Her legs carried her far but it seemed the Trapper was somehow catching up to her, despite the clunky strides he took.
Meg spared a look back over her shoulder, seeing his bloodied cleaver trailing only a couple yards behind. She worriedly faced forward and desperately tried to make sense of the landscape in front of her. There was a maddening wealth of crumbling walls. While at first it felt like they were incapacitating her efforts, Meg realized that she could utilize them in her favor. In a flash, she set her sights on a cluster of walls with the intention of confusing him once within, hopefully losing him thereafter.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her sneakered feet pounded on the ground, 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 into making distance between them.
"Please God," she wheezed, the desperation in her voice all but tangible. The girl really hoped he'd answer her prayers on this one.
She flew past a towering wall, cutting the corner in a flash. She was surely out of his eyeline. The girl barely had time to devise a plan when she spotted one of the red lockers up against the other side of the wall.
This was what seemed to always get people killed in the movies- but Meg 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. 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. In fact, Meg's head swirled and was dizzied by suddenly stopping after sprinting for what felt like decades. She tried to hold herself together.
His breathing was loud and clear, followed by the mechanical sound of him dropping a trap onto the ground, pulling the jaws apart and setting it. Meg couldn't see hardly anything through the slats of the locker but knew he was close based on the sounds alone.
Over the course of a minute, any indication that he was nearby seemed to drift away.
A moment of contemplative silence followed. Meg 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 at her.
Meg cried out. 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. As she neared the threshold, the light caught on something shiny on the ground.
In slow motion, Meg recognized 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 walls. It was smart. It really tried to corral her into stepping onto one of its traps, like it had a plan of how to capture her.
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 two 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 over 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 game of 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 on her side.
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 little 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, eyes landing on the metal bear trap clamped around her now bloodied leg. The skin sliced easily like paper, lifting up over the razor sharp teeth. Blood pooled quickly around her, so much pouring from the wound.
A desperate, agony filled cry escaped her lips. Tears cascaded down her face, blurring her vision and pooling saliva out of her mouth. Bile rose in her throat. So much pain… she couldn't function properly.
The light from the doorway to the shack became shadowed. Meg turned to see none other than the Trapper standing there, the menacing grin on this mask taunting her as she wasn't so lucky this time. Goddammit.
Without any hesitation, he came over and lunged his cleaver down onto Meg's back.
She screamed so loud and agonizingly it could have torn through the very fabric of reality itself. The cleaver, so deep into her flesh that he had to put his boot on her back to brace her aching body and yank it out, left the girl paralyzed. Meg toppled to the floor all but lifeless. What could've been gallons of blood fled her body, sinking into the wooden floor of the shack.
The Trapper reached down and reset the 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 stairs.
Meg barely held onto consciousness but through her dazed perception of what was happening, she noticed the darkness enveloping them. They were in a basement. A sick feeling apart from the one caused by all the pain began to seep into her gut. Bizarre echoes and eerie noises emanated from the walls. There was something wicked about the room.
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. The way her muscles and skin were torn apart left her barely holding on anymore. The agony her body was in was immeasurable.
All Meg could do was stare down at her dangling feet, all smothered in crimson that glistened against the amber light shining through the crooked wall boards of the basement. Her blood seeped through a grate beneath the hook, probably meant for that very purpose.
She couldn't even comprehend how sick and twisted it was- Meg was too busy dying.
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.
The warm image of her mom slipped into Meg's lessening train of thoughts, making her feel somewhat bittersweet on the inside. If she was going to go, it was the last thing she'd want to see. But the other part of Meg was against dying, obviously. Yet not for the sake of just living… for the sake of being with her mom again. She needed her. What was she supposed to do without Meg?
The girl barely took notice of the fact that she was suddenly being hoisted off the hook. Her eyes squinted, finding Dwight's horrified features right in her face. He did his best to carry her weight, saying things to her that she couldn't understand through her slipping consciousness.
She could feel the weight of a box smacking against her side, to which Meg meekly peered down, spotting a medkit in Dwight's hand. He helped her ascend the stairs before laying the girl down on the hardwood floor of the shack.
Dwight wildly yanked open the medkit, 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 something before pushing the medkit 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 as her back was braced by his knees.
"Meg, c'mon- we have to go. I think we found a way out." She could hear his words clearer now. "Meg please!" He begged as his hands combed stray hairs from her face.
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 with shock. Her shuddering breaths were right in his face.
"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 was just as shocked. "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 up.
He gathered up the medkit 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 a friendly competition, Meg was just ready to get the fuck out of here.
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 beneath their glow while pulling down on the lever of the metal box. An echoing buzz rang a long note before the gate powered up, cranking open and moving the three stacks of hard metal panels of the door off to the side, revealing the way out of that God forsaken Hell.
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, to which she came to a screeching halt. Lo and behold, the bloody sight of his leg caught in a trap met her eyes. She rushed back to help him.
"AGGHH!" He howled. Meg dropped 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 growing threat, reminding 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 in pain but pushed on, too close to freedom to worry about the wound there.
Crossing the threshold of the exit gate, all four of them now sprinted full speed out past the brick columns and into the fog.
Meg laughed, feeling the hope in her stomach swell as they flew into the unknown.
The fog dissipated, revealing the campfire again.
They all just stood still, unsure of what to think about being returned right back to where they'd started. What was this? They had escaped?
A few seconds passed, showing them that they were indeed staying at the campfire.
Meg dropped to her knees, covered yet in her own blood, sweat and tears- 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.