They were trembling. All four of them. Shaking like leaves in the cold snow, huddling around the dying fire like it was a dear friend on the verge of death. There was much to see from their expressions. Fear, sadness, panic. Tyler managed a cynical smile. He was scared as well. How far he didn't know, it was too far repressed to know. He focused on cleaning his knife. The long sharp hunting blade he had acquired from someone less fortunate. The blood was freezing cold on the knife. It would be difficult to clean very soon.
Soon enough they were stable enough to begin to speak. At least that's what he inferred. They were in no mood to. And so no one did. Tyler didn't feel like it either. The past few weeks were hard, darting through the forests, avoiding the screams in desperate haste. Both screams, those of other people, and something too inhuman to help but shudder. It was chance he had survived, both the insatiable creatures and the inevitably hungry, starving and desperate people he encountered. Some had lost their food, others lacked discipline, others had their food stolen like they were attempting. That was how he got the knife. His desperate counterpart underestimated his strength, and paid the price. He couldn't remember how he looked, come to think of it. Did it matter? It was just another face after all. And in this situation he couldn't afford to think of it. Yet he did. He still reached the same conclusion. The one he had realized long ago, long before this insane game.
The others began to talk. He stood apart, slightly. Conversation was never his forte, and though he tried not to show it he was still perhaps too exhausted to. Wyatt, Ingrid and Percy. They avoided talking about what was currently happening. Instead they concentrated on their past lives, before this. Only weeks ago but seemed to be another life altogether. Ingrid lived in Trondheim, took part in drama performances and had recently won a skiing competition. Wyatt lived on a ranch, like the cowboy his father named him after. His dismal school record didn't support the law bringer side of it though. Percy was a high school football(American) superstar. His bearing now seemed to have humbled, if his stories of being a big man in his school before said anything. One of them then spoke to Tyler, he didn't truly register who.
"Say, what's your story?"
He looked over to them.
"Sorry, too busy looking ahead to recall."
It was two days later. Trekking through the snow covered forest. The snow wasn't white, like the soft beds movies like to show whether it be a war film or a romance. It was grey, and dirty. Like piles of ash heaped up around the place. Occasionally, there were patches of blood. Dribs and drabs, sprinkled around. He tried to see a pattern, if it was someone running in a direction or not. It had to be recent to be on top of the snow, but there wasn't a discernible pattern. It seemed random. Someone stumbled. Tyler turned. It was Ingrid, wiping something off her face. The other two turned to face her, inquisitive looks catching on quick. She wiped the thick, viscuous liquid off her face and looked at it, horror widening her green eyes. Heads snapped up in a chorus. Bodies. Dozens, dozens of bodies.
Their skin was already turning blue in the cold, snowflakes building on their suspended frames like a twisted Christmas decoration. Their faces were locked in horror, tears frozen. Well, where there were faces. They were held through an intricate network of what looked like thick veins, orange and red like a bloody spiders web. Their screams reverberated around the forest.
"Shut up guys!" Tyler whispered with urgency. "You'll give our goddamn position away to whatever did this!"
They had shut up now, mostly for lack of breath. Ingrid and Percy had sank to their knees.
"Get up, we have to move. Now!" he urged, frustration mounting. Then, a small, rusty sound wheezed around the trees. Groaning. Tyler scanned the tree line. Someone moved. A twitch of their fingers. More groaning. Percy made to scream. Tyler clamped his hand around his mouth, then pushed him into the snow. Damn fool.
"Wyatt, you don't look completely paralyzed. Help me up the tree."
Snapped out of his daze, he nodded and moved, kneeling to boost Tyler up. He just made it to the thick branch, hands clutching dearly onto the icy surface. One hand on the branch, he crawled forward in a crouching position. The person on the vines began to move his head. He was clearly alive. His arm and legs were trapped in the thick secretion though. He mouthed a word.
"Help. Me."
Tyler moved next to him, finding that the liquid was still warm and somewhat mushy, his boot nearly sank into the vein, so instead he stayed on the branch, still an arm's reach from the persons face.
"Stay still." He said, drawing his knife. "I'll see if I can cut you out."
He set to work, hacking at the liquid near his arm. Not much good, it was hard and solid beneath the exterior goo. He was about to call Wyatt for help when someone screamed again.
"I thought I told you to shut up Percy!"
"Tyler! There's something big coming! Holy crap!"
"What is it?" the ominous roaring returned just then, now more like a moan. Then another, and another it built up to a crescendo.
"Tyler, I'm coming up there!" He yelled.
Tyler looked it over, it was a large blurry mass of creatures. He didn't see much beyond the black hides, and huge teeth and claws. He didn't intend to see more.
"I'll help!" Yelled Wyatt from just behind him. Tyler now began furiously hacking. The trapped man was shaking now, eyes growing wide.
"Man! You gotta get me out! THEY'RE GONNA FUCKING EAT ME! JUST LIKE THE OTHERS! OHMYGODYOUGOTTAHELPME!"
"Shut up! It's easier to help when you're not moving!"
"GO FASTER!"
"I'M GOING AS FAST AS I FREAKIN' CAN!"
Then commotion started to come from nearby, rising even louder than that of the approaching hoard.
"Percy! Help Ingrid!" Yelled Wyatt.
Tyler looked, still cutting. He had almost gotten through one area, he knew he didn't really need to look, just cut into the ridge. Percy was running pell mell to Wyatt. He scanned for Ingrid. There she was, her foot trapped in a rough tangle of fallen branches. She was yelling for help.
"Percy! Get Ingrid!" Yelled Wyatt. It did nothing. Percy's eyes were wide as saucers. He was running, fast, and soon did an excellent show of parkour running up and jumping to the tree.
"Damn it, I'll get her myself!" Yelled Wyatt, leaping down to a soft landing in the snow.
"it's too late!" Screamed Tyler even as he set to work on cutting the foot loose.
Wyatt ignored him. The creatures were nearly on top of them now, a horror show of oversized fangs and large claws. Their ferocity was palpable, and the smell of rotting flesh erupted from their jaws in a wave when they roared. Wyatt kept running. He got to Ingrid and helped her up. He threw her forward onto a running start as he accelerated to creep up. The creatures were now close enough to snap at him, jaws widening and elongating far past the constraints of a logical skull. Tyler looked down to the man he was trying to free. No, just a boy. A kid like them. His eyes were harder now. They both knew the substance was too quick for him to be freed.
"Do it." he said through clenched teeth. Tyler nodded solemnly, and plunged the knife into his chest.
It struck deep, and Tyler sank it deeper in before his mind and conscience could stop him from it. He succeeded, and the light left the trapped boys eyes. Forcing himself back to the now, Tyler moved to the branch near the trunk, where Ingrid and Wyatt were fast approaching. Ingrid got there first, and Tyler pulled her tall but lean frame up quickly. A dark tide was just behind Wyatt, fangs encased in drool as terrifying growls left their jaws. He got to the tree, running up like Percy, hand outstretched and grasping for Tyler's. He grabbed it. for second it seemed secure. Then the sweat on Wyatt's palm began to break the hold, bit by agonizing bit it slipped and he fell back onto the snow.
"Come on! Just reach up!" yelled Tyler, leaning further down. "Percy! Ingrid! Help me!" he yelled.
Grimacing, Wyatt jumped up, arm outstretched. Tyler just grabbed him at the forearm, nice and secure. Adding both their other arms to it, Tyler began to haul him up. Wyatt smiled, not victoriously, just relieved. Then it snagged. Tyler couldn't lift him up any further. He pulled harder. Wyatt didn't move. They both looked down. A thick, dark forearm clutch onto Wyatt's leg. Panic overtook him and showed itself on his face, he opened his mouth to scream, but only a wet, sickening puncture sound came out. Not from his mouth. Tyler looked in horror at the large claw sticking out through a large cavity in Wyatt's chest. Wyatt's grip loosened, and Tyler felt his strength leave him as Wyatt's body was overtaken and swarmed by a tide of ravenous forms.
The horror of it washed over him as he saw Wyatt's body get mauled and eaten, the hard crack of destroyed bone mixing with the softer tear of flesh. He saw his face get tossed around in the tide, separate from his body, shocked fear still there. Tyler swallowed, biting back his fear, and looked back to run. It'd hold them for a while.
He ran back, hopping along branches away from the horde. He couldn't see Ingrid, or Percy. The damn cowards. He refocused. It was unnecessary to think about it. They probably all split their separate ways and he wouldn't run into them, so he couldn't punish or chastise them anyway. The distance between the next branch was now to far, so Tyler lowered himself to the ground and kept fleeing, though now at a steady jog to catch his breath a little. The roars behind him grew quieter and more faint now, though he'd rather not risk the assumption that they'd given up. Then more low moans came from nearby soon after, as if to fill the void. Human, very much human.
Tyler skirted around the edge of a tree, it was Percy, slumped against the tree with a broken leg. Looking up, Tyler saw the cause, a broken branch, still half hanging on by a few threads.
"Tyler, Tyler." Breathed Percy, his voice ragged with pain. "You've gotta help me."
Tyler couldn't help but cock his eyebrow and shoot him a loaded response.
"Like you helped Wyatt?"
Percy didn't reply between more ragged breaths, his eyes still wide.
"Help me. Please."
"Did you see Ingrid pass by?"
"Help me damn you!"
"That attitude doesn't help you know."
Roars began to grow from behind them, sending a flood of urgency into Percy's voice.
"Help me please! I don't wanna die here Tyler!"
Tyler's reply was cold. "None of us do. I can't fix a broken leg. I'm not a witch doctor. I can grant you a less, violent end, however."
Percy's expression was briefly dumfounded, before it changed to anger, then, along with his voice it was full of disbelief.
"No….No…You can't…No..." he said weakly.
The roars grew louder now, reverberating around the trees.
"Decision. Quick." Asked Tyler, clinically, drawing his knife.
"Fuck you Tyler. Fuck you!" he yelled, rage overtaking any sense. It his self-serving behavior didn't demonstrate it earlier, it was clear Percy thought himself the most important person around, the hero of the story, not the red shirt scrub. A common thought of course to varying degrees in people, but disgusting in this form.
Tyler began to jog away, only answering Percy's cries when he was nearly out of earshot. "Fuck you too!"
He didn't stay close enough for long enough to hear the screams, but Tyler didn't think he'd be too haunted by those screams. Not whilst Wyatt's end was still in his mind. It was a tragedy, that the brave have to die for the weak. It was a crack in natural selection, that weakness would survive over strength.
The smell of smoke knocked him out of his muse. Looking around, Tyler sighted a plume of smoke rising above the tree line. He drew his knife, and advanced carefully.
There was a makeshift shelter above it, crudely constructed of wood and leaves, but it'd do from rain. He walked around it, staying behind the nearby trees. He saw two guys, one seemed to be Japanese, the facial features easily discerned by an Asian. The other was dark skinned, African, though he couldn't narrow it down more specifically. They were engaged in light hearted conversation, both seemed stoic but the African was more jovial. With a mutter of what the hell, Tyler stepped forward.
"Hello." He said calmly, walking forward.
The two looked up, eyes hardening and body tensing but remaining seated.
"You seem suspicious."
"It is a good idea in this forest." Replied the Japanese guy.
"Indeed, but you can see my knife. You're not going to get into combat stances or to flee?"
"We could knock you on your ass easily enough from here." Said the African guy nonchalantly.
"So you don't want to since you aren't doing it already then?" Said Tyler. "Well, I'm Tyler Wilk, coming in the spirit of peace and co-operation to survive this frozen hell hole."
The African chuckled. "Oboe, willing to not kill you if you agree to not kill me."
"Sounds like a good deal to me, and you are?"
"Katayama, not really caring."
"Good enough for me." Said Tyler, sitting down. "But guys, is this really a good idea?"
"Is what?" replied Oboe.
"The fire."
"We all need to keep warm." Replied Katayama. "It is cold."
"True, but judging by how easily I found you, it may not be that good a location for it."
"Explain." Asked Oboe, his temper rising slightly at the questioning of his choice.
"Well," replied Tyler, keeping his voice as diplomatic as possible, "Though there is a clearing the way I came in, there are trees right behind you, and your supplies are plain to see."
"We can kill anyone who tries. We were both trained in unarmed combat." Said Oboe defensively.
"But not if they sneak up from behind. Additionally, if you want to stay warm since its getting dark, you could put out the fire and use the embers either under were you sleep or near you, so you wouldn't give your position away. Also, finding somewhere you can sleep which is hidden may be better than being on a small hill."
"True. Very true." Replied Oboe. "So, do you have any location in mind?"
"There's a couple of fallen trees over there." He said, pointing to their left.
"It looks good." Said Katayama. "Maybe we will keep you around."