A/N: Welcome everyone to my new Until Dawn fanfic! After recently finishing the game I rediscovered my love for it and the characters and felt obliged to write this, so this fic will take place after the events of the night and will focus on what the characters go through next, in previous fics I've written I tend to make single chapters waaaaaaayyyy to long, so this fic is a sort of test to improve my writing skill with less words if that makes any sense. With each chapter probably staying under 4000 words.

But that doesn't mean this fic is simply a "test" I do have a plot for this and I've already written the first couple of chapters, so updates should come fast, as for character fates this is another fic where Josh survives, I just find him too interesting and complex to kill off like what happened in game. Everything else is canon with everyone surviving except for Matt, if you liked Matt this probably isn't the fic for you, but I found someone had to die for this fic to get kick started and to help with the plot and character development and since it couldn't be Josh I went with Matt, I could give my reasons here but this A/N would go on forever otherwise, but feel free to PM me or leave a review if you'd like to discuss the games/characters/or any requests etc... etc... as I ramble a lot but love discussing things.

Now before this Author's note becomes longer than the chapter, let's get this show on the road, enjoy!

It had only been hours.

But it felt like days.

Samantha Giddings sat with her hands on her knees, lightly tapping her foot against the ground while occasionally stealing a glance at the obnoxiously loud ticking clock, bolted to the wall of this waiting room, where the dim lighting and dull buzzing caused by these lights made it feel like it was still nighttime, no sunshine pierced this place but seeing the faint gamboge ball peeking across the horizon as those helicopters lifted them away from the burning lodge, was something Sam had to blink at several times to believe was real.

Now it felt even more surreal, dragged straight into police custody they were asked to give their version of events, one by one. They had been informed 4 hours ago, the force was sending up another search team to try and find Matt's body as Mike and Sam had seen the headless corpse of their friend and that stranger dangling off the hooks and it was more than likely Josh had now joined them.

"The washington's need their son's body back, they need that much, poor souls..." Sam thought miserably to herself.

It was like losing Hannah and Beth all over again, but this time it was much worse, knowing that Josh did what he did and with the interference of the Wendigo's... everything felt strange right now. Sam hadn't eaten or drank since the whole ordeal, she became aware of how dry and cracked her lips were becoming and how her stomach rumbled and ached in protest for her to eat. But the overwhelming emotions of the night had stifled her body's needs for the time being, she kept thinking back to everything, all the near death scenarios, Hannah herself as a Wedingo her body greyed, wrinkled and stretched out like some deformed four legged zombified spider, the only feature of her that was recognisable was the butterfly tattoo on her arm, seeing her former best friend's face so close to her own, hearing her roar and display those rows of sharp teeth, while almost gagging on the rancid amora of her breath... Sam shuddered at the memory of that and how she fought to keep herself still, to stop herself from shaking uncontrollably in the face of that monster.

"and that was once Hannah" she had to remind herself.

She tried hard not to dwell on her depressing thoughts, she looked up to see how her friends were coping.

Michael Munroe was sat on a creased black sofa opposite of Sam's chair, he was gazing up at the ticking clock, with a blank look in his eyes, as if he could sense Sam's gaze on him, he looked down and smiled at her, through his bloody, battered and bruised face, with one of his eyes blackened to the point he could barely open it anymore, the gashes on his neck were coated in dried blood, as were his clothes. Everyone who had survived the night was still littered with bruises, cuts, gashes and ruined clothing, but Sam knew they were all too numb to care about a clothing change, or their injuries or bodily needs, Mike himself eventually dropped his thin smile and turned back to clock once again.

Sam had always thought of Mike as being a charismatic yet narcissistic, womanising young man, they weren't particularly close in their friendship group. But for whatever reasons after the events of the tonight, the two people with differing personalities, had found themselves teaming up in order to survive and to say Sam now saw him in a different light was an understatement. How efficiently and effectively they had worked together as a pair to help everyone survive was startling for Sam. Right now she knew Mike was struggling but not as much as the others, he was stronger than people gave him credit for and not the narcissistic, self absorbed jerk Sam previously thought of him as.

But Mike's mood had most likely been lifted due to an unexpected arrival.

How Jessica Riley had survived was anyone's guess, but from what the group had pieced together, she had been mauled by a Wendigo, dragged and scarred by the horrid thing, dropped down a mine shaft and survived the fall and then stumbled out of the place while avoiding Wendigo's all on her own, the helicopter's found her near the mine shaft, unable to move, her skin going blue due to the exposure to the cold, quickly rescuing her and bringing her over on a separate chopper, the surviving group were more than shocked to see her alive.

Mike couldn't mutter a word when she emerged from the questioning room, neither could Jess, they had both stared at each other, before Jess almost collapsed in his arms, as he held her, numbly repeating "I thought you died, I thought you died, I thought you died..." in which she wept onto his shoulder. Afterwards, in a broken, detached voice so unlike her own merry and chirpy one, she told the group what happened to her, before she finished and proceeded to lay back on the sofa. Her bare, bloodied legs were over Mike's, as her boyfriend kept a close eye on her, whether she had fallen asleep or was now dead to the world, Sam didn't know. She'd never imagined someone could sound so broken, or so traumatized but that was the exact impression she got when looking at Jess.

Speaking of people who were almost asleep, the new couple of Christopher Hartley and Ashley Brown hadn't bothered with a single chair, and as Mike and Jess occupied the sofa, the pair of them sat on the ground, with their backs pressed up against the wall, Chris' arms were firmly wrapped around his new girlfriend, his eyes were closed, whether or not he was looking at the ground or had fallen asleep in this time was anyone's guess. Whereas Ashley was still awake, her wide, frightened eyes never left Chris, at random periods silent tears would fall down her face and her sniffing would interrupt the buzzing of the lights or the ticking of the clock, if Sam looked closely enough at Ashley she could see her shaking terribly.

"She's scared out of her wits even now" Sam thought to herself, Ashley hadn't made the best decisions during the night, from stabbing Josh in the shoulder with a pair of scissors and then just standing there with no plan to escape, or backing up Mike's rash action to shoot Emily when they had no idea if bites could turn her into a wendigo... but Sam couldn't blame her. Ashley had always been very easily scared with an over-active imagination and what Josh did, targeting her and Chris was completely uncalled for, yet Sam couldn't stare at Chris and Ashley for too long, without her own eyes starting to well up and a feeling of jealousy to overcome her.

"Why'd you have to do it Josh?" she wanted to weep "If you knew how I felt, I would have helped you, just why Josh, was it worth it?"

Then there was the final survivor of the night Emily Davis, she had lost her boyfriend during the ordeal that was confirmed when Mike and Sam had to break the news to her that they found his headless body in the mines. Emily's face remained neutral, yet she moaned "I knew it, I knew he was dead, oh God..." she trailed off to a silence there and hadn't spoken since, right now she was gazing intently at the ground as if it how somehow offended her. Sam had to feel for her as well, Josh had lost his sisters, now she had lost her boyfriend. However close they were or weren't, this was still going to be difficult for them all, but most of all Emily. Matt had always been a people pleaser and Sam got the impression Emily abused that aspect of him, adding to the fact she was dumped by Mike and Matt seemed more of a rebound boyfriend, Emily was probably thinking and regretting how much of a bitch she had acted towards him.

"I'm sorry Em" was all she could think of for her friend, Sam was preparing for the same grief Emily was experiencing right now, when the officers announced that they'd found Josh's body. But even if he had somehow survived which was near enough impossible, what could be done? He had gone off his meds and revealed himself to be insane, or suffering from an extreme mental illness that clearly hadn't been treated correctly. If what Sam had found in his medical reports was true then... she thought herself right when she said to him, that he was doing it as a cry for help.

She found herself thinking of him again, a morbid topic, but the only thing that could fully take her mind off the wendigo's.

She found no matter what, she couldn't hate him. Even if his betrayal, the words he shouted of hate and insanity at her, the fact he chased her around the lodge as a masked psychopath and showed her a video reel of his own death, he was sick, completely sick in the head...

"...Sam, I'm glad you came here..."

That Josh, those words... were they sercetly mocking her in hindsight? But that Josh Washington, the Josh she'd share conversations with after she lost her best friend and he lost his sister. Didn't they mean anything to him? Was it all a front for him planning his revenge? The thought made Sam want to cry more than her near death experiences at the hands of cursed cannibalistic monsters.

She wanted him to be alive, just so she could ask... "Why? Josh every conversation we had, every one of those talks we had after what happened to Beth and Hannah, were they all for nothing?"

"Did you really hate us... hate me, all this time?"

BANG!

The sound of the door opening, snapped Sam out of her stupor, a police officer stood tall there and instantly Sam looked up at him, Mike's eyes tore away from the clock and towards the powerful figure of the man, Ashley gasped and looked up, her quick movement rattled Chris, who readjusted his glasses and focused his eyes on the man in question. Emily duly raised her eyes, the only one that didn't react was Jess, who was either still asleep or too out of it too care.

"Well?" Emily said in a small voice.

The officer sighed.

"I'm sorry, we found Matthew Taylor's body right where Michael and Samantha directed us too".

Emily gulped, as this news washed over the group, confirming the sports nut's death to the remainder of his friends.

"I know this is tough for you Miss Davis..." he began.

"I knew it, I just knew it, Oh God..." she whined over him, as she buried her head in hands, the group looked mournfully at her as she tried to conceal her sobs, yet her method didn't seem all that effective.

"What else did you find?" Sam asked, to draw attention from Emily at her time of grief.

"We found that stranger's body next to Matthew's, like you and Michael directed us too" the officer replied to her "However, we didn't see anything you'd describe as monsters or Wendigo's down in the mines, but with the area still being investigated if you say these creatures exist we may find them".

"They do, we saw them with our eyes" Chris persisted "They killed that stranger, so whatever you're thinking about him committing these murders..."

"It complicates the investigation, certainly" the officer admitted "But we have several factors to deal with at the moment"

"What about Josh?" Sam inquired before she could stop herself, "Did you find him?"

"Yes we did" the officer replied grimly, as Sam felt her gut sink "We also found the head of Beth Washington and possessions of Hannah, they can be returned to their parents now, with the knowledge of what happened to them".

"How awful" Sam moaned to herself "All three of their children, dead on that mountain".

"Oh no, my mistake" the officer said "Josh Washington isn't dead, we found him alive wandering in the mines".

It was like a collective shockwave had engulfed the group, Mike, Sam and Ashley all exclaimed as one "What!?" and Emily looked up and wiped her tears away, a look of fury on her face, whereas Chris gasped at loud, however Jess remained immobile and silent at this news.

"How!?" Mike bellowed before Sam could ask the exact same question.

"We don't know" the officer said "Whatever happened to Mr. Washington, it was certain he was dragged by something into those mines, whether that be a person or a... well whatever you described. Something hurt him awfully, but when we found him, he was..."

The group looked down at the ground once again, they didn't need to hear this, they knew how insane Josh must have been by that point. Unable to tell fiction from reality, stuck alone in the mines with monsters all around him, it was hard for even the likes of Ashley and Emily who seemed to harbour the most distaste against him right now, to not look sorrowful for his situation.

"He still did what he did, according to your accounts and his own admission" the officer continued "With this in mind, we've spoken to his parents and it's mutually agreed Mr. Washington will be sent to psychiatric ward near to your college, if you ever wish to visit him".

Sam could see Emily was about to yell something, she quickly intervened.

"That's... great, getting the help he finally needs" she muttered and before she could face a rebuttal, she ploughed onwards "But what happens to us now? Are you going to interview us again? Are we free to go?"

"We've informed your families of what happened" the officer said "They're on their way to pick you up now, granted it's likely we'll need to speak to some of you again in the coming weeks to help with our investigation, but right now you need to rest and recover and if any of you need to speak to anybody after the events of tonight, there's a number on the wall just there for counselling and other services".

"Thank you" was all Sam could say to this.

"Your families should be here in the hour, sit tight" the officer said, before he closed the door behind them, leaving the group with more news to digest than before, but in spite of everything, Sam couldn't help but feel a little bit better.

Despite the trauma of the night, despite the loss of Matt and despite his insanity...

Josh Washington was still alive.