Alone in the Woods...

The skies were unsure of what to do next. For more than a week now, they relentlessly pummeled the earth, seeming somewhat enraptured with the carnage they had caused. Derailed trains, land slides, car accidents, and of course, wet shoes.


His wet shoes plodded along the bitumen, one foot in front of the other. Not that it was still raining, though it certainly looked like a viable option. No, wet shoes came from an hour plodding through the rivers that were roads. The roads beneath him never seemed to change, as through exhaustion he couldn't raise his head to see what was changing around him.


He needed a change from these black puddles. The cold hard stare of the road seemingly knocking him, taunting him. He needed a change. And that change lay just ahead of him. A small sign, pointing to a dirt track. A sign that read 'Horseshoe Falls'.


He veered down along the track, thinking quickly on his feet to avoid losing his footing on what was once a wood and stone stair case, but was now nothing more than a muddy stream. Each step could give way beneath him at any moment. But along he continued.


Where the path became too lost to the waters, he would drop to a walking pace, to catch his breath and find the safest passage through. Just below him, he could hear the waters bellowing down, down to the falls. He passed the first set of falls, traveling beneath it as the path led. The surge of water bursting overhead thundered like a marching army, echoing through the cave beneath the falls. He was thankful to come out the other side, wondering if the rock above could have continued to support such a force.


Again, the path dropped ever downward, the staircase now just another waterfall. His feet found easy holds, and as the water rushed overhead and down his back, he noticed the darkness of the glen he had just entered loom in. At first he thought it was the sky deciding to drop another torrential rain, and as he looked up, he saw it was the thick canopy overhead.


He continued along the bush track, far more foreboding than it had been above the glen. Trees cut the path in two, felled for some unknown reason. Long strings of bark torn from the trees collected at his feet, trying to trip him over, grappling his ankles. But onward he ran. And as the sound of the last booming waterfall disappeared, the next one, Horseshoe, became louder.


As he rounded the bend, walking the uphill of the path, the falls presented themselves before him. The majestic boom. Such power. Such force. He wondered what it might be like to stand beneath it, where it peeled the moss from the rocks it smashed down into. But he couldn't.


Along the path leading to the waterfall, a sign had been erected, just in front of yellow danger tape strapped around a cluster of trees, blocking off the way through. The sign warned of falling trees and a lack of safety. But he could see the real reason.


In the center of the tape, just a few feet before him, was a hole. Only a few feet in diameter, but there was a hole, a hole without a bottom. He looked around for the so called fallen trees, and the only one nearby couldn't have come from this hole, it was too far away and too big to have originated from the hole. He pondered all the things it could be, what could be lurking in the hole before him.


And as he inched forward, the yellow tape stretched against him as he leaned over it, he would discover what demonic sin would come bursting from the depths of its abyss. He would see some foul wretched thing that no man has ever lived long enough to name. He would find some helpless victim, clinging to the dirt while water poured into their mouths from the rains above.


No, instead, as his eyes leveled over the hole, he saw...



Nothing. It was just a boring black hole, but I was really hoping for something to come out of it, even if it was going to tear me to shreds. At least then I wouldn't have had to turn around and face the long journey back uphill.

This is one of the locations for Relentless I went down to see again today, although last time I didn't get as far as the now waterfall staircase into the glen. It was awesome down there, and wished I brought every piece of recording devices I have. Alas, I'll have to go back tomorrow. The rains sure made these waterfalls spectacular, and I'm both glad and sad that they won't be that way when we shoot next month. Sad because they just look and sound so good, but glad, because that sound would be an absolute nightmare when trying to collect dialog.

I've had a few replies to the casting call I put out, and by the looks of things will hopefully have auditioned and settled on the remaining cast by the end of next week. Course, there's still the rest of the crew too.

This week I'm concentrating on breaking the script down into its locations, and try to come up with some sort of shooting schedule by the end of the week. Course, it's also a big week in my real world job so I might not get too far on that.