Half an hour later, Louis and Erin were changed out and were venturing through the thick forest, trekking through tall grass and stomping over fallen branches and debris. The sunlight shining through the leaves cast a glowing green aura across the land.
"This is paradise, isn't it?" Louis remarked dreamily.
"I guess," Erin responded, looking this way and that through the trees.
"You guess? I thought you liked being out in nature like this?"
"I do, usually. I don't know why, but these woods give me the creeps."
"Well, don't worry baby," Louis chuckled, coming up behind Erin and snaking his arms around her waist, "I'll protect you."
Erin couldn't help but laugh at her boyfriend's corniness, and turned in his arms to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him in for a kiss. Just as their lips met, she suddenly pulled back.
"Did you hear that?" she said.
"Just the crickets providing the mood music, hehe," answered Louis.
He went in for another kiss, which only lasted for a second before Erin pulled away again when a much louder, more prominent 'snap' echoed from nearby.
"That," she then said, "You heard that, right?"
"It's probably just some bird, or gopher, or something," Louis said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders, "We are in their neck of the woods you know, no pun intended."
Despite his nonchalant attitude, Erin separated herself from him and ventured towards where the sound had come from. With Louis following behind her, the two continued on down an incline, and were horrified by what they found: the half-rotted corpse of a dead coyote caught in a web of thorny branches between two trees, hanging like a marionette puppet from the branches wrapped around its neck and front limbs. The front legs themselves were separated from its body, torn off and hanging from the branches. Its muzzle was caked with black dried blood, along with the rest of its body from where its flesh had been sliced with the thorns. The flesh itself was hanging loose from its skeleton like a suit two sizes too big, and was being feasted on by a flock of crows, their long black beaks piercing the rotting flesh and pecking at the bones, creating the snapping noise they had heard.
Erin was forced to turn away, hunching over and gripping her stomach, which was rumbling with the threat of vomiting. "Ugh, god," she gagged, doing her best to stifle the urge to heave.
The sound of her voice spooked the birds, forcing them to take flight. Their wings flapped frantically as they soared straight upwards. The gust of wind they created blew the horrible stench of the corpse straight towards them. Louis covered his face in time and was able to keep himself from getting hit by the smell, but Erin was not as steely as he was; she braced herself against the nearest tree and puked her guts out.
Once her stomach was emptied, she straightened herself, wiping her mouth off with the back of her wrist.
"What... ugh," she groaned, "What the hell happened to him?"
"It looks like it got stuck in the thorns," Louis answered, keeping his hand over his mouth, "then chewed off its own limbs to try and get free."
As he examined the gruesome scene, he started moving in closer to it.
"Louis! What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm just going in for a closer look."
As he got closer and closer to the maggot-infested dog carcass, he noticed something. Just about two or three feet away from the coyote, there was something sticking out of the ground that looked like the corner of something square that was halfway buried. He then carefully slid his way through the branches, maneuvering his way through the dangerous network of thorns.
Once he made it through, he crouched down and went to work digging away the dry soil and twigs, bringing the object to light. It was a rectangular parcel, wrapped up in a tattered brown cloth. When he stripped away the cloth, it was revealed to be a book, or at least, that's what it appeared to be. The cover was some kind of thick, dried leather, and on the front it was shaped with, what looked like, a human face, stretched tautly into a permanent scream. Stricken with a sense of macabre fascination, he opened it and began thumbing through the pages. The papers were yellowed with age and were covered in scribbling written in some bizarre ancient language, also containing drawings of all manner of demonic-looking creatures.
Before he could examine it any closer, he turned back to his girlfriend that was calling out for him to return. So Louis clutched the strange book to his chest and prepared himself to go back through those thorns. Oddly enough, as soon as his hand touched one of the branches to push it aside, the entire web collapsed to the ground, taking the coyote down with it, clearing the way for him to pass right through. Louis just shrugged off the weirdness of this and continued to walk back up to Erin.
"What is that?" she asked him, seeing the object in his hand.
"Check it out!" he said, his voice perking up like a kid showing off his awesome new birthday present.
Erin ran her finger down the spine and shivered. "That thing is disgusting."
"It's actually kind of fascinating," said Louis as the both began walking back towards the cabin, "The text looks ancient Sumerian to me. It may take me a while, but I bet I can translate it. All those ancient language courses may finally come in handy, hehe."
"Wait a minute," Erin then whispered, stopping them both dead in their tracks, "Do you hear that?"
Louis held still and listened around, but couldn't hear a thing. "No," he whispered back, "I don't hear anything."
"That's just it," she then said, "I don't hear anything! No more bugs, no birds; it's all gone so quiet."
He then realized that she was right; it was completely quiet out. Just moments ago, the forest was alive with the sounds of birds chirping and insects buzzing, but in an instant, everything had gone mute. The only noise now was that of their own voices.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Erin shuddered, jumping right into a near-jog.
"Wait for me!" hollered Louis as he followed after her.