Fresh Meat

- A Wrong Turn One-shot -

By TimeTraveller-1900.

Jenna sighed as she followed her friends, Mike and his sister Mikaela, Rachel, and Belle up the side of the mountain. There were excellent foot and hand holds, but in places, the rock crumbled.

"Y'know, of all the places to climb, we had to come here," Jenna grumbled.

"Oh, come on, Jen, this place is great!" Belle beamed at her from where she was.

"Yeah, this place is everything we could have asked for," Mikaela commented.

"It's peaceful. There's not a soul for miles around-," Rachel said, but Jenna glared at her. She didn't mind what they were doing, she loved mountain climbing, but there was just something about the emptiness here that was getting her down. She hadn't called her sister for the best part of a day, and she had no idea how Katie was doing; after their parent's divorce last year, Katie had been in a terrible state, and she wanted her sister to be reassured.

The good thing was she was with their aunt Sarah, and the older woman had been looking after them both since time immemorial.

In truth Jenna didn't miss either of her parents, with their here today, gone tomorrow, won't be back next month lives, to say nothing of their never-ending arguments. She herself had grown up without them in her life, so she didn't really need them now. Maybe in the future, they would reconcile.

But not now.

There was no mobile signal for miles around. The place was a dead zone. While the place gave her and her friends time to be together, especially after her nasty breakup with Jack, the last thing she wanted to do was to be totally cut off. She cast a look downwards and looked longingly at the camper van. She hoped she and her friends would just stop off at a few more places around here, and then just go on, preferably to a place where they could get a decent signal, to say nothing about being close to other people.

Rachel was right.

This place was peaceful. There were no towns, people for miles around as far as they knew (that camp they'd found didn't count since this place's natural features were bound to attract others) but at the same time, it was eerie. The only sounds they'd heard were the calls of bird song, but even then they were distant. And that worried her. Jenna had originally grown up close to a forest, she was used to hearing sounds of nature, like bears, pumas and other animals. Hell, she had even seen deer in her back garden!

But there was nothing here. They had been here for hours, and while it was normal for silence, there was something eerie about this place. And that campsite hadn't helped.

With a sigh, Rachel turned back to face the rock face and she climbed up. Suddenly she felt a presence next to her and she found Rachel near her, gazing at her sympathetically.

"Worried about Katie?" She asked. "Is that why you're depressed?"

"A little," Jenna was annoyed that her friend had used that kind of word, but she had to admit it worked. "I'm worried about how she's taking it. Katie's younger than me, she didn't see all of the arguments, and she always held out hope for mum and dad. But now they've split up, she's become clingy with me."

Rachel nodded. She might have a lot to do with Jenna's kid sister, but she knew how Katie had reacted to the divorce and what it entailed. "She'll be okay, she's got you," she replied, "and she's got your Aunt Sarah."

"Yeah, but it's just… I'm used to being in contact with her all the time," Jenna lowered her voice. "I don't like it here, Rachel. There's something not right here. I've felt that way, ever since we saw that little campsite."

Rachel nodded. Just as they'd come to the mountain they were climbing, they had found a small clearing where somebody had left a campsite, long since deserted. The tents were old from being in the weather for so long, and they had found sleeping bags. Nobody was going to come for them and tidy the place up, they looked like they had been there for a while. While the rest of the group had not said anything, everyone was concerned about it since they didn't know who had set the camp up or what had happened to them. It was possible they'd had a fatal accident and because the place was so remote and vast, nobody had known where to look.

Still, it was extremely eerie and concerning. It was hardly the best omen to receive if you wanted to climb a mountain or spend a few days having fun.

"Come on," Rachel reached over and rubbed Jenna's shoulder comfortingly, "We'll get to the top, and we can see if we can persuade Mik and Mik we can leave and find somewhere else. Preferably somewhere with a signal," she suggested.

Jenna sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was to ruin everyone's vacation, but it seemed to all that she was doing despite her best efforts to be happy and upbeat.

"Don't worry," Rachel clearly knew what she was thinking because she glowered at her friend. "In fact, you know that Mike and Mikaela might be growing bored and might decide to leave, once they work out their precious youtube videos aren't going to show themselves in a place where they won't get any signals."

Jenna chuckled, and now significantly more cheerfully, she took a deep breath and started concentrating on the climb.

Suddenly something unexpected happened.

"HELLO?" Belle suddenly called, and everyone could see that Belle was looking down at the ground, close to the camper van.

"Belle?" Rachel said. "What is it?"

"I thought I saw someone," Belle said, but there was sheer certainty in her voice. "I was looking over my shoulder, at how high we'd climbed, and then I caught a flash of movement. Guys, I don't think we're alone. I definitely caught sight of someone."

Jenna looked down at the camper van. But she saw nothing. She licked her lips at the worry now going through her very soul. "I think we should get back down there."

"We're very near the top now," Mikaela pointed out.

"We can get a better view from the top," Mike added.

"But if there are hillbillies down there, we'd have a quicker time chasing them off since we'll rappel down," Rachel added as she formed a plan. "It will only, like, take us about five minutes to get back."

The plan was agreed upon, and the college kids reached the top. But the moment they got to the top of the mountain, something thudded into Jenna's chest. Looking down, Jenna saw the long black arrow sticking out of her chest where her heart was in shock. Just as everything was going dark, she noticed idly that her other friends had similar arrows sticking out of them - Mike had an arrow through his eye, and it was fired with enough force it sent him over the edge of the cliff. Everything was going dark for her, and the last thing she consciously thought of was her sister.

And then it went dark.

X

For the cannibals in their cabin, the bodies of the people who'd come to their forest were heaped onto the ground. Later their bodies would be cut up and filleted, and some of their body parts would be eaten straight away or kept for later. But once more they'd been fed.

Two of the cannibals lifted one of the girls onto the table. This was Rachel's body. Her top and her bra were torn off, exposing her perfect skin. Grabbing two dirty knives which were covered with filth and layer upon layer of dried blood from numerous people over the years, they proceeded to cut her arms off, and blood pooled off of the table, and onto the floor before one of them hacked it off with an equally blood-stained hatchet.