The Hikers - Animated Scary Story

In the southern highlands of theAustralian state of New South Wales theBaleno State Forest is home to anenormous area of plantation pine andnative forestry it's free to access forall and is popular for four-wheeldrivingtrail bike riding and forest camping inDecember 1989 two American tourists setoff into the forest with the intentionto spend several days hiking and campingas they made their way from one side ofthe forest to the other both physicallyfit and experienced in hiking andorienteering their first day was spenttrekking up into the hills to gain asolid view point from which to surveythe land around them from one of thehighest points the view was spectacularso the couple stopped to rest and takenthe beauty of their surroundings whilstobserving the vastness of thecountryside the man pondered how easy itwould be to come lost out here or worseto disappear completely[Music]as she took a drink the woman dislodgeda small rock knocking it off the edgeand sending it falling hundreds of feetinto the water below she felt that chillas she realized how easy it would be tofall off and how slim the chances ofsurvival would be they thought they werecompletely alone however this changedwhen they realized they could hear thesound of footsteps heading up the hillbehind them the man could make out thesilhouette of a single person who hadstopped and was just standing there
although this wasn't particularlyunusual it still didn't feel quite rightso he told his girlfriend that hethought it would be best if they keptmoving she nodded in agreement and theyset off to find an area to camp for thenight as night fell over the forest the
temperature dropped quickly fortunatelyfor the couple that managed to set uptheir tent while they still had lightand had set up a campfire in which theycook their dinner they then sat andrelaxed staring deeply into the fire asthey reflected on the day that had justgone and excitedly pondered the next fewdays and what lay ahead
they soon retired to the tent and wereasleep within minutes thanks to theefforts of the day the forest was at notime completely silent there are dozensof nocturnal animals in Australia anddue to this at night the forest comesalive with the sound of insects andmarsupials the couple felt quitecomfortable sleeping to these sounds ofnature and felt there were nothingparticularly out of the ordinary untilthe man was awoken by the sound of whathe thought was crying he leaned over to
his girlfriend and asked her if shecould hear too however she was in a deepsleepclearly undisturbed by this unsettlingsound the man then sat up and opened the
tent door ever so slightly in order tosee if he might be able to discoverwhere the crying was coming from he wasfrozen with fear when he realized that alarge man had sat down at their campsiteand was the source of the sobbing the
man in leaned back to his girlfriend andwhispered as quietly as he could there'sa man outside there's a man outside thetent even though he shook her she didnot stir and he realized he would bebetter off leaving her to sleep until hefigured out what to do nexthe lay there silently in the dark forseveral minutes listening to thestranger talk to himself and slowly thesobbing subsided the man then decidedthat this stranger was of no threat tothem as it appeared he was either lostor homeless either way he needed help orat least someone to talk to the man thenstepped out of the tent and spoke to thestranger hello he said are you lost no
the man replied I just needed to sit andthink for a momentI saw that your fire was stillsmoldering so I figured I would just sithere until I figured things out oh theman replied that's fine what's thematter the man then sat down and spentthe next few hours talking with thestranger the stranger was at acrossroads in his life and appeared tobe lacking the confidence to commit tothe choices he had made the man managedto convince him that any decision hemakes would ultimately be the right oneand that sometimes it's better to followyour heart instead of your head thestranger seemed reenergized by this andthank the man for giving him themotivation he needed to continue thenight went on so did the conversationuntil the stranger decided it was timefor him to leave and so he did the man
returned to sleep in the tent and sleptthrough undisturbed until the nextmorning when he relayed the events ofthe night day's girlfriend she thoughtthat this was indeed very odd andthought that he was making it all up asshe hadn't slept well at all due to theman's incessant snoring the man laughedthis off and the couple went on withtheir hike spending the next few daysventuring deeper into the forestfollowed by a few more days in the statecapital Sydney before boarding a planehome to America on the flight home theman's thoughts wandered back to theunusual meeting in conversation with thestrange man in the foresthis girlfriend was adamant it didn'thappen and it was indeed so bizarre hewas beginning to question the reality ofit himselffour years later late one night in adive bar in Chicago the man looked up ata local news broadcast only to beshocked by what he saw the presenter wasrelaying information about a serialkiller who had been sentenced to jailfor seven consecutive life sentences onefor each of his victims the report toldof the dates when the victims wentmissing and a feeling of terror andguilt ripped through the man as herealized that the first victim wouldhave been around the exact time he hadmet this stranger

"The Hikers"