Ghost Town

    Down in the ghost town of Moon Valley, people say that there is very suspicious activity. Experts have been studying the area for some time, but could never figure out what it was. When the last of the scientist went in and never came back out word got around, and that's when Nicholas had found out that one of his friends who went there never came back, so he called the organization who sent them and told them, Nicholas was hired to go down there and if he returned he would get paid money. He called his brother Noah, when they got together they called six more of their friends Garrett, Ryan, Brad, Bryce, Shane, Drew, and Jim. When they got together down at a cafe to discuss Nick's idea. Ryan, and Garrett had disapproved but when they heard that Nick was gonna get paid over fifty thousand, they were in. One guy by the name of Noah Klopp over heard them.
    "Hey y'all have room for one more?" Klopp said
    "Who are you? And why you asking?" Ryan leans over and barks
    "My names Noah Klopp and I hunt for a living, I just thought you guys could use someone who could track stuff." Klopp says in reply
    "Well alrighty then be at the heli-pad tomorrow at 8:30 a.m if you wanna go." Nick butts in and says.
    During that night Garrett and Ryan were thinking of what could be down there in Moon Valley.
    "Hey Garrett, what do ya think is down there?" Ryan whispers
    "I don't know some scary crap though, if those scientist did not return what about us?" Garrett replies.
    "I'm scared too but, for what we could be getting man i sure hope it's worth it." Ryan rolls over and says.
    The next day all the members of Nicholas's group head over to the chopper greeted by Noah Klopp.
    "Hey you guys made it, I thought y'all were gonna chicken out, but here you are." Klopp states.
    "Shut up and get in the helicopter." Nicholas Growls.
As the ten members climb in the pilot yells
    "Once we get you over the site you guys will have to rope down."
    "Why, I mean can't you just land for us?" Jim looks at the pilot and says.
    "Because we have to get in and get out as fast as possible." The pilot barks back.
They all get comfortable and find something to do for the hour and fifty-four minute flight. During the flight they all look out to see the beautiful scenery. Nicholas looks at his watch, it is now about five thirty, they are getting close to Moon Valley. As they sat back and wandered about what might happen, the helicopter shook. Red lights came on and the pilot began to yell
    "Jump, jump get out NOW!!"
    Drew looks to his right and sees two ropes. He glances over to see everyone else grasping for something to hold onto.
    "Guys help me with the ropes." Drew says with fear in his eyes.
    "Oh-oh-ok." Ryan mumbles.
    Drew and Ryan push the ropes over outside the helicopter.
    "Alright guys we don't have long, but we have to go." Drew yells
    As they all jump out, both pilots get up and jump out to. The helicopter weaves and crashes into the hard grassy forest.
    "Everyone alright?" The pilot yells.
    "Yea I'm good." Nicholas replies
    "I think i hurt my leg." Jim says with pain.
    "Jim, are you alright." Noah says with agony.
    Brad screams and drops to the ground crying in agony.
    "Brad what's wrong, is everything alright?" Shane looks over concerned, as he drops to the ground.
    "Look ab...above you shane." Brad says with tears running down his face.
As shane looks up and see's the horror, he looks away disgusted. Ryan, Garrett, and Drew run over.
    "Shane what's going on?" Ryan yells.
    Drew looks up to see bryce's dead dangling body pierced by a sharp piece of scrap metal. With his blood dripping from it.
    "Oh my god." Ryan yells
    "How did that happen to him?" Garrett replies.
    "I don't know." Drew replies.
    As this is happening, one of the pilots stagger over, and fall face first to the ground. All the members of the group just see a sharp blade, like a kitchen knife just sticking down his neck.
    "Where did that come from!?!" Nicholas yells in shock.
    "Klopp did you bring that?" Drew looks over
    "No, the only thing I brought was my rifle. Just for emergencies". Klopp replies.
    Jim limping towards the pilot, asks.
    "What is your name?"
    "My name... it's Carlos." The pilot says
    "Find all the supplies." Klopp yells "We need as much as possible."
    They all gather the supplies and headed towards a small shack not to far from the helicopter scouted by Shane. When they got closer to the shack they see signs. Each one had a more deadly message than the last.
    "What do those mean?" Jim asks while limping along.
    "I don't know but I'm getting a sketchy feeling." Drew replies.
    "Shhh, get down." Klopp barks
    As they all hunker down and listen, all they hear is rustling through the bushes. Then it stops, a loud screech fills the air, as it stops everyone had takes their hands off their ears, a faint lady whispers.
    "GET OUT."
    "Did anyone else here that?!?!!!" Jim yells.
    "Ya, but we can't leave, we have no way out" Carlos replies.
    They pick their stuff back up and head towards the shack, they grow closer and closer until they finally reach the front door.
    "Who's knocking?" Klopp mudders
    "I dunno." Shane says
    "I'll do it." The staggering Jim barks.
    As he raises his fist to knock he is shoved backwards down the stairs they came, up and the whole groups turns around while Drew is drug into the shack screaming for help.
    "What the heck just happened?" Garrett barks
    "Is jim alright." Shane grumbles as he jumps down the stairwell
    "Jim!!!" Klopp replies following Shane
    As they look into Jim's injuries Noah asks
    "Who's going in there to see if Drew's alright, I mean he is a part of this group.."
    "I guess it'll be me, Brad, Garrett, and Klopp, Shane you stay here with Carlos, Ryan and Noah to look over Jim.." Nicholas barks.
    As they head into the shack Shane and Ryan pick up Jim and put his head against a railing. Meanwhile as Nicholas enters the shack along with Brad, Garrett, and Klopp... They began to see blood stains, arms and legs splattered all around.
    "It stinks in here man.." Brad says
    "Just fight through it until we find Drew." Garrett barks
    "I don't think I can." Brad complains.
    Klopp grabs Brad and throws him to the ground yelling
    "You came here with friends, and your not gonna look for one whom may still be alive, why are you even here then."
    Brad gets up and punches Klopp in the face and barks back yelling
    "I'm in here because Nicholas volunteered me I didn't know it'd be like this, I'm waiting out there with Shane, Noah and Ryan."
    Garrett lunges at Brad, but Nicholas stops him.
    "What are you doing Nick!!!" Garrett barks
    "Just let him." Nicholas replies
    As Brad leaves Klopp gets up and stares Nicholas and Garrett down. They wander throughout the house for sometime till they see a stairwell leading to a basement.
    "You have the gun, so you first." Garrett says with a smirk.
    "I know, I know." Klopp replies
    They slowly head down the stairs, about halfway down the stairwell the hear the sounds of sawblades.
    "What is going on? I thought there was no power here." Nicholas whispers
    "I du....." Garrett is interrupted by brief screams coming and going.
    As Klopp turns the corner he instantly kneels to the ground, he see's a gruesome sight.
    "What do you see Klopp" Garrett murmurs.
    "What do you see Klopp you need to tell us." Nicholas trails off.
    "Nick where are you going?" Garrett barks "Anyway what the heck do you see in there Klopp?"
    Klopp doesn't respond, all he does is point. Garrett peers around the corner and he looks to see Drew tied to a table with a figure sawing off his body parts. Klopp and Garrett stumble over each other and something falls over. The figure glances over to see Garrett, and Klopp scrambling to their feet and scurrying up the stairs. As they do so the run into Nicholas who is staring at something, getting distracted, they all fall over Nicholas looks up and see's the figure, he looks over to see Klopp grabbing his rifle. Klopp aims it at the figure and fires, the figure vanishes into thin air. Nicholas, Garrett, and Klopp climb to their feet and hustle out the front door. When they come out they see there is a note.
    "Sorry we had to leave if you guys make it out, we are heading down for the town, it is west of here. The reason we left is because it sounded like y'all had died, also we will leave blue or green ribbons so follow them."
    "Why would they do this to us." Klopp barks
    "Calm down they did something they thought was right." Nicholas replies "C'mon we need to get to them and fast."
    As they follow they start to see the ribbons,
"Guys we need to pick up the pace it's turning dusk, and we probably don't wanna be out here during dark." Nicholas says. They finally reach the edge of the forest while following the ribbons.
    "Hey over here!!!!" Carlos and Noah yell.
    "Yes they're all alright!!" Shane and Brad bark.
    Nicholas, Garrett, and Klopp all run towards the house they had bunkered themselves in.
    "Where's Jim?" Klopp asks
    "He's ok but he's unconscious." Noah replies
    "Is everyone here? Shane, me, Garrett, Carlos, Jim, Noah, Brad, Ryan, and Klopp, yep we're all here." Nicholas says with joy.
    "What happened in the shack?" Brad says with a shameful face
    "Some scary crap, but the worse thing is that Drew..... he's gone." Klopp replies with a tear running down his face."
"If he was alive when we were there, he's certainly dead now." Garrett adds, "We barely made it out."
    "No...No....No Drew was my best friend..." Ryan gasps.
Nicholas feels as if he needs to tell them about the figure they saw, but some stronger, unknown force is telling him not to. He looks to Garrett, his face contorted and confused. Garrett's face shares similar features.
    "We need to rest, we need two people on guard every hours who's first?"
    "I'll go if Brad goes." Shane grunts
    The time was now seven thirty-eight, as they all lay down to rest Brad and Shane watch the door's just in case something came at them. By the time it struck day Klopp, and Noah were watching the doors. It was now eight twenty-four, and everyone woke up.
    "Wh...Whe...Where am I?" Jim wakes up confused.
    "Jim you're ok." Nicholas yells.
    "Hows that leg." Shane barks. "Can you walk?"
    "Yea I think." Jim replies
    They all get to their feet and walk outside the door.
    "It still hurts." Jim cries
    "Come here maybe this will work." Klopp barks
    Klopp takes some toilet paper, and some twigs and ties them to Jim's leg in hopes that Jim can walk.
    "How's that?" Klopp asks
    "I...It'll do, I can put some pressure on my leg now. Thanks man, thanks a lot." Jim replies.
    They all head down a street and they start to notice some bodies, lying in the streets. They ignore the bodies, and continue on to where the last known location of Nicholas's friend was. They come upon a street that gave Nicholas nightmares, there was blood and gore all over the place.
    "This can't be right, please don't be right." Nicholas mumbles,     "A behold the last street Dawson was last known on."
    "Nick if we wanna find your friend Dawson we have to split up." Shane steps in
    "Ok then what are the teams?" Nicholas replies
    "Team one will be Nicholas, Ryan, Garrett, Jim, and Carlos." Shane says "While team two will consist of me, Noah, Brad, and Klopp alright?
    "Ya that seems good." Nicholas says.
    They part ways and Nicholas takes his group into the first building to the right.
    "Do we have any flashlights?" Jim asks
    "Ya, we have one, so stay close." Garrett mudders
    Nicholas hesitantly leads his group into the abandoned building. The building, or more like a tower, shoots up into the sky.
"What do you think this place was used for?" Jim asks, limping at the back of the group.
"I dunno..." Garrett replies, keeping his eyes on his surroundings, "It looks different than the rest of the area."
"Whaddya mean?" Carlos asks.
"This has to be the tallest place within 100 miles." Garrett speculates, "The rest of the places are wooden, and old. This place looks brand new..."
"Oh my gosh..." Nicholas gasps, and leans over. At first, the three companions think he is injured, but Nicholas stands back up, with an old book in his hand. As Nicholas is looking at the book with the group, Ryan wanders off into another room, and doesn't say anything. All the sudden Ryan's feet are swept from under him and he disappears into the darkness.
"What is that?" Jim asks, limping to his side.
"It's... Dawson's journal." Nicholas goes to open the book, "He must of dropped it here..."
"Um... Nicholas...?" Garrett slowly backs up, seeming to see something no one else sees.
"Hush, Garrett." Nicholas' fingers touch the end of the book, and he slowly opens the cover. All of a sudden, from the shadows farther in the room shoot out, and wrap around Nicholas' legs, throwing him to the ground.
"AHH!!" Nicholas screams, dropping the journal. The shadows start to pull Nicholas into the darkness with an extreme strength. Carlos and Jim rush to aid Nicholas, but Garrett continues to stumble backwards, paralyzed by what he saw.
Carlos dives towards Nicholas, who is being yanked against the floor farther and farther into the dark. Jim trips, and collides into the ground, screaming in pain.
As Nicholas is pulled, Carlos is yanked after him, and they both disappear into utter darkness.
Gasping, Jim pulls himself up, and stumbles towards Garrett.
"We need to get out of here..." He murmurs.
Garrett finally snaps out of his trance.
"Woah, what happened?" Garrett pants, as if he's out of breath.
"Th... the thing took Nicholas and Carlos!" Jim gasps urgently, "We need to go."
Suddenly, they hear a footstep from the darkness. It's getting closer...
"Last time I checked, extremely scary ghosts don't walk..."
Suddenly, Carlos appears from the darkness, panting and crying.
"We need to go, now!" He grabs Garrett and Jim by the shoulders, and they rush to the doors where they entered. They go to push it open, but it is bolted shut!
"WHAT?!" Jim gasps.
Suddenly, they look around, and the journal sits face open on the ground, it's old pages flipping and flying. Then suddenly, the pages, one by one, are ripped out of the book, and start to fly rapidly around the room.
"RUN!" Garrett screams, and the three start a mad sprint along the side of the room, dodging and smacking away paper. One stray piece flies through the air and slices Garrett's cheek, drawing blood. Another paper bullets towards Carlos, who slides under it and it only miss by inches. Jim looks at them and rushes past the papers, they get to the end of the room. They began to pound on the doors and scream.
    "Move, now." Carlos insisted.
    Carlos get's a running start and he rams his body into the door. The door flings open, Carlos wipes the dust off him as he gets up.
"Carlos, look at this place." Jim says
"I don't care bout this place, all I care about is to find Nicholas and get the heck outta this death hole." Carlos barks.
"Jim, Carlos, if y'all wanna find Nick, then we must go up." Garrett replies with a sigh.
The three go floor through floor looking for Nick in hopes he is still alive.
"Guys haven't we been to this floor before? Garrett gasps
    "Ya I've seen this number a lot, it seems like we just go up to the same floor over and over again." Jim replies.
    "How can that work though?" Carlos asks
    As the three examine the room a body flops to the floor outta no-where, it is Nicholas, he is unconscious and but it breathing. When they take a closer look he has cuts and bruises all over his body.
    "Is he going to live?" Garrett asks
    "Ya he's good." Carlos replies "Jim what are you doing?"
    "I see something I'ma check it out." Jim barks back
    As Jim vanishes into the shadows, Garrett looks at his flashlight and grabs it to look around.
    "How long till he wakes up?" Garrett asks
    "I don't know could be minutes, hours, and rarely days." Carlos replies
    Jim stumbles in the room with an unknown figure, in which looks human and has a nametag on his white coat. He has long, brown hair that looks like it hasn't been cleaned in weeks.
    "What is your name." Carlos barks as he grabs a wooden leg off a table.
    "It's Dawson, I was sent here a couple months ago, do you guys have food, water or something?" Dawson replies. "I can tell you what goes down at night and day, my partner is missing, but I don't care....wh...who's that on the ground there?
    "It's Nick, are you his friend?" Jim replies
    "Ya, best friends...." Dawson says.
    Garrett looks over as the light in the flashlight begins to dim. Nicholas, slowly wakes up from being unconscious for a bit and see's Dawson.
    "Dawson ho...h...how are you still alive?" Nicholas urges.
    "I've been staying in the light during the day, it's the only safe place." Dawson remarks.
    "That's why the dark figure wouldn't attack us." Carlos barked
    "Your right." Garrett says in reply "We were in broad daylight, Drew was in the shade. That's why he had gotten attacked."
    They all pick up Nicholas and help him to his feet.
"Ugh... what happened..." Nicholas mumbles, holding on to Garrett and Carlos for balance.
"You nearly died... we don't know how you're alive!" Garrett exclaims.
"Yeah, I thought I wa-was a goner. Dawson..." Nicholas looks directly at Dawson, and they lock eyes. "Hunter here?"
"He disappeared weeks ago." Dawson explains. "I doubt he's still alive."
"Shame... I'm still interested to hear your story."
"Well, not much to it. Me and Hunter arrived here 2 months ago. I had heard that weird stuff happened here, so I started keeping a journal documenting what happened to me. At first, it was just small stuff, like ya know, floating cups and stuff. But then these things started coming... we called them Shadows. Mysterious beings, seem to be some strange hybrid between human and beast. They kill you. Hunter had a pistol, but that didn't seem to help. Every night they came at us, charging. hoping to get whoever they're after. Hunter he... he told me to leave him, I ran upstairs and have been stuck on this floor ever since. I never saw him again, every night I barely sleep. I see them, they look for us, but they never found me." Dawson explains.
"Dang, not to be mean, but do you know the way out?" Nicholas asks.
As he asks the question, they hear screams coming from down the hallway.
    "RUUUUUN." Ryan screams
    His face is bloody and he has cuts up and down his arms. Nicholas looks around for a desk or something big and heavy.
"Hey guys help me throw this table at that withered wall!" Nicholas yells
Everyone picks up the big wooden table and throws it, the withered wall breaks down. Nicholas stands over the edge looking down.
"The only way down is if we climb out through here, were only 3 floors up." Nick explains.
    Nicholas slowly makes his way onto the ledge followed by Ryan, Dawson, Garrett, Jim, and Carlos. As they all slowly climb for the emergency exit on the side of the building. Something hits the wall they are holding onto.
    "What was that?" Carlos gasps.
    "I don't know and I don't wanna find out." Nicholas sputters.
    They all climb fast, they finally get there and start heading down the metal stairs.
    "Hey, over there it's Shane, and Brad, with some sorta body." Jim points out.
    They all continue heading down, until finally reaching the ground.
    Meanwhile Noah, Shane, Brad, and Klopp go further down the street. They come to an old raggedy house that has been recently burned, they look at one another and discuss if they should go in or not.
    "Shane you think it's safe?" Brad asks with his face down.
    "I don't know but we have to go into each house and see if Nicholas's friend is alive somehow." Shane replies.
    As the four open the door to the burned house, Shane looks in his bag for some sorta light source. As he digs he comes upon a lighter and a LED flashlight.
    "Here Klopp, take this LED and Noah, you guys need to head upstairs and scout everything out, me, and Brad will scout the basement to see what's down there." Shane says.
    "Ok. Ok." Klopp barks
    As they split up, Shane and Brad head to the basement, it's large and wet.
    "What are we stepping in Shane?" Brad aks.
    Shane leans down to examine the floor.
    "It's gasoline, do not turn on that lighter!!!" Shane yells.
    "Alright then you take it." Brad says as the light is thrown.
    The lighter completely misses Shane and lands somewhere in the basement. They try and look for it, but can't find it. Brad looks up and see's two red eye's in the distance.
    "Shane, we need to leave right now!" Brad screams
    "C'mon." Shane yells
    As they begin to run for the stairs, stuff falls down and it blocks their path.
    Meanwhile upstairs with Klopp, and Noah.
    "Hey Klopp take a look at this." Noah says.
    "Okay I'm coming let me finish looking at this." Klopp replies.
    As Klopp walks over to look at what Noah has found, what he sees in gruesome. There is a pile of intestines lying on someone. As they inspect the body they hear faint screams coming from downstairs, they make a run for the stairwell when they reach it, they are suddenly shoved down the stairs and are both knocked unconscious. Into the basement, Shane hears the loud thumps, and looks over to Brad sighing.
    "I don't think we're leaving anytime soon".
    "Why what happened?" Brad barks.
    "I don't know, but if you don't wanna join them help me get all the debris outta the way." Shane replies with a heavy breath. "Also we don't have long, it seem's like those eye's are getting closer and closer by the minute so we gotta hurry. Ok?"
    "Ya, alright let's do it." Brad replies.
    They both frantically start pulling away the debris. While they do so they hear some footsteps above them. Brad begins to yell out, but is interrupted by Shane.
    "Dude, shhh, we don't know if that's them or a killer, so just stay quiet and continue moving the debris." Shane barks
    When they finally clear everything, they rush upstairs to see that Klopp is missing. They look over to see Noah bleeding from his head, they rush over to take a look.
    "It's just a cut." Shane says.
    "He'll live though right? Brad asks.
    "Ya, but we gotta meet up with the other's." Shane barks.
    As they carry out Noah's body, Shane looks back and see's the eye's, staring at them, as they moved to the middle of the street. They looked up at the sky and knew it was turning dusk once again.
    "Hey there they are let's move him over there." Brad says
    As the two groups finally meet up, they realize that it's dark out. So they run down the street towards a sewer drain. One by one they climb down it.
    "Alright we'll settle down here for tonight." Nicholas insists.
    "Everyone rest I'll be look out till I feel I'm about to sleep." Jim barks out.
They all hunker down to sleep, as the cold night went on Jim, became alert of the sounds above him. When he was ready to sleep, he leaned over and woke Shane up.
    Nicholas wakes up to find himself in a room, with all his buddies tied to a wall and slowly being torn apart, he looks for something to free them but one by one they all get ripped up, and Nicholas is covered in their blood, Nicholas ran outta the room, and he ends up in his old house. His parents house, he turns to the kitchen to see his mother sitting and eating her favourite food, chicken pot pie. Then he looks over to see his dad, working at the computer. The lights flicker for a couple minutes, then they burn out. For a couple moments Nicholas is standing still, until the lights flicker on and his mother is a humanoid creature and his father is ripped apart. His mother takes her long arm and jams it through Nicholas's heart and slowly sucks the living soul outta him.
    Nicholas wakes up screaming and crying. Hoping the dream wasn't real, he looks up to realize that he's in the same sewer system they had been in for hours now. Nicholas looks up at Shane and asks.
    "What time is it?"
    "It's four seventeen a.m, and what happened it seemed like you had a heart attack. You alright Nick?" Shane replies
    "Ya, just a terrible dream." Nicholas says with his eyes tearing up.
    "Hey whatever happened isn't going to happen to us alright, we'll live through this." Shane replies.
    "No, that isn't gonna work Shane, I mean we have no way outta here. So ya we will end up like in my dream." Nicholas barks.
    "It won't happen." Shane insists.
    By now it was seven forty-three, everyone wakes up. The light shines through the holes in the man hole.
    "Alright, we aren't going up, it seems they don't come down here, so we're gonna investigate this area." Shane commands. Everyone slowly gets up.
"Good morning, paradise." Garrett murmurs, rubbing his eyes.
"It's day time, can't we go to the surface and leave this city?" Carlos eyes the manhole, "Don't the Shadows only come out at night."
"Oh... no." Dawson shakes his head, his eyes wide, "They are always watching. They only have their power in the dark."
"Well no power, nothing' they can do. I'm leaving, who's with me?" Carlos looks around at the survivors. Nicholas, Shane, Garrett, Noah, Brad, Jim, Ryan, and Dawson all are silent.
Jim bows his head, "It's better than exploring a haunted sewer. God help you all..." He limps through the shallow water and stands next to Carlos and the small ladder leading to the manhole.
"Cowards." Garrett spits, shaking his head.
"Let them go." Nicholas replies, turning away, "If we do die and they do escape, maybe at least one person can survive to tell our story."
Carlos leads the way up the ladder, helping Jim out after him. Carlos pushes the manhole open, and the two crawl onto the surface of the city.
"Good luck." Ryan calls after them.
"You too!" Jim shouts back, as the manhole closes once more, surrounding the remainders in darkness.
"Whatever, Jim was holding us back anyways." Noah scowls.
+++
Carlos examines the area around him. A few beams of sunlight make their way through the withered leaves and mess of tangled tree branches, and hit down on them.
"Do... do you think it was a bad idea leaving them?" Jim whispers.
"No, it was a bad idea for them not to follow us." Carlos replies, "We're not ghost busters, we're people. People who want to live. The others... are caught up in their summer camp stories. We're realists."
"Okay..." Jim replies. The two make their way through the forest, and eventually reach a stone wall. Moss crawls up and down it's ancient bricks, and it stands taller than both Jim and Carlos combined.
"Shoot." Carlos examines the wall. It disappears into darkness both directions.
"A wall...?" Jim asks, "No... no way I can climb up that with my hurt leg!"
"Hush..." Carlos examines the trees around him. "Jim... get on me. Quickly, I'm going to boost you over the wall."
"Wait but what about you?" Jim gasps.
"Just DO IT. I'll be fine. QUICKLY!" As Carlos continues to watch the trees, Jim slowly crawls on top of Carlos' back. He reaches the top of the wall, and starts to pull himself up.
Suddenly, two black beings emerge from the shadows of the forest. Carlos hurriedly boosts Jim to the top.
"Jim..." Carlos has taken a much calmer tone, and now speaks in a tone just above a whisper, "Whatever happens to me, and whatever happened to the others... it doesn't matter. Get out of here. It's not worth the quick excitement of exploration. Go."
Carlos's back is now to the brick wall, and he faces the two monsters, who continue to creep closer and closer...
"How am I going to get out?" Jim asks, "I'm crippled!"
"This wall isn't here for no reason." Carlos pants, starting to regain his nervous tone, "My guess, it's separating this place from the real world... keeping the spirits in. You will be safe... Get out of the forest, get to any town you can find, and call police."
Jim's gut tells him to stay, to help Carlos, but he realizes if he jumps down, back into the haunted forest, there will be no chance of further escape.
"GO!" Carlos is now only inches away from the two beings.
Jim is about to jump down on the opposite side of the wall, but before, turns one last time to Carlos.
"Thank you."
The beings suddenly lunge at Carlos, knocking him against the wall with extreme force. Jim leaps off of the wall, half from fear and half from the force of the blow. Carlos says nothing, makes no noise, the whole time he dies. All Jim can hear is the beings continuously slam Carlos' helpless body against the wall.
Jim shuts his eyes closed shut, desperately trying to get the image of Carlos' poor, destroyed body on the opposite side of the wall. Jim starts  to limp away in horror now knowing he is alone in a dark forest with shadows possibly following him. He begins to slow down thinking he got away, he sits on a log and falls asleep thinking everything is safe. Not long after he sits he wakes up in a shack.
    "Huh, how'd I get these chains on me??" Jim cries "Where am I?"
    Jim hears footsteps above him, coming closer and closer with each step. They finally stop, when Jim sighs in relief a shadow comes with a saw for a hand and starts to cut Him up. He screams in pain hoping this is all a dream, a few minutes go by and he is losing a lot of blood. Jim looks at the bloody floor and table and looks at himself. He gets the courage to look around the room, he glances over to see drew's head on a hook. He gasps and cries, the shadow ends his pain with a fatal blow to the head.
+++
"So we goin down?" Shane asks.
"Nah we'll find another." Nicholas replies
They walk down a long path when Ryan stops abruptly.
"Are we going down?" Shane asks.
"No we'll find another way down."Nicholas explains
As they turn around Shane and Ryan are shoved down the hole. Shane is clinging to life with one hand and is holding Ryan in the other
"Shane, Ryan hold on!!!" Nicholas screams
"Ryan I'm losing your grip." Shane screams
"No you're not." Ryan yells, "Shane, I want you to know, that I was holding us back. I'm sorry" Ryan explains as he let's go of Shane's hand and falls deep into the sewers depths. They all look back and see a figure vanishing into the sewers darkness.
"Ryan!!!" Shane screams with agony.
They climb back to their feet, and head down a different way. They all head down, and continue to a different area of the sewer. Shane begins to cry, in wonder if Ryan is alive. They continue down the drain, they see figures bolting across the area.
"You see that?" Shane gasps
"Yeah, just be careful." Garrett replies
"Stay as a group don't leave each other." Noah replies.
"Don't leave the group." Brad yells out.
They all continue down, while hoping they'll see Ryan, or Klopp again.
"Hey, what's the time?" Shane asks.
"It's two." Brad replies.
They continue through the tunnels for sometime till they come to a split within the tunnel system. They decide to go right, and along that tunnel was lamps that were burnt out.
"We set these up here so we could see along our ways, we didn't know the monster's hated it." Dawson explains "We didn't find this place only till a month ago I came down here with a group of my fellow scientist and lit this place but only a couple days after it, all of them died but me and Hunter, and y'all know how he died."
"Brad...." Shane says
"What?" Brad says in reply
"Time?" Shane asks urgently
"Ummmm........let me check, it's now seven." Brad replies
    They all hunker down and rest for the night.
    As Ryan let go of Shane's hand he fell to what he thought was his unforgettable death. But he splashes, into water. Ryan finally wakes up from being unconscious and finds himself bleeding all over. He looks up to see a faint light, he tries to scream but all that comes out is blood. He can barely stand, but as he does he slowly limps through the shallow, dirty water. He continues through the water, and stumbles and weaves. But he stays on his feet, as he slowly mushes through the water. He trips over something and lands on a body, he turns over the body and looks shocked.
    "K...K....Klo...Klopp?" Ryan gasps.
    Ryan gets up, and starts to see warts, and bubbles appear on his body, Ryan also notices that there's a bag of bread that is stale and moldy. Ryan starts to limp as fast as he can down the sewer pipe in hopes of getting away, the now mutated Klopp is chasing Ryan. Ryan is throwing away stuff at him, and falls over a pipe. He picks up the pipe and starts limping towards Klopp, when he got close enough he shoves the pipe right through Klopp's eye, or what used to be his eye. Ryan falls back breathing heavily and thinking to himself.
    "Am I..I, going to die down here?
    Ryan gets up and starts limping he begins to hear voices down the pipe. Then they stop, all he could make out of the words was Brad. He starts to wobble down towards the voice by he is stopped by a split in the pipe. He stops there and settles down to rest. But he can't he looks down the right pipe and left pipe, he decides to go down the left pipe. As he wobbles down he looks among the lamps and bodies that lie there, he trips over a pipe and lands on a head. He looks up to see his friends alive and well. Ryan shakes Shane to wake them up.
    "Ry..Ryan, is that really you?" Shane gasps
    "Ya, it's me I'm alive." Ryan says "But we gotta get outta here bigger, more worse monsters lurk down here."
    "Alright well help me get everyone up." Shane replies
    As they begin to wake everyone up, they hear strange noises coming from just down the pipe.
    "Run up through the manhole up ahead." Shane grunts
    Shane, Ryan, Nicholas, Brad, Dawson, Noah, and Garrett all head towards it, one by one they all climb up the ladder. They reach the top of the manhole to see that it is dark out, they all try and find a house, or a safe area to stay in for the night.
    "Ok, in here guys, this must be a little safer than normal." Dawson says "This is where my group stayed, there still might be batteries within the lamps. They might still work you never know."
    They all head in and try to turn on each lamp. Outta like ten, only four worked.
    "Hey a lights a light." Shane says.
    "Ya I know, now get some sleep." Garrett replies
    "I will, I will." Shane says
    "I wonder what's happening to Jim, and Carlos right now." Nicholas says
    "Ya, just forget them and go to sleep." Noah barks.
    They all eventually fall asleep in the abandoned house that they had went in. By morning the group was well rested and ready to go. They had left the house at nine fifteen, they were heading down to the mini-mart to gather some food products. If there were any there.
    "Hey what food do you think is down there?" Garrett asks
    "I don't know, just hope not rotten food." Noah says in reply.
    "True that."Nicholas replies
    They reach the street in which the mini mart is at. They pander for a second and wonder if they should go in or not, but no matter what they still do. As the group enters the store it look like it had never been touched.
    "Spread out, try and find the non-expired food if you will." Nicholas says
    "Ya, Ya we got it." Shane says
    They all begin to fill their bags with food and items they could use. Noah sees two big doors that lead into the loading dock of the store. Noah peers through and sees nothing, as he wanders in he has a creepy feeling that he's being watched. Noah glances behind right before a shadow, when suddenly the shadow shoved him to the ground and slowly walked towards him. Noah prepared for death. Shane heard a scream, and came at the shadow with a small bat. The shadow turned around and vanished with Shane missing and hitting Noah in the head.
    "Ooo Ouch..." Noah cries
    "Sorry, where is it?" Shane replies
    "Behind you...Shane!" Noah yells
    Before Shane could act the shadow raises its arm and pierces Shane's shoulder. It pulls out the blade shaped arm, and tries to stab Shane over and over again. But Shane was able to hold back the blade with one hand, but the blade was digging into his hand. Noah gets up and hits the shadow in the back of the head with the bat Shane had brought in. Shane lay's on the ground petrified by the pain.
    "Shane are you alright." Noah cries "HELP, someone get help in here NOW!!"
    Brad, Ryan, and the group begins to pour in.
    "What happened to him?" Nicholas asks
    "He was saving my life." Noah barks back
    "Ok and did you help him?" Brad replies
    "Really? Brad, Are you dumb, I mean he wouldn't be here if i didn't save him." Noah growls back.
    "Ok, will he live?" Ryan cries
    "Not if we don't find some medicine and fast." Noah replies
    Everyone scatters through the store trying to find the medical section. Garrett, seems to be the first to find it, then everyone does. They start to attend medical attention to Shane. They only had found medical alcohol bottles and some bandages. But it was enough to help his arm. When they finished cleaning his shoulder that ripped his shirt and tied it around his shoulder. They all get up to discuss what had happened.
    "What was that all about." Dawson barks
    "Shane he saved me." Noah replies with his head limp.
    "How?" Garrett asks
    "He scared it away, then it had came back." Noah replies again
    "It wasn't his fault.." Shane speaks up "I accidently hit him in the head with a bat."
    "Wow...Haha" Brad laughs
    "Ryan, what are you doing?" Shane gasps
    "I think...I think I hear a shadow...it...it must be big." Ryan says
    The group begins to think what could be coming, when the front doors to the store break down.
    "Everyone hide!" Nicholas barks
    Ryan hides behind the counter, with Brad. Shane, and Nicholas hide under a cart, Noah, Garrett, and Dawson go maneuver around the shelves as the shadow passes. Noah, hits a shelf, knocking something off, Garrett, and Dawson disappear behind another shelf. Noah, trying to take the courage to look behind him, as he looks a huge shadow takes him by the throat and pins him against the wall, Noah tries to squeal for help. He has no air and has no hope. The shadow, takes it's arm and drills it through his stomach, the blade shaped hand slowly pushes itself upward. When it reaches Noah's heart, the shadow grabs it and rips it out. The shadow vanishes leaving Noah and his torn out heart, to die. The beating heart and the slowly dying Noah, he looks up and takes one deep breath before, looking into the light. Shane bursts out from under the cart along with Nicholas running over to Noah's limp body.
    "No..No..NO....No.No.No.No....NOAH, please stay with me!!" Nicholas cries.
    "I'm sorry Nick, h...he's gone.." Shane replies
    "Garrett, Dawson!!! What Happened." Nicholas barks
    "I don't know I heard a sound, I guess he hit the shelf and it knocked it off." Garrett pants as he runs over.
    "You better know GARRETT." Nicholas screams.
    "I swear man.. I don't know." Garrett cries
    "He doesn't know Nick.... He doesn't know, just calm down." Shane replies
    "How can I calm down, my brother just died. How would you like it Shane, Garrett, Dawson, you Brad, and you RYAN, how'd you feel!!!" Nicholas barks
    "I don't know. Nick I don't know...." Ryan says
    Nicholas wipes the tears off his face, and gives a grim look towards Garrett, they leave the store and start to head towards the outer wall. Nicholas still withered by his brother's death, begins to look at the wall. They follow it down to the edge and turn the corner to see a gruesome scene of a man lying and sitting by the wall with his arm cut off. They run over and look at the man.
    "Who is he?" Dawson asks
    "No one knows." Brad replies
    "Look for his wallet and his ID." Ryan barks
    "Hey here it is...." Shane replies. "His name..it's Carlos..."
    They all looked stunned, and wandered how he died. They turn around to see a gang of shadows just staring them down.
    "What do we do.." Ryan whispers
    "Stay still." Shane gasps
    "No you guys go. This is my time." Brad says with courage.
    "No Brad you're going." Shane replies.
    Brad starts running around the corner, with the shadows chasing him. One stayed to watch Ryan, Shane, Nicholas, Dawson, and Garrett. As Brad leads them away he looks behind him to see they vanished. He starts to slow down, suddenly a thick mist appears blinding Brad. He is able to only see his arms reach in front of him, Brad see's movement but can't tell who it is, they come closer and closer. When they reach Brad, the shadow from the store comes up and grabs Brad by the throat. Holding him for the other's to stab, but the shadow's don't even try. The big shadow crushes Brad's windpipes and drops him, then Brad slowly suffocates to death. Meanwhile Shane and the others are starring this one Shadow down, Shane urges everyone to run. They do, the one shadow doesn't move but let's out a squeal. Everyone holds their ears and continues running. Then it stops, everyone turns around to see a mutated dog shape form, charging at them.
    "Run!!!" Nicholas screams
    They all bound in and out of houses, dodging their scratches and bites. Shane, and Ryan hide in a closet making no sounds, while a pack of hungry dogs pass by them. Dawson, and Nicholas keep running, not stopping to see if the dogs are still behind them. They bound under a rock and grab weeds to hide themselves from the dogs. Garrett is running, sweating but not stopping, he looks behind him to see Nicholas waving him to run. Garrett get's into a house and continues to jump through windows, making the dogs go through the dogs the doors. Garrett looks behind him to see he's getting away, so he runs though one more house, then he hides in an upstairs bedroom with the door locked. He hears the dogs running through the house frantically trying to find him. One of the dogs start scratching at the door whining for the others to come help. Soon there banging on the door, and the hinges are slowly breaking, Garrett looks behind him and see's a window. He starts to pull it up but then it get's stuck on something so he takes his elbow and shatters the glass. He cuts himself climbing through the now broken window. As he climbs the door behind him caves in and the dogs start charging towards him. Garrett tries frantically to get away, but one of the dogs bites on Garrett's leg and starts pulling on it. But Garrett fights back and instead loses his leg to the hungry pack of dogs, Garrett falls off the roof onto the ground then onto the ground. He get's up and starts hopping away he get's pretty far but now he can't hide he knows the dogs will find him, he goes to Nicholas and gives him a note.
    "Nicholas, take this and give it to my sister." Garrett urges
    "Why?" Nicholas says
    "Can't talk gotta go." Garrett cries
    The dogs have caught up to him, he begins to hop away and does the same thing hides in a room. The dogs find him and chewed him up like little doggy treats. Shane, and Ryan hop outta the closet, and meet up with Nicholas, and Dawson.
    "Garrett, he gave me this note, h...h." Nicholas studders.
    "I..I know Nick, he's gone." Shane says trying to comfort him
    "I didn't really know the guy but he seemed cool." Ryan says.
    "C'mon, we gotta get to the outskirts of town, there might be a helipad there. I've been seeing helicopters pass by, I guess there waiting on us, or seeing if we are alive." Dawson says.
    The four begin to head towards the helipad hoping there would be some sorta help there, waiting on them. As night begins to fall over the small town, they hunker down in some old small house. They fall asleep, and hear the dogs, and shadows haunting them with more purpose. They also began to wonder if Jim made it out alive. As the night grew into day, Ryan looked at himself and the scars and scratches have yet to heal. It looks like there not healing, but he didn't care. As the got up and started to move, the realized they had little food and little water, so they had to make it out that day. They see a store, they could have use but they don't go in due to what had happened last time. Shane looks at his wound and then peers over to his last of his friends Nicholas, and Ryan. Nicholas peers through a hole in a wall to see what's on the other side. Nicholas doesn't say what he see but he points out and screaming in joy. Shane, Ryan, Dawson, and Nicholas start running towards the helipad. When they reach it, the soldiers mutate quickly into shadows. Nicholas gasps as he slips and falls to the ground, Dawson runs over and picks him up, they start to run through the woods. Heading for whatever seemed to be in the distance, with the shadows behind them they can't stop for nothing. Tree's and rocks begin to fall, Nicholas slides and jumps over them. In the middle of jumping his shirt gets caught a branch, Shane turns around and rips the shirt letting Nicholas fall. Shane begins to fall behind the group, they return to the crash site, that began this horror. They look behind them and it seemed that the shadows have following them.
    "Look for tools, weapons anything!" Nicholas says trying to catch his breath.
    "Shane, are you ok?" Ryan looks over.
    "Hey, I found a pistol, who wants it." Dawson barks
    "Shane should have it." Nicholas says
    "Shhh...I hear something." Shane says
    They look around and Ryan notices Bryce's dangling body was no longer there. They began to peer around the whole helicopter in hopes his body wasn't mutated. The sound grew closer and closer, then it stopped. Dawson see's a terrible sight, Bryce split in half, with a metal shank, and intestines dangling out. His blood squirting from the split, and the now mutated Bryce is slowly walking towards Dawson. Shane throws the gun at Dawson.
    "SHOOT HIM!!!" Shane screams.
    Dawson isn't able to pull the trigger, as the shadow grows closer and closer and swings the metal shank. Ryan pushes Dawson outta the way and loses an arm, he falls back paralyzed. Shane grabs the gun and shoots at the shadow, drawing his attention. Shane bolts while the shadow chases him, the shadow raises the metal shank and drills it into the ground missing Shane by inches. Shane bolts away running towards Ryan, picking him up and running towards flares that Dawson, and Nicholas had just set. They wait there for a good five hours till they hear the sound of a helicopter. As it drops down shadows start to pour outta the tree's. The helicopter doesn't land but, Nicholas got on first, along with Dawson. Helping Shane put Ryan in the helicopter. The shadows grow closer and closer than before. Shane starts to climb in and a shadow dog chomps on his leg. Shane is able to kick it away, Shane get's in and the helicopter starts to take off. They fly over the ghost town and see the shadows all over town.
    "Is ryan's arm ok?" Shane says
    "Ya, he'll live, but not with a good arm." Nicholas cries
    "At least he lives." Dawson says with enthusiasm.
    The helicopter flies for another forty-five minutes until they finally land on the roof of the medical center. Shane, and Ryan are rushed to the emergency room to where Ryan has to get a robotic arm, and Shane has to get stables in his shoulder. Ryan also needs a lot of stitches. Nicholas and Dawson head home, and go to sleep, the next couple days went by the Shane, and Ryan were sent home. The four gather as a group and write a letter to their friends who have died there. They don't know if it got there but who cares. They all lie on their beds and shut there eyes trying hard not to think about the horror they went through. A couple months later, Shane wakes up and hears ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars everywhere in Manhattan. He looks out the window and sees Shadows have followed them home.
    "What are they looking for?" Nicholas gasps trying to keep the light outta his eyes.
    "I don't know maybe us? I mean we are the only four whom made it out alive." Shane barks.
    "Why are they out during the day? I thought they hated daytime." Dawson scowls.
    "I guess they are just fueled by rage, so they are attacking during the day." Ryan cries.
    "I guess." Shane says as his head goes limp.
    "Should we go down and help?" Dawson mumbles
    "No, we wait this one out." Shane barks. "We have enough medical, food, and water to last us a while so I think we'll be good."
    The four just sit there in their apartment, thinking when is this nightmare going to end. Days, and weeks go by. The four watch in horror as the shadows take over their beloved city.