The Missing Hiker's journal

“Chris, I think you should read this journal. It has a lot of insight on how to keep that thing away from us. Plus, the same stuff was leaking out of that guy's cut that is leaking out of yours.” Abby slurped up her noodles while Chris stared into space. He was looking paler by the minute and beads of sweat had started to form on his face. They really needed to get out of the forest as soon as possible. 

When Chris didn't answer, Abby put her hand on his shoulder. And then, she saw it. A pair of eyes glowing white in the treeline. They were barely visible through the veil of rain but there they were, and was that a smile on its face? 

Abby was surprised by Chris's inability to move or speak. She had never seen him freeze like this, but he was completely and utterly spooked. In the back of her mind, Abby wondered if this was related to the object that Chris had stepped on. Was it possible for it to have been imbued with a curse of some kind? Abby wasn't sure but what she was sure of was that she needed to snap Chris out of his petrified state. Abby raised her hand above her head and slapped the hell out of Chris. 

His head shifted to the side and light returned to his eyes as if he was coming out of a trance. He rubbed his face and blinked a few times before looking at Abby with a confused expression. “Did you just hit me?”

“Yes I hit you, you were staring off into the woods not responding to me. Do you remember what happened?”

Chris rubbed his cheek and flexed his jaw. “I don't remember anything. Did something happen?”

“That thing is out there. You were staring right at it, frozen in fear. That's it. We are reading this journal whether you want to or not. The thing won't get us in the rain and the guy says it's scared of fire. Thankfully we have both those things to keep us safe. You just shut up and listen.”

Abby picked up the journal started reading aloud from October 5th:

“It keeps leaking out something foul. I’m losing track of time now. Maybe it’s from lack of sleep, but there seems to be more and more gaps in what I remember and the parts that are missing. Every time I start to fall asleep, I see its eyes and I wake up in fear. I have to stop running. I think that the only thing for me to do if I want to survive is to face this thing. I know the bastard is scared of fire. Maybe I can make a trap of some kind and keep it from following me as I run for my life. If I don't do something soon I think it's gonna get me.”

Chris slurped up his noodles and looked at Abby, “Ok I'll give you some credit. That does sound surprisingly similar to what's happening to us. This person is obviously dead though so maybe we shouldn't put too much stock into what he does?”

Abby gave him an annoyed look, “Maybe if we learn from his mistakes we can get away. I mean you can't run with your foot like that so a trap sounds like a pretty good way for us to buy enough time to get away.”

She continued reading, “October 6th, 2025: I have a plan and I bet it will work if this thing hunts the same way most animals do. I’ve sent a ring of brush and kindling up in a large circle and covered it in the last of the lighter fluid I packed with me. This has to work because I don't think I'll be able to make a fire without this. It looks like it's going to rain today so I need to hurry up. This is my last chance, I can't take it any longer. If I don't come back, send a search team to the abandoned logging factory near the river to recover my body.Wish me luck.”

Abby closed the book. That was the last entry meaning the man's plan had failed and he was probably dead. Abby looked at Chris and she knew the chances of them both making it out alive were slim. First thing they needed to do was improve their mobility. Abby looked into the rain and began putting on a fresh pair of clothes while Chris’s head bobbed up and down as he fought sleep. Eating would have to wait. She needed to do this first. When Chris finally fell asleep she helped him lay down, zipped up her rain jacket and put on her hood. 

Abby ran into the forest and started searching for thick tree branches that could serve as a walking stick for Chris. She found one after only a few steps into the rain. She grabbed some shorter sticks that would make perfect torches and a few long, thin ones. She was fairly confident that Witikow would ignore her because it had already marked its prey. If only she was right about that. 

As Abby turned around to head back to camp, she heard someone yelling, “Help. Help me,” in Chris's voice from about 100 ft behind her. Ignoring her natural desire to turn and look in the direction of the voice, she sprinted in the opposite direction. She didn't look over her shoulder or slow down to check her surroundings, she just ran. She could hear heavy footsteps falling behind her as the light of the camp began to grow brighter. She could feel the creature's claws brushing against her shirt as she dove for the campsite, and unexpectedly Chris waved a burning branch right above her body causing the creature to let out a roar and stumble back into the trees.

Chris threw down the branch and wrapped his arms around Abby, “You fucking idiot. Why would you do that alone?”

Tears formed in Abby's eyes as she buried her face into Chris's bare chest, “I didn't think it was interested in me. Also, you needed a walking stick. I thought if I got it now it would be dry by morning.”

Chris sighed. He couldn't be mad at her for trying to take care of him. “Whatever, just keep me in the loop so next time we can do this stuff together, ok?”

Abby looked up at him, “In that case, I have a plan. We need to head East and find that old log mill. That means we need to travel upstream since we found the guy's bag downstream. That probably means it floated down from somewhere else. Also if there was a log mill that meant there was a road to carry logs in and out, that means a highway. I think the place is actually nearby. I remember seeing something about an abandoned thing on the map we looked at before coming on the trip.”

“Ok, valid, but how do you suggest that we do that without the thing getting us first?”

“Well, I think that it's tracking you based on the scent of that black stuff leaking out of your foot. I think we should rub it all over another animal and scare it into the opposite direction. Then the next thing we need to do is get rid of the original source. Which means we have to close the wound.” Abby's eyes drifted to the pot on the fire. 

“No you don't mean?”

“Yup I do. It's the only way. We cauterize it.”

“And the animal, how do we trap it?”

“It's deer season. you probably didn't notice that the area is covered in deer droppings. Hopefully the deer haven't moved on yet and will come early in the morning to graze. Don't worry about how we attach your scent to it. Leave that part to me. What do you say?”

“That’s the shittiest plan I've ever heard, but it's more than I have so I guess it will have to be done.”

Abby smiled at him and put out her hand “Ok Chris, let's start prepping.”