UNTIL DAWN: Sam's story

X.

"Come on guys! Hurry up! We gotta find Mike," I called them from the front, since they were way too slow, and we had to let him know. On our way from the basement I found a headband flashlight, which was now, along with Chris's large torch one and Ashley's smaller one, the only thing that could let us know what's up ahead. Other than these three sources, the tunnel was pitch black.

"Hey... ahhh... I'm kinda gimping out here guys... I think maybe you should go on without me," I heard Chris's quiet voice from behind me, so I stopped and turned around. He was leaning on the wall, still holding his injury.

"No. Chris. We're not leaving you. We're sticking together. Mike will just have to wait," Ashley quickly decided for all of us and I didn't argue with her, since I understood her. Chris shook his head lowly but pushed himself off the wall and followed me.

We've arrived at the big metal door, leading to the Sanatorium. I grabbed the handle and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh shit. Mike must have locked it behind him. CRAP!" I groaned loudly. "There's gotta be another way in." I started to walk around the room, holding my head, thinking, when Ashley's soft voice snatched my attention.

"Hey! What about this?" she and Em were leaning over a manhole.

"Oh... huh," I quickly reached them.

"I mean, should... should we try it?" she questioned, peaking inside.

"Well it's not like we got a whole lot of choices here," I agreed and watched her grab a metal pipe to get the lid off before we slid it to the side.

"Okay this is maybe the last place I'd wanna be right now," Ash groaned, when we were standing over the hole, looking into the darkness inside.

"So, who's going first?" I questioned, looking around. Chris was still in no condition to get down first, Ash looked at me doubtfully, taking a step back, so I moved my gaze to Emily.

"After you," she sneered at me, not looking away from the hole.

I sighed and slowly got onto the ladder inside. "It's not so bad," I comforted, more telling it to myself then them, as I began ascending. "You think this is the tunnel leading to the Sanatorium?" I asked to keep my mind of off the darkness, that was slowly consuming me.

"Of course, it is. Where else would it go?" Ashley answered me. I leaped off the ladder, while another person got down behind me.

"Chris...," Ashley's quiet voice was heard from the floor above me. "I know you're hurt but you gotta move it, alright?"

"I'm trying Ash!" he spat, stepping into the manhole, groaning a little from the pain.

"Hey... um... we should close this, right?" Ashley called from the top of the ladder.

"Huh?" I really didn't want to lose more time, because the longer we take, the longer will Mike be without knowledge.

"I mean what if something's following us?" She looked at me.

"Yes, fine. Close it. But we gotta keep moving," I urged her. She quickly pulled the lid back on as I began walking, Em and Chris following closely behind and Ashley catching up to us soon enough.

We were walking through the tunnel in the mines towards the Sanatorium when we reached a cliff.

"Wow great," I mumbled when I saw it.

"The ladder's toast, we're never going to make it up there!" Ashley cried out.

"No no no, I think I can do it. It's like... a rock wall," I examined it closely. "I'm gonna keep going... you should head back to the lodge I've gotta get Mike," I looked at them seriously, while Ash nodded at me in return.

"Good luck!"

I reached the wall and began climbing. After about two minutes, I finally got to the top, almost falling down, but I grabbed the edge just in time. "I beat you!" I looked behind me with a sense of accomplishment. "I fucking beat you!" I panted, standing up.

I walked through the dark mines, until I got to a wooden path, leading around the mountain, with a huge abyss below me. "Ahh! Jesus!" I cursed when some rocks suddenly fell from above and destroyed a piece of the trail behind me, making it impossible for me to return. I kept walking, when another set of stones made a hole in the wood in front of me. "Oh fuck! Fuck!" I quickly jumped over it, groaning when I almost fell again. After a while, I saw a metal pipe on the side of the trail and picked it up. Hearing weird noises from all around me made me want to have something to protect myself. I dropped down a one-meter slope and saw a metal door in front of me. I was about to reach for it when it burst open.

"Goddammit!!! Stay out there!!!" A beat-up Mike yelled, while trying to close the door, only ending up knocked to the ground, when an already really hurt Wendigo pushed the door open. It was really tall, with a hunchback-like appearance. It had canine and disfigured teeth, almost all the muscles were deteriorated, and the limbs were slender and longer. It didn't have any hair and I couldn't figure out if this was a male or a female.

"Mike! Holy shit!" I screamed when it jumped on him. "Hey!! FATTY! OVER HERE!!" I quickly got its attention, just before I hit it twice, knocking his already burned head from its ashy body. My friend got up quickly and locked the door in a hurry, panting hard. He was dirty, and had even more cuts on his body, then before. Two parallel ones on his neck stood out, since there was a trickle of blood, still oozing out of it. And the new monocle on his left eye was not the only bruise, coloring his face.

"Whoa!" he yelped when a screaming red light shot out of the Wendigo's body. Probably its soul, as the diary wrote. "You alright?" he asked, leaning on his knees.

"Uhh, define 'alright'," I answered shakily.

"Alive, for a start," he chuckled.

"Yeah," I breathed out. "Yeah, alive's good!"

"Yeah.... The hell are you doing here, anyway?" he looked at me worriedly.

"I was gonna warn you about the Wendigos," I pointed to the door.

"I think I got it."

"Yeah"

"Let's find a way down to where this fucker lives," he suggested as we began walking back to the mines.