It took them almost three hours to gather up Shelly's parts, carry them outside in a sheet from one of the beds, and dig her grave. Finally though, Scott tossed the last pile of dirt onto the heap and Ash stuck the makeshift cross into the head of the pile. They stood there a moment, thinking over what they'd just done, and praying that Shelly could have some kind of peace now.
A few minutes later they trudged back inside the cabin, tossing the axe and shovels into the corner. The cellar door popped open and Cheryl looked out at them, laughing once again. "Not many left now..." She said, then cackled even louder.
Ash rushed to the door and drove his foot down on top of the door, slamming it shut. He could still hear Cheryl laughing down below. 'No, not Cheryl' he thought to himself, 'I cant keep thinking of it as my sister, because its just not her anymore'.
"Daylight isn't coming." Scotty said, looking out the window. "Sun should've at least STARTED coming up by now, but the clock stopped at 2am, and its been at least 5 hours since then... Something is stopping time here."
"How could you possibly know that?" Ash asked, but felt himself worrying that it made sense.
"Look Ash, I'm getting' outta here." He said finally.
"Scotty, Linda cannot walk with her leg like that, she can't even stand up!" Ash insisted.
"Well then we'll leave her here. Until we can send help at least. There's just GOTTA be another way around besides the bridge."
Ash was at a loss for words, could Scott REALLY be suggesting this? "I can't just leave Linda here though."
"Well then you stay with her, I don't care what happens to her, she's your girlfriend YOU take care of her. I'm out." Scott said, not even feeling the need to look away.
"Scott..." As said, trailing off, but his friend didn't trade any more words, he simply picked up the axe, put the flashlight into his backpack, took some food, and left. Ash stood at the door a moment, watching his supposed best friend vanish into the darkness outside, then shut the door once more, looking around the large, empty room.
The door to Linda's room opened. Ash slowly walked inside.
"Ash? I had a horrible dream. Shelly was hacked to pieces by Scott."
Ash kissed Linda's cheek.
"It's okay. Shelly and Scotty are sleeping now, there wasn't any murder." Ash was hoping to keep Linda calm.
"And Cheryl?"
"Cheryl is sick, but she will be okay in the morning. Just go back to sleep."
As Ash left Linda's room, he heard Cheryl laughing.
"You lied to her! You lied to Linda! Shelly's not sleeping! She's dead! Don't you know the difference?! Ha ha ha! You and Scott cut her up with the axe! She's dead!"
"Shut up whatever you are!" Yelled Ash as he stormed out the front door and over to the pile of firewood.
"Damn it!" Ash said through his tears, "This can't be happening!"
Ash looked up at the window of Shelly's room. Most of the glass was shattered but a little bit was left in the window frame.
Ash kicked the remaining glass out of frustration and swung the shutter into the window. He would need to latch them from the inside.
Using the axe, Ash chopped a ton of wood to vent his frustration before returning inside the cabin.
Just as he felt the isolation closing in, the cellar door creaked open a crack, and Cheryl's face came into view.
"One by one we will take you... Soon you'll be ours... AND THEN WE'LL LOCK YOU UP IN A CELLAR!" She screeched, banging the door against the chains and cackling.
"SHUT UP YOU HAG!" Ash said, rushing over to the corner and grabbing the shotgun again. He leveled it at the door, but Cheryl didn't retreat.
After a moment, Ash's eyes began to tear up. Even though her face was grey, her eyes were blank white, and her teeth were mangled and dripping with those disgusting fluids... He could still see his sister beneath it all. So he lowered the gun.
"Can't bring yourself to do it... That's why you're gonna diiiiiieeeeee!" She cackled and then dropped back down.
Ash let the gun fall from his grip and it clattered to the floor at his feet. He ignored it though, just wanting to be near SOMEONE who was loving to him... So he headed back to the room where Linda was resting. He peered in, but Linda was still out like a light, so he quietly made his way over, lifting the covers and pulling the bandage aside to inspect the wound on her ankle. The bleeding had stopped at least... but before he could even finish his thought of hope, the wound began to pulsate and twist in shape, it turned black and spider web-like patterns began spreading out of it, covering her leg, and following her veins.
Ash's eyes widened in horror and Linda's eyes opened as well. She shot up into a sitting position on the bed and reached her arms out, her fingers hooked into claw-like shapes as she began laughing a fast, high-pitched insanity-filled laugh. Ash was so overwhelmed by the sudden attack that he stumbled away from her and right out the door into the hallway, continuing to back up out the back door of the cabin itself. He stopped just outside the door, realizing what he was doing before he left the range of the back door's light. He stood there a moment, praying she wouldn't come out of the room...
Something lunged at him from the darkness, and Ash screamed, grabbing at it's arms. "Ash! Help me!" Scotty pleaded, coughing up blood. Ash looked at his badly beaten friend in horror and saw that he had branches and sticks protruding from all over his body, he looked like a pin-cushion of sharpened sticks.
Ash quickly shouldered him and carried/dragged Scotty down the hall to the main room of the Cabin, sitting him down on the couch. "Scotty, did you find another route?" Ash asked.
"Ash... Cheryl was right..." Scott said, coughing through his words. "We're all gonna die here... All of us!"
"We're not gonna die." Ash said, shaking Scott to get him to his senses. "We're not gonna die! Now listen, was there another way besides the bridge?" He asked again, and when Scotty didn't answer, he slapped him across the face. "Scotty please answer me!"
"Yes..." He finally mumbled. "There's a trail... but they know. The trees, they know... Don't you see Ash, they're alive!" Cheryl began to laugh hysterically at the pain he was obviously in, and he cried out, clutching a particularly large stick in his gut. "Don't leave me, Ash... You're not gonna leave me, are you Ash?" He begged.
"No, I wont..." Ash said solemnly.
"You're not gonna leave me here are ya? ARE YA ASH!" Cheryl cackled from the cellar, mocking Scotty.
"SHUT UP CHERYL!" Ash screamed.
Then, he head a loud, high-pitched giggling sound behind him, and he slowly turned, his eye twitching from the immense stress he was under. There sat Linda, Indian-style in the doorframe of the hallway door, playing with her hair. Her face was pure white aside from freakishly red cheeks and her lips looked permanently pursed, even as she giggled, and of course she had those blank white eyes like the others.
"Shut up..." Ash said.
"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you..." Linda began to sing-song at him. "Not another peeeep, time to go to sleeeeep."
"Shut up!" He shouted again, then back-handed her across the face, but she just started laughing again, so he screamed incoherent babble at her, unable to even form words, and smacked her again, and again, over and over until his hands hurt.
"Kill her... Kill her!" Scotty mustered the strength to say, pointing at the Shotgun still laying on the floor. Ash grabbed it and breached it open, making sure the two shells were still inside.
"God forgive me Linda..." Ash said quietly, not talking to the thing wearing her face. He raised the shotgun, leveling it at it's face, its cackling, twitching face, which slowly drooped down, it's hair covering the creature. Ash got his breathing under control and prepared to fire... but then Linda raised her head again, and Ash forgot he wasn't thinking of these things as his friends anymore. Her face looked like Linda again.
"Please... Ash don't hurt me..." Linda said, looking completely normal. "I- I don't want to die... You said you loved me."
Ash recoiled in confusion and fear, immediately dropping the gun to the floor yet again. This couldn't be real, could it? Was he willing to find out? Could he bring himself to shoot Linda in the face when she looked... Like Linda?
"Ashley?" Another voice said, from the cellar. Ash turned towards it, his body rigid. "Ashley I'm alright now, let me out of here!" Cheryl pleaded.
"Cheryl?" Ash asked, making his way over and slowly crouching down by the cellar door. He quietly and carefully fished the keys from his pocket and moved towards the lock, but stopped, peering into the darkness between the floor and the cellar door. "Cheryl?" He asked again, then slid the keys back into his pocket.
'CRACK!' a fist came punching up through the floorboard next to the cellar door and Cheryl's hand, still disfigured and rotted, grabbed the side of Ash's face, digging her nails into his cheek. "ASHLEY, Unlock these chains and let me out! I'm alright now, ASHLEY!" She screamed mockingly, cackling again.
Ash twisted her hand, slamming it against the edge of the broken floorboard until she released his face. He shot back up off the floor and felt blood trickling down the side of his face. "You bastards! Why're you torturing me like this? WHY?" He demanded, screaming down at the cellar.
"Hehehehhehehehe" Ash heard from behind him, so he turned around once more, finding that Linda looked exactly the same as she did before when she'd been sitting there the first time. The same blank eyes, and cupie-doll face. She giggled and laughed like a Halloween witch at Ash, who covered his ears, wishing he was dead just so he didn't have to hear that sound anymore.
Finally, Ash couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed her by the feet and dragged her out the front door, kicking it open as he came to it. Ash yanked her down the steps and out onto the dirt. "It's Useless! USELESS!" She screamed, thrashing around and her face morphing into bizarre colors and fluids gushing from her mouth now. "We'll come for him, and then we'll come for you!" She screeched, then as Ash threw her feet down and rushed for the door, she began clawing after him and roaring inhumanly behind him.