Flare

Chapter VII:

Author's Note: Sorry for those of you who just forgot about Slenderman. I just found out about him and just HAD to use him in the story. That being said, the first night I saw the videos (MarbleHornets...youtube) I had nightmares ALL night. He scares me just as much as he's about to scare Cuddy. Maybe even worse LoL! Don't worry everything will be okay!

House estimated that he was a third of the way up the hill when it started to get dark. He cursed his luck and decided to camp for the night. If he couldn't make it to the top of the hill by the next day then he would have to return whether he found help or not.

Although the hill was steep he did find a flat, open patch where he could camp. He wished that he had something to sleep on, or even a blanket to cover him, but all he had was that oversized pink windbreaker. It was oversized even for him, and it left him to wonder why Cuddy had gotten it in the first place.

In order to keep his body heat he laid the windbreaker on the ground. The cool earth could suck the heat right out of him and he knew that. It was going to get very cold that night and he had done the best he could to keep warm. He went about collecting twigs and wood for a fire. These two things should keep him from slipping into hypothermia. He was glad that he brought the waterproof matches with him.

The mosquitos buzzed around him and he was sure that he was bitten from head to toe. The funny thing was that he didn't feel itchy, maybe it was because he was moving around. He sat down on the windbreaker and started to build the fire. His stomach rumbled loudly and he was looking forward to eating the last two apples that he had brought with him for dinner. The need for actual protein was great but short of using the flare gun to hunt down an animal he was at a loss. He could only hope that Cuddy was better off.

Around the same time, Cuddy was out by the fire heating up one of the cans of soup that was left. She had managed to limp around and get more wood for the fire, even crawling when her foot wouldn't let her be upright any more. In the real world she supposed she wouldn't have even tried to get out of bed, the pain was so great, but here she had to survive even if that meant being in so much pain that she wanted to throw up.

Sobriety was creeping back up on her and so she lit another joint. She hadn't been keeping herself in check, and as such her fever had risen to about 103, give or take. She felt overly hot, sitting near the fire and yet she had chills. The pot was keeping her from thinking rationally and the fever was starting to cause her to hallucinate. Combined, this was not a good thing.

As her fever steadily climbed to 104, she began to eat her soup. In the shrinking light of day she was sure she saw something moving beyond the trees. Her rational mind would have told her this was an animal or the wind. She, however, was not in her rational mind. This was about the time thoughts of Slenderman crept up on her. She tried to shake them away, but no matter what she did they wouldn't relent.

"There is no Slenderman." She whispered softly, "Even if there was why would he bother you?" She tried to tell herself she was just being paranoid but it wasn't working. After a moment of looking at the trees, she turned away and looked at the fire. She started to eat her soup in a haze. Colors were dancing around her and she was almost getting the sensation that there were bugs crawling on her. She didn't like any of these feelings and thinking that pot might help she smoked more.

House warmed himself by the roaring fire. He couldn't remember a time where he was so scared. Not because he was in the middle of nowhere by himself, he could deal with that. It was because he had left Cuddy behind to fend for herself. A very broken and messed up Cuddy. Hopefully the pot was keeping her calm and sedated. It didn't even cross his mind that the story he had told her on the fifth night was ruining her evening.

The big plan was to get to the top of the hill and fire a flare, that was of course if he didn't see a town, or a house, or even another God-damn camp fire. There had to be people around and he wasn't about to sit there and wait for them to come to him. That plan wasn't working in the least.

He picked up a large stick and held it in the flames of the fire. Slowly the end lit up and he lifted it and watched it burn.

Now she was running, running away from Slenderman. This eight foot or nine foot talk man. His arms as skinny as branches, and there were more than one of them. She was screaming for help but barely a sound escaped her lips. When she stopped to look over her shoulder, he was only three feet away. Standing stock still, his eyeless face seemed to be seeing everything and nothing. She screamed again.

Cuddy shot up suddenly, awake. Tears were streaming down her face and her throat was raw from screaming. She realized she was in the tent but she didn't know how she had gotten there. Maybe it was after she had eaten her soup. Or maybe Slenderman had brought her in there instead of eating her whole. The dream had been so real, though.

Even in the dream when she was running she could hear and feel the bones in her foot popping and the sickening pain it caused each time her foot thumped the ground. This was not good, she was slowly losing her mind and track of reality. The worst thing that she could possibly do in a situation like this was lose her head.

Slowly, she reached for her iPod and turned it on. The playlist was already on "camping fun" and she chose an Enya song. Usually when she was stressed that put her mind at ease. It started, normal enough, and she laid back and lit up the half joint that was sitting next to her. Pot would calm her down. Pot would make everything all better.

She stayed up all night that night, smoking and rocking back and fourth. She was too scared to close her eyes and yet too scared to leave them open. Around midnight the lantern in the tent gave out and she was left in almost complete darkness, save for the fire that illuminated the back half of the tent. Her broken iPod and lighter were also some help for light, but not as good as the lantern had been.

At 2:30 pm exactly, her iPod cut to static. It wasn't just any kind of static either. It was the kind where you could hear voices through it if you just listened hard enough. He's coming...the voice said...the slenderman...sees me no more...hate...evil...trees...

"STOP IT!" Cuddy screamed and threw her iPod out of the tent and out of ear shot. Her body was wracked with chills and even though her temperature was holding steady at 104 she was colder than she could ever imagine. The lines that indicated her blood poisoning were more visible than ever, and the doctor part of her brain was freaking out about that too. "God help me!"

Some time later, maybe fifteen minutes, maybe an hour (she couldn't see her watch and she would be damned if she was going to get the iPod) the voices started again. He's coming...hiding in the dark...hiding in the light...no one is safe...not even you! Cuddy clasped her hands over her ears and started to hum. After what seemed like an eternity, the voices stopped and she opened her eyes. Slenderman was in the tent with her.

The next day, Cameron was in House's office going through his mail. It was something she did every day whether House was there or not. It was around lunchtime and so Chase came in holding a sandwich on a plate from the cafeteria and a diet Coke. "How you holding up?"

"Fine. He gets a lot of mail." She replied. She had previously been told by House to reject any mail asking him for a consultation. Even the ones with money in them weren't enough of an incentive for him to follow up on it. This job would be good if it weren't for those insufferable patients. House had told her once, and thinking of it now made her smile. "Have you seen Dr. McKay today?"

"Yes. I think she was hitting on me." Chase replied setting the food items down on the desk. Cameron stopped what she was doing and looked at her boyfriend.

"What do you mean, think?"

"Well she asked me what I saw in a dowdy girl like you." He replied, "And then implied if I wanted a real woman I should give her a call."

"What?"

"She also did it in such a way that even if I went to human resources none of her statements were harassing. I don't like that woman." Chase sighed. It wasn't that he didn't find Amber attractive, hell he found lots of women attractive, but he was in love with Cameron and that's all that really mattered.

"Neither do I." Cameron agreed and took a bite of her sandwich, "You wouldn't ever-"

"Don't go there. I love you." He said and then leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

"No PDA in the workplace, and what the hell did I tell you about hanging around House's office. His department no longer exists." Amber said, coming through the door. Once again she looked perfect, not a hair out of place, not a hangnail to be seen. Cameron didn't like how perfect this woman was. Even Cuddy had her failings when it came to dressing, as minute as they may be.

"He still gets mail." Cameron countered.

"Which will be filed away from now on to give him if he ever returns." Amber said. Cameron's eyes narrowed at the woman and Chase knew that she was about to get really pissed off. Gently he put a hand on Cameron's shoulder, trying to get her to calm down before she did something rash. She stood up and walked over to McKay, looking her dead in the eyes, even though the woman was a lot taller.

"WHEN he gets back." Cameron said defiantly, "Not if you stupid b-"

"Allison!" Chase cut her off. She turned swiftly to look at him and then raced out of the room in tears. Amber smiled at him wickedly and stepped aside, motioning for Chase to go after her sarcastically.

"A little moody for my taste." Amber said.

"Go torment someone else." Chase replied quickly and then left to go after Cameron. He hoped to God that Cuddy would come back soon, it was only a matter of time before someone snapped at this bitch and lost their job.

The sun was fading just as House reached the top of the hill. There was still enough light to illuminate the valley below him and he saw...nothing. There was nothing there, not a light to be seen, not a trace of human activity. He cried out in frustration and fell to his knees cursing and shouting. He damned every God he could name, and in alphabetical order nonetheless.

In anger, he took the flare gun and fired it upwards. It whistled as it went and exploded in an orange glow once it reached it's maximum hight. This illuminated even more of the valley, causing him to see further. There was still nothing there, nothing at all. How the hell could they be so in the middle of nowhere?

After about ten minutes of kicking and cursing and pounding the ground, he decided to fashion a torch. He would not sleep tonight, he would use any energy he could pull out of himself to get back to Cuddy as soon as possible. She would not die alone. Just as he was pulling off his shirt to rip into strips he heard it.

There was the gentle hum of a chopper in the distance. He had heard it more than enough at the hospital, he knew what it was. He looked around and in the dim light, off in the distance, there was indeed a helicopter. "HEY! HEY!" He shouted in panic, soon realizing that he was an idiot and they couldn't hear him. It was quickly flying his way.

He grabbed the flare gun and fired it up into the air again, towards the chopper. It exploded in flames once again, lighting up the air. That's when he realized that it was coming his way, somehow he had been spotted. Hopefully they could still find him in the dying light. Down in the valley there was an open patch of ground, he could see it, if they landed there he could easily get to them.

Quickly, he scrambled down the hill, falling and tripping most of the way down, and made it to the empty patch. If he hadn't been in a panic he would have questioned the odds of there being such a large area of uncovered ground in the forest, but it didn't matter now. Using the last flare, he shot it up into the air. The chopper quickly changed direction and started to land.

After the helicopter landed, House came out from the protective underbrush and greeted the operators. It was a woman and a man, with what looked like two blood hounds, tracking dogs. On his back he had Cuddy's pack and hoped there was something in there that smelled enough like her that they could get her scent. Then again, screw that, they had a helicopter.

"Hey!" The woman called as the noise died down and the blades on the rotor slowed to a stop. She got out of the chopper with the leash of one of the bloodhounds' leashes wrapped around her hand. It was a huge military machine that could carry a stretcher and accommodate the severely injured if it had to. "Are you Greg?"

"Call me House." He snapped, "We need to get to Cuddy. She's septic." He said. The man emerged from the chopper with his dog and approached. The only one left in there was the pilot and he wasn't moving from his spot, leaving House to think that he was ready to take off in a moment's notice.

"I'm Chris, this is Alyssa. Where is your companion?" He said, the noise of the vehicle had completely stopped and they could talk normally.

"Well Chris, she's miles back that way by a huge lake and-"

"The lake! We flew over that a few minutes back." Alyssa cried, "We know exactly where that is. We didn't see anything back there, are you sure she's-"

"Positive, she's in no condition to get up and move." House replied flippantly, "Lets start up that thing and get to her, okay?" House pushed past them and helped himself into the chopper. There was no way he was going to wait for their help, Cuddy was in danger and if they didn't see the fire from above that meant it had gone out and Cuddy was probably in more trouble. He didn't like to think about that.

When they finally landed near the lake a few minutes later. The fire was indeed out, and Cuddy was laying motionless next to it. His immediate thought was that she had died alone and he had been stupid to leave her. If the chopper flew over the campsite there would have been a fire going, for one, and he could have fired the flare gun for another. As soon as they were clear, he jumped out of the bird and raced to her.

"CUDDY!" He screamed to be heard above the noise. He had never moved so fast in his life. He tripped, as light was almost gone now, and fell next to her on his knees, tearing a hole open in his jeans. He took her hand, she was positively burning up. Her eyes opened and he could see the whites of them.

"Slenderman." She whispered.

"What?" House asked, but before she could even attempt to explain she went into a seizure. House knew that the only way to fix this was cool her body down and fast. In a rush of adrenaline he was somehow able to lift her body.

"What are you doing?" Alyssa called, shining a rather large flashlight in his direction. He didn't have the time or energy to answer her.

"HEY STOP!" Chris yelled, realizing that House was about to carry Cuddy into the freezing cold lake. House didn't care what they were telling him. He was a doctor and the lake would certainly drop her body heat to a point where she wasn't seizing. He went in up to his waist and laid her in the water so she was submerged up to her head. He held her as close as he could and the convulsions came to a halt.

"Cuddy...Cuddy say something." He whispered, standing in the freezing cold water, shaking just as bad as she had been just a minute ago. If they had even been thirty seconds later she would have been dead. The seizure would have probably caused her to choke and if it didn't she would have kept having them until eventually her brain baked and she died.

"Slenderman." She said again, "He was in the tent with me, had to get away." Her eyes opened slowly and rolled in his direction. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. As long as they got her to a hospital, and fast, she was going to be okay.

"Slenderman isn't real. He's an internet meme." House said with a slight laugh, "But incase you aren't buying that, I saw him hanging around you and kicked his ass."

"I love you House, you saved me."

"I love you too Cuddy." He whispered, the chopper was still going full power and Alyssa and Chris were standing at the shore shouting at House to get her out of the water. "Come on, we're saved." The pain in his leg was not registering in his brain and so he was somehow able to help her out of the water. Not full on carry her, but most of her weight was against him because of her foot. Once they got to the shore, the two of them collapsed. The world was spinning around him and he wished he hadn't refused the emergency food and water that had been offered to him in the chopper, because in the next moment he was dead to the world.