Lighthouse Horror Podcast - I Took a Job as a Fire Lookout. There's Something Near Tower 14 | Scary Stories

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

They're coming for you.   Story from JGrupe Make sure to check out more of their work at u/Jgrupe | Jordan Grupe Horror - YouTube                             Original Post: I was Hired as a Fire Lookout. There's Something TERRIFYING in the Woods Near Tower 14 : r/nosleep                                     Original YouTube link: I Took a Job as a Fire Lookout. There's Something Near Tower 14              For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Merch: lighthousehorror.com  Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Darren Curtis Music - YouTube  Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every day, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

I always wanted to be a park ranger for as long as I can remember. Being out in nature, hiking, camping, and fishing. That was pretty much all I wanted to do as a kid. Once I realized that profession existed, it was my only career pursuit, and I trained for it like an astronaut going to outer space. Reading up on all the necessary qualifications, I learned that it was a pretty daunting undertaking in a lot of ways. To be a park ranger, you need to be an expert outdoorsman.

You need to be physically strong and have good endurance. You need to be confident with firearms if you're working in an area with bears and cougars. And you need to have first aid training and a range of other certifications. But those hurdles didn't stop me. They inspired me. Throughout my late teens and early 20s, I had a cork board on my bedroom wall with every park ranger requirement listed on it, flanked by photos of my favorite national parks, and I check the qualifications off one by one, celebrating as I achieve them. Living at home with my parents,

I saved up every penny I earned with a goal of going to school for conservation enforcement, one of several programs geared toward people in my aspiring line of work. Eventually I got my diploma from a nearby community college, which was about all that I could afford. It took a while, and I worked a lot of shitty odd jobs, but eventually I was hired full-time by the Forestry Service as a fire lookout. This was after at least 30 rejected applications. By that point, the recruiters probably knew my resume off by heart, without even reading it. I was thrilled, and I accepted the job with a cry of joy over the phone, to which my boss

laughed and said he was looking forward to meeting me. Throughout my on-the-job training, I picked things up quickly, and my supervisor, named Ross, said I was a natural. It wasn't long before he was sending me out alone to clear brush or do simple things, despite the fact that he was supposed to be shadowing me all the time. He said he trusted me, and that it took a lot to gain his trust. On my last day of training, it fired. Tower 14, we were sitting in the cabin playing chess. When Ross noticed something in the distance, a bit of smoke rising up out of the trees. It was just a wisp of white smoke, indicative of a campfire.

Well, we should go check that out, Ross said, handing the binoculars to me and pointing. I saw it immediately and nodded, thinking it'd be nice to get out and do something different. The routine of clearing brush and taking out the trash, reading books and playing board games and cards, was getting monotonous. It was late afternoon, and there were still several hours of sunlight left. I grabbed my backpack and my rifle, filled my canteen with water, and was about to set out when Ross muttered something over my shoulder. "'Sone of a bitch!' he said, a little louder this time.

It wasn't like him to curse, and I was a little surprised to hear him do it. Ross reminded me of a boy scout in a man's body. His enthusiasm for the job was infectious, and he was almost always in a good mood. What? I asked, walking over to join him. Another one. Nobody bothers to get a camping permit these days anymore. He pointed at another fire burning in the distance.

one a little closer. Normally, we wouldn't go out to bother campers, but these were not registered camping sites. And people like that often didn't bother to clean up after themselves, and sometimes got injured out in the woods since they weren't prepared. Most people who care enough to go camping properly will actually acquire a camping permit. They know it isn't worth the risk of being fined. These people clearly didn't care. You know what? Ross said, looking at me, This is actually perfect. It's your last day of training, which means next time something like this happens,

you'll be on your own. Nobody around for miles. So let's split up the two offenders and we'll each take one. I'll be in radio contact with you the whole time. They look like they're only a couple miles away from each other. How's that sound? Despite the fact that I'd been eager for the job my entire life, now that I was faced with the prospect of doing it alone, I was a little nervous.

But I nodded my head, agreeing with his plan. All right, let's do it, I said, just like we practiced, he told me, as we began to climb down the stairs from the tower. Don't get into any confrontations. If they want to get into an argument, you walk away and you call me for backup. Otherwise, just give them the citation and move on. Tell them to find a new campsite or we'll be back to confiscate their gear. You know, the usual routine.

The two of us took the Jeep, which was parked at the base of the tower, and drove down the dirt trail until we saw the first vehicle pulled over at the side of the road. It was empty, with no one inside. All right, you take this one. Radio me once you make contact. Remember, don't take any unnecessary risks. If anything doesn't seem right, you just let me know. He looked very nervous all the sudden, and it was making me more worried than I'd been a second

before. He looked like he wanted to say something else and opened his mouth as if he were about to do so. But then he shook his head, as if telling himself not to. After a few seconds of awkwardness, I reassured him I'd radio once I made contact. He told me to get going and stay safe, driving off once I'd shut the passenger door of the Jeep. And I was left alone, surrounded by wilderness. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I began to march into the trees,

towards the smell of campfire smoke in the distance. The brush was thick, since there was no real trail here, but I could see where the campers had dragged their cooler through the shrubbery, and I could make out their boot prints in the mud. If I had to guess, there were at least three or four of them. It didn't take long before I came across a clearing, and standing in the middle of it was a large stone archway. The human-made structure was about a ten-minute walk from the road and looked like a bridge

constructed for a railroad to pass over above it, but it made no sense for it to be way out here in the middle of the forest, far from any civilization, and far from any active railroads. A dirt path emerged from nowhere, leading towards this arch, and going underneath it, to the other side. I didn't know the area well enough to say that this was completely out of the ordinary, but to my eyes it did look unusual. Ross hadn't mentioned any decommissioned railroads passing through this part of the forest, but then again, it could have been long out of use and ancient.

When I approached the stone archway, I got a queasy feeling rising in my stomach. Like when you're a kid in the back seat of a car and your parents are driving down a hilly dirt road, and you go over a steep hill too fast on the opposite side. Looking through the archway, I saw the sky was a bruised shade of purple on the other side. Black clouds floated along, in stark contrast to the clear blue sky which I'd seen from the watchtower. I looked over my shoulder, and the sky was blue. I looked straight ahead again, and I saw that it was that surreal, purple shade, but only on this side of the archway.

What the hell? I muttered to myself, walking through the stone archway to the other side. The moment that I did, my body broke out in pins and needles as if every limb had fallen asleep for just a second, but then the sensation passed. I felt as if I'd crossed over through some threshold into another world. But I convinced myself I was just being foolish, letting my adrenaline get the best of me. This was simply a new and kind of scary experience, being alone by myself out here, but I need to get used to it fast. Stealing myself with a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and continued marching forward.

The forest was still the same, but the sky was that dark purple shade. and I didn't understand why it would look like that. It was still a few hours until sunset, so it wasn't being caused by the sun's approach towards the horizon. It was something else. A forest fire maybe. Ross. Come in, Ross.

I said into my radio, which was clipped to my uniform shirt. There was a burst of static, but nothing after that. Ross. status update, come in. Ross? Again there was nothing. Great. Some back up you are.

The forest swallowed me up again, as I walked along the path until it disappeared. Strangely, the woods were difficult to traverse in this section. Huge trees blocked my path, their low branches impossible to get around. I'd completely lost the camper. trail, and I was starting to worry I'd lost my bearings altogether, so I pulled out my compass to regain my trajectory. When I looked down at the face of the compass, it didn't make any sense. It wasn't pointing in any one direction.

Instead, it spun around in lazy half-and-quarter circles, reversing and changing direction constantly. Then it began to spin in a maddening arc. faster and faster, going in circles until the glass broke and the needle flew off into the sky, completely unhinged from the device. I heard it whizzed past my ear like a stray bullet. Okay, that was weird. I tried to comprehend what was happening.

What could cause a compass to do that? A strong magnet? That was impossible. though, all of this was impossible. I looked up at the sky and traced the bruised purple color, turning my head so I could see behind me. The violet shade now covered the entire sky, including behind me, where it had been bright blue just minutes prior. What the hell was going on?

I turned around and started back, my heart beating fast, my legs trembling and trembling and numb, feeling like blocks of wood attached at the waist. Had a nuclear bomb detonated somewhere? Was this the end of the world? Was that why the sky looked so strange now? I keyed the radio again, hoping I'd get a response from Ross as I blundered through the forest feeling sick. It felt like I was going to throw up.

Ross. Come in, Ross. I practically screamed into the rest. radio. But there was no answer. I began to run picking up my pace. It was that archway. That damn archway. I should have never gone through it. I could tell it was wrong. I could tell it was evil. That feeling of pins and needles, that rising sensation in my gut, every part of my body had been trying to tell me not to go through it, but I hadn't listened. I'd heard stories before, red tales on the internet, of backrooms and hidden interdimensional

portals, which led to places like this that shouldn't exist, dimensions locked away through space and time and other mechanisms we don't understand which people stumble into and can't escape, stairs that lead to nowhere, but take a portion of your lifespan should you decide to climb them, causing you to disappear from your friends and family for untold lengths of time. People vanished in national parks all the time, and there was no explanation for it. At least, not until now. I pushed aside the brush and made my way out of the forest and into the clearing where the archway had been.

My heart sank as I stared at the blank spot where it had been. The stone archway was gone. I stood there for a while, just staring at the blank space where it had previously stood, but it didn't change the fact that the thing had vanished. I spun around in circles, thinking maybe I'd lost my way and gone off track. Maybe this was all in my head, and I just lost track of time. That was why the sky was purple and why I was having trouble finding my way back. I wasn't trapped in another dimension. I just spaced out and the sun was setting. Yeah. Yeah, that's all it was.

Nothing more. I convinced myself this was true, even though part of me knew it wasn't. If I kept walking this direction, I told myself. I would hit the dirt road eventually. I was sure enough of my bearings to know that the road lay in this direction, and I could simply walk back to Tower 14 from there once I found it. Sure, Ross would be pissed. He would tell his bosses that I needed more training and that I wasn't ready yet. But that was okay. Maybe I wasn't. Despite all my years of getting ready for this day, maybe I I was still an amateur. With this new plan in mind, I kept walking straight back the way I'd come. I knew better than to push it when I'd already lost my bearings, not to mention

my compass. The best bet was just to walk back to the safety of the road. The longer I walk though, the more I began to realize what I'd suspected deep down was true. The road was not there. The road should have been here. Even if I was slightly off course, I should have seen it by now. But it was nowhere to be found. Worse than that, the sky was getting dimmer with those horrible black clouds, covering up the patches of purple and filling them in with malignant darkness. Ross, please come in.

I said into the radio, for what felt like the hundred, hundredth time. A clap of thunder boomed overhead, sounding discordant and wrong to my ears. It was a bad imitation of thunder. It warbled and shook the ground, the reverberations lasting far too long afterwards. That was what did it. The sound of that alien thunder brought me over the edge of certainty, and I knew for sure in that moment what I'd suspected all along. long. This wasn't the National Park. This wasn't even Earth anymore.

At least not my Earth. I truly had slipped into another dimension through that archway. Despite how mad it all sounded, I was on the other side of some multi-dimensional gateway. And not only that, but now the gateway was gone. I was trapped here. Turning around, I decided I needed to go back to the place where I'd found it. Even if it was gone now, it would have to return eventually. That was my only hope.

I couldn't stay in this place. I didn't belong here. And who knew what creatures might lurk in a forest like this after dark? Even in our world, there are wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and bearers. I shuddered to think what version of predator might live unchecked in this universe, without people around to keep their numbers down. As if the forest had read my mind, I heard a rustling sound to my right. The light was dimmer now, and it was difficult to see, but I thought I noticed something

a ways off in the distance, ducking behind trees and hiding from view, following me through the the dark woods. Was it a person? It kind of looked like one. Hello? I called out, my voice breaking with fear. Hello? It called back, sounding like a tape recording of my own voice, slightly sped up and slowed down halfway through the word. The thing paused momentarily as it ducked out from behind the trees, looking at me, measuring me. Standing in plain view for the first time as if letting itself be seen. My skin turned ice cold when I caught a full glimpse of it.

It saw me, that was for sure, and it was following me. The dark humanoid shape had grayish-blue skin in at least two sets of arms. It walked on two legs and ducked behind each tree as it passed by so as not to be seen. Its face was shrouded in long black hair, which covered it like heavy curtains. It was completely naked and unclothed. To my eyes it looked like an animal, a creature more than a person, although it walked on two legs and resembled a human. The extra set of arms was the most jarring aspect of it, though.

And it made it feel so much more like a nightmare. Like this couldn't possibly be happening. My heart was pounding fast as I tripped over branches and fallen trees, stumbling and rising to my feet and looking to see the thing was even closer now. It was on a diagonal path through the trees, making its way closer and closer to me. For the first time, I saw its eyes behind the mask of tangled hair. They were reflective and gold like a cat in the night. And then I saw its teeth in its rancid, rotten smile.

It rubbed its four hands together in a ball of moving flesh and fingers, like an excited old man about to eat his favorite meal. The creature knew I was scared, and it was enjoying itself. Enjoying the hunt. Another twig snapped underfoot, and at first I thought it was my own foot, which had done it, since the sound was so close. But then I realized it was only a few feet away, which meant I spun around just in time to see a face appear in front of me. At first, I thought it was another one. of those things, and I almost took a wild swing at it.

But then I saw the face was human. It was a man wearing a park ranger uniform. His hair was shoulder length and greasy, and he had a long beard which was untrimmed and scraggly. Get behind me! He yelled suddenly, and I did as he asked instinctively, hearing the sound of movement coming toward us through the brush from where the creature had been. The sound of the rifle was deafening.

My ears were still ringing when he fired again a few moments later. That's my last bullet, he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. I hope you brought some ammunition with you. Those things don't like to die. Noises could be heard behind us, and I realized that the creature was still in pursuit, Despite two well-placed rifle rounds, I was compelled to follow the strange man as he raced ahead of me, looking back at me occasionally, to see if I was still trailing him. I didn't have time to ask questions.

I didn't have time to think about the fact that the archway was getting further and further away with each step. All I could do was run, and soon the sounds of more racing footsteps join the first creature. There were several of them, and they were all hungry, moving in a pack like humanoid wolves. I only hoped this man knew where he was going, and that he had a plan to survive. This man, who told me his name was David, said he'd been trapped in this place for a month. He had a cave which he managed to camouflage with tree branches, allowing us to hide from the creatures after escaping. from them. David knew a lot about this place, and he said the creatures avoided a certain part

of the forest. So that was where he took me. He'd set up traps, which only he knew the placement of, and his hideout was there, stocked with provisions. A lot of this plant life here is the same as in our world, he told me when we arrived back at his camp. I found a patch of shatake game mushrooms, and I've been surviving on those more or less. I had a few things in my bag, an energy bar or some trail mix, you know, the usual stuff, but I ran out of that pretty quickly, he said. He showed me his little pile of foraged food, and I marveled at how well-prepared he was. There were different species of mushrooms, some wild root vegetables, and some roughage he'd set aside to make a salad with.

This is incredible, I said, and I thought I was a good survivalist. You're still young, he told me. I've been doing this sort of thing for a long time. I was in the British Special Air Services when I was younger. They're highly trained soldiers, sort of like your special forces. Since I got across the pond, I've worked here and there, but most recently, I've been the fire lookout at Tower 14 for almost ten years. That's where I'm stationed, I said. You worked at Tower 14? He chuckled.

Ha, worked. Past tense. Damn. Those bastards replaced me already, huh? Well, I guess they must have given up looking for me too then. I thought back to that odd look Ross had given me when letting me out of the Jeep. He looked like he was going to say something. But maybe don't get killed or disappear like the last guy would have been too on the nose.

Maybe he'd been thinking about how this was a bad idea, I realized. Maybe he was thinking we should go together. But instead, he'd let me go alone. I felt a twinge of anger. thinking about how none of this would have happened if Ross had been shadowing me like he was supposed to be. They're still looking for you, I said, not really knowing if that was true. I'm sure they are.

They wouldn't just forget about you. Ross didn't get around to telling me yet. That's all, you know, I'm still in training. I didn't add that this was my last day of training, or that news of David's disappearance seemed to have been purposefully omitted from my orientation. David eyed me suspiciously, but didn't say another word about it. Well, I was going to look for more mushrooms when I spotted you. He said, it's too dangerous to go out again tonight.

But tomorrow we'll check for the archway again, and I'll show you the Shataki Grove. I go back to that spot every day and I look for that arch. I can't believe I missed it. He was peeling a mushroom with his knife as he spoke, but with that last sentence he hurled the blade across the room where it clanged against the rock wall, making a loud noise. I know you're upset, I said, but we're going to get out of here. His face was emotionless as he looked back at me, tears welling up in his eyes. That's what I've been telling myself for the last third. 36 days, he said, I hope to God you're right.

As I tried to fall asleep that night, I couldn't. The idea of a man like David being brought to tears by this place was almost too much to bear. The man was a killing machine. I mean, British special forces. He'd saved my life and pulled me out of a situation where I thought I'd be dead for sure. At least we had more ammunition now, and two guns. Still, though, that didn't reassure me very much. Those creatures, whatever they were, did not like to die, he'd said. I managed a few hours of off and on sleep before the sun came up, still appearing,

that same horrible shade of purple as it had the day before. It was starting to hurt my head. It felt wrong just being in this place, like we didn't belong here, like the air was too thick and too heavy, not meant for me to breathe. Without even realizing it, I'd begun to hyperventilate. I tried to stop myself, to calm myself down, but was unable to. David came over and looked in my eyes, and after a while I started to hear the words he was saying. The cave was still beginning to turn darker all around me, and I could feel

myself losing consciousness. But I managed to listen to him. Breathe deep. He said, Slow it down. You're okay. I've lived here this long. The air is breathable. You're okay. Big, deep breaths, lad. Good. All right, that's better. Keep breathing. In and out. After a while, I started to calm down.

And I looked at him gratefully. Thank you, I said. I needed that. Stay here and get your wits about you. He said, I've got breakfast ready. And I realized he had a portion of mushrooms and wild lettuce set aside for me. He brought it over on a flat rock and handed the food to me. What's the plan?

I asked, eyeing the food suspiciously. Despite the fact that he said it was okay, I was still a little concerned. Eat, he told me. You need your energy. We're going to walk over to that Shataki patch. On the way, we'll check for the. arch. On the way back, we'll check again. That's all we can really do. It's not safe lingering out there for too long. Those things. They can smell us. I managed to eat a bit of the

salad and mushrooms, despite the fact that they made me uneasy. Consuming anything, even the air in this world. It felt wrong. Like I was breathing in toxic fumes. not meant for human consumption. Still, a little bit of food couldn't hurt me. At least that's what I told myself. After eating, we set out for the archway. The hike was a long one, and David brought plenty of water and provisions, filling up our canteens from a spring along the way. Once again, I felt glad for his guidance. If not for him, I'd probably be dead ten times by now. After a long while, we reached the clearing where the arch had been. Once again, it wasn't there. The spot where it had been was empty, but we wandered over to it anyway.

How can it just disappear? I asked. Be here one day and gone the next. David shook his head. How can any of this be possible? I wouldn't have believed that if someone, Someone told me, would you? I thought about that. No, probably not, I said. I think they were crazy. They're high or maybe both. And yet here we are, defying all rational common sense.

There wasn't much more to say. So we continued walking. I tried desperately to ignore the feeling that I heard the sounds of rustling leaves behind us, as if someone were following quietly and at a distance. Eventually we reached the patch. David told me to start picking the mushrooms quickly before the creatures found us. He said they were smart, and they would send out scouts. So once they knew where we were, more would be gathered together, and they would come back

to hunt us like pack animals. The worst part was, they knew this was a favorite spot of his, so they would be ready for him. After a few short minutes of gathering mushrooms, David told me to wrap up. All right, let's go, he said, there's no more time. Despite my fear, I couldn't believe what he was saying. We just got started. It'd been such a long hike and this small amount of mushrooms would barely sustain us for

a day. Come on, David. Just a few more minutes. I said. I said, let's go, he hissed at me, his face morphing into rage. I almost didn't recognize him. His color changed, going red, almost purple. And there was something else strange, too. His chest seemed to spasm when he was angry. The fabric puffed in and out in a very odd way, like he was breathing too fast. He caught me looking at him and calmed down slightly, then came over to me and grabbed my arm, dragging me away from the mushroom patch. I can see one, he said. It's a little ways away at six o'clock.

That means there's more. We need to start walking fast. run yet. Don't look. Don't let them know we saw him. All of this, he said, while dragging me away from the mushroom patch, and I fought the urge to glance over my shoulder. But I did hear the distinct sound of movement now, coming closer, gaining on us. Do you hear that? I asked, my heart pounding faster. My throat dry. My knee shaking. Quiet, he whispered angrily. I was silent for a few short seconds, and the noises came closer. Run, he said, and I began to bolt as fast as I could through the trees. A second later, I heard them all around us. They'd surrounded us. Your gun!

David said from behind me, and I tried to get it ready while still running. And then I saw what he was worried about. One of the creatures was straight ahead waiting for us partially hidden behind a tree. It revealed itself just barely, poking its head out to look and see how far off we were. Then it disappeared again. You see it? He shouted. Yeah, I replied.

When we get to that tree, you go left, I go right, okay? Don't get too close. I understood immediately what he was doing. He was sacrificing himself for me. By going to the right, he was running right through the eye line of the creature. He'd be running past it within inches of its grasp. All to distract it so it wouldn't get me. Part of me wanted to argue, but there was no time.

We were already at the tree. I ran to the left and David went right. The creature lunged at him just as I'd feared and managed to rake him with its long, talon-like fingernails. His back was bloodied as he ran, getting ahead of me as he put on speed. There's more up ahead, he yelled. and I saw them a second later. There were at least two, maybe more, hiding in the trees and waiting for us a little ways ahead.

I had a feeling they wouldn't be as easily fooled as the last one. Luckily, we had a speed advantage on the creatures, at least the ones we'd come across so far. I hated to think what a faster version of these things would look like. Our ability to outrun them was the only thing keeping us alive. I could hear them chasing after us. Their heavy footsteps loud as they crushed the leaves underfoot. Okay, okay, all right.

Let's split up. David said, You go left, I'll go right. Then we meet back in the middle. Say, a hundred paces from here. You got it? Sure, I agreed. Not sure what other options we had.

I was deferring to him since he seemed to know what he was doing. Now, he yelled and branched off from our trajectory, heading to the right. At the same time, I went left. The creatures took a moment to respond, but once they saw what we were doing, they left their hiding spot where they were waiting to ambush us. The creature closest to me came at me from my right, and I screamed as it came within a few feet. It's horrifying arms reaching out to grab me.

I felt the breeze from its hand rushing past, but managed to duck out of the way just in time, stumbling over a fallen log and face-planning right afterwards. The thing crawled after me, and I felt it grabbed my ankle, pulling me towards it as I screamed. Kicking as hard as I could with my other leg, I brought my foot up into the creature's jaw, where it connected with a sickening crunch. It howled a cry of hurt anger as its grip loosened on my ankle for a second. I attempted to wrench myself free, but it held on tightly. It was strong.

I was about to kick it again when it grabbed my other leg and began to crawl towards my face. Its oversized eyes widened with anticipation, drool pouring out over its lower lip. The thing was about to eat. Eat me? As it unhinged its jaw like a python about to consume a deer, I remembered the rifle across my back. The rifle was caught underneath my body weight. I was trying to rock side to side to pull it free while shoving the thing away from me with my knees, kicking and bucking and doing anything I could to weasel my way out from its grasp. Just as its teeth were about to snap shut around my windpipe. I managed to free the rifle. Using all of my strength, I pulled my knees back

and kicked the creature in its chest, sending it reeling backwards for half an instant. Just enough time for me to get a shot off. The blast echoed through the forest, exploding outwards from the barrel of my rifle. One moment, the creature was there in front of me. The next its head was gone. I scrambled to my feet and I ran, not looking back. After a long run through the forest, I met up with David again. He looked even worse than before. Whereas I'd gotten away cleanly, he'd been mauled by one of the creatures, just barely escaping with his life.

He was bloodied and had gashes on his neck, his forehead, and both of his arms from defensive wounds. Worst of all, he'd lost his gun in the process, and now we were down to only one weapon and half the ammo. Eventually we arrived back at the cave, after a long run through the forest, barely escaping. David was in rough shape now, and I helped him lay down on his bed roll. I went outside to find leaves or whatever possible to patch up his wounds. In the absence of bandages. I had a small first aid kit with me as well, which I brought everywhere, but it wasn't nearly enough for the injuries he'd sustained. I cleaned his wounds and packed the worst of them with gauze, then wrapped them with long leaves from the forest. David began pushing

me away when I went to unbutton his shirt to tend to the wounds on his back. I told him to calm down, but he wouldn't stop resisting me. I relented, and I told him to deal with the cuts himself. They wouldn't heal properly if he didn't do something about them. But he just closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, the blood running from his wounds leaking out under the rock floor of the cavern. For the second night in a row, I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about David and his injuries. He'd be dead by morning if I didn't do something. There was too much blood loss. I couldn't understand why someone with his level of experience wasn't taking this seriously.

Was he delirious? Suddenly his snoring stopped. The cave was dead quiet in the darkness of the night. And then I heard a sound like rocks being moved, a shuffling of feet, bones creaking and cracking. There was a wet, sloppy sound, smacking lips and rending flesh, someone pulling meat from bone. I peered into the darkness of a cave, looking in the direction of the sound, and my eyes slowly began to adjust. David was up.

He was eating something in the corner of the dark cave. It looked like, was it moving? A rat? Or a squirrel, maybe. He tore another bite of flesh from the writhing thing which had been moving in his grasp, and suddenly was still again. The only sound was of him chewing. My eyes adjusted further, my heart pounding rapidly.

David's shirt was off. He'd treated his wounds after all. In the darkness when I'd been trying to sleep, my eyes closed. He'd been busy dealing with his injuries. And I realized why he hadn't wanted me to see beneath his clothes. It all made sense suddenly. The twitching beneath his shirt when he got upset. The way his color changed when he was angry.

His face had turned red, almost purple. Like the sky. And beneath his shirt was the most obvious change of all. He took another large bite of whatever it was he'd found scurrying in the cave, and with his four quickly moving hands, he pulled flesh from the bones and crammed more of the creature into his mouth. His eyes were golden and reflective when they caught me staring at him in the darkness, and as I got to my feet, I began to run.

I stumbled out of the cave, terrified. My legs didn't seem to work properly. Everything around me was wrong. The colors, the shadows, the shapes of the trees, and the sounds of the singing birds. This world was not my own. And I needed to get out now. I fell flat on my face, landing hard after tripping over something. A vine?

No, no, whatever it was. It was thin and sharp and it hurt me badly. Whatever it was had cut across my shins, and I felt the warmth of blood trickling from my skin. The traps! I'd forgotten all about the traps David had set all throughout this part of the forest. Come back! I heard David over my shoulder. It's not safe.

You have to come back. But I didn't listen. I scrambled back to my feet and I began to run. My only thought was to get to the archway, the place where I'd entered this world. David's voice could be heard receding into the distance behind me. I shuddered, thinking about how I'd seen him in the darkness of the cave, eating something. Not only that, but his arms. There was an extra pair of hands working at the hairy flesh of the vermin he'd been

eating, the bloody fur and the tearing sounds of him ripping chunks from the creature's body. At first, I thought maybe he was lying to me from the beginning, and that he was from this place all along. Maybe he was born here, and he was trying to keep me trapped in this place. But the more I considered it, the more I realized that idea didn't sit right with me. David was not a denizen of this terrible, violet-tinted world. No, no, he was from Earth. The way he spoke, talking about Fire Tower 14, which he said he'd worked at,

proved he was not from here. My mind began to work out what this meant and came to the conclusion that being in this world changed you over time. being here, eating the foraged food and breathing the purple-tinged air. All of it was toxic to people from our world, and it caused side effects that were likely permanent. I only hoped I hadn't been here long enough. I shuddered at the thought of an extra pair of arms splitting open the flesh of my abdomen

and reaching out, grabbing anything they could get their hands. hands on. Shit. I needed to get out of this place. Running through the woods more carefully now, I lifted my feet high off the ground to avoid trip wires and hope that I didn't stumble into a spike-filled pit or some other death trap. I picked up my pace, hearing the sound of him coming after me.

He was injured, and that would slow him down some, but he also knew this place far better than I did. He knew where the traps were located and he knew how to avoid him. Whereas I, I was just hoping to find my way back to the archway. Trying to remember the way we traveled through the forest, I stepped tentatively across the ground, no longer running. I was terrified of stepping on a spike or tumbling into a pit with spikes at the bottom. David had told me more than once to never go out alone. since he'd placed traps everywhere in this area. There was a noise close behind me, and I looked back to see David was following me from a distance, gaining on me.

Come back, he called after May. His voice sounding different now, distorted and wrong, breaking into a sprint. I hope to lose him in the darkness. For a time it seemed to work. He was slower due to his injuries or his mutations and was hobbling when I saw him again, trailing me from a distance now. I began to make my way towards where the archway had been. There were certain landmarks David had shown me to find my way back, but none of them

looked quite the same at night. I was starting to worry I'd become completely lost. When I finally saw the huge oak tree with one of its low branches that pointed the way. Following David's prior advice, I continued traveling in that direction. After a long period of walking, I realized the sun had begun to rise, looking purple and bloated and wrong. But at least it gave another indication of which direction I should be walking towards, and it helped to light the way. I felt regret for a moment at leaving David behind. After all, he'd saved my life. shown me how to survive in this world.

But then I shook my head and reconsidered. I wasn't going back to that cave. Maybe he was eating rats now. But what if tomorrow he developed a taste for my flesh? What if I woke up to find him hunched over me? Eating my leg for food. No, going back was not an option. If David was still following me.

There was no indication of it. I couldn't hear him chasing me anymore, and he wasn't calling for me, maybe because he was worried about alerting the creatures. The clearing where the archway had been was not far now. It was just another ten minutes or so of walking, and I was just hoping it would be there this time. If it wasn't, I had no idea what to do. I'd been trying not to think of that part of things, since the idea of the portal not being there was too much to bear. Come back!" Someone called from the woods suddenly. It was David.

At least it sounded like him. It isn't safe. Another voice called from my right. It sounded like a tape recorder running low on batteries. Leaves crunched on the ground behind me and ahead of me. From all angles there were voices. voices calling out in distorted tones. Come back.

It isn't safe. Crombrack. The more they said it, the more the words didn't sound like words anymore, but just strange alien noises. It was at that moment, I realized I didn't have my rifle, and it dawned on me for the first time that I'd left it back at the cave with David. And as that thought went through my mind, the trees and shrubs all around me began to rustle and sway, moving aside to reveal the gray four-armed figures who'd been lying in

wait. If they know you like a particular spot, they'll start to wait for you there, David had told me. They're adept hunters, and they know exactly how to ambush someone. Trust me. I've seen it myself. Yeah, I thought bitterly. He'd seen it firsthand with a rat in the cave

as he was turning into one of them and becoming a pretty good hunter himself. The pack of creatures closed in on me and I sucked in a terrified breath. It was hopeless. Or so I thought, the blast of the rifle was deafening and I wince to the sound of it, as it took the head of the creature closest to me, which was

about to grab hold to me. "'Run!' David said from the trees. And this time I could tell very clearly that it was him. But at the same time he looked different. He left his shirt back at the cave, and the extra pair of arms on his abdomen were plainly visible now, and I could see they were holding the rifle. With four hands rapidly moving, David reloaded the gun in a fraction of the time, then had the sights up to his eye again and was ready to fire.

I did as he asked, trying to pry my eyes away from the horrifying image of what was happening. The creatures were abandoning me to go after him, and I saw them stomping through the brush towards him as he fired the gun again, taking off the top of one of their heads in a bloody spray. A chunk of gray brain matter landed on my cheek, and I brushed it off and disgust. Getting to my feet, I began to run, but one of the creatures stopped me. The one David had just shot was still alive somehow, and grabbing onto my leg, digging its talon-like claws into the flesh of my ankle,

gritting its teeth and staring at me. with a brainless evil hunger. I screamed and howled in pain, turning around and using my other foot to stomp on the thing's face. As it spit out broken teeth, it smiled at me, squeezing and digging its nails in deeper, until I could feel blood pouring out.

Come back! It croaked. I stepped on the thing's arm, wrenching my life. leg free from its grip. It was like the thing felt no pain at all. Trying not to think about that, I turned away and began to run, limping on my one injured leg, ignoring the pain as I broke into a sprint. And just as I got out of sight from David, I heard him cry out in anguish. His screams cut short as one of the creatures began to chew on his windpipe. And all that could be heard after that,

was a hushed gurgling sound far back in the distance as he drowned on his own blood. Somehow I knew without even seeing it happen. David was dead, but I had no time to mourn for him. I rushed through the trees trying to ignore the pain in my leg, hoping with every fiber of my being that the archway would be there. I spoke the words in my mind out loud over and over again, like a mantra as the clearing came closer and drew into focus. Please be there.

And when I came out from the trees and into the clearing, I almost couldn't believe my eyes. Was this a dream? No. It was there. It was actually there. The archway was back. And just in the nick of time. Without a moment's hesitation, I ran through it, terrified it would disappear before I could.

I realized immediately what I'd been missing, as the blue sky above could be seen through the trees, and I noticed I was truly warm for the first time in days, as if I'd been walking in shadow and only now was stepping out into the sun. As I began to walk back towards the road, I took a nervous look back over my shoulder at the archway, and I froze when I saw the disturbing sight behind me was still there. I could see the purple sky on the other side, and that could mean only one thing. The portal was still open, terrified of what that implied. I shuddered and continued walking, looking back every so often for creatures and hoping

that the archway would disappear. But it didn't. As I left it behind in the trees and lost side of it, my last glimpse showed that evil purple sky shining through from the other side, waiting for another hiker to stumble through. or for something else to emerge from the other side. At least if I have to face another one of those creatures, it'll be on my turf, I thought. But I didn't have a weapon, and I would need backup.

I wasn't out of the woods yet. After limping through the forest for ten or fifteen minutes, eventually I found the road. A part of me had been worried it wouldn't be there, that this would be just another world that looked like ours, one of a million different potential places that the archway could take you to, and that I'd find myself wandering through some unknown forest again, set upon by some new breed of ravenous creatures with a thirst for blood. But thankfully, this did look like the road I'd been on, and I could even see the distinctive treadmarks and the mud from what appeared to be a jeep.

Maybe from the day when Ross had dropped me off in this very spot, I felt a twinge of anger at the thought of my supervisor, and I decided I'd let him have it the moment I saw him. He was supposed to be my backup. I was supposed to be learning from him. Instead, he'd let me go out on my own. And now look at what had happened. Limping along the shoulder of the gravel road, eventually I saw the fire tower. It came into focus gradually, emerging from the trees that hid it from my sight.

The Jeep was there, and I realized what that meant. Ross was up there, not out looking for me like he should have been. If he'd been where he was supposed to be, none of this would have happened. I climbed the wooden steps leading up to the fire tower, getting more and more enraged as I got further up and closer to the man who I now believed was responsible for all this. Finally I reached the top and I threw open the door to find Ross sitting at the table reading a book drinking a cup of coffee. He looked surprised to see me and shocked at the sight of me.

Holy shit! He almost screamed, knocking his coffee cup over. The brown liquid spilled all over the pages of his paperback. "'You're back!' "'That's right, you son of a bitch,' I hissed, limping towards him. I could feel my face turning hot in red. His eyes widened further. "'What's wrong with your face?

Are you okay? You're—you know, you're turning purple.' I didn't know. what to say. I looked in the mirror to my left, and I saw that he was right. I didn't look like myself at all. I looked like a monster made of rage, my face purple with anger. Suddenly all of the fight left me, and I realized how utterly exhausted I was. I heaved out a great sigh, and I crumpled to the floor of the fire tower cabin. I collapsed on the floor, unable to understand what was happening to me.

I didn't feel like myself at all. And as I did that, I felt something writhing beneath me, a squirming feeling in my abdomen, like fingers reaching out from inside, trying to poke and tear their way. through the skin of my belly. I screamed, pulling up my shirt and clutching my abdomen, feeling the skin for a bulging pair of hands,

or a face, picturing the movie Alien. But there was nothing, no indication of anything growing or mutating inside of me, except the slight tingling there, like fingers, gently brushing up against my skin from the inside, tickling me, very lightly. No, I settled out, still clutching myself tightly. Dude, what the hell happened to you? You've been gone for two days, and now you come back

screaming and grabbing at yourself. Your face just witty. in as purple as an eggplant, like you had an anaphylactic shock for a few seconds, and now it's back to normal again. Tell me, please, because I am genuinely very concerned. What the hell happened to you out there? I took a few seconds before answering. I honestly didn't know what to say, until the words began spilling out of me. The same thing that happened to David. That's what happened to me. There was a delayed reaction, as it took several seconds for him to register the name. But then his jaw dropped. Ow! Where'd you hear that name? How do you know about David?

I met him, I said, and I was about to continue when I heard a sound from beneath the fire tower. It sounded like it was coming up the stairs. I shot up to my feet, my eyes darting around the room. Where's the rifle? You need to get your rifle now. Ross didn't know what to make of any of us and was about to question me, but then the look on my face seemed to convince him. He ran over to the gun rack on the wall and pulled down his rifle, checking to make

sure it was loaded. he took the safety off. Is that David? He asked. I shook my head no. What the hell did you get us into exactly? But before I could respond, there was someone at the door. There was a sound of scratching,

long nails against the wood scraping it, and there was a distorted gray face at the window. Looking in at us, Come back, it demanded. Ross held the scope up to his eye and got ready to fire at the door. And then the footsteps began to recede going back down the stairs. What the hell was that thing? Ross asked, lowering his gun.

I tried to gather my thoughts, trying to figure out how to explain it all. Those things are deadly, I said, and they're not from this world. They're smart and they're almost impossible to kill. Right now they're retreating, gathering reinforcements, assembling a hunting party. How, how can you possibly know all this? I let him outside and pointed down at them below. They were going back for more of their own kind, to bring them into our world. As I looked down from the lofty fire tower, I could see them moving quickly into the forest.

Some were going back towards the archway. But not all of them. They were planning on staying here, making this their new home. After all, there was an abundant food supply. and no real reason to leave. I tried to sum up what had happened, as well as I could in such a short time. It was difficult for him to believe, but the proof had been right in front of him. The monster had been right outside the fire tower, and we'd seen more of them below us.

There was no way to fake that. We needed to do something. Fast. Okay. Assuming you and I haven't lost our minds and just hallucinated whatever the hell those things were, I'm going to take your word for all this. So what are we going to do? I considered this for a few long moments.

How much gas do we have between the generator and the Jeep? I asked. His eyes went wide after he realized why I was asking. For a while he didn't answer. But then he nodded his head and waved for me to follow him. Enough, he said, as I followed him down the stairs. There's enough. You might have heard about the wildfire on the news.

It was a big one. There was speculation. It was caused by hikers or careless campers. But the real reason why the blaze started was never truly discussed. discovered. No one would have guessed it was set by two rogue park rangers, and fire lookouts no less. The forest fire spread and took out a lot of homes, but everyone who lived in the area made it out alive. Thankfully no one died. I don't know how I would have lived with myself if they had. I was fired from the park ranger service after what happened, as was Ross,

With all the news coverage and social media outrage, someone had to be blamed for what happened. And we were the most viable scapegoats, especially since we'd been seen fleeing the area long before the blaze was ever reported. Our excuse was that the fire started near the road, and we'd been down by the Jeep when we noticed it. Believing our lives were in danger, we'd fled from the area before being able to radio in to report the wildfire. Unfortunately, there's no real way of knowing if we killed those things, or if we destroyed the archway. Maybe it can't be destroyed.

Maybe those things can't be killed. It's been years since all this happened. I'm terrified of the forest these days. I stay out of the woods. and away from nature entirely. I live in a big city, far away from all that business. I work in a high rise, and I live in an apartment building. And when people ask me if I want to go camping, I say hell no.

People tell me I'm strange. They talk about me behind my back. One thing that people find peculiar about me is that I never go swimming. I never take my shirt off and I don't date or try to find a girlfriend, despite people always trying to set me up. I don't want anyone to see the changes that have been happening, the arms that have fully sprouted from my abdomen and have a mind of their own. I try to tie them down to strap them down with duct tape so they can't move, but they

always manage to free themselves. They're very crafty in that way, and they brought with them an unusual appetite. I found myself craving the most disturbing things, things that crawl and skitter in the subways and in the sewers, things I have to chase and kill and rip flesh from bones with my big. your teeth. It scares me to think about what I'm becoming, and part of me will always be terrified. A voice in my mind screaming that this is wrong, and I need to get help. But another part of me is getting used to it. A primordial alien part of me is starting to very much Enjoy the hunt.