Slathered in BBQ Sauce

The day was bright and sunny, like every day was the past week. Jamie stretched as she got up from the small wooden table near the kitchen. She looked around the cabin, noticing details that she didn’t realize when she first came. To be fair, she celebrated her first night at the cabin by drinking herself silly, so she doesn’t remember much.

The cabin was small and quite cozy. Built like a large studio, the bed occupied a small nook in the far right, with the cabin’s only bathroom located about two steps from the bed. The kitchen was on the far left and consisted of a small stove, a single-door fridge, about two countertops, and a handful of cabinets. The couch in the center faced a fireplace, which was empty - it was early June, and the weather was turning; these days, Jamie hardly slept with a blanket because of how warm it was at night. 

She padded towards the cupboard near the bed, groaning at her insane idea but trying to add some resolve at the same time. In college, she used to run track almost every day, regardless of whether she was at a party the night before or not. Despite being hungover, going for a run helped clear her mind, and she enjoyed the physical exertion. Granted, it has been a while since she’s done track races, but she was determined to keep up the habit of running at the very least. 

Having changed into a light shirt and shorts, she dons her running shoes, grabs her phone, and steps out. Though the sun shone bright, the forest provided a much-needed cover, and the run was initially quite pleasant. She stuck to the beaten path for about a mile or so and was debating whether she should take a quick jaunt through the forest or stick to the path when she heard a voice float through the air. “So there I was, absolutely slathered in BBQ sauce,” and the sound of laughter.

Huh, she was surprised at the sound of other people. She didn’t meet anyone on the drive here or last night. Eager to see if she can meet new people (when she planned her trip to the cabin, loneliness wasn’t a factor on her mind, but it’s always good to know a few people near you in case of emergencies), she turned and headed toward the voices. 

A few meters in, the ground shifted - she stumbled, tried to grab at the dirt as the ground suddenly falls beneath her, and hears a sickening crunch when she lands on her ankle, almost 5 meters below. She cries out and swears loudly. “Hello?” she yells. “Can anyone hear me? I’ve fallen in this....in this hole! I can’t get out!” She screams till her throat is hoarse, but no one comes. She waits for hours, and no one shows. She sees the forest get darker - one or two birds even fly close to the rim and peer down at her, pitying her, before flying away. 

She stays seated, keeping her ankle elevated and trying not to cry. Her phone shattered on impact, and the ground is too smooth to try and climb out of. Besides, her ankle is definitely broken, so movement is not possible. After a few hours, she falls asleep, exhausted and in pain. 

She wakes up with a jerk, but not at the hole. She’s back at the cabin, in her bed, wearing pajamas. She looks around, confused and more than a little scared. Who brought her here? She wasn’t in her running gear, either - her hair was down, and she was in a clean pair of her own pajamas. It was odd because she remembered putting these pajamas for a wash before she went out for the run yesterday. Shaken, she slowly got up, taking slow steps into the rest of the cabin. Would the person that saved her be waiting in the room? 

The cabin was empty and looked...normal. Everything was in its place. Should she go out and see if she can find the person who rescued her? To thank them, perhaps? Ask them how they knew she was living in this cabin? 

She paced around the hall, alternating between shock, fear, surprise, and concern - how did she get back here? Who brought her here? Did they...dress her? Did she dress herself in some haze? Did they carry her back or did she walk - wait. Her ankle. She completely forgot about her ankle. Her left ankle felt completely normal, like she never broke it at all.

Apart from yesterday, she never did break her ankle - but how? Broken ankles don’t heal overnight. This is....strange. Steeling her resolve, she was determined to find out what happened, and staying in the cabin wouldn’t provide any answers. She changed, put on some hiking boots, and set off down the trail she followed yesterday. A mile or so in, she hears the same voice waft through the air. “So there I was, absolutely slathered in BBQ sauce,” and the sound of laughter. What? Is this person telling the same story to different people each day?

She turns to find the voice, walking gingerly to avoid falling into a hole. Slowly, she gets closer to the laughter - it was almost infectious, and she feels a smile spread across her face. An eagle screeched overhead - odd, eagles aren’t native to the area - and she looked up. Suddenly, the ground underneath her shifts again. She was in a different place this time! Did the hole move? Are there multiple holes scattered around the forest? She falls in, feeling the sickening crunch, the plunging darkness, and an unrelenting wave of despair. She screamed for what felt like an hour, and her screams attracted curious animals - a few birds hopped to the edge to see what the drama was about - but nothing, and no one, else came. She slumped down, her ankle on fire, throat parched, and just exhausted. Against her own will, she falls unconscious from sheer pain and exhaustion. 

She wakes up in her own bed, again. She sits up, feeling her ankle - it feels normal. What is going on? Is the universe trying to tell her something? Is she not meant to follow those voices? Is she not supposed to leave the cabin at all? She’d go stir-crazy if she didn’t leave - the whole point was to live in Nature for a few weeks, after all, not stay cooped up in one wooden box. She gets up, shaky, and tries to make some breakfast.

She was determined to stay inside for a  little while at least. She spent the next few hours debating, well, wondering, what on earth was going on. She needed to try a few things out, and see what could happen. After breakfast, she takes a pen and makes a deep groove in the kitchen wall, scratching her pen over and over until the nib breaks and she carves a line into the wood. With the sun almost setting, she changes and goes out - time to test this out, and see what happens. 

A mile or so from the cabin, she hears the same voices again. Strange, last time she left in the morning, but it’s almost sunset now. Instinctively, she turns towards the voices, and stops. She vaguely hears the story continuing, but can’t make any details out. Maybe she should climb a tree, and try and see someone? 

She slowly walks to the nearest tree, and starts climbing to the top. She finds a sturdy branch to crouch on and sees a campsite a few miles away. She just about makes the tops of people’s heads before the branch gives away - without a single crack, like a leaf falling off a tree - and she falls. She lands in a hole (which wasn’t there before), somehow falling feet first and breaking her ankle. The impact causes her knees to buckle and she doesn’t feel tears coming - oh no, this time, the pain overwhelms her, and she faints. 

She wakes up in bed once more - which was interesting, meaning that she had to lose consciousness to get back, and not just fall asleep. The notch she carved isn’t there, and her rations are the same as yesterday before she made breakfast. She’s going to try something new. This time, she writes a note to herself, detailing what she’s learned so far, and heads out once more. This time, when she hears the voices, she turns away, heading in the opposite direction. She walks slowly, feeling each step, thinking about whether she should crawl or not when a low growl stops her in her tracks. In the corner of her eye, she sees a grizzly. There are not supposed to be any bears in these woods.

Her heart racing, she’s considering a run, or simply play dead and pray. The bear moves towards her, growling and sniffing, coming far too close for comfort. It stands on its hind legs and looks like it will swing a massive paw. She’s heard that one swipe is fatal, and she wasn’t taking a chance. She runs, and almost immediately falls into a hole and breaks her ankle. This time, she tries to stay awake, silent through the pain, and listens to the bear softly pad away. A few birds stand at the edge (she should take note of whether the birds are the same, too) and eventually, she falls asleep. 

She’s back in her bed, and she’s tired. Groaning, she wonders if things will change if she stays in the cabin the entire day. It was worth a try. She makes some food, and wanders around the cabin. There isn’t much to do, but she did remember bringing a book. After an early lunch, she settles on her couch to read it (it was a book on England’s military history) when she heard the voices. The BBQ sauce, the laughter - right outside her cabin door. She gets up, runs to the door and throws it open to find...no one. She steps out to see if they’re nearby when she loses her footing, slips, and falls into a well-disguised hole right outside her house. 

She wakes up in her bedroom and swears loudly. Whatever is going on, it seems determined not to let her go, or to avoid falling in the hole altogether. Even if it was some sort of loop, why make it a painful one? This time, she tries to go out again - following the beaten path back to the parking lot. It was a long walk, but she was getting desperate. She changed, broke a plate this time (just to see what would happen), and left.

A mile into it, she hears the voices and ignores them. Another mile in and she spots a hornet’s nest in a tree. Ah, this complicates things. She was very allergic to hornet and bee stings (a childhood incident raised the question, and an allergy test confirmed it). Well. A hornet’s sting is better than a broken ankle, and she wondered what would happen if she died. She kept walking, keeping pace even with the loud buzzing of the hornet, and tried not to cry out when 2, 3, 4 hornets stung her arms, and one bold hornet even went for the face. She walked on, swatting the hornet away from her face, focusing on maintaining a steady pace. The stings started to burn, and she could feel her throat closing up. Her eyes started to get puffy and runny, and she brushed her eyes while walking, completely failing to notice the open hole near the path. To no surprise, she fell in, broke her ankle, and cried - hot, puffy tears while her skin burned, her ankle burned, everything was on fire. She fell unconscious from the lack of oxygen as her throat fully closed up. 

She woke up in bed. She was starting to lose track of the days - there was no way to make a mark because nothing lasted till the next day. Once, she spent the entire day in the cabin only to slip on the rug, tumble out the door, and into the hole. Another day, she tried walking in circles around the cabin and startled a passing deer. Surprised, she took a step back and fell in. She tried going to the campsite she spotted up on the trees, and she would fall in almost every time. She avoided the routes she usually took, climbed different trees, even crawled on the ground, but she always fell in. She always heard the same voice, the same laughter. Funny, the laughter wasn’t so infectious now. 

She made 31 marks on the kitchen wall with her pen that day - an approximate guess, based on her different falls, and how far she traveled into the forest. On a whim, she decided to try and head to the campsite again. She walked with fear, but she was exhausted. Not just exhausted, but used to the pain. She hardly ever cried out when she broke her ankle anymore, and even though the pain was the same, she was just...tired. 

She changed into her running gear, running shoes, and left. She didn’t bother taking her phone - once, her phone screen shattered and she cut her hand in the hole. Wherever she fell, there was no reception. It wasn’t worth it. She headed out, stepping off the beaten path when she heard the all-too-familiar voices:  “So there I was, absolutely slathered in BBQ sauce,” and the sound of laughter. She walked ahead, without looking around - she remembered the location of the campsite. She stepped over branches, crunched on the leaves and twigs underfoot, and ignored bird calls, soft footsteps of other animals, a low growl here and there. If anything jumped out at her, she’d either wake up in bed, or she’d die. Either one was acceptable.

She walked for a while, tracking time by the sun’s position, and it was about midday when she reached the very edge of the campsite. She saw two people sitting on a bench; they were underneath an umbrella, and drinking beers. She heard one speak, and she recognized it as the voice of the BBQ-sauce man. She yelled out the first thing that came to her mind: “Barbecue sauce!”

The two of them turned to face her, surprised. They looked at her. She smiled so hard her face felt like it would break, and took a step forward before she fell into a ditch. 

She heard the sickening crunch of bone and silently wept. Meeting other people broke her. She thought she found a way to break the system - a way to escape. What other option is there? Her melancholy was broken with the sound of running footsteps, and two heads appeared at the edge. “Are you alright?” one yelled. “What is a hole doing here? That’s such a safety hazard!” the other complained. One reached his hand out, but Jamie couldn’t stand. “I...I broke my ankle,” she said, grinning. “Are you in a lot of pain?” he asked. “Wait, let me get some cloth or something,” the other muttered, and ran off. “I’m fine,” she said. She laughed, despite the pain, despite the weird look from the man, despite everything. She found someone.

About an hour later, the two men had pulled her out, and a Park Ranger was sitting with her while a medic looked at her ankle. It was horrible, with the bone peeking out - she was used to it, but the men who helped her gagged at the sight of her ankle, and stayed away. 

“I’m so sorry, I have no idea how that hole got there - this close to the camping site, too,” the Park Ranger apologized, scratching his head. Jamie shrugged. This was different - she liked different. The ambulance arrived, and she was carted away on a stretcher. They kept asking her about the pain, but she couldn’t stop smiling. 

She woke up in a hospital bed, ankle-covered in a thick cast. Her sister slept in a chair near the bed, using her best friend’s jacket as a blanket. She found a note on the bedside table, along with some flowers - the two men who saved her had sent a 'Get Well Soon' card. How sweet.

She made a mental reminder to dip into her savings and replace her phone, her clothes and suitcase, and anything else she left in the cabin. There’s no way she’s ever going back there. 

Her best friend walked in, saw that Jamie was awake, and gave her a huge hug. “I know you wanted to go to the cabin for a while, I’m so sorry your trip was ruined in just two days.” Jamie smiled. “It’s okay, I’m done with the cabin and with Nature for a while, anyway. Those two days felt like forever.”