Until Dawn: Embers of Hope

Next chapter of my Until Dawn story, a slightly edited account of Mike's journey through the Sanatorium, a few things have been truncated while one scene has been changed, regarding the bear trap and finally an extra little scene has been added, with Mike making an unfortunate discovery.

Reviews

Boris Yeltsin: Thanks.
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks :)
Marina Ka-Fai: Thanks.
thedarkpokemaster: Thanks, well, things aren't looking good true, but it's clear that things have already started, not just in regards to the actual killer, but other plans and actions could well be underway now.

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.


Chapter 11

Mike crouched by a wall, near the building he had seen. He ached all over from his constant running, the cold bit into his body and he was still trying to process what he has seen back in the mines, with Jess.

"Jesus." He muttered, ducking down before he was seen.

The stranger he had followed from the mines, the one he was sure was behind what happened to Jess, was walking up the path towards the building. Mike had heard growling and, peeking over the wall again, saw the stranger wasn't alone. Two wolves were with him, the stranger began to turn his head.

"Dammit." He muttered, ducking again.

He watched as the stranger seemed to close a door in the side of the building, before moving to the front of the building and entering.

"Alright..." Mike muttered to himself. "Let's get a closer look."

He grunted, trying to ignore the pain as he climbed over the wall, still carrying his lantern.

Walking towards the building his mind replayed those last horrifying moments again and again. 'Dammit Jess, I'm so sorry, I...I...I swear I will get this guy, he will pay for what he did to you.'

He paused by the door; he wondered if he should risk it. Then decided to check what the stranger had been doing first, in case it offered an alternative. He soon figured out where he was when he came across a sign on the building, labelling it as condemned, yet also identifying it as a sanatorium.

"Awesome. Why wouldn't I end up on the creepiest place on planet earth?" Mike remarked sarcastically.

He reached where the Stranger had been and found a metal plate against the wall.

Grunting and muttering in exertion he pushed it aside to reveal, just as he had suspected, another entrance to the sanatorium, leading into the basement by the look of it. He carefully clambered in and jumped down to the floor before looking around.

"Dammit, alright..."

He knew he was going blind here, the lantern was his only light source and he had no idea of the layout of the building.

Still he continued onwards, searching the building as thoroughly as he could, there wasn't much room to move about, but he saw a hole in the ceiling, if he get up to the elevated path, he could then hopefully find something to use to climb through it, that would hopefully take him into the main building.

Careful searching turned up a barrel which he set the lantern on and, preparing himself, he began pushing it until it was in perfect position. Retrieving the lantern, he climbed onto the barrel and up onto the elevated path. He couldn't believe his luck when he found solid footing in the form of a broken machine on it's side, right underneath the hole.

He wasted no time climbing up and poking his head out of the hole, seeing his immediate surroundings.

"Whoa, that's different." He commented as he pulled himself up onto what appeared to be the main floor of the building.

The sanatorium was in complete disrepair, it was clear some parts of it had completely collapsed, there were fallen walls, Mike was certain some of the doors were busted. The only plus side he could see right now was he was out of the snow, away from the freezing cold.

It helped him focus his mind on his pursuit, his determination for vengeance. Knowing he had to start somewhere he approached the first door that didn't seem to be a dead end, apparently leading to the chapel, according to the sign.

Peeking through a window by the door he saw the stranger again, throwing something to the two wolves who began eating it.

"Whoa, what the…?" Mike whispered, praying it an old fashioned dog bone or animal meat and not human.

Trying the door he found, to his frustration, that it was locked, he needed a keycard of some sort. He peeked through again and saw the stranger was gone and the wolves were just leaving. Mike had no choice now, he'd have to search wherever he could, leaving no stone unturned, to find the keycard.

Turning away from the chapel he began his search in the very hall he was currently in.

All his search turned up here was administration notes to the sanatorium staff about the arrival of a group of miners who had been caught in a cave in at the mines, it was dated 1952 and Mike suddenly remembered the map he had found when he and Jess had passed through a section of the mines, detailed sections of the mine that were unstable.

The notes also mentioned that the press were being forced away from the building.

Mike couldn't deny he didn't like what he was discovering, what appeared to be a decades old cover-up. He continued his search however, all this could wait until he found that man and made him pay.

'Gotta keep moving, c'mon, it's gotta be here somewhere.' He told himself.

His search through the current level of the Sanatorium was full however, of clues relating to the 1952 Mystery, many of them confusing or conflicting. Mystery was piling upon mystery here, Mike briefly considered that maybe, this stranger was looking into this 1952 mystery and these were clues he had gathered.

It appeared the sanatorium, which seemed the center of said mystery was also, conveniently, his base.

Shaking his head Mike reminded himself. 'But then, why attack Jess, what is he hiding, what is he up to?'

Resuming his search for the keycard, Mike began heading down the corridor, towards what the signs indicated was the morgue, just what he needed to cheer himself up.

There were still a couple of offices, just before the steps leading down to the morgue, that were accessible, so Mike checked them first. In the first office he found an old newspaper detailed an assault on a reporter, suddenly making sense of the broken camera.

"Huh, intrigue on Blackwood Mountain." Mike mused.

It was clear now, something was definitely being hidden here, covered up, especially when the other office yielded medical reports that did not tally with Mike's findings so far, report on only twelve miners, not thirty, eighteen were unaccounted for.

Perplexed but by no means distracted Mike made his way down the steps towards the morgue. In the outer corridor he came across a partially open room, debris prevented him from actually entering but he could see a bird sitting on a table right by the door and embedded in said table was a machete.

'Urgh, just great...well, I think I'm gonna need a weapon...better than nothing.' He told himself before reaching it.

The bird cawed and flew away while Mike was able to finally pull the machete free. Grimacing he stuck it in his belt and continued his search of the morgue itself. Noticing an odd shape behind a curtain he pulled aside to find a restraining chair, soaked in blood.

"Holy shit..." He gasped. "Ugh, what happened here?"

His continued exploration of the morgue offices and rooms led him to find another part of the 1952 mystery, in fact, most of his journey led him to various clues and hints that things weren't what they seemed and practically screamed cover up.

His search eventually led to another room, of which he could not identify the original purpose. Whatever the room used to be, it now only featured several tables and boxes and, strangely enough, a moving arm attached to a table, which jerked back and forth at irregular intervals.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa?" Mike spluttered, startled as he approached. "Is this what he was feeding them?"

He shuddered at that, had the wolves devoured human flesh. He then saw a note attached to the hand and reached out towards it when he stopped; something didn't feel right about this, whatever it was, it wasn't worth the risk, so he carefully stepped back and decided to instead resume his journey.

However he was lost, no idea where to go.

'Okay, okay…let's see, gotta be something here...' He wondered. 'Ah-hah.'

Luckily he got a hint as he approached one door, the temperature dropped. Mike recalled from the various crime dramas he sometimes saw that morgues had to be relatively cold places. It had to be through here.

Entering the morgue he was face to face with a strange, deformed but still human skull on a shelf.

'This place just gets better and better.' He thought sarcastically.

Continuing his search he found, to his frustration that the door out was locked and required a keycard, the same keycard he needed for entering the chapel too.

He growled as he turned to survey the room again. 'You've gotta be kidding.'

There was only one place he hadn't searched, three actually. Three body drawers, the only ones not rusted shut. Forcing himself Mike examined them, two brought out a name tag of a man named Nicholas Bowen, the second a death certificate for a Sarah Smith.

It was clear they were part of the 1952 mystery, especially the death certificate which seemed to indicate that Sarah had been partially...eaten, by something with very human teeth.

Opening the third drawer, Mike thought disgustedly to himself. 'Okay, is drawer number three the winner?'

It was as inside was an uncovered body, Mike nearly threw up, especially when a rat climbed out of the corpse's mouth. Containing himself he was able to spot just what he needed, the chapel keycard, on the body. He picked it up and turned away gratefully.

He reached the locked door again, unlocked it and, taking the keycard with him, entered the next corridor, which appeared to be in the back part of the chapel. He began climbing the stairs when he was ambushed by one of the wolfs.

Crying out he ran for his life, the wolf right on his heels, growling and snapping at him.

With a mighty effort, Mike escaped the wolf, slamming shut the door behind him. Fighting desperately for breath, pretty sure he was going to give himself a heart attack at this rate, he realized was in the upper levels of the chapel and could see down below.

He needed to get back to the chapel's main door. So he followed the path and climbed down a fallen staircase.

"Oh, right, back in here." He muttered with relief.

He was back in the main entrance, steps away from the chapel main doors. He hurried over as best he could in his weakened state and opened them before entering.

Just then he heard the growl and turned sharply to his left, the other wolf was there, growling at him. On instinct, Mike almost lashed out, but then told himself not to, instead he stepped back, holding up his hands. The wolf growled, but in a less threatening manner.

"Okay...okay..." Mike said softly. "Easy boy, easy, easy...that's a good boy."

He gently reached edged to the side and the wolf let him pass, settling itself down on the floor. Mike let out a relieved sigh and began to examine the room, his first point of interest in the run down, rubble filled chapel was a wooden chest, filled with bones.

"Maybe this'll keep the wolves fat and happy." He said to himself, almost laughing in relief.

It seemed his earlier concern had been wrong. Taking one of the bones he approached the wolf and whistled, getting its attention. He held out the bone and the wolf slowly came closer before gently taking it from his hand, Mike stroked the wolf and smiled as the animal seemed much more friendly now.

One he finished patting the wolf, Mike resumed his search around the room, now no longer paranoid about being attacked from behind by the wolf. He spotted a cigar bow on a table in the middle of the room and recognized the brand from the cigar stub he had seen earlier that night.

'Ahh... the stogie stash exposed.'

Something else caught his eye, a wall that was covered in various newspaper clippings, all of them about strange disappearances and did not make Mike any happier about the man he was pursuing. But then something caught his eye, it was notes, about a strange man prowling the mountain; not the man he was pursuing.

'God, there's two of them?' Mike wondered. 'Gotta be, that guy I saw...looks like these notes, are his, written by him...So who is this other guy...'

As Mike read more however, he grew even more worried. From the sounds of it, this other guy was the bigger danger here, in fact, it was possible that he was the one who attacked Jess and Mike ended up after the wrong guy.

He shuddered at that thought. 'Okay, deep breath Mikey, find this guy you're chasing, and get answers before you do anything...then you'll know.'

He sighed, apart from those notes, things seemed to turn up fruitless. One thing he did benefit from his search was a slightly tattered olive green army jacket. Smirking he pulled it on, relieved for the extra heat it provided.

"So...what have we here?"

Through a gap in a mesh fence, just behind where the jacket hung, was a gun. Reaching in Mike tried to grab it but couldn't reach it.

"Come on!"

Shaking his head he instead reached lower, to a leg holding the shelf against the wall and, with a bit of effort, pulled it off, making the gun slide into his hand.

He smiled, he still had the machete, and now had a gun, now he felt he had a better chance. Approached the door at the back of the room, the only possible exit the stranger could have taken, Mike shot the lock and moved into the next room.

Searching this area unearthed only a large stone memorial to 'the miracle men' the twelve surviving miners, still with no mention of the missing eighteen. Following the large staircase downwards into an underground area, he found another gate blocking his path and several barrels.

"Of course it's locked." He muttered.

Shoving an empty barrel out of the way he took aim and fired, breaking the lock.

But his victory was short lived as he tried to go through the gate, for he then saw the fire. Some of the barrels will filled with flammable liquid, some had spilled onto the floor and the sparks from shooting the lock had ignited it. Seeing this he began to back off.

"Shit, shit, shit..." He cried out as he tried to flee. "URGH!"

He cried out as the small explosion occurred, knocking him backwards onto the ground.


End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, so Mike's search through the Sanatorium is mostly unchanged, except in this one Mike keeps his fingers, also he's found out about the other human stalker on the mountain, but still...no knowledge of the Wendigos yet. Anyway, read and review please.