"Chris!" Ashley exclaims as soon as she spots his glasses clad face enter the room. They've been waiting in the hospital lobby for the past two hours on Chris, Sam, and Mike to show. She runs up to the blond haired boy and throws her arms around him in a warm embrace. "I was so worried about you," she says, hugging him tightly.
"I'm fine," he replies, hugging her back. She takes a step back and puts her hands on either side of his face, examining it. "See, look, totally fine." His face does indeed look fine, but his eyes are very freaked out. "Ash, seriously, I'm okay. No bumps or bruises or anything." She studies his face for another long moment, then lets it go, taking his hand instead.
"You must've been so scared up there," she says, doubting that she could ever venture into that place again after what happened. It's not that she didn't want to help find Josh, it's that she couldn't bring herself to the place she and all of her friends almost died. Living through it once was too much and she didn't have the stomach to relive any of it more than she already does in her mind. She had wanted to go with Chris and make sure he was safe, but there's no way she could've kept her composure. She would have given everything away to the rangers and detective as soon as she saw that place.
"It wasn't the most pleasant experience," Chris agrees bravely, staring down at the floor. "Nothing too bad happened at least. I think the anxiety was worse than the actual experience," he says, managing a small laugh. Ashley forces herself to crack a smile for his benefit, despite how awful it sounds.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Ashley asks tentatively, hating how much she sounds like a shrink.
"There's really not that much to talk about to be honest," Chris answers. "The whole basement was empty. There were some claw marks, but the whole thing was kind of uneventful. We went down to the mines and Mike found a sort of shortcut that led us straight to Josh."
Ashley shivers at the idea of being back in those mines. It had been so cold down there, so unforgiving. She remembers all too well the unnerving sounds and sights down in those mines. Every time she closes her eyes she can see those awful things and hear the shriek that haunts her nightmares. She had always hated horror movies with a vengeance, her imagination just can't take them, and that night she had been thrown into one. There's no way she's ever going to forget that kind of fear.
"Is Josh," she pauses, then in a whisper, "you know? One of those… those things?"
"I'm not sure," Chris says warily. "He was eating, uh, he had been… cannibalizing when we found him. He's been down there for seven days, so I don't really know if this was his last resort. He didn't really look like one of those things. He still had hair and I think he could see us, but I'm not sure. He lunged at us, but he's been down there so long that maybe he thought we were more of those things."
Ashley nods, processing the information. "That book said it takes four days after eating human flesh to begin showing symptoms, and then the person would rapidly turn. If this is the first time Josh has eaten it, then maybe we can stop him from turning. Maybe you rescued him early enough and we won't even have to stop it," she offers optimistically. She's not really sure if she believes that, but you've got to be positive, right? Nothing good ever came from being negative, or at least that's what she tells herself at the idea of Josh possibly being one of the things that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
"I hope so," Chris replies. "The doctors are looking at him now."
"Josh is going to be okay," she tells him supportively. Chris is her very best friend and to think about finding him chewing on a human head after a week of being stranded sends an awful churning throughout her stomach. It makes her sad to realize that the awful feeling she gets from imaging the situation to be like is probably a thousand times worse for Chris. "Maybe you should sit down, you've had a long day," she offers.
Chris shakes his head lightly, adjusting his glasses. "Standing helps keep me focused, but thanks."
Ashley nods and takes his hand, gripping it tightly. "I'm so glad I didn't lose you up there."
Chris squeezes her hand in response. "Me too, Ash. Me too."
"Hey Michael," Matt calls, going up to their class president against better judgement. The tall boy turns to look at him from his seat beside a healing Jess. "Can I talk with you for a sec?" He needs to know what happened up on that mountain and if they need to be worried or not. Mike's not his first choice of person to talk to, but he knows that Mike won't give him a sugarcoated answer either.
"What's up?" Mike questions nonchalantly, coming over to him.
"What exactly are we dealing with here?" Matt questions seriously. "I mean with Josh. Emily said that you found him eating human flesh. Was he any different? Anything like those things?"
"He was, uh, yeah I'd say he was different," Mike replies, crossing his arms. "Eating human heads isn't relatively normal, but he was down there for seven days so I can't exactly judge. I wasn't even expecting to find the poor sucker down there."
"Mike, I'm being serious," Matt says flatly. He's been trying to be nice after that night and Em had said that nothing happened between them when they first arrived at the mountain, but sometimes it gets incredibly hard to not get pissed off at that air of cockiness. He keeps trying to remind himself that the guy can't be so bad, considering he tried to save Jess and managed to help get the others to safety. But, sometimes those facts get lost behind the irritation. "Do we have anything to worry about?"
"It could be a problem in the future," Mike says lightly. "I'm not really sure how the whole turning into a wendigo thing works."
"He's turning into one of those things? You're sure?"
"No, I'm not sure. What am I, the wendigo expert?" Mike sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Look, there are a lot of things I don't know here. It all depends on when Josh started to, uh, eat people and if the, erm, transformation can be stopped. The book didn't say anything about stopping the transformation, only stuff about how it happens… and I think it might've started happening."
"Tell me what the book says about the transformation," Matt requests, hoping that whatever Mike has to say about it will point in a positive direction. He's never seen Emily like this before and if Josh is turning into one of those things, he's not sure how well she can handle it. Hell, he's not even sure how well he can handle it. Regardless, he'd like to be prepared.
"The book said it takes four days after consuming human flesh to start showing signs. After that, the process speeds up pretty quickly. The only signs Josh is showing is the eating dead people and that creepy ass hole in his mouth. Come to think of it, his eyes might've been a little paler than usual too. A shotgun stopped him dead on and kept him down, though, which can't be said for those things."
Matt nods, taking in the bad with the good. "The shotgun keeping him down is a good thing," he decides. "His skin's not hard like theirs, that's got to be a good sign." Mike just shrugs. "Well, did the doctor say anything to you?"
"No, they airlifted Josh first and then took us down the mountain. He's probably been here for a good hour," Mike says, checking his watch. "The EMT said something about surgery, so it'll probably be a while before we know what we're dealing with. Hopefully the doctors here won't end up like the ones at the sanatorium."
With that sentence an idea strikes Matt. "You've still got those papers from the sanatorium, right?"
"Uh, yeah," Mike replies, suspicious at the change in tone. "Why?"
"Those reports were written by doctors watching the miners transform. Maybe it can help Josh's doctors treat him," Matt answers hopefully. "It's worth a shot."
"Yeah, sure, go for it," Mike replies, pulling several folded pieces of paper out of his jacket. Matt takes the papers and sprints for the receptionist's desk, hoping that these will do some good. Hoping that these might save Josh's life. Hoping that he can get everyone out of this without any more damage. He knows it's a long shot, but if he can end this nightmare before another one begins then he has to try.