They were moving along, getting through one generator within an easy two minutes. So far, nothing was happening and it was giving Meg the worst goosebumps as they walked around the vicinity. With how hard Dwight was knocking his knees, she was more surprised he hadn't pissed his pants yet.

As she looked him over again after Claudette searched through an old box, he happened to catch her eye. She had to hold back a snicker as his cheeks flushed pink and he looked away, but the moment of amusement was short-lived as Claudette stood, holding a medical kit in her hands now. It was such a bright red that it was easy to tell that it was brand new. Dwight was the only one who questioned it now, as it was here for their benefit.

Claudette grasped it by the cloth hand comfortably before looking around with Jake. "Do you think there's a source for that awful smell? I-I know it's bad…but… Maybe we can find something?"

Jake gave a faint nod as he peered around the obstacles that were strewn about like candy wrappers from a festival. "Possibly. But if we really want to get out of here, there's a possibility we'll have to split up." Meg was immediately against the idea.

"Hell no. We have to stick together, up until it's crucial that we move. If we split up, we might not find each other again except for our screams." The blond folded her arms, expressing that she was going to stand her ground and make her decision just like this. Jake sighed and run his fingers along his forehead.

"Fine."

In thanks, Meg gave a nod before attempting to head off in one direction. Specifically, through the cornfield. Dwight panicked a bit, but eventually ducked down and crawled through the stalks with her and the others.

It was cooler down near the dry soil, causing Meg to raise an eyebrow. "Hey, guys. Isn't it strange how it's colder when crouching than standing?"

Claudette gave a nervous nod. "I…think that means there's a fire going. A…a really big one if we can't see it and it stretches all the way here." Meg could hear her swallow nervously, causing her to look back for a moment to try and console her.

A metallic noise of thump would have caused her to stop first if she hadn't actually smacked into the machine face-first. It hurt like hell too, causing her to immediately groan before she peeled her face off the contraption. She could hear the others trying to hold back their snickers, even though they needed a good laugh to relieve stress.

"Holy damn that hurt like hell," she hissed, rubbing her face and feeling the indentions of the rusty edge on her face. The biologist gave a giggle then offered over the medical kit, gently applying the cold metal on Meg's reddening face.

"Here. We can fix this up. Since you only have one hand, you can sit back for a bit. Okay?" Seeing Claudette's smile was quite comforting, causing her to return it just a bit with a nod before watching them work. It was fairly relaxing and she was able to watch Jake and Dwight work together. They seemed the most mechanically inclined.* (+10xp)

She could see the sweat glinting off of Dwight's forehead and along the underarms of his shirt, proving that he was frightened as he was hardworking. Grease was all the way up to his forearms while Jake kept his at least along his fingers, proving Dwight was probably shaking the whole generator back to life at this point.

Meg would have been able to laugh if she hadn't heard the dreaded drum in her ears.

Ba-bump.

Jake wasted no time and grabbed Dwight's stained wrist. "Scatter." Dwight could barely register what was going on before he was tugged up and off into the shadows of the cornfield. Meg and Claudette were only a second behind as they laced fingers together, dirty or not, and darted towards the nearest pair of closets they could find. Sadly, that was all the way outside of the cornfield itself.

Sucking in a deep breath and throwing the beanie up on her own head for a free hand, she increased her grip on Claudette's hand and sprinted, nearly dragging the girl behind her as the heartbeat began to quickly pick up the pace.

As it the heartbeat practically ignited heat throughout the entirety of her body, she grabbed the cold handle of the closet and shoved Claudette inside first and foremost so hard her body nearly rocked it. With a soft hiss of "sorry" she hopped in with her. Wondering how the masked man came to find them again, she protectively wrapped her arms around the blogger and ducked down low with her, feeling her heart beating hard from both the damned murderer's presence and from running. Claudette was having a harder time trying to keep her breath steady as she was no athlete by any means. Hurriedly, Meg began to whisper.

"In and out, breathe in through the nose deeply and out through the mouth, okay?" She let Claudette then bury her face into her shoulder. It also made it easier for Meg to protect her as she knew the other was hardly a fast runner at all.

The athlete soon looked up as the heartbeat viciously slammed into her eardrums, beating so hard through her body she was wondering if the closet was shaking from it. A shadow of a man passed by and a tremor of a chill slid right down her back. That was not who she thought it was. This figure was misshapen, with a face that appeared to be an ungodly mash-up of skin, stretched like taffy.

Closing her eyes tightly, she leaned over her friend, trying to get the bleeding image out of her head. Slowly, oh-so slowly, the shuffling of the bastard's feet began to fade off into the distance, followed by the scraping leaves of corn stalks being pushed. Only when the heartbeat had fully faded into silence did she feel her chest aching from holding her breath.

With little warning, she expelled some dead air and then gasped, causing the blogger to nearly jump out of her skin. "Jesus, Meg…" she sighed before moving to her knees on the closet floor. "Is it…gone?"

The blond nodded and then looked up at the slits of the locker. "Yeah… For now." With gentle hands, she moved to massage Claudette's tense shoulders, trying to get her to calm down. "Let's see if we can find the nearest generator and start it up. Okay? We have to keep going."

The other nodded and moved to stand after another minute. Meg could see that her knees were jelly and she honestly felt the same. As she stood, she realized her feet had decided to lose bloodflow and sleep, causing her to curse as she rolled her ankles. It took them a bit to actually get out and search their surroundings before ducking down low and heading back to the generator they had previously been working on. Like the Little Engine That Could, it sputtered and hummed like a sick bird, despite being rundown. With a nod, they got to it.

"Hey, Meg?"

The blond hummed in response, looking up with a raised eyebrow at the female.

"Uh… Is…is my hat comfy?" Meg blinked for a moment and then went "Oh" as she realized she still had Claudette's hat on. At her reaction, the blogger giggled and focused a bit better on the engine. "I don't mind. You can wear it for a little bit if you want. I assume you don't have headlice or anything dangerous that can be spread."

Meg blinked twice again then faintly grinned before looking back at her work. She quickly changed a few wires, having nearly put red and blue together. Ain't doing that shit again, she thought as she answered Claudette. "Yeah. I don't do a lot of haircare, or anything, but I know I'm free of viruses and flu's. At the very least. Only problem is that it's still a wet hat."

The two shared a quick chuckle over it as the fourth pistol finally began to pump. Seconds after, the whole cornfield lit up like a spectacle, but they couldn't admire it. Instead, they had to move.

Wordlessly, they roped their fingers together just as another spotlight bloomed across a different sector of the blood-fogged land. Claudette happily jumped up and down before pointing. "Hey, hey! They got one! That's…three out of six! I think."

"Five," Meg corrected, giving a faint smile before moving to crouch down a bit and move as swiftly as possible to a hiding corner. This place was a junkyard. This wouldn't be too hard to hide in.

As that very thought graced her head, she found that the putrid smell of burning meat was heavier over here, causing her to wrinkle her nose. She used Claudette's hat as a mask while Claudette threw her arm up over her own nose, seeing as her shirt was rolled up to her elbow. Meg's was not.

"Christ, it smells like complete ass."

"What if it's to keep people away?"

Claudette had a point, causing Meg to only nod before looking at—

"Now what the fuck is that?" She nodded in the direction of a large contraption remained, buried in the ground. Meg wasn't sure if it was a truck, scrap metal, or a machine that had been totaled looooong ago. Claudette followed, despite being much more cautious than her companion. It just wasn't right to just investigate everything after seeing numerous bear traps.

Meg, on the other hand, knew this guy wasn't laying out bear traps. He probably did something special, but she didn't want to know. The thought sent chills down her spine as they both trudged up the metallic slope, both being careful to gently go heel-to-toe to not thump around like monkeys. They didn't need to alert anyone to their presence, for fear of meeting up with this new guy.

As soon as they both felt their feet hit the flattened surface, Meg was letting go of her hand to look over the edge. Another ramp was on another side, but they would have to leap over the thin, hip-high wall to do so. Claudette joined her, both of them now keeping an eye on the cornfields from where they were.

"Hey!" The blogger nudged her friend and pointed. "There's a house over there!"

Meg rolled her eyes. "And probably plenty of meathooks along the way." The other shrugged in response.

"It's better than being stuck somewhere and bleeding. There are things we can't explain yet, but…I think we should check out the house." She turned to step back down towards the ground, but tripped a bit, causing Meg to nearly taste her heart as it jumped so high. She grabbed Claudette's wrist fiercely.

"Whoa, careful!" A sheepish smile creeped onto Claudette's face before she glanced down, adjusting her glasses with a free hand.

"S-Sorry. I guess I wasn't looking—Hey, there's a diary here."

Meg scoffed. "Is that what you tripped over?" She rolled her eyes at the nod of response. "Jeez, and I thought people tripping over rocks were clumsy!"

Claudette hit her in the shoulder playfully before moving to pick it up. "Benedict Baker?" Both girls eyed the leather journal that seemed to be only worn along the corners and the spine before Meg snorted.

"What? You going to actually read it? It's just some old diary! There's nothing much about it at all."

"Yeah, but…" Claudette stood up with it in her hands. "What's a diary doing all the way out here?"

At that, Meg didn't have an answer at all. She did think on it, biting her lower lip. Without warning, they looked each other in the eyes and then found the answer.

"There have been other people here besides us!"

Ecstatically, they moved to flip open the diary vigorously, hoping to look at the first journal entry. They didn't get to it as they heard a damned chainsaw rev in the distance. Both girls felt their faces become a ghostly shade of white before Meg squatted up into a corner and listened to the machine grow closer.

"It's getting close really fast!" Claudette said, ducking down and keeping her voice to a loud whisper so they could hear themselves over the chainsaw. Meg nodded. As she began to think of a way out, she felt Claudette reaching for her hand again, not wanting to separate again and be alone without the athlete providing support. The blond smile and firmly enclosed her hand with Claudette's, providing comfort to the both of them.

With that in mind, they waited as the chainsaw stopped but the heartbeat ate away at their souls.


Dwight and Jake watched the generator back in the cornfield shine like a bright beacon, filling them both with temporary hope. Dwight would have rejoiced at the success of the girls, but Jake was grabbing his shoulder to turn him around.

"We have to go." Nervously, the male nodded and then followed after the hardy fellow, keeping his head as low as he could without crouching into shrubs. Or a wall. That already happened with Meg though, so maybe he'd be lucky. Then again, when was he?

As he thought this, he moved to adjust his glasses with a shaky hand. Dwight wasn't sure how much time they had before they were discovered by the masked man, but with how confident Jake was, he wondered if they would even be found at all.

Ba-thump.

In seconds, Jake grabbed Dwight by the back of his shirt and tugged him down so fast the flunky felt his glasses fall off and into the tall grass. Suddenly, the world grew blurry as he heard the heartbeat grow louder and closer. With how Jake was pressed to him, he could smell pine and sweat with such musk that he probably would have been ten miles away from Jake had they not met each other already.

A red patch of light was easy to see with how bright it was as the crunching of grass beneath heavy feet resonated in his ear canals. The light was just past the debris they were hiding behind, facing just a little off to the side from where they were. It was a god-awful sound and sight as he noticed that that single space of red was its eyesight. He figured everyone else could see it, without a doubt. How can you not!

The beast looked around, growling and sniffing the air dangerously close to them and Dwight would have whimpered. He knew better though, even though he was shaking so hard he figured he was going to get osteoporosis.

As he and Jake stood still, he heard a soft clicking noise before they both flinched. Jake brought a shoulder up to his ear to block out the sound of the revving chainsaw while Dwight threw his fingers as discreetly as possible over his ears. It was a roar of hate and it clearly was a creature that lacked discrimination. Just as fast as it had come around, it left with a speed that caused Jake to tense and faintly tremble in awe. Dwight didn't know. All he could feel was this man tremble from the hellish creature that sped off into the night.

With a quivering breath, Dwight took his fingers away from his ears, feeling Jake's nearby weight slowly turn to him. Jake tensed a bit more and Dwight heard him take in a sharp breath. "W-whoa. Hey, take it easy. He's gone now."

Another tremble shook Dwight's whole body and with equally-quaking fingers, he felt his face. His skin was wet from warm tears of defeat and strife. Feeling despair way on him like death itself, Dwight threw his hands over his face and did what no man wanted to do in front of another.

He sobbed.

"All I wanted was a job!" he whimpered, hiccupping in two seconds flat of crying. Jake didn't know what to say, but let him continue. "I wanted an okay life, I wanted to date the girl down the road, and I wanted to even go to college! I wanted to be someone my parents would be p-proud of. I wanted to be okay!" He shivered. "Just okay! I w-wanted to be an engineer o-or even a c-coach! Why can't I do anything good? Why am I even here when I've never done anything enough for even myself or my parents!"

Dwight sobbed into his hands, weeping so hard that he was getting hiccups every three seconds of talking. He hated this. He hated all of it. He just wanted to go home or even just live on the streets anymore. He knew he was a shitty excuse of a person, but he tried. He really did!

The gentle clasp of Jake's hand on his shoulder caused him to jump and almost cry harder if he hadn't been already. Slowly, Jake's posture changed and he moved to sit by Dwight and simply squeeze his shoulder.

"Yeah… I feel the same way. I never really got a job either. Not the one my parents wanted." He glanced off to the side, listening and watching a pair of crows sit on a boulder. Dwight peered up at him, despite his blurry vision as he sniffed and wiped at his face.

"R…Really? You…you too?"

Jake nodded. "I…dropped out of highschool." Dwight blinked twice and rubbed at his eyes furiously, sniffling as he tried to regain his composure.

"I guess…we've all had it rough. I'm sorry I…"

They soon sat in mutual silence, feeling for each other's problems. They didn't need to speak to understand. Dwight was so tired but their adventure through this maze of maize (-writer gets hit for pun-) was only just beginning. After a little while, Dwight felt Jake shifting around before he felt the cold tips of his glasses slither just along his temples and hook along his ears.

"My g-glasses…!"

"They weren't very far. Big guy almost stepped on one of the lenses but he missed by a centimeter." Dwight shuddered, having not seen how massive the guy was, but got a good estimate.

"T-these are prescription glasses, too!"

Jake chuckled and offered a helping hand, causing Dwight's chest to tighten. As they grasped hands and felt their blood flowing through their veins, the geek wondered if the kindness in these people was fate, or fake.

In silence, they began to move through the place, slipping into an old house to check out the rubbish and other garbage that could lead them to victory.


*I'm being a dork, don't mind me and my exp.