"DEEP IN THE WOODS"
Somewhere a cellphone was ringing, “Hello, Yes Sir! What? A Wild life journalist? Wants to make documentary of jungle? Specially interested in Tigers? Well then Sir I suggest this is the right place for her.” The call was disconnected. Tadoba is a forest in Chandrapur and well known for its tiger reserve. So moving out there for a documentary shoot was actually very exciting for Neha, who was a wild life journalist for international NGO promoting wild life protection. The bamboos in Tadoba were tall and mystique and Neha had fascination for forests since childhood. Neha moved to Chandrapur with all her equipments and necessary permission papers needed for work, at earliest. When she reached the guest house located near the forest, it was already late night. Caretaker Raghuram treated her with a smile. Despite of his age he seemed to be a cheerful and friendly person knowing all trends of youngsters. So Neha got along with him really well. While dinner Raghuram narrated many stories of forest to Neha and also advised her to meet up forest ranger before staring her work. Taking up the advice Neha decided to call it a day. She came up in her room, opened the window and gazed over the forest she would enter, very next day. Next morning Neha was in Forest Ranger’s office. Officer Nilesh treated her with her a smile. She explained him nature of her and when asked for requisite permission letters, Neha submitted all of them. Nilesh responded with a smile, “Well Neha madam, you have all requisite papers. Trust me, I have seen other reporters, right from local nature clubs till renowned TV channels, people don’t even bother to bring along proper documentation. You can go madam, but there are a few things before you start your adventure.” Neha asked, “And what are those Officer?” “Let’s run a list shall we? First of all you will need a map, then a GPS tracker-cum-compass, a flair gun in case you need instant help, fourth Lighter for campfires in case you are planning for a night stay and lastly a warning that please do not take core trails marked with danger signs.” Neha asked with a laugh, “Well, sure but why such caution? Am I in for some surprises other than wild life???” Nilesh laughed back, “Well Neha ma’am, I don’t know if you are much of a believer, but local Aadivasi folks around here speak of their Aadivasi god who protects their jungle. They offer him human sacrifice as per legends. He thrives on blood of human, it’s the only thing that pacifies him.” Neha was staring at Nilesh with utmost seriously for a moment or two and then burst out a laugh, “Officer? you actually believe all this??” Nilesh replied slightly blushing, “Well see it this way ma’am…… We must respect sentiments of local people.” Neha agreed beaming wide. Neha picked up her backpack, collected extra gear as suggested by Officer Nilesh and started her hike. After Neha left, Nilesh’s junior Sakharam approached him, “Sahib, you think madam will get along well, she is all alone there, what If she gets lost?” Nilesh replied with a smile, “Well Sakharam, all warning signs are in place and they are very clear. We are also there, she has a GPS tracker as well so be assured.” It was January and surprisingly it had rained the day before. Despite the trail being covered up by the mud, Neha was pretty confident in her ability to keep track of the trail, since the forest was somewhat confusing and the opening where the trees were removed was pretty distinguishable. So Neha was least worried about that. It was still afternoon, only about 4 PM and sun had already started setting. Neha wasn't worried about the sun going down. She was well aware of different patterns in terms of climate and daylight. After about a half an hour, Neha was terribly deep in the woods but she was moving at a pretty leisurely pace, after all. Neha had passed a lot of scenery, but nothing really stood out to her. All she could find were lot of bamboos, few of which had fallen. She came across a path trail showing a red board with marking “Core Route No. 5” followed by “Way to PaatalKund”. Remembering the warning of Officer Nilesh, Neha had a mocking smile on her face and looking around she headed on Core Route. Afterall this is where she needed to go. Pataal kund was supposed to be rich source of Iron extracts, it was believed that area surrounding had iron ore reserves and her employers were very much looking forward to illegal mining operations in that area due to its rich quality. Under the cover of being wild life journalist, it was easy for Neha to enter the jungle under mock excuse of making wild life documentary. Walking forward while being lost in thoughts of getting promotion and bonus once she completes her task, Neha travelled further in woods. It was at this point she realized something surprised her just a little: She had a sense that wasn't alone in the woods. Neha stopped briefly, when she noticed few dry leaves weakly drifting to the ground, and noticed something else, a sound! Neha could hear sound of dry leaves and twigs crunching under someone's feet. They didn't sound like they were heavy hooves of some wild beast or padded soft paws of a known predator, it was quieter and heavier than that. Neha could only guess that it could be a person because it was clearly two feet. "Crunch. Crunch. Crunch." They sounded distant, just barely close enough for Neha to actually hear it. The woods were pretty quiet. It wasn't windy or anything like that. That's when Neha saw it in the distance. A figure, that was tall and hairy. It was stooped as if it had a hump. It was about 50 yards away and Neha could just barely see it moving between the trees, drifting almost casually through the woods. Something struck Neha about its appearance, though and she decided to get closer to it to know if she was right or not. So Neha pursued it. She didn't want to call out to it yet and began trying to hurry up. That figure didn't seem like it was moving very fast, but Neha had to struggle to keep sight of it in the forest.She was playing a heroine here, but her mind was full of curiosity. Finally, Neha was about 30 yards away from that figure. Neha was now close enough to confirm what she thought she'd seen before. It was not at all human. It was tall aound 8 feet was walking with a slight hump and what was that on his head? Neha wondered! Were those horns? It stood motionless in the forest for a few seconds, before quickly turning to her. For the first time since chasing that figure, Neha got a good look at it in full focus. The sight sent down shivers down her spine. The beast was like none she had ever seen before, it had eyes as if they were red coals on fire, and unlike other beasts in wild they were 4. Large razor sharp teeth protruded from its jaw with saliva drooling all over and a dog like snout that was sniffing in the air. The beast had no particular expression or resemblance with any known animal and despite having turned to Neha, it didn't seem to really notice that Neha was there. The Beast’s face and body language didn't indicate that it was actually acknowledging Neha as it never looked directly at her. At that point Neha realized that she did not check the GPS tracker and was not knowing where exactly she was. She had no way of contacting Nilesh or his fellow officers facing that beast in middle of the woods. What if she was attacked and search team wouldn't be able to find her in time? How long had she been out here, anyway? Neha figured that her best option would be trying to sliently withdraw from sight of the best back the track she came in. Suddenly, the beast turned away from Neha and began walking away. Neha took a step backwards. Beast’s pace also quickened. A few seconds later, it was galloping and was going out of sight. Neha broke out of her trance and fearful due to the appearance of that beast she started running away. Running the way she came Neha came to abrupt halt, the trail before and after her had simply disappeared. What the hell was going on? A unknown wild beast, walking aimlessly out in woods in the middle of forest that had four eyes, and where was the jungle trail? Wait! Four eyes? What kind of Animal has such features? Neha knew little that her surprises were just getting started as she also realized that she was lost. In her attempts to get away from that beast, she had lost track of the trail and it had completely isappeared. Though everything looked so familiar, still a strange calmness enveloped the jungle. Something was seriously wrong. Neha decided that all she could really do was just start walking the direction she thought she came from, the direction that would lead her back home. Neha picked the direction that had been directly behind her. She figured that if she could find the trail, it would be easy. Neha walked for what felt like hours, through mud and trees, without ever finding the trail. She didn't know if her mind was playing tricks on me, she tried to turn back but to her surprise her footprints disappeared! There as no trace of them as if she started her trail few steps back! What magic was this? Had she legitimately gone in the wrong direction. She paused to look around, when to her horror she noticed the wild beast walking off in some distance. Relative to Neha’s position, it was about 50-60 yards away. Neha stared at it for a few seconds, realizing that the Beast was now actually looking at her and it was creepier. Neha was frozen in her place, too confused to handle the situation. The beast let out a low growl and began taking a few slow steps toward Neha. This made Neha stumble with fear as she took a few steps back to attempt to match the ground that beast was gaining on her. As the beast came closer, Neha started hearing drums from far distance, some sort of trumpet like sound getting mixed and creating a rhythmic song. She wanted to stop resting and moving far from beast. Her mind was having no control over her body. Neha’s pace was beginning to slow. Neha wanted to get away from that beast for some reason, but her body just wasn't moving the way it should have been. She was under some trance and that beast was gaining ground on her pretty quickly. Neha’s feet snapped a twig and she broke out of hypnotic trance. She ran and ran for what must have been another few hours. She wanted to get away from the beast as much as possible. It was dark now. As Neha was running, she tripped over a root, steered sideways, and slammed her back into a tree. It was now too dark to see anything, and Neha was now too tired to even move, she would have to rest, build up some strength. Neha backed herself up against the tree she had collided with and stared into the blackness, hoping not to get attacked. Neha could really only wonder what the hell that thing was, why she was seeing so many weird things. There had to be some kind of connection, but Neha wasn't about to approach any solid ideas as to what it was. As Neha sat in the dark, she could hear slow crunching somewhere. It was pitch black, but Neha could tell it was somewhere to my right. She was too exhausted to move and all she could really do was sit against the tree and hope that didn't find her or at least hope that whatever it would do to her wouldn't be too bad. As Neha sat there, listening to the distant crunching, she focused so intently that she could feel every single sound that hit her ears. The Jungle around her seemed to be getting darker, somehow. Neha was pretty quickly darting her eyes and head around, desperately trying to get a visual on something, anything. She couldn't even see the tree she was leaning against. It must have been a new moon or something. Neha was so paranoid, and was pretty quickly losing track of time. She had no idea what time it might be, but things were starting to get blurry. Her GPS had been damaged and stopped working too. Bump she took might have damaged it. She did not want to use flair gun or lighter as light may attract the beast. At some point Neha must have fallen asleep, because suddenly, when she opened her eyes she could sense the crickets had stopped making noise, it was eerily calm around her. She decided it was not safe to sit idle and started walking straight. She felt in front of her for trees, groping blindly like an idiot. Neha went on grabbing at nothing for several hours. It had to be past midnight when Neha suddenly felt something that wasn't natural. She felt a quick brush of a wispy, spiderweb-like form. It was fur, the beast’s fur! Neha stepped back for a second, looking around in the darkness. Neha couldn't see it anywhere and could just barely make out trees around her, silhouetted, black against extremely dark gray. Neha stood mostly blind, probably helpless against this monster in the dark. Not seeing that beast was worse than seeing it. That paranoia that grips you as a little kid in your bedroom, staring at the closet waiting for the boogeyman to come out and eat you, was gripping Neha as well. Neha Kept moving. As she rounded the trunk, Neha felt something. She felt two icy cold, skeletal claws lightly caress the sides of her arms. At that moment, Neha lost it. She turned around, took a swing, hitting nothing, and turned back, taking off running. Neha abandoned all her plans of just staying slow. She had no idea what the hell that thing wanted, but it wouldn't be getting it from her. Neha sprinted through the woods, occasionally bumping into the edge of a tree, heading where she prayed was northwest. All this time her hands were tightly clutching the flair gun. Neha was in a full panic, just barely keeping it together enough to remember where she was supposed to be going. At some point in the dark, Neha suddenly ran right into something. It was low and hard. It seemed to be a big rock. She felt one of her shinbones shatter on contact from how hard she was running, combined with the shape of it. Neha went hurtling over it, rolled over the top of it, and landed in what seemed to be a collection of smaller rocks into wheat seemed to be a neatly concealed cave. Neha groped her way around before finding footing. The rocks Neha was standing on were loose, and she ended up falling again. Neha’s hand landed just right for her to get an idea of the rock itself. It felt so strange. It actually didn't seem to stone, it was too light for that. Neha picked it up and felt its shape, discovering it to be a bone. She threw it away and felt around a bit more and found that all of the small rocks she was laying with were bones, most of them clearly human. She dig her hands in her pocket and found her lighter. Neha gave it a few clicks to see if it worked. As Neha backed away, she heard what one can only describe as a hoarse, wheezing noise. In darkness Neha could see nothing and had to know what it was. Curiosity was driving her crazy, even though she dreaded what the answer to her question might be. Finally, she decided that she had to see. Neha peeked over the rock, seeing nothing but darkness, of course so she gave her lighter a few flicks before finally getting the damn thing to light. She again heard a noise of something breaking and crunching. When she looked down, Neha saw him only few feet away from her along with full scope of bone pile. It was huge. It looked almost like one of those mass graves that genocides and massacres have been known to produce. There were some animal bones too; deer, birds, dogs, but it seemed like it was mostly people. As Neha looked closely, she saw tooth marks on the bones. The beast Neha saw in jungle was roaming around the central figure as if it was a pet. And the central Figure, it was even horrible than the sight of the beast. Entirety of its skin was a deep, rotted grey color. Patches of decay pocketed its skin. Its arms from her forearms down and its legs from mid-calf down were skeletal and having jagged claws. Its face was mutilated with most of the chunks missing. Its ears and nose were also missing, along with rims of its lips and through it its canines were visible. Its flesh on body was actually missing entirely in patches, with a large patch of mutilation carved into its chest, exposing considerable amount of its ribcage. As Neha looked up, she saw exactly what it was doing, the exact source of that noise. The beast had dragged a man. It looked to be a middle aged tourist, or at least what was left of him. His body was missing from around his stomach down. The central figure was holding his torso up, devouring him. It was biting off huge mouthfuls of organs and flesh, breaking bone with teeth. Its mouth opened too wide, probably due to what seemed to be her cheeks missing, and hungrily tore off huge chunks of flesh, ravenously, animalistically. The Beast might have got scent of Neha as it let out a low growl. Looked up at Neha, giving her a frigid look with those eyes the central figure stood, its mouth drenched in blood. As the beast approached Neha slowly, she took out her flair gun and aimed at the beast. The projectile stuck in its fur and started burning it. The beast growled and tried to run around for shaking off the burning projectile stuck in his fur. Scent of burning flesh started spreading in the air that made Neha throw up. Growling out loud the central figure pounced on the beast with un-natural agility and started devouring it alive. The sight was sickening, as the mighty beast was howling in pain as it was being eaten alive by its own master. Neha was watching this scene with horror. Shocked at the sight, Neha gathered her wits and started running. But, due to her busted up leg, she was not able to run very fast. She turned around to see that thing was crawling on all four limbs and following her. Terrified by that sight, Neha tried to run fast in vain. For once it grabbed Neha and sank its teeth in her legs. Kicking it with her good leg, Neha darted forward. As Neha was limping through jungle she didn't see any really convincing signs that it was following her. Everything after that just kind of blurred together. She had no clue how long she might have been running. It seemed almost like she might have fallen asleep while running, because suddenly, Neha was reaching one of the well-used route in, staggering out and collapsing. She could see light of the jeep. She was so relieved to see friendly faces of Sakharam and Nilesh getting out of jeep and then she blacked out. Neha woke up in forest guest house and found her leg plastered well with the bandages, it was not much but her leg would hold till she got to doctor. Nilesh and Sakharam asked her what happened and she narrated that she had gone on core root and became hopelessly lost. She hid the truth with fear that nobody would believe her. Nilesh noticed marks on her leg and asked her about it. “Neha Madam, did any wild animal bit you? Let me see it please, maybe you need help.” “Oh that’s nothing Nilesh! I am fine.” Nilesh didn't really seem to press the issue. She had the food Nilesh offered her and felt her eyes closing. Half relief of being rescued and half strain took over her and she felt asleep. Nilesh carried her to her room, put blanket over her and went to sleep. While asleep, Neha was dreaming all about the wild beast and the ghoul she witnessed in the cave. Nightmares after nightmares! With one such nightmare, her eyes opened wide. She was drenched with sweat and cold breeze was making her skin crawl. Wait! Cold wind? What? She opened her eyes fully and found the surrounding familiar. Confused she got up and looked around. Where was she? Why was it so dark? She realized where she was. It was same cave from yesterday. And then she heard something that froze her blood. The low growl of the thing she had lost earlier in jungle. Trembling with fear she looked down, she was sitting on pile of bones and a smell of rotting flesh now hit her nostrils, suffocating her. The face of the beast was few inches away from her as she hung her head in defeat. She knew it was the end, tears ran down her cheek just as the humanoid thing from earlier night pounced over her, eating her alive. Neha started screaming, that stopped much later. Sakharam was standing near a tree somewhere in jungle listening to Neha’s screams as Nilesh was smoking a Cigarette. “Marking the wrong signs in the jungle, giving her faulty GPS and she survived all that Sahib. I ask was it really necessary Saheb? She survived once, she even managed to kill its pet, why send her back? Did she deserve this fate?” Nilesh replied, “And then who would invite its wrath? For centuries it is ruling the forest and the human blood keeps its hunger under control. Every year forest department makes sure that it gets its share. Every year we cover up such disappearances under guise of tiger attacks. You are doing this with me from 15 years. Don’t you know the risk of it moving out of jungle and search for his ‘food’ in nearby villages. For sake of others, one life is by far a cheap bargain.” Sakharam let out a sad sigh, he knew it was only the truth. Suddenly, cellphone of Nilesh rang, “Hello, Yes Sir Nilesh here! What? A Wild life photographer? Wants to make documentary of jungle? Specially interested in Tigers? Well then Sir I suggest this is the right place for him.” Sakharam nodded his head, “Indeed the right place!”
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