Hey guys,
Welcome back to another chapter of Trapped Until Dawn. I wanted to get this out as soon as possible, so I started this on 3rd February. Let's see how long this takes me.
Will's pov, Tunnel to sanatorium, 05:07
We enter the tunnel and made our way through it. I felt like we were getting close but, before we could get any closer, the world started to fade around me as I had another totem vision.
I saw Mike, lying on the ground struggling, with a Wendigo on top of him. It was trying to attack and scratch him.
I shook my head of the vision and we continued walking down the tunnel.
8 minutes later, 05:16
"Come on guys! Hurry up! We gotta find Mike! Come on!" Sam said as we walked through the tunnel supposedly to the sanatorium. We had be walking, or hobbling in Chris' case, for a while now, Sam trying to encourage as along the way. Everyone either looked tired, angry, in pain or scared.
Sam had a more so determined look on her face as we walked, Emily expression looked tired but you could tell from her eyes that she was scared out of her mind after what had just happened back in the hotel, Ashley's was the complete opposite, looking scared on the outside and tired on the inside, Ryan still looked angry and I'm guessing he still didn't really want to come and Chris was staggering along in pain, he stopped for a moment and leaned against the corner of the wall.
"Hey... ahhh... I'm kinda gimping out here, guys... I think maybe you should go on without me." Chris said as Ash moved over to stand beside him.
"No. Chris. We are not leaving you. We're sticking together. Mike will just have to wait." Ash said determined to stay together.
"You gonna be alright?" I asked him as we rounded the corner.
"Yeah. I'll be fine. I'll make it." He replied as we continued down the tunnel.
As we walked, I noticed a path leading left and I could see a totem lying on the ground. I signalled Ryan and he followed me as I pick up the danger red outlined totem and looked into the darkness.
I saw Josh getting up from of the ground and turning towards me, blocking my view, but something was different about him. He was grunting deeply and it looked like his teeth had grown out of his mouth. I realised, with horror, that Josh had been turned into a Wendigo.
The vision ended and I turned to Ryan in shock.
"You saw that too, right?" I whispered to him, still kneeling down as I put the totem back down.
"Yeah, I did. What the fuck did I just see?" He replied as I stood back up.
"Josh was turning into a Wendigo. We need to get to Mike now, before something bad happens." I said to him. I could still see the anger for Mike in his eyes, but I could tell he knew I was right.
"Hey, Ryan, Will. You coming or what?" "Hurry up, you two. We need to find Mike." Emily and Sam said from the end of the tunnel.
"Yeah we're coming! Let's hurry, we need to save Mike and Josh." I said to the group, then Ryan as we run to catch up with them.
"Oh shit. Mike must have locked it behind him. CRAP! There's gotta be another way in." I heard Sam say at the very end of the tunnel as she tried to open some double doors and Ash looked around the area.
"Whether it was because he didn't want us to get involved or because of what happened remains to be seen." Ryan whispered to me.
"Wait, hey! What about this?" Ash asked, looking down at a circular grate that was in the floor.
"Oh... Huh." Sam hummed as she ran back over to us.
"I mean should... should we try it?" Ash asked.
"Well it's not like we have a whole lot of options here..." Sam answered as Ash grabbed a pipe, that was conveniently place on top of the grate, slide it into a little hole on the side and pushed it up.
"Okay... Ugh!" Sam grunted as she and Ash lifted the grate off and away from the hole. Down the hole, I could see a tunnel unlike the one we were in, it was a natural mine and a dark one at that.
"Okay this is maybe the last place I'd wanna be right now." Ash said as we all gathered round the hole.
"So who's going first?" Sam asked Jokingly.
"Ha." Ash said as Sam started to climb down the ladder.
"It's not so bad. You think this is the tunnel to the Sanatorium?" Sam said.
"Of course it is. Where else would it go." Ash replied. Soon enough, Sam was at the bottom of the ladder and Emily was climbing down.
"Chris. I know your hurt but you gotta move it, alright?" Ash said as Chris slowly made his way into the hole.
"I'm tryin', Ash" Chris said as he got on the ladder and slowly descended.
"You want to go next or should I?" I asked to Ryan.
"I'll go." He answered as he advanced toward the ladder and made his way down. After that, I made my way to the bottom and finally Ash made her way down but as she entered, she stopped.
"Hey... um... We should close this, right?" She asked.
"Huh?" Sam questioned.
"I mean what if something's following us?"
"Yes, fine. Close it. But we gotta keep moving. Can you just catch up? Please?" Everyone started to walk down the tunnel away from Ash, but I stayed put.
"Will, what are you doing? Let's go." Ryan stopped and said.
We can't just split up like this, not now. But Ash can look after herself, right? Should I stay with Ash or go with the rest of the group.
"I'm staying with Ash. You can go on ahead if you want." I said determinedly (Butterfly Effect). I can't just leave her on her own, who knows what could happen. Ryan looked at me hesitantly.
"...Fine. I don't agree with it, but it's your choice. Just be careful." He replied as he started to walk away.
"I will." I said as I saw him disappear round the corner. I looked back at the ladder to see Ash climbing down it.
"What are you still doing here? Why didn't you go on ahead like the others." She questioned.
"I couldn't just leave you on your own. Anything could happen. I'm not saying you can't handle yourself but I just want to make sure everyone gets off this mountain alive." I explained as we started to walk down the tunnel.
"Well that's very sweet of you. Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
We didn't need to walk far before we saw the light coming from the touch that Chris had been holding and the one on Sam's head.
We came to a cross-roads and were about to got down the tunnel that the lights were, but suddenly, we heard a shout of "Help me" echo through the other tunnel, and It sounded like Jessica.
Ash called down the tunnel to see if there was going to come a proper answer but there was nothing. I remembered what Ash had said earlier.
"This says that because the Wendigos are... mutated... from humans... when they hunt us they know how to perfectly mimic their pray..." Ashley said, looking away from the stranger's book.
"Ash I don't think we should go down... ASHLEY!" I tried to say only to find that she was halfway down the tunnel towards the voice. I growled in frustration and quickly followed her.
"Ash, I don't like this." I said as we rounded a corner.
I could hear a loud banging coming down the tunnel. At the end, I could see where the noise was coming from, a trapped door in the floor was being banged really hard but it was locked.
Before that though, I looked to my left and saw something wooden, it was a totem. I went over to it, picked it up and looked into it.
I saw Josh with the wendigo looming over him, with it's hands clamped down on his head in a vice grip. He was being crushed.
Well, I just got two totems that contradict each other. So those are two ways the ending for Josh could go. Well I won't let either of those happen. I thought.
We moved towards the trapped door, Ash whimpering along the way. She kneeled down to the door and was about to open it.
"NO ASH, DON'T!" I shouted before she could grab the lock.
"W-What? W-Why?" She questioned.
I need to think carefully about my choice of words here. Should I present facts and evidence to show that this isn't Jessica or should I express my opinion and tell her it isn't Jessica?
Opinions weren't going to cut it, she needed hard evidence to persuade her.
"Ash, this isn't Jessica. This is a wendigo!" I said determinedly.
"How do you know that?" She questioned.
"Remember what you said earlier, back in the hotel. Wendigoes can mimic their pray. Now we know that it was a wendigo that dragged Jessica across the mountain, what's not to say that it's mimicking Jessica to lure us to it."
"What if this is Jessica though, she could be trying to escape the wendigo."
"Look at the way the trap door is being banged. Do you think someone in the condition Mike said she was in would be able to bang on a door that hard. She would be weak and hurt... There's a tunnel right here we can exit from."
"Well... I-I... I guess you're right. You BETTER be right about this." She conceded as she stepped away from the door that had started to banging again (Butterfly effect update).
"Trust me, this is hard for me to do too. But we can't take that risk." We started to move towards the exit.
"Sorry Jessica." I heard Ash whisper back to the door as we got to a ledge and we jumped down (Butterfly effect update). To our right, I could see the rest of the group coming down the tunnel.
"Oh my god I am so glad to see you" Ash said.
"Glad you two are safe." Sam said.
"Barely." I said under my breath as we started walking down the tunnel again.
"What happened? You're sweating bullets." Ryan asked.
So I explained what had happened as we continued to walk down the tunnel.
"Wow, that must have been really hard to do. Let's just hope that was the wendigo and not Jessica." Ryan said.
"I don't really want to think about that possibility." I said back as we came out into a bigger area with a rock wall that looked like it was supposed to have a ladder leading up, but it was broken.
"Look... Look there!" Ash said, pointing towards the broken ladder.
"Wow great." Sam said.
"The ladder's toast, we're never going to make it up there!"
"No no no, I think I can... I think I can do it. It's like... a rock wall. I'm gonna keep going... You should head back to the lodge I've gotta get Mike." Sam said determinedly.
"I'm going with you." I said, remembering all of the times I went rock climbing.
"Alright then." Sam replied.
"Me too." Ryan said.
"No offence Ryan, but you're not as athletic as me or Sam are." I said.
"Hey, I went to those rock climbing classes too!"
"Yeah, but you didn't do so good. You hardly even got off the ground!"
"Err... yeah... but... I'm still coming! I don't want anything bad to happen to you two."
"Fine, we'll help you up. But don't come crying to me when you hurt yourself." I said, cracking a little smile as we faced the rock wall.
"I'll be fine" Ryan said, cracking a smile back.
"Good luck!" Ashley said as the others headed back the way they came and we made our way upwards.
Butterfly Effects:
Will chose not to shoot the squirrel; Nature remained in balance.
Will pushed Chris out of the way to pull the lever; Chris blamed Will for Josh's death; But he trusted Will anyway; Josh felt betrayed and taunted Will.
Ryan kept the axe; Ryan was put in danger; But made it out safely.
Ryan walked calmly through the herd; Ryan, Matt and Emily escaped the threat unscathed.
Ryan kept the flare gun.
Ryan decided to check the trapdoor; He fell through the open door; He failed to grab the doorframe; He ended up outside. And managed to make it back to the lodge; Where he saved Will's life.
Will tried to save Chris from the psycho; Chris trusted Will and put the gun down.
Ryan chose to go into the mines; He tried to be careful and succeeded; He made it out of the mines unscathed; He was able to save Will's life back at the lodge.
Will defended Josh; Josh appreciated Will's concern; Mike criticized Will's choice; Mike and Will got into an argument and Mike tried to shoot him; But Ryan saved his life.
Will chose to step between Mike and Emily; Mike got angry and shot Will but Ryan saved him.
Will chose to take the revolver.
Will chose to stay behind; He managed to persuade Ashley not to open the trapped door; They made it through alive.
So, that's chapter 16. This didn't take as long as I thought it would have, only a week. I'm hoping to set a two week limit for these chapters now, so I can get them out quicker. We're getting close to the end now, I'm hoping that this story will be complete by the beginning of April at the latest (But I still won't be completely don't with it, wink wink).
Bye guys.