Paradise Found | 1

Summary

We Came to the Forest – Episode 1: Paradise Found

Release Date: January 27, 2025
Host/Author: Wondery | Campside Media

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Introduction to Vienna Forrest

The journey begins with Vienna Forrest, a dedicated delivery driver navigating the bustling streets of Atlanta. Recently strained by personal struggles, Vienna finds solace in her relationship with her partner, Tortuguita—a name meaning "little turtle" in Spanish. Their bond provides a comforting anchor amidst the chaos of Vienna's life.

“The person manning the gate caught us. They’re like, next time tell your friends to hide their legs better because Torte’s legs were sticking out from under the blanket.”
— Vienna Forrest [01:19]

The Cause: Opposing Cop City

A pivotal moment arises when Vienna learns about Cop City, a $109 million police training facility slated for construction in the South River Forest, an expansive urban woodland in Atlanta. Cop City stands as a symbol of police militarization, sparking outrage among various activist groups concerned about its implications for the community and the environment.

“Cop City is being built right next to a historically black neighborhood in a city where the relationship between black residents and police is often very strained.”
— Podcast Narrator [09:54]

Joining the Movement: Week of Action

Driven by a desire to effect change and fueled by a newfound passion ignited during the pandemic, Vienna decides to join the Defend the Forest movement. She attends the Week of Action event in late July 2022, a gathering designed to unite activists through rallies, marches, and educational sessions aimed at halting the construction of Cop City.

“I could do that.”
— Vienna Forrest [12:52]

Life in South River Forest: Community and Activism

Upon arrival, Vienna immerses herself in the vibrant community of Space Camp within the forest. The camp is a hub for activists, environmentalists, and individuals seeking refuge from societal norms. Here, Vienna discovers a sense of belonging and purpose, engaging in communal activities, mutual aid, and strategic planning against Cop City's construction.

“There’s something truly liberating about taking a shit in the middle of the woods. Just bringing back to your animalistic nature, you know?”
— Vienna Forrest [19:26]

Building Relationships: Vienna and Tortuguita

During her time at Space Camp, Vienna forms a deep connection with Tortuguita, who serves as an informal spokesperson and liaison for the Forest Defenders. Their relationship blossoms amidst shared ideals and the serene yet tense environment of the forest.

“We were flirting. We did massages, gave each other massages.”
— Vienna Forrest [34:33]

Rising Tensions: Law Enforcement’s Actions

As the movement gains momentum, so does the opposition from law enforcement. A joint task force is deployed to dismantle the activist encampments, leading to heightened tensions and sporadic confrontations. Vienna and her fellow activists face increasing scrutiny, arrests, and strategic sabotage against Cop City's construction.

“They have guns. We have to have some. We can’t stand up to tanks. We can’t stand up to guns, but we can make it difficult for you guys to do what you guys want to do.”
— Vienna Forrest [27:12]

Climax: The Morning That Shatters Everything

Tragedy strikes when Vienna returns to the forest after a week of action, only to find the camp eerily deserted. The absence of her community members signals a crackdown by authorities, intensifying the sense of vulnerability and uncertainty. Concurrently, Vienna grapples with the devastating loss of her roommate, Gavin, whose decline due to alcoholism underscores the personal costs of activism.

“And they died less than 48 hours later. Total organ failure. That’s when my life kind of fell apart.”
— Vienna Forrest [28:32]

Conclusion: What Are You Willing to Die For?

The episode culminates in a haunting question that resonates deeply with Vienna and her allies: “What are you willing to die for?” This introspection reflects the broader struggle of the movement as it teeters on the brink of confrontation, with Vienna facing both external threats and internal turmoil.

“I don’t know. Sure seems like they’re hiding something.”
— Vienna Forrest [40:15]

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Key Themes and Insights

1. Activism and Community Building: The formation of Space Camp highlights the power of collective action and the creation of supportive communities amidst political and environmental battles.

2. Personal Struggles and Resilience: Vienna's journey underscores the intersection of personal grief and activism, illustrating how individual experiences shape and are shaped by broader societal conflicts.

3. Confrontation with Authority: The escalating tensions between activists and law enforcement emphasize the complexities and dangers inherent in resistance movements.

4. Identity and Belonging: The movement serves as a sanctuary for marginalized individuals, fostering a sense of belonging and encouraging the exploration of personal identities.

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Notable Quotes

• “I was very much burnt out at this time because I was working a nine to five job five days a week. So in some ways I saw the week of action as a vacation. But I’m also doing activism.”
  — Vienna Forrest [12:52]

• “We don't crave conflict. I'm sure some folks do. And, yeah, some folks probably have flashpoint moments where it's like, oh, yes, the truck being lit on fire or whatever, but not me.”
  — Vienna Forrest [37:08]

• “It's like, what better way to say fuck the police than to, like, build and thrive and be happy, be happy and peaceful and kind to each other.”
  — Vienna Forrest [38:12]

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Final Thoughts

"Paradise Found" sets the stage for an intense exploration of activism, personal loss, and the relentless pursuit of a cause deemed just by its proponents. Through Vienna Forrest's eyes, listeners witness the delicate balance between idealism and reality, community solidarity and individual anguish. As the narrative unfolds, the question of sacrifice and the true cost of standing up for one's beliefs becomes increasingly poignant.

Stay tuned for the unfolding drama in subsequent episodes of We Came to the Forest, where Vienna's story continues to delve into the heart of environmental and social activism amidst mounting adversity.

Transcript

[Matthew Scher]

Wondery subscribers can binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest ad free. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts Campsite Media. On a chilly evening in January, an activist named Vienna Forrest goes on a date with her partner in Atlanta. It has been a long, rough month for Vienna, and she spent much of it lying low, crashing on the floor at a friend's house. Her partner, who goes by Tortuguita, that's little turtle in Spanish, has decided that it's time for her to get out of the house.

[Vienna Forrest]

And we went to get Vietnamese and Mexican food. Just got a whole buffet. It was. And Tortequito's like at their peak. They're so happy they quit cigarettes. They were just really doing good.

[Matthew Scher]

A couple hours later, Vienna and Torte pack into a sedan along with two other friends and drive across town to a movie theater called the Starlight. The Starlight's pretty famous in Atlanta. It's one of the last real drive ins in the country. Still has that old school neon sign out front.

[Vienna Forrest]

Me and Torte, to save on tickets, hid under a blanket. The person manning the gate caught us. They're like, next time tell your friends to hide their legs better because Torte's legs were sticking out from under the blanket. But they let us go through the.

[Matthew Scher]

Couple stays there curled up in the backseat, hands laced together in the dark. Even as the movie gets underway, they.

[Vienna Forrest]

Were always just like someone I felt comfortable with. They were, I'm feeling bad, I can lay my head on their chest and they'd comfort me.

[Matthew Scher]

The film that night at the Starlight is Megan the horror flick about the killer doll.

[Vienna Forrest]

The modern day Chucky, if you will. Took a while for me to remember what the movie was because I wasn't paying attention to the movie so much. But yeah.

[Matthew Scher]

As the movie winds down, Vienna turns to her partner.

[Vienna Forrest]

Watching them, they seemed like they didn't have a care in the world. Or at least they didn't show it. They had this sort of resolve about things. It seemed like they were just ready for whatever was to come.

[Matthew Scher]

About 36 hours later, in an event that will permanently, violently alter the trajectory of Vienna and Torte's lives, a joint task force of law enforcement sweeps through a forest a few miles to the southeast of the drive in. Their mission is to clear the woods of a group of activists who are camping there in an attempt to stop the construction of the largest police training facility in the country. The task force is divided into two teams, one of which approaches the camp from the north and the other from the south. Most of the members have their body cams rolling. That's the footage that you're hearing.

[Vienna Forrest]

Clear that tent. Clear that tent.

[Matthew Scher]

A little Police.

[Vienna Forrest]

Police. Pay nine or you won't be bit. Look around and you're gonna find out.

[Matthew Scher]

The officers are on high alert. They were warned in a briefing earlier that morning about the possibility of weapons, booby traps, even improvised explosive devices. They wade further into the woods, hacking apart empty hammocks and tents with tactical knives. In one group, a task force member jokes about what he'll do if he finds a structure occupied.

[Vienna Forrest]

Sir, quick question. Can you get the fuck out, please?

[Matthew Scher]

There's some nervous laughter and then at 9:01am, everything just kind of shatters open.

[Vienna Forrest]

Oh, shit. Is this target practice?

[Matthew Scher]

The officers tense up, drop their hands to their sidearms. Real shops. And slowly across the forest, they begin to move towards the sound of the gunfire. Jaguar.

[Vienna Forrest]

Jaguar. Watch across.

[Matthew Scher]

Whoa. A very faint transmission comes over the radio. Man dead.

[Vienna Forrest]

This just took a step up.

[Matthew Scher]

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[Vienna Forrest]

Want more?

[Matthew Scher]

Check [e-mail] wondery all lowercase, and learn how to create the best retail experiences without complexity. Shopify.com Wondery From Wondery, Campside Media and Tenderfoot TV, I'm Matthew Scher and this is We Came to the Forest. This is episode one, Paradise Found. So why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourself?

[Vienna Forrest]

I'll get a mic.

[Matthew Scher]

Check here.

[Vienna Forrest]

Hi, I'm Vienna. How do I introduce myself? I guess just from the charges how people would know me Partner in Tortuguita. Very much in the middle of the shitstorm.

[Matthew Scher]

That's a good introduction. In the late months of 2023, Vienna Forrest sits on a sectional couch at an Airbnb in Atlanta, not far from where I live. She's got her dog Ellie in her lap while she talks. She digs her fingers into the scruff behind Ellie's ears. Although it has been nearly a year since the shooting in the forest, Vienna is still wrestling with the aftermath of the incident, which remains unresolved in every sense of the word, obscured by rumor, conjecture, and layers of government secrecy. As for Vienna herself, she's attained a certain amount of infamy by her proximity to these events and the mess of issues they've brought to the surface. Race and gentrification, police militarization and repression, climate activism and political polarization. The same issues, in other words, that are consuming all of the country. So, yeah, it's a lot. Tell us a little bit about your political life or your activist life. Were you politically interested when you were younger?

[Vienna Forrest]

So kind of how I see my radicalization is just very much kind of like one of those lifelong processes of just like, doing the groundwork and everything. But then I didn't, like, come to realization with a lot of it until, like, in 2020 when there's the pandemic.

[Matthew Scher]

2020 had been a year Vienna spent partially in Nashville, where she'd hoped to make it in the music industry. But the going had been hard even before COVID And so she heads home to suburb and moves back in with her parents, with whom she does not see eye to eye.

[Vienna Forrest]

They have come to the realization that basically everything I'm against is everything they stand for because they work in finance and they're evangelical Christians.

[Matthew Scher]

What do you think they wanted for you? If they had had their way and they'd been like, this is what we want for Vienna.

[Vienna Forrest]

They'd want me to follow in my dad's footsteps, work in finance, have a good paying job, wife, kids, and white picket fence. Typical American dream.

[Matthew Scher]

Eventually, Vienna lands a job driving a delivery route for FedEx. The gig suits her not only because of the money, which allows her to move out of her folks place and into a house owned by a friend named Gavin.

[Vienna Forrest]

I just had a lot of time to just listen to podcasts and just really expand my mind a little bit more.

[Matthew Scher]

One afternoon, Vienna's sitting in the driver's seat of the van, watching the planes race past, listening to a podcast that's become something like gospel to young progressive activists. It's called It Could Happen Here.

[Vienna Forrest]

I think it was probably their first episode about the forest movement. In early 2021, it was revealed to the public that the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police foundation plans are to turn sections of the South Atlanta forest into the largest police training facility in the country.

[Matthew Scher]

Meanwhile, the focus of the episode is a massive $109 million complex nicknamed Cop City, which is slated to be built on the wooded, overgrown site of an abandoned prison farm adjacent notably to a historically black neighborhood in a city where the relationship between black residents and police is often very strained. To its critics, what makes matters worse is that Cobb City is being paid for in part by a collection of powerful corporate donors. It's like someone went into the lab and engineered a thing that would piss off as many progressives as possible. And yet, as the podcast episode makes clear, the supporters of Cop City have not gone unopposed. Multiple efforts are underway to stave off construction. Some activists are mobilizing politically, lobbying officials to take a stand against the complex. Others are using a more direct route, physically blocking the clear cutting with their bodies and occasionally sabotaging construction equipment.

[Vienna Forrest]

In the last year, activists ghost, like saboteurs and open source researchers have voltroned together into an anonymous and diverse movement that's brought the plan to destroy the forest out of the shadows of secretive backdoor corporate deals and into the public spotlight.

[Matthew Scher]

Forest defenders, these activists call themselves. Instinctively, Vienna turns up the volume. It's as if someone is reaching out of the speakers and grabbing her by the collar. Pay attention to this.

[Vienna Forrest]

I think a lot of people in this country can relate with the feeling of just like being stuck in a rut and just work and home, working home sort of vibe and just feeling like they want to do more. And as crazy as it is to live in the woods and protest this thing, there's some beauty to just like, even though there are risks and everything, at least you are taking control of your own life.

[Matthew Scher]

Although she has no connection to Atlanta, the cause is what counts to Vienna. Back at home, Vienna keeps tabs on the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement on social media. One day, she spots news of a gathering in the Atlanta woods in late July of 2022, an event for anyone interested in learning more about stopping Cop City. There'll be rallies, marches and lessons for movement elders. A week of action, it's called. Hey, Vienna thinks I could do that.

[Vienna Forrest]

I was very much burnt out at this time because I was working a nine to five job five days a week. So in some ways I saw the week of action as a vacation. But I'm also doing activism.

[Matthew Scher]

Soon after, Vienna, wearing a black leather jacket, a pack of American Spirits tucked into the front pocket, piles into a car with a friend and her dog, Ellie, and races across the plains of the Midwest in the direction of Atlanta and a parcel of woodland that's quickly becoming a battleground. No other police department has more global brand awareness than the NYPD. From iconic images of 911 to sought after tourist souvenirs. But underneath all the iconic imagery and tales of heroism lie a dark and secret history. From Peabody Award winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika, Empire City takes you back to the 1800s, to a new York City overrun with deadly riots and brawls. A time when black New Yorkers are being kidnapped off the city streets and sold into slavery in the South. But their loved ones can't call the cops for help because it turns out the kidnappers are the cops. Find out how the NYPD transformed into the most powerful police force the world has ever seen. From Wondery and Crooked Media with Push Black. This is Empire City. Follow Empire City on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Empire City ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hey everyone, my name's Matt Sher and I'm the host of Wondery's podcast Suspect. When you have a spare moment, you should listen to the newest season of Suspect five Shots in the Dark, which covers two victims of the same crime. One is the victim shot to death in his truck and the other is the innocent man who was convicted. This season of Suspect follows the story of Leon Benson, a man who spent more than half of his life in an Indiana state prison for the murder of Casey Shane, a man he never met. Despite no physical evidence and no known motive, Leon was convicted solely on the testimony of one eyewitness who swears to this day she saw him pull the trigger. But what if she was wrong? Enjoy Suspect on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free by subscribing to Wondery and Apple Podcasts or the Wondery App. Approaching Atlanta from the southwest on the still boiling asphalt of 75, Vienna watches the city draw into view the vast green canopy and the jagged skyscrapers that loom over it. South again past Centennial park through the late afternoon traffic until she reaches the South River Forest, one of the largest urban woodlands in the country. Thousands of acres in total, just a few short miles from the city proper.

[Vienna Forrest]

It was already after dark because we were driving all day. We pulled in past the concrete barricades that have been pushed across the side and the parking lot was just absolutely overfilled with people and cars. Barely found a parking spot and me and My friends packed up all our stuff and hiked into the woods.

[Matthew Scher]

A placard catches her eye. A homemade hand scrawled greeting.

[Vienna Forrest]

It was a little like old park sign that wore away forever ago. And then someone graffitied on it, you.

[Matthew Scher]

Are now leaving the usa, it reads. Smiling, Vienna and her friend push deeper into the forest, following the sound of voices through the darkness.

[Vienna Forrest]

What came up behind the little circle of people that were there? There was string lights lighting up the forest floor and speakers and stuff.

[Matthew Scher]

Vienna is told that the South River Forest really has two sides. There's the technically off limits part, near the foundations of an old prison farm and the COP City construction site. And then there's the public park where most of the Forest Defenders live, in an area known as Space Camp.

[Vienna Forrest]

That's where the kitchen was, all the food. There was a little campfire which people would gather around and just be in community with each other.

[Matthew Scher]

In the heart of Space Camp is a clearing where the tall trees have grown together overhead, stitching themselves into a weather resistant canopy.

[Vienna Forrest]

The living room area, we called it. It's a little pine grove, so it was a nice spot to lay.

[Matthew Scher]

It's here that the Forest Defenders, many of whom have adopted forest names to protect their true identities, sit in community with one another.

[Vienna Forrest]

People would bring instruments and play folk songs, sing together, just talk about dumb stuff or even get into some of the heavier stuff, the theory and our political thoughts, and just really enrich each other's lives.

[Matthew Scher]

But tonight, Vienna's first in the woods, things are pretty quiet. A lot of folks are already in their sleeping bags.

[Vienna Forrest]

It wasn't until the next morning that I really got the full experience.

[Matthew Scher]

This place is astonishing, she thinks. Everything is so cleverly engineered, from a water delivery network to piles of food donated by supporters or procured more creatively.

[Vienna Forrest]

We go to pantries, we'd go dumpstering. We're very resourceful.

[Matthew Scher]

There's a gazebo that's been repurposed as a sort of gathering place, complete with an upright piano. There are dining tables for group suppers. There are even improvised toilets.

[Vienna Forrest]

We lovingly call them shitters. And you'd sit there and into the trench and then you'd cover with ash and dirt and it kept out the smell. And there's something truly liberating about taking a shit in the middle of the woods. Just bringing back to your animalistic nature, you know?

[Matthew Scher]

As the morning haze burns off, Vienna watches dozens more people begin to pour into the park.

[Vienna Forrest]

That's a big influx of people. There is probably hundreds of people, members.

[Matthew Scher]

Of environmental organizations and pro labor groups, members of the clergy, anarchists and drifters, veterans of past climate actions around the country.

[Vienna Forrest]

It's hard to like, describe how, like big of a popular movement this was.

[Matthew Scher]

A local activist nicknamed Earthworm is on hand that day. As a resident of Atlanta, Earthworm knows how commander committed movement folks tend to be in her city. Still, she's rarely seen anything as powerful or varied as this.

[Vienna Forrest]

There would be like picnics and barbecues and like speaking events, symposia. Muscogee elders who'd been like forced off of this land were coming from Oklahoma and like taught about their traditional dance. And I remember thinking at the time and remarking, like, wow, who would have thought that opposition to Cop City would manifest this way? It's just such a diverse movement.

[Matthew Scher]

To other attendees, like two protesters who go by Lavender and Mermaid respectively, the week of action is proof of something that they'd long suspected, that it is possible to build a community on one's own terms, with one's own guiding principles.

[Vienna Forrest]

The forest occupation or things like that present a vision of a society where we can have what we need and support each other without being at each other's throats or being subservient to each other. I don't know, you go to this magical forest and you find people that are really kind and really care about protecting it. And in a way it's really just romantic, especially being around people that shared similar identities, like politically had the same things that they were striving for. I found people that I loved and a space that I loved, and I found a struggle worth fighting for.

[Matthew Scher]

On top of its most basic aim, to ward off the construction of a facility that represents everything the activists fear and dislike. The movement is a haven for people who have felt for their whole lives like they don't fully belong.

[Vienna Forrest]

I think a lot of what sparks it is a lot of trans and gender non conforming and queer folks are already outcasted by society. So that pushes them more into more radical spaces, more questioning the norms that have been put upon us. And that makes us more prone to be politically active and be challenging things in ways that most people don't. A lot of queer people are unhoused because they've been disowned or whatever. So they are more free to live in a forest for a few months and then there's a queer community in there, and then that attracts more queers and so on and so forth. Many people went in binary and came out less binary. Yeah, it starts with the you start she her, and then you're she they, and then you're they she, and now you're they them. Oopsies. Whoops. The real pipeline no one talks about.

[Matthew Scher]

At camp, the residents pass around a book called Joyful Militancy, which Vienna devours. It's written by a pair of activist scholars. The basic idea is that the world is broken, increasingly so by capitalism, by war, by the destruction of the environment. To fix it will require direct action, direct resistance, and also friendship, comradeship, mutual reliance, righteous fights, the idea goes, make for beautiful communities. And those beautiful communities can be an antidote to a culture that often feels alienating. It's basically Vienna comes to realize what was meant by that. You are now leaving the USA sign. Every day of the week of action, she is seeing firsthand how quickly the typical grind of real life can be replaced by something superior, something elevated and almost spiritual in nature.

[Vienna Forrest]

It was very much a living for today sort of vibe. We were just living out our ideals in a lot of ways. We had basically our own society out there where we were taking care of each other, living very communally, very self directed.

[Matthew Scher]

It sounds like you were happy.

[Vienna Forrest]

I was. It was probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. Wednesday, August 3rd, at approximately 12:25pm.

[Matthew Scher]

Around the same time, Vienna is in the woods for the week of action. An interesting exchange is taking place between an agent with the Georgia bureau of Investigation and an activist who has recently been detained in the South River Forest, unbeknownst to any of the forest defenders. For several months, this investigator has been tracking the defend the forest movement, which has been connected by law enforcement to a string of troubling vandalism and arson incidents. Construction equipment, for example, has been burned and sabotaged. Atlanta police just released body camera footage of one of the explosions created by protesters outside a future Atlanta police and fire training facility. Companies associated with the project have had their windows smashed and walls tagged with anti cop sign.

[Vienna Forrest]

All of a sudden you hear this big loud boom, you know, in the back window shattering. My partner looked and she's like, are they breaking our windows?

[Matthew Scher]

I was like, yeah. And owners and employees of engineering firms and contractors have awoken to protesters outside their homes became very, very loud. There were drums, there was loudspeakers. There were people at my doors and windows, you know, pounding on them. Police have managed to arrest a few dozen activists and charge them with minor crimes. But to date, none of those arrested have wanted to talk about the nature of the movement or its aims or Its internal structure. This guy is different. He seems to want to talk. And so the GBI agent seizes his opportunity. Do you know how the activism against Cop City got started?

[Vienna Forrest]

Like who?

[Matthew Scher]

If there was, like, any central group.

[Vienna Forrest]

Or anything that brought it to light. I've asked that same question myself, and nobody. There's no answers. Okay. It's basically just. I don't know, it's just magic in a way. It just seems like the wind blew a feed and then it started sprouting. There's no organization, really. There are people who have been there longer than others, but there's really no administration. There's no. Not that I know of. It's all very. Because then someone like me could get detained and know exactly who to tell, or even like, text messages and sharing names and things like that. The information just can always be got. So if the information isn't even there to begin with, it's called safety culture.

[Matthew Scher]

Okay, so basically, I guess to have an analogy, if. If there is no leader, there's no.

[Vienna Forrest]

Leader that can be docked. Exactly.

[Matthew Scher]

As the interview progresses, the GBI investigator pushes his subject. What about some of these tactics? They're pretty destructive, right? Well, the activist answers, we are working with what we have, with what resources are available to us.

[Vienna Forrest]

They have guns. We have to have some. We can't stand up to tanks. We can't stand up to guns, but we can make it difficult for you guys to do what you guys want to do. And there's a few people in there that are just out there because they.

[Matthew Scher]

Just want to cause problems. Chaos is chaos, yes, but there are consequences to that, the young activist admits. Consequences to leaderlessness and chaos, as everyone in the forest is about to find out. At the end of the week of action, Vienna reluctantly returns to Nebraska. Reluctantly being the key word. She'd prefer to stay in the paradise of the woods, but she has a job and she has a roommate, Gavin, who had steadfastly supported her during her transition.

[Vienna Forrest]

Unfortunately, they were not as kind towards themselves. We. And they were very heavy into the alcohol, and eventually it took its toll on their kidneys and liver, and they lost their job and they were just drinking all the time.

[Matthew Scher]

While Vienna's been in Georgia, Gavin has gotten markedly worse. Now they're the one that needs support.

[Vienna Forrest]

Their body is literally falling apart.

[Matthew Scher]

They can barely greet Vienna. They're jaundiced. Their breathing is ragged and shallow.

[Vienna Forrest]

And they died less than 48 hours later. Total organ failure. That's when my life kind of fell apart. I feel a Lot of guilt and regret about their death just because I spent so much time outside the house and I didn't give them the support I felt like I needed to give them.

[Matthew Scher]

But the guilt and the grief is only part of it. As she prepares a memorial service for Gavin, Vienna discovers that her roommate has left behind unpaid bills. The bank is moving to repossess the house. Vienna decides she won't wait to be evicted.

[Vienna Forrest]

So I quit my job and I went to the first place that I.

[Matthew Scher]

Felt safe, which is the forest, A place that feels no less hot than it was in July. Climbing out of her van in the parking lot of the South River Forest, Vienna spots the burnout husk of a pickup truck covered in graffiti. She does a double take.

[Vienna Forrest]

I was like, huh, that's new.

[Matthew Scher]

She shoulders her bag and follows the path out of the parking lot, past the you are now leaving the US sign. And she realizes, in contrast to her arrival for the Week of Action, that it's really quiet here. She'll later learn that construction crews are picking up the pace at the cop City site and law enforcement is on alert. There are rumors of added surveillance, of.

[Vienna Forrest]

Potential raids, so everyone was off hiding. So I just walk into camp and there's just nobody around. And it's just like really eerie ghost town vibes.

[Matthew Scher]

She passes a series of tree sits, tree forts, basically, that Forest Defenders use to monitor law enforcement movement and impede the progress of clear cutting.

[Vienna Forrest]

And I hear who goes there.

[Matthew Scher]

The voice Vienna hears belongs to a short, sinewy activist with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail.

[Vienna Forrest]

I tell them my name at that time and they're like, oh, hi there.

[Matthew Scher]

The activist goes by Torteguita Little Turtle. And although they've been living in the woods for months, they'd kept their head low during the Week of Action, which is why Vienna realizes she's only meeting them for the first time.

[Vienna Forrest]

They preferred when there were smaller numbers, where you could have more genuine connection with people and people who aren't just there to, like, party and everything. As fun as it is to have concerts and stuff in the woods, Torte.

[Matthew Scher]

Explains that they work as a kind of informal spokesperson for the Forest Defenders, a liaison to journalists interested in the workings of the movement. It is something they excel at. They're charismatic, funny, quick to laugh, quick on their feet.

[Vienna Forrest]

I think it's incredibly important to continue having popular support because cop cities are incredibly unpopular already. We are very popular. I say this, you know, like, we're really cool. We're winning every day that we're out here, every party that we have is a success. Every time somebody's needs are met, every time somebody has a nice, warm, dry place to sleep out in the woods. Well, maybe not dry. Less wet.

[Matthew Scher]

Vienna and Torte spend the day together, walking and talking, sharing ideas. Later, Vienna tells Torte about her childhood in Nebraska, and Torte gives her a rundown on their backstory. They grew up in Venezuela, and when they were young, their mother had remarried an oil executive. Cognitive dissonance, Tort knows, considering where their politics ended up. And Torrit had traveled the world. Russia, Egypt, Europe. After high school, they'd briefly studied medicine with the goal of becoming a doctor. Later, they'd moved to Florida, to Tallahassee, where they found a life in activism. They built a mutual aid network, helped create a massive community garden, toured the country participating in climate protests to make money to make enough to survive. They'd worked on a lawn crew. Then they'd heard about the movement to build Cop City and come to the same decision as Vienna. This is where I'm meant to be. Torte adores life in the camp. As they'll later tell an Atlanta journalist named David, I love living in the woods.

[Vienna Forrest]

Like being a forced hobo is pretty chill, especially when you have friends. And I'm really good at making friends.

[Matthew Scher]

In Tort's diary, which they keep next to their sleeping bag in their tent, is a piece called A Poem Under a Tree, which seems to speak to their time in the forest. The beauty of a lover's touch should be free, and so should everything else one needs to live. The gentle reminder that everything dies and returns to cosmic dust makes me think about how precious each moment is, each atom of eternity, the vastness of it all amazes me, comforts me, and leaves me grateful for the awesome greatness of our universe of earth. Earth without art would be nothing of interest for me. The little things make life worth living. Chop wood, water plants, rest and repeat. Chop wood, carry water. So it goes. Vienna is smitten by Torte. There's no other way to put it. One evening, the pair retreat to torture 10 in a stand of pines a couple dozen yards from Space Camp.

[Vienna Forrest]

We were flirting. We did massages, gave each other massages. And that's enough detail for this podcast.

[Matthew Scher]

It's worth noting that all of this the romance, the courtship comes at a pivotal time in the history of the camp. While Vienna was in Nebraska dealing with the aftermath of Gavin's death, Forest defenders had been involved in a series of skirmishes with law enforcement. Later, a Transformer, part of the local electrical grid had also been damaged. Meanwhile, activists had sabotaged a truck belonging to Ryan Millsap, a real estate mogul who was developing another section of the South River Forest, which made him, in the eyes of the forest Defenders, a target, too. Well, new tonight, vandals destroyed a work truck near the controversial site of a planned training facility for Atlanta police and first responders. Millsap says vandals ripped the doors off this Ram 5500 pickup, then torched it. And he says they spray painted threats on the sidewalk directly aimed at him. The threats on the truck were not ambiguous. Do crime. If this park isn't safe, Millsap isn't either. This was the same truck, the same graffiti. Vienna had passed on a return to the woods.

[Vienna Forrest]

Tortuguita talked about it being almost like a symbol of we're winning, you know, in a lot of ways, because we built a little planter out of it. We did art and everything with it. It kind of represented a lot of the movement in the sense of while there was destruction, we also were growing from that destruction. From the ashes of a very corrupt.

[Matthew Scher]

System, Vienna carves out a role for herself in the camp. Lookout and medic, part time, cook part of the glue that keeps the camp running.

[Vienna Forrest]

Diversity of tactics was always something that was respected. He had people who were doing canvassing, and that's like, all they did. There are some people who wouldn't cross the creek because they didn't want to get arrested. I never took part in whatever perceived actions were taken over there.

[Matthew Scher]

This is deliberate. That kind of work, Vienna decides, is not for. For her, it's too risky. Across the creek is private land. Just your presence there is an arrestable offense, and jail is the last place as a trans woman, she wants to be, outwardly, at least. In conversations with journalists, Torte takes a similar position.

[Vienna Forrest]

I am not an adrenaline junkie. I'm out here because I like the forest a lot. I love the forest. I. We don't crave conflict. I'm sure some folks do. And, yeah, some folks probably have flashpoint moments where it's like, oh, yes, the truck being lit on fire or whatever, but not me. No, I love it when we're all chill, Love it when everything is calm.

[Matthew Scher]

And yet Tord has two speeds, two modes, really. They can be friendly, they can be easygoing, but they can also be reactive, quick to action, especially when they feel pushed, which they do when law enforcement starts making incursions into the forest, destroying tree sits and arresting a number of protesters for trespassing.

[Vienna Forrest]

Whenever the cops destroy things, it just makes us angry. And then we just build more things.

[Matthew Scher]

Cause it's.

[Vienna Forrest]

It's like. It's like, what better way to say fuck the police than to, like, build and thrive and be happy, be happy and peaceful and kind to each other. Like, that's. That's such good vengeance.

[Matthew Scher]

But the problem with a certain type of vengeance, even if it's good vengeance, is that it can perpetuate a cycle rather than halted. It tends to bring more heat, more pressure. And sure enough, outside the forest, the city is planning its next step, a response that will forever shatter the paradise the couple have found. Coming up on this season of we came to the Forest.

[Vienna Forrest]

As long as I'm your governor, there will be no gray area or political double talk. We will support our law enforcement officers, and the Atlanta Public Safety Training center needs to be built, period. We've heard that we're militarizing the police. We will never be militarized. We are equipped to respond to whatever dangers may befall our city. There were armored SWAT police at every entrance to the house. They had come prepared to attack and kill anybody that they encountered in the house.

[Matthew Scher]

What's on fire down there? What the are they doing now?

[Vienna Forrest]

I don't wish even on my worst enemy because do you know what it's like to be grieving for somebody and not know who you're even grieving for yet, but you know it's somebody, you know. Am I scared of the state? I mean, pretty silly not to be. You know, that was the first time I knew what they were charging me with. The weight really hit me.

[Matthew Scher]

If their explanation of the events of that morning are true, they would have every reason to be as transparent as possible. What do you think's actually happening?

[Vienna Forrest]

I don't know. Sure seems like they're hiding something.

[Matthew Scher]

If you like We Came to the Forest, you can binge all episodes ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey if you have a tip about a story you think we should investigate, please write to [e-mail] tips. We came to the Forest is a production of Wondery Campside Media and Tenderfoot tv. The series is hosted by me, Matthew Scher and is written and reported by me and Tommy Andres for Campside Media. Our producers are Abacara Don and Henry Lavoy. Additional production assistance from Timothy Pratt, John Rusch, Aaliyah Papes, Johnny Kaufman and Jamie Albright. Sound design and mix by Garrett Tiedemann. Our theme is by Mondo Boys Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set and Garrett Tiedeman. Our studio engineers are Jimmy Guthrie at Arcade 160 and Seth Cohen at Seth Coe. Sound fact checking by Aaliyah Papes. Tommy Andres is the Executive producer Producer. Special thanks to David Heisner for Wondery. Our senior producer is Lata Pandya. Coordinating producer is Sierra Franco. Development Producer is Olivia Weber. Consulting by Cassius Adair of Sylveon Consulting. Executive producers are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Josh Dean, Adam Hoff and me, Matthew Scher for Campside Media. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay for Tenderfoot tv. Executive producers are Nidri Eaton, George Lavender, Marshall Louie and Jen Sargent for Wondery. Are you captivated by the dark and mysterious world of true crime? Wondery offers you the ultimate true crime experience with early access to new episodes, exclusive content and a seamless ad. Free listening journey with Onery. Plus you'll get access to hundreds of podcasts, including more than 50 true crime series like Dr. Death, the shocking true story of a trusted surgeon who brought unimaginable pain and suffering to his patients. This was not an operation that was performed.

[Vienna Forrest]

This was attempted murder.

[Matthew Scher]

And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a light hearted nightmare. With Wandery, you get access to exclusive bonus content too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community. This case is one of those rollercoaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure. No, he for sure he did it. Each story is crafted to keep you enthralled, revealing the complexities and motivations behind every crime. Subscribe to Wondery on the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify today. Unlock the door to a world of true crime like never before with Wondery. Plus, the best true crime stories are always at your fingertips.