Alex's POV

"Mom, are we there yet?" I pouted and set my head in my hand. My mother rolled her eyes in exasperation. We were supposed to be at this middle-of-nowhere camping site before dark, but my mother insisted on taking the "scenic route," so that we could spend some quality time together.

"Oh, stop complaining, we're here!" Looking out the window, I scoffed. All that was around was a murky pond, some trees, and a muddy old campsite. Mom and I climbed out of the old silver SUV, and I immediately regretted wearing my converse rather than heavy rubber muck boots. My feet had instantly sunk several inches into the thick mud. I tossed my head back and groaned loudly. My mother, who had worn her boots, was already behind the SUV, pulling out our folded and crumpled tents, which had been sitting in storage since before I was born. They reeked of mildew and mothballs. I decided that I should probably help out before mom started yelling, which would make this trip even more miserable. I grabbed the two stacks of thin poles, which were used to hold up our tents, and the new stakes that mom had bought. I found an area that was relatively dry, and started threading the poles into the mildewed blue fabric that made up my tent.

Nearly a half hour later, my lopsided tent was done. I was certain I had done something wrong, but I really didn't care. I glanced over to see my mother still struggling, practically swimming in mud and tent fabric. After she had finally gotten it to cooperate, we went back to the SUV to ensure that our food had made it through the trip. Mom had insisted that we should pack enough food to survive the week, even though we would only be there for the weekend, so there were boxes of beef jerky, potato chips, bottled water, and various other necessities. I snagged my backpack from one of the boxes and loaded it with a couple days' supply of food and a few bottles of water. I slung it over one shoulder and walked over to my tent, tossing it inside. The last thing I grabbed out of the car was a long green case. Once I got it into my tent, I opened it, revealing a gleaming, pristine 300 Win Mag deer hunting rifle. I loaded it, in case of bears or wolves or whatever other monstrosities dared to attack me. After carefully setting it down, I unrolled my sleeping bag and laid down to go to sleep.

?'s POV

From my vantage point on top of the hill, I could see the two women climb out of their strange growling machines, and pitch tents in the mud. I scoffed. Didn't they know there was a dry area less than a mile away? For that matter, what were they doing here anyways? Nobody just went camping in the middle of the field. As darkness fell, the women put their lanterns out and climbed into their tents. Soon, all was silent, and I snuck towards the campsite. Hearing a strange noise, I stopped, drawing my sword. I glanced around, but the night seemed empty. I proceeded cautiously, keeping my sword drawn and reaching a hand back for my shield. As I went to take a step forward, something huge and black leaped on top of me. As I hit the ground, all the air was crushed from my lungs. I looked up at the creature, realizing quickly that it was a shadow beast of the twilight. The arm that was reaching for my shield was pinned painfully behind my back, and my sword was knocked from my hands, sitting just out of reach. As I struggled to reach for it, the beast let out a high-pitched shriek and slammed me against the ground again, causing my mind to go fuzzy and tearing a huge gash in my side. Still disoriented, I managed to grab my sword and plunge it into the monster's head. Then my vision faded to black.

Alex's POV

I woke up, panting and clutching my rifle to my chest. I had just had a nightmare where we had been under attack from monsters. I looked around and let out a breath that I had been holding, satisfied that I wasn't surrounded by hideous monsters.

That's when I heard the screams.

There were two that I could distinguish. One was obviously human, a guy. The other...well, I had no clue, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know what it was. It was bloodcurdling, high-pitched and loud. It was like nails on a chalkboard, the kind that makes you shudder and sets your hair on end. When all was finally quiet, I counted to ten and poked my head outside, rifle in hand. I couldn't see anything for the darkness, so I grabbed my lantern and ducked outside into the unknown. Heading back towards the car, I heard a soft groan. I whirled around to find a man lying on his back, his clothing split open to reveal a gash that went all the way to the bone. There was blood pooling around him, but his chest was still rising and falling. At least he was still alive. I knelt down next to him and looked up towards my mother's tent. Her lamps were out. How the hell had she slept through that?

"Mom! Mom, get down here! Someone's hurt!" When her lamps didn't immediately turn on, I shrieked at the top of my lungs, hoping that her maternal instincts would kick in. Bad idea.

Sure enough, her lamps turned on, but something else entirely unexpected happened. All around me, pairs of red eyes lit up in the shadows. There were dozens of them. Even with my rifle, I had no way of taking all of them down. My mom poked her head from the tent and spotted me.

"Jesus Christ, Alex!" She had dropped her lantern and was running down the hill. "What the hell is going on here?" She obviously hadn't noticed the eyes gleaming around us. Knowing her, perhaps it was best that she didn't.

"Mom, we need to get out of here. There's bears or something, look what they did to this kid!" As she saw the boy next to me, she paled.

"What we need to do is get to a hospital. I'll get the car, you stay here and watch him!" As mom ran off to the car, I picked up my rifle and aimed it towards one of the pairs of eyes. I fired once and the eyes went dark. I heard a small thud and a muted growling noise as whatever it was fell. Mom pulled the SUV up to where I was, and quickly helped me pull the boy into the backseat. Before I could climb out to take the front seat, mom slammed the door and climbed into the driver's seat. I was stuck back there with the boy's head in my lap. Lacking something useful to do, I gently stroked his hair, hoping to perhaps comfort him.

As we began to drive off, the red-eyed things attacked. In the brightness of the headlights, I could see that they weren't animal or human. My mother screamed. The creatures in front of us were short, green, goblin-like things with short legs, long arms, and horns. Terrified, my mother floored it, running over several of them in her hurry to get out of there. We got back on the dirt road and drove as fast as we could away from there. After a few minutes, we noticed we weren't being followed anymore, and slowed down. The road had gotten narrower, barely wide enough for one car, and traffic was nonexistent.

"Oh gosh, I really don't recognize any of this…what about you, kiddo?" I looked around. I couldn't see any landmarks we had passed, and I would have remembered coming through an area like this. Nothing but sparsely wooded plains for miles. Mom flicked on the GPS. It flashed with the Garmin symbol and a mechanical female voice said,

"Calculating…calculating…" Mom leaned back and smiled in her mirror at me.

"We'll be out of here in no time. This old thing has never failed me. Not even when I got lost in Nebraska at the reunion!" Just a moment later the voice said,

"Cannot connect to satellite. Please consult your operator's manual or call customer service." Mom stared blankly at the screen.

"But that's not possible! There are GPS satellites everywhere!"

That's when the creatures caught up.