THE GLOBAL NETWORK

When disaster strands two US tourists in the jungle, unable to walk and unlikely to be found, they have one hope: a phone with a dying battery

- Derek Burnett

AIMEE SPEVAK WAS supposed to be working. Actually, she was supposed to be on holiday—she had rented a cabin in the Pocono Mountains in August 2018 to get away from the New York City heat. But no one can ever truly break away these days, and Spevak, a freelance medical writer, found herself stuck inside on this lovely summer day, finishing an assignment. She procrastinated a little, surfing the web now and then. When she checked her Facebook news feed, she was delighted to see a notification from her friend Michael Lythcott. Lythcott was an intrepid traveller. In fact, he and Spevak had trekked through Nepal together a few years back. Spevak knew he was in Bali now.

Rather than seeing beautiful travel photos or a detailed narrative of Lythcott’s journey in the post, Spevak saw a few stark words written in white: “Help. In danger. Call police.”

MIKEY LYTHCOTT, a 39-year-old graphic designer, had indeed travelled to Bali. He and his friend Stacey Eno, 25, had landed on the Indonesian island just the day before. Excited for their adventure, the two Americans had rented a moped on the outskirts of Ubud and driven into town, where they stayed until the wee hours chatting with strangers from all over the world.

It was pitch-dark, well past 2am, when they headed to their hotel. Lythcott had placed his iPhone in the pouch of the moped and was using it to navigate. As they climbed a hill past the rice paddies and the jungle, he glanced down at the GPS and back up at the road—a curve ahead. Lythcott tapped the brakes to make the turn. He didn’t tap fast enough.