Published: 18, July 2006
Author: Scott Smith
Genres: Action, Adventure, American Literature, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Men's, Mystery, Short Stories, Survival, Suspense, Thrillers
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Summary:
Eric, his fiancée Stacy, her closest friend, and former roommate Amy, and Amy's boyfriend Jeff, a medical student, are on holiday in Mexico. They make friends with a German traveler named Mathias, as well as three Greeks who go by the Spanish aliases Pablo, Juan, and Don Quixote. Jeff offers to join Mathias as he searches for his missing brother Heinrich, who went missing after following a girl he met to an archeological dig. As they depart the hotel, Pablo joins them, leaving a message and a map for Juan and Don Quixote.
In pursuit of Heinrich, the six of them travel to rural Yucatan. The driver of the pickup truck that transports them to the outskirts of Cabo informs Amy that the destination is "not nice," and offers to take the party somewhere else. Amy doesn't exactly grasp the message and decides to go anyhow. They uncover a hidden route near a Mayan settlement that leads to a huge hill covered in vines and surrounded by barren dirt.
As the party approaches the hill, they are met by armed men from the village. Jeff tries to speak to them in Spanish, but they do not react. The guys compel the group to stay on the vine-covered slope when Amy steps on it while attempting to photograph the entire group.
An abandoned campground with tents and a homemade windlass and rope going down a mining shaft can be found at the top of the hill. The same vines that blanket the slope have overrun most of the camp. Jeff and Mathias descend down the other side of the hill, believing they may be able to escape down the other side of the hill, only to discover more Mayans coming and creating a perimeter around the hill, ready to shoot them if they try to flee.
They also uncover Heinrich's body, which has been overrun with vines after being slain by the Mayans. As they return to camp, they discover that the vines exude a corrosive sap that burns their hands as they peel the vines from Heinrich's body.
When they hear the ringing of a mobile phone from the bottom of the shaft, they use the rope to drop Pablo down to collect it. However, the poison from the vines has weakened the rope, causing it to crack and send Pablo plummeting down the shaft. They drop Eric after him, and when they find the rope isn't long enough, he jumps to the bottom, hurting his leg in the process. Eric learns Pablo's spine is shattered, paralyzing him from the waist down, as the gang constructs a makeshift rope from one of the tents.
The gang constructs a makeshift spinal board and lowers Amy into the mining shaft on it. Before the bulb goes out, Eric and Amy manage to bring Pablo onto the board. The mobile phone rings again, and Eric searches for it, finding that it is coming from another shaft in the mine.
While the gang stays hopeful that Juan and Don Quixote will come, Jeff makes plans to restrict food and water in response to Pablo's message. He also determines that before they retire to bed, they should stay up in turns to keep an eye on Pablo. As night falls, Jeff returns down the hill to find the Mayans still there, but he finds a crevice through which he may be able to slip. As he approaches the base of the hill, he notices a flock of birds nearby, which alerts the Mayans to his location.
The next morning, the party awakens to discover that the vine had wrapped itself around Eric's damaged leg and forced itself into his wound, as well as around Pablo's legs. They notice that the vines had eaten Pablo's lower legs down to the bone when they remove the vines off of him. Amy vomits as a result, and she and Stacy watch in horror as a vine rises from the slope to sip the vomit pool. Jeff decides to place signs at the base of the hill telling the surviving Greeks to keep away and call for aid if they arrive.
As he walks around the hill, he comes upon the bodies of others who have perished there. He also discovers that the vines only eat organic stuff because the victims' passports, jewels, and Mayan arrowheads and bullets are all intact. He also discovers that the Mayans are evidently frightened of the vines, having salted the soil surrounding the hill to keep them at bay, and will murder them if they try to leave the hill to prevent the vines from spreading through the spores in the group's clothing.
When he returns to the location of his original sign, he discovers that it has been removed. Initially suspecting the Mayans, he learns that it was destroyed by the vines, along with another warning sign left by a former victim of the hill. Jeff returns to camp to notify the others of the new knowledge. He also determines that someone should be stationed at the bottom of the hill in case Juan and Don Quixote appear. Meanwhile, Pablo's health has deteriorated significantly, with flesh being eaten away from his legs, and Jeff believes he may die of infection shortly. While Amy keeps an eye out for the Greeks, the rest of the group reluctantly votes to amputate Pablo's legs.
With their resources running low, Jeff decides to return to the mine pit in search of the cell phone, bringing Amy with him. In the mine, he makes a flashlight, and they look for the phone by following the sound down the other shaft. Jeff understands there is no phone: the vines can replicate noises they hear and have been luring him and Amy down another pit to their doom. The party hears the vines giggling as Amy is carried out of the mine. Meanwhile, Eric becomes increasingly worried, feeling that the vine is growing inside of him, even though the others do not believe him.
Later, Eric, Amy, and Stacy become intoxicated with the tequila Pablo brought with them, resulting in a furious confrontation. They are horrified to discover that the vines can replicate voices as well, and they find themselves repeating their critiques of one other, Jeff, and Mathias. Pablo awakens and requests water, which Amy provides along with a grape from the group's supplies.
Jeff returns, enraged that they drank alcohol with so little water between them and that Eric had injured himself again while attempting to extract the vine from within his body. After Jeff and Amy have a furious disagreement, she leaves him alone while he keeps an eye on Pablo. Jeff hears her screaming out to him and vomiting, but he dismisses her as intoxicated and ignores her.
Amy is discovered dead the next morning; the vines have grown down her neck and forced her to die in her own vomit. The vines had wrapped themselves around Eric's leg once more, this time embedding themselves into the initial incisions on his leg and the cut he made on his belly the day before. Amy's body is placed in a sleeping bag and Jeff recommends keeping her body in order to consume her if the Greeks do not arrive before their food runs out. Stacy is outraged and calms him down and they all agree to bury Amy. They later hear Amy calling for Jeff.
When they unzip the sleeping bag, they discover that the vines had been mimicking her voice and had eaten her to the bone. That night, while Jeff searches for the Greeks, it begins to rain severely, causing the Mayans to seek shelter in the woods. He views this as an opportunity to flee and seek aid, but he is assassinated by the Mayans. He feels the vines pull his body back toward the slope as he dies.
During the storm, Stacy uses the rain to wash herself, while Mathias looks after Pablo and Eric naps in the tent. Later, the vines simulate the sounds of Stacy and Mathias having sex, which irritates Eric because Stacy has already had several affairs. Stacy is adamant that the vines are lying, and Mathias is silent. Mathias finds that the vines suffocated Pablo and left Jeff's cap on his head during their quarrel. In Heinrich's voice - speaking in German - the vines tease Mathias that Heinrich and Jeff are both dead.
Eric's worries about the vines growing within him appear to be justified in the morning when Mathias pulls vines from his chest and leg. While Stacy and Mathias go in search of Jeff, Eric is left alone with the knife and begins to excise the vines on his own. The vines subsequently tease Stacy and Mathias by claiming Eric is no longer alive. When they return to camp, they discover him alive but severely damaged, having severed his own ear and flayed much of his flesh in an attempt to remove the vine. Mathias tries to seize Eric's knife but is accidentally stabbed through the heart.
His body is drawn into the vines. Stacy understands they did not do the same thing to Eric in order to torture her by seeing him die. Eric begs her to murder him since he is too weak to do so himself, and after much pleading, she stabs him in the heart.
Stacy, who is now alone, walks to the bottom of the trail up the hill to await Juan and Don Quixote. The Mayans have decided that she is the sole survivor and have begun dismantling their camps. When the Greeks do not arrive by dark, she cuts her wrists calmly, believing that her body would serve as a warning to them when they arrive. The vines pull her back into the underbrush as she bleeds out.
Three days later, the other two Greeks, accompanied by several Brazilian visitors, discover the route. A small girl, like the little boy on the bike, races back to the town, but the new visitors are already halfway up the hill, shouting for Pablo before the Mayans arrive.
Rating: 85/100
Recommended: 90/100 Yes.
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