Kyle was a wilderness guide. He hired himself out to folks who wanted an outdoorsy adventure, and that’s exactly what we wanted. Well, that’s what Jeannie wanted… Jeannie was my wife. We had been married for about five years and things were starting to slide downhill. I worked all the time, busting my hump at the insurance company, selling life-insurance policies to fat business men who would never even think about doing anything even remotely dangerous. Probably die from hypertension, the lot of them. It wasn’t that I liked work, mind you, but for some reason success was important to me. Very important. So important, in fact, that I let it come between my wife and I. That was a mistake. Before long we were barely talking, and we both knew that if something didn’t change, and change soon, then it would be all over. And so, when she saw the ad for an outdoor trek, she jumped on it, and I followed suit. I really did love her. So much… Besides, it was time off work, and anything that got me away from that… place… couldn’t be all bad. And so we had packed up and headed out.
          We met Kyle at the Moose River General Store, an old log place that looked to be right out of an old western. He was sitting there on the porch, his boots propped up on the railing and his hat tipped forward over his eyes. We, of course, didn’t know who he was, and so had gone inside to get what we needed and wait. The old man who owned the place helped us out, showed us where all the equipment was, and then started to check us out.
          “Where y’all headed?” He grabbed a package of freeze dried milk and ran it under the scanner.
          “Moose River Wilderness Preserve.”
          The man froze for a second and then continued checking, but with much less enthusiasm. “Now, why would a good couple of folks like yourselves want to go traipsin’ about in the woods? We got us some mighty fine camping right here. Or, you could head down road a pace and camp right by the river. It’s beautiful now.” Jeannie had smiled and shaken her head. “Alright, but I gotta warn ya’. There’s some mighty strange things goin’ on in them woods.”
          “Strange? Like what?” I was a little worried. Strange things in the woods? Isn’t that how Stephen King novels got started?
          The first thing that popped into my head was a vision of some giant hairy beast, all fangs and claws, attacking us in the deep woods, bloody froth splashing up on the dark brown of the tree trunks, and no one around to hear, or to help. See, I abhor violence of any kind. I’m not sure if it’s a byproduct of my job (selling insurance doesn’t lend itself very well to playing dangerous games), but there it was. Weapons scared me, violence paralyzed me. I just couldn’t handle it.
          “Hiya Abner.” The voice came from behind us and scared me so bad I almost had to go back and buy some new boxer shorts.
          “Kyle.” The old man nodded curtly. “You headed out?”
          “Yep. These folks are mine.” I turned and saw Kyle scowling at Abner. For just a second I thought I saw something flare up in his eyes, something green, but then it was gone, and Abner was stuttering.
          “Y-y-yes. I g-g-guess they are, Kyle. I guess they are.” He put the rest of our stuff in the bag and placed it on the counter.
          “How much do I owe you?” I was reaching into my back pocket, going for my wallet, and he shook his head.
          “No charge. Just… Just get out of here.”
          “What?” I looked at Jeannie and she shrugged.
          Kyle laughed. “I think what Abner means is that it’s all taken care of. All part of the service, folks. All part of the service.” Abner was nodding stiffly, his eyes staring at the ceiling. “Let’s go.” I took the bag and we left the store. 
          “What the heck was that?” For a minute I didn’t realize we had stopped and I almost ran right into a tree. Jeannie’s head was cocked to the side and she was listening intently.
          “What’d you hear?” Kyle was looking back, his eyebrows knit together.
          “It sounded like something moving in there.” She moved closer to the break on her left and squatted down, trying to peer through the leaves. For a second there was nothing, and then I saw something dart forward. Jeannie saw it just in time and fell backwards onto her pack. She was bent up at the waist, almost as if she were reclining in a deck chair. For a second I had a flash of her as she had looked on our honeymoon, wearing a skimpy bikini and lounging on the beach, and then the thing leapt from the bushes and landed on her chest.
          It looked, to be quite honest, like some sort of small green rat, a leafy cousin of the canine, perhaps. Jeannie was staring it in the eyes and breathing in hitching gasps. “Kyle! Kyle, what the heck is this thing?”
          Kyle was walking towards her, slowly. “Don’t move.”
          “Why not? Is it dangerous?” At the word dangerous I started. That thing? Dangerous? It looked harmless. Nonetheless, I felt myself retreat a few steps. At the instant, I hated myself. I hated the fact that my fear of violence was keeping me from helping my wife in her time of need, of going over and saving her…
          “Just… don’t… move…” He was almost to her side and was reaching for the thing when it darted forward again and nuzzled up to Jeannie’s neck. She started to scream, and a frothy redness began to bubble from where the thing met her neck. It wasn’t something big and furry, there were no claws, and yet it was almost the same… Kyle was there in an instant and ripped the thing off her. She fell to the side, moaning and crying.
          He moved towards me and started shouting. “Grab the hatchet!”
          “What?”
          “Which part of that didn’t you get? The hatchet! Give it to me!” The thing was thrashing in his hands, kicking with a strength that was surprising. I dropped my pack on the ground and unhooked the hatchet that was strapped to the back. I handed it to Kyle, my skin crawling at the heavy weight of the thing, and he hurled the little creature at one of the nearby trees. It hit with an odd cracking sound, and then Kyle was on it, the hatchet flying downward, and then the thing was in two bleeding pieces. Then it was in four. When he finally ceased hacking at it, the thing no longer had any form. It was simply a bloody smear.
          “What in the name of all that is holy was that?” My voice was on the verge of hysteria, and when Kyle looked at me, I saw that his eyes were bright, that they were dancing with some sort of glee.
          “I have no clue.” We stood there for a second, almost as if in a trance, and then Jeannie sobbed again and I jolted into action. I ran past Kyle and dropped to my knees by her head. Her neck was bleeding profusely, the wound open and glistening in the late afternoon air. I was at a loss. I sell insurance, darn it. I don’t know how to handle blood. Kyle walked up and pushed me aside.
          “Let me see.” He looked at the wound for a second and then set his pack on the ground. I watched from a few feet away as he pulled out a small brown bottle, peroxide, and a red plastic box, a first aid kit. The kit he opened and rooted through until he found a large square of gauze, and the bottle he placed on the ground. He opened the gauze and motioned me over. “I’m going to put some of this on her wound.” He nodded with his head toward the bottle on the ground. “I need you to put this on there as soon as I’m done, ok?” I nodded dumbly, and he grabbed the bottle.
          He poured a generous amount on, and as soon as it hit she screamed. It was horrible, that scream, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Kyle nodded and I slapped the gauze to the side of her neck. He reached into the kit and pulled out a roll of medical tape, which he used to bind the gauze to her. She lay there for a few seconds, quite obviously in pain, and then Kyle looked up at me.
          “It’s the best we can do for now. We gotta get out of here.” He patted his pocket and frowned.
          “What?” I moved towards him.
          “The compass. Where’s the compass?” He sounded worried.
          “You lost the compass!?!” For some reason, the prospect of being lost in the middle of the woods in and of itself had never thrilled me. But now? With those… things out there?
          “No, I misplaced it.” He was up and walking back to where he had been, looking intently at the ground. “There’s a difference.”
           I stood over Jeannie and felt my heart ripping itself into tiny pieces. She looked so helpless on the ground, so serene and beautiful, and I was instantly reminded of our wedding, of that first magical moment when she came through the doors and I saw her, looking so radiant and angelic. I knew then that if we ever got out of there, then I would never again take her for granted. I would never again put something before her. Not my job, not my fear of violence…. Nothing. I opened my mouth to tell her I loved her, and then Kyle swore loudly, uttering an obscenity that I don’t think I could ever bring myself to say, much less write. He came stomping back and stood over Jeannie and me.
          “It’s gone.” I shook my head, and he shrugged. “We should stay here for the night. If you’re lost in the woods, you should always stay where you are. That way search parties are more likely to be able to find you. Plus, I don’t think we should move her.”
          “Are there more of them?” I was holding her hand tightly in mine, and struggled to keep the fear out of my voice.
          “Them?” He truly sounded as if he had no idea what I meant… I know better now…
          “Those… creatures.” I didn’t know what to call them, and leaf-things didn’t seem to suffice.
          “I have no idea. Possibly. We’ll just have to keep a watch.” He set down his pack and unhooked his tent. “Let’s go.” I followed his lead, and within ten minutes, we were set up for the night. We moved Jeannie into one of the tents, and then Kyle left to get firewood. Then it was just us, Jeannie and myself. Jeannie…
          “What the heck was that?” We were standing outside the store, the late afternoon sun beating down on us.
          “He’s an old coot. Stuck in his ways. Doesn’t like to see tourists comin’ up here and traipsin’ around in the woods.” Kyle was looking off at the trees, which lined the other side of the road.
          “But he said there was something weird goin’ on the woods.” The image of the furry sharp thing was still in my mind, and I wasn’t really liking how it looked.
          “Oh, please. They’re woods. Whaddya think, there’s something dark and sinister out there? What next, I’m a part of it? Please.” It made sense, I guess, but when he said it I thought I saw a slight gleam in his eye, almost a sparkle of excitement, a little green twinkle. “Let’s go.”
          We followed him to his truck, a huge black thing with large, thick treaded wheels, and hopped in. The entrance to the preserve was about five miles up the road, and we reached it in no time. He pulled into the empty parking lot and got out, beckoning for us to follow him.
          “Did you see any other people in town?” Kyle was grabbing gear from the truck and it was just Jeannie and me.
          “What?” She seemed a little on edge, almost like she was annoyed, or like she was nervous as well…
          I was trying not to sound worried. “Did you see anyone else in town?”
          She turned and looked at me. “No, Tom. I didn’t. So?” So it was annoyance.
          “So, doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?” I knew that it was useless to talk to her while she was annoyed, that the best course was simply to let her get over it, but I couldn’t, not when I felt so uneasy.
          “Not really. It’s a small town in the afternoon in the middle of the work week. People work, Tom. Don’t worry.” She got out and I sat there for a second longer, dragging the last hour through my mind, searching for any signs of life at all. There were none. “You coming?” Her annoyance had changed into something a little closer to contempt, the creeping edges of loathing licking at the rift that had grown between us.
          She turned away and froze, her eyes focusing on the lush greenery that surrounded us. I got out of the truck and went to her, feeling the familiar urge to put my arms around her and resisting it. Instead, I followed her gaze and felt myself freezing too. The view was, in a word, spectacular. We were in the middle of a dirt parking lot, the warm afternoon sun beating down on us from above. Ahead of us, the trees bled upward into a crystal clear sky, the dark green of the foliage perfectly complementing the blue of the heavens. I could almost hear the music of harps and angels, it was that beautiful. Kyle came up behind us with our packs and laughed.
          “You like?”
          “I love.” Jeannie’s face broke into an expression of pure joy. “See, Tom? Why worry?” I shrugged and gave in. She was right, of course. Why worry? I turned to grab my pack from Kyle and found him staring intently at me.
          “Um… Thanks.” He nodded and smiled, a creepy little smile filled with something I still don’t entirely know how to explain.
          “You’re welcome.” He shook his head slightly and the look disappeared, but not before a slight tinge of green crept into his eyes. “Let’s go…”
          “…we’re losing daylight.” I was startled back to the present by Kyle, who was hauling a large armload of wood. “Come on, I need some help.”
          “But what about Jeannie?”
          “She’ll be fine. Come on.” He dropped the load he had and we moved off into the woods, to where a large pile of firewood was waiting for us. We both grabbed an armload, and then we went back. I dropped my wood and went to Jeannie.
          “What the…”
          Kyle came up behind me. “What?”
          “What’s that?” Green lines were radiating out from the wound on Jeannie’s neck, poking their way slowly out from under the bandage. I put my hand on her head and felt heat like molten lava seeping up into my palm. “She’s got a fever. We need to get her out of here.” I turned and saw that Kyle was smiling. “Why are you so happy? She’s dying.”
          “Sorry. Just… thinking…” I glared at him. “Sorry.” He coughed and shook his head. “We can’t do anything. If we go off half-cocked, we’ll just get even more lost, and the odds of someone finding us will go down even further.” I swallowed and nodded slowly. He was right. I turned back to Jeannie and saw that the lines had radiated further. The strange color was flying through her veins and arteries, spreading itself outward like some sort of green virus.
          She moaned and moved slightly, then fell silent again. I patted her on the hand and turned back to Kyle. “So now what?”
          “Now, we wait. There’s nothing else to do.” He glanced at his watch and then out at the woods. “You should sleep.”
          “What?”
          “Sleep. I’ll take the first watch.” I looked at him. “It’ll be ok. Trust me.” I nodded, slowly, and as I slid in beside Jeannie, he began building a fire, arranging the wood into a teepee and stuffing dead leaves inside. As I zipped the flap closed, he lit one of his matches and touched it to the dry foliage, which went up like paper, and for just a second he was silhouetted on the wall of the tent, a grotesque twisted shadow bent over a dark hump, and I felt the familiar twinge of fear race through me. Then Jeannie moaned and I turned my attention over to her. Sleep. That was a laugh.
          Sleep didn’t come the first night either. We had laid there, both naked and both content, and watched as the stars slowly revolved overhead. The flaps on top of the tent could be opened, mind you. We weren’t lying naked in the open. That would just be wrong. It had been good, the best we had had in a long time, and now we were relaxing in the afterglow. “So, you’re liking it?” Her voice was soft, and when I nodded I knew she could tell what I meant. “Good.” She pulled her arms tighter around me.
          You have to understand that sex, to us, was somewhat disconnected, somewhat unattached to emotions, so even though we were getting closer to each other again, we had no compunctions against sharing ourselves physically. What was good was that we were getting closer again. Something about being out there in nature, about knowing we were all alone… It just made things seem better, you know? I was almost sad that we would be leaving, that we would have to go back to the real world. If only we could stay forever...
          “You don’t think that something’s a little off, do you?” There was still something bothering me, and while I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, all the wistful feelings in the world couldn’t change that.
          “What do you mean?” She was drowsy, and it came out slightly slurred, though it was easy enough for me to tell what she was asking.
          “I mean, for some reason this whole things feels weird. The guy in the store, the lack of people… Kyle… Something just doesn’t feel right here.” She sighed and moved away slightly.
          “Again, Tom? Why can’t you just relax and enjoy this?”
          I sat up and rested on my elbow, turning my head to look her in the eyes. “Tell you what. You tell me right now that you aren’t in the least worked up, unsettled, and I’ll let this go.”
          “Tom…”
          “Yes?”
          “I am not in the least worked up or unsettled.” I sighed and nodded slightly. If she really wasn’t, then why should I be?
          “However…” Her voice had taken on a note of mischievousness. Her hand wandered down my body and came to rest somewhere I definitely liked. “Speaking of being worked up…”

          “…I think he is.” I sat bolt upright and was, at first, incredibly disoriented. The blackness of night had descended like a blanket, and there was nearly nothing to be seen. For a second I wondered what had pulled me into the real world, and then it came again, a slight rustling sound over some deeper, darker mumbling. I listened intently for a few seconds, and then shifted to look out the window. By the light of the moon, I was able to see Kyle, who was turned away from me, but not what was causing the rustling.
          There was silence for a second, and then the leaves in front of Kyle seemed to shift, to move to the side, and that’s when I realized what was in front of him. The thing looked like a man, a human being, but a green version. Instead of skin, he had leaves, and instead of arms and legs he had what looked like living logs. I felt the urge to scream rising and, with a lot of effort, stifled it. I didn’t need to let him know I had seen him. The silence was broken when the thing moaned again, and Kyle nodded. “Don’t worry. It’ll be done tomorrow.” The thing moved away, slowly, and disappeared into the night. Kyle turned back to his tent and crawled inside. I waited until he was zipped inside, and flicked on my flashlight, cupping my hand over the head. I moved to Jeannie and saw that she was now almost completely green. That was bad enough, but it was probably the leaves growing out of her forehead that scared me the most. She was turning into one of them. I felt a chill racing up my spine and was about to turn to the door when she moaned.
          “Jeannie?” She moved slightly, and I felt a little let down. If only she would wake up… I turned and unzipped the door, then reached for my pack. I stood over her for just a second, and then bent my head and kissed her on the cheek. With my lips near her now green skin, I whispered my goodbye. “I love you, Jeannie. I always will. God save you…” I turned my head slightly to get one last look at her face, and her eyes flew open. Her once beautiful blue eyes were now completely green, little jeweled orbs, and her head jerked to the side so she was looking directly at me.
          “Hello, Tom.” Her voice was scratchy, as if something were caught in her throat. “Kiss me.” She smiled. “Kiss me, Tom. Let’s finish this together.” She opened her mouth wide, and several tendrils snaked out, long dark runners of some plant-like material which wrapped themselves around my neck, and then I was jerking back. I punched her, right in the face, and the tendrils loosened. I did it again, and then I was free, lying on my back. I crab walked backwards, out of the tent, and got to my feet before whirling and running all out toward the cover of the bushes. Behind me I heard a roar, and then Jeannie’s voice, scratchy as it was.
          “Find him! Get him!” I dove to the ground behind several bushes and looked out through the small holes between the branches. Kyle came bolting out of his tent, a flashlight illuminating the ground in front of him. “You!” She rushed him, and he pulled at something around his neck. She froze, and he laughed.
          “That’s right. I’m in charge here.” She backed away and he shook his head. “Now, where’d he go?” She pointed towards the bushes and Kyle came towards him. “Come on out, Tom. I promise I won’t hurt you… Much…” He reached the bushes and shined the light in. “Hi there, Tom.” I spit at him and he laughed. “Is that any way to treat me? I’m gonna give you a whole new life, one you’ll love, and that’s how you thank me? Get out here.” I shifted slightly, and then stood. He smiled. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
          “You’re going to have to kill me, you know.”
          “What?”
          “I will not be like that. You’re going to have to kill me.”
          He seemed to think it through. “That’s tempting, but no.”
          “Chicken?”
          “What?”
          “You’re afraid. You aren’t in charge of anything. Whatever’s going on here, whatever virus is spreading, you’re just a minion. You can’t kill me because then you’d have to explain yourself.”
          “You better shut up.”
          “You’re nothing but a follower.”
          “Shut…”
          “A little girl.”
          “…your freakin’…”
          “A pansy with no backbone, you insignificant little frikker…”
          “..trap!” He jumped towards me and I sidestepped, sending him flying into a tree. “Oh, you’re gonna pay for that.” He picked himself up and came towards me, reaching back toward his pack and then freezing. “Where is it?”
          “Lookin for this?” I was holding the hatchet in my hand. His eyes got wide and I rushed at him, bringing the blade down again and again, more bludgeoning him than cutting him, but it worked the same in the end. Before long he was lying dead at my feet, his blood dripping off the metal and staining my clothes. “How dare you do this to us? My wife, you frikker. My wife…” And that’s when I began to sob.
          What had I done? I had always been a mild man, had never been one for decisions or excitement. I sold insurance, for crap’s sake. Insurance! Jeannie was my everything, all that I wanted, all that I was. And now she was gone… She was gone because of the bloody mess in front of me. I had killed a man out of cold blood, and that was something else he had taken from me. I was so angry then that I almost ran. Almost. What stopped me was the realization that if I ran, then I would never have Jeannie again, that we would be forever separated, and that was a terrifying thought.
          Jeannie… I moved away from the dead man and threw the hatchet away. I wouldn’t need it anymore. I found her sitting on the ground, tears streaming down her green face. “Tom? What happened Tom?” I put my arm around her and shrugged. She looked at me and mumbled that she was sorry, that she didn’t mean any of it, and that she hoped I would forgive her. Then she was kissing me, her lips cool with the green, the tendrils reaching up from wherever they were inside her and entering me, slithering down into me like slugs. I gagged, but that was all. When she pulled away, the tendrils stayed inside me. I remember stumbling to the tent, and then random bits of this story, but that’s all. The paper was in my bag, I know that, and the pen. I’m looking back over it now, and I don’t remember most of it. It’s hard even to read the words… All black and blurry… All I want now is to go… To join Jeannie and run off… To…