Alex didn’t know how long he’d been throwing up. He had long since felt as though his stomach had been completely emptied of all its contents. He felt relief at this point, but only nominal relief. Still, he no longer seemed to need to vomit his guts up, so he straightened up and started heading back towards his tent.

Just before reaching it he passed by Kathy’s tent and noticed that the front flap was open. That was odd. Alex didn’t know how late it was, but surely it was too late to be taking a stroll alone. He began to search for her in the small area around the camp but was unable to find her.

Alex began to search further down the trail. She may have just been trying to clear her head and decided to go for a walk. When he still couldn’t find her the effects of his illness began to vanish rapidly away, instead replaced by a worried intensity.

Better able to focus on his surroundings, undistracted by his previous condition, Alex noticed some slight rustling and a small light just off the edge of the trail. Cautiously he went to investigate. What he saw would have been enough to make him hurl, if he hadn’t long since emptied his stomach of food, bile, and things he didn’t know were even in there.

The man in the white lab coat was there, bent over something that looked conspicuously like a body, a body he was mutilating. He worked with surgical precision, removing the various organs and examining them thoroughly before setting them gently aside. He would then set about to methodically remove and examine the next one.

“It’s all perfectly ordinary.” The man muttered to himself. “There appear to be no anatomical abnormalities at all. I wonder why she didn’t react to the dose I gave her.”

Alex was dumbstruck at what he was seeing. He had to say something, though.

“What are you doing, what’s going on?” He said quietly.

The man straightened up quickly, moving towards Alex and blocking his view of the grisly scene.

“Ah, Alex. How are you feeling?” He said, his arms wide open in a friendly gesture. His hands were covered in blood.

“I feel… fine. What were you just doing? Why are your hands covered in blood?”

“You know, you don’t look so good. Perhaps you should go lie down. It’s really not a good sign when you begin hallucinating.”

“What do you mean hallucinating? I can clearly see the blood. I already told you. I feel fine.”

Alex did not, in fact, feel fine. The adrenaline had already begun to wear off. He was starting to feel weak and nauseous again. Sweat began to pour down his face, and his knees started to buckle.

Seeing this, Dr. Forisch gave Alex a doubtful look.

“You don’t look fine to me. Here, put your arm around my shoulder. I’ll help you back to your tent.”

With the doctor’s help, Alex staggered back to camp. Laying down in his tent, he tried to ponder what had just happened. He was exhausted though, and he found himself fading rapidly towards unconsciousness. It wasn’t long until he had completely succumbed.

Alex awoke the next morning drenched in sweat, with a throbbing headache pounding at his temples. He tried to remember what had happened the previous night, but he drew a blank. All he could remember was being sick and something about that man in the lab coat. He didn’t know why he would remember that guy, but he did, it was quite unsettling.

As he pondered, his headache only grew worse, so Alex decided it was best to go get to some fresh air. As he exited his tent, he was greeted by the cascading light of the sun, searing his mind with pain and wiping all coherent thought for the moment. When his eyes had adjusted he noticed a few people standing at the cliff’s edge just off the path. One of them was waving. Only they weren’t waving at him; they were waving at someone down below them.

Alex shambled over to them, to see what was going on.

“Who are you waving at?” He asked.

Susan, who had been the one waving responded,

“The other group is down there, look.”

Sure enough, far below them was a clearing in the trees. Alex could make out several people resting in the clearing one of whom, a slender female, waved back in reply.

“I wonder if we can get down there.” Susan said thoughtfully.

“That would be cool, but I don’t think Kathy would appreciate that. I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to stay close to the trail.” Alex said.

Susan frowned.

“You haven’t heard yet? I thought everyone knew.”

“What do you mean?”

“Kathy’s gone missing. Rumor has it someone from their camp took her.” Mark replied gruffly.

“You mean like kidnapped her?” Alex said with disbelief.

“Or worse, and then hid the body.” Mark replied.

“Shut up Mark!” Susan interjected sharply. “That’s all nonsensical hearsay and you can’t prove a bit of it.” She then turned to Alex, “Listen, we tried to call for help, but for some reason none of our calls would go through. Which seems really sinister to me, so I think it would be a really good idea if we got their help right about now.”

“Assuming we can trust them.” Mark scoffed.

Alex cut in before Susan could respond, “How about you guys go look for a way down. There’s something I need to check on.”

Susan nodded, and Alex moved off down the path. While they were speaking Alex had a feeling he had remembered something from the night before, but he had to be sure. As he went down the path, he veered off into the bushes when he reached what he was positive was the right place. After wading a short ways into the undergrowth, he stopped. There was nothing to be seen. Alex found no sign of a disturbance or even blood. It was just a picturesque snapshot of undefiled mountainside.

None of this felt right to Alex. He was positive that something had happened last night, and that it had happened here. Still, there was nothing. Maybe it was all just a dream or perhaps a hallucination, he couldn’t tell for sure.

It was at this point that Alex felt a tap on his shoulder. Startled, he whirled around bringing his fists up in case he needed to defend himself.

“Whoa there cowboy, no need to get violent. I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Oh, Jack, you scared me.”Alex sighed, lowering his fists.

A prominent member of the sales team, Jack was an easy going guy with an even easier-going accent. His only imposing characteristic was his enormous height that contrasted sharply with his somewhat skeletal frame. But Alex, knowing the man behind the figure, was able to relax.

“What’re you doin’ starin’ into the bushes like that? Never took you for a botanist.” Jack inquired.

“I was just checking something, but it turns out I was wrong.”

“Checkin’ for what?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Jack raised his palms up in surrender. “Alright, if you insist. I assume you heard about Kathy.”

“I did.”

“I was goin’ to go search for her and was wonderin’ if you wanted to tag along.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea. We could get lost and need rescuing ourselves.” Alex said worriedly, “Susan and Mark have been looking for a way down to the other group. If we can reach them, then we can see about enlisting their help and developing a proper plan of action.”

Jack smiled, “Sounds like you already have this figured out. I like it.”

They both turned back to return to camp. There they met Susan and Mark seated dejectedly on a large rock.

“I take it you couldn’t reach them.” Alex said sadly.

“We got close,” Susan replied. “Close enough that we could actually shout to them, but I don’t know how much they understood. We hit a drop-off and none of us brought climbing gear. I think they know that something is wrong, though, because they haven’t moved from that clearing all day.”

“You checked Kathy’s tent to see if maybe she brought some climbin’ gear?” Jack chipped in helpfully.

“We did. There wasn’t any. You’d think that a professional guide would bring that sort of thing, just in case.”

“Yeah,” Jack thought. “That is weird. So, what should we do?”

“I guess we fan out and do our best to search for Kathy, without getting lost ourselves.” Alex replied. They all nodded in agreement and prepared to begin their search.

The search was long and went about as well as expected, with no one uncovering anything but rocks. Exhausted, they all drug themselves back to camp under the light of the setting sun. Jack lit a campfire, hoping that it would help lighten everyone’s mood a little, but no one was particularly enthused. They just sat there dejected and glum. They were neither properly trained nor well equipped enough to find a missing person in the middle of the wilderness all by themselves.

It wasn’t long before the setting sun forced everyone to retire for the night. As Alex settled down once again in his tent, he thought about how they should proceed. They couldn’t stay here searching for Kathy forever, even if it was best to look early, they would run out of food if they stayed too long. He figured it was probably best for them to double back and report the situation to the park rangers. That seemed like a magnificent idea.

Satisfied with that plan, Alex allowed himself to begin to drift off to sleep. He would discuss things with the others in the morning. He smiled wanly, hopefully something would finally go right this trip. He then allowed himself to drift off to sleep.