ghoul haunted woodlands of weir
The Ghoul Haunted Woods of Weir
Short Story
By Jake Cosmos Aller
© 12-13-2016
Sam Hill woke up cold, freezing cold, lost and confused. He had woken up that morning to find himself in a howling wilderness of tall dense trees, covered with dense fog. Sam did not know how he got there, wherever there was, nor did Sam remember much of his prior life. All Sam knew was he was Sam Hill, late of Berkeley, California where he ran a restaurant.
And last night was lost in a fog of weed, drugs, and perhaps wild sex. Sam simply could not remember much after closing down his restaurant he went out with some friends and ended up in a club somewhere in SF. He went home with a strange woman he met at the club but the rest was foggy at best. He did remember that she was hot – brunette, middle age with curves to die for. And she had a sexy come hither foreign accent – she was a devilish attractive woman from India. in short she was Sam’s fatal attraction.
Sam suddenly remembered that he had been married before and that his wife had left him when she found out that he had been cheating on her. But Sam could not remember his wife’s name nor recall her face. Nor who he had cheated with. But the women last night she he remembered. He wondered if she had slipped him a mickey? In any event, it was all a blur.
Sam got up off the damp forest floor and stood up to survey his situation. Frankly, it was not good. He had the clothes on his back, a backpack containing a coat, a book of Poe’s poetry, a pen, and a bottle of water. He had nothing else he would need to survive in a hostile wilderness, - no matches, no weapons and most importantly no food.
Sam looked around the woods and saw that he was in the middle of a dense grove of tall trees, of a strange species he had never seen before. He almost felt that he had been transplanted to another world. As far as he could see in the dense fog the forest went on and on.
It was a cold, damp morning. But he felt that it could turn hot and the sun was sneaking over the horizon so in any event it was about 6 am. At least his watch worked. His cell phone had no signal – nada.
Sam decided that the only thing to do was to walk to the end of the forest and see if he can find any signs of civilization, or at least get some food and water somewhere.
Sam started walking and walking and the forest seem to go on and on. He heard creatures stirring in the woods but he did not encounter any wildlife. And Sam was unprepared – as he had no weapons other than a rock that he had picked up just in case. After an hour of walking he heard a noise. And the woods ended. He came up to a Clift and saw through the fog that there was a stream running down at the bottom of the steep canyon.
He was contemplating whether to try to walk down the canyon when he heard a noise. He looked up and saw two big ravens staring at him. Sam yelled at them, “Say, bird, do you know where I am?” Sam was surprised when the birds turned to him and laughed at him. Mocking birds he though. But then then spoke.
The birds laughed at Sam. One then says, “Sam, you are in the ghoul haunted woods of Weir.”
Sam said, “Where?”
The bird said, “Precisely, where. The ghoul haunted woods of Weir. There is no escape from here. All who enter die. So sad, we’ve seen it all before. Love to help but there is no escape. You are doomed to die here all alone except for the ghouls who will hunting you soon for their evening meal.”
Sam looked at the birds, and said “am I dreaming or on drugs? Is this real?”
The birds laughed and laughed
“Sam, my human friend. This is as real as it gets. You are not on drugs although you had some drugs last night. That women drugged you and left you for dead. But at least you got some sex out of it. You humans and sex. God. You guys are horny dogs. In any event, this is a real as any nightmare but you will never wake up. You are doomed to die here. Might as well wait for the end to come. The Ghouls come out at dusk to feed.
But, Sam, since we like you, we can give you some advice. Try to get down to the river and follow the river to the town at the bottom of the river. Once you get there the people might be willing to take you in. But probably not. Human, probably you are going to die. Well, nice talking to you, best of luck all of that. We have to get going places to be people to see and all that rot.”
Sam asked the birds a final question,
“what the fuck is a ghoul?”
The birds looked at Sam, and said,
“Your worst nightmare human. They used to be human at one time but now are what do you call it, zombies. The living dead. They haunt these woods and prey on the unfortunates who find themselves here.
“How and why am I here?”
“God only knows and he is not telling. All we know is that every day some human finds themselves where you are and by the end of the night the ghouls get to them. None escape with their life. Well, we really need to get going. Best of luck, Sam. You will need it.”
And the two ravens flew off cackling to themselves.
Sam looked down at the canyon wall and saw a faint outline of a path that led down to the river and at the bottom of the river he saw some logs – perhaps he could fashion some sort of raft from the logs and make his way down stream. Sam did not want to come face to face with a Ghoul or zombie or whatever the hell haunted these woods. Sam did not trust the birds were telling him the truth, for some reason these birds seemed to omens of bad luck. Sam got to work and slowly picked his way down the steep path towards the bottom of the canyon and finally made it down. It was mid day then and the fog was starting to lift.
Sam looked up at the cliff above and thought he saw something moving through the trees. Something large, and vaguely wolf like. He stared but did not see anything more. Then he heard the howling of the wolves and saw them – a pack of them on top of the cliff. The ravens flew overhead and landed next to the wolves. Sam also heard the ravens and the wolf like things talking. The Ravens pointed out Sam and seemed to wave at him. The wolf creatures growled but made no attempt to come down the path.
It was time to go. He walked over to the logs and found that two of the logs could be wrapped together with some reeds growing on the side of the river. After an hour of work, he had a serviceable raft and started floating down the rushing river. He floated for hours with the forests on top of the cliff never ending, but the fog had lifted a bit.
Finally, it was getting dark and Sam needed to stop for the night. He pulled up on a sand bar. He noticed some bushes had some blue berries on them and Sam tried them. After realizing the fruit would not kill him, Sam ate as much as he could stand and drank some river water. He then got some twigs and tried to make a fire. Sam finally got a bit of a flame going and made a bon fire and fell asleep.
He woke up at dawn and saw that he had gone a long way down the river. He looked up and saw the birds flying above him. He called out, “Mr. Bird, I’m still alive.”
The birds turned to him and said, “Sam, nice to see you. The ghouls missed you last night; the werewolves too but everyone is ready for you know. We had to tell them where you are and where you are heading. We are spies so to speak. Nothing personal we like you, Sam, but we all have our jobs to do. That is the way of the world. There is no escape. Have a nice day.” The birds flew away.
Sam got up and ate some more berries and drank more water. Then he got on the log raft and continued his journey. All day he kept hearing the howling of wolves and strange yapping sounds which he assumed were the sound of the ghouls. He did not see any thing, just heard the ghostly sounds in the forests on top of the cliff.
He turned a corner in the river and saw a town ahead. At least it looked like a town; just a few huts along a road and a boat landing. He pulled up and wandered into the little town. He entered the first hut and found several dead bodies piled along the side of the hut. Shot to death executive style. Sam backed out quickly as he realized the killers could be near by as the bodies looked relatively freshly killed. He entered hut after hut and found death everywhere. He counted 100 dead bodies. He was about to leave the village when he heard a sound of someone crying. He ran inside and found a little child still alive somehow. He grabbed the boy and gestured for him to follow him and he left the hut. In the next hut, he filled his backpack with provisions – food, water, weapons, extra clothing and matches.
He gestured to the boy to follow him and they left the town and walked down the road. About an hour later they came upon a bigger town. In this town all the people were dead as well, but were buried in a communal grave at the end of the road. Mangy dogs were feasting on the dead bodies but they ignored Sam and the boy whom Sam leaned was called “Abdul.” Sam and the boy did not speak any mutual languages but along the road Sam was able to teach the boy a few simple English words.
They decided to camp out in the field outside of town and watch out for the return of the bandits who had destroyed the town. Sam was also worried about the werewolves and ghouls in the forest left behind.
Sam made a bonfire and they ate their provisions and fell asleep. In the middle of the night Sam woke up and saw the ghouls eying him. They were tall, human shaped creatures all white in color with bright red eyes. He asked them what they wanted.
They laughed and said, “Sam, you are very lucky. You’ve survived so far. But now you are in the realm of man again and perhaps won’t be so lucky any more. You see the way back to your world is back up in the woods between the worlds. Down here you are stuck forever. And you can see what kind of violent world this is. You are in the middle of a war between two war lords. If your mange to make it through the battle field you might live. “
Sam asked the ghouls,” Will you let me and my companion travel back to my world?”
The ghouls laughed and said, “Sam, we’ve never allowed anyone to get this far from your world before. What makes you think we will let you go?”
“Well, I run a nice restaurant back home and can cook you all a decent meal. And if you want you can visit my world. We can do a deal; make you a celebrity put you on TV even.”
The Ghouls laughed and told Sam that they would not bother him any more as he was out of their territory but if he came back through the woods they would have to kill him because no one was ever allowed to leave the woods of Weir alive. That was the rule of the ghoul master himself.
Sam said “Fair enough” and invited them to join him for breakfast. The ghouls declined and disappeared.
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