Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
A plump, medium-sized bird hopped across the sunlit ground, pecking through the dirt for food. Every few steps, it paused and fluffed its feathers, letting the sunlight warm them before continuing its search.
Swoosh.
A shadow swept across the ground.
The bird's next chirp broke into a sharp, desperate cry. A hawk struck from above, its talons closing around the bird before it could spread its wings.
For a moment, feathers scattered through the sunlight. The bird thrashed in the hawk's grip as powerful wingbeats carried it upward.
Then both disappeared beyond the trees.
A few drops of blood darkened the dirt where the bird had stood. The sun continued to warm it.
"Fuck, did you see that?"
Tyler stopped mid-step, his backpack shifting against his shoulders as he looked toward the trees.
Jack stopped behind him. Sweat had darkened the collar of his shirt.
"See what? Are you fucking with us again?"
Beside him, Jdawg bent forward with his hands on his knees. "If you say we're almost there one more time…"
"No, I actually saw something. A hawk just grabbed a bird." Tyler pointed through the branches, though there was nothing left to point at. "Earlier, I was just trying to get you two to walk faster."
Jack stared at him.
"Then quit stopping."
"Alright. Come on."
Tyler started walking before either of them could complain again. The trail narrowed around a fallen trunk, forcing them through one at a time. A branch caught beneath his backpack strap. He pulled it free and held it aside for Jack.
Jdawg ducked under it last.
"How much farther?"
Tyler glanced back.
Jdawg lifted a finger. "And don't fucking say we're almost there."
A laugh escaped him. "You'll see it in a minute."
This time, he meant it.
The trees opened around a cabin. Sunlight lay across the porch, picking out the scuffed boards and the two chairs beside the door. Beyond the roof, Tyler could see a strip of lake between the trees.
He stepped out of the trail and turned to watch their faces.
"There it is."
Jack slowed. Jdawg straightened, breathing through his mouth.
"This is the cabin I bought."
Tyler pulled the key from his pocket. It took him a second to find the right one, which annoyed him more than it should have.
"It's got the latest Starnet Wi-Fi and a solar generator with gas backup. I've got two spare generators, too."
"Two?" Jack glanced around the side of the cabin.
"Yeah. So we should be good if the power goes out."
Jdawg rested a foot on the bottom step. "Do you get a discount for this piece of shit for that reason?"
Tyler ignored him and climbed onto the porch.
"Kitchen, beds, bathroom—all that. And I've got a little man cave set up in the basement."
Jack laughed. "Looks like all those conspiracies and drugs finally caught up with you."
"For real," Jdawg added. "You're going off the grid and shit. Damn, is it the end of the world?"
"Shut the hell up, you helmet heads." Tyler fitted the key into the lock. "You wouldn't know anything. I'm gonna live bill-free and stack my money."
"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Jack mocked.
"I know what I'm talking about." Tyler's face reddened with anger, and a vein bulged in his forehead.
Jdawg started laughing again.
Tyler pushed the door open harder than he needed to. He'd pictured this part differently: their first look inside, the questions, somebody admitting he'd found a good place.
Instead, Jack kept repeating, "He doesn't know what he's talking about," laughing as though it were the funniest thing in the world.
The cabin smelled faintly of old wood and the cleaner Tyler had used that morning. A couch faced a television on a low stand. Two mismatched chairs sat around a kitchen table, and his unopened bags were still piled beside the counter.
Jdawg dropped his backpack beside them.
"You unpacked the TV first?"
"Priorities."
That got a grin out of Jack.
Tyler hung his backpack near the door and pointed down the short hallway.
"Bathroom's there. Bedrooms are at the end. Don't put your dirty shoes on my bed."
"Which one?"
"The one with my shit on it. Look, don't be a jackass."
Jack left his bag beside the couch and walked to the front window.
The lake spread out below the cabin, sunlight breaking into small flashes across its surface. A narrow dock extended from the bank. At the far end, a board sagged between two posts, but the rest looked solid enough.
He pulled the curtain farther aside.
"Okay. The view's actually nice."
Behind him, Tyler went quiet for a moment.
Then: "I told you."
Jack could hear the satisfaction in it. He kept looking outside before Tyler could turn the compliment into a speech.
Jdawg joined him, leaning close enough to fog a small patch of glass.
"You got fishing poles?"
Tyler appeared between their shoulders.
"Now you wanna act right."
A few minutes later, they were on the dock.
Jack set his bag down well away from the water and watched Tyler distribute the rods. Jdawg took the longest one, flicked the tip, and nearly hit Tyler in the face.
"Watch it."
"Ha! Move over, dumbass, or you can get my tip again."
"Check it over there."
Jack crouched to tie his hook. The dock shifted slightly beneath him as the others moved, and water lapped against the posts below. Up close, the lake looked darker than it had through the window. He could see the submerged boards near shore, but a few feet farther out, the bottom disappeared.
Tyler's first cast landed with a small splash.
Jdawg's caught in a branch behind them.
There was a brief silence.
Tyler looked at him and laughed.
"Shut up and get it down."
They spent several minutes untangling the line. Tyler filmed the last few seconds, capturing Jdawg sagging as he worked to free it, until Jdawg pointed the rod at him.
"Post that and I'm throwing your phone in."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
Tyler pocketed it.
Once they settled, conversation wandered between games, people they knew, and whether Tyler would still like the cabin after a week of carrying groceries down the path. He answered everything as though he'd already thought of it.
Jack wasn't sure he had, but he let most of it go.
For a while, it was easy to sit there.
The boards were warm beneath his legs. Wind moved across the lake in darker patches. Whenever somebody's line tightened, the other two stopped talking and leaned forward to watch.
Jack caught the first fish.
Jdawg stood over his shoulder while he worked the hook free.
"That's tiny."
"Then catch something bigger."
"I will."
"You've been saying that for an hour."
"Building suspense."
Tyler held the bucket open. Jack dropped the fish inside, and it struck the bottom with a wet slap.
By late afternoon, they'd caught enough to start arguing about who was going to clean them.
"I bought the place," Tyler said. "You two can do something."
"I untangled Jdawg's line from that whole tree," Jack replied.
Jdawg wound his line back in. "I provided entertainment."
"In showing your crack?"
Tyler lifted the bucket and tipped their catch onto the boards.
Jack turned away to gather the rods.
"Hey, guys."
Something in Tyler's voice made him look back.
"What?"
"Come here. These don't look too good."
Jack crouched beside him.
One fish lay with its mouth open, its gill cover lifted enough to show a cluster of pale maggots wriggling underneath. Beside it, another had a ragged hole in its side. Thin ribs showed through the missing flesh.
Jack brought his face closer, then stopped.
There were holes in the others, too.
He picked up a twig and touched the edge of one. The skin gave way without much pressure, and the tip slipped between two bones.
"That one was pulling my line," he said.
Tyler looked at him. "What?"
"I caught that one. It was moving."
Neither of them answered.
Jdawg crouched on Jack's other side.
"Oh my God."
For a second, Jdawg couldn't make himself look away.
The maggots kept moving even though the fish didn't. One worked its way out from beneath the gill and dropped onto the wet wood.
His stomach tightened.
He got to his feet too fast, stumbled past Tyler, and bent over the edge of the dock.
"Fuck—"
He threw up into the lake.
His eyes watered. He stayed bent over, waiting to see if there was more, with one hand braced against a post.
Behind him, Jack was still asking questions.
"Dude, what the fuck is wrong with your lake?"
"I don't know. I just moved here."
Jdawg wiped his mouth with his sleeve. The taste wouldn't go away.
He looked back toward the bucket, regretted it, and turned toward the cabin instead.
"This place must've cost, like, a hundred dollars," he said. His voice sounded rough. "Bet they told you not to ask questions, too."
Tyler stood with the empty bucket hanging from one hand.
For once, he didn't argue.
"Let's just go inside," he said.
Jdawg was already picking up his bag.
Tyler washed his hands twice.
The first time, he could still picture the fish when he looked at his fingers. The second time, Jack knocked on the bathroom door.
"You fall in?"
"Give me a minute."
He shut off the tap and dried his hands. Through the door, he heard Jdawg ask whether the food in the cabin had come from the lake, too.
Jack laughed.
Tyler looked at himself in the mirror.
The cabin had been fine that morning. He'd cleaned it, checked the lights, set up the basement. A problem with the lake didn't mean there was something wrong with everything else.
He opened the door.
"We're eating noodles."
"Excellent," Jdawg said from the kitchen. "Freshly caught?"
Tyler pointed at him with the towel. "You want food or not?"
They took their bowls downstairs.
The basement was small, with a low ceiling and a couch Tyler had struggled to get through the doorway. An extension cord ran along the wall to the television. Three controllers sat on the table beside a stack of games.
Jdawg stopped at the bottom step.
"Okay. This part's good."
Tyler glanced at him.
"No lake down here," Jdawg added.
"Pick up a controller."
They squeezed onto the couch. Jack balanced his bowl on one knee while the game loaded, ignoring Tyler's look until he put a folded napkin underneath it.
For hours, the room filled with gunfire from the television and arguments over who had ruined the match.
"He's right behind you, yams " Jack said.
"Where? What?!
"Behind you."
Tyler turned too late.
Jdawg threw his head back. "Bro."
"Why didn't you shoot him?"
"I was dead," Jack said.
"You could've said that."
"I did say that."
Another round started. Tyler leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Jdawg had finally stopped making comments about the fish, and Jack was laughing at something on the screen.
A heavy thump sounded overhead.
Tyler's thumb slipped on the controller.
Jack looked up. "What was that?"
Nobody moved.
A second thump came from farther along the ceiling. Then several quick impacts, unevenly spaced, as though something was striking the wall upstairs.
Tyler paused the game.
In the quiet, they heard scratching.
"Probably an animal," he said.
Jdawg slowly lowered his controller.
"What kind of animal does that?"
Another impact made a faint shower of dust fall from the beam above the television.
Tyler stood.
Jack caught his wrist.
"Where are you going?"
"To look."
Jack held on another moment, then released him and stood too.
Upstairs, the windows reflected the room back at them. Tyler cupped his hands against one pane but could only make out the porch railing.
He switched on the outside light.
An empty chair. The steps. Trees beyond them.
The front door handle rattled.
Tyler stepped away from the window.
Jdawg bumped into the kitchen table, sending a chair scraping across the floor.
"Tell me that's an animal."
Jack stood beside the couch, staring at the handle.
Tyler reached for his phone.
Scraping moved along the outside wall. It passed beneath the window near Jack, stopped, then started again farther down.
Something hit the glass.
Jack flinched backward.
"Fuck that."
Tyler opened the camera app, but his thumb hit the wrong icon first. He backed out and tried again.
"We should get this on video."
Jack turned toward him. "Bro, something's trying to get in."
"And I wanna see what it is."
"Then film the window."
Tyler did.
For a while, all three watched it. The phone picked up their reflections and the light above the porch, but nothing came into view.
The scratching stopped.
They waited.
Jdawg kept looking between the windows. Jack checked the time on his phone, then checked it again a little later.
When Tyler finally reached for the lock, Jack straightened.
"Hold on."
"I'll just look."
"From there."
Tyler turned the key and opened the door a few inches.
Cold air slipped through the gap. He waited for movement, for something to strike the door, but the porch stayed empty.
He opened it farther.
A rustle came from beyond the edge of the light.
All three heard it.
Tyler leaned out, trying to see around the porch post.
"Someone could be fucking with us," he said.
Jack moved beside him. "Who knows we're here?"
Tyler didn't answer.
Jdawg retrieved the baseball bat leaning beside the coat closet. He held it close to his leg, his face unusually still.
Jack found a flashlight in the kitchen drawer.
Tyler slid a power bank into his backpack and pulled on the straps. He kept the camera app open.
"Let's check around the house," he said.
"Together," Jack replied.
"Yeah. Together."
On the porch, Tyler turned the camera toward himself.
"Yo, what's up, YouTube? It's twelve a.m., and today we're going ghost hunting at my new crib. This place is a pimp palace."
His voice came out louder than he'd intended.
He stepped away from the cabin and angled the phone over his shoulder.
"This is Jack, and this is Jdawg. Say what's good."
Jack gave the camera a peace sign. Jdawg tucked the bat beneath his arm and started making Naruto hand signs.
Tyler laughed.
For a moment, they looked like themselves again.
He'd filmed abandoned buildings, late-night adventures, and whatever else he thought might get a reaction. Looking at the scene through his phone helped him decide what to say next, where to point, how to make the others laugh.
He turned on the camera light and aimed it toward the trees.
Jack swept the flashlight beneath the porch, then around the side of the cabin.
He found old leaves, a few exposed roots, and the generator cables Tyler had pointed out earlier. Nothing moved.
At the back corner, something rustled beyond the trees.
Jack stopped the beam on the nearest trunk.
"Over there."
Tyler raised his phone.
They followed the edge of the clearing to a narrow path. After a few steps, the cabin light began breaking up behind the branches.
Jack glanced back.
"Don't go too far."
"I'm just trying to see where it went," Tyler said.
Jdawg walked between them, occasionally tapping the bat against his leg.
At first, insects buzzed around the flashlight. Leaves shifted somewhere beyond its reach, and Jack kept moving the beam toward each sound.
Farther along, he noticed he hadn't heard anything for a while.
He slowed.
"You hear anything?"
Tyler shook his head.
Even Jdawg stopped tapping the bat.
Jack could hear his own shoes settling into the leaves. He looked behind them again, but the porch light was gone.
Ahead, the trail opened into a clearing.
A small, old church stood beneath overhanging branches. Its siding had peeled in long strips, and one of the front doors sat lower than the other. A wooden cross leaned above the entrance.
Jdawg raised the bat toward it.
"Jack. Tell me that doesn't look like the church from The Walking Dead."
Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Yeah. A little."
Tyler moved closer, filming the windows.
The church was solid enough to look ordinary after all that empty darkness. Jack walked to the door and pushed. It scraped across the floor, opening into a room that smelled of dust and damp wood.
His flashlight revealed rows of pews facing a small stage. A few hymn books lay open on one bench, their pages swollen and curled. Beside the stage, a chair had tipped onto its side.
"Even the inside," Jack said. "That's crazy."
Jdawg leaned through the doorway.
"See?"
Tyler slipped past them with his phone held out.
Jack followed, pulling the door open enough for Jdawg. His shoes left dark marks in the dust.
He glanced at Tyler.
"Did you buy a fucking movie set?"
"Dumbass, I don't own the forest."
"Just checking. You own the lake, apparently."
Tyler gave him a look over the phone.
They moved between the pews. Jdawg stopped to examine one of the books, then put it down when the cover began coming away in his hand.
Near the stage, Jack found a narrow door secured with a padlock.
Strange symbols had been painted across the wood. Some had faded into the grain; others remained dark enough to see before his flashlight reached them.
Above the symbols, someone had written three words.
DO NOT OPEN.
Jack tested the handle.
"It's locked."
Tyler brought the camera closer.
"Yo, YouTube. This isn't CGI. We just found the treasure room."
Jdawg leaned over Jack's shoulder.
"Treasure room says don't open."
Tyler turned the phone toward him. "Shall we explore it?"
Jdawg looked at the lens, then back at the door.
"What's even supposed to be down there?"
"Probably a basement," Jack said.
He tried the handle again. The latch held, but the frame shifted beneath his hand.
Tyler noticed.
"The whole thing's rotten."
Jdawg lifted the bat. "You want me to—"
"Nah. We can kick it."
Jack pressed his thumb into the wood beside the hinge. A small piece crumbled away.
He wiped it against his jeans.
"If it falls on us, you're explaining it."
Tyler stepped beside him. "Just kick low."
They crowded in front of the door, shifting their feet and arguing about who would count. Jdawg bumped Jack's shoulder with the bat until Jack pushed it aside.
"Put that down a second."
"I'm holding it."
"Then hold it somewhere else."
Tyler raised three fingers.
"Three, two, one—"
Their kicks struck almost together.
The rotten frame split.
The door dropped forward beneath Tyler's foot.
He'd leaned into the kick, expecting the wood to hold for at least another hit. Instead, his weight carried him into the opening.
There was no floor on the other side.
A steep staircase fell away into darkness.
His shoe slipped off the ledge.
Jdawg caught his backpack and yanked him backward. Tyler stumbled into him, one arm flailing against the wall.
Below them, the door struck the steps and kept falling.
"Holy shit."
Tyler pressed a hand against Jdawg's shoulder. He laughed once, breathlessly, while his heart hammered hard enough to feel in his throat.
"Bro, you just saved my life."
"Yeah. You're welcome."
Jdawg was still holding the strap.
The door landed with a heavy bang.
A second bang answered from deeper in the basement.
The floor trembled beneath their shoes.
Tyler's hand tightened on Jdawg's shoulder.
Nobody laughed.
Jack aimed the flashlight down the stairs. The broken door lay at the bottom, one edge propped against the wall. Beyond it, the light caught only part of a concrete floor.
"Damn," Jdawg said quietly. "What's down there?"
Tyler checked his phone. He'd caught the whole fall, though most of it showed the ceiling.
He pointed it into the stairwell.
"I'll go first."
The first step dipped beneath his weight.
He waited, then tried the next. It held. He kept one hand against the wall and lowered himself carefully, turning sideways when the stairs narrowed.
Halfway down, a foul smell caught in his throat.
He pulled his shirt over his nose.
"What's that?" Jack asked from above.
Tyler shook his head.
At the bottom, he stepped around the fallen door. His phone light swept across the floor and caught something pale.
He moved it back.
A jawbone lay beside his shoe.
Farther away, ribs rose from a dark clump of dried tissue. Something that looked like a hand lay near the wall, its small bones still arranged around the fingers.
Tyler stopped breathing through his nose.
"Guys."
Jack leaned into the opening above him. "What?"
Tyler lifted the light toward another pale shape.
"Come down here. Right now."
Jack descended with the flashlight held low.
Jdawg stayed close enough behind him that the bat occasionally knocked against his heel.
At the bottom, Jack saw what Tyler was looking at.
His beam reached farther than the phone's light. Skulls, ribs, and long bones spread across the floor. Some were human. Others bent at unfamiliar angles or ended in clusters of small joints. Dark matter clung to them and filled the spaces between.
Jdawg pressed his sleeve against his mouth.
"What the fuck…"
Jack stopped the light on a skull near the far wall.
One side of it was missing.
He moved on before he could examine it.
Near the center of the room stood a container with a crack running down its side. Thick black fluid seeped from it and spread across the floor. The smell grew stronger when Jack faced that direction, coating the back of his throat.
Tyler held his phone toward it.
Jack looked at the bones again.
They formed curves and intersecting lines. Pieces of dried flesh lay between them, and several of the shapes matched the symbols on the door upstairs. Others looked like writing.
He followed one line with the flashlight.
It ended at an open space in the center.
A single skull sat there.
The black fluid crept toward it.
Jack caught Tyler's arm.
"We need to leave."
Tyler kept staring. "What?"
Jack pulled harder.
"Now. Get upstairs."
Something scraped behind the container.
Jack swung the flashlight toward the sound. The beam caught the container, the wet floor beside it, and a gap between two shelves.
Nothing he could see explained the noise.
He wasn't waiting for something to come out.
"Move!"
Tyler reached the stairs first. Jdawg shoved past Jack, catching his shoulder hard enough to knock the light sideways. For a second, the beam swept over the skull in the middle of the floor.
The black fluid had reached its teeth.
Jack took the steps two at a time.
Wood cracked above him.
Jdawg dropped with a sharp cry, his right leg disappearing through a broken tread. His chest struck the stairs. The bat bounced from his hand and rolled against the wall.
"Fuck! Jack!"
Jack nearly ran into him. He caught the railing, felt it shift beneath his palm, and let go before it tore free.
"Give me your arm."
Jdawg reached back. Jack hooked an arm beneath his shoulder and pulled, trying to keep the flashlight aimed through the hole.
Something moved below the broken boards.
Jdawg jerked backward.
"It's got my leg!"
Tyler stopped near the top of the stairs.
"Tyler, get the fuck down here!"
He hurried back, crouched on the step above Jdawg, and grabbed his other arm.
"On three," Jack said. "One—"
Jdawg screamed.
They pulled without counting.
His shoulders rose, but his leg stayed fixed. Jack's shoes slipped against the dusty wood. He shoved a heel against the edge of a step and hauled again, hard enough to hurt his own back.
"Pull, bro!" Jdawg gasped.
"We are!"
The denim tore with a long, ugly ripping sound. Jdawg's leg came free, and all three collapsed against the stairs above them.
Jack's light flashed across Jdawg's shin.
There was too much blood.
Jdawg groped for the bat on the step beside him and pulled it against his chest.
Before he could look properly, a crash shook the basement. The stairs jumped beneath them. A cry rose from below, breaking into several overlapping sounds that made Jack clamp his teeth together.
Tyler scrambled upward on his hands and feet. Jack dragged Jdawg after him until Jdawg managed to stand.
"Can you walk?"
Jdawg nodded too quickly.
"Then go. Go!"
They shoved between the pews, banging knees and hips against the benches. Tyler reached the front doors and pushed. One opened halfway, caught against the floor, and stopped.
"Come on!"
Jack hit it with his shoulder. The wood scraped free, and they spilled into the clearing.
Cold air filled his mouth. He gulped it, still tasting the basement.
Tyler started toward the trees to their right.
"Other way!" Jack shouted. "The trail's over here!"
He swung the beam left, found the narrow opening they'd walked through, and ran toward it.
Footsteps followed from behind the church.
Jack glanced back. The flashlight caught a shape moving beside the wall, low enough that he first thought it was an animal. Then it passed behind a tree, and something taller crossed the clearing after it.
He couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
"Tyler! What the fuck was that?"
Tyler was already ahead of him, his phone light bouncing over the trail.
Jack caught Jdawg's elbow as he stumbled.
"Stay with me."
For several strides, they ran shoulder to shoulder. Jdawg's breathing came in short, strained bursts. His hand tightened around Jack's arm whenever his right foot touched the ground.
Branches snapped to their left.
Jack swung the flashlight toward them and nearly tripped over a root. A dark shape slipped out of the beam. Another crossed the trail ahead, disappearing before Tyler reached it.
They weren't all behind them anymore.
Jack faced forward. The cabin was somewhere beyond the bend, beyond the trees. He tried to remember how long the walk had taken. Five minutes? Ten?
"Tyler, slow down!"
Tyler looked back but kept moving.
Jdawg pulled his arm free.
"I'm good," he said. "Just go."
Jack stayed beside him anyway.
For the first few steps after letting go of Jack, Jdawg almost believed what he'd said.
He could still run. His left leg worked. His right leg moved when he made it move. The pain was there, but there was something worse in the trees, and he could deal with the leg once they were inside.
Then his shoe struck a stone.
Pain shot up through his knee. His foot folded beneath him, and he caught himself against a trunk with his free hand.
"Keep going!" Jack shouted.
Jdawg pushed away from the bark.
He couldn't get a full breath. Each one stopped high in his chest, leaving him needing another before he'd finished the last. Sweat ran into his eyes. He wiped it away with his wrist and nearly hit himself with the bat.
He was still holding it.
Something rushed through the brush beside him.
Jdawg swung without thinking. The bat struck a tree with a crack that sent a sting through both hands. He lost his grip, and it vanished into the leaves.
He didn't stop to find it.
Jack turned his light toward him.
"You okay?"
Jdawg nodded. He needed Jack to keep moving. If Jack stopped, he'd stop too, and he wasn't sure he'd get going again.
The torn fabric around his shin dragged against his skin. Warm blood had soaked into his sock. When the flashlight crossed his leg, he saw the ripped edges of his jeans stuck to the wounds beneath them.
A pale strip of bone showed through one of the gashes.
He looked up so quickly the trees seemed to tilt.
Don't look again. Get to the cabin.
Tyler's light disappeared around the bend.
"Tyler!"
Jdawg tried to shout louder, but all that came out was a thin, breathless sound.
Jack was still there. Jdawg could hear him swearing, could see the flashlight swinging beside him. He fixed his eyes on that light and tried to match Jack's steps.
Left. Right. Left.
His right leg gave way.
He landed on his hands, then his chest. Dirt scraped across his chin. The impact knocked out the little air he'd managed to draw in.
For a moment, he couldn't make a sound.
Jack crouched beside him.
"Come on. Get up."
"I can't."
"You can. Put your arm around me."
Jdawg tried. His hand slipped off Jack's shoulder. He tried again and caught the back of his shirt.
Up the trail, Tyler had stopped. His phone light shook so badly that Jdawg could barely make out his face.
"Help me lift him!" Jack shouted.
Tyler took a step toward them.
Something crashed through the brush between them and the church.
Tyler stopped.
"Fuck! We'll come back! The cabin's, like, five minutes ahead! We just gotta get armed! Right?"
"Just grab his other arm!"
Jack pulled Jdawg upright. For a second, he stood on his good leg, hanging against Jack's shoulder. Then his injured foot touched the ground, and he folded again.
"Please," Jdawg said. He wasn't sure which of them he was asking.
Tyler's light turned away.
"Tyler?"
It began moving down the trail.
Jack shouted after him. Jdawg tried to shout too, but his breath caught as something brushed the torn fabric at his ankle.
He kicked with his good leg.
Jack dropped the flashlight and hauled him backward, both hands gripping his shirt now. Its beam cut sideways through the brush from where it lay on the dirt.
Branches bent into the light.
Jdawg clung to Jack's sleeve.
"Don't let go."
"I'm not."
Tyler ran with the phone clenched in his hand.
Get to the cabin. Get something. Go back.
He repeated it every time his foot struck the ground. He needed to get there fast. Jack couldn't carry Jdawg all the way, and whatever was following them wasn't going to wait while they tried.
A scream came from behind him.
He stumbled and caught himself against a tree.
For a second, he stood facing back down the trail. His phone light caught the branch he'd just pushed through. Beyond it, he could see nothing.
"Jack?"
Another cry cut through the trees.
Tyler backed away. His heel caught on a root, and he nearly fell. He turned and ran again.
The light bounced too much to show him where he was putting his feet. He tried holding the phone steadier, but his hand wouldn't stop shaking. He switched it to the other hand and wiped his wet palm against his shirt.
The screen was still recording.
He stabbed at it with his thumb. The camera changed direction, filling the screen with his own face: wide eyes, open mouth, a streak of dirt across his cheek.
"Fuck."
He turned it back toward the trail.
Something moved beside him.
Tyler jerked away from the sound and ran into a low branch. It struck his forehead, knocking him sideways. He stayed on his feet, ducked under it, and kept going.
Ahead, the trail forked around a fallen tree.
He couldn't remember which side they'd used.
He took the left. The path narrowed until branches snagged his shirt. He forced his way through them, felt one catch beneath his collar, and tore free with a panicked grunt.
The path joined up again on the other side.
He nearly laughed with relief. Instead, he bent forward for two stumbling steps, trying to drag enough air into his lungs to keep running.
Jack was going to be pissed.
The thought came so suddenly, so normally, that Tyler almost called back to him. He could picture Jack shoving him once they were safe, asking what the fuck he'd been thinking.
He wanted that. Jack yelling at him. Jdawg sitting on the couch with his leg wrapped up, telling him this was why nobody let him plan shit.
Tyler looked behind him.
There was no flashlight.
He hadn't seen it since the bend.
"Come on," he whispered. "Come on, guys."
The porch light appeared between the trees.
Tyler pushed harder. His thighs burned. Every breath scraped his throat. He ran out of the woods and across the clearing, almost falling when his shoes hit the damp grass.
At the porch, he turned so fast his phone slipped from his hand and struck the bottom step.
"Jack!"
The trail was empty.
"Jdawg!"
He waited, watching the opening between the trees. They could be just behind the bend. Jack could still be helping him along.
A faint scream reached the clearing.
Tyler put a foot down off the porch.
Then something dragged through the brush, close enough that he could hear the leaves gathering beneath it.
He climbed the step again.
His phone lay faceup beside his shoe. On the screen, a red timer kept counting.
He picked it up and reached for the door handle.
"Tyler!"
Jack's voice.
Tyler froze.
"Help! Please!"
He looked toward the trail. He still couldn't see him.
"You gotta come back! Don't leave us!"
Tyler's hand tightened around the handle. He'd told them he'd come back. He'd come all this way to get something and come back.
Jack screamed again.
Tyler jerked the door open, rushed inside, and slammed it behind him.