"I don't see shit!"
"Aren't you as glad as me that there isn't actually military guys out here?"
"No, I'm not, Paul. I really wanted to believe that something was happening out here", says John.
"I told you it was a bad idea to come up here, if it wasn't us getting shot, it's us finding nothing up here."
John's eyes scan across the road from side to side, each opposite end of the road is forest so thick with green that it is almost impossible to see anything moving within. Paul looks over to john and tells him, "You happy, now let's get going". But he doesn't budge, it's like John is looking for any reason to get excited. Suddenly, John steps out of his truck, leaving Paul and Fausto behind.
Paul dumbfounded looks at Fausto in the back seat, then the two men get out of the truck to look for John.
Making their way to the forrest, both of them begin to call out to John but there is no response. "How can someone so big be so quick", asks Fausto. Paul chuckles uncomfortably, and says with a serious tone, "Shut up Faust."
The deeper they went, the more of feeling of something wrong begins to fill the forest around them. The question began to form in Fausto's head, Why did John leave without saying anything? Did he see something that we didn't? Or was it something he heard? Even though their could've been a number a reasons why John left, it's not something he would do on a whim. He has a wife waiting for him back at home as well as his in laws that would probably chew him out for staying out too late.
Paul stops and Fausto runs into him, causing both of them to fall down.
"Hey why did you stop?"
"Look Faust!"
Ahead of them was a broken down jeep covered in moss, on the side of it, it had the logo for the local military police. "How long ago did you see those military people? Faust?" Fausto looks in horror because it is the exact vehicle he saw. "I only saw it yesterday."
"Yesterday? Are you sure?"
"Yes. Im positive."
Both of the men get up and slowly approach the jeep. There's no one in sight, better yet, how did this thing get out here even with this dense forest? Fausto tries to look in the driver seat and says to Paul, "I don't see anyone in there." Paul tells him, "Don't get too close to it".
Fausto gets close enough to get a better look at the moss and it looks like its moving. He touches the moss and feels that it's moist but the liquid its excreting feels weird. He looks at his hand and makes a discovery that shocks him. "Hey I told you not to get too close to it, Faust". But he doesn't answer because he is just fixated on his hand. "Fausto what's wrong?", asks Paul worriedly.
Still Fausto doesn't answer he is transposed onto his hand, each little ripple that makes up his flesh. He begins to feel a deep pit in his stomach and sweat to form around his forehead but it's not because of fear. The feeling he is getting is more difficult to explain. He looks over back at the moss and begins to understand what it is.
They're veins.
Veins running up from the earth and whatever that he touched is the earth's blood. The world is bleeding through it's veins. This realization freaks him out and he looks to Paul to calm him down but his face begins to morph and shift. Like it was melting.
Paul grabs Fausto's hand and tries to run back into the road with him. "What about John?!" yells out Fausto. He hears Paul's voice but it doesn't sound right to him, like the pitch in his voice is shifting and intertwining. He looks up and can see that the trees are acting bizarre. Like they are being pushed and shoved by the wind but that isn't right, there's no wind. No, it's almost like they are alive.
While running he can see the day passing and going. Night becoming day and day becoming night, over and over again. The feeling in his stomach become nausea and he begins to throw up but when he does, it's not the usual vomit. It's a thick black liquid that is tasteless.
The two men make it out the woods back onto the main road but when they get there the sun is beginning to rise, Paul nervously asks" Are you ok Fausto."
Fausto feels that whatever he was experiencing in the forest is starting to go away. "Yeah I think so, you didn't see any of that crazy stuff with the sun?", asks Fausto.
Paul looks at him and tells him, "You should've stayed away from that stuff." Paul and Fausto in the moment begin to realize the sun is rising and John's truck is missing.
"Well at least John found his truck but how long were we in there for?", asks Paul as he looks at the sun.