Chapter Twelve

The Hunt

Chris and Jessie soon left the campsite, eager to begin their search before it grew dark; Chris was beginning to wish that they had thought to bring a flashlight, food and drink...anything more then what they had. What they had was nothing, not even a weapon to defend themselves with in case they found the mountain men before they found Sadie and the others.

It was only ten in the morning, yet Jessie felt as though she had been walking in the woods for more then just an hour and felt a strange sense of deja vu that only grew worse with every step she took. She had walked through these woods before, searching for something, for an escape, constantly feeling the need to look over her shoulder. Though she had escaped once before did nothing to ease Jessie's mind or make the journey any easier; last time was last time.

* * *

Ramsey realized that she couldn't walk anymore, there just wasn't any energy left inside of her to continue. Her feet were bleeding from the split blisters and her skin was scratched and bruised from running through the woods in the dark and she was thirsty and hungry, not having eaten anything since lunch the previous day. They had been planning to roast hot dogs for dinner when the disfigured men had showed up.

To prove that she could no longer continue, Ramsey sighed and dropped to her feet so abruptly that Richard almost tripped over her. "I can't go any farther." She whimpered, trying not to glance down at her bloody feet, much worse for wear since the sandals she had insisted on wearing hadn't done much to protect them.

Kyle frowned when he heard her words, turning to face her. "Ramsey, we have to keep moving." He mumbled, though he didn't have the energy to really fight with her. If she wanted to sit on her ass and wait for those men to find her, then she was more then welcome to.

"Why? The only thing that's ahead of us is more woods. We're not going to find anyone to help us." Ramsey pointed out, feeling suddenly close to tears. The situation was hopeless, she was going to die in these woods, away from her family and any sort of civilization.

Richard sat down a few feet from where the blonde was slumped, knowing that everything she said was true; his sister was dead, his girlfriend was most likely dead and there didn't appear to be anyone around for miles. No one except the people chasing them. "She's right, what's the point?" He mumbled, causing his friend to look over at him.

"What is the matter with you guys?" Kyle snapped, enraged. "This is our lives we're talking about...our lives! If we don't move we're going to die! And I don't know about you guys, but I sure as hell don't want to die."

As Kyle spoke, an arrow whistled overhead and buried itself in his chest so suddenly that it looked as though it had materialized. Kyle's mouth dropped open in shock as he looked down at his chest before his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, his forehead landing on Ramsey's feet. Her shock induced stupor suddenly broken, Ramsey screamed and leapt to her feet, whirling around in the direction the arrow had flown from to see the bulky man from the night before holding a bow out in front of him, a smile upon his face. She screamed again and ran in the direction they had been heading, stepping over Kyle's motionless body without even glancing at it. Richard stared at his friend's corpse for a moment longer before scrambling to his feet and following Ramsey into the woods, feeling close to vomiting as he ran.

Ramsey finally stopped running and leaned against the back of a tree, turning to face Richard with tears coursing down her cheeks. "Did that really just happen?" She cried. "Is Kyle dead?"

Richard could do nothing but nod, silently, the urge to vomit even stranger now that he had acknowledged the fact that another one his friends had become a corpse. He wished he had listened to Sadie in the first place.

* * *

Sadie froze in her tracks when she heard the brush shaking and cracking off to her left; her breath caught in her throat and she slowly turned in that direction, though she really didn't want to see what was in the woods. Her worst fears were confirmed when she saw the pale, skinny man with the inane laugh emerge from the foliage, a fixed grin upon his face; he seemed pleased about something, and Sadie saw what when the two other deformed men came into her field of view.

The largest of the men was dragging something across the ground, his bulging back bent with the effort, while the other followed close. Against her better judgment, Sadie took a slow step forward to get a better look at what they were dragging and wished she hadn't when she saw Kyle bumping along the ground, a bloody arrow protruding from his chest. She clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming and stumbling backward, leaning against a tree as she felt her knees go weak. Kyle had been killed and there was no way of knowing if Richard and Ramsey were dead as well.

Sadie squeezed her eyes shut tightly and prayed that her boyfriend was still alive, that he had somehow escaped the killers when they had murderer Kyle. She could hear the deformed men grunting to each other, seemingly still at the moment, and the skinny one breaking in with laughter every so often. It didn't sound to her like they were using a real language, but she was beginning to doubt that they were even "real" people; people weren't supposed to murder their fellow human beings in cold blood and laugh hysterically while doing so.

The sound of the brush shaking once more caused Sadie to open her eyes to see where the men were heading. Thankfully, they were moving straight ahead, dragging the corpse behind them, not even glancing around as they walked, going past her in their pursuit to get wherever they were going. She walked until they had vanished before standing up again and heading the opposite way they had gone, still praying to find safety and help.

* * *

The day seemed much shorter at the woods and to Jessie, the sun was setting before the day had even truly begun. The pines slit the setting sun light, casting shadows upon the ground even though it wasn't yet dark. She and Chris had been searching for Sadie all afternoon and hadn't turned up any sign of anyone...or anything for that matter. It was going to be completely dark soon, a fact that was causing Jessie to slowly give up hope of ever finding her sister. They were far from their car, far from anywhere, in the middle of the woods, without a map, technically lost with miles of woods on either side of them.

Though she dreaded to admit it, Jessie knew that it was incredibly hopeless.