Her legs carried her far but it seemed the Trapper was somehow catching up to her, despite the clunky strides he took in comparison to her wide and urgent ones. Maybe it was just the sheer size of him, his legs being strong and powerful with each step- lusting so viciously for blood that he willed himself closer to his prey...

Meg spared a look back over her shoulder, seeing his bloodied and glinting cleaver trailing only a couple yards behind. The jagged edges of it taunted her, crooked like the devilish grin on his mask. She warily turned back ahead and desperately tried to make sense of the landscape in front of her. The crumbling walls were plentiful and in a quick flash of strategy, Meg figured she could lead him within it and hopefully lose him amongst the maze of rubble. While not a full proof plan, it served as a plan nonetheless.

Thump, thump, thump. Her sneakered feet pounded on the ground nearly as fast as her heart was beating, heading right toward one of the arrangements. His husky growl seemed to be getting closer despite what felt like all of the energy Meg had put into making distance between them. How was he catching up?

"Please God," she wheezed. The girl really hoped he'd answer her prayers on this one. Begging for an A on her math midterm or wishing for a new computer for her birthday could all go fuck itself in that moment because none of it amounted to the vast amount of hope she had that God or whoever would help her get out of this alive. She would trade out all of her trivial wishes to be able to beat the odds of this impossible trial in a heartbeat.

She flew past a towering wall, cutting the corner in a flash. Now Meg was out of his eye-line so she had to quickly think of somewhere to hide or just run off in order to confuse the Trapper. The girl barely had time to devise a plan when she spotted one of the red lockers she'd seen in the warehouse up against the other side of the wall. While it's roughed up exterior gave her the creeps slightly, Meg knew what she had to do. Albeit this was what seemed to always get people killed in the movies- but she was running out of options as her mind was so cluttered and frantic for something, anything.

The locker door squeaked the tiniest bit as she briskly jammed herself inside of its tight confinements, promptly shutting it closed. Her breathing was ragged and bile rose in her throat. Being a runner didn't mean she was immune to getting nauseous from pushing herself too hard. Her head swirled and was dizzied by suddenly stopping after sprinting for what felt like decades, leaving her knocking her head back against the locker while fighting to remain quiet. She tried to hold herself together, taking air in and out of her nose.

His grunts were loud and clear as Meg heard him trace her steps, followed by the mechanical sound of him dropping a trap onto the ground, pulling the jaws apart and setting it. Meg couldn't see anything through the slats of the locker but knew he was close based on the sounds alone. Slowly though, he seemed to have drifted away from her hiding spot. Only the breeze outside whistled, not quite as fear inducing as the Trapper's guttural groans but was still eerie because she couldn't even take solitude in silence. Everything equaled danger in one way or another.

A moment of absolutely nothing followed. Meg took in a deep breath, getting herself ready to run again should it be necessary. She carefully opened up the locker, stepping out onto the dead grass. As soon as her foot crunched down, the Trapper rounded the corner and lunged his weapon at her in a sudden ambush.

Meg cried out as the very tip of the cleaver sliced across her left arm, from the top of her shoulder down to the elbow. She stumbled away, sprinting up the direction she had come from between the two parallel walls. As she neared the threshold, the light caught on something shiny on the ground.

In slow motion, Meg recognized in a flash that it was one of his traps, to which she hurdled over it with barely enough space between her and the device to avoid its deathly teeth. Holy fuck, she thought as she ran to the next set of ruins. It was smart. It really tried to corral her into stepping onto one of its traps, like it had put thought into a plan and worked to execute it- and her for that matter.

Her heart thumped against her chest as glaring hooks and the red streaks of the lockers whizzed by her. Out of the corner of Meg's eye, she noticed what appeared to be a pallet sitting upright in between another two parallel walls. She zipped over to it, rounding just out of sight and ducking beside the compiling of wooden planks. In a last ditch effort to try and fight back, Meg figured maybe she could lead the Trapper to the pallet and push it over as soon as he stepped through, perhaps injuring him and slowing down his pursuit. The girl bit her lip as her hands reached up, gripping onto the splintering planks.

Hold...

His thunderous steps neared.

Hold...

A hoarse grunt that came even closer.

Hold...

His cleaver curved over the corner...!

WHAM!

Meg brought the pallet down, slamming it against his body which caused the beast to stagger backward. She wasted no time in getting out of dodge, hearing the planks shatter behind her as the girl put a ton of distance between herself and death. That worked out surprisingly well, she thought, also wondering if he had taken the time to bust the pallet apart given the sounds of destruction she'd picked up on. If so, that meant she had a great deal of time to make her next move. Running was a viable option right now however Meg knew that the best thing would be for her to lose the Trapper entirely. That guaranteed more safety than the cat and mouse they were playing now.

The lockers didn't really work out before- she figured he may have heard her open the door, hence him making a failed attempt at trapping her when he thought Meg didn't know any better. Which she didn't- as he came very close to being successful but she somehow managed to spot the trap before it was too late. Luck was apparently on her side.

The girl prayed it stayed there.

Cresting over the top of one of the walls Meg saw a metal roof peeking out, catching her attention. She moved around the brick shambles and discovered a shabby old shack on the outskirts of the ruins. Seeing no reason not to take shelter within, Meg dashed up to it, hopping into the window when-

SNAP!

The pain was indescribable. White hot melted the nerves in Meg's right calf, electricity traveling all through her body.

As she looked down, Meg's fingers went stiff in horror once her eyes landed on the metal bear trap clamped around her now bloodied leg. The skin was easily flayed apart like paper, lifting the sloppy tissue over the razor sharp teeth with one of those steel points skewering the bone deep within. Blood pooled quickly around her, so much pouring from the wound that it was akin to some sort of morbid waterfall. A desperate, anguish filled cry escaped her lips which only served to rake more horrific sensations from her clamped shin and through her distressed body. Tears cascaded down her face, blurring her vision while saliva pooled from her mouth, dripping downward along with hot bile rising in her throat. So much pain... just so much fucking pain that she couldn't even function properly.

The moonlight cast through the shack's doorway became shadowed, welcoming a sinister presence inside. Meg turned to see none other than the Trapper standing there, the menacing grin on this mask looking as if it was laughing at her because she wasn't so lucky this time. Goddammit.

Without any hesitation, he came over and charged up his cleaver before plunging it right down onto Meg's back.

She screamed so loud and agonizingly it could have torn through the very fabric of reality itself. The cleaver was so deep within her flesh and bone that he had to put his boot against her back to brace the aching body beneath and yank it out, leaving the girl all but paralyzed from the shock. Meg toppled to the floorboards in a way that would've seemed lifeless to someone watching from afar. There could've been gallons of blood gushing from her body, so much glistening crimson sinking into the splintering wood below. Meg stared into nothing, no longer being able to comprehend what was happening to her.

The Trapper reached down and reset the bear trap, ripping the teeth from her shattered shin bone and gnarled skin. Then he leant down and scooped the girl up effortlessly onto his shoulder, carrying her to the left where they descended a flight of creaking stairs.

Meg barely held onto consciousness through her dazed perception of their movement, yet she took notice of the darkness enveloping them. They were in a basement. And she didn't like one bit of it.

He halted, slinging her off of him and onto a hook, causing Meg to let out another round of wailing as the sharp point pierced right through her body like it was nothing. The way her muscles and skin were torn apart left her barely holding on anymore. The sheer excruciation her body experienced was immeasurable.

All Meg could do was stare down at her dangling feet, completely smothered in blood that shimmered against the light shining through the crooked wall boards of the basement- causing her to absently wonder how that was even possible since they were underground. Her blood seeped through a grate beneath the hook, probably specially designed just for that reason.

Too busy dying, the girl couldn't get a chance to wrap her head around the tortures this basement was built for.

Meg coughed up blood as she remained strung up on the hook. Every little movement hurt, even breathing, which was becoming harder and harder to do. She could literally feel her soul fading. The weight on her eyes was becoming all the more cumbersome but she was terrified to give in. A part of her was aware of what the blood loss would do over time. Eventually she would drift off to sleep- and never wake up.

Fighting a near fruitless battle to keep awake, the girl noticed that there was something so cold and vaguely supernatural about the basement. The closer she slipped toward unconsciousness, the more she began to feel the previous horrors that had taken place in that very dungeon of tribulation. It was downright disturbing.

Meg barely took notice of the fact that she was suddenly being hoisted off the hook. Her eyes squinted, finding Dwight's contorted features right in her face as he wrapped his arms around her. He did his best to support her weight, saying things to the girl that she couldn't understand through her ringing ears. She could feel a box smacking against her side, to which Meg meekly peered down, spotting a med-kit in Dwight's hand. He helped her ascend the stairs before laying the girl down on the hardwood floor of the shack. Moonlight gently seeped down onto them, illuminating the grisly sight of Meg's ruptured skin, all shredded and flayed apart.

Dwight wildly yanked open the med-kit like a madman, searching through its contents before brandishing a syringe with a clear liquid already within it. He lifted it up, staring at it closely as if reading a label on it before pushing the med-kit aside and coming up next to Meg.

With no time to waste, Dwight jammed the needle right up into Meg's arm, pushing all of the liquid into her. He tossed the syringe aside, scooting closer and pulled her up to a seated position, holding her face near to him.

"Meg, c'mon- we have to go. I think we found a way out." She could hear his words a little clearer now, feeling his quivering breaths flutter across her skin. "Meg please!" He begged, squeezing her tightly to elicit some sort of reaction from her.

Her eyes widened. Meg shot up, hands wandering to the places where she was wounded before, finding that the flesh had somehow mended itself back together. The only evidence that she had been brutalized beyond belief were her torn and bloodied clothes. Other than that, Meg was as good as new.

She turned, staring at Dwight. Even being mere inches apart did nothing to aid the girl in deciphering the perplexed look on his face. They both were equally shocked by what just took place.

"What was in that syringe?" She demanded in disbelief of the magical properties of the substance. Whatever it was had somehow healed her of all the lacerations, broken bones and cuts she'd suffered from- all of it entirely gone now.

"I- I don't know," Dwight answered honestly. He walked his eyes up and down her body, confirming that she actually was alright now. "But we have to go. We found a way out and we got enough generators powered to open it."

Meg nodded, knowing exactly what exit gate he spoke of.

He gathered up the med-kit's contents and led the way out of the shack, both of them running for a few minutes before rediscovering the exit gate up ahead. The sight of it was so exhilarating that Meg felt a burst of adrenaline enter her body- so much so that the muscles in her legs received a boost of strength, carrying the girl far past Dwight who had been taking the lead. Now he ate her dust- not that escaping alive from a serial killer was some sort of friendly competition, Meg was just ready to get the fuck out of there.

The closer they drew to the gate, Meg was able to make out the three bulbs she had noticed before, now lit up red- Claudette standing beneath their glow while pulling down on the lever of the metal box. An echoing buzz rang out a long note before the gate powered up, cranking open and moving the three stack of hard metal walls of the door off to the side, revealing the way out of this God forsaken Hell hole.

However once the gate was open, the ground below was met with a tremor that then was followed by streaks of hot ashes forming across the soil's surface, almost looking like tiger stripes made of orange, burning embers that simmered loudly. What the fuck?

The taste of escape was hot on Meg's tongue, helping her to ignore whatever otherworldly shift took place beneath their feet.

They were so close, Jake also coming into view now. He stood there favoring his bloodied abs with a somewhat relieved look on his face, spotting Meg and Dwight closing in on them. Both him and Claudette moved into the exit gate, gesturing for the other two to keep running forward.

End in sight, their legs carried them enthusiastically, nearly there-

SNAP!

Dwight fell back behind Meg, causing her to come to a screeching halt. Lo and behold, the bloody sight of his leg caught in a trap met her hurried gaze. She rushed back to help him, gliding down to his side.

"AGGHH!" He howled, gripping the edges of the cruel trap. Meg dropped roughly to the ground and pulled on the metal jaws, doing everything she could to yank them apart. It was so hard and tense that she could barely move them an inch.

From within the exit gate, Jake and Claudette started screaming at the top of their lungs. "BEHIND YOU!"

Meg peered over Dwight's shoulder, finding that the ever looming figure of the Trapper was stalking up to them, getting closer at an alarming rate. He looked menacing and gruesome with Meg's blood showered across his daunting frame, the crimson caked onto his cleaver a fast growing threat that reminded Meg of how close she came to succumbing to him.

"Dwight help me!" She shrieked while clenching her teeth together, pulling the jaws apart with every morsel of her being. Dwight reached down and mimicked her, pushing the jaws outward.

Meg frantically glanced up again, the Trapper being only a few seconds away from them.

She pushed harder, grunting at the force she exerted. Dwight cried as the teeth tore away from his flesh.

Finally! The jaws unhinged and clamped outward, releasing Dwight's leg from its deadly grasp. Meg wrapped her arm around his back and launched them forward, zooming for the gate.

The Trapper was right on their heels.

"COME ON! COME ON!" Screamed both Jake and Claudette.

Dwight hobbled as fast as he could but with his weight being far more than Meg's, she was getting held back by him.

The Trapper, nearly breathing down their necks, swung his cleaver which barely graced Dwight's back yet still created a decent slice. He groaned and wretched but pushed on, too close to freedom to worry about the wound.

Crossing the threshold of the exit gate, all four of them now sprinted full speed together out past the brick columns and into the fog.

Meg laughed, feeling the hope in her stomach swell as they flew into the unknown. But it was cut off very quickly.

The fog dissipated, revealing no light at the end of the tunnel... no open world with the bright sunshine warming their agonized flesh. It was simply the campfire again, still nearly drenched the same depressing fucking darkness.

They all just stood still, unsure of what to think about being returned right back to where they'd started. What was this? Meg thought they had escaped?

A few seconds passed, showing them that they were indeed staying at the campfire and it wasn't some sort of trick. This was it.

Meg dropped to her knees, covered yet in her own blood, sweat and tears- and for the first time since the entire nightmare she began to sob profusely. Any shred of hope she had was stolen from her heart and was replaced with despair, confirming her worst fears.

There was no escape.