A Lone Wolf

Chapter 1: Sanatorium

Sam had been wandering through the tunnels towards the Sanatorium on complete edge. She trembled with absolute fear but kept telling herself, reminding herself she has to keep her head straight. She needed to find Mike.

She found a gated entryway. It was an old establishment, she concluded. It lingered in an old victorian styled architecture. In different circumstances, she would think it was considerably beautiful-hauntingly, that is. The main gate was locked and she didn't risk climbing over it for she assumed it had been an electrified fence.
She circled around the vicinity of the property and found a 2 foot gate planted from a stone hedged wall erecting from the snow fallen ground. With caution, she pushed the gate open with a nearby branch she'd picked off the ground. It seemed secure. She walked a narrow path that led to a decrepit staircase in the forefront of a grandesque looking door. For a sanatorium, it sure is loaded-she thought to herself. She took a first slow step when she heard an unsettling screech and noticed in her peripheral vision, a whispered movement from behind the gated window. Her pace quickened as she began to think about Mike's whereabouts. Where is he? The dumbass. Don't die on me.

In a struggling manner, she slams the iron door open only to find Mike on the ground in his tattered military jacket while a Wendigo is leeching on his body. She notices the Wendigo is ready to take a bite out of him. In moments, Sam manages to jump over the railing ledge of the staircase and runs towards the Wendigo with a nearby loose pipe. With all of the strength hidden in her being, she thrashes it across the Wendigo's nightmarish face. It falls to the ground and doesn't move. She knows it's only been knocked unconscious and could wake up in any second.

"Mike!" Sam begins to hobble towards him.
"Sam, oh thank god." He forces his legs to work. Sam wraps his arm around her shoulder and then they both begin to rush out of the complex.

"How'd you find me?" Mike manages to ask in between wearied breaths.
"Does it really matter?" Sam snaps back at him.
"We have to find Josh and get the key for the cable car. It's the only way. It's the only way…" Her last words fade away with her heavy inhales of the cold air.
"Gotcha." Mike mumbles.

-

They managed to find the initial way Sam came through from the mines. She knew she could've found Josh on her own but she couldn't leave Mike behind-he never left her behind. Sam couldn't believe this had become her thought process, her mindset. But it had all become about survival. All of it.

Mike sluggishly pulls his arm off of Sam and begins to walk on his own. "I can take it." He reassures her. He winces at the pain his ankle seems to be in. He hadn't expected it but the Wendigo took him by surprise by attacking him from behind. He thought he was done for it. He owed his life to Sam. She had his back, it seemed.

They were roaming the mines now. They both seemed to be in incoherent shape. Everyone was. For them however, seeing the Wendigo's so close haunted them. The image itself, the sound of it raved and scavenged through both of their minds. They continued but began losing purpose, and that's when it really starts to falter. They needed hope, everyone did. That's the only way they continued, that's the only way they persevered.

Sam fell to the ground. The air in the mines was thicker-making it much harder to breathe.
"Sam!" Mike hurried to her side.
Sam's head had been locked. It felt lifelessly, facing the dirt ground. She began to cough uncontrollably.
"Ah, shit." Mike said to himself. He realized she was losing consciousness.
"Come on, don't die on me now. You gotta wake up, Sam." Her eyes began to blink painfully.
"Samantha." He held both hands on the sides of her head.
"Wake up." His voice was scattered, and for a second, it cracked.
"C'mon, jump onto my back. I'll carry you the rest of the way." Mike demanded her.
Sam's movements were languid and unsound. She nodded her head slightly in agreement.
"The air…it's so heavy." Sam quietly justified to Mike as to why she was collapsing. She almost felt ashamed for being this useless. She had already survived so much. She wasn't ready to go because of faulty lungs.
"Shh. Shh. I know." Mike guided her. "Hop up."
Sam built up all she could and jumped with as much spirit as she could.
"There ya go, I got you." Mike began to adjust her legs around his waist. "Hold tight, you hear me?"
Sam nodded against his shoulder. She was remotely light and he was surprised himself when he realized navigating himself through the mines with her on his back came with ease. He guessed it had been twenty minutes or so since they entered the mine but time was lost. He felt like the night was never-ending. It had all been a way-warding spiral down to perpetual darkness and then more hell to come with it. He started losing faith in dawn ever bringing itself again.
The caverns of the mine had been narrow up until Mike found an unbelievable entrance to an immense cave. He took note to the old mining tools, carts and railways. He also took note to a small pool of water blocking their route towards the other side. Shit. He thought to himself.
"Okay Sammy, I'm gonna need you to come back down." Sam opened her eyes and noticed the pool of water ahead of them. She slid off his back and landed onto the ground. She wobbled. Her balance was still uneven and her mind echoed with a dizzying buzz. Mike held onto her elbows while she attempted to recover any form of stamina left in her body.
"You okay?" Mike looked at her with his concerned stained brown eyes.
Sam nodded. She barely had energy to speak.
"Listen to me, okay? We're gonna get out of here, but we've gotta get through this. Think you can handle it?" Mike questioned her.
"Do I have much of a choice?" Sam winced whilst trying to form a thin smile. Mike let out a small relieved laugh while his hand rested on her shoulder.
"Okay, let's keep moving." Mike kept his hand resting on her right shoulder. They both approached the little edge of the rocks that led down to the water.
Mike sat down against the edge, his feet hanging over. He inhaled deeply before jumping in. A sharp exhale escaped his lips.
"Wow, okay." Mike trembled.
"Is it bad?" Sam questioned.
"No, not at all! Like a beach in Antigua." Mike attempted to lighten the mood. He tried to move his legs in the water to face Sam. He was sure they were frozen.
"Okay, jump on down." Mike held out both of his arms ready to catch her.
Sam didn't hesitate, it only made it worse for her.
She shuffled off the edge and fell down to his arms. Mike caught her effortlessly, even with two of his fingers amputated.
"I got you. Hold onto me." Mike instructed her.
Sam wrapped her arms around Mike's neck as he began to walk in the water, straightforward.
"Wait!" Sam let go of him and began to swim over to another edge on the left side. She attempted to walk, but she found herself struggling again. She hated herself for it. She hated being the charity case.
Mike swam over to her as fast as he could.
"Okay, okay, take it easy." He held onto her tightly. He picked her up and pushed her body upwards so that she could reach the edge and pull herself up. She managed to do so, but he helped push her up from behind. He followed.
They were both soaking wet. Mike could feel his entire body and internal system had been frozen over. Everything was numb. It felt like everything stopped working. He stood there for a minute trying to regain a sense of life and heat back into his body. He noticed Sam had hurried herself towards a trench in the dirt. He rushed over to her.
"Sam, what are you-"
"This is hers." Sam said quietly.
Mike couldn't put the pieces together.
"What is it? Whose is it?"
"This is hers, Mike." Sam turned around in the trench and looked up above to face him, in her right grip, there was an old watch. Hints of pink paint barely lustered on the band of the watch. It was the most color either of them had seen all night.
Sam turned the watch over and showed Mike the engraving on the back- it read; Beth W. in a pretty bold font.
Sam climbed back up and grabbed Mike's offering hand in order to get herself back onto her feet.
"This is where she was buried Mike. This is her grave." Sam struggled to remain calm.
Mike said nothing. He only blinked in disbelief and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands.
"No, no. It doesn't make sense. Who buried her?" Mike looked at Sam with a puzzle of emotions restlessly carving his facial features.
Sam looked around, in the corner of her eye, she noticed a tattered, ruined folder of papers a few feet away from the trench. Sam ran over to it and kneeled down to read. The papers were documentations of the chronicles of Hannah's transformation into a Wendigo.
Sam's eyes began to tear up.
"Day 1: My little sister is dead. The fall killed her...I watched the color drain from her face. My leg is broken. I'm all alone, stuck here with Beth's body. Someone will come soon."
"Day 5: I've never been so HUNGRY. It feels like my stomach is twisting around inside. I took Beth's sweater. Much warmer now. She's still looking out for me."
"Day 30: I'm sorry Beth. I have no choice. I'm DYING. It's the only way I can survive any more. If anyone finds this I'm SORRY. I had to. I had no choice. Forgive me Beth. I'm sorry." Sam began to bawl in between pages. Mike only listened in absolute silence and disbelief.
"Day 33: My hands feel unclean My nails fell out PUSHED OUT I am aching but no more COLD NO PAIN I am getting stronger!" Sam turns to the next page, her tears dripping on them. She stares at it while her sanity begins to run from her. She looks away and shows Mike the page.
It was a dark page. It had illustrated the true transformation; insanity, lunacy, hunger. In the midst of all the scribbles, both Sam and Mike detected the word 'Hungry' everywhere along the page.
Sam dropped the pages and began to sob. Her face fell to her hands. Mike sat down with her and grabbed her wrists, forcing her to look at him.
"Samantha, we have to go." Before she could protest, Mike continued.
"I know, I know. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything. But he need to keep moving." In a swift movement, Mike picked her up from her wrists. He looked at her. She was worn, disheveled, tired. In a single night, it seemed as though she had aged for years. But who was he to say anything? He was no Prince Charming, either. He pushed aside a strand of her bang behind her ear.
"Come on." Mike gestured for them to continue.
They jumped back into the water, Sam's arms were wrapped around his neck while she continued to cry. He was breaking her heart. But he was doing everything that he did best for her at this point- surviving.
They reached the other side of the pool of water and continued forward. Mike had offered for her to jump onto his back again but she insisted that she was fine. She held onto his arm instead, for support. He didn't protest.
It had been a while since Sam had read the pages. She stopped crying, eventually, however she had never looked so lifeless until now.
"So what do you rate our chances of survival?" Sam broke the silence between them.
"Jesus Christ, really?!" Mike pushed her away.
"It's a genuine question." Sam said-she looked completely unphased. It scared Mike. He realized she had begun to lose hope.
He walked over to her and put both of his hands on her shoulders and began shaking her up.
"You need to stop this, Sam! I need you in this. I need you diligent and strong and ready for anything to come your way." Mike raised his voice.
"Why are you acting like nothing just happened?!" Sam yelled back. His calm demeanor after listening to the pages scared her endlessly. Was he even human? Has his humanity completely abandoned him? She questioned herself concerning his state.
Mike detached his hands from her shoulder.
"Because too much has already happened! Don't you get that?! I just want to get the hell out of here-Aghh!" Mike yelled in pure frustration and anguish as he kicked at a nearby rock. He fell to the ground and began to sob.
"I know what happened. I've seen it happen. It happened to Jess." His crying had become uncontrollable.
Sam had melted away. She never considered his part in a lot of this. So much guilt had been polluting his mind she couldn't believe he managed to keep himself so grounded through all of this.
She fell down to her knees and brought Michael to her chest. She cradled him into a soft embrace and began to run her fingers through his hair while he continued to cry. The shell of man has been cracked. She had never seen him as such a human being before tonight. Mike didn't even care for how unusual this would be in a different circumstance. He knew that Sam and him were nothing more than simple friends. They attended the same college, exchanged casual 'hello's' and noticed each other at the local campus parties before all of this had happened. It all sounded so normal to him in his head. He couldn't believe that this was his reality. In between his cries he could hear Sam silently "shhhh-ing." But he noticed the uneasy pace of her chest and then he realized she too had been crying.
Both of them had been the strongest of the group. Always trying to be rational and level-headed. Always trying to help everyone, always making sure everyone else was okay, but…what about them? Mike's time spent in the Sanatorium awakened Mike into a whole other world that had been erased in history-those moments alone completely changed him. Sam had changed since the very beginning of it all. Since the prank. She distanced herself from everyone in the group, even Josh. She attempted to forget anything ever happened. Mike never knew why she did that. He supposed it was because she was closer to the Washingtons than everyone else in the group was. She talked about them like they were her second family. Her moments being chased down by somebody she thought she knew…it fucked her up. Seeing Josh in that mental state-changed everything even more for her. Both pondered and bewildered as to how much strength one another had. They'd already been through so much. They owed it to themselves and to each other to keep going. It wasn't for Hannah and Beth anymore. It wasn't for Josh. It was for them. It was for surviving to see another sunrise.
Mike's breathing eventually steadied. He came out of their embrace and looked at Sam in a fleeting glance until he looked around and gathered all of his things and sniffled.
He got right back onto his feet and helped Samantha up as well. Both had exchanged nothing in the silence, they continued onwards into the darkness.