Mother Nature

It was 4:30 am. Chloe awoke at the sound of her alarm and turned it off quickly to avoid waking her husband, Allen. In the bathroom, she dressed in a shirt and jeans, and pulled her brown hair into a tight ponytail. When she was done, she crept up to her husband’s side of the bed and bent over him. She kissed him gently until he rolled over and looked sleepily at her from under disheveled blond hair. She sat down beside him.

“I just wanted to say goodbye, sweetie,” she murmured, touching his hand.

He sighed. “I wish you weren’t going. I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I have a bad feeling.”

“Everything will be fine,” she comforted him. “Hannah and I have planned everything out.”

“You’ve never been camping before.”

“But Hannah has gone camping her whole life. I’m sure she knows what she’s doing.”

“You don’t know her that well,” he grunted. “I wish you were camping with someone you knew.”

She kissed him again on the forehead. “Don’t worry, babe. I’ll be gone for just a couple of nights.”

She was nervous about being away from him for the first time since they had married a year ago, but there was no guarantee that they would always be together. He might decide to go off with his friends some day, maybe even on a camping trip, and she was prepared to be tolerant of it.

It was dark outside in the parking lot of her apartment complex, though the skies were getting a bit lighter with the approaching dawn. Then she saw Hannah’s black jeep coming towards her. A folded tent was secured on the top of it, and when the car was parked, she saw that the backseat and trunk were overflowing with what she assumed was camping gear.

Chloe brought the dufflebag with her to the front seat. “Morning, Hannah.”

“Morning,” she said cheerfully.

Hannah was a tall, blond, athletic-looking woman. She looked capable enough to reassure Chloe that she could handle any problems they might encounter.

Hannah started driving. “Ready for your first camping trip?”

“Yeah, I’m really excited,” said Chloe. “I’ve always wanted to go, but Allen’s job doesn’t let him go on vacation very often. Life of the executive, you know.”

“Well, teaching’s hard, but at least we get vacation days. I’m glad the year’s over, I was about to pull my hair out.”

Chloe laughed. “That’s because you have a bunch of middle schoolers. You should be like me and teach elementary. They’re pretty nice overall.”

Hannah grimaced. “Not for me, thanks. I don’t like little kids. That’s why I don’t plan on becoming a mom. Teaching teenagers is enough time with kids.”

They had met at the end of the year at a teaching conference, but they fell easily into a conversation that only teachers really understood. They complained about the administration at their schools, the parents who refused to cooperate, and the students who tortured their teachers.

Soon, they were driving down the long, winding roads that are so common in Oregon outside of town. The tall trees walled them in on either side, so they could barely see the sun rising. Above them was a long strip of blue sky.

After an hour of driving, Hannah drew to a halt in the middle of the road, peering at a sign on the left. It was not a bright green sign, like the many that lined the road, but a wooden one. Chloe did not bother trying to read it, and she glanced behind them for cars.

“There’s a car coming,” announced Chloe.

“Hold on, I’ve never seen this road before, and I can’t quite figure out what that sign says.”

Chloe bit her lip. “Hannah, the car’s getting closer, we should probably go on.”

“Nope, we’re going on an adventure,” said Hannah in a loud, bright voice, and she swung the car onto the dirt road. “I don’t understand it. I’ve been coming here for years, and I’ve never seen this road or that sign before.”

Chloe listened but did not say anything. At the moment, what interested her most was that the road was so narrow that only one car could go down it. On the left was the steep side of a hill, and on the right were trees packed tightly together. She wondered what would happen if they met a car coming towards them. Hannah, however, was apparently oblivious to the thought of danger, or at least unconcerned about it.

Eventually, the trees thinned enough, and Chloe could glimpse a stream beyond them. But then she was too distracted to enjoy the view because the road became very uneven, and the jeep bounced violently. They were too afraid to talk in case they bit their own tongues. Chloe was almost wishing that she had listened to Allen and stayed home. Then the road leveled out, and to her surprise, there was a round clearing that looked like it could be a parking lot. There were even restrooms.

“This is great,” said Hannah, stopping the car. “We don’t have to camp here, but we can explore. Look! I see a trail over there.” She parked near it.

“Maybe we should eat something before we do that,” suggested Chloe.

“Oh, sure. I brought some protein bars.”

The two women sat on the edge of the trunk, eating. When Chloe was done eating, she took a deep breath of fresh air, and she smiled. The edginess from earlier was gone.

Hannah looked over at her. “I told you you’d like it. Being outdoors is great. I think we’ll have a great time camping. Bound to be better than my camping trip last year.”

“What happened last year?”

She shook her head. “Kind of a stressful thing for me to talk about. It was pretty bad, and everyone tried to blame me. But it was one of those impossible situations . . . anyway, we should get going.”

Chloe was curious but sympathetic, and she did not ask more questions.

They started down the trail. Hannah took the lead since there was not enough room for them to walk side by side.

The forest was like most forests in Oregon. The undergrowth made it impossible to walk among the trees, but except for the occasional root that ran across it, the trail was a good one.

At one point, Chloe almost ran into Hannah when she stopped suddenly.

“Shady here, isn’t it?” remarked Hannah, gazing up at the trees.

Chloe looked up, startled. Behind them, the trees on either side of them did not touch, but now their branches were tangled up with each other, creating a canopy, which stretched ahead of them.

“That’s odd,” said Chloe, shivering. “But at least we can stay cool, I guess.”

“I guess,” said Hannah.

“Do you want to turn back?”

“No, it’s fine. Come on.”

They continued walking. A few minutes later, Chloe noticed that the trees were standing closer together, and the daylight was dimmer, but they both pretended not to notice.

“I’m really glad you came with me,” said Hannah over her shoulder.

“I’m glad to,” lied Chloe.

“Like I said, last summer was just so awful. This is my first time camping since then.”

Chloe did not respond. She had always heard people describe the uneasy feeling of being watched, but this was the first time she knew what that meant. She wanted to reach out and tug on Hannah’s shirt, but she did not want to embarrass herself. She wondered why Hannah did not turn around, unless she was trying to prove to both of them that she was more fearless than she felt. Perhaps she, Chloe, was alone in her fears.

Hannah stopped again and turned around. Her blue eyes were wide, frightened, but her mouth laughed a little.

“Odd forest,” she said.

“Yes – ”

“Do you mind if I tell you what happened to me last summer?” she cut in. “It’s weighing on my mind, I don’t know why. I’d like to share it with you.”

“Sure,” said Chloe, though she wanted desperately to hear the story safely in the car.

She spoke rapidly. “I was rafting with a friend of mine along the Rogue River. He didn’t want to go because the river was really choppy. I sort of shamed him into it, I suppose, and he went. Well, the stupid guy fell out of the raft, and I probably should have tried to reach my oar to him, but I didn’t want to die, you know? Anyway, his body was found later, but I just told people there was no way for me to save him. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

Chloe was certain that she had a horrified expression on her face, but after Hannah was done speaking, she had whipped around and started walking. More than ever, Chloe wanted to go back to the car. In fact, she wanted to go home. She thought about the comforts of her safe apartment, waiting for Allen to come home from work.

She had assumed that Hannah, confident and adventurous and experienced in the wilderness, would be someone she could rely on if something bad happened. Now, she realized that she may be as expendable as the man she had refused to help.

She was staring down at the ground, too busy being frustrated to notice that the path had opened out onto the banks of the stream.

Hannah called out to her. “This view is beautiful, and do you see that? It’s a cave.”

Chloe nodded moodily, but her moodiness changed to alarm when she realized Hannah was encouraging her to go into the cave.

“Let’s explore,” said Hannah. “Want to go first?”

“No thanks,” said Chloe firmly.

“What, are you afraid?” she teased.

“Absolutely.” She refused to move.

She shrugged. “Fine, I’ll go in first. Coward.”

Chloe was less offended by her rudeness and more shocked by her lack of self-awareness. She positioned herself outside the cave. The cave itself was like a small room, and its ceiling was high enough for most adults to stand upright.

Hannah looked around. “Nice place. Too bad we didn’t bring lunch to eat in here. Wouldn’t that have been cool? And this . . .” She pulled out a flashlight from her pocket and shone it into the blackness at the back of the cave. “Yep, there’s definitely a tunnel. Want to go spelunking?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” began Chloe, but Hannah ignored her and hurried into the tunnel.

Chloe stepped into the cave and up to the tunnel’s entrance. She could hear Hannah’s footsteps becoming fainter, but while she was wondering how long the tunnel went on, she was distracted by a sound. There were little rocks trickling down the walls of the cave, and a feeling of terror rushed through her.

“Hannah, this cave isn’t safe,” Chloe shouted into the tunnel. “Rocks are falling.”

“It’s fine.” Hannah must have shouted, but she was too far away to be very loud. “Come in.”

Annoyed, but satisfied that she had warned her, Chloe marched out of the cave to wait outside for Hannah. She stood, arms crossed, but then several things happened simultaneously. There was a crash from inside the cave, the ground rocked under her feet, and she fell down. When she sat up, Hannah was flying out of the cave.

Hannah crashed next to Chloe, her eyes wide and her face white. “A boulder fell right in front of me,” she panted. “Must have been a foot in front of me. Rolled down from somewhere over me.”

They stood up, shaky.

Chloe was about to suggest that they return to the car when Hannah snapped, “I can’t believe you let me go in the cave all by myself.”

“Are you serious?” fumed Chloe. “You wanted me to go ahead of you, and if I had, I would have been buried under that boulder. Do you care only about yourself? It was your own dumb idea to go in there.”

Hannah glared at her, but rather than replying, she removed her socks and shoes. “I’m going to wade the stream. I wouldn’t dare invite you, you’d probably think it’s too dangerous.”

“Oh, shut up.” Chloe flung herself on the ground, furious.

At first, she tried to figure out how to bail on the camping trip. Unfortunately, when she checked her cell phone, there was no cell service, so she could not call her husband or a taxi. Even if she could, she had no way of directing them to where they were. Then she decided to wait until they arrived at the camping ground to see if she had cell service there.

Lying on her back, she watched the trees swaying against the sky. She was sleepy, though she heard Hannah cry out, “Ow! My foot is stuck.” But she was not worried about her, the stream being a shallow one. She did not hear Hannah ask her for help anyway, and through her half-closed eyes, she thought drowsily that the trees were acting strangely.

“Wow,” murmured Chloe.

The trees were not just swaying but rocking back and forth, back and forth . . . She felt she should be scared, but the rocking made her even sleepier.

“I feel like a baby,” she whispered, and she giggled sleepily. “Rockabye baby.”

But her whole relaxed body became tense when she heard a ripping noise, and she sat up. The trees were rocking violently, but one of them, most of its roots torn out of the ground, was tilting over Hannah. She was struggling to pull her foot out of the stream bed, but she glanced up as the shadow of the looming tree hovered over her. She screamed.

Chloe saw all of this in an instant and had scrambled to her feet to help, but before she even came to the edge of the stream, the tree had landed. The crash threw her, for the second time, onto the ground. When she was back on her feet, crying, she saw that the trees were completely still. The tree was large enough that she could not see Hannah’s crushed body beneath it.

Chloe called out to her multiple times, though she knew Hannah was dead. Then, sobbing, she raced back to the car. It was locked, and she remembered, in the middle of her hysteria, that Hannah had the car keys. She pelted along the road to the highway where, on the side of it, she tried to catch her breath, hoping that she could flag down any oncoming cars. Then it occurred to her to check her phone. There was cell service.

“What is your emergency?” asked the 911 operator.

Chloe started crying again. “A tree fell on my friend.”

“What is your address?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, we’re out in the wilderness. Wait, there’s a sign.”

She went over to the wooden sign that Hannah had not been able to read, but there were only two words carved into it.

“What’s the sign?” prompted the operator, after waiting some moments.

“It’s, uh, not an address,” replied Chloe. “It just says Mother Nature.”

It was some years, and two children later, before Allen could persuade Chloe to go camping again. They took the same highway out of town that Hannah had taken long ago, and Chloe kept an eye out for the sign. She could not help it, although the thought of that day made her miserable. But she never saw the sign or the road again.