Chapter Five
The crow landed on a tree branch above a gate with stone walls on both sides. Dwight, Meg, Claudette, and Jake walked up to it, and stopped. The crow flew to Jake's shoulder, and cawed.
"Here," Jake said.
"Do you really think this is a way out?" Claudette asked.
"Only one way to find out," Meg said.
Dwight turned away and looked around. He saw wires connecting to the gate, going off in different directions. He counted three. He began to follow one wire. Meg, Claudette, and Jake noticed after a moment and followed him too. The wire led to a red generator with tall floodlights. The crow flew to the gen and landed on top of it.
"Fix the gen... and escape?" Dwight asked.
"Does anyone even know how to fix a gen?" Meg asked.
"I... I do..." Jake began. "I fixed one like this before. Just pull some levers, connect some wires, and on."
"How long will it take?" Dwight asked.
Before Jake could answer, the group heard a bell familiar to Meg. She motioned them all to hide behind a large rock. In a few seconds, the creature she hid from after waking up was a few feet away from them, searching.
"Him again," Meg said.
Another figure appeared further away. The man with the smiling bone mask and cleaver. Followed by the disfigured man with the chainsaw and hammer.
"And now this just got a whole lot harder," Dwight began. "I saw three wires, so if we want to get out of here, we have to start three generators. Then someone has to open the gate. And if we don't each get killed, we can hopefully escape this place."
"How are we going to fix them with those killers around?" Claudette asked.
"Dwight, maybe there's another way," Meg said.
"She's right, there are too many," Jake added.
Dwight looked at all three tall killers. He then looked back at the small group, all worried and scared. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, giving them a determined look.
"Look," Dwight began. "I want to get out of here. We all want to. And if we don't fix those generators and face those three killers... We'll be dead anyway. We might as well walk out in the open now, and give up. But I don't want to die... And I don't want any of you to die either. I might not remember who I am or anything else, but right now, I know I need Meg, Claudette, and Jake. So what do you all say? Do we give up? Or do we get the hell out of here?"
Meg, Claudette, and Jake thought for a moment. Meg looked at Dwight, and nodded, with a small smile. Claudette and Jake did too. The crow flew to Dwight's shoulder and cawed.
"So what's the plan?" Meg asked.
A few moments later, Dwight ran out into the open area. All three killers turned their attention to them. The Trapper, the Wraith, and the Hillbilly. Familiar names Dwight wasn't sure how he knew.
"Uh... over here..." Dwight said weakly.
The Trapper was the first to move. Dwight began to run through the woods. He could hear the Trapper behind him. He turned into another direction marked with a circle of stones. Dwight then heard a caw, and stopped. A bear trap was a foot in front of him. He went around it, and continued. In the distance, Dwight saw a flash of light. One generator was done.
Meg sprinted through the woods. The Wraith's skull and spine weapon hit a tree beside her. Meg dodged it and kept running. The Wraith used his weapon to ring the bell, before disappearing. Meg turned back, and then stopped. She heard something in front of her. The bell was rung, and the Wraith appeared in front of her. She quickly ran in another direction and found another set of stones on the ground. Another light went off in the distance. Two generators were done.
Claudette quickly hid behind a broken wall in the woods. The Hillbilly looked around for her, searching for his prey. After a moment, a third light went off in the distance. Claudette heard some kind of alarm go off in the area. She knew they had fixed all three generators. After a moment, she saw Dwight and Meg walk up to her. They hid beside her.
"Really?" Meg asked.
"Yeah," Claudette said.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Dwight said.
Dwight, Meg, and Claudette ran from behind the broken wall, heading toward the exit gate. The Hillbilly turned to them, and started his chainsaw high over his head. He began to run after them, his chainsaw aimed at them. They heard a bell, and the Wraith appeared next to the chainsaw wielding killer. Then the Trapper. All three were after them. In the distance, they could see Jake pulling the exit gate lever, and the large door finally opened. Dwight, Meg, Claudette, and Jake went through the exit gate. Dwight turned his head and noticed the gate blocking the killers from following them. It almost looked like a darkened spider web. The world around the group became darker and darker. The world went dark.
Dwight opened his eyes once again. This time, he saw Meg, Claudette, and Jake all laying on the ground with him. A fireplace was lit beside them. A familiar friendly crow landed on the ground beside him. Dwight gave the crow a small smile.
"Thank you..." Dwight said. The crow cawed.
"Did you just say thank you to the crow?" Jake asked, slowly getting up.
"He did," Meg said. She let out a little laugh. Claudette did too.
The group sat around the fireplace. After a moment of not talking, Dwight was the first to speak.
"It's no longer night time," Dwight said.
"Does that mean we escaped?" Claudette asked.
"I don't know... But I saw something keeping the killers from following us outside the gate. Maybe that means we did." Dwight said.
"So, what now?" Meg asked.
"We can try to find a road... I used to walk around the woods... I think I can find a way out of here..." Jake said weakly.
"You remembered that?" Claudette asked.
"Yeah... And I remember my father... 'I hate you' was the last thing I said to him... My mother tried to get us to talk after... But I wouldn't. I went into the woods... And something happened..." Jake said.
"And I was running..." Meg began. "The doctors told my mom and me that she was getting worse... I needed to run to clear my head... After I said goodnight, I left our house to run into the woods..."
"I was researching..." Claudette began. "For a hobby... I went out into the woods, and I just woke up there..."
"And I was on a business trip..." Dwight said.
"That doesn't sound too bad," Jake said.
"Until I was left behind..." Dwight added. "But I was also in the woods... And I remember you... Well, all of you. We've all met before... I think..."
"Maybe we should relax here for a moment. Then we can go find a road." Jake said.
"Yeah," Dwight said.
Dwight, Meg, Claudette, and Jake sat on a log next to the fire. As the group talked quietly about their experience in the woods, smoke rose from their campfire. And in the distance, far away from them, another trail of smoke appeared. And another. And another.
