Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates Read Free Book Online Page B

us?”
    “I’m down,” John Scott said. He ground his
cigarette under his heel, told us, “Peace out,” then started into
the trees like a dutiful Boy Scout eager to earn his next merit
badge.
    The Israelis waved goodbye to us and fell
into line behind him.
    “And then there were four…” Neil said
quietly.

 
6
     
    The terrain off the
footpath was challenging and slow going. This had less to do with
the obstacles of trees than with the ground itself. Every few yards
we were stepping over rotting logs and dead branches and volcanic
rocks. I tried to grab hold of saplings for support, but they would
often tear free from the thin soil as easily as a decaying limb
from its socket. Most hazardous of all, it turned out, was the fact
a massive network of lava tubes extended beneath our feet. Twice we
passed areas where the solidified magma had collapsed beneath the
weight of a tree into one of these underground tubes, creating
jagged craters twenty feet wide. We circumnavigated the
moss-covered and scree-filled depressions with caution. If you
stumbled into one and the fall didn’t kill you, the sharp rock
would shred your flesh and you would likely bleed to death before
help could arrive.
    The only positive to the difficult
landscape, I thought, was that I was so focused on the topography
and keeping a straight line I had little time to reflect on hanging
bodies and rapidly approaching night.
    When we stopped for a much-needed rest, I
took out my water bottle from my backpack and passed it around. It
came back to me almost empty. I finished it off, knowing Mel still
had half a liter in her bag, which would get us by until
tomorrow.
    Tomo went to pee behind a tree. I decided to
go as well. While standing on a log with my back to the others,
staring out into the trees, I was struck by a sobering notion. If
we got disorientated out here, we could become hopelessly lost. The
signs had already warned us of this, of course, and Mel had
mentioned it, but I had never taken the idea seriously until
now.
    Lost in Suicide Forest .
    Tomo and I returned to the others at the
same time. He was fastening his belt buckle, boasting that his dick
had grown since the last time he’d taken a leak. Neil told him it
must have been pretty small to start off with.
    “How do you guys feel?” I asked.
    “Tired,” Mel said.
    “Hungry,” Tomo said.
    “Hungry and tired,” Neil said.
    I nodded. “Another thirty minutes or so.
Then we’ll head back and eat.”
    Mel looked the way we’d come. “We sure we
know how to get back?”
    “I know the way,” I said.
    “Because if we get turned around…”
    “I know the way,” I repeated.
    “I guess we could always yell.”
    It was true. If we began yelling, John Scott
and the Israelis would likely be able to hear us and find us. Or if
Mel called John Scott’s phone, and told him to yell, we could make
our way to them. Yet this would be embarrassingly desperate for all
of us, and I was sure it wouldn’t be necessary.
    We continued in the direction the arrow had
pointed.
    After only a few minutes I was once more
breathing hard, and I was glad I had quit smoking. In the back of
my mind I heard Mel tell me, “See? I told you that you should
quit.” She was always saying things like this. If we went to a
restaurant, and it turned out to be good, she would say, “See? I
told you we should come here.” Same if we watched a particularly
entertaining movie: “See? I told you we should see this one.”
    Tomo picked up a long vine that continued
for as far as I could see ahead of us. “We follow this,” he said.
“We don’t get lost.”
    Less than five yards later he shrieked and
tossed the vine aside.
    “What happened?” I asked, thinking something
had bitten him.
    He was sniffing his hands. “It pee on
me!”
    “What?”
    “Feel!”
    I picked up the vine hesitantly. It was
coarse and dry.
    “There!” Tomo said, pointing to a spot
further down the stem.
    “Yeah, I see it,” I said,