I feel as though I should be absolutely clear about a few things before we begin as I have grown weary of the rumors and being the centerpiece to a mystery that has long been resolved. I have my closure, as do the families of the others who went missing on that trip. Any further discourse on the matter is simply to satisfy the morbid curiosities of those who want to know the carnage in detail of people that they didn’t even know.
It truly goes against any better sense I have to respond to this any further. The reason I am, and at the fullest of my recollection of the events is because I am simply tired of being questioned about it.
As always the case when tragedies happen, the empty headed armchair sleuths strive for relevance in producing their theories which especially in this case are devoid of any and all facts of the matter.
This being the case, I have a number of things I will clarify before we begin.
Despite accusations of the contrary I have absolutely no history of mental illness and did not then nor have I since suffered from any sort of stress-induced psychosis. Nor did the details stated in my official police report come from any sort of hallucination or delusions.
The extent of my medical care after the obvious evaluation given to me in the hospital after the police discovering me on the road that day were for physical injuries.
And finally, any implication that I had anything to do with the events other than being a victim of them is slander, and complete untruths.
Now, having said all of this please make no mistake, I realize how absolutely insane this entire situation is going to sound. But that is immaterial to me now.
In regards of the others, the sisters Mattie and Chloe were straight edge meaning they were both drug and alcohol free to an almost insufferably judgmental state. Neither of them would have been part of any group where illicit drugs or alcohol were being partaken of. So any suggestion of drugs being a factor in any of this should be noted as fictitious.
Stevie and Gil were friends for 20 years and literally boy scouts growing up. The two tended to steer towards nature and camping rather than partying.
Everything I know or have to say about Andrew will be covered as the events unfold.
And probably the most important detail of all, and something I cannot over state, all those who were part of our group were all experienced hikers and backpackers.
So now, where to begin?
I had spent the better part of two years getting my pack loadout where I wanted it. I was far from being one of those overly obsessive ultra-light people, but I did want everything sorted with as much of the “fat” trimmed out of my gear as I could. I was never big into the luxury items when backpacking, being out in the wilderness was to me, the luxury.
I kept most of my backpacking trips solo affairs, keeping to places and trails well established. This was greatly due to the stressful work environment I was in, when I had time to jump in the car and go I would. This happened with little to no planning, just a message to a few people of where I had intended to go and for how long. Provided I had cell signal where I ended up, I would always send a text message with info on where and what time I had arrived.
I also carried and SOS device in case something happen and I got injured on the trail. This would not only send a SOS to local search and rescue with a ping for them to follow to my location, but also send a message home so they would know the device had been activated.
It was a similar device to this that saved my friends life when he stumbled and fell and subsequently broke his back and legs in the Gorge. Rescuers were able to find him airlift him from there because of his SOS. This little device became so important to me in my kit that I made it mandatory for anyone who backpacked with me to have one.
Although I had the tendency to do my trips solo, I was part of backpacking communities online. I had spent a lot of time on forums trying to learn everything I could about hammocks, how to hang them, tarps, materials, about top quilts and under quilts, and angles for a comfortable hang.
It was during this time on the forums that I was introduced to a small group of people who were somewhat local to me. A pair of sisters Mattie and Chloe who were experienced thru-hikers and had plans on doing the entire PCT at some point in the coming years. They were new to using Hammocks but really excited to do so.
Andrew who had been given the trail name “That Whitney guy” because of having ascended Mt. Whitney’s peak on three times in the previous year. He had plans to ascend Mount Washington in the Appalachians the following year as well as something called the Virginia Triple Crown.
The single worst trait of Andrew I believed at the time was his continual and seemingly unconsciously singing the chorus to the song Suzie Q under his breath. When asked why he seems to obsess over the song, he simple stated it reminded him of a girl he knew name Susie with an S.
Stevie and Gil rounded out the group. Both had been boy scouts growing up and were lifelong friends who both had families who were very active in camping and hiking. Neither were into the hammock or tent thing, they had grown up camping under a tarp with sleep pad and sleeping bag.
It was Andrew who had proposed the trip far up North in California to a trail he had always wanted to hike. The issue was where he wanted to go there were no backcountry permits though he assured us that dispersed camping was allowed where he wanted to go. The implication was that it was near Redwoods National Forest but Andrew kept being vague.
This of course this brought up safety concerns for me, I barely knew this guy and driving six or eight hours to a location that may or may not be accessible or even exist wasn’t at the top of my to-do list. I didn’t enjoy bushwhacking, didn’t like leaving well mapped trails if I’m honest about it.
The others however were all on board. They had some history with Andrew and his seemingly random locations and they had turned out well.
I had only a few short days to decide what I was going to do, my company was enforcing a mandatory two week closure do to a cleanup needed at the facility after a small chemical spill and I really didn’t want to spend that time twiddling my thumbs.
Mattie and Chloe were the first to strongly advocate for Andrews idea. With their experience they believed even if they end up somewhere lame, they could make an adventure out of it. Stevie and Gil having the boy scout experience also agreed to the idea.
I looked at them and told them that the only way I was going to attend was under two conditions. The first was that we would meet prior to the trip to do a gear shake down, make sure everyone truly had everything that they would need.
The second condition was that everyone in the group had dedicated SOS devices. Be it a Personal Locator Beacons or Satellite Messenger service, I didn’t care.
Cell phones were basically paper weights out in the woods, useful for listening to things saved on the phone itself but with it being guaranteed that we would have limited to absolutely no coverage I wasn’t betting mine or anyone else’s safety on them.
Everyone agree with the terms, most already having devices of their own though apparently rarely carrying them.
The day before the trip, we all met at Gils house to go over everyone’s loadout. Everything looked good for the weather conditions we were expecting, reasonably warm in the day with temps dropping really low at night. Doubtful we’d see freezing, but everyone packed warm. Everyone had some sort of saw for cutting wood, cook kits, dehydrated meals, water and ditty bags, and most importantly our shelters.
When again asked, Andrew continued to refuse to give us the exact location we were to be camping. I should have put my foot down at this point, but everyone else had so much confidence in him from previous trips that it was a difficult for me to argue.
Andrew suggested and we all agreed that since he was the one who knew where we were going, that he should do the driving. He had one of those large Suburban SUV’s with enough for all of us, our packs and any goodies we wanted to take on the trip..
The next morning we all met up prior to dawn at Andrews place with our packs and other items we brought for the ride. We all had our various coffees and teas with us, which was as much to keep us warm as it was to wake us up.
Almost as soon as he put the SUV in gear, Andrew began mumbling the lyrics to the song Susie Q under his breath. Not the entire length of the song, he simply kept repeating “Oh Susie Q, I love you, Susie Q.”
Mattie was the first to speak up after about ten minutes of it to get him to stop.
“Could you turn on the radio or something? Maybe so we can hear more than one line of a song?”
Andrew just smiled as if Mattie had just stepped into his trap. Immediately he turned on the CD player and out blasted CCR’s song Susie Q.
It was an improvement over Andrews mumble singing, but only barely at that early of the morning. Thankfully for the rest of us, he was kind enough to switch over to classic rock radio after the song finished.
As luck would have it, the song on the radio coming to an end was the guitar solo fade out for the song, you guessed it, Susie Q.
Had he turned to that station four minutes and thirty seconds earlier we might have realized how fated we were to have that song as our end credits soundtrack.
As it was though, the next song quickly started and it was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Give me three steps” I always liked that song.
About two hours into the drive we decided to stop off and get breakfast. The coffee and teas we had brought had long been consumed and now taking up too much residence in our bladders.
We stopped at one of those 1950’s themed 24/7 diner right off the I5 that everyone in the group knew all too well for less thank positive reasons. My only hope was to find something on the menu that would not cause me to spend the better part of the trip screaming for a bathroom.
I ended up playing it safe and just got a coffee and an apple fritter. Andrew and Gil got some bacon, Chloe just a coffee and both Stevie and Mattie braved a full on breakfast.
Most of the group except for Andrew and I roamed over to the bathrooms prior to their meals being served.
Andrew looked at me with a partial grin. “You don’t trust me.”
I was a bit shocked at the statement since here I was, going along with little idea where we were actually going.
“I know where we’re going.” He continued. “I’ve been there a dozen times, I just like keeping the illusion that it’s a big unknown for everyone. Makes it that more exciting.”
I took a sip of my coffee before responding. “I just don’t like it because it’s not safe. If something happens, who is going to know where we’re at?”
“My family man, they have all the info. All of you were given my contact info, know where I live. It’s going to be a good time man, I promise.”
I just nodded.
“Listen, everyone knows I did Mt. Whitney three times. What you guys don’t know, is the reason why. First time was for me, second time to take my friend up there so I could see the look in her eyes when she reached that peak and got that feeling of satisfaction. Third time I did it, I was alone again. It wasn’t that great. I mean it was an achievement, but it wasn’t like the second time. That was the best, to see someone experience it themselves for the first time? That’s kind of what this is man. I just want to see the excitement in people’s eyes when we get to the great unknown. Now days, if I told you where it is, you’d look it up online and there’s be no surprised. Takes the adventure out of it.”
His heart seemed to be in the right place. I again nodded before saying anything.
“Can we cool it with the CCR bit?”
He laughed. “We’ll see man. That’s just a weird tic I have.”
The food began to arrive at our table followed and soon everyone in the group had found their way back and started to eat. It didn’t take them long to devour what they had ordered.
Finished, we figured out the tip and squared up the bill, leaving the place a little fuller than we had arrived. I felt a lot more comfortable with Andrew after the talk and decided to try and take a short nap during part of the long drive. Six hours later I woke up as we pulled up to our destination.
I was a bit surprised by the fact that I had slept that long and completely missed any opportunity to keep some sort of track of where we actually were.
The others in the Suburban had also taken the opportunity for shut eye on the drive and were all in various levels of waking up when the engine turned off.
“We’re here!” Andrew announced, filled with far more energy than I would have expected for someone who’d just spent several hours behind the wheel.
Everyone exited the SUV stretched and grabbed their packs, double checking again that nothing had fallen out during the drive.
It was here that I should have thought better of our situation. There were no trail signs, no blazes, nothing to give any indication that this was a properly mapped and maintained hiking trail. When I turned to look at the SUV, I realized we weren’t on any sort of paved road, and I couldn’t see far enough back to know how far off the road we were.
At this point it was after 3 in the afternoon, light was going to be fading and it would start getting cold out. As irritated as I was feeling I decided it was best to simply setup our shelters for the night and deal with Andrew in the morning.
“How far in are we going?” asked Mattie, her left hand pressing into her stomach like something was wrong.
“Not far” said Andrew.
I decided that was not a good enough answer and pressed Andrew.
“How far in are we going Andrew? How far until we get to the site?” I could hear it in my own voice as I said it, the faint anger in my tone that came out when I was saying something as a warning.
“Not far.” Andrew repeated. “Not more than a mile. Less if you see a good spot. It’s late, we don’t need to go that far in.”
With Andrew in the lead we headed down the over grown trail with huge areas of it covered in a think moss keeping at a quick but cautious pace. It wasn’t a bad trail, in fact it was a rather pretty one. I did my best to try to discern certain things as landmarks, but with the thickness of the woods, and especially the moss it was difficult. If we got off track on this trail, we would be in a lot of trouble I thought to myself.
Then came the terrible noise, the sound that I will forever hear in my nightmares. The sound of Andrews mumble singing lines from the song Susie Q which seemed so much louder out in the forest than in the SUV.
“OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!” Mattie yelled.
I turned looked at her, her face in a state surprised and confusion. I remember wondering if she had stumbled on something like a snake or a decomposing animal corpse that had surprised her or if this was just her horrified response to Andrews singing.
She dropped her pack and opened it up frantically grabbing her ditty bag and running off to the left of the group.
“Well, this is home for the night” announced Chloe with a shrug.
Stevie and Gil dropped their packs as well and walked to the right of the trail looking to see if there was any clear ground. A moment later Gil came back said there was a good spot about 150 feet in, and some good trees for hammocks.
Andrew and Gil walked off in the direction, while Chloe and I waited for Mattie.
When she returned, Mattie had a look of embarrassment on her face. Chloe just looked at her and said, “This way sis.” And the three of us headed towards what was the be home for the night.
I’m not going to sit here and lie to you, the site was probably the most beautiful location I had ever seen in all my life. The trees stood so tall as if to talk to God, the moss and the greenery was breath taking. And the quiet, that almost unnatural quiet that you get out in the woods. Just the sounds of birds occasionally flying over and of course Andrews damnable mumbling singing voice. OH SUSIE Q.
I asked Andrew if we were in a safe enough place to have a camp fire. At this point I was sure we were on land we were not supposed to be on. He nodded yes while still mumble singing.
I got my hammock setup, and hung my quilts to fluff up after being compressed in a bag for several hours, placed my tarp over the hammock and set out to find some wood dry enough for a fire. Meanwhile Mattie was on her second trip out behind the trees, victim to that mornings breakfast.
I gathered a bunch of twigs that were dry enough for kindling, and found some dead fall I could drag back to the camp and cut up there. Gil who must have over heard what I was doing, had setup a ring of stones for a fire pit, and moved a couple moss covered logs over for use to sit on.
I made a point of not showing how irritated I was feeling towards Andrew. There was going to be a stern conversation between him and I when we got back, but for now everyone with the exception of Mattie was enjoying themselves and I wasn’t going to be the one to take that away from them for something that could wait and be done in private.
I had barely gotten the dead fall near the fire pit when Stevie and Gil began to make short work of cutting up the wood and getting a fire started.
This was so much in their wheelhouse that before it got dark, they had run off and brought back three times what I had found.
Mattie’s stomach issues had seemed to have settled down and the whole of the group, now with all our shelters setup for the night, gathered around the fire.
With a slight giggle before she did so, Mattie began to sing the opening lines to Susie Q. This brought out a laugh from most of the group, with Gil, Stevie and Chloe joining in with her.
I noticed that Andrew had became strangely quiet during the festivities. Not even an attempt to sing along to a song that had seemingly become his theme. I thought maybe he felt like it was meant to be a joke at his expense? Maybe the long drive had simply caught up with him.
Soon it got cold enough that the fire was almost ineffective and I was ready to jump into my hammock. I wished everyone goodnight and headed off to my hammock for the night.
The joking and laughter continued on for a while and I listened happily until I wandered off into sleep.
I don’t recall any particular graphic details of any of my dreams that night other than the woman who seemingly appeared in all of them. The only detail of her I could retain to memory was that she was always in green.
In each dream, she seemed to appear in many strangely out of time old places, lost long before my birth. A time of forests becoming miners camps, to the camps becoming towns until the time the town was reclaimed by the forest.
It was Chloe screaming in the morning that had awoken me. “Mattie!” she would yell out frantically.
I quickly got out of my hammock, throwing my shoes on as quickly as I could to see what was going on.
I quickly caught sight of Gil and Stevie searching the surrounding areas, both calling out to Mattie themselves as they went.
“What’s going on? What happen to Mattie?” I asked Chloe, not realizing the look of absolute terror in her eyes.
“Mattie was sick again.” She said, clenching both of her hands into fits, her body shaking.
“I could hear her right over there puking!” she said then pointed in the direction of Stevie and Gil. “Then she just stopped, and she was gone.”
“OK, Ok” I said. “We have the SOS if we need it. I’ll go help Stevie and Gil.”
I looked over and noticed Andrew hadn’t gotten up yet. I went over to wake him and to get him involved in the search. Much to my shock when I went to shake his tent it was completely empty.
Fear and anger now started to build, did Andrew do something to Mattie? I calmed myself before making any accusations.
“Chloe, have you seen Andrew?”
“No” she responded and starting to yell out for Mattie again.
I started to look around the area that Mattie had last been, it was pretty obvious where she had gotten sick do to the path where she had broken through the plants and the vomit on the ground.
There were no paths leading away from it, if she had gone in any other direction it would have been pretty clearly damages, but none of the plant life past this point had been disturbed. The trees were coved in this moss, slippery but easily bruised if someone had pressed up against or walked over. At this point my thoughts were to the worst case.
I called Stevie and Gil over to me, I told them Andrew was also missing and asked if one or both of them would be willing to carefully go back to the SUV and make sure it was still there. Both of them realized what I was implying and Gil volunteered.
Stevie and I moved closer to Chloe but continued to scan the area and called for Mattie. Thirty or so minutes later we got quite the surprise.
It was Gil returning with an extremely confused look on his face.
“I… I can’t find the trail.” He said.
“What do you mean?” Asked Stevie, “It’s like 150 feet that way.”
“I know it was, but it’s like the trees moved, everything is different. There’s no trail.”
We all looked at him like he was on drugs.
Stevie looked at him and laughed. “Tree’s just got up and moved around?” he started walking in the direction where the trail had been. “I’ll to check on the SUV, you guys stay here.”
Gil followed despite Stevie’s dismissal and quickly they were both out of site from the camp.
“You think Mattie is with Andrew?” Chloe asked.
“Maybe.” I said, “It is possible that maybe she asked him to take her to a hospital, or I don’t know.”
“She wouldn’t have left without telling me.”
“Maybe she couldn’t.” I was filled with instant regret in saying that.
Chloe looked at me with wild eyes, already shaking from her panic.
“I just mean, she was throwing up a lot. Maybe Andrew thought she was in real trouble and just rushed her out without telling anyone. Maybe he was scared and not thinking straight. Maybe he had something for her stomach and they’ll be walking back here any minute now.”
I said all this as much to convince myself as it was to convince Chloe. My fears were far more ominous, and were to get even worst.
It would be several hours before Stevie returned to the camp. His clothing had rips and surface abrasions with large clumps of moss sticking to him.
“Jesus Stevie, what happen” Asked Chloe, just barely calm enough to speak.
“I..” he trailed off. He didn’t seem to be entirely coherent, he had that thousand mile stare that you hear about combat vets getting when they’d been in a particularly nasty situation.
The only thing he seemed to be able to muster was the question “Where’s Gil?”
Chloe and I looked at each other then back at Stevie.
“I’m sure he’ll be back along soon.” I said.
At this point I had seen enough. I walked over to my hammock and pulled the SOS device from my gear and triggered the SOS broadcast.
I walked back over to Chloe and Stevie and instructed the two to do the same. Chloe was quick to it, where Stevie seemed to need some assistance. Chloe who was in a place of clarity compared to Stevie help him turn on the signaling device. He never spoke another word in camp.
The expectation was as soon as the device sent the SOS there would be some sort of response or acknowledgement, and with some luck search and rescue quickly thereafter.
None of which happen.
I didn’t mention of it to the other two. My only thought at the time was that we’d need to move closer to a road for the signal to make it out from the wooded area we were in.
It was still fairly early in the day when it started to get dark and cold rapidly. For reasons I can’t really explain to you, the urgency for me wasn’t to get up and run to the SUV hand in hand with the other two, but to hunker down and give people time to return. For all my stubbornness in making sure everyone had SOS devices and gear to make it in the woods, my only gut feeling in the moment was to wait.
I decided to build a much larger fire in hopes to not only stay warm but to have as a beacon for the others to return to, or search and rescue to locate us with, if they were actually on their way. Really my only hope was for Mattie and Gil to return safely.
The three of us that remained decided it was best if we built a single shelter to stay together in.
I say the three of us, when in reality Stevie seemed so out of it that we couldn’t really count on him to respond with words. He would simply nod his head.
If we asked him to do something, we would take on the task without so much as a word. In most cases though he would begin and become confused and stop. It was clear he was in shock, but for what reason I had no idea.
Chloe and I pulled down our tarps from the hammocks and we combined them with Stevie and Gils setup, giving us a bit more room but keeping us close together. If one had to venture out for a bathroom break, it was decided that all three of us would go, no one was to ever be alone.
At different times at night Chloe and I would call out for the others, hoping we would get some sort of response, but nothing. I looked over at Stevie and Chloe and made a decision.
If no one returned to camp by morning and nothing came of our SOS calls, we would all three make our way out on the trail, back to where the Suburban should be. If need be, tethered to one another to make sure no one got lost.
I realized that I had never asked Stevie about the trail or the ridiculous notion that it had disappeared. The guy was in rough shape though and I figured it would be best to just let him rest now.
I fell asleep despite myself and without any of the visual of dreams. Just the sound of that God damn song, like an ear worm over and over again. And not the proper version, no Andrew’s mumbling rambling nitwitted version. Just the same line over and over, “Oh Susie Q”
I didn’t notice that it was light when I first awoke. My eyes went directly to the fire pit, it was almost completely out but for a few small plums that were still rising from the coals underneath. I sat up with the intent of throwing more pieces of wood on the fire but froze entirely when I realized neither Chloe or Stevie were there.
Trying to remain rational I called out to the pair hoping they had simply gone out for a bathroom run. I got no response. Again I started calling out this time as loudly as I could to the point I could feel my throat getting sore.
Again there was no response.
In that moment the ridiculous notion crossed my mind, that maybe this was all some sort of practical joke one me. A massive well planned prank at my expense. Maybe in retaliation for my need to be overly safe with the SOS’s, or just my new guy status with the group.
They were all friends with Andrew long before I knew any of them. They had a history of going on trips with him, maybe this was some sort of hazing. If it was, I wasn’t finding it funny, and neither would Andrew as soon as I was with in kicking distance.
I looked down to see if there had been any signal back on the SOS device and much to my shock found that it was gone. I quickly ran my hand up and around to see if it was on my person somewhere, then checked in the tarp shelter but it was gone.
This was the point I started to lose my shit. I began to grab up all my stuff, I broke down all my hammock gear and crammed it all into my backpack as quickly as I could.
If this was a joke, I was done. If it was something else, then my best bet was to use my skills and get back to a road or highway. Checking my things, my cellphone was still in the pack, no signal, but still almost fully charged. The SOS was gone, but if I could get out onto a road and get a signal then I could at least call for help.
My attention was so focused on getting the hell out of there that I didn’t notice her enter into camp. I stood up from my backpack about to pick it up and pull it onto my back when I caught a glimpse of movement and looked over. I was startled by the sight in front of me.
It was Mattie, kneeling and covered in moss from the neck down. Her eyes had a wild look to them, her mouth slightly agape. Her long dark hair which now seemed to be in part mixed with large clumps of moss almost had a dreadlock appearance. There was something else strange about her, it was like the skin on her face was pushed forward, like there was a slack in the skin.
At this point I lost all thought of pranks, I move towards her slowly announcing myself as I did. I wasn’t sure if she was suffering some sort of trauma, from simply being separated from the group, lost in the woods or from the hands of Andrew.
As I moved closer to her I could see her eyes slowly blink, but the eyes themselves never moved. I stepped to the side of what would have been her direct view and that’s when I notice the back of her head.
Hidden by her wild hair and the moss mixed when looking at directly at her, the large protrusion from the back of her skull was clear from the side. It looked as if he skull had grown out a good twelve inches, violently enough that I could see there the skin unevenly tore, with now congealed blood having stained the bone in streaks.
I don’t know where the thought came from, why the thought came, but for a moment I looked and wondered where were the flies? Surely some sort of insect would be attracked to this?
I moved a few steps closer, the skull protruding out didn’t look like harden bone, more like that of a freshly laid soft egg. What caused the rush of fear in me then wasn’t the site of Mattie, but that of the motion I was seeing in the protrusion. There was a pulse that came in a strange rhythmic patter.
Then came the scream. Jesus, the sound of it made me shake uncontrollably and have problems with my balance. It went on for longer than any human scream could, and she never once stopped to take a breath.
After a period of time I can’t even begin to calculate she stopped. It left my ears ringing, and I was nauseous, but the all-encompassing pain through my body from it was gone.
The protrusion stopped it’s pulsating but began making louder sounds of its own. It sounded like something swirling at high speeds, almost like the sound of swooshing from the agitators in a washing machine.
Then another scream, though this one more guttural for a moment before changing to a sound I cannot clear describe. What I can say of the sound is going to sound completely ridicules, but it’s the closest thing my mind can translate it to. It had the sound of gallons of thickened liquid being forced threw a stretching hose. Then came the gurgling sound that sent a chill down my spine so severe that I fell back on my ass, my body shaking uncontrollably.
I was at an angle again that I could see Mattie’s face, her right eye has now completely revered in its socket leaving the optic nerve to dangle out from the front. I could hear the sound of something wet, tearing and a cracking sound.
The screaming stopped in an instant and Mattie’s head violently shifted upwards. The protrusion on the back of her head either pushed inward or was sucked inward. Mattie’s mouth opened up wider than even it was even when she was screaming and continued to the point I could see the flesh around her mouth was visibly stretching and began to tear at the oral commissure, followed by her throat expanding.
Again with that spinning, now seeming to be centered in Mattie’s stomach, with the sound of it coming out of her agape mouth like a speaker.
Then came the moment of pause, Mattie did not move nor did any sound come from her. I looked on, not sure if this was over. It was not over.
I could hear the sudden sound of something coming up and threw Mattie, twisting and swift.
It’s form was almost squid like, a soft moss green round mass with tendrils, some as long as a foot, wiggling its way up and out of her mouth.
As it exited Mattie’s body, she thinned out as if this thing had sucked everything from her leaving only an empty husk.
The thing seemed to writhe in pain, twisting and spinning on the ground before it’s tendrils tore in the moss on the ground and it pulled it’s self into it, and out of site.
I don’t recall actively making a choice to do this, but I grabbed my backpack and quickly put it on and buckled it up and I ran in the direction of the trail. At this point any and all of the logic based portions of my mind had turned off and I was purely functioning from a primal survival instinct.
I got out about as far as I remembered the trail being and turned to my left and continued to run. I realized that I had found my way to the trail, but there was now this newly soft green moss over most of it that seemed to pull away from me with each and every foot fall.
The moss? I thought to myself and I started to run harder than I ever had before.
I didn’t get far.
The impact came out of nowhere and knocked my sprawling to the ground. My backpack hindered me from getting up quick enough to avoid the heavy boot kicking me in my side.
The force of the kick was enough that I rolled over, before I even looked at my attacker I reached for the buckles and dropped my pack. Another kick came, but I was able to partially dodge it.
It was Andrew. The look in his eyes were wild, almost animalistic. He charged me and grabbed me, forcing my hard against a tree. The impact almost forced out all of the air from my lungs.
“Oh Susie Q” he sang in a mumbled voice.
In this position we were now in, with Andrew in a sort of tackle position pushing me, the top of his head was prone.
I quickly began hammering him in the back of the head with my fist. As he began to struggle I began landing blows to him with my elbow eventually hitting him enough that he freed his hold on me.
“Oh Susie Q” he sung out loud almost breathlessly before spinning and striking me in the jaw so quickly and so hard I spun around once before I stumbled up against the same tree.
He grabbed a hand full of moss and started pushing it into my face and mouth.
I turned my head and began to kick outwards toward him, and then started stomping downwards at his knee. The one kick that landed hit him at the knee cap, completely displacing the patella. He went down, hard.
Filled with rage I kept kicking at him, taking aim at his head trying to knock him unconscious or worst. He continued his singing “Oh Susie Q” which only made me more infuriated.
I lost all control of myself, I remember grabbing him by the hurt leg and dragging him over to a log, placing it in a manner where when I applied pressure the left bent in the wrong direction. I completely folded the leg back on itself, in an act that was meant to be self-assuring that this guy was out of the fight.
He never screamed, never cried. Just kept singing those words.
It was at this point I began to regain some of my composure. The threat I thought, was subdued. I did not realize just how wrong I was.
There was an area in the moss that began to rise before me, lifting from the ground until it was easily as tall as I was. It was not in any particular shape, it was like someone had pushed up a pole under a green blanket at first. It then began to take form.
From its waist up it took the form of a woman. From the waist down the moss belled out almost like a great gown, always connected to the moss on the ground.
The moss mimicked all the details of a female face, eyes that shifted towards me, lids that blinked. A mouth the opened as if it was going to try and speak.
When she began to move, it was more of a glide. It was as though the shape was underneath the moss, and as the shape under the moss would move forward, the moss would trail up her body and eventually downward behind her. The movement came in a like a swell underneath, but it did not move the moss beyond were it grew.
It was like the moss was a the proverbial ghosts blanket, that the true being was under it using it to project the shape it wished.
I found myself so focused on watching this thing as it moved closer to me that I didn’t notice that Andrew had somehow been able to get up on his one good leg and clocked me at the back of my head. Thankfully his lack of balance must have played a role in how poorly his strike landed and he fell down.
The figure kept moving towards me, I simply bolted towards the direction I thought the Suburban was in. A hand caught my leg and tripped me. Although it was covered by it, the hand was not moss. I looked and I could clearly see the figure was Gil, entirely covered in moss, the back of his head elongated.
I pulled myself up and began to look around but my attention quickly moved to the woman made of moss. She was still moving, still gliding towards me, arms outreached in my direction.
I began to run again, patches of moss became thicker as I did, more slippery. Ahead of me I could see the SUV, and when I did I put my head down and expended all of my energy trying to run faster that I had ever run in its direction. To be once again tripped on the path.
This time though it wasn’t a hand, just a thin bit of moss that had raised enough to catch my legs and make me stumble forward. I was only a few steps away from the SUV no, but I could hear her behind me.
I looked and to my horror it wasn’t just the woman made of moss, but of three other moss covered shaped. Gil, Stevie, and Chloe, all in their mossy coverings.
The thing that caught my attention about it, was that they were stopped. I was literally only a few feet away from them, but they weren’t coming. Confused I looked around and realized, I had passed beyond the moss and was now in gravel. These things would not pass further.
I mumbled out the words “Oh Susie Q” and the one mimicking a female rushed forward but could not move past where the moss ended. There seemed to be a look of frustration on its face.
The mimics face and eyes never once stopped looking at me though it’s body twisted in the opposite direction and began moving back into the forest. The others, Stevie, Gil and Chloe just stood there until their arms reached out as if to be saved, or more likely to pull me in to be part of their fates.
I turned and began walking down the direct road in the only direction I could go, carefully minding where I was and if there was anything moss covered. I looked back behind me to see if any of them had tried to follow, and when I did I saw that all of the group had disappeared back into the woods.
It was at this point my cell phone started to go crazy. Dozens of text messages from friends and family filled my phone. Before I had so much as a chance to open the first text, I could hear the sirens. I walked a short distance down and finally saw the paved road, and the flashing lights of rescue vehicles making their way.
It was at the moment that the exhaustion caught up with me. I fell down and I fell hard.
The first vehicle to arrive was a cop. He had seen me from the distance and pulled up to where I lay. He quickly got out of his car and approached me cautiously.
“Sir, can you hear me?” he asked
I responded with “You got our SOS call?” I couldn’t see him all that well, and I struggled to get upright.
“What’s your name?” he asked, I could barely hear him over the other sirens coming up there road.
“Jaime Clarkson” I said.
He quickly began to speak into his radio. “We found one!”
“Where’s the others” the office asked
“Andrew, he” was the only words I could muster.
Someone else came over the radio. “We found the Suburban.”
After that several of the police cruisers and reach and rescue vehicles drove on past us and down to where the dirt road began and turned down it out of site. Overhead a helicopter with a spotlight passed over us.
The office asked me if I knew where my ID was, I handed him my wallet and a moment later handed it back to me. I was in a total mental haze at this point.
An ambulance arrived and they got me on an IV and loaded on a stretcher. I could see several more pulling up and passing us as we got ready to leave for the hospital. The EMT’s began asking me a host of questions about pain, and my injuries.
I went in and out of consciousness for a bit before completely succumbing to passing out. I dreamt again of the woman in green, but this time I could only see her as the moss thing in the woods and like in many nightmares from that moment on, the sound of Andrew singing Susie Q.
It was several days before I was coherent enough to speak with the police. Honestly at this point I couldn’t have told you what was reality and what had been a fever dream. Nothing felt real, not even then here and now. I must have seemed out of my mind with paranoia, and I had at one time apparently broken out and hysterical screams when a nurse entered my room wearing green scrubs.
The officer by the last name of Rhoads was there to try and take my statement. I waved that off and asked him how did they know we were up there? I had no idea where there even was.
Officer Rhoads told me there had apparently been something going on the night before at Andrews house. An argument and a lot of loud noise. In the morning when Andrew and the group left to camp the neighbors checked on his parents but no one answered. Fearing the worst they contacted the police to do a welfare check. That is when they were found murdered.
Andrews room was a mess, there were maps all over the room to this location, with notes he wrote to himself that he required five people for her. It was obvious that Andrew was behind his parents deaths, and everything in his scribbling indicated he intended on murdering all of us as well.
The officer looked at me, “Did you meet her?” he asked
“Her?” I said in a fright, I began trembling uncontrollably.
“Andrew apparently had an accomplice up here, but there’s no one named Susie Q in the area, and no one with that as a known alias. Did you see her?”
As best as I can recall which I will admit is hazy at best. I gave Officer Rhoads all the details as best as my mind was capable at the time. Beyond that I have no further memories of my stay in the hospital before my family members arriving and I being released into their custody.
Over the coming months and years there was all sorts of speculation on the matter. None of the others were ever found, not even a trace of our camp site was located by search and rescue, and Andrew was never found.
Mattie and Chloe’s family in particular were quick to jump to my defense when people implied my involvement, being the only one to be seen again. They had their ideas about Andrew, long before I joined the group. But both of the daughters were adults and made their own choices. How or why they would put their faith in me in that way, I don’t know but I am forever grateful.
But it didn’t stop the speculation, especially where it came to Andrew. As it turned out when he was much younger, he and his family lived in the area. It was common place for he and other local boys to go out and camp on weekends on those surrounding wilderness areas.
It was on one such occasion that he and five other young boys went into those same woods and he would be the only one to return. The boy at the time was put into psychiatric care, not because of speaking about the woman in the woods and the taking of the five other boys, but because he didn’t care about the other boys he wanted to see her again and had a willingness to take more to their doom if it meant getting a glimpse of her again.
Due to the age, their names never made it into the papers and the subject quickly faded into lore. The family would change their last name and moved out of the area not too long after citing grief and trauma.
It is my assumption that the reason he murdered his parents was that they found out he was returning to that spot and tried to stop him. But in the end his need to see Her again superseding his families lives.
As for me, do to all the negative attention and looked I would get, I eventually took work up a couple hours north and moved. Even met my girlfriend who would become the love of my life.
It was during a dinner with my girlfriend that phone call came.
“Mr. Clarkson, this is office Rhoads. We met a few years ago”
I cut him off. “I know who you are, why are you calling?”
“We just got signals from your SOS devices.”
Plural? “You said devices? More than one?”
“Five.”
Apparently I went completely pale. My girlfriend moved over to me putting her arm around my back, looking at me to see if I were ok.
“What do you need from me officer?”
“We’ve already spoken to search and rescue, they’ve given us the coordinates. The assumption after all this time is that there’s better satellite coverage, but don’t expect there to be…” he trailed off
“You don’t expect survivors. Otherwise search and rescue would already be doing their thing” I filled in the blank for him.
“Look” he said “I really shouldn’t do this, but I wanted to give you a chance at some closure. To see if you wanted to join us. It is unlikely we’ll find remains, but be prepared for it if we do.”
I agreed. God only knows why, but I agreed. I think in hindsight it was because of Mattie and Chloe. Their parents had been supportive and I truly wanted to, I don’t know, have something for them to actually bury? To actually have closure for themselves. The whole thing was difficult.
We decided it would be best if I met Office Rhoads and the others at the station then to ride up to the location with them. The next morning I got up early and made the drive up there. I sent messages to my family, as well at Mattie and Chloe’s parents letting them know. They all said basically the same thing, be careful.
After a couple hour drive I made it to the station where as planned I met up with Office Rhoads who was now a Captain and several other officers. Before we left though, Officer Rhoads pulled me aside.
“You said a lot of crazy things when we found you. What do you think we’re going to find when we get there.?”
I simply shrugged and said “I don’t know.” It did make me wonder for a moment, what I did say when they found me?. Did I talk of moss people? Did I sing Susie Q?
The drive up there was pretty quick. I didn’t realize at the time just how close we were to towns up here.
The three vehicles pulled up to where the trail was that we had followed. I couldn’t place my finger on it but something was very different. It was still unkept and over grown, but then I realized what was so different, there was no moss.
The coordinates lead us down the trail, and as fate would have it I saw the remnants of my backpack. A couple metal parts and bit’s and piece of the nylon ripstop fabric were all that were left. In an strange sort of way it made everything that happen feel that much more real. Here was the artifact to prove it.
We reached the area where the group had gone off the trail for a camp. It was Officer Rhoads who was in for a shock as the tarps, and tent that belong to the group came into view.
They were tattered and beyond repair, but for someone like Officer Rhoads who had been part of the search operation, who had walked through this area a number of times, he was flabbergasted.
Again I noticed there was no moss.
I walked over to where I had seen Mattie in her final moments, and there was nothing. No trace. I wasn’t particularly surprised after so much time. But with the SOS’s finally signaling their locations I hoped.
We returned to the trail and continued down it until we reached the coordinates. They had lead to an opening to a cave that no one had noticed during the search and rescue.
It was a sizable opening leading into a large cave. No one spoke as we entered it, the only sound was that of flashlights being activated, or in my case the light on my phone. We made it in about 25 feet before we saw it.
The figure was male, sitting on a rock. It was a mixture of moss and bone. I could tell with one look that it was Andrew, the leg I had gone out of my way to damaged was positioned in a way that was unnatural.
There were places like the face that were fully covered in moss and still gave a glimpse of what the man had looked like. Other places that had no moss, the bones showed threw.
In one of the hands that still looked like a hand, he held the SOS devices.
One of the officers moved closer to the remains only to be nearly given a heart attack when the figure started to mumble the words
“Oh Susie Q, Oh Susie Q…”
The figure of Andrew began to shift, parts of the moss moving from covering his arm to his good leg, and he tried to lift himself for the rock. The moss looked old, and mostly dead and the figure fell. As it did so, there was wisps or dirt and dried out moss floating in the area.
The moss began to move downward seemingly to reinforce its ability to stand shifting away from the face leaving bare skull staring out.
Now having side arms drawn, Officer Rhoads began pulling me from the cave, directing the others to leave as well. It seemed to take them a minute before coming to the realization of what they were seeing. Once all were out Officer Rhoads made a call.
As he did that, the rest of us could hear Andrew inside the cave as he stumbled, that followed be the sound of the shifting moss.
“Susie Q” came the voice, though I’m not sure what we heard could be considered a voice anymore. There was nothing human to it, only air through the moss.
Rhoads returned to the group and asked one of his officers, a rookie who was clearly shaken by the site to drive me back to the station, but not before pulling me aside.
“I just called a friend of mine who does demolition, we’ll blow the entrance to the cave, and keep whatever that was inside.”
“Andrew, officer. That was Andrew.”
“In any case, no one would ever believe what we witnessed here. Call it Andrew or anything else we’ll seal it off for good.”
There was no more words spoken, just a hand shake between Officer Rhoads and I at that point.
The rookie didn’t speak at all on the drive back to the station. Just looked at me and nodded when I thanked him for the ride.
When I left those woods that day, it was the last time I ever stepped foot in a forest. I now reside in the Arizona desert and hope to never see another tree or patch of moss again.
Jerry's Adventures 
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