"Hold up, kids," the detective says, stepping in front of the three survivors. He pulls out an evidence bag and scrapes pieces of the indented wallpaper into the bag with a pocketknife. Chris stares at the long nail marks with a shiver, hoping that they were made sometime before the lodge erupted into flames. The detective hands the bag off to one of his men and motions for Chris to keep walking.
Fear continues to creep up the back of Chris's neck as he starts forward into the underground of the old hotel. Part of him knows that he's insane for doing this, for coming anywhere near here again, but he can't leave behind the possibility of Josh being alive. There's only a slim chance they'll find him down here, dead or alive, but he has to take it. They left Josh out there in that shed open for the wendigos. They didn't turn back for him down in the mines. They at least owe him this.
Chris can't help but wonder if this could've all been avoided a year ago. If he and Josh hadn't of drank so much, if Chris had just stopped both of them a few drinks earlier, then maybe everyone would be alive. How many skipped drinks would it have taken to avoid all of this? Two or three? Maybe even just a single one?
Stop thinking like that, Chris tells himself as they enter the old hotel's kitchen. There's nothing you can do to change what's already happened. Carefully ignoring the room with the projector in it, Chris leads them all around the kitchen. The detective's men quickly grab samples of the pig hanging from the ceiling as the detective himself examines the soot covered pictures of the eight teenagers strung up in one of the lockers.
The blond haired boy continues leading the search all the way down to the room where Josh had the monitors of the video cameras watching them. The screens are all blank on account of the explosion, but the creepy memory of what used to be there remains. It hurts to think of just how much effort Josh put into terrifying them and the idea of him hitting Ash still stings.
The pure hurt he feels is lessened by what Sam told him she found in the basement. A psychiatric disorder means the prank wasn't something he did as himself, as the Josh he knows. Something in him snapped when his sisters died and Josh acted in a way he couldn't control because of his mental health. On the other hand, the realization that Chris hadn't noticed his best friend was having psychiatric problems makes his stomach weigh heavy with guilt. He had just thought Josh was grieving, that he'd come around with time. He never thought the problems ran deeper than that.
"That's it for down here," Chris announces, shaking the thoughts from his mind. "Mike, why don't you take us down to where this place meets up with the tunnel to the sanatorium? Sound good, detective?"
The detective nods gruffly and Mike takes the flashlight from Chris, seemingly fearless. He still doesn't understand how Mike is able to act so calm and collected through all of this, even during that night. Chris could barely fend off the one wendigo that killed the stranger, let alone the six or seven Mike faced in the sanatorium that night. Maybe the whole thing is just some tough guy façade, but if it is, then it's a damn good one.
"We're going to find him," Sam tells Chris quietly, clasping a hand on his shoulder. "One way or another," she mutters.
"And if we don't?" he questions, the possibility of it growing nearer and nearer. They've searched the whole basement and the old hotel, the mines and the remains of the sanatorium are the only places left and the mines are way too dangerous. With every place they search and fail to find Josh, his heart drops deeper and deeper into his stomach.
"He could be out in the woods," Sam replies, somewhat weaker than her previous answer. "This land stretches for acres. He's got to be out there somewhere. If we don't find anything, the park rangers will. And if they don't, then we'll deal with it. Alright?" Chris nods and Sam manages a weak smile. "We can't give up just yet."
"We're going to find him," Chris agrees, wishing optimism was enough. "Josh is a tough guy, right?"
"Josh is one resourceful son of a bitch," Mike answers. "Did you see all of the shit he put together for that night? That plan took a whole lot of thought. The kid's smart."
"You don't even think he's alive," Chris mutters, dropping down into the tunnel that leads to both the sanatorium and the mines.
"Josh is smart, but so are all the other monsters on the mountain," Mike retorts.
"What monsters?" the detective questions, landing loudly behind them.
"Oh, you know, just the usual bears, wolves, deer, birds, and the occasional psychopath. Man, that reminds me of the dying deer Jess and I came across, urgh," he shudders as he leads them down one of the various breakaway tunnels. "I hate seeing dead animals. Hey, I wonder if Wolfie's around here somewhere."
"Wolfie?"
"Uh, yeah. I met this wolf when I was chasing after the guy who tried to kill Jess. It was a nice wolf, helped me find my way. I named him Wolfie." The detective replies with some sort of incredulous scoff, to which Mike defensively says, "What, is it a crime to make friends with wolves now?"
"No, it's not a crime. It's just strange," the detective says. "Wolves typically don't make friends."
"Yeah, well, I'm good with animals. Sorry you haven't made any wolf friends lately," Mike replies sarcastically. "Asshole," he mutters under his breath, just loud enough for Chris and Sam to hear. "Well what do we have here," Mike muses, picking up an unlit torch. "This must've been one of the psycho's. Sam, toss me your lighter." He hands Chris the flashlight and lights the torch, igniting a soft glow throughout the tunnel.
"What the hell are you going to do with a torch? You've got a flashlight," the detective announces disapprovingly.
"No, now Chris has a flashlight and not me," Mike answers matter-of-factly. "I have a torch." Chris snorts, much to the detective's obvious annoyance and Mike cracks a smile. The tall dark haired boy leads them forward until he stops abruptly with the statement, "Well that's not creepy or anything."
Chris resists the urge to shake at the sight of another set of claw marks across the mine wall. What scares him the most is that he can't discern whether or not the marks were made by a human or by one of those things. He's not sure which one would be worse either; the idea of a wendigo down here or the idea that these desperate marks were made by Josh. And those marks don't look like the kind you make when walking, but rather the kind you make when being dragged.
"Huh, this is weird," Mike says as the detective takes a scraping of the marks. Chris glances over at him to see a very slim, shadowy break in the tunnel. "I never noticed this way before, it must've been too dark. It looks like it might lead to the same place, though. Think we should check it out?"
"Yes, I think we should," Sam answers before the detective can reply. "Maybe Josh found it and slipped through. It looks pretty easy to miss, maybe he's been hiding out through there for the past few days. We should check it out to be sure."
"The fire crew only checked the structural integrity so far outwards. We're way past the basement at this point, which is the only place I promised to help you look. Now I've catered to you searching the old hotel and thus far, but I can't allow a bunch of teenagers to go exploring in potentially unsafe environments they haven't even seen. I'm sorry about Josh, but this is as far as we go," the detective announces.
"We're already here. Josh could literally only be a few feet away from us," Chris argues. "We haven't come this far to give up now. We're going, with or without you." As much as Chris hates arguing with authority figures who could very easily make his life hell, he's not giving up this close to covering all the grounds. Josh is worth whatever mess might come from defying a detective.
"Chris is right," Sam agrees. "We're not giving up, even if you are."
"And if they're going, so am I," Mike seconds with a nonchalant shrug. "Sorry, too late for arguments." And with that, Mike slips through the small crevice in the tunnel wall. Sam follows in suit and against the logical part of his brain telling him this could potentially be a very bad idea, Chris slips through behind her.
"Wait a second," Mike says slowly, glancing around. They appear to have ended up in some kind of watery hallway. The pools of water reflect the darkness of the room eerily, giving off a chillingly glassy surface. Sam stills beside him, recognition and then horror filtering across her face. "This is where that thing-"
"Dammit kids," the detective growls, slipping in behind them. He's quickly cut off by an almost guttural sound from around the corner. It's not quite the scream that haunts Chris's nightmares, but it's similar, only more… human. There's an awful gnawing sound with it, almost as if something's being eaten. The sound makes Chris's stomach churn and a tremor of fear crawls up his back as his mind screams at him not to look around the corner.
Don't look, his mind tells him as Sam and Mike step forward to glance around the corner. You don't want to see what might be down there. He takes a step forward, his heart beating hard in his ears. This is a bad idea, Chris. The world suddenly slows, as if someone hit the pause button, and his head turns slowly to follow the others gaze. When he sees what's beyond the corner, he freezes.
"Josh?"
It looks like his best friend, only it doesn't. It's wearing the same clothes and has the same hair, but it's covered in blood and the noise… the noise it's making doesn't sound like Josh. And there's… oh god. There's a head in his hands.
And suddenly the world is very clear.
"We've got a survivor!" the detective yells, quickly alerting the attention of Josh. "Is that a head in his hands? Dear God!" he shouts as Josh comes lunging towards them.
"NO!" Sam screams, grasping for the detective's raised shotgun. It happens too fast for Chris to react, for him to stop it.
BANG!
A/N- I really appreciate the continued support and hope you guys are enjoying the story! The guest user "Stranger" (I like the choice of name) has asked me what the couple pairings are for this story. Though they're not explicitly mentioned, I tried to keep them pretty in tune with the game's story ships, with Chris/Ashley, Matt/Emily, Mike/Jessica, and Sam/Josh.