All the survivors quickly learned the campfire was the only safe place outside of trials.
Killers lurked in and around the edges of the forest like animals waiting for a deer to leave the heard.
There was some sort of force that prevented the killers from coming within twenty feet of the burning logs, the entity knew it's monsters would kill endlessly if given the opportunity.
It was an extra bout of fear that the killers lurked outside of trials, so no where ever felt truly safe for the survivors. Even if everyone knew the killers could not get them near the fire. Although the killers could leave the dark dense forest, they rarely ever did so after they realized they couldn't get to the survivors near the campfire.
Outside of trials everything was unpredictable.
Unpredictable moves by killers, unpredictable interactions, unpredictable sightings.
None of the survivors were brave enough to journey out and see what was in the woods with the threat of every killer they had ever faced lurking somewhere inside. Waiting. Even if the survivors sometimes made games of spotting the killers, or tried to edge them on to attack when when were in the clearing, none of them actually left the safe zone for long. It was a type of false bravery they liked to indulge in to try and irritate those creatures in some poor form of revenge.
The Shape particularly liked to stand around and watch them, never moving an inch despite their insults, until one of them accidentally stepped outside the zone, then the Shape acted violently; The Doctor would more so observe them then anything else, as if he was studying them, even when one of the survivors stepped outside then the Doctor was more curious then violent; The Hag sometimes came over to try and scare them but quickly moved on to do, whatever it was they did in the forest.
None of the killers ever spoke back either. Or at least the one who did speak, spoke solely on Russian and no one knew what she was saying, so it was as if none of them spoke back.
Whenever a new survivor appeared the survivors knew they would soon get a glimpse of the new killer as they soon got curious and went to the campfire to investigate.
So when a quiet man named Jeff appeared and they didn't see a single shadow or anything out of the ordinary for far too long, and on top of that none of them had been sent into a trial, it made everyone nervous at who the new killer would be, and why another trial hadn't been instigated yet. The silent ones were always scariest as it was hardest to know when they had been spotted. And the Entity holding back from trials for this long was unheard of.
Then for the first time ever, they heard English speaking human voices from the woods.
Not like the soft humming of the Huntress or the occasional raspy laughter from the Nightmare, but coherent English words. It sounded as if they were all yelling, as if there were multiple people suddenly shouting all at once. All the survivors attention were instantly drawn to the commotion in the woods, as they all went quiet to try and hear what was being said.
"I told you to get his back!"
"Go left, no- the other left!"
"Shit- he's got really good aim with that thing!"
"Bad idea, bad idea- regret, I regret this immediately!"
Suddenly after the sound of many sticks and branches breaking a hooded figure ran out into the clearing, running at the campfire, presumably for their life.
"Is that another survivor?!" Dwight exclaimed, standing up to try and get a better view.
"We should help them, right?" Claudette nervously spoke.
Then another figure quickly came from then woods sprinting after the first person, and it was absolutely terrifying to see the Trapper barreling forward into their clearing. Strangely three more hooded figures ran out of the woods, quickly following the Trapper and gaining on him.
"Stay inside the circle! No one leaves, you got that new guy?!" Dwight yelled looking to Jeff, who sat on the ground looking slightly scared and confused.
Quickly approaching the campfire the survivors saw that the person Dwight had at first thought was a survivor, was not one of them; in a full face mask and wearing a matching hood like the other three, it was clear this must have been the new killer. Or they should say, one of the new killers. As in more then one. Which was terribly unfair.
Then the funniest thing any of them had ever seen in the Entity's realm occurred.
The new killer ran face first into the invisible wall that protected them, then promptly fell backward and did not get back up.
Seeing this, the Trapper jammed his foot into the ground and slid to a stop, kicking up dirt and slowing down to a stop before he himself would have run into the wall, but the three chasing him did not stop and they all barreled directly the Trapper, and tried to tackle one him, one of them managed to get a choke hold around Trapper's neck, another pulled at the metal imbedded into his shoulders, and the last one just strait up went for the huge man's waist and hugged it as they all tried to push him to the ground.
The three of them were unsuccessful.
With his foot firmly stuck in the ground, the Trapper tried to wrangle the three off him, but as soon as he got a grip on one of them another would do something to get his attention and free their friend. Making the strangest stalemate ever.
It was gloriously terrible.
No one could resist laughing or at least smiling at the ridiculous scene ensuing directly in front of them. Nea seamed to have laughed herself into silent hiccups at the scene.
For the first time the survivors then heard the Trapper's voice as he tried to get the three off him, "Oi! You little shits- get off!" His ragged British voice yelled.
Unsuccessful in trying to wrestle the three off, the Trapper fell backwards and crushed the one at his neck and waist underneath him.
It was at this point in time when the one who was on the ground in front of them got up, grabbing at their head, saw their group under attack, pulled a knife out of literal thin air and went hog wild on the Trapper's face. The one that hadn't been crushed went for Trapper's arms and held him back best they could from fighting.
"You little shits, not in front of the-" Trapper spoke again, frustrated at the new killers violent antics.
High pitched maniacal laughter came from the stabbing one as they carved into the Trappers face, then suddenly got up and ran off back into the woods, waving something around and laughing then more like a screech. The one who was holding Trappers's arms got up and quickly ran after them saying:
"Yo! Hey wait up for me!"
One of the two hooded killers tapped their hand out on the ground from underneath Trapper in defeat.
"Holy shit." Dwight said, realizing what the hooded killers had done.
The four of them had managed to wrangle the Trapper's mask off. No one even thought something like that was physically possible.
Blood dripped from where the new killer had literally carved his mask from his face, the wounds healing in bright red flashes, Trapper looked just as scary without his grinning mask as he did without it.
Stepping on one of the downed ones, who grunted in response, Trapper summoned his weapon in deadly silence.
Then he ran it trough one of the killers on the ground, them making a horrific gurgling sound as it entered their body, before he took off sprinting back into the woods after the one who had carved his mask from his face.
Everything felt awkwardly silent after the commotion.
"Anyone else here a fan of the new killers." Nea said. "Because let me tell you- I'm a huge fan."
"I didn't even know the killers could attack each other... or talk." Dwight said incredulously. "This probably changes a lot."
"Help would be... nice." A woman's strangled voice called out.
"You're still alive there friend?" The other killer man spoke, quickly shooting up from the ground. "That's like, like through your heart."
"So I've noticed..." She responded sarcastically.
"And what are you fools lookin' at?" The killer man said, suddenly turning to the survivors, a few of which flinched at being addressed. It appeared he wasn't looking for a response, because he then immediately said, "Man kids these days just love violence don't they." As he shook his hooded head.
"Hey fuckface, un-stab me. Put in some team effort."
"You!" Jeff suddenly yelled, in a sudden break of his quiet character, pointing at the hooded man when he turned his back to the survivors.
The killer slowly turned to look back at him.
"I made your mural. Legion wasn't it?" He stated, taking a step forward but not leaving the bounds of the safe space. "I went looking for it, someone...chased me, trying to kill me, then I was here."
"Ah, yeah... that was us. That was we. We really, really loved your work." Legion said putting his hands together. "Really brought this team of mine together. Can't have snooping around though, you got real bad timin' too."
"Still stabbed down here."
"... mood killer." He said, then bent over and yanked the Trapper's weapon from his comrade, who gave a squeal of pain that quickly stopped as the Entity healed her wounds.
Trapper's weapon disappeared to red flakes of ash in the Legion's hand.
"Lookin' forward to seeing ya." The Legion leader said, giving a two fingered mock salute, "We really wanna finish our little chase with you. It's not good to start things and then never finish 'em." He said ominously, then quickly took off with his underling back into the surrounding forest.
Author's Note: Anyone who doesn't think Legion is a bunch of shitlords can fight me in my local library's parking lot