PROLOGUE
The lodge was now a fiery blaze. Fire filled the sky and covered the whole of the house. The sun rose above the mountains in the distance, leaving a warm glow on the snow covered pine trees. The blizzard was over, the wendigo's killed in the blazing fire and they were alive. Mike, Sam, Ash, Chris and Emily; They all made it out the lodge.
Sam was the first to stand. Her legs trembled from being thrown 10 metres by the impact of the explosion. Her eyes gazed upon the whole scene, not even realizing the sound of the helicopter flying in towards them. Suddenly, two huge fireballs came sprouting out of the flames, heading straight for Sam. Mike ran over to her and grabbed her hand with his and her arm with his other, pulling her out of the flaming spheres path as soon as he reached contact with her. But as the fireballs passed them, both Sam and Mike realised that they were the spirits of the Wendigoes, their friend Hannah, being released into the atmosphere.
They both looked around. Chris and Ashley were standing up, holding hands off to the left, petrified at the scene. Emily was a little further behind them, still sitting on the ground, her mouth open in shock. But there was still no sign of Matt and Jess.
They turned their eyes back to the lodge, the warmth smacking their faces like a hundred pound of bricks. That's when they noticed the rescue copter. All five of them screamed and waved their hands, trying to attract the attention of the pilot. It made its way down to the large opening. The teenagers were greeted by two paramedics, both men and one of the two pilots, a middle aged woman.
"Come on kids, let's get the hell out of here!" shouted the lady over the piercing noise of the helicopters blades. One by one, they climbed on board. It was a tight squeeze, but they managed to fit on.
Ashley and Chris sat at the back of the helicopter while one of the paramedics checked over Chris' leg, Emily sat on one of the chairs off to the side while the other paramedic attended to her bite wound and Sam and Mike sat next to each other on the seats at the front. None of them had realised how much their legs ached until they finally relaxed, realising they were safe on the helicopter.
"We made it." Sam said to Mike. She stared straight ahead of her, her face blank. "We're alive." Mike looked at her, looked at Em, Ash and Chris. They'd all been through so much in just one night. They'd faced things they never even knew existed, were pushed to their breaking points. Were any of them going to be the same after this?
"Are we?" Mike questioned back. Sam looked at him. She looked as if she could burst into tears at any moment. Instead, she just rested her head onto Mikes shoulder and closed her eyes, hoping that she would wake up and this would all just be a horrible dream. But it never happened.
"This is pilot J7LO, I have 5 survivors in the back. They need urgent medical attention. Heading back to base, over." Says the female pilot, speaking into a small microphone. Another voice spoke through the radio.
"Pilot H6UI speaking, I'm also on my way back. I'm accompanied by a young girl and boy. The girl is in a serious state. Meet you back at base, over." The voice was quiet and hard to understand, but Mike and Emily heard it.
"Jess." Mike mumbled, but he was so tired that sleep took over. Emily smiled lightly to herself, happy to hear her boyfriend, and even Jess were okay.
They must've been on the helicopter for about half an hour, until finally they landed. The paramedics still hadn't checked over Mike's fingers, however Mike had slept the whole way, so he didn't even notice. He woke up Sam, whose head still lightly rested on his shoulder. Emily made her way off first, followed by Ashley who was supporting Chris as he hobbled along then Mike and then Sam. They were in a huge runway, where planes and jets took off just metres away from them. In the distance, there was a large building where cars and more planes sat. Next to the helicopter were three ambulances, each with doors wide open and paramedics waiting inside of them.
"Where are we?" Mike asked one of the paramedics in the ambulances.
"Alaska state station. We're here to check you over, then each of you are going to be interviewed and questioned at the station and then you'll each be taken to the Columbus hospital on the edge of the state. Your families will be contacted as soon as possible." Answered a male paramedic. Ashley and Chris sat in one of the ambulances, holding hands again and both trembling. Chris was given crutches for the time being until his leg could be properly x-rayed at the hospital and Ashley was given an ice pack for her black eye. Mike sat in one of the ambulances while paramedics removed his bandages from his self-amputated fingers and checked them over. They would obviously need operating on later. Finally, Emily sat in the last ambulance with Sam while her wendigo bite was disinfected and bandaged up until she could receive stitches at the hospital.
One of the paramedics checked over Sam. She only realised how much pain she was in until the paramedics took a look at her. She'd badly hurt her collar bone when she was sent flying out of the lodge and hit the ground, her face was covered in scratches from the crow earlier and bruises which she didn't even realise she had covered her face. She could feel the cuts on her knees under her leggings and she had the worst headache imaginable. It hurt her when she breathed and talked because of her collar bone, so she tried her hardest to relax.
Shortly after, another helicopter landed next to them. Eventually, Jess and Matt made their way out, joining the others in the ambulances. As soon as he saw her, Mike hugged Jess. She flinched at first, but shortly after she embraced him. Emily waked over to Matt and hugged him so tight, Matt couldn't breathe. But he hugged her back. Even though he was still extremely pissed off with her about sleeping with Mike behind his back, he was glad to see her safe. He would worry about that later.
The paramedic left Sam to her own thoughts after she checked her over. She looked around at all of the couples: Ashley and Chris, Matt and Emily, Mike and Jess and she felt lonely. Josh had been a dick, and she knew that had he survived, things wouldn't have been the same as they were, how they used to be. But she still wanted someone to talk to. All her friends in college would think she's crazy so she couldn't talk to them. Who did she have now? Her best friend, Hannah was dead. So was her sister and so was her brother. Her second family, gone.
Sam realised that her life was falling to pieces. She was lonely, scared and hurt. Heck, she was still processing what had just happened to her last night, reconsidering if any of that was real. The bitter wind made its way into the ambulance and blew away her tears from her cheeks.
"Are you okay?" The unexpected voice startled Sam from her thoughts.
"Shit, Mike. I didn't even see you!" Replied Sam, looking at Mike. Her collar bone began to hurt again. "I'm fine. How's Jess?"
"She's okay. She's in a pretty bad state." Replied Mike. "You know, I was so convinced she was dead. I saw her on that elevator as it fell down into the mines. She was hardly alive when I made it to her." Mike let out a big sigh and climbed into the ambulance. He sat on the seat opposite Sam.
"I just wanted to say, Sam, thank you for saving me back there, in the lodge and in the sanatorium. I mean… I don't know how to repay you. I'd be toast if it weren't for you." Says Mike, looking down to the floor.
"Hey, that's what friends are for, saving each other's asses from cannibalistic, flesh eating monsters." Replies Sam. They both laugh, even though it hurts Sam's injury. "And if it weren't for you, we'd still probably be sitting in that basement with no way of escape. and not even realizing it's dawn. I mean, you're the one who went for the cable car key so we could get off the damn mountain." She adds. That's when Sam realised, she still had friends who cared about her and understood her. Friends better than Josh, friends who she could now trust. If there was one benefit from that mountain, it would be her new relationships with her friends. Here she was, sat with Mike, who only a few hours ago, she absolutely hated and now she could trust the boy with her life.
Maybe returning to the mountain was beneficial in some way. Loyalty was tested, lives were put on the line and their true selves were released. That bravery and curiosity they never knew they had, saved their lives back on that mountain. Life definitely would never be the same again.
A few hours had passed. All the survivors had been interviewed, their parents contacted. Unfortunately, Columbus Hospital was a private hospital and for no good reason, there were strictly no visitors allowed. That meant that each of the teens would have to wait until they were released from the hospital to see their families. Patients weren't even allowed to communicate with one another; it was all very strict.
Each of the survivors had a bad feeling about their upcoming future. None of them discussed it, but they just knew. It was a gut feeling. A feeling that they all had before, when near a wendigo. An uneasy feeling of fear. Surely these kids had gone through enough?
Apparently not according life. Their horrors have only just begun