Brainroots

Chapter 1. Journey

My older brother Adam was always so enamored with the outdoors. Living in the deep forest part of Washington only amplified his love for it. Whenever I go outside to collect firewood, I vividly remember him always sitting under a tree with his favorite stuffed animal, reading his books. He used to say that the moss gripping its way up the tree made for a comfy cushion to sit on. He loved sitting between the thick exposed roots of the trees, always felt to him like they grew in such a way to accommodate for him to sit there.

He would spend all of his days as a kid reading to his stuffed animal all the stories he loved. Now as an adult, I sometimes look out of the window of our family home's kitchen and when glancing at where that old tree was, I sometimes think I still see him there, sitting against it, reading his books.

It's been almost two years since the last time I saw him. Around that long ago, he left from home on a research expedition. My brother was a biologist with a keen interest in trees. When he left, he told me he was going to investigate a story about a strange forest that grew under the radar somewhere in the archipelago of Novoya Zemlaya in Russia. He heard the story of its existence from one of his friends who was studying abroad and came across the rumors of it from one of the locals. Naturally he had to tell my brother about it. Who else but Adam would be happier to hear such a story?

Within minutes of knowing about the forest he ran back and forth throughout the house, looking for jackets and gear to leave immediately. It brought a smile to my face to see him like that. For the past two years I haven't heard a word from him. Not a text or a call to tell me how it was going.

It was Late in the night. The forest outside was shrouded in a mist, my windows covered in drops from the condensation. I could hear the critters chirping away in the darkness. While I was slouching over on my computer chair playing some games, I received an email from an unknown sender. The name was a bunch of letters and numbers like one of those temporary disappearing emails people use. I would have ignored it as just being spam had it not been for seeing my name in the title. Not just my name, but my nickname. The same one my brother always used to call me by. He always called me Lily, like the flower. Seeing that in the title immediately made me spring up to open the email.

In the email there was an mp3 file titled "find" and under it a bunch of numbers. To me it looked like coordinates. My heart sank just sitting there. I hadn't opened the mp3 file yet. For some reason I was getting a strange feeling. I had this weird vibration at the tip of my fingers when I moved the mouse over the icon to play the file.

I clicked it.

For the first whole minute it was nothing but sounds of rustling, the sound of leaves moving about. And then the sound of what I could only imagine to be heavy breathing could be heard. The breathing sounded forced and heavy, I began to hear faint whispering in the background behind the breathing, as If many people were talking far in the distance. And then it stopped. That was it.

I sat there in silence, completely struck with a sense of dread. Wondering why I had received such a strange email. Who would even send such a thing to someone? Was this some sort of prank? I had nothing to go off of. After closing the file I glance again at the numbers below the subject of the email. Out of curiosity I input those numbers on the internet, and on the map they zero in to a location. A small lake on the archipelago of Novoya Zemlaya.

"Why the hell is this random email sending me coordinates to Russia?"

The only thing in my head at the moment was Adam. That's where he told me he was going to on his research trip. I couldn't avoid the feeling that something might have happened. That night I couldn't sleep. I kept hearing the rustling of the trees outside. They kept reminding me of the audio file from the email.