mist got thicker and the sound seemed to be following them. They were all nervous, not happy anymore. There was something chasing them or at least following them and maybe that had been going on for several days. Something or someone was doing that noise and they only knew they had to get away from that fast and without looking back. But Richard, who was a very curious older man, had to know what it was that they were scared off. He was the last in the line and he was walking slower until he decided to cut off the rope and stay still. The group soon realized he wasn’t there but they couldn’t find him. They yelled his name but he couldn’t hear them. The mist acted like a wall.

 He stood still where had cut off the rope, which he still held in his hand, and tried to open his eyes, all he could. He tried to hear more, to acute his senses but the sound had vanished. He could only hear the wind that had started blowing a bit. He then turn around to catch up with the group but he soon realized that wasn’t going to be easy. He walked around for at least thirty minutes until he gave up and was starting to imagine how he could go back to the waterfall and have some more fresh water. But then something launched itself on Richard and even the group, which was not that far, could hear his screams and the sound that had followed them again. Now, everything seemed amplified and they started running.

 They just ran and covered their ears. They just knew that the voice they had heard was Richard but they preferred to think it was their imagination at work. Which was true was that, if he were ok, he wouldn’t be able to find them anymore. The group suddenly stopped and realized they had finally reached the point in the national park that hey had intended to reach since the beginning. It was the military base. Gregorio rushed inside and the rest of the group stayed outside, still hoping that Richard could find his way to them. They drank some water and then Gregorio came out of the base and just vomited profusely. Everyone was confused. Consuelo, the other woman in the group, ran to him and asked him what happened.

 Gregorio couldn’t speak at first. They gave him water to wash his mouth and drink. When he finally spoke, he was livid, white as the mist hat still covered every part of their surroundings. He told them that inside the base, there was no one. Instead, their bodies were everywhere, pieces and remains all over. And they were relatively fresh, possibly preserved by the cold temperatures of the mountain. Something, he said, had attacked them. No human had done it because they were no weapon marking in the walls or the floor. Besides, and everyone thought he was going to vomit again, it seemed that their bodies had been ripped apart, as if a gigantic beast had attacked them.

 And just then, the noise was heard again, closer than before. They all concluded, without even speaking, that the sound and the beast that had attacked the base where one and the same. Consuelo checked her bad fast and pulled out a flare gun. Mathis did the same and soon they had three flare guns in their hands. As they were botanists and explorers, it made no sense to have a gun. But flare guns were used for rescue. They also had a machete to cut off samples and a few knives. They gathered on one side of the military base and decided to study the map fast. They knew that from there, there was a trail that would lead them to a road that ended in a small town. The journey was many kilometers long, but it was worth the try.

 Soon, they were walking through the trail but they didn’t get very far. The mist got thicker and the moon had come out, announcing night. And then, without any warning, the beast jumped on Mathias and cut off his head. The women screamed and Gregorio shot a flare at him. And then they saw the creature in all its might and realized, horrified that it had a human face and it seemed insane and in pain. The shot more flares, which seemed to confuse the creature. They then ran the opposite direction and just ran, without seeing behind. They thought they would die very soon but the creature didn’t follow them. Hours after, they found the road and, eventually, they reached the small town.

 Military personnel picked them up and the fait of their base was revealed. But it was to late. All the revelations and the truth had come too late and now there was something out and about, a creature beyond anyone’s imagination whose only desire was to kill.