I am a nature freak, well what’s what my friends tell me. I mean they’re right I do spend as much time outside as I can, but today I will be setting out to see how long I can survive in the woods, to live off the land and all that good stuff. So I will be writing this journal to keep track of what’s going on while I am on my excursion to get closer to mother nature. My name is Jacob Sherwisher and this is day one.
Day 1
Now it’s been a while since I went camping. I always used to do it with my dad as a kid but since he passed away, it’s been hard for me to go stay in the woods at night. I still go in the woods and listen to the sounds of nature but, I can never bring myself to stay the night. Recently, my friend Mark passed away and I realized how short life was and I can’t let bad memories hold me back from doing something that I love. So I’m doing this for my dad and Mark. Now that I’m done with that rambling, the first day was pretty rough. I didn’t realise how rusty I was when it came to putting up a tent. By the time I was done, it was almost sunset and I had forgotten my bug spray so I was being eaten alive. Anyway, I got through it and I’m on to the next day. I’ll update you the journal.
Day 2
Today was much easier. I mean, it was still tough but it wasn’t like the first day. I have enough food to last me about a week and a half but I know I will have to hunt if I want to live out here for longer than that. I probably will just go fishing, I’m not fond of hunting deer. I do have my crossbow if it comes to that but that is a last resort. Anyway, not much happened today. Saw some cool looking birds. Thought I heard a wolf howl, hopefully it doesn’t come near my camp but that’s about it. More updates tomorrow.
Day 7
Well on Monday, I said I was going to write but it’s Saturday now. To be honest, I thought there would be a lot more things going on in the woods, but it is a whole lot of nothing. I’m doing pretty good on food. I found this lake that seemed as if it was never ever seen by human eyes. It was practically overflowing with fish. Some of them even swim up to my hook. After seeing how curious they were, I feel pretty bad for eating them, but a man’s got to eat. I’m pretty sure I could be out here for months and I would be fine. Anyway, hopefully something interesting happens so I can write about it in here, otherwise I wasted five fifty on this journal. Update you guys when something interesting happens.
Day 8
So something interesting finally happened. I was walking through forest as you do, when I hear a stick crack to my right. I look over my shoulder and there is a gigantic albino stag just standing there. We stand there just staring at each other for a good five minutes. Neither of us moving. He looked absolutely majestic, antlers spread like they could hold the world on them, fur white like new snow, it was practically reflective, you would expect for a wild animal to be dirty especially with fur as white as this but the stag was completely spotless. We stood there, eyes locked for a few more seconds, then I felt a sneeze. I tried to stop it but it was too late. I let out a howl of a sneeze and the stag bolted in the other direction. I felt real dumb for ruining that moment but whatever. So that was my day today. That makes up for the boring days in my book. I’m probably going to see if I can find the stag tomorrow. I’ll write what I find.
Day 9
So today I went out looking for the stag again. I went to the same spot that I did the day before but no luck. I looked around for hours while on my walk but I didn’t even find a squirrel, which was odd because the forest always had some kind of noise. On my way back to my camp, something caught my eye. It was glistening as a stray beam of light that cut through the trees it hit. It was a chrysalis about the size of my thumb attached to the edge of a leaf, it was beautiful, a lime green with spirals of purple and blue. It was also thin. When I looked at it from the side, it was like a peacock feather. It was beautiful, it was calling me. I had to touch it. When I did, it was soft. It flexed and stretched under the pressure of my finger. I pulled my finger back scared that I may have damaged it. When I did, some of the design and the green came off on my finger, it was a dusty type texture, and when I looked at the chrysalis, the spot I had touched had the design missing and I could see inside. There was a something like green thread swirling around inside, then the spot was replaced with the design as it grew back.
Day 10
I woke up today with a headache. I have no memory of yesterday. I don’t even remember walking back to my camp or eating. I had to read the entry for yesterday, that I don’t even remember writing. After reading it, I was pretty weirded out. When it came to the end of the entry, I though I had eaten some rancid mushrooms until I realise that there was green on my fingers. When I tried to rub it off, it didn’t even move. I ran to the lake to try to wash off the green. I got to the lake and dunked my hands and the usually curious fish that would swim up to me all scattered making a giant semi-circle around me about ten feet wide. They didn’t even move after that. They just watched me try to scrub my hands clean, but nothing this green would not move. I eventually gave up and went back to camp after inspecting my fingers for a few hours. I came to the assumption that the green was nothing to worry about. It barely got past my fingernails which it went under. It was not that noticeable and I could still feel my fingertips. It’s not a big deal. After I’m done with this excursion, I will go to the doctor if it doesn’t fade.
Day 11
Well it spread. It was just my fingers and now it’s my entire hand. It’s weird though it feels pretty good. It’s like tingly almost like when your hand falls asleep but a lot more satisfying and less like your hand is being shanked by a million tiny prisoners. If I look really hard, I can kind of see it moving up my hand. It’s like a tiny army on its way all the way up to the tippy top of a mountain. That’s about it for today. See you tomorrow.
Day ??
Not quite sure what day it is but I’m pretty sure it’s been a while. I’m almost out of food but that’s no problem. I’ll just go fishing. Oh yeah and the green has covered my right arm completely. It still feels really nice and has something of a sparkle to it. It looks really pretty. Now a days I just sit around watching my arm sparkle as the light bounces off of it. Anyway that’s it for today journal talk to you later.
Day ??
Still don’t know how long I have been out here but I have been eating a lot of fish. They have been hard to catch though. They start to run away from me now. They are not as curious as they were, but that’s fine. I’m really fast now. Oh yeah, the green has covered most of my body now. It feels really good. My stomach and my left leg have completely been covered. Now it’s just my right leg to be covered. I can’t wait.
Day ??
I have been out here super long I think. I have a really thick scratchy beard now. It looks funny when I look at my reflection in the pond. The fish are really scared of me now. They seem to scatter even before I get to the pond. But that’s no problem. Today I ran down a deer that was trying to hide from me. It was fun. I wonder how it didn’t see me coming. When I move, I sparkle and shine. It’s super pretty. I’m also really strong now. When I ran down the deer and caught it, I just held its neck really tight and then it stopped moving. It tasted really good. It was the best thing I have ever eaten.
Day ??
When I woke up today my body was stinging. It was like fire ants were biting every inch of my being. And why was I running? And why was I naked? And a better question was, why was I green?
?: Hello host.
Host: Who the hell said that?
?: Why, I did host.
Host: Who are you?
?: I am the green as you called me in your journal.
Host: How are you talking?
The green: Look closer at your abdomen.
I did as told. There was a slit running across my stomach that spread almost all the way across.
Host: What the hell! What is that?
The green: It is what I use to communicate with you. Though I can hear your thoughts so audible, communication is not necessary.
It was moving as it talked. The slit on my stomach was a mouth. Every word that came from this thing was spoken through this abomination.
The green: I do not find that phrase appealing. Please do not use that when in reference to me.
Host: What happened to me? Why am I like this?
The green: I do not know but I assume that it is a result of you touching the chrysalis. From the moment that you touched it, I have been changing you, making you better. We are ultimate, we are a being above man.
Host: Ok, why can’t I control anything below the neck?
The green: I have taken the rest of your body as my own I will be using from now on. You require it no longer.
Host: What the hell, you can’t.
The green: But I can.
Host: Why am I running?
The green: No “am”, it is we.
Host: Why are we running?
The green: We are on the hunt.
Then I noticed it. Up ahead of us was a pronghorn, and it was running for its life and we were gaining. Wait, how the hell was I gaining on a pronghorn and how the hell were we chasing a pronghorn? They are not even close to where I live.
The green: I was searching for greater prey and had gotten side tracked. Deer have become too easy for us and like I have said, I have made us ultimate so this, this chase is nothing.
Then all of a sudden the pronghorn stumbled, and we seemed to get a burst of speed. At first we were gaining slowly but now it was rapid. Before I knew it, we had tackled the poor animal, and we were on it with a vengeance. I had not noticed but my fingernails were sharp points. My arm raised over the thrashing animal and slammed fingers first into its stomach, slicing through with little effort. The animal let out a screech that made my stomach turn and made it rumble in hunger at the same time. I felt sick but I couldn’t deny how hungry I was. We ripped the pronghorn apart spreading its innards everywhere, then my hand went in and yanked out a fist full of guts. I thought that, the hand that was out of my control, would bring the steaming guts up to my face. But in relief and horror, it brought it to my stomach and the mouth open wide with eager excitement and the meat was shoveled in. I wanted to vomit but, it tasted so good.
The green: Now that the hunt is over, we will head back to the camp. I assume that you do not want to experience the long trek back so I will put you to sleep. You will be able to read you entries when we get back.
Host: What wha-
Day ??
I asked the green why my body stung and in my entries I said that it felt good. He said, “The metamorphosis from prey to hunter would have been quite painful on your body and mind, so I saw it best to put you in a state of pleasant ignorance so that you would not break. The pain that you feel now, it just an after effect,” he said that. He would allow me to continue to write in the journal and that he had grown quite fond of it, and it had grown to be something of a habit for him and it was something for me to do at the end of the days as the host. I will continue to write in the journal. I have nothing better to do and it’s the only time that I have control of one of our limbs and that’s the only freedom I have now a days. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what I can do, but write.
Day ??
I woke up today from the sound of something I have not heard in, I don’t know how long. It was talking from someone other than the green.
“Listen man, you know no one hunts in this part ever since that guy went missing,” said the voice.
“Gary, shut up. It has been so long since that happened. Stop being such a punk and stop whining. You’re going to scare away all of the deer.” So that one is called Gary.
“I’m not whining Bill, I’m just not fond of places people probably died,” Gary said.
People think I’m dead, I thought.
“Thousands of years ago, someone probably died on the property where you live. So what? You not going to go home?” Bill asked.
“You know what I mean. Anyway, let’s get this done. I want to go home,” Gary said.
We stood there watching, wait we weren’t standing we were clinging, clinging onto a tree branch about thirty feet in the air, “What the hell?” I said, “Why am I in a tree?”
“We are on a hunt,” the green said.
“What? What do you mean a hunt?”
“Like the last one with the pronghorn.”
“You can’t hunt humans,” I said.
“I can and I will,” it said. “I seek greater prey more knowledgeable, more dangerous. This hunt excites me. But you can’t silence or be silenced,” the green hissed. Then we were moving bounding from tree to tree like an expert gymnast, barely making a sound. “The one called Bill seems to be the strongest. He shall he my prey for the day,” the green said.
Bill never even saw it’s coming. We moved like lightning springing from our perch in the tree onto the helpless hunter. His gun didn’t even have time to go off. We ripped him to shreds, disemboweling him while he was alive, then ripping out his throat which covered us in a spray of crimson blood.
“RUN!” I shouted in the direction of Gary who was cowering next to a tree, gun on the floor, forgetting that it was his only salvation.
“I said silence or be silenced!” the green shouted then I felt a roar of pain as my lips knit themselves together. No it was not like knitting, it was like they where melted and forced together. I tried to shout in agony but all I did was cause myself more pain as my lips ripped apart then there were forced back together. But it was not just my lips, I could feel my teeth being forced together. The top row and the bottom, they cracked and broke as the unholy bond took place. Then my tongue was merged with the bottom of my mouth.
Day ??
This journal is only way that I can express my thoughts, and my life is now a living hell. I don’t even remember why the hell I came out here. Apparently, it was because of my dead dad but he can eat a bag of dicks. I’m hell for all I care. I am a prisoner in my own body. I am grateful and I hate the green at the same time because it is up to it if it wants me to write in this journal. And I think, if am no longer able to write in this tattered thing that was once a journal, I will truly lose my mind if I have not already.
That man, Gary, the green let him go. He said that if he gets away, he is likely to bring greater prey so that we can have a real hunt. I hope that the green is right because that same huberrus will hopefully get us both killed if people come looking for who ever killed Bill the hunter.
Day ??
The green got its wish. It woke me with a start and whispered in my mind, to me, saying the great hunt is about to begin. I looked but I could barely see anything because how dark it was.
“I will resolve that, Host,” the green said. Suddenly the world lit up as I realized that I was just given night vision. I looked around and in every direction there were men dressed in swat gear but instead of having a recognizable police logo it just had I.E.A. I think I have heard of that place, but it’s been so long I can’t remember. They were all kitted out with goggles and scary looking black guns. I wanted to scream to them so that they could shoot me and end this suffering. I called my life but nothing. As I watched, they started to move slowly towards the remains of my tent. “I couldn’t have still been living in that,” I thought, what a thing to think of at a time like this. None of them seemed aware in the slightest at the monster that lurking above them in the trees. All I could do was spectate as my body silently decided from the tree and walked up behind the guards in the rear. My arm stretched out to grab the man by the neck and end his life. But before we could, the one who was nearest to the tent shouted, “It’s empty stay on guard!” With that, I could feel as all of the men tensed as they got prepared for anything, well almost anything.
My body, no, my prison moved with lightning speed. It grabbed the man that was in front of me holding him by the throat and squeezed. The sound of popping bone reverberated through the forest and all of the men spun to look at where the sound came from to find nothing. Before I could even process it, we were in the trees once again, still holding the mans twitching corpse. I felt the hair on my neck stand up after the green let out a terrible and horrific laugh as the dropped the mans body to the ground with a sick thud and the sound of snapping bone. Instantly the men open fired to the spot where we were but they were to slow. The green had already jumped to the next tree and was making his decent to the nearest group of men. I felt the wind whip on my face as my body moved and what once was my arm dug itself into a mans chest through his armor and out his back. His body was then flung into the next man who was crushed by the force. The green went through tearing each man apart one by one while he was giving his howl of a laugh. I felt sick as I could feel the hunger in the stomach that was once mine grow. I wanted to die. How could I be such a thing? How could I do such a thing? Then the green gave a howl but not a laugh. It was pain. One of the men had shot us. The green snarled, but I was overjoyed. If one of them had hit us, the remainders could and I would finally die and end my suffering. But then I heard the leader shout, “Not so fast! Remember what we are here for capture not kill!” The remainder of his men responded with a resounding, “Yes sir!” then I felt the hope of the sweet release of death slip through my fingers.
It took them an hour of us jumping around and thirty-five dead men for them to capture us. It was like a never-ending wave of them kept coming. They eventually overwhelmed us when we dropped to the ground to kill more men. They threw a heavy net over us that felt impossible to break. Then the world went black as something sharp stabbed into my neck.
“Hello Mr. Sherwisher or do you go by the green now?” I heard a voice ask this instantly annoyed me because they must not be able to see my lack of a mouth.
“We are the green,” I heard a voice hiss, then I remember the mouth on my stomach. “Why have you captured us prey? Release us so that we can feast on your flesh and the flesh of your kin.”
“Wow. Already starting with the ‘I’m above you shtick’, and why I’ve captured you is confidential but it’s not like you’ll be leaving anytime soon so I guess I’ll tell you, but let me start with introducing my self, you can call me Mr. Shaw, and the reason that I have captured you is because you are an anomaly. You are something new. We have never seen anything like you,” Mr. Shaw said, “and sorry but I have no kin for you to eat the flesh off of, anyway you are now the property of I.E.A and don’t start with the whole ‘I have rights’ thing. You are no longer human but according to your journal, your host is still cognizant but the outside world thinks that Jacob Sherwisher is dead,” Mr. Shaw said.
This statement did not surprise me. I assumed that I was gone for a long time, anyway.
Mr. Shaw said, “You will be staying here at this I.E.A facility and we will be studying you, running some test, and trying to understand how you did what you did.”
“Wait,” the green said, “you can not keep us here.”
“You better locked in this prison. Why? Yes we can, Mr. Green,” Mr. Shaw said, “and don’t worry. We already covered your tracks from your last ‘hunt’. Wanna know what the best cleaning agent is… FIRE!”
Mr. Shaw allowed me to keep my journal so that the green and I have something to do while we are here. It is not a life that I am happy with, but at least we can’t hurt anyone else.
Briggs: How the hell does a forest fire start in such a lush forest? You wanna know how?
I.E.A.
Carter: I.E.A of course it is man. Ever heard of coincidence, or maybe some drunk kids didn’t put their fire out properly I don’t know, it could have been anything.
Briggs: The reports said that people heard screaming and that one hunter who reported his friend dying from a green monster with a mouth for a stomach, was in that exact spot in the forest.
Carter: What you wanted us to listen to a crazy person, he’s getting help now, and that friend of his there is literally no record of him. And that screaming could have been animals fighting.
Briggs: What’s going to take for you to believe that I.E.A is behind this?
Carter: I don’t know proof, it’s not that. I don’t trust your instincts man, but you have to admit that there is nothing linking I.E.A to this.
Briggs: Whatever.
Carter: So you have any ideas for how we will investigate that giant spider thing we saw?
Briggs: Not yet. I’m still digging. There is literally nothing like that. It’s like a new species.
Carter: You know, I’ve got your back on any case we do, and I’ve got you on this spider situation to, but this fire, it’s got nothing to do with I.E.A.
Briggs: Ok fine. I will let this one go, but I’m all over this spider thing.