The Silent Forest

Summary: A field trip becomes a nightmare when the gang is separated from the rest of the group in the middle of a vast forest. Things go from bad to worse when they discover that they are not alone.

Pairings: Chaylor, Troyella and some mild Zekepay. Ryan will also feature but with no pairing.

Disclaimer: Yep, I own it. *Keeps dreaming*

Warnings: Possible character death(s). Rated T for some language and quite a bit of violence/blood. Probable spelling and grammar mistakes due to my lack of beta.

16. The Cabin

It was just getting light when the cabin first came into view. They had been walking slowly and cautiously for a couple of hours, staying alert and making as little noise as possible. They reached a large, flat clearing where the long, uncut grass was free of trees. In the centre of the clearing stood a small, wooden cabin.

"There it is." Chad said. A shiver ran down his spine as he looked at what had previously been his prison.

It was so tiny it almost looked like an oversized shed. It was constructed solely of wooden logs and, although it may one day have been sturdy and sufficient, it now looked fit to collapse. The once neat, fresh wood was now rotting. The planks that made up the steps to the porch were dipped and worn. The single window with its clouded and seemingly never-cleaned glass was smashed for obvious reasons. And the roof was riddled with various holes.

They remained within the cover of the trees for a moment to plan their next move. This was it. Their survival rested on the following events. It had to go right. Because they all knew one slip-up would cost their lives.

"So what are we gonna do?" Sharpay asked quietly. They all looked to Ryan for the answer.

He'd been thinking about it for their journey and he was certain now that he had a flawless plan. "Well," He started. "It looks empty," he observed as closely as he could from their distance. Obviously, he wasn't sure and that could prove to be a problem. "So I say we go in, look around, one of us can keep watch and we can get out of there before he comes back."

Troy nodded. "But what if he comes back while we're in there?"

"And what if he's already there?" Gabriella added.

Ryan had already considered these options. "We can take him down." He said confidently.

"But he's huge." Chad reminded him. "I mean, the guy is huge." He emphasized. He remembered how dwarfed he felt when the man's bulky arms had wrapped around him.

"There are six of us, Chad." Sharpay assured him. "There's only one of him."

Chad still wasn't convinced but they were there now and there was no turning back. He stayed silent and gazed at the cabin. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that things were going to end badly.

"What exactly are we looking for in there?" Taylor asked out of the blue. She wasn't sure if her vision was good enough to be able to find whatever it was that they were in search of. Everything in front of her was clearly visible; she knew what things were and could still determine distance and colour, but it all seemed a bit blurred around the edges.

"Anything." Ryan answered broadly. "Whatever might help us to find our way out of here. Whatever we can use to our advantage."

Troy bent over and picked up a small but heavy log of wood. He inspected it in his arms and silently pivoted it in a practice swing. He grinned with satisfaction. If worst came to worst, he thought, he could always just smack the guy around the head with it.

Gabriella watched her boyfriend and couldn't help but smile. He could be so random sometimes. It almost seemed as if he had forgotten where they where, he was a child again and he was readying himself for an imaginary adventure. Her smile sank as the reality of the situation sunk in.

"Good idea, Troy." Ryan said, also noticing Troy's make-shift weapon. "We should all arm ourselves."

They each gazed down at the floor but it seemed that Troy had taken the best that the forest had to offer. Just their luck to be surrounded by wood but still be unable to find anything more harmful than a relatively heavy twig.

Sharpay lifted a sharp, pointed rock the size of her fist. She knew it would be of no use. Firstly, it was too small; it weighed no more than a toy car. And secondly, no way was she hitting anyone with a rock. No matter whom they may be, she was not smashing anyone's head in and getting their blood all over her. No way. Too brutal.

Gabriella would have bent down to pick something up if she knew that moving her head even slightly wouldn't cause another unbearable wave of dizziness. Instead, she decided that, if things turned bad, she could always scratch or bite. Savage, maybe. But it was survival.

Chad knew that pure man power could not protect them if they were confronted by the freakish giant. They may have had numbers on their side, but he still wasn't certain that would help. There was nothing around for him to protect himself with, so he just had to trust that his friends would be able to defend themselves sufficiently.

Taylor decided to use her fists. She'd grown up with two brothers so she knew how to fight. She knew she wouldn't be able to overpower the man alone but, hopefully, she'd have the strength of her friends there backing her up. Hopefully, that would be enough.

Ryan picked up a log similar to Troy's but smaller. With his baseball experience, he knew he had a guaranteed good swing. He could knock the guy out if he had to. He glanced toward the cabin and took a deep breath. Maybe it was the nerves, but he was suddenly feeling sick again. He tried to shake the feeling off. Now was not the time. He looked back to the others.

"Everyone ready?" He asked. The atmosphere was almost one of soldiers readying themselves for war.

They nodded, although none of them really felt ready. If they had the choice, they would never be ready. But this was something that had to get done.

Ryan nodded his head slowly. "Okay." He gulped. "Here goes then…"

He led them reluctantly through the small clearing. Its long, untamed blades of grass clung to them and pulled them back stubbornly, almost as if warning them not to proceed. They fought through it effortlessly and, before long, arrived at the steps that led up to the porch of the cabin.

The first step creaked loudly the second Ryan stepped on it. Instinctively, he retracted his foot and let it hover in the air while he tried to calm his nerves. When ready, he stepped down again and made his way up the three steps and onto the porch. He took a second to observe the shattered window that Chad had used to make his escape earlier that day. He turned to the others who stood cagily on the grass and beckoned them toward him.

By the time they had made it inside the door, each of their hearts was beating with insane rapidity. To their relief, it was empty as they'd hoped, however they still had the niggling feeling that the cabins owner would soon return.

"Let's get on with it then." Sharpay whispered as she looked fearfully around her.

Regardless of the open window and holey roof, the small room was quite dark. Gabriella spotted what looked like an old fashioned gas lamp on a crowded desk in the corner and fiddled with it in an attempt to switch it on. To her surprise, it worked. At the flick of a switch, the room was illuminated. They took a second just to look at their surroundings.

It was a square room with a wooden pillar in the centre that held up the ceiling. It was mostly bare with only two pieces of furniture; a wardrobe and a desk, one window and one door. In the corner furthest from the door, there was a tatty, old blanket that must have served as a bed. Under the window was a pile of clothes and bags. In the corner opposite the bed, there was a home-made desk that was littered with papers and random objects.

Gabriella, who already stood by the desk, gazed down at the various things on its surface. The first thing she spotted was a map. Upon closer inspection, she found it was the map of the forest and its surrounding area. She held it up to show her friends.

"Guys," she said, drawing their attention from where they had been looking around. "Look what I found." She grinned. "A map."

Their trip into the cabin was already looking successful. If they wanted to, they could leave now and try to work out where they were on the map. Perhaps they could use the river as their guide. Gabriella could already see that, had they not veered off course when they had been following the river, they would eventually have reached a main road. It may have taken them a few days but it would have led them to safety. Too late now....

"We're done here." Chad decided, already turning to the door. They had all they needed. They didn't need to stay. "Let's leave."

Gabriella folded the map and was about to follow when something else caught her eye. "Wait." She said. She passed the map to Troy and picked up a small flat square off the table. Her hands were trembling as she looked at it.

It was a Polaroid picture. One she had seen before. One that she herself had taken. It was her and the others, crowded beside the minibus, happy and oblivious to the traumatic days that would follow. They were clean and smiling and…. How did the picture get here?

Things were about to get weirder. Sharpay had wandered to the window to inspect the pile of bags and clothes there. It didn't take long for her to recognise her pink, patent leather bag amongst them. When she lifted it, she found its contents were gone. She looked back at the pile and noticed that all their stuff was there. All the stuff that had gone missing on their first night was there as well as items she had never seen before, seemingly belonging to other people.

"This is our stuff." She said quietly, almost to herself.

Ryan came up behind her and had a look. She was right. This was getting very freaky.

At the desk, Troy was digging through the papers while Gabriella stood at his side, still gazing at the picture in her hands. There were newspaper clippings, weird for someone who lived so far away from the city. Most of them seemed to be the same kind of story. Troy skimmed over the headlines; 'Hitchhikers Go Missing', 'Camper Couple Never Found'.

The final headline took his breath away. It read; 'Still No Sign of Missing Teens'. He looked over the words and stared closely at the picture that accompanied the article. He almost expected to see the image of himself and his friends. He almost expected the article to be about them. But it was dated a year ago and it was about a group of friends, similar to them, who had also gone missing during a school activity. The picture showed them with their arms around each other, smiling, clearly before they had gone missing. According to the newspaper article, they were never found.

When Troy had finished reading, he looked back down at the table. Something shiny glinted and caught his attention. He lifted a gold necklace from the surface. It was nothing special but the unusual fish-shaped locket seemed somewhat familiar. He looked back at the newspaper cutting in his hand and gazed closely at the picture. Among the frozen teens was a petite brunette girl. The caption underneath the picture said her name was Aimee Reynolds. Around her neck, she wore the same unique locket. The story of the group's unexplained disappearance was slowly getting clearer.

The chain on the necklace was broken as if it had been savagely torn from Aimee's neck. It was unclear but there also seemed to be dots of dry blood on the chain and the small golden fish. Troy threw down the piece of jewellery with repulsion. He knew what had happened to the girl and her friends. He would probably meet the same fate.

There were similar objects on the table; photos, pens, watches, jewellery… and Troy knew they all belonged to other victims. So many other victims…

He jumped almost a foot in the air when he heard the creak of a door being opened.

On the other side of the room, Taylor was opening the wardrobe. Its ancient hinges had made the noise. She noticed it smelled dank and damp and was dark inside. There were no clothes in it just heaps of shoes. Many of which came tumbling out as the wardrobe door was opened. At the top of the pile, standing out completely, were Sharpay's pink Jimmy Choo's,

It reminded Taylor of the stories she had heard of the dreadful holocaust. When the concentration camps were closed, people found rooms and rooms of shoes that had been taken from the dead. It was sickening. And now, back in the cabin, it just seemed like the footwear was being kept by this man, this serial killer, like some sort of sick souvenir.

"My shoes." Sharpay gasped, turning to the noise Taylor had made.

They all turned and looked at the pile with a mixture of shock and confusion.

"Who is this guy?" Ryan asked. "Why is he doing this?"

Chad had been keeping watch intently the entire time. He had only torn his gaze away from the window for a second to look at the shoes but when he turned back, he noticed something very bad. And it was approaching quite quickly.

"Shit!" He cursed under his breath. The man was trudging heavily towards the cabin with a large, black sack slung over his shoulder. He was already half way through the clearing. Growing closer by the second. "He's back!" Chad hissed.

There was a second of complete silence as they all gazed out the window. They didn't speak. They didn't breathe. Even their hearts stopped beating. Then they snapped into action. The man was too close now for them to be able to go out the door or window unnoticed. All they could do was either stay where they were and fight him or hide. Due to the revelation of the sheer size of the man, they chose to hide.

Closest to the wardrobe, Taylor jumped into it and beckoned Chad over to join her. He climbed in beside her and pulled Ryan over with him but it was already too cramped for anyone else. Ryan couldn't fit. Taylor shot her friends an apologetic look. 'It's okay' Ryan mouthed and shut the doors for them. "Good luck." Taylor whispered to him before she and Chad were enclosed in darkness.

Gabriella and Troy instantly ducked under the table that they stood beside. It was a feeble excuse for a hiding place but they had no other options. Gabriella tucked her knees to her chest and Troy held her to him from behind. He buried his nose in her hair and took in her sweet scent. Gabriella shut her eyes and allowed herself to disappear in his embrace. "Everything will be okay." Troy assured her unconvincingly.

Sharpay stood frozen on the spot. Ryan silently grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into the corner of bags. He draped clothes over her and covered her with bags until only her face was showing underneath the heaps of material. "Stay as quiet as you can." He whispered. "I love you." He kissed her on the forehead and then covered her face with a white shirt.

Ryan took one final look around the cabin to see if his friends were well enough hidden. They were invisible to him. Then he glanced out the window. The man was climbing the stairs. And there was nowhere for Ryan to hide. The footsteps got nearer until Ryan could tell the man was right outside.

Thinking fast, he dove behind the door just as it swung open.

xX M Xx

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