Whatever lurks stays in the dark (4) – FinaleTime: 05 34 hours. Aleks looked out the windshield of the bus, and saw a disgruntled James standing clear of the smoke pluming from its dying engine. Aleks was really glad to have met up with someone he knew after being in isolation for nearly an hour. James was elated to see Aleks as well, a familiar face, after all he'd been through. However, he needed to know if it was the true Aleks before he approached the bus.
"Hey Aleks, what video did we recently put up?" James questioned the Aleks onboard the bus. All he could see was a shadowy figure of Aleks because of all the smoke.
"Wh-"
"No questions. Just tell me."
"Shoutcast episode 4." Aleks said.
James heaved a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he found the real Aleks, after having bumped into the many voices he'd heard that resembled him. James ran through the smoke while covering his face with his shirt, and boarded the bus.
Time: 05 52 hours. James shared the supplies he'd recovered from the bus with Aleks, and told Aleks everything that happened to him to which he could recall. They sat at the back of the bus, and both kept a lookout at the forest before talking.
"You asshole, you took my camcorder!" Aleks saw his camcorder tied to James' rucksack, and snatched it. He put it back into his casing which he had in his slingbag.
After a bit of talking and catching up with each other's experience, Aleks tried to sum up what happened.
"It's weird because I woke up with almost the same situation as you. There was no one onboard, and the whole bus was raided by someone. Oh right… that was you. We heard voices of each other in the forest, and answered a phone call of death. You've also experienced night the second time? If you're saying that we're not supposed to go forwards, because that brings up back to this bus, then maybe we should head… backwards?" Aleks pondered.
"I don't know man. I can't even remember much before falling asleep. Yeah, maybe it would be a better idea to come back the way we came." James agreed.
Both waited out for the smoke outside to clear, then exited the bus.
Time: 05 59 hours. Aleks decided to look into the dead engine before the two left for a potentially dangerous hike down the road. He reached in to the cooled engine and dislodged a short, metal pipe.
"Sweet! I always wanted one of these," Aleks smacked the head of the pipe into his left palm, and it made him look like one of the characters from "The Last of Us ™".
"You ready to move out or what?" James looked back at Aleks, as he proceeded to worship the pipe as if it were a God.
"Let's move," Aleks said.
James stared hard at the clock in his phone this time. He wasn't shocked to find out what the clock read.
Time: 00 00 hours.
"Hey, we're still in the fucking loop!" James yelled.
"What? Shouldn't be like 6 am by now?" Aleks replied.
"No, we're in a loop, I thought I told you before! We're going through an eternal night cycle at this rate." James sounded depressed. He'd been in this thing for almost 8 hours straight on his own, and he wasn't sure if there would be any chance of surviving this one.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way," Aleks saw the fear in James' eyes, and made a reassuring statement, accompanied by a comforting pat on the back.
"We'll get out of this, just you watch."
With that, both of them set out for the direction away from the bus, for James once more.
Time: 01 07 hours. Both Aleks and James heard the same voices in the forest, but decided to ignore them. They'd both been the perfect bait for each other while separated, and easily got hooked in, but now while reunited, they just wouldn't fall for it. They passed callings that only one of the two could hear.
"Hey James, your voice is calling. What do I say?" Aleks whispered to James.
"Don't reply, see what happens," James answered.
"The voice stopped," Aleks continued.
"They'd better fucking stop, or else we'll go in there and beat the shit outta it." James smiled with evil intent in his eyes, as he pulled out the knife he'd left in his pocket for so long.
"Where'd you find that? Don't tell me you were planning to kill me, oh my God," Aleks said as he backed off.
"If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it earlier, wouldn't I?" James rebutted.
"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Aleks stopped there, and let the silence of the forest take over.
Time: 02 19 hours. In the distance, both guys could see that the bus has once again come into view after the strenuous walk.
"I'm not even mad. Fuck you, forest!" James pointed his middle finger to the forest as he screamed into the dark woods.
"Looks like there's no other place to go," Aleks sighed.
"I think we have to kill this creature where it lives."
Time: 02 25 hours. Both nodded in agreement that that thing had to be stopped. James strapped his single torchlight to the top of one of the large, transparent tanks of water, which refracted every light ray into every direction. He'd crafted a makeshift lamp.
"Looks like all those years of gaming has made me smarter. And they said I wasn't getting anywhere in life! Ha, take that, dad!" James stared in amazement at his creation.
"Are we set to go?" Aleks asked.
"It's now or never," James said.
Aleks gripped tightly to his metal pipe, hands drenched in cold sweat. If they made a single mistake, their lives would almost certainly be over.
"Let's do this," Aleks and James guarded each other's backs, and dove straight into the forest.
Time: 02 30 hours. James' makeshift lamp illuminated only a 2 metres radius of light, which wasn't much. They could barely see where they were going, and Aleks almost tripped on surface roots several times as he guarded James' back. The deeper they went, the darker it got, even with the lamp.
Both heard rustling in the leaves of treetops above them, but neither could see any movement in the tall forest trees.
"There's something up there, kill it as soon as you get the chance," James told Aleks.
James was shaking in the knees, as he led the two of them deeper and deeper into the forest. He was usually the braver of the two, but when it came to such situations, he didn't feel as gutsy as he would be. He knew that Aleks had his back, but what if the creature came from the front? What if it ambushed them from the top? What if Aleks dies right in front of his eyes? James' hope was wavering greatly, and just then he got the shock of his life.
"What the fuck are you doing, dude? Keep moving!" Aleks silently said as he bumped his back against a still James.
"…" James looked in the distance, and saw a small, white figure which stood out amongst the dark background of the forest. It floated in midair, shifting slightly upwards and downwards as if it were hovering. James stared at it, and felt his heart race.
Aleks turned his back and saw the same thing. At that moment, the dark creature jumped out from above, and destroyed the lamp in James' hand in one swift swipe. The world instantly darkened before Aleks and James, leaving them stunned and fearful. Aleks shook off the shock, and started swinging about forcefully with his pipe.
"DIE!" Aleks cried out, while surrounded by complete darkness. The only thing that both Aleks and James could see this deep into the forest was the white, floating figure.
James blinked hard, and got back to his senses. He knew that approaching the figure was his only hope, and so he grabbed Aleks by his now empty left hand, and slowly walked toward the figure.
"What are you doing, you're getting us killed!" Aleks swung about blindly, hitting himself once every so often with a powerful swing.
"It's our only chance, I know it! Just guard my back and I'll get us there," James was confident of it.
Both men now only stood a metre away from the figure. It seemed about the same height as them, had a human-like figure, and was covered from head to toe in a white coat. It was actually gleaming brightly, now that the two have a closer look at it. It was a light source. It grinned, and started to talk.
"What brings you two this deep in the forest?" It asked. Its voice didn't seem to resemble of a man or a woman.
"We're lost, Sir. Or Madam," James said.
"The two of you are worthy to have made it this far. You may proceed." The figure disappeared,
and behind it was a portal with a shade of white.
The guys jumped straight into it.
Time: 01 26 hours. James was out on the road with Aleks, and both their rucksack and slingbag disappeared. They looked straight ahead and saw the crashed bus, along with all the passengers onboard. The bus driver was talking to the phone, asking for a replacement vehicle. A few of the passengers looked at James in astonishment.
"That was fast!" the bus driver said to James.
Their memories hit them like a tidal wave.
"I still really have to pee," James said.
"I can't blame you for that. After all we've been through, I already wet myself. Twice." Aleks replied.