Post by MSS Productions on Jun 26, 2020 0:59:36 GMT
Female voice: “Do you even know where you are?”
Male Voice: “Of course I do, now shut up and let me get my bearings!”
M.S.S. Presents....
The first actual shot opens inside a wooded area with two young adults standing in a small clearing of trees in the dead of night. Each of them was dressed in road stained and travel weary clothing. They were nearly the same height, with their height on the trees saying she was tall for a woman. His hair was a dirty unkempt blonde and tied up into a tiny tail. Her own was as filthy as his own, brown and tangled with mats, knotted at the base of her skull where it hung down toward her back.
The woman leaned back on a tree panting while her companion did his best to look over the remaining fragments of a map. The shot shifts around them looking out into the cover of the trees as the wind blows the branches back and forth. Out in the distance the snapping sound of a branch breaking broke the silence followed by another from the other side of the clearing and a third from yet a third direction.
Young woman: “Uh...T..Travis…”
Young man: “Lidia, shut the hell up. I’m trying to focus.”
Lidia: “I heard something….”
Travis: “It’s an animal Lidia. We haven’t seen one of those things in hours.”
Another branch snapped and the young brunette looked around, frightened eyes scanning the darkness.
Lidia: “Tr..”
Travis: “Lidia, I need to read this if we are going to get to that depot by morning.”
The young woman fell silent, visible shivers running across her body as her eyes darted around in the darkness. Another branch snapped and she squealed out a squeak of fright.
Lidia: “Travis!”
The young man threw his hands down, the map lightly slapping his thigh as he turned away from the tree to face her. His face twisted into an inhuman mask of disgust and hate.
Travis: “All you ever do is bitch and complain! God dammit, I said shut the fuck….”
Before he even finished the cruel berating of his partner and companion the jagged, blood stained end of a blade popped from his mouth. He gurgled around it, eyes wide and staring at her. As he stared another sharp edge, this time of a crudely homemade ax took him in the side of the head severing it at the jaw level. His body fell leaving the head on the tip of the knife and two figures appeared in the darkness behind him.
They were both middle aged men, one of them balding with the patches of hair on the sides of his head and the other sporting a dirty greying ponytail. Each of them were wearing filthy bloody overalls and white tank tops underneath them.
When the girl saw them, as they killed her companion, she let out a blood curdling scream. She backed up into the tree behind her, still screaming and began to feel her way around the trees edge. Each breath the woman took came out as a whimpered pant of pure blind terror.
Balding man: “Hey little bird.”
Pony tail: “Sorry we had to get rid of your friend but...he’d have gotten in the way.”
The woman swallowed a lump in her throat, unable to not see the way the two men looked her up and down. It made her uncomfortable in ways she didn’t want to consider.
Lidia: “...in...the way of...what?”
Balding man: “A little end of the world party…”
Pony tail: “A little intimate gathering, just the three of us.”
The two men came forward as one but she was able to turn and bolt into the trees. She ran, crying hysterically while fumbling in the dark. From the blackness around her she could hear the two men cat calling her, laughing as she cried.
She burst through the branches of a tree straight into the start of an incline leading down toward a shallow river. The instant she hit the incline she lost her footing and went toppling down the hill, landing in the water with a splash.
Before she could even fully pull her head out of the water a hand grasped her roughly by the hair and pulled her out. She kicked and fought, but could do nothing to stop the man with the ponytail from dragging her from the water to the bank.
His partner came down the hill hooting happily and dropped down putting his knees on her arms holding her down. The ponytailed man got up to his knees and grinned down at her and she felt the sick twisting of her stomach knowing what they intended.
As he reached for the straps of the overalls the tip of an arrow popped out between his eyes and he collapsed forward onto the screaming Lidia. The balding man looked up, suddenly confused staring at an angry red dot in the darkness.
Balding man: “LEAVE ME TO MY BUSINESS!”
The balding man shouted as a figure came out of the darkness. Bearded with short brown hair. The red dot turned out to be the burning ember of a cigar poking from the corner of his mouth. He wore a thick jacket with a fur lined collar and stared at the pair through narrowed eyes.
Balding man: “...The fuck you doing here Wright?”
Miles: “The hell are you doing?”
There was an obvious familiarity between the two and an even more obvious hint of outrage in the tone of the man with the cigar. As if what the two men had intended insult him to his very core.
Balding man: “Figured we’d have some fun before we met up with you to do our deal. You got that good shit again?”
Miles: “....”
Balding man: “Gimme a discount on the crystal and I’ll let you join in on this bi…”
He never finished the sentence before the twang of a bow string could be heard and an arrow hit him square in the eye. He collapsed to the side and the woman scrambled up digging her heels into the mud.
Lidia: “Don’t hurt me….”
Miles took the cigar from his mouth and braced the long bow on his shoulder.
Miles: “I’m not gonna hurt you…”
Lidia: “Those men...they….”
Miles let out a deep sigh and motioned with the hand holding the butt of the cigar between two fingers toward the shallow creek.
Miles: “Go. Those things are in the woods and are going to smell the blood. Go….stay near the water.”
Lidia: “You’re letting me go….?”
Miles: “.....”
As he tried to find some words to apologize for what the men had tried to do the trees rustled and they appeared. A half a dozen of them at the top of the inclined and staring out across to the other side of the clear. Miles placed his finger to his lip telling her to be quiet and walked careful steps to her. He very slowly pushed the bodies off her and pulled her to her feet.
As she reached her feet the eyes of one of the creatures, a woman in her twenties with half her face burnt away, found her. It let out a feral, angry shriek and all six of them darted down the incline toward the pair. Miles fired an arrow, not into the head but into the knee of the one in the front sending it to the mud causing the other five to become a tangle of limbs and shoved the woman off into the water.
Miles: “RUN!”
As the pair began to splash through the water and the ferals shrieked behind them the screen faded to black and the words appeared in the center of the screen. “Cry little sister” begins to play over the now familiar green background.
Afterlife
Episode 3
“Cemetery”
Bethany Kenyon As Abigail Ryder
Lilith Meadows as Madison Chaney
Adrien Cochrane as Josiah Crane
DiDi as Alice Cornell
Nathaniel Cartwright As Miles Wright
The black screen faded into a windy open road, the roar of the gentle wind only broken by the sudden crack of a gunshot in the distance. The gunshot was followed by a second, and a third. Seven of them in rapid succession. The silence following the shots was short lived as a female voice screamed “Maddy!”
The camera shifts to follow the frost covered road upwards toward the slope of a mountain. As it did the silence was once again broken by the roar of two distinctly different engine seconds before a pair of motorcycles appeared blasting by the camera. Tires squealed in protest as they took the corner sharply, Madison nearly hitting the guard rail more than once as the two zig zagged up the winding road leading up the mountain.
The camera shifts following them, closing in on the girls faces. Madison’s face was a mask of concern and even fear at the thought of what was happening to Miles, but there was no fear in the face of her older companion. Abigail’s eyes were laser focused and her jaw was set.
Rounding the final corner they were met by a trio of ferals ahead in the road. Abigail took her right hand off the bike, as behind her Madison did the same. Abigail’s spiked baton met the first of them clean in the mouth before skidding her bike to a stop beside Miles’s where the road dead ended. Madison’s knife caught the second in the forehead, the force ripping the knife from her hands. She came to a stop beside Abigail and drew the Mossberg from behind her back and took the third in the head with her one remaining shell. The feral’s head explodes into a shower of flesh and bone before it collapses. The last one turned and stared at Madison, her knife sticking out from the side of its temple and shrieked in rage. It took two sprinting steps toward her when a hand grasped the knife from behind and ripped downward, cutting clean through the neck and severing the base of the spine in one clean slice.
Madison shoved the shotgun back behind her back and turned her attention to the bike beside Abigail’s own.
Madison: “Is that his?!”
Abigail: “Yea...but he’s not here….”
Madison: “And what in the world did this….”
Madison’s hand ran over the fork at the front of the bike where it was severed from the rest of the bike. As if someone had cut through it clean with a saw trying to scrape it. But, they both knew they hadn’t been here long enough for that.
Madison: “We heard the shots….”
Abigail: “If he was fighting ferals? Shooting at ferals? There is no way those three would just be standing in the road. They’d have chased him...or….”
Madison: “Don’t say it!”
Abigail motioned with her hand to the empty frost covered road around them.
Abigail: “No blood Maddy. If it were that? There’d be blood.”
Madison turned her attention back to the bikes sitting at the end of the road and crossed to them. She walked behind them and climbed over the divider to a little trail of dead grass that led up the further up the mountain.
Madison: “He said he was getting a mineral for Vanessa. Maybe he had to go the rest of the way on foot?”
Madison was suddenly stopped by a hand coming down on her shoulder. Abigail spun her around, her face like a thunderclap.
Abigail: “He’s...WHAT?!”
Madison bit her lip and looked down, unable to believe that she had been so freaked out she had let that slip. Abigail throws her hands into the air and spins around to face the bikes again.
Abigail: “God fucking dammit. What the hell is he thinking?!”
Madison: “.....”
Abigail: “Vanessa is a fucking psychopath, Madison! For all we know that crazy bitch had people up here guarding whatever fucking mineral is here and didn’t tell them Miles was coming. Some fucked up test!”
Madison: “Even if that is the case, we can’t just leave him out here!”
Abigail: “I’m not getting shot because Miles Wright can’t tell a good person from a fucking psychopath, Madison! And neither are you!”
Madison turned and looked at her best friend, her jaw set and arms folded over her chest.
Madison: “I’m going, Abigail.”
She said simply and pushed past but Abigail grabbed her by the bicep.
Abigail: “No. You’re. Not.”
Madison looked down at the hand on her bicep and softly pulled it out of Abigail’s hand.
Madison: “He’d do it for me, Abbi.”
Madison walked past Abigail who took her bottom lip between her teeth and watched as Madison began up the path. It was clear from the expression on her face that she knew Madison was right. Miles would never leave Madison out there like that.
Abigail: “Son of a bitch….wait up.”
Madison smiled as Abigail walked past her and pulled the one loaded glock she had left from the thigh holster.
Abigail: “I’ll take point.”
The path leading up the mountain was a five foot wide dearth of vegetation leading from the end of the road up toward the mountain's peak. Abigail walked out ahead with her hands over the grip of the glock and her head on a swivel. Each step taken was methodical and placed exactly where she intended.
The shot shifted to the inside of a cavern cut in the rock about the size of a good sized room. There were exits on four sides and a rock awning over their heads. It was much like the shelter the girls had taken refuge in a few days before.
Madison watched as Abigail walked to one of the walls and ran her fingers over a small indent in the stone. Beside it was a second identical to the first. She turned her head to look behind her and began scanning the ground. Madison’s gaze followed and she hurried to the opposite wall where she crouched and came up with two brass shells in her palm.
Madison: “Was this where he was shooting?”
Abigail: “Most likely….but what the hell was he shooting at?”
Madison: “Ferals? The ones who ran through that camp down below?”
Abigail: “And he missed?”
Abigail asked pointedly and continued around the walls edge tracking each of the indents.
Abigail: “Miles Wright is a loudmouth braggart, but he’s been out in the shit as long as I have. Miss one shot? Fine. Two? Maybe. Seven? No.”
Her eyes followed the path and motioning with two fingers as if she was firing in a leftward movement pattern.
Abigail: “He was firing….at….something. Something that was moving to his left.”
Madison: “Did it….get…”
Madison couldn’t even finish the sentence. She didn’t want to believe that he was dead. She wasn’t interested in him like that, and knew full well how he felt about her but behind all the jokes? She liked him. He was sweet and caring. One of the few real men left in the world.
Abigail: “...No. No blood.”
Abigail crouched in the center of the room and ran her fingers over the cold ground. The camera shot came in and found a shoe print in the frost, but it was smeared out wide, as it had slid to the side. Abigail traced her fingers over it and then looked off to the right.
Abigail: “Something was pushed off here….”
She walked to where the rock opened up and looked down. The mountain slope inclined sharply down toward the ground. Far, far below at the bottom of the incline was a babbling river heading off in the direction of the city where they had begun. She didn’t see a single thing that would hint that he had gone down the hill.
Turning her head around she crossed the cavern again to another of the exits. The camera followed behind her and through the opening into a growth of dense bushes, all of it trampled to nothing leading further up the slope.
Abigail: “...What the fuck….”
Madison appears behind Abigail staring wide eyed at the trampled greenery.
Madison: “Did something chase him into this…?”
Abigail glanced back at the other opening she had just come from and shook her head.
Abigail: “If I had to guess? He went down the hard way to get away from whatever the hell was up here and it went down after him.”
Madison: “Then what is this?”
Abigail: “Does this seem “Odd” to you?”
Madison nodded and the memory of why they were here came rushing back. Looking into odd behavior by the ferals and this definitely fit that description. She followed behind Abigail as she began up the slope over the trampled bushes.
Together the two women followed the trail of trampled undergrowth back and forth up the winding path until it ultimately led to the opening to the small cave leading further into the mountain itself. Abigail braced one hand on the ceiling as she withdrew from a small pouch on her belt a slender orange cylinder and drove it into her thigh. Sparks and a bright orange flame erupted from the end lighting up the darkened tunnel.
Madison falls in behind her while the view shifts from left to right, taking in the walls and ceiling of the cavern as the two women walked further and further into the darkness and the light of the outside world grew darker and darker before finally snuffing out as they got too far from the opening.
Madison: “How far back do you think this goes, Abbi?”
Abigail: “Your guess is as good as mine, Girlie.”
Madison: “You seeing anymore of that weirdo trail?”
Abigail: “Not since we got into the cavern no….”
Abigail paused and crouched, passing the flare over the ground but found nothing but the rock. No scratches, no scuffs, just the floor.
Abigail: “Nothing.”
Madison: “You think the Ferals were taking that trail back there?”
Abigail: “More likely this used to be the winter den of a bear, or a group of bears and the foliage was flattened by the animals using the same path year after year after year.”
Madison: “There hasn’t been a bear seen within a hundred miles of here in two years, Abbi….”
Abigail: “And that, my dear, is why we are investigating.”
The girls continued on through the cavern, the shots rapidly changing to twists and turns to accelerate the passage of time before coming back to a shot of behind the pair as they approached a dip in the rock. Abigail crouched and glanced over the side biting her lip. The ledge dropped down into another narrow tunnel.
Madison: “We going down there?”
Abigail: “Getting back up could be an issue….”
Madison: “But our answers are….”
Madison clicked her teeth and motioned over the edge. Abigail bit her lip again glancing back at the younger woman behind her.
Abigail: “You got the spikes and rings?”
Madison: “On your bike with the rope.”
Abigail mouthed a curse and shook her head.
Abigail: “We aren’t doing this. Not without a way back up.”
She turned to head back the way they had come but Madison eased around her to the edge of the drop glancing down.
Madison: “Maybe we can free climb, I…..”
Before the sentence finished the rock gave out with a loud groan and Madison let out a squeal of surprise. When Abigail spun around the little blonde woman was gone. She turned and rushed back to the edge and looked down to find Madison on her hands and knees on the ground below her.
Madison groaned and lifted her hands to inspect the damage. They were cut up, but not bleeding badly. More a scrap than an actual wound. Something heavy hit the ground beside her and she glanced up to find Abigail standing between her and the wall with a concerned look on her face and a hand outstretched to her shoulder. Madison gently swatted the hand away and sighed.
Madison: “Dammit, Abbi...Now we’re both stuck down here.”
Abigail: “I wasn’t about to leave you! I don’t leave people alone! Not ever!”
There was a panic in the older woman’s voice as the words left her. Her eyes were wide and her face deadly pale. The hand reaching out to touch her shoulder was shaking violently. Madison drew in a deep sigh and pushed herself up, holding back a groan from her protesting knees and turned her attention to Abigail in full.
Madison: “The Station?”
Abigail: “Five minutes….”
A single tear slipped from Abigail’s left eye and her lip began to tremble.
Abigail: “I only left him for five minutes….”
Madison: “Abbi…..”
Madison’s arms lifted and she cupped the older woman’s face in her hands before pulling her into a warm embrace.
Madison: “...You have to stop, Abbi..It wasn’t your fault, Sweetheart. It’s that fucking asshole that pulled the trigger’s fault.”
Abigail: “...If I stayed with him I might have….”
Madison: “Died too. And then who would have been there at Red Ridge? Huh? There’s no way I’d have made it out of that poacher camp without you, Abigail. I know you’d trade your life for his….but would you trade your death...for mine?”
That was the shot that snapped her out of it. Abigail looked down into the younger girl's face and reached up cupping her cheeks in her palms.
Abigail: “Never, Little Sister. Never.”
Madison offered a smile and looked back the way they had come. She found no hand holds and no places where they could climb back up. Letting out a sigh and motioned out to the darkness of the tunnel ahead.
Madison: “Nowhere to go but forward, right?”
**
The sun was shining over Iron Lake as the scene shifted to the camp where the girls had traded the antibiotics for the bike only a few days prior. The shot shifts through the camp, past the crops and up through the makeshift living area. It continues past the house and down a small dirt inlet where the ground opens up into a huge pit. Ladders led down from the ground level with multiple rope and pulley systems set up to bring samples up from the ground far, far below.
In the pit men and women of all ages toiled on multiple levels with shovels, picks and other tools cutting into the rock, shoveling the dirt and separating what could be used from what needed to be relocated as waste into separate buckets all being pulled to the surface level and moved by another group of men and women of various ages.
The camera panned into the various buckets coming up and found rocks and common dirt in some of them but in others were flakes of gold and silver. Nuggets of iron, tin and zinc filled more yet.
As the camera panned downward, a man in his late forties appeared to waver, his eyes rolling back in his head just before collapsing to the dirt beside another man in his twenties wielding a pick. Above him a figure yelled to “get him the hell out of the pit” and a group of men climbed down the ladders and dragged the unconscious man out.
The shot followed the men dragging the unconscious man toward the camp section and when they reached the big house between the pit and the camps two figures appeared from two directions. Josiah came storming down the stairs from the big house while Jamie came running from the camp area crying.
The men dropped the unconscious man in the dirt in front of the porch. Jamie came running up and dropped to her knees beside what the camera now caught was her husband while Josiah loomed over them with his arms crossed over his chest with a scowl on his face.
Josiah Crane: “How do you do it, Marcus? A man of your age shouldn’t be working in the quarry!”
Jamie looked up from her half dead husband, every fiber of her being wanted to get up and throttle him then and there and it showed. Behind him came a well known click of a shotgun loading a round. Jamie’s eyes moved over his shoulder to the top of the stairs where Alice stood with her arms folded over her chest and a man with a gun standing on each side of her, each of them with sadistic smiles on their faces.
Josiah: “I trust this little escapade will stop anymore talk about the fairness of your debts, Ms. Hargrave? And of course, any further attempts to circumvent the system? Like that stunt you pulled with Abigail Ryder.”
Jamie: “....Fine. Just….enough….”
Josiah: “Good. Now there is just one last thing….”
He reaches out and grasps the woman by the hair at the base of her head, pulling her face up as his own twists into a mask of outrage.
Josiah: “WHERE IS YOUR FUCKING DAUGHTER WITH MY SHIT?!”
Jamie:: “What do you mean where is my daughter?! The last time I heard she was in the big house….servicing….you.”
There was a sound of profound disgust as the words left her mouth concerning her 18 year old daughter but Josiah just shook his head in amusement.
Josiah: “Get your mind out of the gutter you filthy cretin. I’d never do that without a woman’s complete and total consent. She was serving as my masseuse. And during our last session I had fallen asleep and when I woke up she was gone.”
Jamie: “Maybe she just decided to go for a walk?”
Josiah: “And so was the ammo the camp had left for barter, two guns and two backpacks filled with military rations and bottled water!”
Jamie: “I have….”
Josiah: “Useless!”
Josiah snapped, backhanding the middle-aged woman across the face, sending her sprawling into the dirt. He spun around, locking eyes with Alice.
Josiah: “Take whatever you need. Find the little treacherous bitch and bring her back!”
Alice glanced at the two men with her and the three of them descended the stairs. Once they had passed Josiah crouched and glanced down at the middle-aged woman staring up at him from where she laid half over her unconscious husband protectively.
Josiah: “Here? Parents are responsible for their children. You two are now responsible for the things she stole.”
Jamie: “That’ll take years to pay off!”
Josiah: “Then you two had better get comfortable in your little tent. You’re gonna be here awhile.”
**
Madison: “How far do you think it goes?”
Madison’s voice echoed off the walls of the dark cavern tunnel as the pair came around a corner, the flare burning brightly in Abigail’s right hand as she walked in front of the younger blonde woman. Before Abigail could answer her friend however she stopped. In front of her was a small opening that was just barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through.
Madison: “I’m going first…”
Abigail: “And why should I allow that?”
Madison didn’t bother to answer. She just swung the mossberg off her shoulder and held it out to the side and began to ease herself though the crack. Little by little she inched her way through the opening until she came out panting on the other side. Abigail held the flare up to the crack and found Madison on the other side waving happily.
The older woman rolled her eyes and mumbled something about her being a “dumbass” and began to ease through herself holding the flare out the same way Madison had the shotgun. When she got about halfway she sucked in a deep breath and found that the hardest thing about getting through, was how badly her breasts scraped the rock as she passed.
It took nearly twice as long as Madison for Abigail to get through and when she got to the other side she found Madison barely able to keep a straight face. Abigail’s expression soured and she gave her friend a hard stare.
Abigail: “What is so funny?!”
Madison: “You see why I wanted to go first?”
Abigail: “What are you trying to say?”
Madison: “Well not all of us were so...ahem….”
Madison’s lip twitched with mirth as she reached up and plucked the neckline of the woman’s top. Abigail looked down at her chest and then quickly up at Madison, smacking her hand away from her shirt.
Madison: “Blessed.”
Abigail: “Oh, very funny!”
Abigail’s face darkened a bright red in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment.
Abigail: “It’s not my fault that you spent most of your life built like a ten-year-old boy, Madison Chaney.”
Madison: “A ten-year-old boy?!”
Madison asked with an outraged gasp.
Abigail: “A ten-year-old, skinny boy.”
Madison: “Miles Wright likes the package well enough!”
Madison said with a tone that was very “hmph” which only got a chuckle from Abigail.
Abigail: “Miles would appreciate anything.”
As soon as the words left and she saw the look on Madison’s face it was clear Abigail regretted ever saying it. She sighed and bit back an apology only for Madison to reach out and flick her in the top of her right breast.
Madison: “Don’t help you in that regard.”
Abigail: “...Oh, you cheeky bitch.
Madison turned and began to walk forward with a resounding laugh. That laugh however ended as abruptly as it had started.
Madison: “What in the hell…”
Abigail raised the flare and the brightness of the burning sparks illuminated the path ahead. The tunnel opened into a chamber that reached so high the ceiling was lost in the shadows and extended so far in every direction the end couldn’t be seen in the light of the flare. Lying on the floor of the cavern were bodies in various states of decay. Hundreds of them in just the part of the chamber lit up by the flares sparks.
Abigail reached out and grasped Madison by the shoulder yanking her back into the opening of the tunnel they had just vacated. Madison let out a deep yowl of surprise and Abigail slapped her hand over her mouth cutting off the sound mid shout.
Abigail: “Stay. Quiet.”
Madison tried to respond but all that came out was a series of muffled sounds through Abigail's hand. Slowly her fingers unwound one by one but she stayed close to Madison, both women staring at the makeshift cemetery.
Madison: “Why aren’t they attacking?”
Abigail: “...Why aren’t they….moving….”
Madison: “Do you think they’re…”
Abigail: “Stay here.”
Madison: “But, Abbi…”
Abigail: “Stay. Here.”
The final words said through clenched teeth as Abigail eased her way forward inch by slow inch. Each step she took was deliberate and feather light, careful not to make so much as a sound. When she reached the closest of the bodies she dropped into a crouch and pulled a small foldable blade from her pocket. Barely breathing she eased the blade open, careful at the end that it didn’t so much as make an audible click when it locked in place. Being this close gave a clear view of the body as that of a woman with black hair who appeared to be in her thirties, her right arm was completely gone and the flesh from the side of her neck was rotted exposing the bottom curve of her jaw. Beneath her right hand was a makeshift axe made from what appeared to be rock and concrete.
Abigail hovered the blade beside its neck while bracing the other hand just below the jaw. Holding the knife hand steady she shook the carcass hard and tensed ready to drive the blade into the brain stem but the creature never moved. She shook it again to the same response and then a third time to an identical response.
Slowly she rose back to her feet and crept over the feral and then another, a middle aged man who had badly decayed. Careful to not make so much as a sound she repeated the process again with the same deliberate slowness and concern and again the body didn’t move.
A brief glance back at Madison to check if she was alright showed the look of blank confusion and concern on her face. Abigail stepped over a third, a teenage boy holding a knife made of obsidian the flare died drowning the cavern in darkness. Behind her somewhere in the dark Madison let out a frightened whimper.
Madison: “A..Ab..i…?”
There only came silence from ahead of Madison's voice and the sound of her foot scraping the rock was heard as she stepped away from the wall. She could feel the fear, hear it in her own voice but still she stepped forward. Abigail could be in danger.
Madison: “Abigail. Talk to me.”
Before she could speak again the spark erupted and Abigail appeared directly in front of her. Madison slapped her hand over her own mouth to keep herself from screaming at the sudden appearance.
While they were each happy to see the other, their attention however was taken by the sight that met them when the cavern was suddenly fully lit up the second the flare burned its brightest. The entire cavern was filled with bodies. Thousands, tens of thousands all lying motionless.
Madison: “Was someone….dumping their kills here?”
Abigail: “Like some kind of sick trophies….”
Together they walked through the horde of bodies.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All in various states of decay, and all with some kind of edged or blunt weapon either in their hands or lying discarded near it. They stayed near the outermost edge of the strange cemetery when something caught Madison’s eye. In the middle of the room were a group that were not like the others. Three women sitting with their backs to a figure who was lying on its side on the rock floor with its back turned to the pair. One sat on each of the three sides leaving only the feet exposed. Each of the three figures seemed to be holding a different weapon. One dressed in all blue held two daggers made of some blue material. A woman dressed in all black held a large ax made of pure ebony tightly to her breast as if in prayer. The last was wearing all silver and leaning forward, resting on the blunt top of a scythe.
Madison: “What the hell is that?”
Abigail grunted by way of answer, her eyes focused on an opening on the far side of the cavern. Whatever it was, she didn’t seem to care. Her only concern at this point was getting out and getting Madison out safely.
Abigail: “We need to go.”
Madison: “What’s the hurry?! They're all dead.”
Abigail: “And I don’t want to wait around for whatever made them that way.”
Taking Madison by the hand she pulled her through the mess of bodies and into the tunnel where immediately upon entering it daylight could be seen on the other end.
When the pair emerged from the tunnel there was snow on the ground and and a path leading down into the desolate remains of a long abandoned city and a road leading off into the distance. Abigail turned and glanced up with the camera following her gaze to show the mountain rising up looking above them. They had entered at the peak and came out near the bottom.
Abigail: “No way we’re getting back up there.”
Madison: “What now, Abbi?”
Abigail: “We find our way back to the other side of this range.”
She turned her gaze from the mountain above them to either direction, first one way and then the other. Looking for some way to get back over the range that didn’t involve climbing ropes, rings or spikes. Things they didn’t have.
Abigail: “One that doesn’t take us through Cold Creek.”
Madison’s head shot to the side looking at Abigail in shock and then drifted off to the west where the mountain range curled back the way they had come as the episode faded to black.