Chapter 41 We must stay together

Chapter 41 We must stay together
The entity's attacks had stopped, but no one could sleep.

They sat scattered around the living room in the dim lamplight, exhausted but too wired to rest. The rescue team looked shell-shocked, still processing what they'd witnessed with Sienna. Chen had pulled herself together somewhat, back into professional mode, but her hands still trembled slightly when she thought no one was looking.

"Start from the beginning," Chen said. She'd positioned herself at the dining table with a notebook, pen ready, like documenting everything would somehow make it manageable. "What happened on day one?"

The original group exchanged glances. Where did you even start?

"We arrived on the eleventh," Mara said. "Eight of us. It was supposed to be a week-long trip before graduation. One last adventure together."

"The cabin looked normal at first," Eli added. "A bit run-down, but normal. We unpacked, made dinner, everything was fine. Then we found the photograph."

"What photograph?" Brooks asked.

Aria stood, retrieved the frame from the mantle, and handed it to Chen. The Captain stared at it—eight people in modern clothes standing in front of the cabin, the photo aged and yellowed like it was decades old.

"This is you," Chen said slowly. "But this photo looks like it's from the seventies or eighties. How is that possible?"

"We don't know," Aria said. "We found it the first night. There are others too—different groups from different decades, all showing eight people. All dead now."

"This could be faked," Brooks said, but his voice lacked conviction. "Photoshopped and printed on old paper stock…"

"Could you fake what you just saw with Sienna?" Juno interrupted. "Her bones breaking? Her eyes going black? That was real. You all saw it."

Silence. Because she was right.

"Tell us what happened to your friends," Lisa said quietly. "The ones who died. We need to know what we're facing."

So they told the story. Took turns, each filling in pieces. Devon disappearing the first night, how they found him flayed in the trees, his skin hanging from branches like grotesque decorations. Theo's gradual deterioration, his obsession with understanding, his final act of self-dissection in the bathtub upstairs.

Marcus went very pale. "He performed an autopsy on himself? While alive?"

"He was trying to see how the infection worked," Eli said. "Trying to map it. To understand it."

"That's not rational human behavior.."

"Nothing here is rational," Mara cut him off. "That's what you need to understand. The rules don't work here. Logic doesn't work. This place operates on something else entirely."

Chen was writing everything down, but her notes were becoming increasingly disjointed. She looked up at Juno. "You said you have footage. Can we see it?"

Juno hesitated. "It's not easy to watch."

"We need to see."

So Juno pulled out her camera, set it up so everyone could see the small screen. She scrolled through files, selected one. "This is from day two. When we first tried to leave."

They watched as the camera showed the group getting in their cars, driving down the road. Watched the road ahead shimmer and fade, turning to mist, then to forest. Watched the vehicles forced to turn back, ending up at the cabin again.

"That's exactly what happened to us," David breathed. "Exactly."

Juno played more footage. The entities at the windows, barely visible but there. The scratching sounds. Devon's body in the trees—she'd filmed it before they could stop her, and Brooks turned away, looking sick.

"This is real," Lisa said, not a question. Just a statement of fact. "All of it. It's actually real."

"Show them the tapes," Aria suggested. "The ones from previous groups."

They loaded the 1998 tape into the VCR. Watched teenagers arrive at the cabin, young and alive and excited. Watched them slowly realize they were trapped. Watched them try to leave and fail, again and again. Watched them die one by one until only two remained, then none.

When it ended, Chen sat back heavily. "How many groups?"

"At least twelve that we've found evidence of," Aria said. "Going back to the 1970s, maybe earlier. Different decades, different people. But always eight. And always the same result."

"Everyone dies," Brooks said hollowly.

"Everyone dies," Mara confirmed.

"But you're still alive," Chen pointed out. "Five of you. You've survived longer than most of these groups did."

"We got lucky," Eli said. "Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. Most groups didn't make it past day five or six. We're on day ten now."

"Why?" Chen asked. "What's different about you?"

No one had a good answer for that. They'd wondered the same thing themselves. Why were they still breathing when so many others had fallen faster?

"Maybe we're just slower to break," Juno said bitterly.

Chen stood, moved to the window. Dawn was still hours away. "These tapes could be edited. The footage could be staged. But what we saw tonight with Sienna…" She stopped. "I can't explain that. And I've seen a lot in fifteen years as a ranger. But I can't explain that."

"Then stop trying to explain it," Mara said. "Just accept it. This place is wrong. It kills people. It transforms them. And now you're trapped here with us."

"There has to be a way out," David insisted. "There's always a way out. We just haven't found it yet."

"We've tried everything," Aria said. "Running, driving, walking, waiting for rescue. Nothing works. The forest keeps you here until…" She stopped.

"Until what?" Chen asked.

"Until it's done with you," Mara finished quietly.

They fell into uneasy silence. Outside, the forest was quiet. No scratching, no whispers. Just the oppressive stillness of something watching, waiting, patient.

Around two AM, Sienna woke up. Her eyes were normal and well, as normal as the white-filmed eyes could be. She looked around, disoriented.

"Rhett?" Her voice was weak but her own. "What happened?"

Rhett knelt beside the couch immediately, took her hand. "You had... an episode. Do you remember?"

Sienna's brow furrowed. "I remember dreaming. I was underwater and something was pulling me down. It felt so real. I couldn't breathe, couldn't fight it." She touched her chest. "It still feels real."

"How do you feel now?" Marcus asked, moving to check her vitals.

"Tired. So tired and cold." She looked at Rhett with sudden clarity. "I'm dying, aren't I? I can feel it. Something inside me is changing and I can't stop it."

"Don't say that," Rhett's voice broke. "You're going to be fine. Marcus is taking care of you, and we're going to get out of here, and…"

"Rhett." She squeezed his hand. "Don't lie to me. Please. I need you to be honest."

He looked at her, tears streaming down his face, and couldn't speak.

Lisa had been watching from across the room. She came over quietly, sat on the floor beside Rhett. "You're not alone," she said to both of them. "Whatever happens, you're not alone."

Rhett nodded, unable to form words. Sienna closed her eyes again, anddrifted back to sleep. Her breathing was shallow but steady.

Around two-thirty, Juno approached Mara where she sat by the window. "Can I talk to you?"

Mara nodded.

Juno sat down, fidgeting with her camera. "I know you think all I care about is footage, content, sand getting famous from this nightmare."

"Juno.."

"Let me finish. You're not wrong. When we first got here, when things started getting weird, part of me was excited. Thought this would be the thing that made me matter. Made people remember my name." She laughed bitterly. "How fucked up is that?"

"We all have our coping mechanisms," Mara said quietly.

"But it's not just coping. My camera—it's the only thing that makes me feel like I have control. Like I matter. Without it, I'm just... nobody." Juno looked at Mara with red-rimmed eyes. "I'm sorry. For always filming, for treating this like content instead of our lives. I'm sorry."

Mara put her hand over Juno's. "I'm sorry too. For being harsh. For judging. We're all just trying to survive however we can."

They sat together in companionable silence, watching the darkness outside.

Chen made a decision around three AM. "At first light, Brooks and I are going to attempt another hike out. But this time, we document everything. Radio equipment, GPS trackers, cameras. If we loop back, we'll know exactly how and why. We'll have proof."

"It won't change anything," Eli said.

"Maybe not. But we have to try. We have to do something." Chen looked around at them. "We're not giving up. Understood? We're going to figure this out and get everyone home."

She sounded confident, and authoritative. But Mara could hear the doubt underneath. Chen was trying to convince herself as much as them.

Three AM became Mara's watch. She took her position by the window, rifle across her lap, and stared out at the dark forest.

"I'm sorry, Ethan," she whispered to the glass. "I'm trying. I'm trying to figure out how to save you."

Outside, something moved between the trees. A figure that could have been her brother, could have been anyone. She closed her eyes against the tears.

Behind her, the others settled into restless half-sleep, waiting for dawn.

Waiting for another day of being trapped.

Waiting for the next person to fall.