The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and pine. Mr. Davis was frustrated. At forty, he was supposed to be taking things easy, but here he was searching for a girl who was too simple to follow instructions.
He trudged along the path, his shoes stained with mud and dried leaves. At least, he hoped it was mud and not something worse. All of this only made his temper worse. He was determined to give the girl a piece of his mind when he found her.
She couldn't have gone too far. How did she get lost in the first place? She was supposed to have her smartphone with her—couldn't she have called someone? Young people these days always seem to be glued to their devices. He couldn't blame them, though; he spent more time on his phone too, grappling with the stress from work and home.
Suddenly, a loud crack startled him. Using his flashlight, he scanned his surroundings for the source of the noise. Looking down, he realized he had stepped on a twig.
"Silly me," he sighed. Thank goodness his students weren't here to witness this; they would never let him live it down.
As he ventured deeper into the forest, he felt his composure unraveling with every rustle of the leaves. He called out for his missing student, "Chloe! Chloe, can you hear me?" The only response came from a jay, mocking him from a high branch.
Mr. Davis pushed a low-hanging branch out of his face, damp leaves slapping against his cheek. "In all my twenty years of teaching, I've never lost a student. So why is this happening now?" he grumbled, a cold knot forming in his stomach.
The girl in question was a slight, shy student, not older than eighteen. He remembered her face from the beginning of the hike—a pale, freckled face hidden behind a mop of black hair, her wide eyes filled with anxiety that he had dismissed as simple homesickness.
He never imagined a simple hiking trip would lead to this. He looked down at the muddy trail, scanning for any signs of footprints. He saw the scuff marks from his own shoes and the faint tread of other students who had walked this path before. But he couldn't tell if she had gone this way; there were too many footprints.
The trail was a confusing network of twists and turns, and the sun had long since set. Mr. Davis called out again, this time louder, "Chloe! Answer me!" He strained his ears, but all he could hear was the wind rustling through the trees. He had to find her.
As he walked deeper he stumbled upon a deer carcass. It was being feasted on by a bizarre-looking flock of birds. They looked like a crossbreed of an ibis bird with a bird of prey.
Their strange metallic-looking feathers glistened in the moonlight, their beautiful golden beaks painted red with blood. It was odd seeing them feast on the carcass due to their unique size. They were huge just below his waist.
They stopped their feeding and gazed at him, their heads twitching in curiosity and hunger. Their gaze on him made his body tense, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Mr. Davis stepped back and they stepped forward. More flew down from the trees they were perched on, approaching him. Mr. Davis wasn't supposed to be scared, as humans aren't supposed to be on their food chain but the way they looked at him told him otherwise.
His heart in his mouth, he made to run but they descended on him, their sharp talons raking his skin. They tore into his flesh with their beaks, digging deep into his skin. Mr. Davis looked at their cruel eyes and screamed his last. It was carried into the forest by the wind.
I woke with a start, my body drenched in sweat from the nightmare I had just experienced. Blood was everywhere—just like last time.
I sat up in my sleeping bag and looked around; the others were deep in sleep, some snoring softly. I wondered whether CJ was back.
Scanning the tent, I didn't see him. Maybe it was simply too dark. I grabbed my phone to check the time: 1:26 AM.
I stepped outside the tent, greeted by the cold, fresh air. The chirping of crickets and the cries of distant birds soothed my nerves, but I still felt an unsettling dread in my chest.
The darkness enveloped the campsite, and the moon offered only minimal light, the campfire long extinguished. I considered calling CJ, but the thought of disturbing his "expedition" kept me from doing so.
Instead, I started to text Chelsea but stopped midway. The darkness was thickening, casting a shadow over the campsite. When I looked up at the sky, my heart sank.
A massive flock of birds was circling above. They flew in perfect coordination, and my unease intensified. "Everyone get up! Get up!" I shouted, rushing from tent to tent, waking everyone.
"What the hell, Javier?" they grumbled as they emerged, bleary-eyed and confused. They gathered around me, their expressions shifting to confusion and fear. I pointed to the sky. "Look!"
They followed my finger, and their faces turned pale.
At first, they thought it was just a regular flock of birds, but they were far too large to be normal, and they were coming down lower. Time felt frozen as we watched, unable to look away, as the birds swooped in…
"I should never have listened to him," Kim thought in irritation. After ditching CJ she got lost. She had been wandering the forest for hours now and there was no service to call anyone.
She had tried going back to CJ but ended up even more lost. If she had just stayed at the camp she wouldn't be here. Hell, she could have been eating s'mores now, huddled in front of a warm fire but no, she just had to listen to Carl-Johnson.
She fell for his cheap tricks and overused lines, and now she was lost. As she walked she kicked something. Looking down she saw a blue school bag with a picture of a rainbow on it. She recognized it. It was Chloe's, the girl Mr. Davis was looking for.
Maybe she's here. "Chloe! Chloe!" She called out, her hopes high. She walked further and tripped over something. She looked in frustration at what had tripped her and froze.
"Aaaaaaah!" She screamed, scrambling away. Before her was her classmate, dead. Her torn clothes stained with blood, her body mutilated. She was all bones with few traces of flesh left on her. If it wasn't for the clothes that she had worn that morning, Kim would have had a hard time recognizing her.
She ran from the scene, trying to get as much distance as she could away from the corpse. Unbeknownst to her, her shout had alerted a group of birds who had finished feasting on the body on the floor and were still hungry. They fixed their gaze on the running girl.
Spreading their wings, they took to the air swooping down with their talons aimed at her. They clasped them around her skin and clothes and the girl screamed.
Kim glanced at the birds who had seized her, her body in pain from their steel grip. They were all over her, all over her body. She felt the ground leave her feet, her surroundings getting higher. "Aaaaah! Help! Help!" She screamed, struggling futilely against the birds
The pain overwhelmed her, her body bleeding all over. She couldn't see as the birds were in her way, their wings beating as they flew. Extreme fear rose in her heart and all went black.