What will you do when the next disaster strikes at school? When some crazed lunatic decides to use strange powers and puts everyone around you in danger? All you’ll be able to do is stand by and watch, just like this.

“Hey…”

“Mmm?”

“Follow me…”

“Huh, who said that?”

"Mmmm, go back to sleep Sonata."

“Follow me…”

"Who's there? I need a light. Um. That isn't it. Aha."

*click*

“I want to show you something...”

"Who said that? It's too dark out here."

“This way...”

"Slate, is that you?"

“This way…”

"Slate is that…"

"What?" I mumbled in my sleeping bag before I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I yawned while asking, "Did someone call me?" But I got no response except for some snoring from Heavyweight.

Just then, the call of nature hit and forced me to get up. "Man, I can't see anything." I hurriedly dug a flashlight out of my backpack before rushing out of the tent. I went maybe fifteen feet away from camp to take a leak before heading back. When I got back to our campsite, I swung the light over the other tents when I saw Sonatas' tent flap hanging open. Still a bit tired, I went to check on them.

"Psst. Hey, everything alright, you two?" I asked while pointing my flashlight into the tent.

"Hmmm. Sonata, I swear if you're trying to pull something this late…" Aria mumbled when the light hit her.

I quickly sobered up to the fact that she was alone. "Aria, wake up."

Now more visibly annoyed, she shot up in her sleeping bag. "Slate? What the hell are you doing opening our tent in the middle of the night, you freak?!"

"Aria, the tent was already open before I peeked in, and Sonata isn't here," I explained as calmly as I could. "Do you know where she is?"

She took a moment to look at the empty sleeping bag next to her. "I don't know. Maybe she went to use the restroom."

"Aria, it's pitch black right now, and I didn't see any other lights out there. You didn't notice that she left?" I mentioned with rising frustration.

She took a moment to think. "She was mumbling something earlier, but I didn't catch what she said." I shot her a scowl to which she retorted, "I was still half asleep." She then checked in Sonatas' backpack. "Her flashlight isn't here. So at least she isn't walking around completely blind."

Just then, a scream came from somewhere in the forest. It turned out to be loud enough that everyone in camp was now up and getting out of their tents.

"What's going on?" Big Mac asked, still not entirely awake. "What was that sound?"

I explained, "I'm not sure, but it sounded like a person. And Sonata's gone missing."

Heavyweight came up to me and asked, "Are you serious?"

"Dude, no one knows where she is, and that scream can't be anything good. We need to go find her now." I went back to Heavyweights' tent and put on my backpack.

Big Mac nodded and replied, "Alright," before turning to the girls. "Maud, Aria. Can you two relight the fire? I think we're going to need it when we get back." He then turned to me and asked, "So which way did you hear the scream come from?"

I shone my flashlight first at Big Macs' tent, then to the woods right behind it. "It wasn't nearby, but I'm pretty sure it came from that direction."

He followed the beam and stated, "Sounds like it came from the trail leading to the lake then. Heavyweight come with Slate and me, and bring a flashlight."

My friend quickly went to get a flashlight while Big Mac did the same as well as bringing his hand ax. "Just in case we run into any animals out there. I'd rather not be caught empty-handed," he explained.

"Fine, now let's go. Quickly." I urged.

"We'll be back soon," Heavyweight reassured the girls. And with that, we made our way into the darkness of the night.

All three of us scanned back and forth with our flashlights as we walked along the trail. We called out for Sonata, hoping to get some response, but we weren't able to turn up any sign of her.

Where is she? I thought while still searching with the limited amount of light. "Sonata, where are you?!"

Big Mac sighed before telling both of us, "We're about halfway to the lake. If she had been this far out, we would have at least seen her flashlight by now."

Feeling the growing pit in my stomach, I crossed my arms and slowly came to a stop as I mulled over big macs words. They both stopped and turned back to me. Heavyweight was about to tell me something but just kept from breaking the silence. I then noticed that he seemed to be spooked by something, which slowly made me even more concerned. He whispered to the both of us, "Guys, shouldn't there be some sound right now? Like, any sound?"

Big Mac and I looked at each other and then to our surroundings. We kept quiet and listened. Disturbingly enough, we found that he wasn't exaggerating, it was dead silent. No crickets chirping, no owls hooting, not even the rustling of leaves from the breeze.

I whispered to Big Mac, "What the hell is going on, this can't be normal."

Before we could keep on discussing the strange happenings, we suddenly heard crying coming from the left of the trail.

I called out, "Sonata?!" to where I heard crying, but it just continued. "Come on. She might be hurt!" I ran off the trail and past several trees.

"Slate, hold up," Heavyweight called after me as he followed along.

It was hard to tell how far I had gone off the path. I'd hazard a guess that it was probably about twenty-some feet. As I swung my flashlight in search of the source of the crying, Big Mac and Heavyweight soon caught up.

"Slate!" Big Mac scolded. "We have to stick together. It won't do anyone good if we get lost too."

Unfortunately, I wasn't giving him my full attention, thanks to what I had caught in the beam of my flashlight. There was a kid squatted in front of a tree no less than ten feet away, hugging their knees to their chest and bowing their head away from us. They heaved with every sob as they continued to cry pitifully. The kid looked to be a young boy with a shaven head. He was wearing an old tattered shirt, torn jeans, and was barefoot.

I called out to the kid, "Hey, are you alright? What are you doing out here by yourself?"

The boy stopped crying only briefly. "I can't find my family."

Walking over to the boy, I placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll do what we can to help. But can you tell us if you've seen a girl out here? We're trying to help her too."

"I can't find my family," the boy repeated in the same tone as before. At first, I thought he was in shock or something but soon realized something else was wrong. Being right next to him, I noticed a sickening stench. It wasn't one of being unbathed but more along the lines of rotting meat. The boy was now taking labored breaths as he gasped, "I can't… find. My family." What I thought to be sobbing heaves were violent twitches. Suddenly, the boy twisted his head to look over his shoulder at me, and what I saw chilled me to the core. Two dark pits stared at me for what felt like an eternity, and then out of nowhere, his arm jerked back at me as a searing pain shot down my left arm.

I lost my footing and fell onto my backside while the momentum of the boys swing made him fall flat on his face.

"Urgh! What the hell!" I yelled as I slid myself away from the kid.

"Slate! "Heavyweight called as he came up behind me and quickly picked me up from underneath the armpits and onto my feet.

"What happened?" Big Mac asked while shining his flashlight on me. When I looked at my shoulder, there were three red gashes across it. All the while, the boy on the floor began wheezing even harder as he struggled to get back up.

We turned our flashlights to the boy as he unsteadily stood up. But at that point, "boy" was the wrong term to describe what stood in front of us on unsteady legs.

As it hobbled back, trying to stay upright, we could see ashy gray skin with putrid discolored splotches appearing irregularly all over through its torn shirt. Its hands end in exposed bony tips, a few tinged slightly red with my blood. Finally, the most disturbing part that seemed to fly in the face of logic and sanity was its head.

The face had been stripped of any flesh and was missing it's lower jaw while some ruddy brown vines were sprouting out of the throat. They snaked their way all over the head and through the empty sockets and nostrils. It was also dripping a dark, almost tar-like substance from its' nonexistent eyes.

As we stood there gawking at the twitching corpse in terror, it lurched forward and wheezed. "... I can't find it. Can't…" It took another step and another. Before we knew it, it let out a strained scream as it started to stumble towards the three of us at an alarmingly fast rate.

"Shit!" I exclaimed as I snapped out of my shock and threw a kick at the creature's chest as it jumped straight for us. It had barely missed us with its claws and gasped out a short hiss as it toppled to the ground.

It writhed around, flailing its arms, trying to stand back up when Big Mac yelled, "Nope!" He pulled out the hand ax and slammed it into the creatures' exposed skull and sent shards of it splintering off into the dark. It wailed and twitched sporadically for a moment before growing entirely still.

"Is it… dead?" I asked, feeling slightly queasy.

Big Mac poked the body with his ax, but it remained still. He turned to both of us and nodded, "Eeyup."

"This doesn't make any sense," Heavyweight mumbled as we examined the dead monster. "Nothing like this should exist, it can't be real."

"Maybe, but it's right there in front of us." I took a second to grasp my shoulder and put pressure on the wound.

Looking over to the tree it had been under earlier, we passed our lights across the ground around it. At first, nothing noticeable was visible, but the flashlights' beams glinted off of something metallic. When I went to get a closer look at that spot, I found a musical note pendant in the grass.

"This is part of her necklace," I said as I picked it up. As soon as I did, however, something strange happened.

What's this? Why is my vision off? I asked in a haze.

"Hmm, where'd that voice go? I never even saw who was calling. I should head back to camp…"

That voice has to be Sonata. Is this what she saw? Was she chasing a voice?

"Now, which way was it? O-oh no. I think I'm lost. Okay, okay, stay calm. If I walk back the same way, I came then-" The words, however, caught in her throat when a sudden noise got her attention.

*crack* *crunch*

"What was that?!"

A small bald child had walked into view with its hands clasped to its face while it sniffled.

"Huh? A kid?" Sonata said in confusion.

"Help. *sob* I'm lost," it pleaded, still never showing its face.

That sounds like that thing from earlier.

“Y-you are?”

"I can't find my family…" it replied.

"Maybe my friends can help you... as soon as I can find them," she said in an attempt to be reassuring.

"L-lost… I can't find it. C-c-c…" its speech was suddenly breaking down as it shuddered.

"Um, are you alright?"

Sonata, get out of there! Don't go near it! I yelled, knowing what it was about to do.

“...c-c-ca-a-a-A… AAAAAAAHHHH!”

It dropped onto all fours and rapidly crawled right at her.

"Wha-what are you doing?! Stop!" she yelled, freaking out and trying to back away from the thing.

It suddenly leaped up with its clawed hands extended for her neck. Luckily she had stepped back enough for it to miss anything vital. Its claws did manage to hook her necklace chain, however, and with a violent yank broke it.

*snap* *clink* were the only things that rang out as she caught a single charm from the broken necklace. The creature looked up at her, showing her its missing features. With that, she screamed, "AAAAHHH! Someone help me!" and ran deeper into the forest.

"Slate!" Heavyweight yelled as he snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Dude, snap out of it!"

"What?! Why are you yelling?" I asked, tremendously confused at the moment.

"Dude, you were staring at that thing in your hand for a good ten minutes. I thought you were having a mental breakdown or something."

I glanced at the pendant and then back to Heavyweight before pointing out into the dark. "Listen, she's still out there. I don't know how, but I saw which way she went. If we hurry, we should be able to catch up and-"

"Slate, Big Mac thinks that we've gotten in way over our heads and..." Heavyweight began before Big Mac came up next to us.

"We should head back."

"Big Mac, we're close to finding her," I argued.

He sighed heavily and replied, "You don't know that for sure, Slate."

"We can't leave her out here!" I yelled.

"We won't. But first, we have to get your shoulder taken care of," Big Mac suggested.

I looked down at my blood-streaked shoulder. "Fine, let's make this quick."

We left the corpse of that monster and made our way back to camp, where we found Aria and Maud sitting around a roaring fire. Aria, looking a bit more concerned, came over to us and asked, "Where's Sonata?" She then saw my shoulder. "And what the hell happened to your arm?"

"It doesn't matter. Just need to get this cleaned, and then we're heading back out there to find Sonata," I said, wincing as I adjusted the torn shirt sleeve. I then turned to Big Mac and asked, "Hey, is there any more of that cider?"

He went to his tent and pulled out a half-empty bottle while Heavyweight attempted to make a call on his phone." Eeyup. I get that our nerves are frazzled right now, but this isn't the best time for a drink."

"Not for drinking, the first aid kit that I brought doesn't have any alcohol, and I never expected anything like this to happen."

He removed the cap and then turned to me. "You ready?"

"Just go ahead." I steeled myself for the burn that would soon follow. "This is going to suck."

When he poured out some of the liquid onto the cuts, searing pain re-surged right through my arm.

"Urgh! Son of a-Gahh!" What took about five seconds felt agonizingly longer.

He recapped the bottle before patting me on the back. "Done."

Suddenly Heavyweight exclaimed, "Ah, what the hell!" He had jerked the phone away from his ear. We all turned to him in concern.

"What's wrong?"

"I got a signal, but as soon as they picked up my call, a loud screech nearly blew out my ear!" All the while, he wiggled his finger within his ear.

"Let me try."

Maud pulled out her phone and tried to call the authorities before putting it on the speaker. What came out of the phone was a mix of static, and the screams of many people.

We were at a loss for words throughout the call. When it ended, I could only sum up what we were all thinking.

"What's going on?"

I shook my head and sighed as I reached into my backpack and pulled out my first aid kit. From there, I got a roll of gauze and tried to apply it to my shoulder, but it proved to be a bit tricky.

"Here, give me that," Aria said before snatching the gauze roll away and brusquely wrapping it around my shoulder. "There, now let's go find Sonata."

I winced as I put the kit back in my backpack and pulled out my survival knife. "For once, I fully agree with you."

Big Mac then interjected with a "Nope," while crossing his arms.

Aria walked up to him and demanded, "What do you mean 'nope?'"

Baffled, I joined her. "Wait a minute. You told me we would head back out there to find her."

"We will. But in the morning."

Now feeling betrayed, I yelled, "You saw that thing earlier, and we don't know if there are more out there! And you want to leave her out there!"

Big Mac then replied, "That's exactly why we should wait till morning to look for her."

"Well, it won't matter if she winds up dead before then," I argued.

"And if all of us end up dead, no one will find her!" He said, raising his voice. "I need to make sure all of you make it back safely, and this is the best way I can think of to do just that," Big Mac explained.

"What did that 'thing' look like?" Maud asked all of a sudden.

"It looked like a walking, rotting corpse," I spat out. "Why?"

"Sort of like that?" she asked calmly while pointing at a deformed shadow that was shambling in towards camp. It was as big as a human adult. The skull wasn't fully exposed, but it did have some old vines growing out of it. It also had that black liquid that dripped out of its mouth.

"Man, there are more of them," Heavyweight lamented as he hurriedly picked up a large stick from the firewood pile.

Big Mac then pulled out his hand ax as the creature unsteadily made its way into the firelight. "I'm sorry, but we need to go," he said as he backed away.

"Well, I'm not about to abandon her out here," I muttered right before I picked up a baseball-sized rock from the fire pit and chucked it at the things face. It reeled back with a hiss as the rock connected with a crunch. It swung its arms blindly, trying to claw anything.

Heavyweight saw his opportunity and struck it on the knee, forcing it to crumple to the ground as the stick snapped from the impact. In retaliation, it swiped at his legs. Fortunately, he was able to jump out of the way of its claws. Enraged, it quickly crawled towards Maud, hacking up the black bile with each loping step.

With a surprising bit of agility, it lunged and slashed at her. It caught her off guard as it managed to graze the side of her thigh as she tried to move out of the way and lost her balance, falling onto her shoulder.

Without thinking, I threw myself onto its back and stabbed my knife into the base of its skull, hoping that would be enough to stop it. It feebly dragged itself a few more inches before it finally collapsed and, with a single wheeze, rasped out, "You're all…lost."

I yanked out the blade and quickly helped Maud back up and away from the creature as the black, putrid liquid began to pool around it.

"That's it! We're leaving now!" Big Mac exclaimed as he picked up his backpack.

"No, we're not!" Aria shot back.

They were about to start arguing until we heard the car alarms off in the distance. We all went silent as we shared a look of dread before we turned our flashlights towards the direction of the vehicles. Out in the range, flashing yellow lights blinked on and off while at least a dozen silhouettes bobbed erratically while slowly growing.

"No way." My words dully hung in the air.

"There's too many to get to the cars safely," Maud stated with the slightest hint of pain.

We stood there paralyzed by fear before my growing dread for Sonata snapped me out of my shock. "Now we have no choice. Quickly gather up as many essentials into your bags as you can. We won't last long if we stay here."

"Where to? They could come out from anywhere," Big Mac pointed out.

"We'll keep going towards the lake. That has to be where Sonata went. Unless you plan for us to stay and fight all of those things."

"Fine," he conceded while everyone else got their things into their bags. All the while, murmurs, screeches, and rasps gradually grew closer to the camp.

"Hurry, let's go!" Heavyweight called to us as he turned his flashlight towards the hoard of creatures.

Big Mac got to the front of the group and led the way as we put as much distance as we could between us and those things.

While we desperately made our way further into the dark, we could see shadows moving between the trees along the path. Regardless, we pushed on knowing that if we stopped, those things would surround us without a doubt.

By the time we arrived at the lake, we were exhausted. On the plus side, though, there was no sign of anything that wanted to kill us. We were still understandably on edge. We helped Maud with the first aid and bandaged her leg while we even could.

"Alright, we're here at the lake! Now what?!" Aria yelled in frustration at me.

I shone my light all around the surrounding lakeshore in hopes of finding Sonata somewhere nearby. But all that I saw was the beams' reflection off the water's edge and rocks that covered the ground around the lake. "I-I don't know," I hesitantly admitted. "I only saw which way she ran when I found this." I pulled out Sonatas' lone pendant.

Aria, in disbelief, screamed angrily back at me, "You saw her and didn't stop her from going further into the woods?! What, you forgot how to yell or something you idiot."

"Look, I saw her in a vision when I picked up the pendant! She wasn't even there when we arrived!"

"A vision?! We're out here because of a hallucination you had?! We're just waiting for something to come along and kill us, and we're no closer to finding Sonata!"

"I know that, Aria! By the way, I hope those few extra minutes of sleep you got when you let her leave come in handy!" I flung back at her in exasperation.

Heavyweight cut in and said, "Well, it wouldn't have mattered if we stayed back there. But maybe if we can last till morning, they will leave us alone."

"Oh yeah, and what proof do you have that they won't catch us when they can see us in broad daylight?!" Aria shot back.

"They only started showing up at night," he reasoned.

While we started going back and forth on what we should do, Maud looked around with her flashlight. She then turned the torch to us and blinked it on and off to get our attention.

"Hey, knock it off!" Aria growled at her.

"I think one of those things may be nearby," Maud said while focusing the light on some pitch-black sludge.

"Keep an eye out then," Big Mac replied.

I went to get a closer look at the goo before looking around the surrounding area. To our concern, we found a trail of the stuff. It led to the stream that flowed into the lake.

"I get the feeling that one of those things is still trailing her," I mentioned to the group while shining a light down the path that ran alongside the stream, glinting off more of that dark substance.

"Then we should hurry after her," Heavyweight said.

Suddenly those monsters broke past the tree line near the trail back to camp.

"Not these things again!" Aria yelled in a mix of exasperation and aggravation. She then flipped them off, ineffectually and screamed, "Go burn in Hell!"

They stopped for a second before turning in our direction.

"Great, if they didn't know where we were, they do now!" I growled at Aria.

"Time to go." Big Mac motioned toward the stream while giving us an anxious look.

"Hopefully, she's somewhere up ahead!" Heavyweight said as he waved us along before following right behind us.

We ran alongside that stream for maybe twenty minutes till we couldn't hear those things anymore. We slowed our pace down to a cautious stroll as we continued to follow the trail left by one of those monsters, hoping to find where Sonata had gone. At first, there was a drop or two every few feet, but as we followed along the stream, we began to notice the dark liquid speckling the ground slowly became more frequent until we came across a lone arm in a pool of black.

"Oh, God," I said while covering my mouth and nose with the front of my shirt.

"Holy shit, what did this?" Aria asked in disbelief.

"The only thing she was carrying in the vision was a flashlight. And I doubt she would've been able to do this kind of damage to anything." I posited while looking closely at the limb. The skin and muscle seemed shredded raggedly while the bone was crushed and splintered in the middle of that. At the very least, it wasn't Sonatas'.

"Well, whatever did this must've been huge," Big Mac added.

We then noticed some large paw prints and long black drag marks that veered away from the disembodied arm into the dark trees and underbrush.

"Let's keep going. Hopefully, whatever did this is long gone," I said, turning my flashlight back to the path running alongside the stream.

No one argued against that, and we quickly kept going. There was an uneasy tension in the air as we made our way. There was no telling what else was lurking out in the dark, and it felt like we weren't getting anywhere fast. However, I did notice some trees missing some bark as we walked, so that at least filled me with some hope that Sonata had found a way to leave behind some markers.

We probably spent close to an hour on that path before we could make out the outline of the mountain that grew ever closer with each step.

"She better be at the end of this," Aria groaned.

"Hopefully safe," Maud added.

I would have replied, but the brief swish of the nearby foliage made my hair stand on end. "Did anyone else hear that?"

"Maybe the wind just picked up," Heavyweight said.

Big Mac licked his fingertip and stuck it into the air before shaking his head. "Nope."

We probably would have overlooked it after that, but a low rumbling sound was now emanating from the darkness. The grumbling was so startling to us that we pointed our lights at it almost instinctively to see what was causing it.

Two large green orbs were reflecting the light right back at us and sat on top of a snarling snout.

That face came out of the brush to reveal a giant wolf that stood about five feet tall with dark fur. More disturbingly than that, however, were the bloody sticks that protruded grotesquely all over its back. The grumble soon became a baritone growl as the fur and sticks bristled.

With fear gripping my chest, I pulled out my knife and slowly raised it. Then with everything that I had, I threw it right at its face. It managed to hit the wolf's eye, causing it to recoil as it used its paw to rub its eye in pain. Unfortunately, it only hit with the handle and clattered to the floor.

In a crazed panic, I yelled, "Run!"

We all broke out into a sprint alongside the stream while the wolf recomposed itself. Suddenly we could hear it letting out a snarl as it began to give chase.

"Don't stop!" Big Mac yelled as the sound of massive paws were gaining on us.

Its panting was only a few feet away. In a split second, I yelled, "Into the trees!"

We made a sharp turn into the foliage as the wolf barked and snapped at Heavyweight, barely missing him and skidding past us.

We kept running through the trees, but we could still hear that wolf's panting and sniffing from a distance. It didn't seem like we were losing it at all, so Big Mac yelled, "Keep heading for the mountains!" as he went back in the opposite direction towards the wolf. Heavyweight and I turned back around and followed. We wound up finding him leaning against a tree with his ax at the ready. We shut our lights off and hid behind a tree a few feet away from him.

"You two should…" he began but stopped mid-thought. "Never mind, take this." he had pulled out a rope from his backpack and tossed over one of the ends to us. "We'll pull it taut between these trees and hopefully trip it so we can try and kill it."

I quickly asked, "What if it misses the rope?" Big Mac was thinking pretty hard, but his silence said it all. A thought then popped into my head, which made me shudder, but we were out of options. "Alright, but don't pull the rope tight until I give the signal." I got a few feet back from both trees and stood myself where I was visible between the both of them.

For a brief second, I saw those glowing eyes off in the distance as that wolf searched and sniffed the air. I took a deep breath before turning on my flashlight in its direction. It immediately focused on me as it bared its teeth. It then ran full tilt, utterly intent on sinking those fangs into me.

As it neared the trees Big Mac and Heavyweight were hiding behind, I yelled, "Now!"

There was a distinct twang as its front paws caught on the rope. It tumbled towards me, so I had to fling myself out of the way as it nearly crushed me. As it crashed on by, there were loud snaps that came from the branches sticking out of its back.

Before it could stand back up, Big Mac ran over and swung his ax at its head, lodging the blade in its eye socket with a sickening squelch.

It swung its head violently, trying to dislodge the ax and knocked Big Mac down. It then lunged and bit down on his leg. All he could do was yell in pain as he tried to kick its face with his free foot.

I turned to Heavyweight and yelled, "Come on!" as I got up and ran to the back of the beast. I grabbed onto one of the longer branches sticking out of the wolf's back and told Heavyweight, "Help me break this off!"

"Right!" He grabbed onto the branch too. With a hard yank and jerk, we managed to break it off, and to our disgust blood sprayed out of the piece still embedded in its skin.

It yelped and let go of Big Mac to snarl at us.

"Quick, jab it forward!" Heavyweight yelled. We ran the branch straight into its remaining eye. Pained yowls soon replaced its growls and snarls as it writhed on the ground while it swiped at the new injury.

Without wasting any time, we got Big Mac up and held him up while we ran towards the mountain. That wolf unable to follow, disturbingly let out a long ghostly howl. At first, I thought it was a sign of it giving up. Once it had stopped, there was a brief moment of silence before cries resounded from all around the forest.

"We've got to go faster," Big Mac said as the adrenaline numbed him to the injury.

We picked up the pace as best as we could and finally made it to a clearing at the foot the mountain. It was still surprisingly dark in the open space, so Heavyweight and I swept our flashlights around until we saw Maud standing next to a boarded-up entryway and waving at us to get over to her quickly. When we got there, she asked, "What happened?"

"We barely got away from that wolf, and I think it just called for help," I mentioned. "Where's Aria, wasn't she with you?"

"While we were waiting for you three, Aria saw all this near this blockade." Her flashlight shone over the floor around the entrance. There seemed to be shreds of some material as well as an almost fully intact shoe sole, fortunately though, no blood. "I tried to get her to stay put, but she said 'we'll never find her at this rate if we wait for you guys.' and crawled under the boards before I could stop her."

On closer inspection, there was just enough space between the floor and the very bottom boards for us to crawl in one at a time. I then looked up at the rest of the barricade seeing scratch marks and some slobber before I saw a plank nailed on top of it all that had the words, "DANGER KEEP OUT," written in black paint.

Several howls could be heard further into the woods that let us know we didn't have time to debate going in.

"Well, it looks like we're going in after her," Heavyweight mentioned hesitantly.

Maud quickly pulled herself through the opening, before Heavyweight followed in.

I turned to Big Mac and said, "Alright, your turn." I then turned to the opening and called "help him in!"

I helped lower him to the opening as the others grabbed him by the hands and began pulling him in. All the while, glowing eyes were gathering at the forest's edge.

"Hurry, those wolves found us!" I yelled, past Big Mac. He started slipping in faster when one of the wolves broke past the tree line in a sprint. My adrenaline kicked as I yelled, "Hurry! Go! Go!" and shoved Big Mac under the boards. I tried to follow as close behind as I could into the opening with the sound of clawed feet scraping towards us. As soon as I was halfway underneath the boards, the others grabbed hold of me and dragged me in right as a pair of nasty jaws nicked the soles of my shoes.

We quickly stepped away from the hole where a dark snout tried to force its way into the entrance. It eventually pulled itself away as more of those wolves began to gnaw and scratch at the barricade.

"I don't know if those boards are going to hold," Big Mac said while turning his flashlight towards the darkness of what I could only assume was a mine. "We've got to keep going."

Author's Note

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this chapter after a long hiatus. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and questions on the chapter or the story as a whole so far.