They didn't want to spend too long investigating the bizarre clues the basement held, so Meg and Dwight quickly vacated the farmhouse and were back on the prowl for a generator.

As they scoured the cornfields, Meg couldn't help but to drift back to those drawings they'd found in that cramped, brick room. It was as if they'd been transported to a single memory frozen in time. She began to wonder why they were being put in these peculiar settings, with such specific characteristics and tiny details, as if there were stories tied to the environments. Why the warehouse? Why a junkyard? And why a rural farm that has clearly been tainted with a dark secret? What did it all mean?

There was a lot to wrap her head around and Meg figured she probably never would be able to understand the full horror of the trials. Though she wanted to try. Maybe it would help them to devise their escape. Knowledge may be the key they need.

"What was that back there?" She asked Dwight. They had been quietly walking together, pushing down corn stalks endlessly for the last five minutes or so. There weren't any generators yet, which had them feeling a sense of dread in the pit of their stomachs. Wasting time was dangerous, as they've come to learn.

"What, the basement?"

She nodded.

"Not sure, honestly," He muttered in a lifeless way. The heat was getting to him.

The corn cleared ahead of them, allowing the pair to happen upon a familiar sight: The Shack. Many things were apparently recurring, like the wall arrangements, pallets and hooks- now including the shack. It looked different in the daylight, yet Meg could tell it was the same exact structure from their first trial. Dwight sighed in relief, however Meg could only remember her near demise at the hands of the Trapper. It made her belly sting with the vivid pains that had introduced her to their world of torment. She could never scrub the excruciating sensations from her nervous system, that attack being such a painful one that her body would forever remember it.

They walked up the side wall, the one with the window in it, and Meg peered over its thin ledge. She shakily exhaled, feeling some sense of morbid joy at seeing there were no traps waiting to surprise her. Also, there appeared to be a generator within the rotting walls, which enticed them inside.

As always, they got right to work…


Claudette was in eyesight of Jake's hook, hiding beneath a broken wagon that was nearby. She was conscious of her breathing, trying to keep completely still and quiet as her dark eyes followed their killer. Its hunched figure wobbled into the corn silently, soon to be a lethal surprise for Meg and Dwight. Hopefully they were okay.

She waited another minute before exiting her hiding spot and approaching Jake's dangling body.

"Are you okay?" She whispered to him. It was a dumb question for someone with five inches of metal protruding from their chest but the girl didn't know how to lose her manners in these desperate times. Jake didn't seem to mind.

"Yes, help me," He trembled against the pain, extending his one hand out to brace it on her shoulder as she neared. Claudette wrapped her arms around his thighs and heaved upward, giving Jake support so that he could wriggle his body off the hook. Once he was released they both tumbled to the ground together, with Jake making a rough landing onto the dusty dirt. He shut his eyes in pain and grunted, banging his fist down a few times.

He could hear the med-kit click open beside him, then felt Claudette's hands lift him into a seated position. The girl immediately recognized that he had a nasty injury on his shoulder, to which she beckoned at him.

"Take off your jacket," She said softly. Jake shook his head.

"No… no. It doesn't matter. I can't even walk on my own. We just need to move. Save the supplies."

Claudette's eyes wandered down to his massacred ankle. Jake wasn't wrong. It was such a bloody mess that she couldn't even discern the manner of injury, yet it was apparent to her that his mobility was going to be limited. It was probably the worst possible injury considering their goal was to be able to quickly evade the killer. His chances of survival were likely halved.

"Okay," She breathed out, pausing in thought before landing on their course of action. "Let's just walk together and try to get to a generator. If the thing comes I'll take it away so you can keep working."

Jake didn't offer much of a response. She could see in his face that he was too focused on the pain to be able to reason, so Claudette figured that she may as well take control of the situation.

The botanist snatched Dwight's tie from the med-kit and used it to tie the med-kit's handle to one of the belt loops of her jeans. After it was secure, Claudette knelt down beside Jake and slipped his arm over her shoulder.

They both looked at each other and nodded to a count of three before standing up and beginning the tumultuous journey to a generator.

The pair stumbled and struggled through the unknown, but at least they had each other.


Meg and Dwight had the generator going about halfway when they heard it.

The roaring of the chainsaw was faint at first, but then it grew deafening as it neared. Mixed in with its terrifying sound was a warped cry that could only have been emitted by the killer. Meg watched the beast charge through the edge of the cornfield through the shack window, quickly ducking below the ledge when she realized it was most definitely coming to them.

"He's here!" She hissed at Dwight, only to realize he was already slinking into one of the lockers beside the generator, beckoning her to enter the other locker next to him. Meg was about to follow his command but her brain told her not to. What if the killer found them? Where the hell was Meg supposed to go when she was face to face with that thing's chainsaw?

The anxiety made her head ache and scramble for another plan. Maybe she could try to lure the thing out of the shack so that Dwight could finish the generator, it already was at two pistons so it wouldn't be much longer till he finished it. If she could buy him a little more time, it could result in all the gens being powered, if they were lucky enough to be on the fifth generator. That depended on whether or not Jake and Claudette had been doing gens too.

Generators aside, this was now a question of survival. Meg knew she probably had the best mobility of the team and could likely take the killer on a good run, hopefully good enough to give the team time to get the gates open. If the killer found Dwight, with no offense to him, Meg figured he'd be sitting on the hook within a couple minutes, maybe less. This killer was deadly and fast, but Meg was faster and she was willing to commit to being a distraction.

"Stay here!" She yelled to Dwight. "I'm gonna take him away, finish this gen."

She could recognize the reluctancy in his expression, her plan being the last one he wanted to hear. But she didn't give him any time to reason with her.

Meg bolted through the door of the shack and called to the beastly thing. "Over here fucker!"

She flailed her arms in the air and bounced up and down until she saw its glowing eyes settle on her, zeroing in on its new target.

It was now showtime.

The thing raised its chainsaw into the air and revved it, then… BOOM! Its racing footsteps thundered across the ground, headed in a beeline for Meg as its warped cry shredded through the air.

Before he could cover much distance, Meg was already gone. The corn stalks slapped her face and body, she ran so quickly that the world was a blur. There was nothing but sweat, pain and danger. The slab of detached flesh on her thigh ached and burned with each booming stride, but her will to survive helped her to ignore the sensation.

She could hear the killer's cry die out, along with the chainsaw's shrillness, but his clunky footsteps didn't fade. He was still on her tail, but Meg was certain that she could make it to something useful before he caught up.

Another fifteen seconds of running had Meg breaching the cornfield's edge. As soon as she was greeted with the opening, she realized that the disturbing tree with the strung up, decaying cows was not far from them. She squinted and realized a pallet was there, along with what looked to be a decrepit stone wall lining the base. It wasn't a fortress or anything, the rocks only being built probably four feet tall, but it would still be helpful. The mobility of these killers seemed to be challenged by the various walls or general rubble within the environments.

Knowing her goal was this forsaken tree, Meg willed her body forward, soon greeting the landmark within another couple of seconds. She vaulted over a short spot in the stone wall, turning momentarily to see where exactly the killer was.

It gave her the chance to really look at him, to see the glowing eyes and the rough skin that nearly enveloped them. It was sickly. Matched with the awful smell of the animal carcasses swaying above her, Meg felt the most gross, uncomfortable feeling that crawled right beneath her skin and dove deep down into her belly. The Trapper, the Wraith- they were both terrifying in their own right but there was something about the hot sun, the secrets in the basement and this contorted killer that unsettled her greatly.

The chainsaw snapped her back to reality. It roared, cueing the charge that the killer made. It sprinted through the open path that housed the pallet, halting right in front of Meg, making them come face to face.

Her face twisted in fear as she quickly scrambled back over the wall.

THWACK!

His hammer hit the stone wall, creating a loud crack. It rebounded and flew upwards before coming back under his control.

Meg stood, bouncing on her toes and awaiting its next move. It began heading around the stone wall toward her, so she ran the other way and slipped through the open path. She immediately dropped the pallet and prepared herself to react to its next move.

It came around and stood in front of the pallet, then charged up its chainsaw and brought it down onto the pallet, severing the wood completely in half.

Her eyes widened, realizing that it was time to move onto the next loop. She turned on her heel and was off, diving back into the cornfield, however it opened back up pretty quickly into another clearing. There she saw a giant structure, almost as big and towering as the house they'd encountered before.

It was a harvester, sitting vacant and rusted with hay bales lining the sides of it. Meg had no choice but to make use of the looming hunk of equipment, figuring that she could probably loop the killer on it for a little while.

Her feet were hitting the solid metal of the harvester, the front end of it creating a sort of ramp that led to the top. There she stood, seeing two vaults that she could take once the killer got up to her. She looked over the one ledge, seeing that there was nothing but a ten foot drop waiting for her. As Meg went to check out the other side, she could hear his clumsy feet pound against the ramp, meaning she didn't have time to see if there was another drop waiting for her.

Meg dove off the vault, body slamming onto a hay bale that was nearly level with the vault. Due to bad positioning, the girl rolled right off the side of the hay bale and hit the ground. Hard.

The wind was completely knocked out of her. She wheezed and moaned, barely recognizing anything going on in her surroundings. Meg attempted crawling away, using her legs to kick at the dirt to try and stand. But she couldn't breathe. It'd been a really long time since she experienced that terrible feeling; it was just as debilitating as it was before. Her body was non-responsive, it wasn't listening to her mind. Normally it was the other way around.

She screamed for herself to get up. She needed to run while he was still up there. But her limbs refused, her lungs cried for air and her heart, it was exhausted from fear.

The dead grass crunched a couple feet from her. It came closer and closer, soon replaced by the clinking of the chainsaw as it knocked into the killer's knee.

All Meg could do was roll onto her back, allowing her to look right up into the eyes of their killer. He towered above her, the emptiness in his gaze being very apparent now that she was this close to him. It was animalistic. He saw nothing but prey. Her suffering meant little. She was just a fly caught in a spider's web, trapped and waiting for death. The more you fight, the more you become tangled in the trap.

Maybe this was all the surviving would amount to. These trials were just a test to see how far you could make it before succumbing to the nightmare. In the end there is probably no escape. Just death, whether it be now or later.

Meg felt sad. She thought maybe she'd last longer than this. But shit happens. You can't be Superwoman in a Hell as torturous as the one they were living in.

Tears pricked her eyes. Her vision was blurred through them, so when the killer raised the chainsaw, all she could see was a dark silhouette above her. For just a second, it reminded her of an old memory from when she was just a kid…


Meg's dad hadn't been in the picture for a really long time. He was gone by the time baby Meg took her first breath in the hospital. Her mom told her that he wasn't ready for the lifelong commitment of being a dad, that's why he left.

But he showed up to her eighth birthday party. Meg didn't even recognize him, despite having seen a couple of photographs of him and her mom when they were young. He honestly didn't look much different from those captured moments, he just gained a little bit more weight and grew out some longer hair.

When her mom introduced them, Meg was very shy. Kids don't grasp those sorts of things. How was Meg supposed to understand what this meant for her and her dad? How was she to understand the abandonment, the selfishness, the pain and sacrifices her mother was forced to make because of him leaving?

Eight year old Meg took it more as a birthday present. Yay, she finally has a dad!

At first he was reluctant to indulge in Meg, but she was a cute kid. She was his daughter. No matter how immature a man is, they get proud when they realize they can take credit for something they helped produce. And he was suddenly willing to be a good guy, just for a day.

They played in the bouncy house her mom had rented for the party. She remembered jumping up and down and seeing him flash through her vision, obscured by the bangs she had at the time. His smile was similar to hers. All the things that she noticed weren't inherited from her mother were suddenly found within her father. It was a special feeling.

Then they ate cake together, and he even let her poke icing onto his nose, which he laughed heartily at.

When they opened up her presents, she received a soccer ball from the next door neighbor. Their daughter was on the soccer team and had begged Meg to join, so they figured Meg would benefit with a ball to practice with till she joined next year's team. Meg wasn't so sure of it, since she was more interested in the dance class her mom enrolled her in.

Needless to say, her father was ecstatic to see the soccer ball and opened it immediately. He ditched the party to kick it around in their great big yard, soon discovering that there was a little shadow following him.

For the rest of the day, Meg and her dad ran drills and played thrilling games together. The lawn was all torn up from their endless entertainment. They played soccer till sundown and all that was left of the party was her mother, who sat amongst a mess of plastic tablecloths, wrapping paper, toys and a half eaten cake. She sat there and watched the two play as if she was entranced by an award winning film. Meg could only imagine that her mother probably pinched herself a couple times, wondering if what she was witnessing was all a dream.

Well, eventually Meg fell and scraped her knee pretty hard, which concluded the events of that day. Her dad carried her to the bathroom, washed the scrape clean and put a Barbie band-aid over top of it. Then he held her hand and let her guide him to her bedroom.

There she climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. He stood beside the bed, just sorta peering around the room, taking in all of the things he'd missed. When his eyes finally landed on her, Meg didn't know what to say, other than…

"I love you."

He didn't say anything at first, just continued to loiter at her bedside. When the silence stretched far too long, Meg's eyes began to tear up. Did she say something wrong? This was her dad after all? You're supposed to say you love your dad. And she did love him. The day she just spent with him was amazing.

But it was too much for him. He sighed and placed a calloused hand onto the top of her head, ruffling her ginger tresses.

"Goodbye, Kiddo."

Her eyes welled up even more. The image of her father became blurred and vacant, nothing but a shadow standing in the darkness of her bedroom. Then she watched as he silently walked around her bed and headed out the door, closing it behind him.

That was the last time she ever saw him.


Of all the things Meg could have remembered, she wasn't expecting that memory to be the one that jumped out at her. But sometimes that's how the mind works.

She watched the chainsaw above her, seeing the chain rotate in slow motion. What would her father think if he knew that his daughter was about to die in a brutal and horrific way? She genuinely wondered.

Does he care? Would he try to help me? Would he sacrifice himself for me?

Meg honestly didn't know. And she wasn't even going to give him the benefit of the doubt. What a shitty human being. Couldn't even muster up an 'I love you' for his eight year old daughter. What kind of man doesn't have the courage to just do the right thing, just one time?

Her mind turned to her mother. What a sad thing to witness. He comes back, does the 'dad act' for one single day and then disappears again. You come so close to perfection, just for it to be torn away due to his own selfishness. Meg honestly didn't know how her mother stayed sane for so long. She really did all of it by herself.

In all actuality, the reciprocation of her father's love would've been great, it would've healed Meg in many ways, yet her mother's love did all that and more. She couldn't have asked for a better parent.

And in that final moment, as Meg was faced with imminent death, she was happy to have been loved.

The chainsaw began to move downward, headed right for Meg's abdomen.

It came down, down, down until-

The ground rumbled and the soil ruptured apart, bright ripples of hot orange forming along the earth's surface.

The killer fumbled his swing and the blade slammed into the ground beside Meg. Her heart skipped a beat, realizing in that moment that the gates were open. She made eye contact with the beast in front of her. Not this time. She was going to live to see another trial.

Meg shot up to her feet with a newfound adrenaline and burst into a break-neck dash. She plunged back into the cornfield and zig-zagged through the crops in an attempt to confuse the killer, should he still be chasing her.

She ran and ran and ran.

When she shot out into the clearing that the farmhouse sat within, she took a second to do a three-sixty and figure out where the exit gate was. Beside the farmhouse, just beyond the tops of the corn, she could see a formation that looked similar to the gates she'd seen in the previous trials, so Meg decided that would be her next stop. Hopefully the final one.

It didn't take long for Meg to see those three red bulbs of the gate switch urging her forward. Sweet, sweet victory.

However the only person in the gate was Dwight. Where was Jake and Claudette?

That's exactly what Meg hollered to Dwight, jogging her way toward him.

Dwight shrugged worriedly. "I don't know. I haven't seen them since the balcony."

"Did you do the last gen or was it them?"

He nodded, "It was me."

Meg was met with a sinking feeling. She looked out beyond the gate but saw no sign of them.

"What do we do?" Her voice was shaky. This put them in a bad situation. If they strayed too far from the gate looking for the pair, then there was a chance the killer could come and wedge himself between them and their chances of escape. But it was also important to protect each other. She wasn't about to leave without Jake and Claudette, or at least giving a good effort into making sure they survived.

"Just wait here a minute," He responded in an uneasy way. She could tell he had no idea what to do.

They didn't have to wait at all.

Not a second later they began to hear whimpering and groans coming from the cornfield to the left of the gate. Meg and Dwight both peeked around the column and watched, seeing the corn shuffle as somebody moved through it.

Finally, Jake and Claudette emerged from the corn. Jake had a severe limp, leaving Claudette to do most of the work. They were moving too slow. It would only be a matter of time till the killer realized where they were.

Meg started running toward them to offer help.

Another sound began mixing in with Jake's grunting and Claudette's crying. It started quiet, then became louder and louder.

It was the death cry and the chainsaw, morphing in a harrowing unison.

But with cornfields surrounding them almost completely, it was hard to discern where it was coming from.

Meg came to a screeching halt and looked around, trying to figure out where the beast was. Without thinking, her feet started backtracking toward the gate as her heart pounded with fear.

That's when it happened. It burst from the field, running right for Jake and Claudette.

The chainsaw charge made contact and all Meg could register was the blood splatter. It was like a cloud of crimson that sprayed so far and all over that Jake and Claudette were smothered in it, nearly head to toe.

They both flopped onto the ground, Claudette being the one to scramble up on her feet. However Jake laid there quivering and grasping at the dirt.

For the first time ever, Jake screamed at the very top of his lungs. He let out all of the pain he'd been pushing since the very beginning. It hurt to see him crack, to see him so vulnerable and inflicted.

As soon as the sound of his cries hit Claudette's ears, she instinctively reached out to grab him and pull him with her, despite the danger being right there in front of her. Meg remained frozen, just watching it all unfold in front of her eyes.

Jake looked up, seeing Claudette reach for him.

The chainsaw revved, the Hillbilly raising it upward, then right down.

The blade caught on Claudette's elbow.

Then it went further, and further…

Dwight's gasp confirmed to Meg what she'd just seen.

Claudette's mouth was agape. A scream couldn't even escape her due to the sheer shock her body was rushed with.

As she turned to face the exit gate, Meg could see that the girl was missing half of her arm. The other half was lying beside Jake on the ground.

Before Meg could have any rational or reasonable thought to process what she was watching, her mouth conjured the most simple response to the horror.

"RUNNNNN!"

Claudette broke into a clumsy sprint, tripping over nothing but her own feet a couple of times. She struggled to understand that she needed to use her intact arm to brace her falls, so she continuously landed on the injured stub still attached to her shoulder. She cried so terribly it hardly sounded human to Meg. Their humanity was being stripped away by the endless torture.

The killer was hot on her tracks, throwing the chainsaw into the air, signaling a charge was imminent.

"Claudette RUNN!" Meg screamed, backing into the gate. Claudette rounded the corner and took a hard right.

Just as she did, the killer tore past the entrance and zoomed in, barely missing Meg and Dwight with its mad dash.

Meg quickly grabbed a hold of Claudette and dragged the girl into the dark fog, sparing a look back to see the thing's glowing eyes stare at them before the black fog completely shrouded them in darkness.

She reached out for Dwight in the momentary pitch black, linking their arms together as the trio pushed forward.

Soon the fog receded. As soon as the warm campfire was in sight, all three of them collapsed onto the ground. Meg looked over to Claudette, discovering that her arm was indeed back as if nothing had ever happened to it.

But Claudette didn't seem to notice. Instead her poor face twisted tightly in regret, tears coming down in droves.

"I'm so sorry…" She whimpered with her eyes closed, trying to block out the final image she had of Jake screaming for his life, only to be left behind by all that he'd known in these trials.