Speaker 1: I grew up hunting, fishing, and running triplines, so it
Speaker 1: was only natural that I get a job working for
Speaker 1: the California Fish and Game while I was in college. Later,
Speaker 1: I spent two decades working for the US Forest Service.
Speaker 1: One morning in September nineteen ninety three, while I was
Speaker 1: working for the Forestry Service, I arrived at a small
Speaker 1: clear cut located in the middle fork of Feather River
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty am. It was a wild and scenic
Speaker 1: spot above the town of Oroville, California, and very remote.
Speaker 1: It had taken me two hours to get there. It
Speaker 1: was the last of three small clearcuts done on that
Speaker 1: ridge just before it dropped down to the scenic river.
Speaker 1: We called those cuts Mountain Lion cuts, after a lion
Speaker 1: that had been seen there several times. The last cut
Speaker 1: was nine as that headed east up the slope, and
Speaker 1: at the bottom was a twenty foot circle of brush
Speaker 1: that had no trees worth harvesting, so it had been spared.
Speaker 1: I crawled into the brush with my lunch and decided
Speaker 1: to be quiet and hidden as I ate, so that
Speaker 1: maybe I could see the lion come through. After twenty
Speaker 1: five minutes, nothing had come by, and I was finished
Speaker 1: with lunch. As I was packing up, I heard a
Speaker 1: large limb or a small tree snap a couple hundred
Speaker 1: yards across the clear cut. I thought it must be
Speaker 1: a range cow, so I didn't even bother looking up.
Speaker 1: The clearcut had been replanted in the spring. My job
Speaker 1: that day was to take twenty four foot plots and
Speaker 1: count how many trees survived in every third plot. I
Speaker 1: walked out a few yards into the clearing and poked
Speaker 1: my tape measure into the ground, pulled out twelve feet
Speaker 1: and started making a circle, counting each tree within the
Speaker 1: circumference as I did so. When I was done, I
Speaker 1: walked a hundred and twenty paces maybe one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten yards to the lower section and completed the second plot.
Speaker 1: And then I looked across and decided I could fit
Speaker 1: one more plot along the bottom, so I took off,
Speaker 1: counting one hundred and twenty paces. I was thirty yards
Speaker 1: from the brush on the opposite side when I heard
Speaker 1: another large limb being snapped off a tree. This time
Speaker 1: it was done close enough that it startled me, and
Speaker 1: I snapped my head up and looked through the man's
Speaker 1: anita through a three foot hole in the brush, I
Speaker 1: saw a leg, or a back of a leg anyway
Speaker 1: from the knee down. It was forty yards away and
Speaker 1: the sun was shining on it. The sunlight lit up
Speaker 1: the two inch long red hair that covered the leg.
Speaker 1: It was close to the color of an orangutang's hair.
Speaker 1: The calf muscle was large and lean, and I stared
Speaker 1: at it thought to myself, how well this thing was built.
Speaker 1: It took a couple of steps up the hill and
Speaker 1: I saw the muscle flexing up and down in its leg.
Speaker 1: I stopped. Until that moment, I hadn't thought much about
Speaker 1: whether or not they were real, but just then I
Speaker 1: was thinking they do exist. I started walking up the
Speaker 1: hill in a calm, no rush, manner that gave me
Speaker 1: time to observe it. At eighty yards away, I could
Speaker 1: see all the way up the left leg. I could
Speaker 1: see the butt about halfway down the right leg. The
Speaker 1: hair was all the same light colored red, and its
Speaker 1: butt was pronounced and muscular. Seeing it from the waist down,
Speaker 1: I thought it was built very much like a professional
Speaker 1: football player, larger and taller, but not by much. At
Speaker 1: one hundred yards away, I got my first glimpse of
Speaker 1: the entire backside of the creature, from the neck down,
Speaker 1: from the waist up. It was massive. The shoulders were
Speaker 1: seven feet off the ground and five feet across. It
Speaker 1: was a dense dark patch of tan oaks, and it
Speaker 1: stepped into the trees and it was gone. I stood there,
Speaker 1: fascinated by what had just happened. I did not take
Speaker 1: a step during this entire encounter. I just stood there
Speaker 1: in amazement. Above this dark patch of tan oaks stood
Speaker 1: a single tree that was six inches in circumference. It
Speaker 1: was cut off and bent one hundred and eighty degrees
Speaker 1: at six feet off the ground. The creature stepped out
Speaker 1: of the oak patch and put its left arm on
Speaker 1: that tree, and as it leaned in, the tree dropped
Speaker 1: seven more inches. It turned its head and it looked
Speaker 1: at me. Now I could see the left part of
Speaker 1: the body and a little bit of its head. The
Speaker 1: only feature I could see was that it was not
Speaker 1: covered in long red hair like the rest of the body.
Speaker 1: It was too far away now to make much else out.
Speaker 1: I noticed there was no hair at the elbow of
Speaker 1: the left arm either. It looked as if it had
Speaker 1: been scraped or worn off, and the skin was dark black.
Speaker 1: I don't know how long this lasted. It was long
Speaker 1: enough that I wondered how the creature with such red
Speaker 1: hair could have such dark skin. We stood there staring
Speaker 1: at each other for a bit, and then it straightened
Speaker 1: up and turned and took two steps before it was gone.
Speaker 1: I did not see it or hear it again. In fact,
Speaker 1: I never heard it except for the two times it
Speaker 1: broke large limbs or small trees. I never felt fear
Speaker 1: or anxiety. It was never aggressive toward me, nor seemed
Speaker 1: threatening in any way. I didn't smell any odor, and sadly,
Speaker 1: I never got to see the front of the creature
Speaker 1: or its entire head. I don't know its sex or
Speaker 1: anything about its facial features except for the lack of hair,
Speaker 1: but I do know it was very curious. It wanted
Speaker 1: to observe me as much as I wanted to observe it.
Speaker 1: I no longer work for the Forestry Service, but I
Speaker 1: wish I could have another encounter, and as an employee
Speaker 1: of the US Forestry Service, I did not share this
Speaker 1: story with anyone other than a few family members until
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, when I finally went online to the BFRO
Speaker 1: and submitted my first report. Since then, I've done some
Speaker 1: of my own research and watched what I could. I've
Speaker 1: met a few others willing to speak about their encounters,
Speaker 1: and I'm more than happy to meet and speak with
Speaker 1: anyone who has had an encounter. I believe there was
Speaker 1: more than one. That day. As I sat hidden in
Speaker 1: that brush putting my lunch away, it broke a large
Speaker 1: lamb or tree. I was over two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: yards away. I don't believe it was just telling me
Speaker 1: that it was there. I think it was also telling
Speaker 1: the others that I was there. Fantastic story to the writer. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't know the man's name. I think I know
Speaker 1: because of his email address, but I'm not going to
Speaker 1: share it because he didn't really say anything about it.
Speaker 1: But this is these guys in the forestry service or
Speaker 1: in a position and in locations to see these things,
Speaker 1: not just these things, but all the things that go
Speaker 1: on in the forest, and they're used to it. They
Speaker 1: know it. They're very observant. They know what's out of place,
Speaker 1: they know what's in place, they know what's usual, they
Speaker 1: know what's odd. If you spend any time in the woods,
Speaker 1: even you don't have to be a forestry service employee
Speaker 1: to learn these things, just go in the woods and
Speaker 1: be quiet. Like I know this is probably a little
Speaker 1: too much commentary, but there are a lot of images
Speaker 1: out on social media Facebook and Twitter and Instagram of
Speaker 1: blurry things in the background of a forest. And have
Speaker 1: you ever sat in the woods for Just sit there
Speaker 1: for three hours and don't move, Just sit there, relax
Speaker 1: and kind of focus in on one area of the woods.
Speaker 1: And if you do that, you'll notice that the light
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with what you see, and
Speaker 1: the earth is spinning and the sun is shining light
Speaker 1: at different angles, and every ten or fifteen minutes that
Speaker 1: spot you're looking at will look totally different, and your
Speaker 1: mind can make out shapes and all kinds of things
Speaker 1: in that background as light penetrates through the forest and
Speaker 1: shines on things that are behind what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: And these guys know these things. I mean, I began
Speaker 1: to notice that deer hunting many years ago. I'm not
Speaker 1: a big deer hunter. A matter of fact, I don't
Speaker 1: really even go to kill. I don't really like killing deer.
Speaker 1: I have killed several, but not many, and I've never glad.
Speaker 1: I did kill one buck anyway, it's another big deal.
Speaker 1: I'm just not that interested in killing deer, but I
Speaker 1: love to be in the woods and just watch and
Speaker 1: look at all the wildlife, and the deer is just
Speaker 1: icing on the cake. It's great meat, it's good claes
Speaker 1: nutrition for me and my family and my friends. But
Speaker 1: the big thrill is to sit there and just watch
Speaker 1: what goes on. And you're seeing what happens in the
Speaker 1: woods when you're not there, because if you're quiet, you
Speaker 1: don't make any noise, and you just, you know, just
Speaker 1: minimize your presence in the woods. It goes right back
Speaker 1: to normal within about fifteen or twenty minutes, and you
Speaker 1: get to see what happens when you're not there, and
Speaker 1: it's an amazing thing. Listen and look and smell, and
Speaker 1: you get to see all the things that ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of the people on this planet do not get
Speaker 1: to see. So I don't know why I got off
Speaker 1: in that, but it kind of I know some of
Speaker 1: these forestry guys and these timber cruisers and people that
Speaker 1: work for timber companies, and they know the woods. They
Speaker 1: know what's natural, they know what's not. They're very observant
Speaker 1: and they can tell you right away. That's kind of
Speaker 1: weird over there, and this is what happened here, and
Speaker 1: this is what happened here. Anyway, it's just an inter
Speaker 1: It's an interesting topic. I've always thought was fascinating. But me,
Speaker 1: I'm a people watcher, and I noticed what people say
Speaker 1: and do and why they say and do what they do,
Speaker 1: and it's always been really interesting to me. Thank you
Speaker 1: to the writer for sending this. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 1: and I believe the story. I one hundred percent believed
Speaker 1: the story. The Warp Forests by Austin Mooney. Colin had
Speaker 1: known Greg long enough to trust the periloused expression of
Speaker 1: gloom on his face when he emerged from the shadowy
Speaker 1: tree line. Greg had left the safe confines of their
Speaker 1: bonfire to relieve himself somewhere away from camp about fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes earlier, and the group was beginning to worry about him.
Speaker 1: They assumed whatever was keeping him must have been his
Speaker 1: own private business. They dreaded the idea of checking in
Speaker 1: on him, only to cause embarrassment for both parties. They
Speaker 1: thought it first that perhaps he was and he would
Speaker 1: inform them that he needed to go home. Instead, he
Speaker 1: instructed them to follow him back to the dark forest.
Speaker 1: There were four of them, Greg, Colin, Macklin, and Dane.
Speaker 1: The men, all now in their middle years, had been
Speaker 1: friends since childhood, and although they had much different lives now,
Speaker 1: they still made time to go on a camping retreat
Speaker 1: together once a year. They tried to pick a new
Speaker 1: place to go each time. Most of the fun of
Speaker 1: the experience was hiking and surveying the new land and
Speaker 1: recapturing the wonder of exploration they felt back in their
Speaker 1: use when such feelings were easier to come by. This year,
Speaker 1: they decided on a spring visit to a small patch
Speaker 1: of woods near Lake Michigan, somewhat close to the US
Speaker 1: and Canadian border. The area existed in a strange in
Speaker 1: between place that felt oddly homeless and independent. It didn't
Speaker 1: feel like it belonged to either country. It was just there.
Speaker 1: They had arrived later in the day than they anticipated
Speaker 1: and were deprived of that first chance to venture into
Speaker 1: the unknown. Before the necessity of shelter and warmth became
Speaker 1: paramount in their minds. They quickly unloaded their equipment and
Speaker 1: followed the short trail to the closest camping area to
Speaker 1: get as much assistance from the dying sun as it
Speaker 1: would allow before twilight turned its cold gaze to laugh
Speaker 1: At their unfinished camp. They were using a single tent
Speaker 1: large enough to comfortably house the four men. The friends
Speaker 1: had learned to live together through the sleepovers of their
Speaker 1: childhood and various roommate living arrangements in their early adulthood.
Speaker 1: One big tent was all they needed, which made the
Speaker 1: construction process much more efficient. As soon as as it
Speaker 1: was built, the fire was lit in the pit of
Speaker 1: the charred remains of previous camping excursions. Greg announced that
Speaker 1: he needed to use the toilet and that he would
Speaker 1: be back soon. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: come looking for me, he said. I don't have to poop,
Speaker 1: so it shouldn't take that long. But if I do
Speaker 1: end up having to poop and then doing it and
Speaker 1: you come looking for me and that's what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: then I'm sorry, but better safe than sorry. Just go,
Speaker 1: said Colin. Yeah, stop talking, Maclan said, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to look for you. Dane laughed as he opened a beer.
Speaker 1: Greg held a playful middle finger to the group and
Speaker 1: disappeared beyond the tree line. Fifteen minutes passed, and the
Speaker 1: men started to wonder was Greg kidding before? Was he
Speaker 1: playing a joke? Now? Did he want them to come
Speaker 1: looking for him? Luckily he showed his face before that.
Speaker 1: Feeling swelled up inside them and reached the point where
Speaker 1: they felt a knee to discuss it. They all knew
Speaker 1: the others were feeling weird? What was Greg doing out there?
Speaker 1: A sigh of relief vented through their noses toward the
Speaker 1: ground and curved up into the sky once he appeared,
Speaker 1: but the tension was reinvigorated and evolved into a new
Speaker 1: collection of despair when they saw the look on his face.
Speaker 1: What's up? Are you okay? Colin asked, we were about
Speaker 1: to come looking for you. Michlan said I wasn't, said dame,
Speaker 1: you guys need to come with me, Greg said, his
Speaker 1: mouth barely moving. His eyes hung sourly in his dull
Speaker 1: face as his eyelids stretched toward the sky in an
Speaker 1: act of bodily surrender and panic. The muscles and his
Speaker 1: clammy visage were communicating emotions that seemed entirely burnt out
Speaker 1: in his mind. He held both of his hands in
Speaker 1: his front pockets as though he was a teacher. About
Speaker 1: to ask a leading question that would carry him into
Speaker 1: a mind altering lecture. The chemicals coursing through him were
Speaker 1: putting on a performance or normalacy that was wholly severed
Speaker 1: from his thoughts. He looked like he could barely feel
Speaker 1: any of it, and his body was taking over. There's
Speaker 1: something I want to show you, he said, No, Dane Wine,
Speaker 1: we just got the fire going and stuff. Let's chill.
Speaker 1: What is it? Colin asked, concerned by the confusing mixture
Speaker 1: of emotions flowing from his friend's body language. I can't
Speaker 1: describe it, he said. Muscles in his arms twitched as
Speaker 1: his hands baled into bulging fists in his pocket. But
Speaker 1: I never seen anything like it before. Is it next
Speaker 1: to where you peede? Maclan asked, because maybe it can wait.
Speaker 1: That's when the fire grew bright enough that Colin and
Speaker 1: Machlan were able to discern that Greg had urinated in
Speaker 1: his pants. A gasp of prize and worries shook through them.
Speaker 1: His black jeens revealed a section of slightly blackered denim
Speaker 1: that soaked a vertical puddle through the material surrounding his groin.
Speaker 1: An energy of silence weighed down on the camp It's
Speaker 1: not very far, Greg said, before turning around and dissolving
Speaker 1: back into the twisting gateway of krepasole wooded kingdom before them.
Speaker 1: Colin walked after him, and Michlan followed. Dane finished his
Speaker 1: beer and opened another beer and grabbed his high powered
Speaker 1: flashlight that he normally loved, having an excuse to use
Speaker 1: and released an annoying sign and ventured into the woods
Speaker 1: to find his friends. Colin and Macklin held their phone
Speaker 1: flashlights up to light the path, but gregg led without one.
Speaker 1: His hands stayed in his pockets. He simply knew where
Speaker 1: to go. He dodged low branches and obstacles with memorized
Speaker 1: condition precision. Everything appeared so calm and easy, despite his
Speaker 1: tainted eyes looking back at his friends every few paces
Speaker 1: and urine soak clothing telling a drastically different story. The
Speaker 1: other two tripped and stumbled along behind him as they
Speaker 1: quietly made their way. Any questions asked to Greg were
Speaker 1: met with a soft were almost there. Then a clearing
Speaker 1: opened itself to them, and the starry night sky waterfall
Speaker 1: down onto their dusty heads. A brilliant rush of energizing
Speaker 1: visible light flooded the area. As if the arena of
Speaker 1: distant worlds around them wished the men to see. What
Speaker 1: was there In the middle of the clearing was a
Speaker 1: small stub or stump, perhaps a collection of mushrooms, sitting
Speaker 1: three feet tall and three feet wide. It was tan pink,
Speaker 1: and the shedding of whatever comprised it littered the grass
Speaker 1: around it. As they approached the specimen, Colin felt a
Speaker 1: hollow ache in his stomach, like life threatening hunger pans,
Speaker 1: the type of empty belly ache that causes one to
Speaker 1: vomit whenever pathetic liquid is still contained in them. In
Speaker 1: a misguided attempt to fix the problem, he worried he
Speaker 1: would be sick, but he couldn't easily find his way
Speaker 1: back to camp if he retreated, his breathing controlled in
Speaker 1: heart rates slowing, Colin continued following his friend's relentless brisk
Speaker 1: pace towards the stump. Once they reached it, they realized
Speaker 1: it wasn't a stump, or at least not won by appearance.
Speaker 1: Perhaps an invasive fungus of some kind had claimed a
Speaker 1: stump and covered it the grave of a tree, suffocated
Speaker 1: beneath its new wormy overcoat. The dome of organic matter
Speaker 1: was rough, callous blob of an unappealing texture, reminiscent of Califlow.
Speaker 1: Every few seconds or so, it would lightly shake, as
Speaker 1: though a bubble had popped below its surface. It was alive,
Speaker 1: whatever it was. Greg walked over to it, looked back
Speaker 1: at the men with a smile, and then kicked it.
Speaker 1: A resounding thud rippled through it like a carnival strong
Speaker 1: man's abdomen. After getting punched in the gut by an
Speaker 1: audience member, a small chunk of fleshy tumor ripped off
Speaker 1: with the tip of Greg's shoe and landed next to them,
Speaker 1: and shortly afterward the spot that had been regenerated. I've
Speaker 1: been picking at this thing since I left camp. That's
Speaker 1: where all these other pieces of it came from, he said,
Speaker 1: gesturing to the mess around his feet. But it just
Speaker 1: keeps regenerating. It's gross and it hurts. I feel like
Speaker 1: it has to be hurting the forest. It hurts when
Speaker 1: I look at it, like its existence hurts. Do you
Speaker 1: feel it? I think we shoul leave it alone. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. I mean, it's cool, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, and thank you for showing it to us.
Speaker 1: But what if it's poisonous or something, said Macklin, all
Speaker 1: the more reason we need to get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Greg said. It pulsed again and shuddered under the stress
Speaker 1: of the damage that it had withstood. From Greg's hue,
Speaker 1: Colin could feel it. Its presence was made of pain
Speaker 1: and soreness, a future, disgusting, tight, miserable, tenderness that only
Speaker 1: more pain could destroy. He wanted desperately to rip it
Speaker 1: out of the Earth's poor body, and it needed to
Speaker 1: be removed, whatever it was, and some deep instinct within
Speaker 1: him was screaming at him to do so. Isn't it
Speaker 1: just going to keep regenerating, maclan asked. It regenerates faster
Speaker 1: than I can pick at it. But if all of
Speaker 1: us are picking at it, then I think we can
Speaker 1: pick it all the way off before it has time
Speaker 1: to regenerate. That's a good idea, said Macklin, looked at
Speaker 1: Colin in disbelief. I think you should do this in
Speaker 1: the morning, MacLean said, no. Greg said he took his
Speaker 1: hands out of his pockets, and the others saw that
Speaker 1: they were covered in something gloves. Maybe it looked like
Speaker 1: hundreds of smaller versions of the bump in front of them,
Speaker 1: coated the entirety of his hands up to his wrists.
Speaker 1: It was a sea of individual wartz, rubbing through and
Speaker 1: against each other, creating a long, solid skin layer of
Speaker 1: rough growth. Hard wiggling, moaning warts were cracking around his
Speaker 1: palms and fingers and deconstructing his skin. His knuckles split
Speaker 1: open and his hands were falling apart as he reached
Speaker 1: down and grabbed two fistfuls of the excruciating life form.
Speaker 1: Soon Colin found himself digging into the mixture as well.
Speaker 1: The hard shell of it broke open upon impact with
Speaker 1: his determined claws and released a terrible chitney of porous flesh. Underneath.
Speaker 1: It was an enormous wart, threatening the very woods it
Speaker 1: was attempting to call home. A loud flashlight beam crashed
Speaker 1: through the cracks in the trees behind them. As Dane
Speaker 1: emerged from the woods. What the hell is that thing?
Speaker 1: He said, I don't know, but they want to pick
Speaker 1: it out of the ground, said micheln Oh, my god, Greg,
Speaker 1: your hands are disgusting. What happened? Stop touching that thing?
Speaker 1: Dane hurried over to the two men. The flashlight glared
Speaker 1: an aggressive wake up called a Colin's eyes, and he
Speaker 1: was pulled from his daze. He backed away from the
Speaker 1: lowesome wart and he threw up. He rubbed his arms
Speaker 1: and hands into the dirt to cleanse the disgusting material
Speaker 1: from his skin. Overwhelming fear obscured his consciousness, and he
Speaker 1: scratched his hands along the rocks and dry land until
Speaker 1: they were bloody and any infected layers had been removed.
Speaker 1: We did it, Greg said, as he dropped the last
Speaker 1: handful of work tissue to the ground. A crater sat
Speaker 1: staring up at them, surrounded by the dead remnants of
Speaker 1: its former body. Hard sharp edges struggled to create new warts.
Speaker 1: It rattled and died. Now we have to burn all
Speaker 1: of this. We're not carrying that stuff back to camp,
Speaker 1: Dane said. And we're definitely not starting a fire out
Speaker 1: here without someone from the park Service being present. We
Speaker 1: could burn the whole woods down. We have to, said Greg.
Speaker 1: Your hands are messed up, Greg, and you pissed yourself.
Speaker 1: Look at you, Dane said, I'm taking you back to camp.
Speaker 1: Let's go. Dane grabbed Greg's arm. Macklin blinked, and Dane
Speaker 1: was suddenly on his back, with Greg on top. Of him,
Speaker 1: pinning his shoulders to the forest with his knees, while
Speaker 1: a drop bottle blood of fizzled ale beside them. Greg
Speaker 1: grabbed Dane's face with his bumpy, agonizingly warp coated hands.
Speaker 1: The warts on his fingertips found their way into Dane's
Speaker 1: mouth and scraped against his front teeth. We have to
Speaker 1: burn it. Greg stood up, and Dane hopped to his feet, spitting,
Speaker 1: I'm getting a park ranger, You're being ridiculous, dude. Dane
Speaker 1: and Macklin helped Colin to his feet and they left.
Speaker 1: At the lodge, the three men asked the lone ranger
Speaker 1: on duty for the evening if she had ever seen
Speaker 1: any kind of growth that resembled their friend's obsession. She
Speaker 1: asked them if they had taken any sort of hallucinogenic drugs,
Speaker 1: and then asked if they had taken any drugs of
Speaker 1: any kind, and then she shook her head and agreed
Speaker 1: to drive them back to camp. When they returned to
Speaker 1: Colin was the first to start crying. In that clearing
Speaker 1: where the stars had bestowed the power of their blessing,
Speaker 1: lay a shriveled body next to a smoldering pile of ashes.
Speaker 1: The stench of burning flesh slowly venting from the area
Speaker 1: put the ranger in a fit as she covered her
Speaker 1: nose and gagged. She informed them that they weren't supposed
Speaker 1: to set fires anywhere except for the designated areas at
Speaker 1: camping sites before she called for a medical team. The
Speaker 1: men agreed and informed her that Gregg wouldn't listen. He
Speaker 1: needed to burn it. She took a bottle of water
Speaker 1: from the glove compartment of her truck and doused the
Speaker 1: final fading memory of the fire, which released the vociferous
Speaker 1: exhale of smoke. A puff of ash choked out of
Speaker 1: the hollow wart crater, and she stomped the smoldering out
Speaker 1: with her boot and covered it in soil. Doctors later
Speaker 1: claimed that Gregg died of smoke inhalation. They wouldn't say
Speaker 1: anything more beyond that, although they always looked like they
Speaker 1: wanted to. Gregg's parents said they saw the X rays
Speaker 1: of his lungs and thought they appeared riddled with tumors, bumps,
Speaker 1: or warts. His lungs were saturated in warts. The three
Speaker 1: men and the park ranger were given inhalers with a
Speaker 1: particular tasting medication. They were told was for smoke inhalation
Speaker 1: and kept overnight for observation. They bandaged Colin's hands, intended
Speaker 1: to the early signs of newly emerging warts around Dane's mouth.
Speaker 1: The night was eerily quiet. The doctors had never seen
Speaker 1: warts on lungs before, they didn't know how to tell
Speaker 1: them about it. When Macklin returned with a park ranger
Speaker 1: to retrieve their camping gear the following day, they found
Speaker 1: the forest entrance blocked from public access. They ducked under
Speaker 1: the caution tape, walked a few yards and stopped shaking.
Speaker 1: He removed his inhaler from his pocket and he ran.
Speaker 1: The park rangers soon followed behind them, slowly fading into
Speaker 1: the past. All the trees and birds, animals, fish, bushes, flowers,
Speaker 1: grass ponds, camp sites, the rangers station, everything, all of it,
Speaker 1: all the wonders of that ravishing park, even the air.
Speaker 1: It was all covered in wartz.