The brick shambles towered over her, casting crooked shadows along the path she cautiously traveled. As she managed to find a more open area with less tall walls and more random scatterings of junk, a looming structure up ahead caught Meg's attention. It was in no way a welcoming sight, but she was hoping that maybe the others would catch sight of the landmark and go to it, that way she could regroup with them. So, her bewildered strides carried her toward it.
She drew nearer and nearer, soon realizing it was a decrepit warehouse that she was tentatively approaching. Based on the shattered windows, crumbling brick siding and the rusted over galvanized roof- it was safe to say it looked long since abandoned. Despite the creepy energy that rippled off of it, she found that there was an open bay door that she could tip-toe through.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed. A loud and long creaking groan fractured across the entire warehouse, echoing like crazy. It was frightening enough of a sound to startle her right to the bone.
Just like that, Meg's heart began to beat faster- fear taking hold of her so much that she panicked and impulsively decided to slip into a little cranny within a towering, industrial sized shelf nearby. She squeezed in behind a wooden crate, sneakered feet bumping up against, what looked to her, like a battery of some sort. It scraped against the metal shelf loudly as she accidentally nudged it, making Meg freeze.
It felt as though she sat there for ages, foot still extended and her hands behind her back from when she was scooting toward the shelf wall. Slowly, she brought her limbs inward, huddling amongst the abandoned goods.
Then all that could be done was to strategize what her next move would be.
Meg still wasn't hungry, so worrying about those types of resources were not of any concern to her. The next thought was possibly arming herself however she saw nothing in sight that would be of aid in that regard.
I mean… she thought while staring at the heavy battery unit beside her. It could work in a last ditch effort. The girl reached out and tried to pick it up but found it was heavier than she expected. She huffed out and crossed that off the list, figuring lugging that thing around would only slow her efforts. What was she supposed to do?
Crunch… crunch… crunch…
The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. The sound of someone entering the warehouse could be heard. They echoed ever so slightly, helping her to easily tell they were drawing closer to her position. She held her breath.
The suspense was killing her- she felt as though she was going to pass out from trying to smother the sounds of her own breathing. She tried to quietly relieve her lungs but her breath shook and escaped her without control.
Crunch… crunch… crunch…
They came closer. Her heart could've burst out of her chest. She felt it beating in her ears, pulsating across her entire body. There was so much adrenaline coursing through her that Meg momentarily considered making a dash for the door and escaping before she was found in a vulnerable position. There wasn't much she would be able to do for herself crammed in a tight corner with no way out but into harm's way.
Crunch… crunch… crunch…
Meg gripped the battery, eyes trained viciously on the sliver of the warehouse aisle should could see between the wood crate and the bottom of the above shelf. She was going to have to fight now. Whoever it was was right around the corner, if they found her, Meg would have no other choice.
The crack she was staring through suddenly became obscured by a figure.
Crunch…
It paused in front of the shelf Meg was taking refuge in.
Crunch…
She could tell that the figure turned, looking into the section above Meg's.
Crunch…
Then it started kneeling down.
Everything slowed down. Meg tightened her grasp on the battery. It could've weighed a thousand pounds and she still would have swung the thing with an impossible might- her body was ready to survive.
"Aghhhhhh!" Meg cried, leaping out of the bottom shelf, launching the battery out toward the figure.
"No wait-!" It shouted. The battery flew and slammed against the wall, narrowly missing… Claudette? Meg immediately recoiled apologetically, gasping at how close she had just come to seriously hurting the other girl.
"I- I'm so sorry Claudette, I-"
Claudette put a hand to her chest. "It's okay," she said, shaking off the fact that the battery almost was one with her head. She then extended her other hand out, showing Meg what she held. It was a red first-aid kit.
"Where'd you get this?" Meg asked.
Claudette shrugged. "It was just in some chest that I found outside…" She then looked around. "Where are we?"
It was a great question, really. Meg wished she could give an answer.
"I have no clue. I just know the fog brought us here. And also I…" Meg grimaced "… I saw this bear trap where I ended up. It wasn't set but I'd still watch your step. I don't know why they're here."
Nodding, Claudette acknowledged the warning before walking past her, further exploring the warehouse. Meg followed closely behind.
There wasn't much of anything besides wire spools, random hardware and an oddly high amount of empty red lockers lining the walls- not really giving the girls any such hope for the resourcefulness of the building. There was just a bunch of useless shit, Meg noted.
That was until Claudette exclaimed, "Look! Another chest."
Coming up behind her, Meg looked over the girl's shoulder and saw that indeed there was a wooden chest with metal framing sitting in the corner of the warehouse.
They both wandered up to it, Claudette being the one to kneel down and shimmy the lock around until she finally got the lid to pop open. Inside was full of miscellaneous junk: wood chips, planks, screws and other scraps. And on top of the garbage laid a little toolbox.
Meg and Claudette sort of looked at it strangely, neither understanding what they could use it for.
"You know what," Claudette said before scooping the toolbox up and handing it off to Meg. "It may come in handy."
"True," she quipped back, grabbing the toolbox. Claudette was about to stand up when something caught her eye. She reached back into the box and pulled out a very intricate looking piece of cloth, decorated with ivory tassels and created with a gorgeous violet fabric. Something about it seemed to have intrigued Claudette as she decided to stuff it into her back pocket before standing and tipping the lid shut.
"I can't lie, I just think this is pretty…." She joked while backing away, gesturing for Meg to follow her toward the exit. They shared a light hearted chuckle despite the dense tension in the air. Both were happy to at least have each other, chilled by the creepy feeling of vulnerability as they made it back outside.
Early in their walk, Meg perked up when the breeze drifted the smell of smoke right past them. "Do you smell that? It smells like smoke- like a fire," she told Claudette.
"Maybe it's the campfire," the girl replied with a tinge of hopefulness.
As it turned out, the source was simply a barrel with a fire blazing inside of it, situated in the center of some more crumbling walls. Those walls had windows in them, making Meg wonder what sort of buildings they were before. Maybe more warehouses? But why were these totaled in comparison to the one they were just at?
"Maybe one of the guys started the fire." Claudette proposed, doing her best to give a positive meaning to it. Sure, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility but Meg internally doubted it. They'd probably be at the fire if they started it.
'Unless something scared them away', a voice in the back of her mind chimed in grimly. Meg tried to hide the grimace that seeped onto her face as they continued walking, peering over her shoulder one last time to make sure the fire barrel was truly barren. Indeed, there was no trace of them. She hoped it was as innocent as it appeared.
Further along, a mechanical sound drifted through the air, luring Meg and Claudette nearer to the source. Eventually they rounded the corner of one of the many brick walls and discovered the shining display of machinery, which was flush against yet another brick wall.
"Is that a generator?" Meg questioned as they approached the thing, some of its pistons pumping in and out and causing it to make that loud, mechanical rhythm. Of all things, she was not expecting for there to be a generator in the middle of nowhere. She looked around, puzzled. What was it powering?
"Guys?" Quivered a hesitant voice from behind the wall that had the generator against it. Meg turned back and spotted two hands grasping the wall's edge and a pair of peeking, timid eyes staring at them. Immediately she recognized that it was Dwight cowering just out of sight.
Surprisingly, in spite of the uneasiness, Meg flashed him a smile and ran up to him. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah," he said in a breathy way, moving out from behind the wall. "What have you guys got there?"
"There are chests that have supplies in them. We found a med-kit and a toolbox," Claudette told him, which made Dwight have a lightbulb moment.
"Toolbox?" He said while snatching the thing right from Meg's hand. He knelt down beside the generator while searching through the toolbox, grabbing a few minuscule pieces of hardware from inside.
Both the girls just watched him, dumbfounded as to what he was doing.
Dwight simply worked in focus, picking up things that Meg couldn't even name, watching as he reached within the generator and started inputting the items inside the machinery. The speed of the pistons grew faster and faster with each passing moment.
"Do you know what this is powering?" Asked Claudette. She stood there, arms crossed while staring up at the tall light extension above the generator.
"Hopefully something helpful…" He muttered, brows furrowed in concentration.
"Can we help you?" Meg asked quietly, walking to stand behind him and inspect what exactly he was doing in there.
He sat there and kindly explained to both girls what he had figured out in regard to repairing the generators. Apparently there were blockages causing the pistons to be at a standstill, which meant no power. So they had to reach into the generator and manually remove and reassign different parts, while occasionally pulling on a lever system to see if they had correctly aligned this, that and the other thing. While it was difficult to understand, Meg and Claudette both got the hang of it and skipped over to the other sides of the generator, all working in unison to try and get the damn thing powered.
"Show me what you can do!" Dwight said enthusiastically as the girls reached in and started copying what he'd just demonstrated.
It didn't take long before the pistons were moving so quickly that the end of the repair process seemed to be in their sights. Claudette went to work managing her allotted blockages, stealing from the toolbox every now and then while Meg worried about the wiring. It was something she consulted Dwight with, who frankly didn't know much more than her, but did his best to use common sense and teamwork to make magic happen.
They all jumped out of their skins when a loud bang came from Dwight's side of the mainframe. He staggered backward, using his hands to shield his face as a flurry of sparks cascaded down his legs. The girls stood apprehensively, expecting the thing to blow them into a million pieces.
Dwight lowered his forearms, revealing his shocked expression. "Shit," He huffed out.
"What was that?" Meg nearly shouted the question as her arms were frozen before her, ready to shield herself should another malfunction occur.
He glanced at her, the dark of his eyes alight with fear. "I guess… I guess I messed something up."
The trio shared a reluctant look, knowing that they probably should finish powering it. With great caution, they all simultaneously kneeled back down and got right to work, thankfully without any further mishaps.
Soon enough, the generator suddenly popped loudly, bursting with sparks and whirring harder than it had before. The light extension went from flickering to being brightly lit, signaling to them that they successfully powered the generator.
Any excitement they had ended pretty quickly considering their problems weren't solved now that they got the thing to work. It was a matter of figuring out what exactly the generator was meant for and seeing if that helped them in any way.
"Have either of you seen Jake?" Said Claudette. They walked together in a close knit group, quietly traversing the ruins. Both Meg and Dwight shook their heads. She frowned at their responses. "Well I hope he's okay."
SNAP!
A metallic echo came from nearby. The trio paused in their tracks, looked all around and then to one another, caution leaking onto their faces.
"Now what the fuck was that?" Meg whispered.
"You said you saw bear traps?" Claudette recalled.
"You saw what?" Dwight hissed.
"Maybe it's Jake, what if he's in trouble…" Claudette gestured in the direction of the sound worriedly. Meg was happy to see she cared about Jake but she wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Something deep within her body, likely her natural survival instincts, desperately pleaded for her to not investigate whatever it was. Her stomach twisted when Dwight shrugged.
"Look as long as we stick together," He said, sighing nervously. "I think it will be okay."
She didn't want to be difficult despite the severeness of her hesitancy. Her head would remain on a swivel the entire time but she was willing to check it out and make sure Jake wasn't in any danger. She supposed that they had to be in it together, just like Dwight said.
Even though they were somewhat strong in numbers, there was a growing sense of dread as they headed to the source of the snapping sound.
It was for good reason.
Not twenty yards ahead of them, Dwight spotted something near a cluster of wooden crates all piled up together. He pointed toward it. As the girls focused on what he saw ahead, they quickly became washed in shock and horror.
It was Jake. He was rolling around on the ground, writhing in pain as a bear trap was gruesomely clamped around his leg. He breathed heavy and hoarse, spit flying from between his teeth as sweat rolled off of him in droves. She only really thought about it later, but he remained surprisingly quiet through what was clearly a great deal of suffering.
The trio began to run toward him to offer help, but when Jake noticed he threw his hand up and gestured for them to stop.
"Run…" He grunted.
They didn't hear him, still nearing.
"RUN!" He screamed louder.
A shadow crossed over his face, slowly becoming larger and larger, soon enveloping Jake's entire body in darkness.
Meg skidded in her tracks. What the fuck was that?
A menacing figure emerged from nearby. There was a ginormous, jagged cleaver held in its one hand- and a bear trap in the other. The skin on its body was either decomposing or burnt, Meg couldn't tell. And over the figure's face was a grimey, white mask with a sharp and crooked grin cut into it, razor-like teeth lining the mouth's opening.
"Oh my God-" Meg said, a ball catching in her throat.
"RUUUNNNN!" Jake howled at them.
The figure lunged toward Jake, striking him with the cleaver right in his abdomen. Blood sprayed everywhere. All over the thing's overalls, all over the wooden crates and all over Jake who groaned and cried as he tried crawling away with the bear trap still holding his leg hostage.
All Meg could see was red. She had never seen so much blood, so much terror and despair and violence ever in her life.
Dwight thrashed at Meg, trying to pick her up and carry her away as she stood there frozen in shock by what she'd just witnessed. She could tell he was screaming at her but she couldn't hear anything. Her senses went dark. It was all too much to bear.
The beast, that murderous and psychotic monster, started turning slowly before looking directly at them.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Claudette make a run for it-
SNAP!
Just like that, Claudette toppled to the ground. Her mouth opened, face twisted so tightly in pain. The teeth of the bear trap were gone, so far deep within the girl's leg that they were no longer visible.
The monster moved. It stalked toward them. There was blood smeared on its mask. Jake's blood.
It all clicked in Meg's mind. Finally, she ran. She just ran.