Until Dawn: Atychiphobia

by Universal lizard

One year following a terrible tragedy involving two girls, eight teenagers decide to reunite at the site where they had lost their two friends. An attempt at closure, the night could hold a great many discoveries for them. That is if they do not lose themselves to whatever lies in the cold of the night...

10. Chapter 9: Karma

-Welcome back everyone. I am really excited to get this story completed. Not simply because I 'want' it to be done, in a 'I want you out of my life' sort of completion, but more like 'We've come a long way and now it's time to finally part ways' sort of feeling. I'm serious, I think I've worked on this story, almost exclusively, for the better part of a year and a half at least now. It's one of my pieces that makes me the proudest to have ever taken on. And in case I haven't made it clear, I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to check this story out and giving some sort of feedback to it, be it favorites, follows, reviews, etc, it all really means so much to me!

But anyway, enough of my carrying on like this; enjoy the chapter! -

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Finally, after what felt like hours of walking through possibly the longest tunnel ever (a second time no less), Mike arrived back at the metallic door he had come through before. Thankfully the door was still closed from when he had closed it behind him last time. This could only mean that he himself was the most recent one to come through here in the last hour. He supposed he should count his blessings where they were and however small.

"Okay then..." he muttered to himself as he pulled the handle of the door open and slid himself inside. Once he was through he pulled the door to a close behind him. As he did so he noted the opened deadbolt lock above the handle. Maybe... eh, he was the only one coming this way anyway. Better to keep himself safer knowing nothing could follow him.

He reached up, slid the deadbolt into the locked position, then turned back around.

On instinct he pointed his lit flashlight around the general area once more. This was beginning to become routine for him at this point. He'd been visiting so many scary and nearly uncharted places on this mountain all in one night. It was a miracle he still wasn't dead by now!

Actually, while he could count that as a blessing in of itself, Mike felt his mind briefly flashing back to the others. Sam, Chris, Ashley, and Emily were all safe and accounted for, while on the other hand Matt and Josh's fates were still unknown even to him. He was going out anyway to look for Josh, he could just as well keep an eye out for Matt as well.

Unfortunately, Mike also was reminded of those that had been lost. Namely, the flamethrower dude...

And Jess...

Mike stopped in the middle of his walk down the hallway for a moment. He pulled out Jess' phone from his pocket again to look at it. The small pink object felt so small within his larger hand. Even looking down at the powered off screen he pursed his lips. Being reminded really wouldn't help things, but... dammit, he just had to see it again!

He unlocked the phone from its idle screen and once again gazed upon the photo of himself and Jessica. The two of them were still holding that same goofy pose of smiling for the camera. Mike had her right within his arm too; holding onto her and never letting her go. He was almost certain he was even thinking some rather corny sex-related joke at the time of taking that picture too. God, so much has changed since then...

In fact, he couldn't help but compare this moment to earlier when he looked back at the photo. Whereas before he looked at it and was fueled with a burning desire to make 'someone' pay for killing her, now he found a much more chilled feeling within his being. This was more than just some petty 'revenge' as he was slowly starting to come to grips with. There really was much more going on up on this mountain than he could've ever imagined.

He had failed Jessica, that was true... but dammit, he would NOT fail anyone else!

His felt his mental resolve strengthen within him once more. He would stick with his plan of tracking down Josh, wherever he may be, and getting that cable car key; whether off of him or dragging him along with him back to the others.

'Besides, isn't this something that the Class President is supposed to do anyway? Taking charge and nutting up?' he thought to himself, though quickly reconsidered exactly what he had just thought, 'Well, aside from no Wendigos at school, this sounds like what someone like me should be doing...!'

He slipped Jess' phone back into his pocket and proceeded to walk down the dark hallway once more.

Shining his flashlight either left or right more or less granted him a similar sight of dilapidation. Support irons jutted out of the wall themselves from just how rotted and falling apart the walls were. Even the ceiling above him was still in no better condition than it was the first time he'd seen it.

The hallway once more turned sharply to the right. Or rather this time it was on the right compared to when Mike came through this way before. He once again made his way into the large yet narrow room with the pointed window ceiling above him. A number of the panels of glass were shattered and broken, yet some of them managed to retain their form in spite of that. They all still perfectly allowed for the evening light to practically spill in and give some much needed illumination to the space.

Mike walked through and up the door on the left side of the room, then immediately up the large staircase with the red rug in its center. Now this was starting to look much more familiar! In fact, as he took his steps up the staircase he glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough there was that rather large multi-paneled glass window. It remained in a similar state of disrepair as the one in the previous room before, and allowed just as much moonlight to fill the room as well. Not that Mike was all that afraid of the dark himself (he rather disliked the 'being alone in the dark' part a little more), he was still grateful for the bits of light when and where he could afford them.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs he spared a moment to turn around. Just as before the massive room was just as spacious, yet empty, as it had been. Complete silence was all he could hear, aside from the slight howling of the wind directly outside and on the other side of that window. He hadn't heard anything else, like any sounds of any kind of animal or creature yet, which he guessed was also a good thing.

The joining hallway through the double doors didn't appear to look any better from the looks of it. The sounds of Mike's own footsteps echoed throughout and in his ears as he made his way to the open door on the other end.

"Holy shit..." he breathed.

Mike was once more greeted by the strangely familiar sight of the Sanatorium's chapel area. While it was hardly in the best of shape the first time he'd come here, looking at it now it somehow appeared to be in worse condition. For one thing even more large chunks of the very concrete that comprised the ceiling above him had fallen through and crushed most of the furniture items in the center of the room. Had a storm run through here? What happened to this place? Why was it strangely quieter here? In fact...

"Huh..." Mike shined his light towards the back end of the room, "What happened to the wolves?"

The white wolf he had seen laying prone near the door at the far end of the room was absent. In fact, both it and the other black wolf were nowhere to be seen. Mike couldn't decide if their absence from here was a good thing or a bad thing from what he had come to learn in recent hours.

More importantly, where was he to go now?

'That's right, trying to get to the mines,' he thought to himself. Thinking back, he also recalled the map he had caught sight of back in the safe room. He remembered the massive blob form that represented the mines being connected by a pathway from it to the Sanatorium itself. Not only that but the very point where the path met with this building had a marking on it that read 'Psychiatrics'.

"So, just gotta find like a door, or sign somewhere... psychiatrics..."

Well this room he was standing in now did contain a few 'arching doorways' on both sides of the opposing walls. He turned his attention and his flashlight to his left side first, the light shining through the chain link and casting barred shadows on the walls within. However as Mike turned his attention to the room closest to him, he did not see an entrance to any psychiatric wing, but what he did see still piqued his interest.

Inside the somewhat darkened room a nearby desk could be seen with a lit desk lap atop it. The lamp cast its light down upon a couple of objects placed in relatively clear view. Mike had to squint his eyes a little to see clearly, but unless he was mistaken, one of those objects was... a gun?

"Oh yes! That'd be handy...!" he said. He reached for the doorknob and twisted, only to find that the door was locked, "Oh, come on-!" Looking all around this gate he could see the entire thing was completely solid. There weren't any massive holes in this one for him to stick his arm through.

However, Mike craned his head up to look towards the top of the fence. Or rather specifically, he looked inside the room itself towards its ceiling. A hole could be seen through there that allowed light to shine down and into the room! It was a long shot, but... maybe he could somehow get into this room through that hole?

"How am I gonna get in there though...?"

Mike stepped back and turned his head to the right and across the chapel's room. If there was anyway to get up there to that upper balcony where the hole was, it would probably be over there rather than here.

He made his way towards the opposing end of the room, passing by the other two gated sections as well. The first room held that familiar tack-board with the pictures and 'sightings' on it. Oddly enough, seeing that board held some new context for him. Especially after learning of that flamethrower man, how he'd been hunting this Wendigo, how this board was found here in rundown Sanatorium that he also made his home in. Man, how much things had changed from what he'd thought before...

As he drew closer to the opposing door he turned his attention to just before it. An entire section of wall had been completely collapsed into a massive pile of concrete and rubble, while also exposing what lay behind it. As Mike walked around for a better angle, he could see stairs! There was his method of getting up to the balcony and through that hole!

"Not even the first hole I've been climbing through in this place tonight..." he commented to himself as he walked up the stairs. These steps held remarkably well all things considered, especially when Mike could simply look to his left and see the destroyed wall and the exposed chapel beyond it. Still, he exercised caution with each step he took.

The top of the stairs he walked soon ended and proceeded to turn sharply to the left. This next set of stairs brought him to the very top of the balcony itself. On Mike's right side were a set of fogged windows where the sound of howling wind could be heard through them. The wall itself stretched outward along the very path of the balcony that he was meant to walk as well. Mike kept his flashlight trained on the ground before him as he walked forward. Thankfully the most he had to worry about for the moment were scattered bits of debris somehow littering the floor of this second level as well.

Finally, Mike reached a hole in the balcony. Looking down he could see the familiar lit desk with the gun laying atop of it. He brought himself down to drape his legs through the hole, then dropped himself completely down.

Mike hit the ground with a small thud but quickly held his balance. His legs were surely going to be feeling a burn from all the extraneous exercise they'd been put through this night alone. That was one good thing he could unironically claim could come of this whole thing.

He walked forward to the desk top to inspect all that lay atop it. Sure enough It was an actual shotgun, measuring about the length of his own arm! There was even a small box of shotgun shells sitting next to it. Of course, that was not the only thing this room had to offer him it seemed.

"Hmmm..." he hummed as he picked up a stick-like object in his hand. No wait, this wasn't just any stick at all. Looking at the top there was a piece of cloth that had been tied around the tip so tightly. This thing was meant to be an actual torch! This of all things seemed strangely fitting considering he was going out to the same place an actual monster might be lurking...

"Heh, now I'd just need a pitchfork and a mob..." he commented on his own train of thought.

He then clicked off his flashlight and slipped it into one of his jacket's exterior pockets. With a free hand he reached into his pants pocket and pulled forth his lighter. With a flip a small flame quickly grew into an actual torch flame.

"This is a lot of ammo; shame I can't take it all with me..." he noted as he looked at the box of shotgun shells. He shrugged and grabbed a simple handful of shells and slipped them into his pocket as well. He could do an actual counting of how many he'd taken later.

He then reached down and picked up the shotgun in his hand. For the weapon's small stature it felt surprising dense and heavy in his hand. It was definitely a double-barrel and it looked considerably shorter than it likely was supposed to be. A few rough edges on the very tip showed him that it must have been sawed off to shorter length.

"Yeah, this'll do," he nodded.

On the very top of the gun's barrel was a small switch that could be flipped from side to side. Despite rarely shooting guns before, much less something like this, even he figured out that it was meant for opening the barrel to slip the shells into. With his thumb he pulled the switch to the side and cracked the barrel's base open to him. He then took two shells, loaded them each into both barrels, then with a flick of his own wrist flipped the barrel closed again.

With that he turned around and towards the fence's gate. He first undid the deadbolt on his side before opening the door and swinging it outward. Upon stepping outside he couldn't help but feel a massive surge of confidence. He'd just decked himself out with a number of items that could no doubt pack a punch; almost as many as he'd seen the flamethrower guy have on him. Would this be enough to kill a Wendigo monster? Here's hoping he wouldn't run into one anytime soon, but for now at least he could say he had a defensive chance should the need arise.

Of course now that he was adequately armed himself the question still remained of where he was to go now?

Fortunately from exiting the gated room he was in, Mike had a clear view of the other side of the chapel's room from where he stood. Similar to his side he could see three archways with chain-link gates in their fronts. Or rather the far right side was completely caved in from the concrete debris and rendered inaccessible, leaving only the far left and the middle ones. A couple of signs both could be seen next to each one's gate, with the middle one's spelling the word 'PSYCHIATRIC WING' written on a faded, crumbling sign.

Mike made his way across the room and past the destroyed furniture that he'd remembered seeing from before. Upon reaching the door he gave a quick twist of the knob only to find that it too resisted his turn. The gate rattled slightly under his touch and Mike looked down to find it was not only locked, but it was also securely locked via a large padlock on his side. Just like before it seemed like getting any key for this was out of the question...

"Alright... here goes..."

Mike took a healthy step back to give himself as much room as possible. He lifted the shotgun and holding it steady pointed it straight at the padlock. Once he was certain his aim was absolutely true he turned his head away and squinted his eyes. His finger found the trigger on the gun and slowly squeezed...

A deep explosion burst in front of him. Mike found himself jumping a little from the sheer sound difference as well as the recoil. This shotgun kicked much harder and louder than the handgun! His ears began to ring even after about five seconds after shooting!

Nevertheless he willed himself to look down at his handiwork. Thankfully the padlock had been completely blown away by the point-blank blast of the shotgun shell round and lay in pieces on the ground before him.

Mike then quickly raised his foot and kicked against the gate. The metal chain-link door gave easily from his forceful kick and swung inwards. He held his torch in first to allow its light to illuminate where he was about to step in towards.

Before him lay a small hallway leading out towards an open doorway that led completely outside. An assortment of hospital equipment lay cluttering the side of the hallway's left side like upturned gurneys. No other doorways could be seen on either the left or right which Mike could see was completely one way with no chances for getting side-tracked.

Just then, Mike caught the sight of movement in front of him. For a moment he tensed up from not expecting anything to have appeared. He even lifted his shotgun up in preparation... but then lowered it down slowly upon realizing what he was looking at.

It was a wolf. No wait, this wasn't just any wolf, but rather the one he'd met earlier! The nameless one that had taken a liking to him!

"Hey big guy...!" he found himself saying.

The wolf stepped out into the open of the hallway from behind the nearby upturned gurney and looked in his direction. It sniffed the air a couple times before giving a small grunt and gradually walking towards him. Mike found himself smiling a little as he watched this display. Only once before had a dog ever approached him like this one was doing now.

"You happy to see me too...?"

Mike gently approached the wolf too before slipping the shotgun into one of the jacket's over-sized pockets to give himself a free hand. Just like before he slowly raised his hand up, just enough for the wolf to see it and recognize it. He then gently patted the wolf on the head, the animal giving no sounds of any resistance at all. In fact from the panting he could feel through its head the wolf actually seemed to be enjoying this sign of affection.

"Hey... I was hoping I'd run into you again," Mike said with a smile, "Yeah... good boy!"

Eventually Mike ceased his patting of the wolf's head. He then reached his hand down to pull his shotgun back out and into his hand again. Crazy as it might seem, this wolf might actually make a decent traveling companion, couldn't he? Well, it certainly beats traversing this creepy hospital place by himself, that's for sure.

Looking at the wolf however, Mike was again reminded of how this creature still as of now didn't have a name. Or rather Mike had never thought to give him one, much less think of one for him before now.

Well, screw it, time was a bit strapped for him and there was no time to think of anything creative.

"Alright, 'Wolfie', you're comin' with me." To his credit it wasn't like the wolf could dispute or argue his new name given to him. If anything the creature looked back up him attentively.

Mike briefly glanced up towards the bare open pathway that led directly outside. Specks of snow could be seen fluttering down from sideways angles even from here. The Psychiatric Wing... that's where he needed to go.

"Alright, here's the plan," Mike openly explained to Wolfie, "I happened to see a map of this place. So, we're not flying blind at least. Now there should be a way through the Psychiatric Wing that will take us right outside the mine." The wolf continued to watch him and listen attentively to him.

"Think you can handle that?" Mike asked playfully. The wolf tilted its head and gave a small whining sound, but otherwise nothing that sounded like any sort of objection.

"Could've said it better myself," the boy said, "Atta-boy, let's go." He then proceeded to take a deliberate step forward. The wolf clearly registered this change of movement and proceeded to stalk down the direction of the open pathway as well.

The open night air once again stung on Mike's skin the moment he stepped outside. For once he was thankful to have an actual flame source so close to him. Though the night air was particularly misty due to the flurry occurring around him, a large, narrow chain-link fencing that acted as a makeshift tunnel was easy to see all around him. He squinted his eyes as best he could to see that it seemed to stretch all the way out towards the dark outline of another building that was roughly twenty feet or so outward. Psychiatric Wing or not, Mike would be happy to get out of this freezing cold again.

His feet crunched in the snow again as he followed after Wolfie. The light from his torch cast rather remarkable light down on the snow around him. He could see from glimpsing out of the corner of his eye just how pronounced his shadow was from the light alone. As he glimpsed the animal trudging onward Mike couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy towards the animal. That wolf's fur had to be as thick as can be, and while his own jacket did a decent enough job keeping him somewhat warm, he wished he could have something as warm as it did.

Finally, after snow-crunching through the snow and through the chain-link fence tunnel, Mike glimpsed the steps to a doorway of the adjoining building. Similar to the Sanatorium building that he had just walked out of, this building also had no door over this entryway either. He could see Wolfie already standing within the threshold as he himself made his way up the steps and out of the cold once more.

The moment he did so however he came to a halt. He did this for a couple of reasons. The first being that Wolfie suddenly let out a bark and a growl as he turned his head into the heart of this new building. The second being Mike doing so himself. What he could see was yet another large chain-link fence directly before the two of them that cut off access to a large chamber. From just how high this room's ceiling reached it was easy to see that this was one of if not the largest rooms that comprised this entire building.

However, what he could see was not the only thing that drew Mike's attention. Almost immediately his nose was assaulted by the faint, yet still barely present scent of something rancid, putrid. Something that smelled like it was rotting even. Even sniffing in various directions it was hard to pinpoint exactly where this smell was coming from. The smell somehow seemed to be all around him.

And if he himself could smell it there was no doubt that Wolfie here sniffed it out as well and had put him on alert.

"Okie dokie, boy, calm down..." he spoke gently to the canine. Wolfie maintained a small growl in his throat but otherwise seemingly remained calm. This whole place felt like it could be a hiding place for a Wendigo most likely. It was a good thing he had his protection on him in the form of his torch and his shotgun-

He suddenly snapped to attention as he realized something; he hadn't reloaded his shotgun after the shot he had taken! He flipped the switch and cracked open the barrel from the base again. Before him one of the shells in the barrels contained one that was clearly spent. He pulled it out, wincing a little from the warmth beneath his fingers, and quickly replaced it with a fresh one from his pocket. He flipped the barrel back into closed position and allowed reassurance to wash over him again. Now was not the time to be forgetful when it came to reloading his gun and all...

Mike swept his torch around slowly to illuminate everything in his general area. Unfortunately everything directly before him was similarly blocked off by large piles of concrete rubble. One look at this place and he could see it was no better off than the Sanatorium place was either.

The only form of movement through shadows in his torch light came from Wolfie suddenly rushing off ahead. He had turned to his left towards the only accessible path.

"Wish I could move like you, Wolfie...!" he called after his companion as he followed him.

Mike made his way through a large metal doorway and into a smaller room. A similar metal gate could be seen directly opposite the one he had just walked through, except that it was nearly closed tight before him. With the chain-link fencing on one side of him and the thick rock wall of the building on the other, it was possible this entire small room was that of a primitive checkpoint for prison inmates.

Mike just barely caught a glimpse of Wolfie having slipped his entire body through a small tearing in the fencing on the same side as the locked metal gate. It was too small and far too low to the ground; there was no way he'd be able to follow after Wolfie in that same way.

"Stuck on this side...?" he said to himself, "No... Look around, Mikey... gotta be something..."

Sure enough, from lifting his torch light about, Mike caught sight of a large rusted lever on the same side as the closed door. He sheathed his shotgun into the belt-loop of his pants for a moment to free his hand.

"Alright, here goes nothin'..." he said with a shrug. He reached up and tugged down hard on. The lever cranked a little in place and Mike could nearly feel the resistance of the rust. Still, the lever moved downward along with his hand, with the sound of cranking gears accompanying it. In front of him the closed door slid open by just barely a crack, while behind him the door that was open closed with a resounding thud.

"Awesome..."

The metal gate on his side wasn't open completely but was still cracked open just barely that he could squeeze himself through. He held his torch-holding hand up and slipped it through first before sucking in as best he could. Once his body was halfway through he gripped the edge of the gate as best he could with his free hand and pushed hard. The gate groaned a little and Mike found himself exerting a little to counter the resistance, but nonetheless creaked out and away from him a few inches.

He then stepped out and into the other side of the metal gate, his torch light illuminating the darkness substantially. He could see Wolfie still standing this location but waiting for him, craning his head up to regard him.

"Heh, see that? I do got some moves! Don't I, Wolfie...?" he said. The canine sniffed the air in front of him and gave no vocal reply, but instead turned around and proceeded towards a dark pathway before the two of them. Mike held his torch before him and promptly followed after him.

Through a brick archway he walked and quickly found the path lowered down into a stairway. The light from his torch shone brilliantly against the tight walls and ceiling all around him, giving him excellent sight to see where he was going. The stairs themselves actually descended far down for quite a bit however. He could already see Wolfie had reached the bottom himself thanks to the light. The wolf could be seen rounding a nearby corner to the right before disappearing out of sight.

Eventually Mike finally reached the bottom. His torch light helped him to identify an open metal gate that likely was supposed to be closed, if not for one of its doors having been broken off and laying on the ground. Mike stepped over it and forward into the next section of this hallway. He could see directly in front of him a pale sign with green letters spelling 'DETENTION AREA'. A large jail cell with debris barricading its front lay in front of him, while another jail cell on his left could be seen completely wide open. Mike craned his head to the side to peer into this open room.

From the light of his torch Mike immediately caught the sight of swaths of blood on the stone wall within. A prison bed could be seen completely mangled and destroyed, with no small amount of blood splattered atop it and staining its white cloth with red.

"Yikes... wonder what did that..." Mike muttered as he turned around to walk the opposite way.

He nearly regretted doing so the moment he turned.

Wolfie could be seen standing before something. Mike could see another prison cell with metal barred doors at the end of this hallway. Some sort of natural light was shining from within the cell and giving its own form of illumination. That same light lit up some sort of... thing, seemingly up against the metal bars. As Mike cautiously approached the cell doors, the familiar foul smell he'd been smelling was starting to return in force by now. He could even hear the faint sound of flies buzzing. He finally came to a halt before the prison cell as well where what this object was became all the more clear to him.

It was a dead animal. Worse still: it was the body of the other wolf!

"Ugh... disgusting!" Mike groaned has he unconsciously held an arm up to his nose to vainly shield his nose from the assault. As if the smell alone weren't bad enough, the sheer... brutality of this wolf's eviscerated body was insane! For one thing its head was barely still attached to its body; just barely hanging on by a few pieces of neck still intact. It also sported a massively deep gash running from it's neck down to its groin area with its entrails nearly spilling out completely and onto the floor. Plus the way it was appearing 'upright' as it was in the first place was because its front leg had been wedged between one of the metal bar. As if something from 'inside' the cell was pulling at it...

"Shit, was this your pal, Wolfie...?" Mike asked, "Ugh, son of a bitch..."

The wolf gave a few sniffs and growls at the corpse of its fellow wolf before making a small whine. Mike couldn't blame him at all; he was no stranger to seeing someone close to him get killed so viciously. And now here he was, out here in the open on possibly a fool's errand and risking his own life against possibly the same thing that killed them in the first place!

"Jesus Christ..." he breathed, "Fuck have I got myself into...?"

Wolfie didn't seem to keen on seeing his fellow wolf torn apart this way either. Despite being a wolf himself, he shook his head and turned to walk along the hallway that hung to the immediate right.

Mike on the other hand finally tore his attention away from the carcass directly in front of him and turned his head to the left. Another thick prison door lay wide open before him, yet it too was covered with splatters of red blood across its side, deep scratches, and... a massive dent in its lower half?

"Whoa..." Mike inspected the door closer. The door itself was made of similar metal, roughly an inch or two in thickness. And yet despite that, something had managed to create 'this' big of a dent in its base? "This door was built like a tank. The hell was kept in here, a bear...?" He glanced back towards the wolf carcass and the slashes on its body. That would make some kind of sense, or even... the actual Wendigo itself...?

He turned his head and his torch towards the inside of the cell room itself. The darkness was quickly dispelled and allowed Mike to see that similar to the previous room, the cell's furniture was completely destroyed, thrashed about, and laying in varying locations of the room. Splatters of blood and deep scratches also decorated the inside walls as they did for the cell door. However, blood and scratches were not the only thing to be found on the wall.

One one wall Mike glimpsed a set of scratches that were not just scratches; they were actually scratches of words:

'Let us out! We are starving! Freezing! I will make you pay! Stop testing us now!'

The text was followed up directly below with a small set of tally marks that counted up to at least nine in total.

"Someone... wrote this?" he said to himself.

It was then that Mike's eyes widened ever so slightly. In the midst of his reading of this message, he was reminded of something. Back in the Sanatorium, he recalled finding a number of things that indicated a group of men, miners, had been trapped in the mine in a cave-in! But not only that, while some had died, those who had survived and been rescued... they were brought here? And placed in these prison cells?

"But... doesn't make sense," he glanced back towards the dented cell door, "If they were starving and weak, how could they have done 'that'...?" One more glance around this room showed him that there was little else of interest to be seen in here. Perhaps something else around here could provide some clearer indicator as to, well, 'anything' that had went on here.

Mike walked out of the prison cell and straight forward to meet back up with Wolfie. The two of them passed by another prison cell completely blocked off by debris barricading the entrance. Before them lay another set of metal prison doors laying wide open, almost as if beckoning the two of them to enter. As Wolfie maintained his own walking speed a few inches in front of him, Mike wished not only that he could move like him, but also that he had his fearlessness.

Through the doorway they passed and into a hallway that curved diagonally to the left. Mike could see thanks to a few rays of natural light up ahead that the path continued to curve more to the right, as if looping around something specific in this 'center' here, as indicated by this brick wall. A number of thin metal sheets and wooden boards lay propped up flat against it along with the assortment of upturned hospital equipment. There were a couple of metal-barred windows to be found, but looking through them didn't show anything clear to Mike. Only what appeared to be yet another bleak, prison-style room like the rest of this place.

Instead, he and Wolfie proceeded to follow the curve of the hallway. Mike even noticed a lengthy grating running the length of the floor he tread upon. A massive drain along this pathway... What could this have been for? Hosing inmates down?

Unfortunately, the foul stench that Mike had first smelled upon entering this place only persisted the further he kept walking. Whatever that smell was it didn't seem to be limited to the dead wolf from earlier. This felt more... stagnant? Lingering upon the air the more he tread deeper in. Mike would surely be happy to be out of this place soon as possible.

Up ahead he glimpsed Wolfie turning to his left and towards... a hole in the wall?

Sure enough, a section of the brick wall on their left side had been opened, as if something had just smashed through. Mike had to wonder what could've possibly been able to do that, but considering 'something' was able to make a dent in an armored metal prison door earlier, he was beginning to shudder at the possibilities.

He followed after Wolfie and through the hole and into another room. Similar to some of the rooms he'd seen in the Sanatorium, this one appeared to be that of a hospital check-up room. Various medical furniture and instruments lay smashed about and in various states of disarray. Aside from all of that, there was nothing of note in this room; nothing that remained in relatively good condition anyway. Mike and Wolfie then made their way through the nearby open door, the actual way the room was meant to be entered and exited no doubt.

The two then found themselves within a hallway, stretching both left and right. Mike looked up to see a nearby sign hanging over a brick archway within labeled 'B-WING'. He also could see the room he and Wolfie had just exited from was a Doctor's Office. All around him this hallway was littered with broken primitive wooden furniture pieces. Aside from that, this hallway led one of two directions he could go. Where should he go first?

He turned to his left and proceeded cautiously down the hall. He could hear the soft padding of clawed paws on the floor from the sound of Wolfie following behind him. He was glad someone like Wolfie was with him; one of the worst parts of doing this whole crazy thing was doing it alone...

Similar to the hallway he had just exited from, this hallway he walked through curved to the left as well. It was almost as if the hallways all encircled each other around some central point of this Psychiatric Wing. Which could only show that something or other lay in the very center of this whole place...

After passing by a couple of emptied medicine cabinets and green lockers on his left side, another open pathway could be found on his right side. The cave-in of hospital furniture and debris acted as yet another barricade that prevented him from moving any further forward, so he turned to his right and into the room.

The tight space and noticeable absence of much light on its own made the room appear much smaller somehow. In fact his own torch's light lit the entire place up and showcased just how compact this place was. Mike could see that he was standing within yet another doctor's room, as evidenced by the medical furniture and instruments that lay strewn about the floor in various states of disrepair. There were even a couple of medical diagrams and pictures tacked to the walls before him as further indication.

One of the few pieces of furniture that did remain largely intact was a white desk that stood against the wall. Resting atop it was a manila folder in which Mike could see a couple of papers' edges sticking out of the sides. Curiously he moved in front of the desk to afford himself a moment to look at this folder. He sheathed his shotgun into his belt loop to free his hand and opened the folder.

The first thing he saw was a white piece of paper with the words 'Blackwood Sanatorium' in fancy, black official font, and 'CONFIDENTIAL' written below it in faded red. The pages themselves were stained in a couple spots and faded with so much age that their color was almost beginning to match that of the folder they were held in.

Mike then turned the page. The next thing he saw was a picture under some rather old-timey filter of a man. He was dressed in a large coat with a white shirt underneath, a scar that ran diagonally the length of his face from his forehead to his jaw, a mess of what appeared to be blonde hair on his head, and a rather pointed stare on his face. It almost felt like he was staring daggers at whomever was taking his picture, or even Mike himself as he looked at it. He even had a small black sign at chest level with the number '0371'. And aside from the scar that could be seen running from the lower left side of his face all the way up to his mid-forehead, nothing else seemed to stand out about this man.

There were a couple lines of text below the picture itself written in rather small and almost non-legible cursive. Mike found himself squinting his eyes trying to decipher exactly what it said, but for the most part could only identify texts with numbers in them. He could see the date of 03.01.1952, 'Day 4' and 20/160, whatever that last one meant.

Mike turned the page again. This time his eyes frowned at what he saw. There was in fact a picture of a man on the page, but were it not for the familiar mess of hair atop his head, Mike might not have even recognized it as the same man from before. This was because the man's mouth was open, teeth barred and strangely more pointed than what they likely should've been, and his nose seemed to be curved back in towards the face somehow and accenting his nostrils more. More than that however were the eyes. They were practically seething with anger at the picture taker (and somehow Mike as well). Perhaps it was also due in part to the black and white quality of the picture, but Mike also noticed that the pupils weren't quite as visible as before. Though maybe this could've simply been due to his eyes being slightly 'shadowed' by the brow above them. He even noticed that the overcoat he had been wearing in the picture before it was gone, instead replaced by a thinner long-sleeve shirt with... black stripes across it?

"No way..." Mike silently said, "They 'were' prisoners here...?"

Just like before, Mike could identify numbers in the cursive written below the picture: 14.01.1952 and 'Day 9'. So, those clearly were dates and a sort of passing of time, that much was easy to figure out. Some of the cursive words were even a little easier to read this time, such as 'chronic kyphosis', 'scarring alopecia', and 'ectodermal dysplacia', not a single one of them Mike knew the first thing about, much less how to even pronounce.

With a little more hesitation in his own movements, Mike slowly lifted his hand out to turn the next page. He was almost certainly afraid of what he was going to find next, but curiosity ultimately got the better of him. He flipped the page over to behold what lay upon it.

What he saw made him nearly recoil in an instant. The image scarcely even resembled a man anymore, much less the supposed same man from the previous pictures. A change had clearly happened to this man that nearly made Mike's blood chill considerably.

As opposed to before it also appeared that the man was leaning forward and closer to the picture taker which granted a somewhat clearer view of the man's profile. The first thing Mike was drawn to was the mouth; open with a snarl and sharp pointed teeth clearly visible. In fact, Mike wasn't exactly sure if it was the quality of the picture, but for some reason the lips didn't seem to be all that visible past the gum-line.

His nose also seemed to have receded nearly as far back into his skull as humanly possible, leaving only a couple of nasal cavities in its place. His eyes were now widened and practically flaring with insanity. Worse still was that the eyes didn't even to have any pupils in them. They appeared to be completely white, or as white as could be seen in this black and white photograph.

"Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake, this is fucking unbelievable...!" Mike managed to utter. There was no way this was a man anymore. There was no way this could even be the same man from the previous images. There was little doubt in Mike's mind that what he was looking at was a monster. An actual monster that a child would hear or read about in scary ghost stories. And combined with the simple fact that there were essentially 'before and after' pictures linking a man to a creature... There was little denying that this not only very well could've happened, but actually 'did' happen years ago!

And if he was understanding this correctly, it was in this very place he found himself standing in that the man became a monster himself.

Mike forced himself to step back and away from the desk and the medical papers. There was some more cursive writing beneath the picture, but he simply couldn't will himself to try to read it, much less bring himself back to look upon the picture again. He left hand gripped the torch handle even tighter and he brought his shotgun out and into his hand again.

He proceeded to walk himself out of the doctor's office. The sound of claws scratching against the floor reminded him that Wolfie was still with him and following after him. Even as he backtracked through the hall where he had come from the image of the monster's profile remained practically seared in his mind. No matter how many times he shook his head and forced himself to think of something else it simply would not leave him!

'What could it all mean though?' he thought to himself, 'These miners, the ones rescued from the mine... they were here? And the people running this place were... 'watching' them transform? Why?' Not that there could've been any good reason as to why, Mike still found himself curious nonetheless.

As Mike walked back through the way he came, his torchlight illuminating the small space of the hallway, the light passed through the doorway of an open room. He came to a halt as he looked at the room; was this room here before? Had he not seen this the first time he came down here?

He slowly entered the room, his torchlight dispelling the darkness and his shotgun held at the ready. Wolfie could be heard sniffing the air in this room from behind him. The two of them didn't see nor hear any other sort of sounds from within this room, much to Mike's relief.

What he did find in this run-down room of broken furniture and rotting walls was a single small table in the center of the room with... a projector?

Mike approached the strange contraption. His torch bathed the object in its light for better clarity. Sure enough, this was in fact an actual film projector, complete with two sets of film reels attached to a base. He couldn't help but be reminded of similar film projectors he'd seen in movie theaters or even the kind that Josh's family had in their movie room.

"What the heck...?" he looked the projector all over, "What's this for?"

He turned his attention to the right side of the machine where a number of buttons and knobs were found. One of these knobs was indicated by the familiar green 'PLAY' button. He set his shotgun down on the table to reach over and give the knob a twist.

Almost immediately the reels on the projector clicked as they proceeded to spin. The darkness of the room was dispelled further as light shot forth from the front of the projector onto the wall. Mike looked up, took his shotgun back in hand, and awaited the moving pictures this thing had in store for him.

The first thing Mike could see was once again in black and white. He could see the image of someone, some man, sitting in a chair placed against the wall with various medical furniture around him. Mike could see that this was no mere still image of this man since he was occasionally moving his head from side to side. Why was he sitting in that chair like that? Why was he not moving other parts of his body?

Just then a second figure entered the frame. A woman dressed in a nurse's outfit approached the man from the right side. The seated man seemed to cease his motions just for a moment as the woman drew closer to him. She could be seen... doing something with him; Mike couldn't tell exactly what she was doing from the low quality of this video. Aside from the constant clicking of the reels themselves rolling the film was also completely absent of sound.

Just like that the woman began to step away from the man, slowly making her way out of frame completely. As a result the man's head began to shake back and forth with much more intensity. It was at this point that Mike could probably guess that this man must've been restrained for him to not be moving any other parts of his body.
His mind was suddenly brought back to those scratches on the wall he'd seen earlier: 'Stop testing us now'. Wait a minute; could this guy have been one of those guys being 'tested' on? One of the miners that had been rescued?! Maybe even the same one he had just read that case file on a few seconds ago...?!

The frame in front of him suddenly blinked for a moment. New movement met Mike's eyes, but from the man this time. The man suddenly had his right arm loose from its bindings and was... he was freeing himself! He was reaching all around to undo every bit of restraints at various parts of his body. In fact Mike couldn't even tell at first there was a restraint around his neck from the film's low quality.

Finally his movements ceased. His limbs for the most part were free. His new form of movement came from seemingly over-exaggerated breathing and huffing, his upper body huffing up and down. What was happening? This guy was going insane, maybe even turning into one of those monsters; why wasn't there anyone to catch him?

Just like that the man's upper body suddenly twisted, almost unnaturally, so that he was reaching out towards the wall behind him. He lifted his hand out to- whoa wait! He was... he was climbing the wall! Like a freaking spider!? He had even slipped his legs out from the chair completely and was scaling the upright wall behind him!

Mike's eyes widened and he could hear the faint sound of his own shallow breathing as he watched the entire scene unfold. Just as before with the man transforming via pictures had chilled him, this was taking it to a new extreme by showing that in a movie!

The woman suddenly walked back into the frame. She appeared confused, looked around her as if looking for something, or rather someone. She brought her head up towards the space above the chair where the film frame itself couldn't reach. Mike couldn't see what she was seeing, but from the motions of the woman's body alone, she must've been terrified out of her mind. She dropped her clipboard that she'd been holding and dashed away and out of the film frame.

The next thing Mike could see was a flash of the image of the man suddenly appearing before the camera suddenly was knocked to its side. The film then ceased all moving pictures all-together, leaving a bewildered Mike to stare in shock.

"What the FUCK is going on around here...!?" he found himself breathing.

He was prepared to get the key from Josh, he was even prepared to 'maybe' fight off the Wendigo monster now that he was better armed himself. What he was not prepared for was exactly what that thing would look like or even what it could do! These things... they were once human? Humans who 'became' monsters? So, maybe that old flamethrower man was actually right about that claim?

His head suddenly darted around to various locations in the room he stood in. Everywhere he looked was dimly lit, yet completely empty all the same. Anxiety filled his being with every place he looked in this small space.

"No, no no no; get a grip, Mike!" he berated himself, "There can't be anything in this place! I'd have seen 'something' by now, wouldn't I...?"

The sound of a whimper down at his legs drew his attention. Mike was once more reminded of his wolf companion looking up at him with attentive eyes. He could almost feel his burst of anxiety subsiding completely just from looking at this animal; this loyal friend of his.

"Yeah, you're right, Wolfie," he reached his hand down to pull his shotgun out from his holstered belt-loop, "Let's get going." Wolfie seemed to register his movements as the sign for him to move himself. He lead the way towards the doorway as Mike followed after him, leaving the room and the projector still running.

The boy quickly rounded the corner to the right, remembering that as where he had come from the first time. Wolfie's claws could be heard scratching against the floor as he followed behind him. The two once again made their way along a hallway curving to the right with Mike's torch lighting their way. The boy was vaguely aware of the slight shake in his torch hand and how his other hand was gripping the handle of his shotgun ever so tighter.

Eventually they passed by one of the empty rooms which looking in Mike could see the massive hole in the wall. They had finally backtracked enough to where they had come from. At this point the hallway ended its curve by sharply turning to the right. A set of shadows casting the image of bars shone down at the right angle where Mike and Wolfie walked. Right before them lay another set of prison doors that cordoned off the larger section of the 'inner sanctum' he'd remembered seeing before.

"What the fuck..." he said to himself.

He rounded yet another corner to his left this time to find himself in another circular hallway. Through a set of bars on the right side wall he could see this 'inner sanctum' area in slightly clearer detail. Though all he could see at the moment was a large spacious location with debris littering that place as well.

The hallway he was in ended quickly with a sharp turn to the right, where Mike found that he'd be entering into this inner section. It was about time anyway; he'd seen enough of this Sanatorium to provide him nightmares for the next few weeks; months even.

Walking first he stepped through the doorway that led into the larger room. The first thing he noted was the assortment of furniture that he'd seen scattered around this place's empty space. A table lay to his right-

A clattering suddenly could be heard, directly opposite of where he was looking. Mike shot his head around to the left and readied his shotgun. What was that he'd heard just now? A can falling? There, on the floor?

His eyes remained fixed on the pile of concrete debris to his left. Nothing out of the relative ordinary was seen at first glance, but he was not ruling anything out, especially where an actual monster was involved-

A tiny rat suddenly scampered out from behind a discarded box, causing Mike to relax his guard. The little creature scurried its way from the box and towards the right and Mike found himself watching it as it moved.

"Fuckin' rat-!" he cursed. Getting jumpy over something small like that? He needed to seriously get a grip on-

Mike's world suddenly exploded in a burst of noise. Following the rat's movements took him all the way up to gaze upon something else entirely. Something was perched on top of the nearby table! Something long and spindly! something that was looking at him directly with milky white eyes! Something that in that moment let out a sound that sounded like a shriek of the damned!

The Wendigo!

An actual monster practically screeched at him with a shriek that positively terrified him. He could see in completely unhindered detail the way its mouth opened nearly as wide as it could. Heavy globs of saliva dripped from its many unnaturally pointed and jagged teeth in its jaw. They almost looked like shark's teeth!

In the midst of his spiking heartbeat and absolutely chilled blood, Mike somehow willed himself to point his shotgun in the 'general' direction of the creature! The Wendigo had also chosen that moment to leap out towards him! Time itself suddenly felt like it was slowing to a crawl, with Mike seemingly watching everything unfold at a snail's pace.

If he was planning to live even another minute, he would pull the trigger...!

The shotgun's boom exploded, the world resumed its normal speed, and the Wendigo could be seen flying backwards a few feet. Everything just now occurred in the span of a fraction of a second!

His senses finally catching back up with him, Mike was left to discern what the hell had just happened. He had just blown the Wendigo away with a point-blank blast of his shotgun!

"Ha! Huh?! How'd that feel, you fuck!?" he found himself taunting.

He watched the Wendigo fly across the room and hit the ground. But just like that, Mike's fears reignited as he saw an unmistakable twitch of movement. The Wendigo was still alive?! And it was pulling itself up so quickly?! How the hell-?

There was no time to ponder any of that; he had to get out of here!

"Come on, Wolfie! Let's go!"

His feet practically ran of their own accord, taking the dumbfounded boy along with them as he ran across the room. The sound of his and the wolf's footsteps as well as the shrieks of that creature filled his ears as he ran. He didn't even stop to see if that thing was following after him; now was not the time to be curious!

Mike quickly made his way through the opposite doorway and bound up the nearby metallic steps. Where was he going? Not even he could say; he just had to keep moving and get the hell out of here!

The staircase came to an end quickly and Mike found himself standing in yet another hallway. The light of his torch barely made out that this hallway stretched forward for about ten or so feet before ending with another room at the far end. But wait, there was another open doorway to his left much closer to his position! The light could barely make out the space within the room from this angle, but...

"Shit, shit, shit-!" Mike cursed as another distant shriek filled the air, "Come on Wolfie, this way...!" He quickly motioned for the wolf to follow him as he dashed to the left. He barely saw out of the corner of his eye that Wolfie was in fact following behind him, clawed paws scratching against concrete ground.

The two of them quickly entered the room where Mike then slammed the door closed. Once the door was shut he took a step back, desperate to feel a little safer-

Wait! The viewing window of this door had a metal mesh, but it was completely torn through! Just this door shutting wouldn't be enough!

"Shit... Goddammit!"

Thinking quickly he dashed towards a small twin green locker and gripped it with both hands. Pulling as hard as he could, thankfully the entire metal structure wasn't anchored or bolted to the ground at all. He pulled from the top and towards the right to drop the entire thing down on its side. The metal lockers came to a resounding thud in front of the door, a thud that surely the Wendigo had to have heard if it was nearby still.

As if it somehow predicted his fears, movement suddenly burst up in front of the door's window. The Wendigo's face appeared in plain view in all its ugly and horrifying form. Its shrieks filled the tight space of this room which in turnedcaused Wolfie to let out harsh barks and growls of its own.

The Wendigo had even tried reaching into the room towards Mike, causing the boy to nearly jump back. Not only in surprise, but because of the sheer reach this creature had! A long, spindly looking arm with pointed claws on its- no wait, those weren't claws... Those were its fingernails!

Suddenly acting on instinct Mike dashed forward and swung his torch arm towards the creature in a threatening sweep. The Wendigo screeched again but Mike could see that it was visibly recoiling from the display.

"Back! Get back-!"

He swept his arm again, desperate to harm or even scare the Wendigo off completely. What he was not ready for was the sudden resistance of movement felt in his arm. Looking up he could see the clawed hand of the Wendigo suddenly clamped down hard on the base of the torch, a little above Mike's own hand!

"No! Let... go...!"

A quick jerk to the side and Mike found his torch had been wrested from his hand! The Wendigo was still gripping the torch in its own hand as he stepped away again from the door. However it wasn't shaking the tool back at Mike the way he'd have expected it to have done. If anything it was gripping the object but still had his attention focused squarely on he himself.

"Screw it- come on Wolfie!"

The wolf held its stance for a moment growling threateningly at the Wendigo, but nonetheless obeyed Mike's command. The two of them ran towards the back of the room where another open door lay. Where would this next room lead to? Mike didn't care, all that mattered was moving!

He and the wolf dashed through the doorway where Mike again slammed its door shut. Thankfully this one held a metallic deadbolt that Mike was able to secure into position. In addition this one's metallic mesh was in much better condition than the previous one; even if that Wendigo had somehow gotten through into that room, there's just no way it could get through THIS door!

Finally, Mike felt like he could catch his breath if even for a moment. Aside from his own breathing as well as the rapid beating of his own heart he was just now noticing, all was quiet around him. He couldn't hear anymore shrieks or cries or any sort of noises that sounded like a Wendigo in this room.

On that note he gazed upon the room he stood within. A larger room with large wooden tables scattered all about the center floor. He could see an assortment of bowls and even some power tools resting atop a couple of them. Maybe this was some kind of workshop room back in the day?

The sound of whimpers could be heard next to him and Mike was reminded of Wolfie's presence. The beast was looking up at him and sniffing the air in front of him.

"Shh-shh... Good boy...!" he softly whispered while gently patting the creature's head. Wolfie seemed to enjoy that brief affection given to him and ceased its whimpers,

"Come on, let's go...!"

With that Mike gripped his shotgun with now both hands and prepared to lead the way for the two of them-

Movement suddenly could be seen in the room and Mike instinctively dropped down. He took cover beneath the large table closest to him and nearly froze in place. Thankfully Wolfie stood directly next to him behind the cover of the same table.

He practically held his breath as he listened. Then he heard it- a snarling sound. A guttural growl that only some kind of wild animal would make. It sounded different yet similar to a Wendigo shriek that he'd heard earlier. But it couldn't be; how could that thing have gotten here this quickly...?!

Very slowly he willed himself to peak around the corner of the table he hid behind. Once glance was all he afforded, yet one glance was all he needed. He'd caught a glimpse of the Wendigo alright, perched atop one of the wooden tables. Its stance was held with an inclined back and head held high up. It was as if it was looking for something; hunting for something.

Hunting for him.

'Fuck me... fuck me...!' he mentally panicked, 'Just... stay... quiet...!'

His left hand gripped the still warm barrel of his shotgun ever so tightly. In fact from the sheer cold of his hand in how tightly he gripped it and the warmth of the barrel, his hand was feeling about normal temperature. The sound of his own heartbeat thundered in his ears to the point he feared it would actually give him away. He slowed his very breathing down to the point where it was barely audible; just a shallow gasp of air, in and out.

Against his good judgment, Mike practically willed himself to very slowly peek his had around the table's corner. The Wendigo slowly came back into view, in all its spindly, long-limb horror. It was still perched there, almost in plain view. Only adding to the problem here was that it was standing well in front of the only open doorway that could lead out of this place!

Could he make a run for it? Well, what if he wasn't fast enough? This thing could jump insanely far and fast. Maybe if he was fast enough himself, he could get another shot in on and-

Crap! He mentally berated himself upon realizing something: he hadn't reloaded his shotgun from the previous shot he'd taken! So now even if he did plan to shoot this thing, he couldn't! Even trying to reload this thing would probably make too much noise!
'

FUCK ME!' he mentally screamed again, 'Can't run, can't shoot it... The hell can I-'

His thoughts were interrupted by a sound. This wasn't the sound of the snarls of the Wendigo, but something completely different. This sounded actually much closer and like the sound of... something rolling?

Mike looked up from behind his cover towards the top of the table. His eyes widened instantly as he glimpse a glass bottle that was rolling dangerously close to the edge- It was going to fall off! If it hit the ground and smashed, he'd be made for sure!

As the bottle tipped over the edge Mike shot a hand up to quickly catch it. He gripped the bottle slightly tighter as relief washed over his being; that would've been catastrophic if that thing had smashed! But still, that was only one problem dealt with. There was still the issue of the Wendigo standing guard outside his only means of escape!

Glancing at the bottle in his hand one more time, Mike suddenly felt incredibly stupid; the answer to his problem was literally in his hand! He could just throw this bottle away, somewhere else in this room, and the Wendigo would go over there to investigate!

Mike turned his head back towards the locked door he had come from. The space directly outside the door was dark, vacant, and void of any sort of creatures there. Exactly what he was looking for.

He carefully turned himself around in place, held the bottle well away from his body, then lobbed it away in a wide arc. The bottle could be seen sailing across the room towards the closed door where it smashed to the ground. The sound of glass shattering might as well have been an earthquake what with how loud it felt.

Thankfully the Wendigo had heard the sound itself and shrieked in response. It literally leaped atop the wooden tables in front of it in a leapfrog display and advancing closer towards the bottle's location. Once it had passed by roughly his own position did Mike feel even the slightest bit safe that he could move.

"Don't... just... stay quiet...!" he violently yet wordlessly whispered. He motioned for Wolfie to follow him as he proceeded to advance his position. The next spot he would make his way towards would be the wooden table directly in front of him. Wolfie thankfully chose to obey his silent command and followed after him without any sort of noises on his part.

By now Mike and Wolfie had cleared the second wooden table while the Wendigo was at the far end of the room. It's back was still turned to the two of them this entire time as it searched for the source of the noise it had heard just now. This was good enough sign for Mike to keep moving towards the doorway and finally through as hastily as he could.

Unfortunately, entering this new hallway meant that Mike was without any decent lighting this time. So much for having a torch the entire way; he would just have to make do with what was there and what he had.

His hands gripped tight on his shotgun as he neared a corner to the right. Wolfie was already standing around it but didn't seem to be alarmed by anything before him, but Mike wasn't willing to take any such chances. He lifted his gun up level with his eyes, trained it forward before him, and took a few careful steps forward.

He then pulled himself completely around the corner to find... nothing.

"Dammit..."

Before him lay yet another lengthy hallway with large prison doors on both sides and at different intervals. The entire hallway was also shrouded in darkness and shadow without much in the way of even natural light to guide him.

Wolfie seemed to favor caution as well as he was taking small steps forward into the hallway. Aside from his occasional snorts he didn't seem to detect anything to put him on alert. There even lay a large cell on the wall curving to their left with its front door caved in from debris. Wolfie didn't even give so much as a growl as he himself neared the dark of the cell. This was as good an indicator as any for Mike to watch as he moved forward himself. He nonetheless kept both hands gripping the shotgun as tightly as he could.

"Anyone down here...?" he spoke softly as he neared the curve's corner. While only more darkness was the only thing that met his immediate view he was silently praying for no sort of reply at all-

Just like that, another screeching sound filled the air. It was distant and felt through at least many walls between him and the source, but Mike still nearly jumped in place. He instinctively reacted by lifting his shotgun up to where the sound could've come from. Everywhere he could see though was met with darkness though. A dark hallway littered with debris and even dark prison rooms.

'What the hell am I doing...!?'

The thought itself was practically hammering his own mind just as his heart was hammering in his chest. How the hell had he ended up here?

In this moment Mike was quickly reminded of his shotgun; or more specifically that the shells within its barrels were still spent. He quickly cracked open the barrel, dislodged the two spent shells, then reloaded them with two fresh shells before clicking the entire weapon closed again. The entire process filled the air with agonizingly loud clicks of the weapon which only served to chill Mike's blood even more somehow.

With what felt like the most baby steps possible Mike and Wolfie made their way down the hallway. Scarcely a sound was made by either of them. All along the broken walls lay a set of pipes attached horizontally as if guiding them.

Eventually the hallway came to another sharp left turn once again shrouded in more darkness. Mike lifted his now loaded shotgun up and at the ready as he slowly and carefully peered around-

A rattling of metal and a shriek suddenly filled the air. Mike instinctively jumped forward and spun around towards the source. Lucky that he was so quick in doing so as he found that he had walked right next to a prison cell with... a Wendigo inside of it? What the hell was going on? He had just gotten past the Wendigo earlier, but now one was here before them?

The creature had jumped up to the bars within its cell, every one of its limbs somehow gripping on and holding itself up like a... a monkey. It was even reaching through the bars with a clawed arm towards him while screeching.

His eyes darted down to the cell door of the- wait... This, it couldn't be right. This door was secured shut. It's the only way this thing was where it was now and not jumping out of this cell to try and rip him up! This thing had been in this cell this entire time! Which could only mean...

There WAS more than one Wendigo in this place!

"Holy shit! When's this shit gonna stop?!" Mike muttered with his eyes glued to the incarcerated Wendigo. He could hear Wolfie growling and barking menacingly at the creature himself. Eventually the creature abandoned its attempt to grab at Mike through the bars and jumped down onto the ground, slinking back into the shadows of its cell. It did not refrain from letting out snarls of its own in the process however.

"Oh fuck... It's like a bad dream...!" he said as he turned around towards the hallway he meant to proceed through, "A fucking bad dream...!"

Only more darkness met his eyes when trying to look down the hallway. There were only sparse sections of natural light pouring in through cracks in the ceiling here and there. It was far too few to give Mike any sufficient-

A quick snarl practically erupted next his very head. Mike quickly jumped to the right and spun to his side. In his brief mental panic he found himself not paying attention to his surroundings. He had nearly wandered too close to a prison cell that had another Wendigo occupant contained within. Just like the first one it was reaching its clawed arm through the bars of the cell, desperate to grab him.

Mike's eyes widened in surprise as they leveled at yet another Wendigo in his immediate vicinity. The creature proceeded to screech and cry out its rather inhuman cry the entire time. It's open mouth opened wide to display its gnashing teeth. Mike still had a hard time grasping the fact that this thing, this monster, was once a person. It looked and sounded so... animal-like!

Just like that, another screech could be heard directly behind him. That was followed by another! Mike spun around in different directions in this hallway. All around him and seemingly from different angles a Wendigo was seen. For the most part they were all literally behind bars, rattling in cages like wild animals and eyeing him like a fresh piece of meat!

Mike nervously turned his shotgun in various directions, gauging the different Wendigos in different locations.

"One at a t-time, boys!" he called out in a faux brave and taunting voice, "There's enough of me for all of y-!"

Just like that Mike felt something tug at his pants leg. That tug instantly became the sensation of something trying to wrap itself around his ankle!

He instinctively tugged and jerked his leg free until he no longer felt the resistance. The act caused him to stumble briefly in mid-step and nearly fall down until he regained his footing.

"Drgh-! Get off!" he exclaimed.

Looking down near his leg he could see what exactly had grabbed him. One of the Wendigos in a cage he had walked too close too had dropped low to the ground and grabbed at his ankle through the bars. The creature shrieked at him with its inhuman screech in frustration. Mike trained his shotgun on the caged Wendigo even as he stepped well and away from the cage. He was starting to get careless, almost getting grabbed like this; he needed to be more on his toes from here on out.

The Wendigos behind him let out their cacophony of cries as they reached through bars and grabbed for him and Wolfie. Mike's heart was positively hammering in his chest the entire time, but he still willed himself to press on. He instead reminded himself to walk in the dead center of the prison hallway. It provided ample room that he was just out of reach of any of the grabbing creatures from no matter which side. He took extra comfort in knowing that all of these cells with Wendigos inside them were completely locked up tight.

That is, until he neared one cell directly in front of him. A cell lay upon the wall before him where the hallway itself began to sharply turn to the left. There was a prison cell there alright, but this one's cell door was wide open...

Mike lifted his shotgun barrel straight up and focused it on the opened cell. He was not putting anything past him that something could be hiding in there, lurking in the shadows. But this time, he would be ready. Nothing was gonna jump out from there while he was-

Yet another shriek from the right side caused him to jump yet again. Mike momentarily tore his gaze away to the right to find another Wendigo reaching out to swipe at him from a cell on the right side wall.

Movement drew his attention back to his left again. Mike spun to face forward again to find a Wendigo was in fact coming out of the dark of the prison cell. Worse still, Mike had his shotgun pointing away from the front due to the Wendigo on the side distracting him! Would he be able to defend himself in time with how fast this one was jumping out for him?!

"Oh SHIT-!"

The Wendigo was already leaping out and towards Mike. Its unnaturally long arms stretched out wide and its jagged maw stretched wide open to bite him! Mike instinctively lifted an arm in front of him in an attempt to shield himself from the-

A quick rattle of a chain suddenly rang out, followed by the Wendigo stopping its leap practically in mid-air. Mike opened his eyes fully again to see what exactly had happened: that Wendigo had been restrained by a long metal chain linking to a collar around its neck! The sudden halt in motion was actually causing it to fly backwards from where it had come from!

Mike watched on as the Wendigo had flew backwards into the dark of its cell from where it had emerged. He wasted little time in moving around the corner and out of its direct field of vision.

Turning down this new hallway Mike glimpsed a nearby sign on the wall on his left reading 'PSYCHIATRIC WARD' with an arrow pointing to the right. Just a little further to go he supposed...

He focused his sight on the darkened hallway that stretched out before him yet again. There seriously had to be an end to all these hallways he was walking through! This place was feeling more like an actual prison than some place people would go to get any kind of help!

Thankfully the screams and screeches of the Wendigos could only be heard behind him. Before him there were no such sounds to be heard. Finding all of these Wendigos locked up and tied in these restraints was fucked up in itself, but assuming they were all amassed in a singular location, maybe now he was finally nearing the end of encountering them in this-

Suddenly, Mike felt a harsh tug on his jacket! He quickly found himself suddenly being pulled backwards and up against a prison cell's bars!

"Fuck! Fuck, FUCK-!" he cried out.

Something long, bony, and unbelievably ice cold wrapped itself around the front of his neck. While he couldn't look down directly at it, he could still tell rather quickly that it was in fact the hand of another Wendigo that had grabbed him! All the while directly behind him the screeches of the creature rang out so loud that they threatened to rupture his eardrums.

He reached a hand up to try and free himself from the hand, but the appendage held strong like an actual vice grip! No matter how much he pulled on the hand or how hard he jerked himself to either side, the creature would not let him go! Worse still the hand was beginning to close in a little too tightly on his neck. If this kept going his throat might actually end up getting crushed...!

Purely on instinct Mike raised the shotgun up to the side of his head to where the barrel pointed directly behind him. He made sure to crane his neck to the side as much as he could as well. This was in hindsight a really stupid thing to do, but if he didn't do something real soon he was actually going to die! It was now or never!

He released his hand on the creature's hand so that both of his hands' fingers gripped the shotgun's trigger and squeezed.

The world around him exploded in a deep boom! Instantly the clawed hand released its hold on his neck. Mike found himself lurching forward a few steps from being freed with a few new sensations to boot. For one thing, along with his eardrums ringing and muting out most sounds around him, he felt a strange stinging pain on the side of his neck. He reached a hand up to it and was surprised to find the faint feeling of something wet.

He brought his hand back down in front of his face to confirm: that Wendigo had scratched his neck! Thankfully it didn't seem to be too bad from the small amount of blood on his fingertips, but still! He shook his head as best he could to clear away these overwhelming sensations that flooded his brain.

As he looked all around to reorient himself he turned to face one of the directions of the hallway. What he saw down there almost made him wish he hadn't. Something moved as fast as a squirrel jumped from the right side and onto the opposing wall. A Wendigo had emerged from that direction and no doubt had him directly in its sights!

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Gotta run...!"

Mike quickly turned the opposite direction and bolted down the hallway. Due to the heavy ringing that persisted in his right ear, the sounds of the screeching from behind him could mostly be heard from his left instead. He still didn't need to look behind him at all to guess that the creature was hot on his heels! He could see Wolfie directly in front of him apparently having enough sense to run like he was doing.

As he ran forward he remembered to crack open his shotgun, dislodge the spent shells, and reload his weapon with two fresh shells.

Eventually the hallway he ran through transitioned into another wired 'tunnel' that covered all sides of him. All around him from the walls to the ceiling was chain-link, similar to the chain-link tunnel he had gone through earlier when outside. Of course this would only limit his current escape options to only going forward as directed, but at least he was going somewhere!

Directly in front of him Wolfie had held his ground for some reason and was growling and barking. Why wasn't he moving forward? What was he barking at?

Then Mike quickly saw the answer to all the questions: a massive wooden door closed shut and blocking off access. Wolfie couldn't proceed any further and was likely stopped to bark menacingly at the approaching Wendigo behind him.

"Hang on, Wolfie; I'll get the door!"

Mike rushed up to grab the door's handle. With a quick twist he found that it wasn't locked at all, which he was eternally grateful for. However, upon pressing normal strength into pushing it open, he found that it would not open completely. Almost as if something was jamming it, whether something was barricading from the other side or the hinges were overly rusted, Mike couldn't say.

"Oh, come ON-!" Mike practically shoved his entire body weight into the door once. To his credit the door actually did budge a few inches and produce a small crack. It was still too small for he himself to slip through, but it looked to be about Wolfie's size though.

A distant shriek filled the air behind him again. Mike spun around to face the chain-link tunnel he had just ran through to find a Wendigo there. It was perched on the ground at first before proceeding to jump all around, clinging to the chain-link metal fencing like an animal!

Mike still couldn't get over just how insanely fast these things were! Not only was it jumping all around but it was still managing to move closer and narrow in on his current position! It would practically be on him in no time unless he did something quick!

"Oh boy...!" he lifted his shotgun up to focus in on the Wendigo himself. The creature was still a healthy distance away from him which produced doubts if a blast from his shotgun would be effective at this range.

Eventually, after watching the Wendigo's movements carefully, the creature finally came to a brief moment of pause from its jumping by remaining just stationary enough on the ceiling. That was his chance! It had slowed down for him and he needed to take his shot now!

Mike squeezed the trigger and felt the recoil of his gun kick once more. Between the motion of his gun in front of him, the brief flash of light from the barrel tip itself, as well as the loud boom that filled the air, he almost lost sight of the Wendigo in front of him. But thankfully he could see that apparently his shot had struck true, and the Wendigo had been knocked off of the ceiling and fallen flat onto the ground beneath it where it didn't immediately rise again.

Before Mike could feel any relief that his shot had completely ended that Wendigo threat, he unfortunately caught sight of the creature beginning to stir and pick itself up again. This was unbelievable! These things were taking shotgun blasts sometimes at point-blank range and even that wasn't killing them?! This wasn't good at all! If he were to even last a shit's hope of a chance, he had to do something to take them out of the picture completely! But if a shotgun wasn't enough to do the job, what else could he do...?

Mike glanced directly to his side next to him and caught sight of a cylindrical barrel. The metallic drum was barely red still with the rust that had coated over it completely, but the symbol for 'FLAMMABLE' could still seen clearly enough. His thoughts drifted back to a couple hours earlier involving a similar barrel and a similar... experience with fire.

He quickly reached to his side and took hold of the barrel on the far edge and pulled towards him. The barrel toppled over without much resistance and lay on its side. Mike could also tell that the drum was roughly about half full of whatever specific contents filled it. But now was not the time to be second-guessing anything; he'd give that Wendigo a hell of a surprise!

Or rather, Wendigos...

Looking up Mike was met with the horrifying image of not only the Wendigo he'd shot having regained its feet, but now a second Wendigo was jumping all around the chain-link tunnel as well! It was jumping here and there with alarming speed and positively inhuman! At this point Mike had two creatures to fear would eventually reach his position!

"Oh shit-!" he said as he brought his gaze down and was reminded of his wolf companion at his feet, "Go on, Wolfie! Go through there-!"

He hastily motioned towards the crack in the door before the wolf. The beast looked up at him for a second but seemed to figure out what Mike was meaning for him to do. He made his way forward and easily slipped himself through the crack in the door, leaving Mike by himself again.

Mike then turned back towards his incoming adversaries, and was subsequently reminded of his insane plan he was about to perform. He first cracked open his shotgun and reloaded fresh shells into the barrels as fast as he could. The Wendigos in the meantime were still advancing closer towards him but thankfully weren't jumping forward and closing distance any faster. He might actually get to pull this off at this rate-!

Placing the bottom of his foot on the barrel's edge he kicked forward, hard. The barrel rumbled loudly as it rolled down the caged hallway and towards the creatures. The Wendigos didn't seem to play it the slightest bit of attention at all as they remain fixated on the human the entire time. That suited Mike well enough; as long as they weren't growing wise to what he was about to do...

The barrel eventually came to a slow stop right beneath where the Wendigos were still positioned. This was perfect; Mike raised his shotgun up, took aim, and pulled the trigger...

The boom that followed positively brought forth a burst of light and heat! Mike found himself nearly blinded by the sudden light before his eyes and the intense heat that nearly singed his exposed skin. In all honesty Mike had expected there to be some degree of a massive explosion upon shooting an actual explosive, but what he was not prepared for was the 'force' that came with it as well! He found himself being launched backwards and falling flat on his back away from the inferno.

And just like that, the burst of sound had left as quickly as it had occurred. Mike shook his head to clear his senses as best he could. His eyes still felt the burn from harsh light that nearly overtook his sight, but for the most part he could still see things before him. He was also acutely aware of the sharper chill that graced his skin, specifically the parts of his body that the explosion had barely singed. But more importantly, Mike was left to ask himself a very important question.

"Did that... just happen...?"

After shaking his head for the hopefully final time, he forced himself to look up at the caged tunnel he had just ran through. He had expected to see some kind of scorching on the floor here and there, but what he was not expecting to see was... well, nothing! The entire hallway was completely gone!

"Oh, shit!" Mike regained his footing and scanned the site of the destruction more thoroughly. True enough, where once a chain-link cordon stood, likely to herd inmates back and forth, now was a massive empty void that exposed a larger room around him! Chain-link fencing could be seen blown apart in a chaotic mangled display with patches of fire and smoke dotting the area. It was like a small bomb had gone off here just now. No wait; that's pretty much exactly what had just happened, wasn't it? A makeshift bomb had just gone off so dangerously close and before him!

"How the hell... How the hell am I still alive?!"

But not only as he himself still alive and breathing, but those two Wendigos were nowhere to be seen before him either. Crazy as it was, his impromptu firebomb delivery had actually successfully fried them! Mike couldn't help but feel a brief pulse of confidence surge through his entire being at this realization.

His wits caught back up with him however and he shook his entire body again. Congratulations aside, he still had to get the hell out of this place! And that of course meant returning back to the door behind him.

He pressed his shoulder against the door and applied normal strength upon it, only to find that just like before it was barely giving an inch. He then pushed even harder with a groan until finally he felt the door slowly but surely give way before him. He could tell through the vibrations in the door that it must be that the hinges had rusted so hard that the door itself was resisting so hard.

Eventually the gap in the door widened much wider to allow the boy to finally slip himself through and on the other side. He then applied his strength from before to managing to close the door completely with a booming thud before securing it with its own dead-bolt. Let's see any Wendigos try and get through that!

Turning around he was not only met with another empty square-shaped room with a square-shaped grate looking thing in the center, but Wolfie also approached him. The beast looked up at him with a small noise that resembled pleading.

"Hey there boy, you still alive?" he reached down and pet the wolf's head, causing the beast to give a rather appreciative growl, "Yeah, me too. Come on, let's try and stay alive and get outta here..."

With that he led the two of them towards the left side wall and through an open doorway. Yet another sign could be seen hanging overhead reading 'PSYCHIATRIC WARD'. Wolfie's claws scratching against the concrete ground told him that he was quickly following after him. By this point Mike was growing more and more eternally grateful to be having a companion like Wolfie to be traversing this place with. Not that he wasn't already, but after all he and him had been through, the feeling was only growing stronger.

As he walked through the door Mike saw a large set of stairs he would have to ascend. A faint glow of natural light cast through some window at the very top could just barely be seen. As he climbed he once again reminded himself to reload his shotgun. As he exchanged the shells he became faintly aware of the slight twitch in his hands and fingers. Though whether they were shaking due to cold or nervousness he couldn't exactly tell.

Reaching the top of the stairs didn't fill him with any more relief than before. The first thing he could see was the destroyed remnants of what was likely supposed to be a room. Judging from the specific kinds of furniture scattered among the concrete debris, Mike surmised that this place was some kind of bathroom or cleaning room. Seriously, the sheer destruction of this room and even the adjoining rooms was on a whole other level! Walls had been broken down so that Mike could actually see into them from the room he stood within!

A brick wall had collapsed to his right side and allowed him to step through into the room next to it. Thanks to the massive holes in the ceiling above, the sound of wind howling could be heard a little more clearly and snowflakes could be seen floating in unhindered. Mike glimpsed Wolfie briefly shook his body and fur of the flakes that landed on him as he walked.

As he cautiously walked forward with his shotgun held at the ready, he noted the floor beneath him was square-tiled instead of concrete like the previous room. This room and the collapsed room after this one were styled similarly as well as of similar run-down condition. All around him lay pieces of destroyed furniture and debris of the building itself. As long as there weren't any Wendigos to be seen here he would definitely be happy.

Finally, from sharp turn following sharp turn for a minute or two, Mike and Wolfie found themselves in a hallway that stretched outward for about twenty feet. The distant end was shrouded in shadow at the moment and from squinting his eyes Mike couldn't quite tell what lay at the end. Wolfie wasn't making any sort of sounds to warrant alarm either, which was good enough for him.

He led the way down the hallway, shotgun held pointed forward and ready. Wolfie could be heard bringing up the rear with scratches of claws against the tiled floor. All around them lay broken pieces of wood and sheet-rock that littered the floor. Every step Mike took upon the debris was slightly muted while steps on the tiled ground itself producing a small echoing reverb. Or, was it only sounding that way in his own head? Mike shook his head; crazy as it was, maybe just staying here in this place longer than was needed would make him start to go crazy too. All the more reason to get out of this place now.

None of these doors on the sides of the hallway were accessible either, leaving Mike's only method being forward. However the more he focused his attention on the dark itself before him and Wolfie, the more unease he felt as a result. What if it was a dead end? Where could he go if this wasn't the way to-

A shriek suddenly rang out through the hallway. Mike felt his anxiety spike from the surprising sound. The sound was distant yet still felt like relative proximity to where he was now. However when he turned around his blood only grew colder at what he saw.

It was a Wendigo! It must have come from around the corner where he had come from and no doubt had him in its sights!

"Oh, fuck-!"

This wasn't possible! Mike had blown up a couple of Wendigos just now! How had one managed to catch up to him?! Especially when he had even locked the door behind him to be safe?!

He had no more time to ponder such things as the Wendigo had leaped off of the wall it was perched on and out towards him! Mike quickly bolted down the hallway not caring to look back behind him for even a second! His heart hammered in his chest and pumped his ice-cold blood through his veins. Was Wolfie with him? He'd just have to trust that he still was! They had to make it to the end of the hallway and-

Oh- fuck, again! As Mike neared the end of the hallway he could just barely see through the darkness another massive wooden door. Worse still, not only was there a door, not only did it appeared to be closed at first glance, but unless Mike was actually seeing things there was an actual padlock hanging just above the doorknob! At this rate even if he did manage to reach the door...

Acting purely on instincts Mike raised his shotgun while running and aimed as carefully as he could. Out of all the crazy things he'd done tonight, this was the one thing he could not afford to screw up on now! The Wendigo screeches were sounding uncomfortably close behind him by the sounds of it!

The shotgun kicked and its shot exploded his ears again. After that massive explosion he'd caused much earlier the sound of his gun discharging was starting to sound not as loud anymore in comparison. More importantly a small flare of sparks briefly broke the sheer darkness to illuminate a small object falling down to the ground.

The screeches of the Wendigos behind him were nearly breathing down his neck at this point. Pure adrenaline practically flowed through his veins by the time he reached the door. He quickly grabbed the doorknob, and, to his eternal gratitude, found that it was not resistant due to some secondary lock in the slightest. He twisted it and threw open the door while leaving it open for just the barest second to allow Wolfie to slip in right after him.

He then slammed the door shut with a resounding thud. With a peek through the door's little head-level window he could see at least a couple of the monsters were directly behind him where he had been standing mere moments ago. Hastily he reached up to slip the- wait, oh no. There was no deadbolt to secure on this door!

Panic spiked through Mike's body again. He stepped back from the door with his eyes transfixed on it. The muted screeches on the other side seemed to grow in intensity, and at this point if there was no way to lock this door...

"Fuck me... oh, fuck me...!" Mike said.

He looked to his right to see another room through an open doorway. Barely even thinking he dashed forward and into the room to find... There was no door? No other sort of door leading to another room from here? Not even another window?! What was this place?!

Wait, there was something in this room in the form of a massive hole in the concrete floor. It was a similar cave-in of the floor as to what he had seen in the larger Sanatorium from earlier. But without any other exit options to be seen in this room, this was looking to be his only option at this point.

Wolfie could be heard giving excited barks next to him.

"Hang on, Wolfie; let me go first..."

Mike brought himself down to drape his legs over the edge, and then dropped down. He felt his feet land upon a metallic surface, where upon looking down he found himself standing upon some metallic catwalk. Again, very similar to the catwalk from the Sanatorium's basement. This wouldn't be an ideal place for him to go if this was in fact a basement, but Mike was purely guided by getting the fuck out of here over stuff like that!

He then looked back up towards the hole in the floor at Wolfie. The natural light shining down from above seemed to make his fur stand out much more with brightness.

"Okay Wolfie, now your turn! Jump down!" he called out. The wolf looked down towards him with a curious look even as Mike whistled for the beast.

"Come on, bud, it's alright! Look, it's safe!" He held his arms out wide in a motion as if he would catch him. Could he catch him? He didn't look that heavy; Mike was certain he could catch him in his arms if he needed to.

A distant sound of a crash could be heard from above, even from where he now stood. It almost sounded like... a door opening! They had to have gotten through! If Wolfie didn't jump down now they would surely get to-

The beast in question suddenly drew its head up. It was looking at something directly in front of it. The next thing Mike could see was a rush of movement from the other side of the hole, and Wolfie was gone.

"NOOO-!" Mike exclaimed. His own scream was easily overpowered by the sounds of the Wendigo screeches. Except, those screeches were all he could identify in that moment. There was no sort of movement to be seen; nothing from them, and nothing from Wolfie...

'It-It'll be fine though! Wolfie's tough!' Mike hastily tried to rationalize, 'We've gotten this far, and, he's my buddy! He'll make it through! He's just gotta...!' In the midst of his mental panic, Mike was only faintly aware that these were almost the exact same words he said himself years ago with Jake...

Mike caught sight of movement again. A furred head with ears. For a momentary instant he felt a wash of relief upon seeing Wolfie. Maybe now he could jump down to him and they could-

Wolfie remained motionless with his head slumped over the edge of the hole. He did not move an inch. Even his eyes remained unblinking. All attempts at denial were instantly destroyed in that moment.

Wolfie was dead.

Mike's eyes widened and even begun to sting a little with the threat of floodgates being released. This couldn't be happening! It just couldn't! He had already lost Jessica tonight, he had even lost his first dog many years before then! And now, it was all crashing down upon him again! His treasured friends around him were dying!

And he was still alive to witness them all...

A round of violent screeches ripped through the air again which managed to break him out of his traumatized trance. He turned around and ran. Where was he running now? He didn't care; he was just getting out of here!

In fact, the entire world appeared slightly foggier around him. Details of the room he stood within became fuzzier; was there an actual mist in the air, or was Mike finding himself lacking the ability to care in this moment? Scattered debris, more broken furniture, huge piped furnace looking things, they were all the least of his concerns at the moment!

One thing that did stand out to him was a small set of stairs against the wall that led to a door. Judging from the windows on that same wall that were shining natural moonlight through them, that door had to connect to the outside! There was an actual way out of this place, finally!

"I'm so, SOO sorry, Wolfie...!" Mike panted as he ran across the room towards the stairs, "I'll... make it outta here! For you, I'll... I'll...!"

His general senses seemingly caught up with his own instinct-driven body. He quickly came to realize that he had already ascended the small set of steps and stood directly before the dual doors. A quick shove of his shoulder into the right side door and-

Yep, rusted shut, just as he was beginning to predict at this point. Just as before the door had barely given an inch, far too small for him to be able to slip through without-
The sound of screeches filled the dark space once more. Mike spun around to face the area below him. The haze of overwhelming grief momentarily broken, he was able to see clearly into the room itself.

He could see a Wendigo at the base of the stairs looking back up at him. Its maw opened unnaturally wide as it screamed. Its body seemed to be suspended by long, spindly limbs that kept it off of the ground almost like a spider.

And just like a spider it suddenly leaped up onto the wall to Mike's right and proceeded to inch ever closer to him.

As Mike started to raise his gun up to shoot, he was then reminded of how he had taken a shot in the gun recently!

"Oh G- are you kidding me-?!"

Despite the chill in his hands both outside on his skin and inside with his cooled blood, Mike practically willed his fingers to move faster than ever before. He cracked open the barrel, slipped the spent shells out, then reached into his pocket for two more. How many did have in his pocket still? Was he close to running out? Now was REALLY not the time to be pondering questions like those!

In the span of a second at least he finally had his gun reloaded and ready to go. And not a moment too soon- he took aim at the wall-mounting Wendigo and pulled the trigger.

The boom of the shotgun exploded in his ears once more and the recoil kicked in his arms as well. But more importantly, his shot must have struck true as the Wendigo was also sent flying off the wall and back towards the ground. Its body slammed against a nearby barrel where it dented and caused its liquid contents to begin to spill forth.

Before Mike could even register the success of his quick shot his vision was drawn to movement to his right. A second Wendigo could be seen crawling down the side of a large metallic boiler thing and perching itself on the table beneath it. This one too let out a screech as it level its gaze squarely upon Mike's position.

The other Wendigo could be seen pulling itself back up onto its feet; or rather, onto its clawed hands and feet and re-fixing itself to face Mike again. Even as the boy once more worked fast to reload his shotgun, he began to feel the futility in his current endeavor. Shooting these things was only doing so much, and even then it seemed like they were just popping out of the woodwork no matter how many of them he shot! But at this point, what else could he do?

Just then, underneath the light of the natural moonlight shining through the window, he noticed a small liquid puddle growing in size upon the floor. His eyes drifted up towards the dented barrel it came from, and to the barrel next to it, and the one next to that...

Mike's eyes widened as the wheels in his head turned at full speed. There was one last crazy plan idea he could pull off, and hell if it wasn't crazy by a long shot!

"This is for WOLFIE!" Mike raised his shotgun up and took the shot.

His target? The barrels.

The effect almost appeared to be slowed down. It almost felt like time had actually slowed down from how slowly he was perceiving the effect. The entire room gradually began to glow ever brighter from the large blaze of orange and yellow from where Mike had taken the shot. The light grew brighter and the chill was quickly replaced by a growing heat that only grew with intensity. Even the Wendigos' attention was momentarily ripped away from Mike himself as they turned to face the growing inferno.

Wasting not a second more himself Mike turned back to the doors and practically threw his entire weight into the right side door. This time the door completely broke open under his weight and nearly swung outwards. He was once more greeted by the dark and cold of the outside world stretched out before him.

No sooner had he even taken a step outside than he felt something behind him. An actual force, in every literal sense of the word! As if a burst wave of sound, heat, and light erupted from behind him and SHOVED him outside!

The next thing Mike knew he was rolling out sprawled onto the snow-covered ground almost completely in a daze. Nearly all of his senses, from sight, hearing, touch, even smell, all felt completely overloaded. The first of his senses to be regained was feeling the ice cold of snow against the exposed skin of his hands. He was also faintly aware that both of his hands were empty and gripping only the snow. His shotgun must have slipped from his hands somewhere.

After shaking his head a couple of times he squinted and regained some semblance of control over his sight. The world around him appeared so dark, that is until he turned his head towards a massive source of light. By the time his eyes adjusted to the harsh light, Mike quickly came to realize just what had happened in the span of a mere few seconds:

He had blown up a building with monsters in it!

"Holy... holy shit...!" he panted as he slowly raised himself to his feet, "I… I did it! I actually did it...! Heh-heh-heh..." His brief chuckle was quickly cut off by a series of coughs from the nearby smoke.

Looking down at his feet he saw the shotgun leaving an imprint in the snow where it had fallen from his hands. He reached down to pick it up and brush off some stray flakes of snow from the barrel. Once his gun was back in hand, as well as most of his senses mostly having cleared, Mike looked back up at the source of the intense light before him.

Where once there was likely a doorway to the building he was just in now was one more passageway completely caved in with wreckage and debris, yet this one was accompanied by a raging inferno as well! Mike's skin felt a brief yet pleasant sensation of warmth from the intense fire from the explosion burning before him. Were it not for the urgency of his task he was almost tempted to stop for a moment to get some much needed warmth in his body.

Especially considering this same fire had probably just killed two more Wendigos!

"Yeah! You like that, Wendigos?!" he called out in a taunt, "It's what you get! Burn in Hell...!" Pride surged through his body from knowing that not only two more of those monsters were caught in that explosion, but he definitely avenged Wolfie by doing so. Maybe that was at least one good thing to have gone slightly right this evening.

Mike shook his head and turned around, albeit reluctantly, to face the path that led away from this compound. This was still only part way of his job however; now that he was out of the Sanatorium completely he'd need to make his way to the mines themselves, and to where Josh was likely being held. This path he stood upon had to be the way anyhow. With that he held his shotgun at the ready and made his way down the path and into the thick of the forest that concealed it.

---

Never before had the darkness felt so thick, so suffocating, than what Ashley found herself walking through right now. In fact, after walking through this same hallway for the past however many minutes it had been, she could only feel her anxiety of her fear of the dark spiking. Even with the flashlight she held in her hand, even with the fact that Sam was with her and she was not alone, all of this was could only do so much to alleviate her stress.

Even when the two girls rounded a corner in the hallway, what they found was more hallway to walk through. Long, dark, scary hallway...

More than one she asked herself why the two of them were even doing this in the first place. But Sam seemed to feel absolutely adamant that word be gotten out to Mike about the danger that he was in. Granted it was all well and good and she was equally concerned about her friend as she was, but she couldn't deny the doubts starting to creep up from the back of her mind after spending a lot of time in a dark place like this.

Even now Sam was maintaining a rather brusque pace as she practically power walked down the hallway herself. Unlike herself she didn't hold any flashlight and instead relied on that headband flashlight she wore on her forehead. Every so often she would glance to the left and right towards the walls around her, the light beam from her headband light following her every turn. How could she be so fearless and walk so fearlessly into the dark?

Ash even found herself slightly hard pressed to keep up with Sam. She was walking a little too far ahead of her. As best she could she kept the beam of her own flashlight fixed on Sam's almost distant form. Maybe the other girl would get the hint from seeing the light shining from behind her and slow down, unlikely though it may be.

Following after her friend as swiftly as she could manage, Ashley on occasion allowed her flashlight to drift from side to side at the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling just as Sam was doing. All she could see was was brick, concrete, and pipes that lined the ceiling above her. She normally would be questioning how something like this could be here on a remote mountain lodge, but after the whole excursion Chris and herself had taken a few hours ago leading to Josh's creepy hidden hideout, settings like this she was almost starting to become used to. Not only was all of it not the least bit interesting, but for some reason they all felt closer to her. As if they were closing in on her ever tighter...

This was all made even worse from the sheer lack of light in this place! Even her own footsteps produced small echoes that reverberated off of walls she could easily tell were much too close to her! The sheer compact size of this hallway combined with the almost complete absence of light, no wonder her anxiety was spiking in a place like this.

That was not a feeling that was boding well for her either. For the last few hours in this night alone she'd been put through all manner of shit! Scared witless, her very life threatened, and on top if it all finding out that it was all actually an orchestration by a friend whom she had thought had perished and in fact was simply 'messing with her'! Ashley wanted to maintain her anger that she held for Josh, but at the moment that anger was easily overpowered by her growing anxiety, her dread, her nearly gripping fear of the dark...

With every turn to the side and every darkened wall she found, she felt the need to even let out so much as a whimper grow stronger. Why was she even doing this in the first place? She knew why, but in the end was it really a good decision for her to be doing? What other reason was there for her to-

Chris.

The answer was Chris. Her thoughts slowly be swiftly came back to Chris waiting back in the safe room back there. He'd stayed behind there on account of his leg, but he nonetheless agreed to wait for her return. And she'd promised him that she would return! In fact, she'd done more than promise him...

They told each other that they loved each other! She was almost having trouble believing it herself, but it was true! This absolutely psychotic night of insanity had in its own way actually brought them closer together than ever before! And now... Now the two of them were on the level where they not only loved the other, but both sides actually acknowledged and even returned their love! As much as it pained her to want to leave Chris alone where he was, she unfortunately had to do so for her and Sam to get word out to Mike and all that. After that was all done however, she'd rush straight back to Chris the moment she could!

Once Mike was found first...

On that note, how much more of this hallway was there to walk down? Her senses had kicked back in to force her back into the present and found that she was still trailing behind Sam in walking this same hallway! It felt like they had been walking this exact dark hallway for what felt like thirty minutes or even longer! There had to be some literal end to this, right?

Just then, as if something or other had provided her an answer to her unspoken plea, something did appear. That something came in the form of her own flashlight reflecting its light upon it and making it appear brighter than it should've been. The hallway had come to an end with a large closed door! Ashley could feel her relief begin to surge upon this discovery.

Sam had reached and approached the door herself first, allowing Ashley to finally catch up to her. She watched the girl press her weight against the door for a moment or two.

"Urgh...! Oh, shit!" she suddenly could be heard saying as she stopped her efforts.

"Is it locked?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah... Mike must have locked it behind him..." she said as she turned around and stepped away from the door, "Crap...! There's gotta be another way in! Can you see anything Ash?"

"Huh, w-what?" Ashley stammered from not expecting something to have been asked of her in this moment. In truth she had been following Sam along this whole time thinking that the other girl would have just led the way straight to Mike. But now if they'd reached a dead-end, what else was there to do?

The small 'room' that they stood in wasn't very promising either. This section of the hallway produced a sort of 'cross' formation in that there were two passageways on either side of the one that the locked door was on. Except for the fact that these 'passageways' actually didn't lead anywhere! There were only large walls through the hallway thresholds where theoretically there should be more hallways! Seriously, who designed this messed up place?!

As she shifted in place Ashley felt her foot kick against something with a small, metallic clang accompanying it. She was almost startled by the unexpected sensation but managed to contain herself and look down. At her feet she could see that her foot had kicked a long, thin pipe that was resting atop a sewer grate.

Hold on- a sewer grate?

"Wait... Hey, Sam! What about this?" she waved Sam over. The other girl quickly moved closer to her and looked down towards their feet.

"Oh, yeah!" she breathed, "Good find, Ash!"

"I-I mean... 'should' we try it?"

"Well, it's not like we got any other options here, right?" Sam reminded her, "There, use that pipe to leverage it out."

Sam pointed down to the pipe that had been kicked. Ash set her own flashlight down and reached down to take hold of the pipe in both hands. She then angled the end of the pipe into one of the holes of the grate and pushed back so the pipe could get some decent leverage. That is until she attempted to push down and found the task to be a little harder than she anticipated. Even pressing both hands against the pipe did little to dislodge the grate, no matter how hard she pushed.

"Here, I gotcha-"

Sam moved over and placed her own hands against the pipe as well. Together, the combined strength of their pushes successfully dislodged the grate from the hole. Ash then set the pipe aside and joined Sam in taking hold of one end of the grate. She could feel the sheer weight of the lid in her hands and she was thankful that Sam was helping her in lifting it up.

In no time at all the girls had completely moved the sewer grate clear of the hole entrance. Ashley took back her flashlight in her hand, rose back to her feet, and shone her light down into the depths of the hole. The only thing she could see was the hole descending downward for who knew how far; not to mention it was completely filled with even more darkness!

"Okay, that is maybe the last place I'd want to go right now..." she commented.

"Well... want me to go first?" Sam offered. Ashley nodded her head rather hastily at the suggestion.

"Y-you go first."

Sam's response was a quick shrug of her shoulders, but nonetheless complied with her. She brought herself down to drape her legs over the edge of the hole then reached out to take hold of one of the handholds on the side. The makeshift ladder held firmly as Ashley watched her slowly make her descent.

"See? This isn't so bad," she called back up to her, "And hey, think this would lead all the way to the Sanatorium?"

"Well it has to; where else would it go?" Ashley found herself replying.

She watched Sam descend further down. Bit by bit of her slowly became shrouded in more shadow of the depths below. For a moment Ashley feared that she would go a bit too far down and she wouldn't be able to see anymore of her at all.

Just then however, she saw Sam stop descending. She was placing her feet down upon something and finally letting go of the ladder.

"Yeah, here we go..." she could be heard saying before looking back up at her, "Alright Ash, come on down! This is definitely the way..."

"Okay..." Ashley replied, albeit nervously. She lowered herself down and hung her legs over the edge of the hole, just as Sam had done. She reached out to take hold of the makeshift ladder rung and dip herself down into the hole.

That is, until she stopped herself for a moment's hesitation. Her gaze lingered on the dark hallway they had just come from. The darkness, impenetrable and somehow tangible seemed to gaze back at her. She could feel her anxiety spike ever so slightly just from looking at it. Almost as if it was hiding something within that could...

Oh God, what if something was there?

"Hey um, Sam?" she called down, "Do you think we should close this lid?"

"What?" Sam called back to her from below.

"I mean, I feel like something could be following us, and-"

"Sure, fine, Ash," Sam spoke strangely hastily, "But we've gotta keep moving. So just- catch up, maybe?" Ashley glimpsed Sam's form walking steadily out of view in one direction. She could hear the sound of her footsteps grow fainter with each step. She was moving rather fast; Ashley would need to work just as fast to get down and join with her at this rate.

"Yeah, um..." Ashley absently spoke. She turned her attention back to the metal sewer grate. Taking hold of it with one hand she pulled with as much strength as she could muster. It was surprisingly a little easier to move by simply sliding it to the side than it would've been to lift it up off the ground. In no time she slid the grate back over her head and back into place. Shadows of bars graced her body from the light above shining down through the grate's bars. Strangely, she thought she would feel some measure of relief from having done this, as now nothing could so quickly follow after them at this rate. But for some reason, her anxiety only remained spiked...

Her task finished, Ashley proceeded to descend the ladder. The task was a little difficult with her simultaneously having to hold her flashlight in one hand while climbing down, but she managed it well enough.

Her feet finally touched back down on solid ground beneath her. She released hold of the ladder and turned the light of her flashlight to the side...

What she was met with practically made her anxiety skyrocket! Not only was Sam nowhere to be seen before her, but she could hardly see anything from how deathly dark it was down here! Her breath began to quicken and she could feel a shiver run along her entire body.

Even her flashlight was doing less than bare minimum of what she wanted. The light beam only illuminated small spots within the darkness rather than dispel it completely. And even then what she could see in the light didn't fill her with any relief. Just unnaturally formed walls of stone and metallic looking objects everywhere.

"S-S-Sam...?" she called out, her voice barely above a whisper. There was no reply.

Seriously, why did Sam have to run off without her?!

She pulled her light beam down to her feet before attempting to take a step forward. The ground beneath her appeared flat enough, which was something. Her light would need to be set in front of her though so as to not run into anything before her.

After managing a few tentative steps forward, the light beam shone upon a wall directly in front of her. As the spot of light grew larger, Ashley suddenly felt fear spike within her. What if this was a wall that was actually a dead end? What if Sam had just disappeared completely, leaving her all alone in a dark, small, suffocating tunnel with no-

Her light drifted a little to the right to find the tunnel actually turned sharply to the right.

'Urgh! So STUPID!' the girl mentally berated herself.

She once more attempted to walk forward, one small, careful step at a time. The ground beneath her gradually felt more and more uneven. The walls on either side of her appeared to be more bumpy and jagged. Even the ceiling directly above her looked to be so low she could almost reach up with her hand to touch it! Combined with the darkness so thick it could be cut with a knife...

"Sam...?" she tried to call out a little louder. Still no reply.

To her left Ashley barely made out the outline of a large pipe running along the length of the wall. This pipe had to go somewhere, right? Unless it curved into the wall itself and disappeared completely from view- No no, thinking like that wasn't going to do her any good! Best thing she could do was keep walking forward through this tunnel that had to lead... somewhere.

With every step taken forward, taking her further and deeper into darkness, the more and more Ashley found herself dependent upon her flashlight. This simple tool providing the barest amount of light in her hand became everything to her in the span of a few seconds. Yet for all minuscule illumination it was providing, there was still encompassing darkness everywhere else. She would cast her light upon the ground before her as she walked forward leaving the walls cloaked in darkness, and vice versa.

She could feel the anxiety in her only spiking again with every second. Aside from the sound of her own footsteps scraping against the ground beneath her, the only sound to sustain her lay in the that of her own heartbeat, thundering like a drum in her chest. Even her own breathing came out shallow and barely audible; for a moment or two Ashley feared that she wasn't even breathing at all. As if the darkness all around her was sapping her of her very breath...

Glancing both her eyes and the flashlight to the side, she glimpsed the pipe on the wall. While what she had feared might happen didn't exactly occur, the pipe itself still ended rather abruptly with an entire section of it seemingly missing as it pointed along down the tunnel.

Her teeth chattering, Ashley pointed her flashlight beam straight forward again. The end of the light faded its intensity rather than settle upon something distant which only confirmed there being little to no end in sight for the moment. She was still alone, in complete darkness of a scary tunnel with little clue as to where she was going.

How the hell had Sam gotten so far away from her anyway?!

A sound suddenly could be heard. A small, barely audible noise. In fact, Ashley might not have even heard it the first time if she hadn't been paying attention in that moment.

She brought herself to a halt in that instant, conveniently as she found the path before her appeared to open into two different directions. To her right the natural path seemed to curve, but off to the left side a small ledge of exposed rock stuck out before over a small drop laying below.

She couldn't see much further down into the left-most pathway due to the darkness, but it was what she could hear that drew her immediate attention.

"... lp me..."

Ashley shivered with newfound anxiety. What she heard almost sounded like... words. From the echo she could also hear it sounded like this sound was being carried over a distance from somewhere. A small, faint sound that almost somehow resembled words...

"Hello...?" Ashley's own voice felt just as small and frail as the sound she had heard. She barely muttered a sound of her own to muster a reply.

"... Hey..."

In between her own heart beating rapidly and the sound of her own breathing, Ashley could feel a small surge of a new feeling stir within her. Curiosity began to creep up and mix with the ever-present fear and anxiety still within her. Somehow, amid her current situation, she found herself actually curious as to what she was hearing!

That was definitely a voice she was hearing from this left side path. But, there was more to it than just that. Ashley craned her head towards the left as she steadily began to consider that... there was something vaguely familiar about this voice. Somehow, just somehow...

It sounded like Jessica's.

"Who's there?" she tentatively tried to call out again, "J-Jessica...? Is that you...?"

The voice did not give a reply. At least not a direct reply to her nervous inquiry.

"... -ait..."

Ashley focused her hearing in as closely as she was able. Unless she was actually crazy... that voice actually sounded like it belonged to Jessica! Was it actually her? Was Jessica down here in this creepy place like she and Sam were? Why? And how? How could she have-

Ash's mind suddenly snapped back to a few hours ago. Back when Sam and Mike had found her and Chris tied up in that room by Josh she remembered Jessica's name being mentioned. It felt like forever since she'd heard her name. She'd heard it be mentioned by Mike, along with the claim of her being... dead.

But... that couldn't be right, could it? She was hearing what had to be her voice right now! Was he wrong? Or... was she not hearing Jessica's voice specifically? No! It was definitely hers! The only other person that could be down here was Sam, and that definitely didn't sound like her voice, much less sound like it was calling for help. She knew Sam well enough that she could handle herself and not cry out for help... unlike herself...

Focusing her hearing more, the sounds being made by Jessica's voice were sounding more like whimpers and cries themselves. Was she really in trouble? Was it even really her down here?! What the hell was going on?!

"Hello...?" she briefly steadied her nerves to call out again. Once more, the voice did not immediately reply back to her with anything coherent. Just more whimpers and cries. Almost as if it was ignoring her or was even occupied by something at the moment.

'What do I do? What should I do...?' she practically shouted in her mind back and forth. The voice wasn't answering her directly at all. If it was Jessica, she definitely would've replied to her, wouldn't she? And with Mike being as adamant of his claim as he was...

Almost reluctantly, Ashley tore herself away from looking towards the left side path in favor of the right side. She also couldn't shake the feeling of imminent regret beginning to creep up on her as well. If Jessica really was down here and she was choosing to leave her alone... Just another bit of trauma she found would have to live with at this point.

Looking towards the right side fully and aiming the flashlight beam down she could see that the path actually dipped down a few feet as well. A set of wooden stairs was clearly supposed to be present but apparently had been broken and rotted away with age.

Ashley brought herself down to drape her legs over the edge before sliding down. She grunted as her feet hit the ground below. The ground beneath her feet felt rocky and rough, but more or less what she had come to expect from walking a similar path in the hallway behind her.

Directly in front of her she could see a trail of wooden boards barely exposed within the ground in the shape of what almost resembled a railroad track. The narrow walls on all sides of her also held wooden boards that seemed to be built as braces. On top of that the hallway itself was once again dark. Dark, narrow, creepy; this cavern was getting a little more than she could handle at this point.

Somehow, she forced herself to walk forward and let the light of her flashlight guide her way. As she walked, she tried to listen in further to the sounds of the voice from before. 'Jessica's' voice only grew more and more faint as she walked away from that previous tunnel. Strangely enough it gradually began to feel less and less like her voice the further she walked. It sounded somewhat shrill, but was slowly becoming less 'Jessica', for whatever sense that made.

Once or twice, she glanced back over her shoulder into the sheer darkness behind her at the branching pathway she had paused at. Even stranger as it was, the less she heard the sound in 'perfect' clarity, the more she came to wonder if that really was Jessica at all? But, if it wasn't Jessica, then... who else could it have been?

Her head snapped forward upon hearing a noise again. This wasn't the same sound she'd been hearing before at all. It was different, slightly deeper in pitch, and what's more: closer. Something was making noise in the same shared space of this tunnel as she was in! Something was close, and Ashley still had no more clue what this could've been as before!

Her flashlight beam darted all around in front of her, a mirror of fear that was threatening to overtake her. Her shallow breathing became audibly heard in her ears by now, along with the thundering of her heart in her chest. Despite her state she forced herself to listen in closer, desperate to identify this new sound. If this was a voice this time, she would try to understand it better.

"... -ley..."

Her eyes perked up in surprise. What she had just heard definitely sounded like 'ley'! As in 'Ashley'! Combined the sound being slightly lower in pitch... Could it actually be?

"S-Sam...?"

"... Ashley?"

Almost as if on cue, upon rounding a nearby corner the girl caught sight of something. Amid the thickness of the dark all around her, a patch of stone in the wall in front of her could be seen. This was due to the small piece of light that shone upon it at an angle. An angle that could only come from-

"Ashley?"

The familiar form of Sam came into the view again. Her body was barely visible from the darkness with the exception of a small piece of light that gave her face just enough of a glow to be seen. Her eyes were narrowed with concern and fixed on her own as she walked closer into view. They quickly changed from concern to open relief as she realized who she was looking at too.

"Sam!"

Ashley didn't even bother to restrain the volume of her voice as she exclaimed her friend's name. She quickly dashed forward to take her hands in hers. Cold hands met cold, but Ashley couldn't find herself to care about that; Sam was here again, right before her, without a single doubt.

"Oh my God, I'm so glad to see you again!" she said, "Why did you run so far ahead of me?! I was so, so worried-!"

"I-I'm sorry, Ash, alright?" Sam tried to calm her down, "I didn't mean to worry you. I just... had to keep moving!"

"But I couldn't see you anywhere! I even heard you calling out, and I thought..."

In the middle of her rambling Ashley found herself slowing to a crawl. Was it Sam that she had heard calling out? Or was it Jessica like she had so previously thought? Now that Sam was right her in front of her, a look of worry on her face as well, why wouldn't it have been her whose voice she'd heard? But wait, if Sam was here on this right side path she'd taken, she couldn't have been on that opposite path from earlier, could she?

"Call out? I never..." Ashley was broken from her mental turmoil rising again from Sam talking again, "B-But listen, Ash! I think I found the way we need to go! Come on, stay with me...!" She hastily began to walk back along the tunnel she had come from while lightly dragging Ashley behind her by one of her hands. As much as the latter wanted to protest, she allowed herself to be pulled along by her friend. God knows she must have had a better mind for where to go than she herself did...

This tunnel in particular they walked through was much bigger in size and width than the ones before. There were many more solid boards lining the ground beneath them and the walls and ceiling around them. For a moment there was almost a sense of security from having them all around, 'shielding' her from the natural rock. There was still no light to be seen anywhere she looked, aside from the light of Sam's own headlight and her own flashlight.

The end of this tunnel came rather quickly as Ashley was quick to discover. She and Sam stepped through its exit and out into the adjoining section of this mine.

The two found themselves standing within a more massive cavern. Through their feet they felt the sensation of walking upon solid boards that provided a stable-looking railroad running from side to side. Compared to the tunnels that Ashley had been forced to navigate through earlier, this cavern had the smallest glimmer of light to just barely provide a sense of where she stood. It was still dark here, but Ashley could at least say for once that she didn't feel 'suffocated' in darkness (even if she would rather not be in dark, period...)

"See? Look there," Sam pointed out. She kept herself and Ash stationary as she pointed forward. The latter could see the reason for this was because of the break in the floor directly before her, leading to a chasm that she almost missed.

But the chasm wasn't what was being pointed to. Sam pointed her finger towards a large wall directly in front of them on the opposite end of the chasm. The wall itself stood about twenty feet high or so. At its ledge at the very top a wooden catwalk barely retaining its shape could be seen in front of them stretching to the left side. One one side of this catwalk the tail end of a ladder could be seen attached to it. However that was the only bit of the ladder that could be seen there as the rest of it was missing; likely broken off somewhere else.

"Um, what are we looking at?" Ashley asked.

"There, Ash! That's our way forward! Up and out!" Sam said. Ash could only flash her a look of sheer surprise.

"Wha- you're crazy!" she said, "How do you even know...?"

"Well because, look there..." Sam pointed once again towards the top of the ledge. Following where she pointed as best she could, Ashley shone her flashlight up as well to find a pale sign was barely visible. Written with bold font on its face the words 'MINE ENTRANCE' and 'MINE LOWER LEVELS' could be seen. The former came with an arrow that pointed to the right over the ledge itself, while the latter's arrow pointed downwards towards where the two of them stood.

"You see? Up there's gotta be the way out of here!"

This was really the plan? On top of more walking through even more darkness, now they had to do climbing as well?

"But, that ladder's toast!" she indicated to the broken stump of what should have been a longer ladder at the top of the wooden catwalk, "We can't just 'climb' up there...!"

"What? Sure we can!" Sam insisted as she pointed to the wall itself and the rocks that comprised it, "Look at how jagged it looks; it'd be just like climbing a rock wall. You've seen me do that before, it's easy!"

"I can't climb walls like that, Sam, you know that...!" Ashley pressed. As Sam turned to meet her gaze, her face was once more filled with the concern she had expressed when she had reunited with her earlier.

"Ash-"

"No Sam, I can't!" Ashley continued. In that moment her mounting anxiety from earlier began to flare up again, "In fact, this is all getting too much for me! Walking around in these dark tunnels, climbing up walls, going after Mike and who knows what's even happened to him... I don't think I can even keep going; maybe it was a mistake to-"

"Ashley-!"

Sam silenced her tirade with a firm but gentle hand placed to her shoulder. Ashley was forced to look directly into Sam's face and see the other girl's determined expression staring back at her. She was stubborn, unrelenting, unyielding, even now with everything going on. An unfortunate reminder of all the things that Ashley herself just was not.

"It's okay..." the blonde girl spoke with a noticeable change of tone. It did not mirror her stubbornness in the slightest; if anything she was sounding more... sympathetic? "I get it, I really do. You don't wanna come with? Then... then I'll go on ahead to Mike myself. You can go back and rejoin the others, let them know I got things in hand here."

Dumbfounded, Ashley found herself taking a step back and out of Sam's hand on her shoulder.

"I... you... really?" she stammered.

"Well yeah I mean, why not?" Sam shrugged. She was already taking steps towards the rock wall even while continuing, "I won't force you to if you don't want to; I can find Mike myself. Think you can make it back on your own and let the others know what's going on?"

Ashley glanced back over her shoulder towards the path that she and Sam had come from. The thick darkness lay stretched out before her still, but she reminded herself of both Emily and Chris also awaiting her back there. Chris...

Screw all of this; she needed to be with Chris again! If nothing else to make sure he and Emily were still safe and to inform them of what Sam was doing.

"Y-yeah, sure! I wanna go back..." she replied rather hastily. Without waiting for confirmation of her friend she proceeded to turn and walk back towards the tunnel, "And, good luck...!"

With that she aimed her flashlight deep into the heart of the dark tunnel, leaving Sam alone again.

Sam watched the other girl depart from her by keeping an eye out as she entered back into the dark of the tunnel once more. It really wasn't that hard for the two of them to be together when going to get Mike. Plus on top of actual monsters being out here on this already creepy mountain, what was darkness next to that? It was all whatever though; Sam was the most athletic of them. And trying to climb up a rock wall while keeping watch over someone behind her likely would only delay and slow her.

Speaking of the wall the blond-haired girl turned her attention back fully to said obstacle in front of her. The tall, bumpy rock wall with plenty of large handholds and footholds outstretched to give her plenty of things to climb with; yeah, this should be easy enough.

She reached her hands up to take hold of the large handhold that was the massive rock directly in front of her. The rock felt like stinging ice beneath her fingers, but she forced herself to power through the discomfort. She placed her weight into pulling her body up on it and securing her feet on a couple of rocks below her at shin-level.

Once she had a decent hold on the wall and was well off of the ground she carefully gazed up to view her climbing options. Her headband light provided just enough illumination for her to see the varying textures in the rock above her. Far above them was the very edge of the ledge that she needed to reach. From the looks of these rocks she could slowly climb her way up them, taking things nice and slowly. Or, alternatively...

A piece of wooden catwalk positioned lower than the larger mass lay above her as well. This one in particular jutted out of the rock about... if Sam were to guess about five feet or so above her. It didn't look that far that she couldn't 'jump' up there, from where she was...

Screw it, she was already pressed for time thinking about this as it was! She needed to get moving and fast!

First she needed to secure herself as best as she could before making this jump. She pulled herself up along the large rock she held a grip on as her feet planted themselves on higher footholds. By now her hands were now level with her chest while still maintaining their grip and keeping her in place.

She first took a couple of breaths to steady herself. She had never done something like this when climbing. Granted rock-climbing itself was always heart-racing in itself but there was always the assurance in knowing there was a harness around her with a safety cable to keep her from suffering serious falls. This time however there was no such safety guarantee, and a fall from that height definitely wouldn't be good at all...

With a grunt Sam kicked her legs as hard as she could and propelled herself up and close to the wall. Her arms held outstretched up and before her head, ready to catch hold of the wooden boards. Through midair they drew closer to her, almost quicker than she was perceiving them.

Finally her fingers clamped down hard on the wooden boards the instant her hands were close enough. The material felt rough and coarse beneath her fingertips, but she held her grip. She grunted as she felt her body weight below her swing a little before slowing down.

Once she was decently stable she quickly forced an elbow up over the boards for an even better grip. Through her efforts she peered over the top of the broken boards of the catwalk for a better view. With the aid of her light she could see that these boards her arms rested upon were mostly flat and most likely used as the 'floor' for the catwalk. She could just as easily lift her leg up and secure herself even-

A massive cracking sound filled the air, followed by Sam's entire body weight shifting unexpectedly. She let out a yelp of surprise as she realized what had happened: the entire wooden catwalk to her left side had completely snapped away the moment she tried to put more of her weight on it! The whole thing must have been too rotted away to be able to support her like that!

She could feel her heart beat rapidly in her chest from the fresh surprise. The backs of her palms were beginning to sweat a little despite the chill in the air, but she maintained her grip. Thank goodness what had broken off wasn't what she had been holding on to, otherwise she might've actually fallen down!

"Okay, okay... easy Sam, concentrate..." she said to herself. Stuff like this always happened during rock-climbing; it was always important to stay in control and not panic! But, what could she do now?

Looking back up again she could see more of the broken remains of the wooden catwalk as well as the remains of the rusted ladder at the very top. For a moment she was tempted to attempt to jump up and grab onto the pieces of wood once again until she was reminded of how well that turned out last time. Instead, with a glance to her right, she decided instead to try hand-climbing up the large rocks of the wall. They may be ice cold, but at least they would hold weight better than decades-old rotting wood.

She again secured her feet on a couple of footholds beneath her. Once she felt properly anchored she shone her head-light to her right to properly view her handhold options. With gritted teeth she reached her right hand out and took hold of the top of one of the large rocks next to her. The top had just enough coarse material to avoid slipping. After holding her hand there for a few seconds she reached her other hand across and took hold of the same rock. This was swiftly followed up with moving her feet to the side so that her entire body had shifted to the right completely. So far so good.

Fixing her gaze straight up again, this next maneuver would be a little tricky. A large piece of rock lay further up above her current rock she held onto. Thanks to Sam's light she could tell that this rock held somewhat of a flatter surface atop it. Even better, this appeared to be the last rock before the larger ledge could be reached directly after that! There would definitely be less risk of slipping off of that kind of surface; she'd just have to jump up again to get to it...

Once again, she prepped herself through her arms and legs before thrusting herself upwards. She felt the air rush across her face and through her hair. Her hands once again shot forward and clamped down hard on the flat surface of the rock. Her own body weighed her down again, but she just as quickly planted her feet on a couple of footholds below to anchor herself.

This was it, just one last big hurdle of a reach and she'd have made it to the top! She definitely had this!

Sam felt the distinct burning in her arms and legs as she pulled herself up slightly higher. At this point that familiar burning was a welcome sensation; in a way it was helping to ward off that chill in the air. Heck of a time to find out now that her yoga pants weren't doing that great of a job keeping her warm...

She reached her left arm up as high as she could then clamped it down hard on the ledge. This was it, she was reaching the top finally! Now just to pull the rest of herself up and over.

Next to follow was her right hand, then her left arm hoisting itself up to the elbow up and over. The majority of her upper weight was now held steady, allowing her to swiftly swing her left leg over the top as well. With one final shift of movement inwards, Sam allowed her entire body to essentially roll over the edge completely. The girl allowed pride to fill her entire being right then and there; she had done it!

"Yes!" she cheered herself as she pulled herself to her feet, "I beat you! I fuckin' beat you..."

She allowed herself a moment of pause for rest. The burning in her limbs persisted even now while the hard part was essentially over. This was a decent workout she had to admit.

After a few moments of catching her breath she pulled herself back up straight. Her gaze lingered for a few seconds down below at where she had crawled up from. The light of her head-band light barely gave some small illumination to the ground far below. She could also see the entrance to the tunnel that she and Ashley had emerged from a few minutes ago, and where the latter had disappeared back into. She felt a sudden urge to call out to her just to confirm if she was still there, but she fought the urge off completely. She simply had to trust that her friend would make it back to the lodge on her own, especially with the two of them having come up this way the first time. Plus she herself was already on top of this ledge; no way was she going to climb back down for anything at this point!

She then turned all around to get a better look at her surroundings. The nearby broken wooden catwalk could be seen, along with the sign reading 'MINE ENTRANCE' with an arrow pointing to the right. This directed her attention to a small room with hardly any light to speak of. In fact, were it not for Sam's own head-band light this room would be nearly impossible to see a thing at all in! As it was, she could barely make out the outlines of boards lining the nearby stone walls around her. As if an entire section of natural wall that had existed before had been carved out to form this small room she now stood within.

Sam carefully made her way deeper into small room while making sure to keep her ears open as best she could. She listened hard for any sort of noises or sounds in this place. All she could hear however was her own footsteps scraping against the hard ground beneath her. Well, that and the sound of her own heartbeat in her chest.

She took care to keep her eyes peeled as well. The darkness of this room was giving her all sorts of creeps. To her left against the wall she could see a small breach with a section of wall missing. A patch of darkness could be seen in its place that led to... Sam couldn't exactly tell where it led to, or even how far, even with the light from her head-band light. Better to steer clear of that for now.

She instead neared towards the far end of the room's wall where a set of boards could be seen. Light from a nearby passageway to the right side gave a fair bit of light to see in better detail. Sam could see that these boards weren't set up against any natural rock itself like the other boards, but rather instead were stacked up to form their own sort of wall. While there was no door or gate to be seen while the boards themselves provided about a finger's worth of space between them. Slowly and carefully Sam leaned in close to peak through the cracks.

Her vision adjusted to seeing beyond the boards in front of her. The girl could see the faint image of another room on the other side. More boards lining the walls, a couple of metallic drums, and a metal door on the far side wall? That had to be it: the actual mine entrance that the sign behind her had indicated!

"Yeah...!" she said to herself as she took a step back. A quick tap on one of the boards with her fist told her that despite their age, it was unlikely these boards would be breaking anytime soon, "Okay then... how do I get over there...?"

Her gaze was drawn back to the lighted passageway on her right side. This light also shone upon a wooden staircase that lined the short tunnel running at a diagonal angle. Judging from its placement, it was as likely as anything else that it could essentially lead her 'around' this corner, and get her on the other side of this wooden wall! It wasn't a certainty, but there was little other options for her at the moment.

She made her way across the room and ascended the wooden stairs. Each step filled the air with a rather unnerving creaking sound which only served to make her all the more anxious. Who knew if these old boards she walked upon would stay solid and not break suddenly.

Eventually, Sam made it to the top of the ascending stairs to find another long, wooden catwalk stretched out before her. While there was only a rock wall on her left side, all on her right side lay a massive abyss. The natural light pouring in from somewhere up above her gave illumination to the light layer of mist in the air as well. The mist hung low around her ankles and down into the depths of the abyss. No telling how deep it was down there and Sam was in no hurry to find out. She just needed to keep moving forward.

'That's it, keep moving forward,' she thought to herself, 'Follow this catwalk, get on the other side of that wall, get to the mines door, get to the Sanatorium... Find Mike in there...' Strange, what seemed like such a simple plan of action was starting to sound a little more... complicated as she listed out each step that needed to be done. Nothing was ever simple, was it?

This rickety wooden catwalk was also giving her the creeps as she walked along it. Not as much as the wooden steps to get up it before, but creepy in its own way. The way she felt that tiniest of swaying left to right, back and forth. The swaying wasn't nearly enough to cause worry, but she could still just barely feel it with every step taken. Her left hand remained planted on the left side guardrail nearly the entire way.

Eventually she could see the catwalk branching in two different directions. One direction led straight in front of her to a rising staircase into another hollowed out section of wall, while another turned sharply to the left. She remembered that going left would essentially curve her 'around' that rock wall that had halted her advances before. However, she found herself staring rather curiously at the straightforward path in front of her. The open space lay before her, almost inviting her to investigate. Was there really much harm in simply taking a quick look?

With a shrug of her shoulders, she proceeded to walk straight forward-

Sam let out a gasp and halted in place as something happened. Not necessarily something she could 'see', but something she heard as well as felt. It felt like a deep rumble... all throughout the cavern walls, from up above? Her head darted everywhere above her as this quaking shook the dust from the walls all around. The rumbling lasted for a good three seconds before slowly ceasing, leaving only the sound of her quick breathing to fill her ears. Just what the heck was that?

She had no time to ponder that specifically as something else drew her attention. Cracking sounds filled the air as large rocks could be seen falling from the ceiling. Sam watched a small number of them fall off to the right side and down into the depths below then snapped her head back behind her as the sound of wood being shredded made her nearly jump. Her eyes widened at the realization that these same falling rocks were falling dangerously close to her; one had just fallen behind her and torn away a piece of the catwalk she was walking upon! The subtle swaying of the wooden catwalk grew more noticeable by now and Sam's hand clamped tighter on the guardrail in response. She had to move, now!

Her initial course of direction was suddenly changed from a giant rock falling down and smashing through the straight-most path in front of her. Thus she was essentially 'forced' to take the left side pathway.

Instincts suddenly screamed at her to look up, and she was immediately glad she did. She was just in time to catch a large piece of rock tumbling down nearly on top of her current position! Thinking quickly she dashed forward, and the sound of wood smashing behind her could be heard.

She came to a stop against another guardrail directly in front of her that would lead her around another left turn. Sam instead held her grip on the rail to catch her breath for a moment. The pounding in her chest persisted, but eventually she regained some control over her breathing. She willed herself to turn straight around to view what had happened.

There was now a massive gap of wooden catwalk that left the two sides disconnected from each other. The gap itself was about spacious enough that one could jump to it if they wanted to, but Sam had no reason to herself. She was on the correct side now. Crazy, she wasn't actually sure what had told her of the danger that falling rock might have done, but she was grateful for it all the same.

Listening in closer, Sam could no longer hear any of that deep rumbling from earlier or even any rocks falling from above anymore. What the heck was that rumbling sound anyway? And were these falling rocks connected to it somehow?

'Maybe it was some kind of earthquake...' she mentally reasoned in the end.

Once she had taken a moment to collect herself she proceeded along the catwalk route. That is, the only route available to her that wasn't destroyed and inaccessible. Looking ahead the light of her head-band light caught the barest image of the end of the catwalk's end as shown by a dip leading down into another room. Unless she was mistaken, that was in fact the room she was aiming to get to in the first place! This was good, not much further now.

As she proceeded along the wooden boards she came to a stop as she noticed something. Laying to the side on her left was a piece of pipe. This was not like the pipes from before that lined the walls; this pipe was a smaller variety and just sitting against the wall.

Curiously, she reached down and picked the pipe up in her hand. The object felt slightly cool in her hands yet sturdy all the same. It didn't feel hollow on the inside like some other pipes; something must be inside it making it feel more solid. In fact, a couple whacks with this thing and likely it would not get bent!

"You know what? Screw it!" she said to herself, "I'll put this to use somehow; maybe have something to fight with...!" She gripped the pipe tighter in her hand as she let it drape to her side. A small surge of reassurance filled her body in that moment; for once she wasn't feeling completely helpless.

Approaching the catwalk's edge she could see more of the room below come into view. Her head-band light illuminated bits and pieces of the wooden boards and tin sheets that lined the walls on the far end, her light reflecting off of the metallic surfaces. She paused for a moment to quickly scan the area within; no movement of any sort caught her eye, neither could any sort of sounds be heard. It was as safe as ever to enter.

She brought herself down to drape her legs over the wooden ledge and dropped herself over. The drop down was a little further than she anticipated, a jolt of pain quickly shooting up her legs from her ankles, but she was otherwise fine.

"There we go," she said to herself. She then turned to large mine door at the far right, "Alright, hang on, Mike, I'm coming-"

No sooner had she even finished speaking to herself then the door in question suddenly burst open! Sam found herself jumping back in surprise. Her hands both instinctively grasped her pipe, prepared to strike at-

"Goddammit! Stay out there-!"

Mike?!

The boy in question didn't even seem to regard her as he dashed in. He instead remained focused on moving inside and grabbing hold of the mining door. One hand was holding some kind of gun as his other hand took firm hold of the door's handle.

Before he could slam the door completely shut, something could be seen sticking in through the cracks of the door. Something long, and glowing? Mike struggled for a moment to force the door shut before his efforts failed him: the door burst open and practically threw him to the ground on his back and revealed what lay on the other side.

Sam witnessed an actual demon! A monster glowing bright orange as flames somehow seemed to have consumed its entire body, yet it was still moving in spite of them! There was no doubt in Sam's mind: this Hellish creature had to be the Wendigo! And it was jumping down to the ground atop Mike's prone form with the intent to kill him!

Not if she had anything to say about it!

"HEY!" she called out as she was already running forward, "Skinny! Over here!" She gripped her pipe tightly in both hands and held it over her shoulder poised to strike. The creature didn't even seem to regard her threat nor her very presence as it remained focused on Mike beneath it. That worked just fine for her!

She swung her pipe forward with as much strength as she could muster. The pipe gave a satisfying clang as it thudded against something. The head? Sam couldn't exactly tell, but the effect was the same regardless. The Wendigo's flaming body recoiled from the impact and even stepped backwards a few steps.

"Sam-?!" the girl could hear Mike call out from the ground. Sam however remained focused on the immediate threat before her. In no time at all however, the Wendigo had quickly recovered from her strike and had turned its entire body back to face her as it screeched menacingly in her face. It was then and there that Sam was afforded a full, unhindered view of the creature.

Like something out of an actual nightmare somehow did little justice in describing this... thing. Sam could see it all: the long arms, the thin, practically emaciated body, the tattered skin-tight clothes that were seemingly draped around its form and providing little function, even a set of iron manacles fixed at each one of its wrists!

The demon from Hell opened its mouth before her to screech right in her face. Sam could see practically every one of its sharp, pointed teeth jutting out from its lip-less maw that opened far wider than she'd have thought possible. In spite of the flames gracing its body that it was likely not even regarding in that moment, there was still a thin layer of saliva dripping from its lower jaw. Even its head was craned inward slightly as if wanting to bite her!

Sam found herself momentarily in a mental panic. This thing... it really was a person at one point, wasn't it? It was vaguely humanoid like one, it had two arms, two legs, and a head like one, and even was wearing clothes that suggested it wore them at one point to actually be decent! And yet, looking at this thing, in all its monstrous horror...

Sam was broken from her hesitation by the sound of thunder!

In the span of a few seconds, she herself jumped back as the Wendigo apparently did as well. Or rather, she witnessed the creature seemingly flying backwards out through the mine door and out into the snow beyond. It came to a quick skidding halt in the ice where it produced a thin layer of steam.

"Sam, hurry-!"

The girl glanced over to see Mike had regained his feet and was pointing his gun towards the door. She could also see that he was in fact holding a shotgun with the barrel smoking a little from the tip.

The boy was already dashing forward towards the door, Sam following close behind him. The Wendigo could be seen outside the mine quickly regaining its feet despite having taken a blast from a gun. It turned its gaze back towards them and snarled menacingly.

Thankfully, with the combined efforts of the two of them pushing as hard as they could, the door groaned loudly as finally came to a resounding thud. As she was closest to the edge Sam reached forth to secure the- oh no, there was no lock on this door! Only a set of clasps on the door itself and the door frame!

"Quick, stick that pipe of yours in there-!" Mike pointed out through his groans.

"O-oh, right-!" Sam hastily slid her pipe into the two loops.

Once it was in place she and Mike took a few cautious steps backwards, eyes remaining glued on the door. A pounding sound could be heard on the metal, causing them to flinch. Another pound filled the air, followed by another. Sam's heart pounded nearly as hard as the sounds on the door themselves. The door could be seen budging in place with each thud, yet miraculously it held firm with the impromptu lock her pipe had provided.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity the pounding ceased altogether, though the sound of a muffled screeching sound could be heard on the other side. The sound faded away as quickly as it came until there was silence. Complete silence, with the exception of the rather loud breathing from both her and Mike.

"Whoa, oh God..." Mike could be heard saying between his own breaths, "Hey, you alright?" Sam turned to regard him fully. Under the light of her head-band she could see a few more details about him, not the least of which was a trio of bloodied cuts along the side of his neck!

"Um, define 'alright'," she said as she pointed to his neck. The boy looked at her with momentary confusion before realizing where she was pointing. He reached up and rubbed the side of his neck where cuts were.

"Oh, well..." he said as he looked down at the thin layer of blood on his fingertips, "We're alive, for a start."

"Yeah..." Sam glanced back towards the locked mine door and the pipe that kept it locked, "Alive is good..."

"Wait, Sam... what're you doing here anyway?" Mike asked, "Why aren't you in the safe-room?"

"Well yeah, funny story..." Sam said with a point towards the mine door, "See, we found out that thing... it can mimic voices. Me and Ash were gonna warn you about it-"

"Mimic voices- what?" Mike flashed her a look of pure confusion, "That thing didn't sound anything like a person... And wait, Ash? Why is she here? Or rather 'where' is she-?"

"Mike, it's okay!" Sam held her hands up, "I sent her back, she's going back with the others. It's fine..." The look on Mike's face as she explained her actions didn't suggest he was satisfied at all with what was going on. If anything he appeared to be more stressed than ever before.

Eventually, his free hand rubbed his forehead and he took a breath to calm himself.

"Sam, you didn't..." he started before hesitating, "Y-you know what? It's whatever; it doesn't matter anymore..." He took this time to crack open his shotgun, expel the shells within, and replace them with two new ones from his jacket, "And, you might as well stick close with me since you're here now..." She could feel his words stinging slightly; the disappointment and disapproval in his voice. Was he not grateful for what she had done for him?

"Yeah, sure," Sam said with a shrug before mumbling under her breath, "And, you're welcome..."

"Okay finally, made it to the mines..." Mike took a look around the space that he and Sam found themselves standing in, "Wait... did you happen to find Josh down here yourself?"

"Nope, no one..." Sam shook her head.

"Alright then..." he said before turning his attention to a nearby dark passageway to their right, "Let's find a way down to where that fucker lives..."

Sam hastily and silently followed Mike closely. With her providing the light and him providing the defense with that shotgun of his, she could almost feel like they had a chance. If she were being honest, this was one of the rare times tonight she was actually feeling good about her chances; 'their' chances. In a way she didn't even feel the harshness of the chill in the air from before, and not just because of her close proximity to the Wendigo being on fire! For once there was an actual feeling that they might actually make it out of this alive!

Of course, that just meant finding Josh first, wherever he was...

---

-Another personal gripe of mine: Mike is equipped with an all-powerful shotgun that seemingly has limitless ammo and never needed to be reloaded once; why the f*ck would he use 'that' as the item to lock the mine door?! Especially when Sam shows up to his rescue with a long item in hand no matter which direction you come from?! I can't be the only one who saw that...

It's all whatever though. We're nearing the last chapter of this massive story along with the epilogue, so stay tuned for that to come out real soon! Keep on reading! -