The Cry

Peter heard a cry. It almost sounded like a woman, but.. weird. “Shall we check it out”, he asked Luke, “we might save someone’s life”.
Luke answered that there was no way that there were others this far out in the woods, and that they probably weren’t able to help anyways. Besides, they shouldn’t lose the path they took so long to get to.

Peter couldn’t handle the thought of someone else dying and not even attempting to help, so he went on alone. He thought he was getting closer to the cries, but whenever he reached a point where he thought the origin to be, the cries already had moved on to another place. Maybe it was someone screaming and walking?

Peter went and went, until he finally saw a little shack. In the shack was nobody, but there was a warning to not wander out alone, no matter what – wild beasts might attack, and there was no help in sight.

Peter was torn between going on and waiting for Luke. It was getting dark, and the cries seemed to have stopped, so he decided to message Luke with the walkie-talkie that he found a good place to rest for the night. Luke agreed to come, Peter only needed to signal the light.

Peter waited. He radioed Luke some more times in between, until Luke told him that his battery was getting low and he should only use it in an emergency. After what felt like hours, he heard another cry, clearly from a man this time, shortly joined by the woman’s cry form earlier. Peter worried about Luke, and because Luke didn’t respond by radio, Peter ventured out again to get him. He went on a hill and quickly saw a light source moving. He ran down to it, only humans can operate flashlights after all, but when he arrived, he only saw the remains of Luke. Eaten, by a mountain lion.

A mountain lion, which now looked at him and cried, almost like a woman, but… weird.