The Country They Call Life

Where am I?

Stop, stop.

Stop.

Stop right now!

Hello?

Oh, my God.

Hey. Hey!

Hey, hey!

Hey! Hey!

Hey!

Where'd you come from?

What just happened?

I grabbed your hand.

Did you follow me?

I don't understand.

Yeah, same here. Lady, start talking.

What's your name?

Autumn.

- Hi, Autumn. I'm Daniel. - Hi.

Can we please talk ab...

Oh. Wait, hey, wait!

Wait! Wait!

I'm sorry.

Wait.

Wait, wait.

Lemme just, lemme just ask some questions.

We can stop. Whatever this is.

Jesus.

What?

You okay?

I'm fine.

I don't know what happened back there, but, listen,

coming to my attention you might have saved my life.

I guess I accidentally got too close.

You just came outta nowhere, which I'm glad for.

But anyway, what I'm...

What I wanted to say was thank you.

Okay.

What?

What in the hell?

Where you going?

There's somewhere I gotta be.

Look, so I'm a jerk. It's a condition.

What do you want?

Just lemme get you outta the forest safely.

I'm perfectly safe.

Uh, hey, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm not great with the whole

human interaction thing, you know?

I guess I'm rusty.

- Okay. - But the forest

is dangerous by yourself.

I feel like I owe you a debt.

Whatever happened back there, you did save me.

And let me return the favor.

I'd feel really bad

if you got lost out here after all of that.

What are you doing out here?

Looking for something.

Yeah, same. What are you looking for?

What are you looking for?

Used to come here as a kid.

Seems to have really changed. Gone downhill.

You don't have to stay.

I know. I'm just saying.

What are you looking for?

You didn't answer.

Looking for a place I used to go as a kid.

I'm not even sure it's here anymore.

I've been looking all morning.

Maybe I've dreamed it up. Who knows?

How did you get here?

I, I drove. How did you get here?

Walked.

You live close by or something?

It's nothing nearby, I thought. Just wilderness.

What do you do for a living?

Instagram model?

Perfume commercial?

Serial killer?

You all right? I was just kidding.

How the hell are we here already?

What's wrong?

Fine.

I can take a hint.

Strange guy in the forest

probably bugging you and you just wanna leave.

Listen, it's been fun.

Thanks for,

you know, everything.

But looks like we're home free now.

What do you want? Here in the forest?

Used to go to a lake here

when I was young.

Doesn't matter. I don't have time.

It's probably not even there anymore.

All dried up like everything else in a 500-mile radius.

- It's there. - The lake?

You've been there?

Many times.

Do you...

I should head back.

This is a stupid idea anyway.

I can take you there.

Oh yeah?

I thought you were looking for something.

If you need someone to show you, I could do that.

There's somewhere I'm supposed to be.

Probably don't have time to go, come back.

But there's a way.

If we cut straight through the middle of the forest.

There and back before sunset.

You got a lot of free time?

How do you know the forest so well?

Do you want the help or not?

All right.

You little serial killer, do your worst.

You coming?

How do you even know where going?

Everything around here looks exactly the same.

Don't you get lost?

Not anymore.

Isn't there a mountain where we're headed?

We're already on a mountain. That's just a peak.

Are you sure this way's safe?

Are you scared of the forest?

No, it's not that. It's just

There's a lot that can kill you in a forest.

Not just kill, poison, maim, debilitate.

A lot that can kill you outside of one too.

Jesus. Oh.

It's the shoes.

Why wear them?

Why are you wearing a dress?

So where are you from? Somewhere near?

- Yes. - Porterville?

Family there too?

What about, um- Where's your family?

What?

What happened?

This was a mistake. I'm not good company.

Pain?

No, I'm fine. I'm fine.

Are you freaked out now? You wanna head back?

Do you?

No, I'm good. This place, this place creeps me out a bit.

I feel like it's never gonna end,

with these endless trees.

The lake is just on the other side of the mountain.

You have to slow down. Okay?

I thought you were in a hurry.

I am, but I just can't run.

So wherever we're going,

we're just gonna have to walk there.

Okay.

You've been here before, right?

Yeah, of course. Just been a while, I guess.

Longer than I realized.

These trees are older than we are.

They were here before even our parents were born.

There are trees even older than Jesus.

Not that I believe in Jesus or anything like that.