They began to regret it again.
They remembered how many people in the news had tried to cross this forest, most of them ending up dead or missing.
When someone was used to surviving in a city, safety, water, and food were all readily available.
As long as they did some hard labor, they would not starve to death.
Even if things got desperate, they could dig through trash cans and still not starve.
They knew nature was cruel, but they did not understand the many ways it could be cruel.
They often instinctively overlooked the details of nature's cruelty until that cruelty came crashing down on them.
That was why so many people confidently ventured deep into uninhabited areas, only to die in utter despair.
They carried the confidence cultivated in the city and stepped into a completely unfamiliar environment.
They did not know what to do in scorching heat or what to do when they lost body temperature.
The many conveniences of modern city life had numbed their survival instincts.
There were no wild beasts, venomous snakes, or poisonous insects in the city.
If they got sick, developed a fever, or caught a cold, they could immediately be sent to a hospital.
But in the forest, none of those conveniences existed.
That was why wild animals often had short lifespans, while humans could often live to two-thirds of their natural limit.
On average, wild beasts were doing well if they lived to one-fifth of their lifespan.
A beast in a zoo could live thirty years, while one in the wild was often dead within five.
In the forest, every day was a challenge to life itself.
More people chose to quietly turn back.
But as they walked, some got lost. In the forest, even if they lit a