"I can't believe I actually agreed to this shit"
"You didn't Scout, but you don't have a choice, we need bait in case the wendigo comes back." Miss Pauling flicked the cylinder on her revolver with a satisfying series of clicks.
"Look, laddy, if tha monster returns we'll be exposed hauling tha guns. We need ya to distract it 'til we can get set up." Demoman added as he not so subtly opened the door.
Scout walked out into the snow cautiously, he sank to about mid-shin in the cold, his feet beginning to go numb. Behind him Miss Pauling and seven mercenaries stormed out, branching to their respective vehicles, Spy, Pyro, and Miss Pauling heading to the sports car, popping the trunk for Pyro, while the other two grabbed their luggage and Scout's remaining bag; Heavy, Engineer, and Medic made a beeline for the truck, throwing the tarp off and grabbing their bags and boxes; en route to the campervan was Sniper and Demoman, grabbing the weapons and the miscellaneous bags from the cupboards around the truck. As they began to make their way back to the cabin, loaded down with bags the howling started, a wailing screech, then another one moments after, after a few seconds the two howls sounded again.
"There's more than one-a them..." Scout said to no one in particular before realizing that his companions were too encumbered to get inside in time. He started to smack the bat and shovel together. Getting ripped to shreds and then forced to hang with Soldier was hardly Scout's idea of a good time but he had a feeling that getting Miss Pauling ripped apart by the same token would hardly improve his chances with her.
Dancing out towards the edge of the trees through the high snow Scout kept up a racket adding the occasional yelled insult. Then he heard the screech again, loud enough to drown out the racket and shake his teeth. Then Scout started to run for his life. His feet were plunging deep into the snow as he attempted to get a gait going, ending up in a duck-footed, high-stepping run along the edge of the trees.
The team was almost to the cabin and Scout was losing ground quickly, he was fast on dirt, but snow that slowed you, trapped you, and numbed your senses was anything but ideal. He needed to get off the ground, and not thinking, leapt up to the hood of the rusted truck. As he made a second jump and landed squarely on the cabin he once again bounce down to the bed and just as his shoe touched the back gate he heard a loud CRUNCH. The monsters were following him over the car, and from the sound of it, tearing it up pretty badly.
Completely panicking at this point Scout switched to instincts, and those instincts were saying get higher, get away. He jumped across and landed on the van not far away, as he ran over the top of the campervan he felt the whole thing jolt to the side and a fraction of a second later a gunshot rang across the clearing, the bullet passing a few inches in front of his face, prompting a sharp cabin-ward turn.
Standing on the porch as the last of the items were jammed through the door Spy took the cigarette from his mouth and turning to the glaring Engineer next to him snapped, "what? You saw that 'e was about to ruin my car too!" Engineer simply sighed and turned, carrying the last bag inside while Heavy stood stiffly while holding the door open, watching Scout run towards the cabin, closely pursued by the two wendigos.
Once again high-stepping through the fresh snow Scout could almost feel the beasts' breath on his back. Trying to get in the cabin would lead the things right to the windows and door, and if they'd done to the cars what it sounded like they did, some glass and an inch of pine wouldn't do much in the way of protection. Passing the porch he yelled a quick, "close tha door, fatty!" Before veering to the side of the house. A tall stack of firewood was just what he needed, he stumbled up the logs with numb feet, hardly feeling them shift and roll away. Scrambling at the quickly collapsing top he managed to grab the edge of the roof with both arms, quickly hauling himself up. He crawled across the roof on all fours, heading for the smoking chimney, it wasn't going to be fun, but being eaten alive couldn't be better than what amounted to a puff from the RED Pyro.
Inside the cabin the team unpacked their weapons, most inside duffel bags, wrapped in burlap, or were simply out of sight covered by tarps in the cars previously. Miss Pauling glanced sideways to Pyro, who was marvelling over his flamethrower, simply saying, "Really? A cello case? I've never been so glad about running late and forgetting to check your lug-" Above their heads there was a clatter of shingles as something ran across the roof, followed by two louder crashes and a noise as if half the roof slid away, "And the gang's all here." Miss Pauling finished as a screaming Scout fell into the lit fireplace.
Quickly pulled out and extinguished by a rather over-happy Pyro, Scout lay gasping for breath as the soft blue aura of the medibeam healed the blistering burns on his skin to the soft pink of new skin. He finally spluttered out, "You all owe me for tha' shit I just went through. I saved all your asses-"
"You left two ravenous beasts pacing on the rooftop, and destroyed two cars. This is 'ardly the time to ask for thanks." Spy cut cut in as the shifting began again on the roof.
"Well? We have guns, let's fight." Heavy added with a certain amount annoyance to the attempts at bickering.
Deciding that their time could be better spent killing than testing the weight allowance of roofs against lurking wendigos the team headed out into the dark once more. Each teammate carried a burning torch of a chair leg or lump of firewood, planting them firmly to give them a decent amount of light as one of the beasts swung down from the roof on ape-like arms and began to stalk towards the group. Then all hell broke loose.
Heavy's gun revved loudly and began to belch fire and lead, his body engulfed by a blue aura of healing; Sniper flicked the trigger on the rifle back and watched as the bullet ripped through the beast's head, which smacked back together with a sickening CRACK and mended; Scout high-stepped through the snow as he attempted to pepper the healing knee joints of the beast with pistol fire; Pyro simply fired their shotgun, face half turned away and trying not to look; Engineer's glove was off, his mechanical hand mending together a mini-sentry, then realizing there was no red for it to shoot Engineer pulled the Wrangler from his belt and aimed the laser guide on the chest of the monster; Demoman slung sticky bombs towards the beast, catching it in its shoulder, which hung limply as the severed tendons stretched and snapped, trying to reattach. Spy and Miss Pauling perforated the beast's face with revolver fire, watching the holes seal shut with less and less urgency.
The wendigo eventually collapsed to the ground, still roaring but all limbs essentially useless as the flesh knitted back together painfully slowly. With a frenzy of blows from an overly brazen Sniper with a overly sharp kukri the beast was beheaded and all movement ceased. Its head was kicked several feet away for good measure and the group once again stood with a hair-triggers half-pressed.
There should still be one. Pyro kept their eyes towards the snow, the others scanned the surrounding trees and the rooftop of the cabin. It was Pyro who saw it, in the frosting covering the ground someone was leaving footprints, and Pyro couldn't see it; Pyro didn't like that. With a quick puff of fire it appeared an entirely different beast was revealed, it was a ball of fire in the rough shape of a man, but too tall, too hunched, too wide, too gaunt. As the team watched, the roaring shape lurched into a snowbank, the flakes extinguishing the fire, and as their jaws fell open there was a certain familiar sparking and the wendigo shimmered into view out of a wave of red.