Terror @ Pulau Ubin - II

We cycled on the path and came to a rather steep slope shortly after we entered the Clearing. It wasn't just caked mud and soil on the slope, but one covered with cobbles and stones, broken and messed up together.

Augut and I rode up and I overtook him on the way because I knew if I stopped, I would've rolled downhill so I had pedalled faster to keep momentum. I thought he stopped to wheel the bike up but he didn't. So we were close together, both of us panting away when we got to the top of the steep hill.

Nice place... I thought. But... still...

In the distance, I saw a swarm of something flying together.

"There are a lot of insects here, right?" I asked. He said yup! I wanted to use that as an excuse to say I didn't want to be there and to turn around. But for some reason, we carried on.

Strangely, I headed towards the swarm of something flying nearby. Up till this point, I hadn't thought what they were but only when they flew right by me did I see that they were birds - funny looking ones - and I said, "so cute!" This doesn't make any sense on hindsight because with my fear of insects, I wouldn't have gone so near them without knowing they weren't insects.

Anyway, August kept looking at the sea that was on our left. He was standing on his bike as he was cycling and constantly looking at it. I was staring at the ground we were cycling on to make sure I could warn him if there was a pothole or some huge rock in front before he fell and hurt himself. Mostly because, I didn't know what I would do if he injured himself. Left to my devices, I doubt I could help us find a way out.

And all this time, I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

We remained on this path that took us round a broad bend, turning right, with the grass on our right. It was like cycling one big round. Then we reached the end where the path stopped so the start and end of the path didn't actually meet. I was ready to turn around and head right back out.

It was here that I started to lose control of my thoughts.

August said he wanted to pee. I said, "Must you pee here?"
"Yeah, why not!"

Then he suggested taking a smoke. "Now?"

I was nervy. But to quell that, I deliberately did what I normally would, which is to take a smoke break. It was a big effort holding this unreasonable anxiety in.

Halfway through the cigarette, he suddenly said, "Ok, let's go!"
"Now?" I asked again. We got on our bikes and moved off, hurriedly, for some reason.

I kept repeating, don't leave me behind.

We passed the same two dogs resting in the grass on our way out. We continued to turn left around the same round.

I kept expecting to reach the downhill slope - the one we had panted on our way up.

It wasn't there.

"Didn't we come up a very steep slope??" I asked August in confusion. He muttered something like a yeah.

Then we reached a fork in the road though it wasn't really a fork. There was a road to the right, something that resembled a small little dirt path that didn't seem to head to anywhere. By this time, I was really confused and determined not to take any small lanes as I wanted to get out of this Clearing.

To our left was a steep cobbly slope uphill, with a map standing to the left of the path. August said, "OK, you wait here, I go check the map."

I threw my bike down and ran after him. He said to take that uphill road and I said, "But we came up a steep slope! We should be going down!" I don't know what he said.

Both of us wheeled our way up the slope because I think we were somewhat tired. Got on the bikes at the top of the slope and went on our way. I remember looking down the grass patch to my right and seeing another lane that led out to a van and some huts. I remember because I thought, if I had to reach that lane fast, would it be wise to cycle downhill through the grasses? And I decided no because the grass was really tall and I couldn't tell if there were places to fall into or trip over.

We hit a dead end. A gate that said "No Entry" and something about "OBS". August actually wanted to ride on. I said, "It says 'no entry'! Can we take the main road?"

"Where's the main road?"

"There!" I pointed at the road underneath. I don't know why we went up that slope to get to the dead end. All I remember was feeling utterly confused at this point and I just couldn't wait to get out of that place.

So we backtracked and the feeling of coming down that steep slope that we wheeled our bikes up made me think that was the slope we had gone up on upon our entrance to the Clearing... except, that didn't make sense cos that road led to a dead end whereas the one we entered by took us round the bend.

We got out.

I felt my mind was starting to come apart.