Landscape

Night was falling and the landscape remained unchanged. Before her she saw nothing but rocks and hills, mountains of forbidden terrain she was warned not to venture into, but her curiosities knew no bounds. It was local legend, the mountains that swallowed hikers. She just had to check it out for herself, it seemed so ridiculous.

Referred to as the Kamakazi mountains, called so due to the fact that once you ventured in, you where never seen again, it was like suicide. For the most part the locals had been able to maintain its secret, for you see, these mountains where not easily accessible, one had to know the correct path to take and the terrain was rough, but once entry was gained the views where the most spectacular you would ever see, and at night the stars lit up the sky in the billions. It truly was a different world. One man had made it out and confirmed the richness of the land, but he also told stories of terrain 'unlike any out here'. The earth was unforgiving, with the evolved views and illuminating sights, came treaturous earth to cross and ravenous rivers blocking entire paths. He had been in there for 14 days and 14 nights, when he returned he was merely a shadow of the man he had been when he left and spent the next week hospitalised.

Her feet where growing heavy and her mind weary as she stepped onwards, sure she was retracing her steps back to the way she had come in. She had brought a map, despite being told once she entered the check point that it would not help her in anyway, the landscape moved you see, this is why no one ever makes it back out. The way you went in will be in a different spot when you want to leave, that's what the land does, it tricks you. She was growing so hungry, all her protein bars where gone and her water almost empty, every tree had berries, but locals had warned her against eating them, hallucinations they caused, but she was almost ravenous, so without hesitation she picked a handful and threw them in her mouth. What was the worst that would happen.

Night fell and she knew she had to stop and rest. She had only intended on venturing in for the day so had not even a blanket with her to shield herself and it was growing cold. She gathered some sticks and took the box of matches from her pocket to light a small fire. Then using her hands she dug at the earth and created a ditch in which to spend the night, at least partly concealed, she scrawled in and drifted to sleep. She was awoken a short time later by a cackling sound, like a laugh and saw in the distance flames shooting up as tall as the trees. She hadn't remembered trees there earlier, but now they where on fire, the earth was burning, and there where people standing there, laughing at the flames. She got up and ran to tree line. The closer she got the more the people laughed, staring at her now through the dark from within the flames. She noticed a small figure, directly in front of her, a child, he was on fire. The people just laughed, they did nothing, so she did what she could muster and jumped on top of him smothering out the flames. When she did so, he looked at her, gazed right through her, stood up, completely unharmed and ran off into the burning woods. She brushed embers off her shirt and stood dazed, summoned by the flames. The people had gone, disappeared into the night, leaving the same as they had arrived. She was gripped by fear and confusion as the woods before her stood dark and empty. Behind her gleamed the rocks and mountains from where she had just been, in front of her was a forest, half lush and green. half burnt out by the flames that had simply disappeared. She was so tired now, she could do nothing but collapse into a heap and fall into a deep sleep.

With the rising of the sun the following morning came the singing of the birds and the curiosity of the mountains wildlife. They had never seen such a thing before. It appeared to be a human, hunched over in a ball almost charcoaled, amongst a pile of burnt out sticks. A match box lay a foot from where this burnt out figure was, open, a single used match next to it.