The Ritual

The three men spend a couple hours walking around and calling Hutch’s name, but can’t find him. Luke asks the other men to pack up the unbroken tent while he collects Hutch’s useful items and looks at the map. Dom demands that they keep looking for Hutch until Phil sees the blood all over the ruined tent. Phil, Dom, and Luke cry. Luke holds the other men until they stop crying.

Luke explains what he and Hutch had planned: That Luke go for help while the others rest at the campsite. However, the plan has changed, and they have to travel south together. Luke asks when people will start missing them, and thinks about how long it will be before anyone notices he is gone. He is upset that it will be a while because he isn’t close with anyone. Dom thinks someone will start looking for him in four or five days, and Phil thinks someone will notice when he misses a work meeting next Monday. Luke thinks Hutch’s wife, Angie, will be the first to try to find them. Dom is upset that they will have to tell her what happened to Hutch.

After walking for three hours, the three men discover Hutch’s body mutilated and hung up high in a tree, like a crucifixion. Dom collapses and Phil vomits. Luke feels faint and wonders how the creature knew they would take this path to Hutch’s corpse. He hears the animal noise he and Hutch heard the previous night and spins around, looking for the source and getting out his knife. Luke tells Dom to get out his knife, then moves toward the sound alone, taunting the animal. Phil and Dom repeatedly call Luke’s name, and he eventually returns to them.

Luke asks Dom what he saw when Hutch was attacked. Dom says it was too dark to see, but he could smell its stench and hear the animal grab Hutch with its mouth. Phil guesses the animal is a bear, big cat, or wolf.

Luke says those animals wouldn’t display corpses in trees and guesses the animal is connected to the stuffed goat in the house. Dom says it must be a human criminal. Phil guesses that Hutch, and the bones in the house and church, were sacrifices. Phil describes his dream about people making sacrifices to the creature when it was younger. Luke admits he had a horrific dream, and explains how he found Hutch dreaming as well.

After hiking for a couple miles, and occasionally crying, the men encounter a gorge. Dom, using a tree branch as a crutch, is in terrible pain, and says he can’t get across it. Luke fears that they will all die in the forest. He has been carrying Dom’s pack, the tent, and his own pack. Exhausted, Luke suggests they take a break, drink some water, and eat. They look at the map and where Hutch tried to take them through the narrowest part of virgin forest. Luke thinks they have been walking in the wrong direction, toward thicker parts of untouched forest. Phil and Dom eat their last energy bars, which upsets Luke, who has been rationing his.

Luke fantasizes about going off on his own, without the packs and tent. However, the others don’t know how to put up the tent or build a fire. Luke shares his idea about going for help alone. The others blame him for getting them even more lost than Hutch and remind him that he said they would stay together. Luke asks Dom if he can get across the gorge and he swears he can. Phil says they are safer together.

After getting through the gorge, Luke wants to climb up a hill so he can get the lay of the land. Dom says he can’t go any further. Luke says he’ll take the gear up the hill while the others rest for a little while.

Phil follows Luke up the hill while Dom scoots up in a sitting position. Luke struggles to put the tent up, but eventually succeeds. Phil and Luke help Dom get up the hill and into the tent. Luke makes them some hot coffee with sugar. After finishing their drinks, Phil and Dom cry about losing Hutch. Luke explains that he wants to climb a high tree and get a look at the forest around them. He asks Phil to collect wood for a fire and tells Dom to rest.

Up in the tree, Luke can see the edge of the forest. It is more to the west than they had been traveling, but he can now correct their course. He feels hopeful and vows to appreciate his life back home. Luke also feels upset at Hutch for suggesting the shortcut, and again thinks about setting off alone. Dom repeatedly calls Phil’s name, then switches to repeating, “Oh God” (191). Luke thinks about hiding from the creature in the tree, but decides to climb down when he spots Dom below. While climbing down, Luke smacks his face into the tree.

On the ground, Phil is gone. Dom grabs Luke and they fall to the ground together. As Dom rips Luke’s jacket, he mutters about Phil being taken. Luke pulls Dom’s hands off of him, then walks around with his knife, calling Phil’s name. Phil isn’t anywhere near the place where he was gathering firewood, and the forest is silent.

Dom says he was checking the water on the stove when Phil screamed and was snatched. Luke is afraid and thinks about running away. However, when he sees Dom’s face, Luke kneels and hugs Dom.

Dom and Luke eat their last energy bars and finish off the sugar. They only have the stove for light, and sit back-to-back watching the forest. Dom laughs and admits he misses his life, the one he was going on vacation to get away from. Luke admits he also misses his disappointing life. Dom cries and Luke finds it hard to believe that his friends are dead. Luke thinks about how the people in his life would mourn him, then is overwhelmed with fear and panic. Eventually, he calms down and starts to roll a cigarette. Dom asks for one, and Luke gives him the first one he rolls.

Luke apologizes for hitting Dom, and Dom apologizes for taunting him. Dom says everyone is just pretending their lives are good, like people who work in public relations. He says Luke is better at basic survival than most people. Luke says he’s bad at civilized life. Dom says Hutch was the only one who had a good life, both in and out of civilization. Luke and Dom laugh over Dom’s jokes about being too out of shape to go hiking. Dom says he needs to get home for his kids. Luke admits he envies Dom’s life, and Dom admits he was always interested to see what, and who, Luke was doing in his. Dom says everyone is a mess, and Luke internally vows not to leave Dom’s side.

At the same time, Dom suggests that Luke going off on his own is his only chance at survival. Luke says he can’t leave Dom behind, and vows aloud to get them both out of the woods. They will leave behind all of their remaining gear. The men cry again, and Dom says he feels hopeful. At the base of the hill, they hear a loud animal sound.

Dom and Luke are frightened by the sound. Luke stands up and tries to turn his fear into anger. When the creature makes another sound, Luke walks toward it. He reaches the edge of the hill, then runs back to Dom. Luke smells that the creature has just left, and it was downwind of Dom, behind the tent, so he didn’t smell it.

Dom starts to nod off during their vigil. Luke suggests he go sleep in the tent. Dom refuses to leave Luke’s side and promises to stay awake. After about an hour, Dom falls asleep again. Luke starts to nod off and switches to a kneeling position to stay awake. An hour later, Luke starts to fall asleep again.

He is woken up by a softer sound in the woods. Luke tries to wake up Dom, but Dom doesn’t respond. Luke sees a dark figure in the woods, shines his light on it, and roars at it. The large shape withdraws. Dom wakes up. Luke thinks that the creature is retreating up into the trees and throws a stone at it. He hits it, it shrieks, and something hits Luke on the head.

Luke wakes up in the tent with his head bandaged and calls out for Dom. Dom says he’s glad Luke isn’t in a coma, because there was a huge amount of blood. Luke feels like he has a fractured skull and a concussion. He tells Dom he hit the creature with a stone. Dom says he took all the painkillers for his knee and Phil used all the antiseptic on his blisters. Dom can only offer Luke coffee. Luke sees that his injury is bad in his shaving mirror and rebandages it. He will have a scar if he survives.

After coffee, the men walk down the hill, leaving behind most of their gear except for sleeping bags, knives, and torches. They both use crutches made of branches. They travel silently in the direction of the river, and eventually see Phil’s body up in a tree. It is more mutilated than Hutch’s corpse was. Dom and Luke hug, Dom cries, and they continue walking.

Luke daydreams about water and realizes that bugs are eating the blood that is covering him. It is painful for him to turn and look at Dom, so he stops looking behind him. When Luke pauses, Dom bumps into him. They are close but not talking. At 2 PM, Luke throws down his crutch and begins crawling. Dom says something that Luke can’t hear and grumbles as he starts crawling as well. Luke thinks about how his generation never learned proper survival skills. When the men enter a clearing, they try to drink water that has collected on leaves. After drinking a little bit, Luke stands, and Dom does as well.

A little before 6 pm, Luke has to crawl again. He stops on a boulder and hears Dom make a sound behind him. Luke can barely see or talk, but grunts and points to what might be a trail. As Luke walks toward it, he senses Dom behind him and thinks about how stinky Dom is.

Eventually, the forest gets too thick to keep going forward and Luke turns around for the first time in a while. Dom isn’t there. Luke walks back to the clearing, and Dom isn’t there either. Luke calls Dom’s name, but can’t see him anywhere. Luke realizes he was smelling the creature, not Dom, behind him, since they were at the boulder.

Luke feels lonely and angry. He is upset that his friends died simply because they were in the wrong place. If the creature attacks, he can vent his frustration through violence. He thinks he will die soon and continues walking.

Luke stumbles, holding trees, in order to move with his head injury. He has to stop frequently, and is covered with bugs eating his blood. He is hungry and thirsty. Luke struggles to see, but thinks there are “little white figures” (236) in the forest. Near midnight, he begins to hallucinate that his friends are with him and their deaths had been a practical joke. He stops, falls asleep on a stone, and dreams he is talking with the girl he is dating, Charlotte.

When Luke wakes, he wonders why the creature didn’t kill him in the night. He crawls as the sun rises. There is a distant figure that is large and dark. Luke hears sounds and draws his knife. He passes out, wakes up when he hears a human voice, and loses consciousness again.