The Forest, by Ben Greenfield - Chapter 6: "The Island"

Terran popped his head outside the cave first. He had insisted to river that he be the one to lead them out of the cave. He knew he couldn't see, but he felt like a coddled baby after having been forced to follow river everywhere the previous day. So with his brother behind him, he felt his way out to the cave's entrance and squeezed through the crevice in the rocks. As soon as his head emerged, he felt the warm rays of sunshine against his skin. And in the distance, he heard the crashing of the ocean waves. The salty, moist air filled his lungs. He paused to take a deep breath. Brother, your butt stinks like a barnyard. Can you please let me out of here? With a mighty heave and a grunt, Terran threw his cane out in front of him and pulled his body out of the crevice to make room for his brother. Both boys were still wearing their dirty hoodies, covered in leaves and debris. They'd taken the last remaining threads of their T shirts and soaked them in water, then tucked the waterlogged cotton into the back of their pants. If water was tough to come by, they'd at least be able to suck some precious hydration out of their shirts. Which way is this peak, River?

River squirming out of the cave. And then there was a moment of silence. If we go back up the way we came, we'll hit that same rock face we were at before. I don't think. I don't think you can get up that without being able to see. I barely think I could get up it. We could keep going along this trail that led us to the cave, but I can't tell if it goes up that way towards the peak, or just keeps going along beside the rocks and the water.

I wish that bird would come back. Yeah, I could use a good meal. Terran grimaced at the thought of eating the same creature that had led them to safety the night before. Is there anything down here that we can eat, River? Not many plants growing here around the rocks. And it's mostly rocks all the way back up to where the forest starts. I didn't see much other than shrubs up there last night, but. River's voice trailed away, and Terran heard digging, fumbling and rock scraping. Help me with this rock, Terran. It's a big one on top of lots of dirt. Maybe we can find a big, tasty June bug. Or a black beetle. Terran bent down and slipped his hands into the dirt next to his brother's. He. He never thought his mouth would salivate so much. At the prospect of eating a beetle as he felt the rock budge, then slide, then slowly begin to flip. He grunted, leaned in and pushed his shoulders forward with the few small remaining shreds of strength. River squealed, yes, ants. Terran smiled. While tiny darting ants could be tough to catch without grabbing handfuls of gritty dirt in the process. Ant. Exactly. Eggs were an entirely different matter. Back home, the boys had experimented with taking the tiny white packages full of protein, vitamins and minerals and frying them in a cast iron skillet with butter and salt. Terran heard river ferociously scraping and digging, collecting as many eggs as possible before the ants could whisk them away. Hold out your hand, Terran. Terran felt a warm golf ball sized clump of eggs drop into his open palm. He shoved the entire handful into his mouth, then immediately wished he had a big plum plantain leaf to roll them in to mask their mushy texture. But the ant egg burrito would have to wait. For now he simply chewed, swallowed, and held out his hand for more. The boys managed to turn over two other sizable rocks and one fallen log, acquiring three fat beetles, eight crickets, a giant handful of moss, and another big pile of ant eggs. With nothing but a soaked hoodie and dirty pockets to carry their food and ravenous appetites, they sat on a large rock overlooking the ocean and and ate everything all at once. Terran picked a beetle wing from his teeth. See any boats, River? Nope. Nothing. No birds, no boats, no whales, nothing. Fifteen minutes later, the boys were well on their way down the trail, which immediately began to snake away from the rocks and bring them back up into the trees. Terran felt his legs begin to burn as they climbed, but a gain in elevation was good. This meant every step was taking them closer to being able to learn more about where they actually were. See any food, River? I'm on it, brother. Some more of these big cabbage leaves, some pine buds, and a few of these dark purple berries. Maybe wild raspberry, but I'm not sure. I rubbed some on my lips and so far it seems fine. Here, try some. Terran nodded and popped one of the berries river handed him into his mouth. Unlike the fat, crunchy, bitter taste of the beetles, the berries were plump and sweet and juicy. Terran knew that numb l burning inside the mouth or simply feeling abnormal were all signs of a harmful chemical reaction to a plant or berry. But dark purple and black colors were almost always safe. He tried to remember the other rules he'd learned about finding foods in the wilderness. Avoid plants with white or Yellow berries. Avoid plants with thorns unless they're growing big raspberry or BlackBerry like fruits. If it tastes bitter or soapy, spit it out. Steer clear of shiny leaves, especially if they have red on them. Stay away from plants with leaves in groups of three. Stay away from plants with umbrella shaped flowers unless you can soak them and cook them. Avoid beans or plants with seeds inside a pod. Milky or discolored SAP is a warning sign. Avoid anything with an almond smell. Steer clear of brightly colored insects that have colors like red and orange. Avoid insects that smell extremely pungent. Don't eat hairy critters or bugs that bite or sting. River interrupted his thoughts. Careful here, brother. It's getting kind of muddy. Terran had felt the ground growing more slippery as they went, and now, as the trail seemed to flatten, he felt the ground getting more wet with each step. Even through the soles of his shoes, he felt the earth becoming squishy and soft. Terran, come off to the side here. You're stepping right into it. Into what? Too late. Terran took one more step and felt his foot, then half his leg, quickly sink into liquefied soil. He tried to pull his leg back and out, but instead stumbled forward and the knee on his other leg plunged into the wet earth. Suddenly, the ground seemed to completely lose its strength. The entire trail stopped supporting Terran's weight and instead began to suck him in quicksand. At first, river sounded annoyed. Terran. Here. Reach out and grab my hand. You're making a mess. Terran struggled to turn his torso towards the sound of River's voice. And as he displaced more of the sticky and muddy mixture, he felt the ground pull him in even more, like some kind of giant constricting snake slowly wr wrapping around his body and sucking him down. He grew slightly nervous. He was now up to his waist in thick mud. He heard worry and urgency in River's voice. Shoot, Terran. Grab my hand now. Terran grunted as he struggled to reach towards the sound of River. It was surprisingly difficult to move his arm and shoulders when everything up to his belly button was now locked down inside the earth. As he struggled to reach towards river, he felt his body sinking even more. His legs now felt completely surrounded by concrete, like ungiving mud. River, I can't reach you. I'm sinking. As the quicksand swallowed him up to his chest, he suddenly felt his lungs become compressed. It was as if he was breathing through a straw. Now panic set in. He tried to shout to river, but his voice seemed quiet and tiny. Riv Ruff. Now it was at his neck. He began to feel painful pins and needles in his brain as his precious oxygen supply began to dwindle. Both his arms were still above the quicksand, but were now buried up to the armpits. In both his hands and fingers. He could feel sharp shooting pa, then numbness as his nerves and blood vessels began to become crushed under the weight of the earth. There was something wet in his mouth. He tried to spit, but couldn't open his mouth or part his lips. He sucked one last precious breath of air through his nose. Then his head, felt the pressure of a thousand pounds. The earth was simultaneously sucking him in and crushing him with one arm left above, the surface of this strange forest, enveloped in complete blackness, turned quickly, began to die. Normally, in such a dire situation involving quicksand, just as a hero is about to perish, a rope, a stick or a vine is suddenly thrown into their hands and they're magically pulled out of the clutches of the earth into safety. But this common sight in old western movies defies the law of physics. It simply can't happen. To move within quicksand, a person must apply sufficient pressure on the compacted earth to introduce enough water into a vacuum of mud to liquefy the quicks. The forces required to do this are incredible. For example, to remove a single buried leg from quicksand would require the same amount of force as that needed to lift an enormous horse sized boulder weighing several tons. To actually pull a buried human out of quicksand would rip that human in half. But river didn't know any of this. He simply knew his brother was dying. And he stood helpless as he watched his brother's outstretched hand begin to slowly disappear beneath the surface of the quicksand. He stared into the mud, completely motionless. Blue, icy cold. Fireworks everywhere. River blinked hard. He winced and then twitched in pain. I shut my eyes hard and clenched my jaw even harder. He opened his eyes. They were suddenly like two polished blue lights with his pupils filling nearly the entire white of the eye. Nearly unhuman. My whole body felt like ice. Hard, frozen, painful ice. Everything that had happened inside the cave was happening again. His eyes fixated on the quicksand like bright blue shimmering daggers. And then, as if by some invisible force, a vortex of water slowly began to form around the area where Terran had disappeared. River's body shook and shivered with greater and greater intensity as the vortex grew and the water simultaneously swirled and churned, forcing the air around the quicksand to move and parting the giant sea of Mud. The sand began to melt away like hot wax, revealing a surging pool of thin, muddy water in the center of the pit of earth. And floating to the surface of that pool, Terran. Terran's face violently broke the surface of the dark water as though the earth had spit him out. Brown streaks of mud covering his face, sods of wet dirt, clumps in his hair, and dark stains of clay across his bare ar clawed at the edge of the trail and pulled himself out of the quicksand like a giant beetle crawling out of a mud puddle. As Terran lay face down on the trail, coughing black sobs of mud out of his throat, river collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap of shivering flesh. Shaking uncontrollably for what seemed like an eternity, Terran gasped giant gulps of precious air while continuing to cough and hack dirt from deep in his lungs. Still in a state of shock, he thrashed his arms and legs as an endless sea of mud oozed from his skin and clothes. No longer writhing and shaking, river now sat slumped, powerless to move and watching silently as his brother slowly breathed his way back to life. Finally, Terran looked up towards where river sat. Both his eyes were caked in mud. With the back of his hand, he wiped one eye, then the other. He let his exhausted head drop for a moment towards the ground. Then he looked up towards river again. River, Is that you? Infused with a slight surge of energy at the sound of his brother's voice, river stared into space for a moment, then quietly spoke. Nope, just a talking tree stump, Brother. Terran kept looking towards River. Brow furrowed, he scrunched up his nose, looked down, then looked up again towards River. Finally, his entire face covered in streaks of mud, Terran grinned a white, toothy smile. I can kind of see you, River. You mean with your eyes? What do you mean kind of? Yeah, I can see your shadow. The shape of you. You're sitting on the ground, right? How many fingers am I holding up? 11. I can see you moved your hand, that's all. River's voice still sounded weak and exhausted, but he slowly stood up and hobbled towards Terran. Doesn't matter, Brother. You can see something. It's just like my leg. You're going to get better. He put both hands under Taran's armpits and pulled his brother up. Wrapping his arms around Taryn's neck in a tight, affectionate embrace. He put his clean cheek against Terran's muddy cheek and then pulled his damp T shirt from the back of his pants and wiped it across his brother's face. I thought you were a goner. What happened after you sunk it in the mud? I started to have the same feeling as I had back in the cave last night. It was like my body was telling the water to do something. It was like without touching it, I was moving the water and the dirt around you. It kept making me more and more tired and cold and sick. But I just kept moving the water with my brain. Until you came back up. Terran was completely quiet. He'd heard of something like this before, but only in comic books and on television. His eyes opened wide as he looked at his brother's face, which he could barely see as the shape of a head contrasted against other dim shapes that he figured must be trees. Then he whispered dramatically, it's a superpower, brother. He said this matter of factly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for his brother to be able to somehow defy the laws of physics and move massive amounts of water through the earth. Already most of the water had disappeared after slowly soaking back into the quicksand with only a small puddle left where Terran had emerged. River shrugged. I don't know what it is, but I'm totally wiped out. Can you make it up the trail? Just give me a few minutes. It feels like I'm slowly getting stronger. As he listened to river taking deep breaths with an occasional cough, Terran sat down, then opened his eyes wide and repeatedly looked up, down, and side to side, trying to determine whether his sight was really returning or whether he was just imagining things. When he looked up, he could barely see the tops of the trees contrasted against the sky. When he looked to the side, he could see the daylight appearing as very dark gray contrasted against the black shapes of trees. When he looked down, he could see the faint outline of his feet against the ground before disappearing into the quicksand. He had not been able to see any of these contrasting shapes with each passing moment, and each time he looked again, the shapes seemed to be becoming more and more clear. Finally, river spoke. I'm ready. Let's do this. Both boys stood after dipping their T shirts in the remaining water that still remained above the quicksand on the trail, and they began quietly walking up the trail again, the only sound the sloshing and squeaking of Terran's soaked and muddy shoes. Two hours later, after several more stops for flipping over rocks for ants and grubs, sucking the last remaining drops of water out of their T shirts and harvesting a big bunch of purslane Leaves, two more piles of ants and eight snails. They finally reached the peak that river had sighted from the beach. The trail conveniently ended at the top of this peak, in a small clearing with just a few fallen trees and a windswept meadow. By this time, Terran's vision had almost fully returned. And as they both stood looking out over their surroundings, they realized several important things. First, they were encircled on all sides by water for a mere two to three miles. In each direction was dense forest. Then the landscape transformed into rocky crags and cliffs. Then finally, ocean. For as far as the eye could see, this was definitely an island. They silently noted that there had never been been an island anywhere near their home. And even the coast would have taken hours and hours to drive to. Second, they had reached what appeared to be one of the highest points on the island. When they looked in all directions, there were very few peaks, hills or mountains, just miles and miles of thick green forest. Anything they were going to see, they could see from here. And third, there were no signs of any other human beings or life. No homes, no roads, no cars, no boats, no bustling sounds. It appeared that aside from at least one small bird, they were completely alone on this strange island. For a short time, the boys explored the peak, searching the ground for tracks or signs of an animal, looking for planes overhead and flipping over several rocks in search of more protein rich food. But the sky was growing more dim and evening was quickly approaching. Once again, shelter was becoming increasingly important, and at this point, it would be many hours and very dark before they could make it back down to the cave they'd spent the night in before.

One of the largest fallen trees, slightly down the face of the peak, tucked away and protected from the wind, had large exposed roots that jutted a short distance up into the sky and then arched out and ended just a few feet above the ground with a few knotted strands still rooted into the earth. With less than an hour of work collecting sticks, a few pine fronds, and many large handfuls of bark, dirt and debris, the boys were able to use the exposed roots of this tree as a side wall and convert the ground under the roots into the makeshift shelter. It wasn't perfect, but it seemed that it could work for the night. As they worked, Terran's sight became more and more clear. Despite not being able to see fine details like petals of a flower or the shape of a leaf, he could now easily navigate his way through the meadow and back to the roots with armfuls of debris for the roof of their shelter. Finally, as the first stars began to appear, both boys collapsed inside the shelter. As they lay face up, looking at the sky, they realized that if it did rain, their hastily constructed roof wouldn't really do much good. Large patches of sky were visible through many holes in the bark fronds and sticks that they had used to quickly patch together a covering. But they were too exhausted to care. They simply lay there, staring up at a cloudless evening sky. Through the roof and just back behind him, Terran could see the outline of the moon. He smiled. His eyes were back. He didn't fully understand what had happened, how he became blind in the first place, or how sinking into the mud had somehow restored his sight. But right now it didn't matter. All he knew was that he could see the enormous moon floating in front of him like a giant lightbulb hanging from a starry bedroom ceiling. The moon is bright and full tonight, River. Isn't it beautiful? Not quite full, brother, but still pretty. Terran paused. He furrowed his brow. Was his sight back as strong as he thought? No, I'm pretty sure it's a completely full moon, Riv. More like half a moon. Terran rolled over to his side to face river, who lay beside him, but appeared to be looking more in front of him than behind, which was the direction that Terran had been looking. Terran followed River's eyes. There, in the direction of River's gaze, was half a moon. Terran whipped his head back around. There, just behind him, was a full moon. River, there's two moons.