Out of The Woods Read Online Free Page B

it.
    And fell, headlong down a steep hillside, tumbling, rolling, moving. And the thing was, the bruises and thorns didn’t hurt as much as the staying over long, as the following the wrong guide. She was off. She was begun.



The rain stopped as quickly as it had begun. In some more civilized place, the end of rain might have left silence in its wake, but here in the woods it did not: when she stopped falling, the first thing Halley noticed was the incessant, battering noise.
    The woods aren’t like people think, she reflected, trying to catch her breath. There’s no silence in the woods, no peace.
    All around her were whispers, chattering, the thick rustle of insects burrowing under piles of dried-out leaves. An orange and black millipede moved its legs on a nearby tree – Halley imagined even this tiny movement was adding to the chaotic noise that surrounded her. It strummed itself higher up the tree, its bright skin in sharp contrast to the grey of the tree trunk. Bird calls resounded, high pitched screeching that shocked her senses. Each call was different, as if there were no two birds alike in these entire woods. Water roared over rocks in a hidden riverbed, terrible in its power.
    Without warning, a black snake slid out from the surrounding undergrowth, slipping quickly in front of her. It was so fast that she didn’t see its head, only the length of its long black back, skimming over the dirt. It didn’t pause, and her startled scream lasted exactly as long as it took for the snake to slide its length by her, and move off into the undergrowth.
    Her scream had been unearthly – it was not so much a scream as a subtle unraveling of her voice. She felt a cold sweat begin: she had not expected snakes in these woods. There were no snakes anywhere near where they lived. She’d never seen a snake move so fast. To what far away place had Fernando brought her?
    She imagined snakes all around her, poised, ready to strike. Curling her body in, she sat on her haunches and tried to keep her limbs close. A scrambling sound next to her made her jump, made her think snake! but when she focused on the spot where the sound had come from, she saw only a crow, picking its way carefully in the scrub. It was a glossy, cool-looking thing, its eyes piercing as they darted about.
    Near the crow, she noticed her pack. It must have been dragged off during the roll down the hillside. She must retrieve it. But she stared at the pack without moving, thinking only of how very far away it seemed. Even this small distance was insurmountable; it was impossible to imagine traversing the whole forest alone. Hardening her belly, she stood up, and took an un-steady step forward. The crow, seeing the movement, let loose a shriek that filled the forest. It took wing.
    Halley’s hands were trembling as she grabbed the backpack and sat back down quickly, under a tall, thin tree. She hugged the pack into her belly, as the enormity of what she had done began to sink in.
    She was alone. She was deep in the woods, possibly lost, and was not even sure why she was here. The baby she’d come to save was completely silent, and this left a strangely filling emptiness. Was Fernando right? Had she just made up the baby? Or was it simply too late to save her? This last thought stunned her. She sensed the loss of an irretrievable treasure, like a fire that burned a lifetime’s worth of family photographs.
    A sharp crackle of leaves snapped Halley from her reverie – the snake had made a lunge towards the crow! Without thinking, Halley screamed “NO!” and it was only Halley’s loud shout that allowed the bird to flutter away, leaving the snake with a mouthful of long, black tail feathers. After she screamed the word she was confused – why would she care whether the snake ate the crow? Why would she care enough to try to prevent it?
    A sudden picture formed in Halley’s mind, as if in answer. It was a picture of her, stretched out still and motionless