Mushrooms

Right now, I would give anything for that mushroom lady!

It has been ten days since we started on the three-day trek, eight since we realised we are lost and three since we are having two thin slices of bread a day. Needless to say, we are all pretty grumpy.

It has been ten days since we started on the three-day trek, eight since we realised we are lost and three since we are having two thin slices of bread a day. Needless to say, we are all pretty grumpy.

When we started, it was more of a joke on the other team of soldiers that got lost on this trek before us. Some weird activity was recorded on the radar 29 miles in the North-West—typically a one-day-trek for our level of training. The team was sent on a three-day trek for scouting—one day to reach there, one day to scout and one day to return. They made it back in ten days. They all claimed they didn’t remember anything first night onwards.

After too many rounds of interrogation, one of them admitted they were picking mushrooms for food and found it to be a wood nymph with mushrooms on her antlers; and that she magicked them back on the right path! After that, their Captain admitted that they found some mushrooms they thought they recognised on the first evening, which they ate and have been hallucinating ever since; they only came to their senses a couple of days before and it took a long time to return in their weekened state. Needless to say, they were discharged from service immediately.

So, when we started, I ensured my team of five was better prepared—canned food for four days instead of picking random stuff from the forest, a reliable physical compass, physical maps, GPS, radio, and tracking devices in case we are lost.

We were doing well until late noon until I realised we were lost—by then, the path backwards was lost too. I wouldn’t say we are going in circles—we are too well-trained for that. More like, we don’t know where we were going. GPS and radio aren’t working, and the compass needle is pointing wherever it wants as if it can’t make up its mind.

The forest floor is hard even with the sleeping bags we are carrying. We are too high-strung to sleep anyway—the heavily canopied forest is dark and scary even during the day, let alone at night. The slightest sound of twigs cracking or leaves being disturbed unnerves us. The slightest shadow or a lack of birds’ calls bring doubts of being stalked, though we are still to see a predator here. We are all fidgety and at the end of our nerves.

We have been frugal with the supplies we brought. With our food supplies dwindling, we tried looking for food. But with the onset of winters, the trees we recognise are bare of any fruits. The only fruits are hanging from trees of unclear variety, and we are afraid of trying them, in case they are toxic!

Fourth day onwards, I had the team try hunting and fishing. We can see the fishes jumping out of the river and splashing back in, as if teasing us, but we can’t catch them. Same with animals and birds—crossing our road, peeping at us and running away, dodging bullets and knives. All of them! We have all had intensive survival training, including hunting for food, and yet not one of us has been able to catch so much as a mouse. We are completely dependent on the packages we carried here, and there isn’t anything left for tomorrow.

Though it hasn’t rained since we started, we fear the slightest wisps of clouds as they pass the sky. In our feeble and worn-out state, we won’t be able to deal with extreme cold on top of our lack of food. We still have a tracking device on each one of us, but no one has found us.

Surely, they must have realised that we are missing, right? They must have sent a search party already. Will they find us alive? More important, would they know their way back or would they be just as lost as we?

I really wish this entire journey was just a mushroom-induced hallucination. It would be better than starving to death!

A slight noise on the left has us alert and we ready our weapons. The thick bushes are parted slightly by delicate fingers, revealing a breathtaking woman wearing a dress made of flowering vines and mushroom antlers. Rolling her eyes in exasperation and shaking her head in resignation, she points a thin branch at us.

We will have to agree upon a better cover story than the last team!

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Thank you for the inspiring photo, Alexander Mass (on Unsplash).