Biological Engineering

Entrance into hazardous woodland

I have not heard from my two friends Robert Fitzgerald and Emma Petersen for the past ten days. I have to go and find them, and find out what happened. If I do not come home, follow me. I am leaving after dinner, tomorrow.

Emma and Robert had enrolled at a small university they discovered and had agreed to stay for the summer semester. The semester began one month before they disappeared. They had contacted me before they left and mentioned trekking through nearby woods. I had known that they liked trekking since we had gone together several times before that year. That time, however, I was preoccupied with my own classwork and so they went without me. The woods had been closed and abandoned for one year before they discovered it; so, they believed that they would enjoy it privately. Something unexpected happened, apparently. Since then, nobody has heard or seen them.

I finished my dinner at five o’clock the next evening and packed a battery torch, some rations and my camping knife. Then, I searched for the site of the woodlands and found it within a half hour. I pumped my bicycle tires and pedaled for the gateway of the old forest. I found it soon enough and lit my torch. Then I beamed the light ahead of me and strode inside. Oddly, it resembled a haunted, bewitched forest. I concluded analytically, that long-tern neglect had such an effect. Despite a clammy feeling, I continued further inside. I had to find my friends.

When I had reached about twenty meters from the edge of the woods, I heard faint, light footsteps like someone moving on bare feet. Furthermore, the weight of the footsteps decried a girl or woman. I aimed my torch light towards them and, suddenly, not longer than ten minutes later, Emma Petersen appeared. She stared at me nervously. Her blouse hung open and revealed her brassiere. But her jeans were still fastened.

“Emma! What happened? Where is Robert?”

“He-he is dead, Philip.”

“Dead? What happened?”

Emma stuttered fearfully through her explanation. While they had gone trekking, she and Robert Fitzgerald had discovered strange litter about twenty meters from the heartland. It was nothing like the camping litter that some careless people leave behind them. They wanted to take a sample to the chemistry laboratory at the university.

“While we were collecting our sample, a strange man appeared near it and warned us that it was radioactive. We could not believe him until, suddenly, he set on us and tied us up. Then, he took us into his cottage near the heartland. Philip, he has a lab! A lab for biological re-engineering. It left the litter we collected! I managed to escape while he set to using poor Robert! He-he murdered Robert in a mad fit!”