By: Ethan Shen
There was a small town by the name of Hangleton. Hangleton was at the edge of a great vast forest. Many went to venture down its depths; many never returned.
Jack was having a miserable day. He got detention in school, was laughed at when he came home, and even his friends gave up on him and left him. As he lay in bed, he thought about his options. He didn’t want it to come to this, but he felt he had no choice. He was joining the expedition to finally map and explore the forest once and for all.
As he met up with everyone else, the atmosphere in the room was full of nervous excitement. When the leader of this great voyage, Nathan, addressed the crowd, the cheering and shouting stopped. Nathan went on to explain that everybody that joined the expedition could potentially never see their families again. He told everyone that if anyone wanted to back out, they could. As a few stragglers left, everyone else started packing up their gear. The expedition had begun.
The first few miles were quiet. The group of 20 or so people stuck closely together, and followed a path straight North, directly into the thick of the jungle. At first, everything seemed normal, but as the hours wore on, more and more people started getting jumpy. At one point, a bird landed no more than 3 inches away from the face of one explorer, who promptly gave a yelp and fell over. Everyone laughed, but the tension was still there. As the sky turned dark, they set up camp. As the group started looking for firewood, they couldn’t find anything that was dry enough to burn. At last, they settled on just trying to burn as many sticks as they could to hopefully dry out the larger logs beneath. Nathan set up a 4-hour guard schedule and everyone went to sleep.
The next morning, they hiked ever deeper into the thick forest. Even though they thought they knew where they were going, something felt off. The ground became more and more rocky, and a sense of foreboding drilled itself into everyone’s heads. At last, they reached the top of a line of rocky hills, they saw what was contained within. There was a tropical jungle, with vibrant colors everywhere. There were animals and fruit that no one in their group had seen before. There were also massive versions of “normal” animals, like a crocadile that looked as big as a cow. In the center, there was an altar, which raised questions about whether there was an indigenous tribe living there. Clearly unnerved, Nathan decided to just photograph everything and head back.
As the group returned to Hangleton, they were welcomed with cheers. Everyone seemed to think that this discovery would bring about many archaeologists, and that soon, there would be a massive tourism spike. Everyone seemed to think that the little town would get a little richer.