El Camino de la Muerte

“No corras por el bosque

No mires hacia atras

O la Muerte te seguira

Hasta te encontrar”

That was it said on that old wooden thing at the entering of the Bolivian path – well known as “Death Road”. Someone once said that it is up to three hundred the number of villagers killed in this path yearly. That was silly. Why should one care about this? It was just a stupid road.

“Don’t run in the woods

Don’t look back

Don’t stop

Or Death will follow you

Until you’re found”

Rubbish made up to scare kids and maybe attract more tourists to the country. Rubbish that people once in a while believed.

Emma and Marcus loved adventures – all sorts of it; a wild animal to a mountain freezing over. They already tried many crazy things, but before they jumped into the wildest of all the adventures – marriage – they decided to try one last thing: Bolivia, somewhere near La Paz where a path called “Death Road” was located.

First they would cross that blasted path and prove the stories wrong.

Emma heard well enough from the locals that people believed the path to be truly dangerous, that not even their most brave man could make it alive. She had a thing to no men before her had, though: a GPS.

“Whatever.” Emma laughed, looking at her fiancée from the corner of her eyes. “Let’s just get this over with, I’m hungry and sweaty enough for a week.”

“Yeah, yeah, Ems, whatever.” Marcus shook his head, patting the woman on her arm. “Nothing can go wrong here, yeah?”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid?”

A laugh escaped the man’s throat. “No way in seven hells I’m afraid of a little haunted forest, love.”

“Then let’s go.”

They walked quietly for a while – not because they were following the warnings, of course – just observing what Mother Nature offered to their eyes. It was beautiful, Emma could admit that.

Stunning, that was it. Everything surrounding the couple was stunning.

It was all so amazing, so magical that they couldn’t help but feel lighter than they ever felt.

Suddenly, Marcus decided to let go of Emma’s hand and run ahead of her, looking as much as a child at Christmas day. He was so light… he couldn’t stand by Emma’s side without exploring around.

Then it was all very quiet. The beauty gone.

“Don’t run in the woods”, Emma remembered with a start.

Marcus looked back at his fiancée with wide eyes.

“Don’t look back.”

His body stopped abruptly, his feet glued to the ground.

“Don’t stop.”

He ran away, as fast as his legs allowed.

“Or Death will follow you

Until you’re found.”

Emma didn’t stop nor tried to follow him – granted, she loved Marcus dearly, but she also loved her life. She wouldn’t die after what she saw.

So she just continued walking on the trail because there was only El Camino de la Muerte.

-THE END-