Bare hills

[Osi]

They traveled tens of kilometers from Usma, safely crossed the forest, and died on the first bare hill they encountered. The 10-person Chivruay group also; They had crossed tens of kilometers of forest on the Kola peninsula and died on a bare, rocky ridge. Again, the Hamar daban group crossed the forests; they shared the same fate on a stony and rocky ridge. These similarities remind me of this. If you step out of the woods onto a stone ridge at the wrong time in Siberia, you will die. There is not a single tree there and the rocks have crumbled due to cold erosion. As if guilty; Was it nature that was sly and silently smiling in the background?

[GlennM]

Good arguement and supporting evidence. Neither bomb, assassin nor tree required.