I'm crunching over dead leaves few hundred meters from the campsite.
In fact, I'm not sure it was ever called a campsite, maybe it was just a place where they park tour buses and vans and the like, but at the moment there seems to be no one here. I had got a bit curious this morning, wondering if there was anything outside the small city where I was staying and took a stroll. I'm hoping it's not so far from the city that I can't find my way back to my host family's house, but there's no use worrying about that now.
It's mid-afternoon and I'm just about to turn back when I notice movement in the distance. At first I think it's leaves in the wind, but no, it's not even branches swaying. It's got to be two heads, but they seem to be coming towards me.
No, I'm not imagining things. The heads are real, and they're getting closer. And they're not moving in one direction at the same speed. In fact, they're moving in opposite directions: one moving towards me as I move away from it and the other moving away from me while I'm moving towards them. I have to blink a couple of times, because it all seems so unreal. And then I remember I'm in a magical forest.
There is enough space between the two heads for me to slip between them, and I do. The moment I am between them I realise how stupid I've been. At this point there is no going back.
As soon as I have thought this, a young woman appears in front of me. She is wearing a long green dress and not much else. Above her, a couple of meters away, is a tall, skinny man with a long grey moustache. His eyes are hidden behind a pair of large, circular glasses. He is wearing a white lab coat and holding a wooden cane in his left hand. It seems like they have been waiting for me.
"What do you think you are doing here?" the woman asks, her voice is just above a whisper.
"I got curious. Is – is this the forest next to the campsite?" I answer her, feeling that I ought to be polite even if she doesn't seem very friendly.
"No, it's not. But we do like our privacy. If you don't tell anyone about what you saw here we will let you go." She says.
"I don't want to tell anyone about what I saw." I say.
"What exactly did you see, then, hmm?" The woman says, more to the old man than me.
"I think he knows about the hatch." He says.
"How could he? I haven't told anyone about it." She says.
"But you told him about the forest." He says.
"So?" She asks.
"So, the forest is next to the place." He says.
"But he doesn't know why it's next to it, or that there is a hatch here." She says.
"That's true, he doesn't." He says.
"I'm sorry, but I still don't know what you're talking about." I admit.
"You will." The old man says and steps closer to me.
The woman moves closer, too, and gives him a stern look.
"We're not going to kill him." She says.
"I wasn't going to kill him." He says.
"So, what do you want with me? And what's the hatch?" I ask.
"That's a secret." The woman says.
"No, it's not." He says.
"It is so. Only a fraction of the people in this case know." She says.
"That fraction has grown considerably since the last time you checked." He says.
"I don't remember checking my guesses lately." She says.
I nod, as if I suddenly remember who exactly I'm talking to.
"So, what have you guessed?" I ask.
"The hatch is what we use it for." She says.
"And what for?" I ask.
"No one should know about it." The old man says.
"They should know that it exists." She continues.
"So, why not let everyone know about it? I'm sure they would welcome the hope of finding a new planet before they die." I say, trying to make the conversation much more friendly.
"They won't live long enough." The old man says.
"Why not?" I ask.
"Because we will find a new planet, but they won't." She explains.
"We will find a new planet." I say.
"Yes, but we won't start preparing it until the last day." She answers and then adds, "Before that we will cut down all the trees that are in the way, so no one will be able to find it. We will sink the Earth."
"You're not talking about burying a few thousand trees instead of an entire inhabited planet?" I ask.
"Don't be silly! There would be no point. All of it would be cut down by the time it was hidden. And we could do it faster if there were people on earth to watch it." She explains.
"You're planning to kill all the people?" I ask.
"Yes, we must. We have done it before." The old man says.
"If you're talking about the Great Purge-" I begin to ask.
"No, we're not. We're talking about the humans who live on Earth." She intercuts.
"The humans who live on Earth. And how many of them there are?" I ask.
"It doesn't matter. They can't survive out here." She explains.
"I beg to differ." I say.
"Of course you do. You're one of them." She says.
"Yes, I am." I admit.
"How did you get here if you can't survive out here?" The old man asks.
"I can." I say.
"You can?" The woman asks.
"You're not one of them." The old man says.
"I am." I say.
"You are?" The woman repeats.
"Yes." I answer.
"If you're one of the humans there's no need to worry at all. You'll be safe. We will be kind to you." The old man says.
"No, we're not." The woman says.
"No, we're not." He repeats.
"We're not going to be kind to you. We're going to kill you." The woman says.
"I can't die." I tell them.
"Can't you?" The woman asks.
"No. I can't." I repeat.
"But I can." She says and makes one swift movement towards me.
A moment later I can feel myself falling. When I hit the ground I can feel my body. It's still alive.