Survivors Guilt

*Hello, here is my entry into the Halloween story contest. Any feedback and votes will be greatly appreciated. Special thanks to OhDave1 and SkyBubble for editing for me*

Chapter One

Chapter One

I woke up gasping for air. Something was clogging my throat. I tried to open my eyes, but they would barely move. The sparse light that came through was blindingly bright. I tried to grab the tube in my throat, but the most I could do was lift my hands an inch off the bed before I had to let them drop. Everything hurt, especially when I tried to breathe. I tried to talk and ask what was happening, but the tube prevented any words from coming out. I could hear the beeping of machines and voices around me, but it took too much effort to understand them. I was exhausted, and sleep quickly overtook me again. The last thing I remembered before falling back asleep was a hand squeezing mine, comforting me. The beeping of machines acted as a metronome as I sank into a slumber.

I don't know how long I slept; my dreams were chaotic and violent. I would almost grasp what they were about, but then the pain would invade again, bringing with it a clarity that was so intense that I couldn't focus on anything but it, and then suddenly, I would sink deeper into slumber.

When I woke up again, the pain was still there, but it was no longer all-encompassing. The tube was gone from my throat. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a hospital bed. I tried to sit up to get a better look around me, but my body still screamed in protest at any movement.

"Matt!" I heard a familiar yet also strange voice say. I looked over the best I could and saw Beth, my little sister, standing up from a chair and rushing to my side. "I'm so glad you're awake," she said. She looked as bad as I felt, pale, and her face covered in healing cuts and abrasions. Dark bruises and burn marks marred her neck, black and purple in their discoloration. Her voice was raspy from the damage to her neck. Hearing her and seeing how hurt she was cut through the fog in my brain, bringing back the painful memories. Violent images flashed through my mind, all the panic, fear, and pain of what we went through coming back all at once.

Beth hugged me tightly, causing me to grunt in pain, but feeling her pressed against me made the pain worth it. "They didn't know if you would wake up," Beth cried. I didn't know what to say, so I gingerly placed my hand on the small of her back and held her as she cried in my arms. When I tried to talk, I didn't recognize my own voice. Every word came out raspy and hurt my chest.

"Did anyone else make it?" I asked, fearing that I already knew the answer. I thought about our friends and my fiancée, Hannah, trying to remember the sounds of their laughter and their smiles, but all I could see was those who died in front of me and the imagined fates of those who had been picked off before we knew anything was happening. Beth cried harder, giving me the answer I dreaded but knew was coming. "It's ok, we are safe now," I told her as I held her.

There was a knock at my door as the nurses let themselves in to check on me. Beth reluctantly let go of me and sat back in the visitor chair as the nurses checked how I was feeling and asked me questions to test my memory. Answering each question took me a few seconds, and the nurses wrote something down. While this was happening, my doctor arrived and took over the questioning. She looked haggard herself, but was kind when she spoke to me. When she listed my injuries in her sweet voice, it was almost harder for me to follow. Each mentioned injury brought back the memory of how I got them. I had been thrown against a wall, leading to cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. I also suffered a concussion from how hard I hit it and had mild whiplash. I had been stabbed through my back and out of my stomach, but luckily, the blade had missed any arteries or vital organs. The blade had been superheated and had cauterized my wounds for me. I had been in a coma for a month. Combined with all of that were the burns across my body. My hands had gotten the worst of it and were heavily bandaged.

My doctor left, and Beth held my hand as we sat silently. I closed my eyes because keeping them open for too long hurt. I was starting to doze off when there was another knock at the door. In stepped a man and a woman who were complete opposites. He was middle-aged, tall, and dark with glasses, dressed in a bright Hawaiian shirt, and had an infectious smile, while she was younger, maybe in her late twenties, petite and blonde in a perfect suit, and it looked like it would hurt her to smile more than it would hurt me.

"Hello, Mr. Grayson, oh, and Miss Grayson again. I am Detective Adams, and this is my partner, Detective Marshall. We just wanted to come and check on you and ask you questions about what happened. I know you have been through a lot, and we offer our condolences, but it's important we figure out what happened," he said.

"I already answered all of your questions and those of the first detectives who questioned me," Beth said in annoyance.

"We know, but we need to talk to your brother to get his side of it," Detective Marshall said, sounding every bit as stern as she looked.

"Are we suspects?" I asked.

"Not at all. It's just that, according to Miss Grayson, some bizarre things happened at that cabin. With all that was going on, it's easy for things to be misremembered, so we just wanted to make sure you remembered what happened the same way she did," Detective Adams said.

"You do know he has a concussion, right?" Beth asked.

"We do, but any extra info and collaboration of facts would be greatly appreciated," Detective Adams said.

"It's fine, Beth. I can answer the questions," I said.

"Miss Grayson, do you mind giving us some time alone with your brother?" Detective Marshall said.

"I do mind," Beth said, staring them down.

"We don't mind you staying as long as you don't interject anything into your brother's story. Sound like a fair compromise?" Detective Adams asked.

"Fine," Beth said. Typically, she was so kind to people by default. They must have really annoyed her when they questioned her.

"Start from the beginning," Detective Adams said. Every word hurt to speak, but once I started telling the story, I was eager to push on and get the horrible story out and over with.

*****

*****

We arrived at the cabin early in the afternoon. It had been a three-hour drive from the city. It was my girlfriend Hannah, Beth, her boyfriend Daniel, Claire, Bryan, Henry, and me. Beth and I were only a year apart, and we got along, so we had the same friend group. Daniel had initially been one of my friends, while Hannah had been one of hers. With how much time we all spent together, it wasn't too unexpected for us to start dating within our friend group, and surprisingly, it made it even stronger. Beth was the last to graduate from high school, and we decided to celebrate with a camping trip.

We rented a cabin near Lake Erie at the end of the summer. The cabin was small, with just enough bedrooms for everyone to pair up or for someone to sleep in the living room. As we drove deeper into the woods, we didn't see any other nearby cabins; the nearest gas station was a little mom-and-pop place about thirty miles away on winding dirt roads.

We spent the first day swimming, drinking, smoking, and eating. After a stressful first year at college, it was everything I needed. We stayed up late drinking and playing board games. I paused as I remembered how happy we had all been that night. I wished that I could live in that memory.

"Mr. Grayson?" Detective Adams asked.

"Give him a moment," Beth said, glaring at the detective. I took a sip of water and resumed the story.

The next day was when things started to go wrong. We did a group hike through the woods to a nearby swimming hole at the bottom of a small cliff. I began to get the feeling of being watched, but when I looked around, I couldn't see anyone, so I thought I was being paranoid. We had packed some food and drinks, so we spent most of the day there. The sun was setting when we returned. After being out all day, most of our phones were dying. Not that it mattered much because we barely had any reception out there anyway.

We had burned through our food and drinks faster than planned, so Bryan and Henry decided to go to the gas station for a snack run. They went out to the car. I was glancing out the living room window when I heard a scream. I saw Bryan fall to the ground on the driver's side. Henry ran around the front of the car to check on him. I jumped to my feet and saw a bear trap clamped onto Bryan's leg. Henry was crouched next to Bryan, trying to help him get it off. A huge man, almost seven feet tall, emerged from the darkness but didn't step fully into the light from the porch. He seemed to be cloaked in shadows, yet a subtle red glow emanated from his body, which was hard to comprehend. I saw he was holding something in his hand, but before I could shout a warning, he raised it and slammed it down onto Henry's head. I heard the crunch and saw Henry fall to the ground. The man raised his weapon and brought it down onto Bryan's head, silencing him with one blow. I was too stunned to speak.

The others stood up and looked out the window just as the colossal man started to drag them into the forest. All I could see was that dim red light from the man as he disappeared into the darkness of the woods with my friends. Everyone was screaming, trying to figure out what had just happened to our friends. It happened so fast. It didn't seem real.

Daniel snapped out of it before the others and said we had to get in the car and get help. He hadn't seen the power that the giant had swung his weapon with. I hated myself, but I knew that they were already dead, and we had to get out of there. I didn't say that; instead, I agreed we needed to get in the car and leave. Everyone was still freaking out, but we managed to run to the car together. There was the smell of a campfire and charred meat lingering around the car. There was a puddle of blood on the floor near the door on the driver's side. Two trails of blood lead deeper into the woods. I had to leap over the pooled blood to get into the driver's seat. I tried not to think about the weird-looking white clumps that were part of their skull with hair still attached and the gray of brain matter on the ground. I started to throw up but swallowed it back down. The keys were still in the ignition, so I thought we would be safe.

I started the car and did a quick U-turn, almost hitting the porch in my hurry to get out of there. As the headlights swept across the woods, they illuminated the killer for a fraction of a second.

I stopped talking, still trying to comprehend and put into words what I saw. Beth squeezed my hand.

"What did he look like?" Detective Adams asked. I knew they would think I was crazy, and even though they said they didn't think I was a suspect, they could easily lie about it.

"Go ahead, I told them too," Beth said. I felt her tremble in fear. I squeezed her hand to comfort her. I took a deep breath and resumed my story. No matter what happened, I had to tell them about the Emberman.

It had been hard to see him in the shadows because he was wearing all black, but inside of that black was a dim red light, like the dying embers inside of coal. He was wearing what looked like a trench coat and had huge boots that looked like they went past his knees. It was hard to tell where each piece of clothing started and ended because it had all been melted together. He had a bulky black leather mask that covered his entire face. A metal filter covered his mouth, and around his eyes were metal circles that looked like a pair of goggles, but the lenses were shattered so I could see into his eyes, or at least where his eyes should be. The red embers were strongest here, but the light source seemed to be recessed deep into his head, deeper than possible. I only saw him briefly, but his image burned into my mind. He wasn't human. I felt my leg grow warm as I pissed myself while driving down the dirt road. Not everyone saw him, just Daniel and Beth. I could tell because they had the same stunned reaction as I did.

I drove faster than I should. I knew how rough the roads were, but even though I tried to tell myself to slow down, that there was no possible way that monster could keep up with me, I couldn't bring myself to let off the gas. We had gotten about ten minutes down the road when we saw a strange red glow from around a bend. As we got closer, we saw a massive pileup of smoldering trees blocking the road. I slammed on the brakes, reducing the momentum as much as possible, but we still collided with the logs. No one had put their seat belts on. Daniel and I were the most impacted as we slammed into the dashboard. I didn't want to think about what would have happened to us if I hadn't slammed on the brakes when I did.

After checking that everyone was okay, we clambered out of the car. We were all banged up, but no one had been seriously injured. We argued about what to do. The road was narrow, but we could turn the car around and drive back to the cabin, but then we would be right back with the Emberman. Moving the trees out of the way would be difficult due to their weight, and to make matters worse, I could feel the heat they were emitting. I didn't want to stay still for too long, afraid he would catch up to us sooner than we thought. We decided to continue walking down the road. Even if we had to run all night, it was better than returning to that monster.

We started to step off the road to go around the pileup, but Beth told us to stop. She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight. Just a few steps ahead of us, metal gleamed in what had been darkness. More bear traps were waiting for us. Claire suggested we go to the other side or deeper into the woods, but after a glance, we could see more traps on that side, and we wanted to avoid walking through the dense woods when we knew they were booby-trapped. Only Beth, Daniel, and I had our cell phones.

Hannah clung to my arm as I took the lead and used my phone to light the path. We spaced out so that the three of us could best illuminate the forest's edge so we could all see the traps. We moved through the traps as quickly as we dared. Some seemed to be obviously placed, while others were smudged with soot and covered in underbrush; they would have been hidden if it weren't for the lights on our phones.

The pile of burning trees went on for almost fifty feet, and the heat from them worsened whenever a patch of traps forced us to get too close. It didn't make sense; the trees looked like they had been burning for days from how burnt they were, which was even odder since they must have been freshly cut. I scolded myself for thinking about that and focused on the traps in front of us again. We made it through the traps and onto the other side of the road. About twenty feet down the road was another pileup of logs, this one bigger than the first one, and it looked like the barrier went further down the road.

"What do we do now?" Hannah asked as we gathered together. Standing between both burning piles of trees was almost unbearable. We were in the middle of planning what to do when we heard a loud, crunching sound. We looked up and saw the pile of trees shifting around. It took me a horrified moment to comprehend what was happening. The Emberman was emerging from deep inside the burning trees in front of us. The fire wasn't harming him at all. Instead, his inner glow was burning brighter as the trees he came into contact with suddenly burned faster and turned to charcoal at his touch. It didn't make sense; there was no way he could have gotten ahead of us, yet here he was. Everyone was stunned as we watched him walking towards us.

"What do we do?" Hannah cried.

"Run!" Claire yelled as she ran from the road into the woods. Before I could cry out to her to wait, she was already inside the first group of trees when there was a metallic clanging sound as she stepped onto one of the hidden bear traps. She cried out in pain as she held her leg, trying to pry the bear trap open. We rushed to her side to try to help her out of it.

"There should be a safety release on the bottom," Daniel said as he used his phone to shine a light on it.

"He is getting closer," Beth cried. The Emberman stepped out of the burning trees and started to walk towards us.

"Found it!" Daniel said as he reached for the safety pin and tried to pull it out. "It's jammed!" he said in frustration, setting his phone down to try to pull it out. I started to help him. Along with being stuck, the metal was slick with Claire's blood.

"He is almost here," Hannah cried out. I didn't dare look up. I could feel the heat intensifying and realized that intense heat was radiating from him. I hated myself for thinking it, but I was about to give up and pull Daniel away when the pin finally shifted. We ripped the pin free, and Daniel had to force the trap apart to free Claire. She cried in pain as we released her.

Daniel helped her up and supported her as we turned around and started to walk back along the first pile of knocked-over trees. Beth led the way back, using her phone light to guide us. I did the same thing for Daniel and Claire, having to pay extra attention to make sure none of us stepped into any more of the traps. We were only about fifteen feet along the pile of smoldering trees when we heard the roar of the flames bursting into a conflagration and the crunch of the logs. The Emberman started walking through the logs, burning them up in seconds. The heat intensified even further as the logs were consumed.

We were about halfway through the pile of trees when the heat became so intense that I could feel my clothes getting singed. We could hear him getting closer as the logs crackled and collapsed. He reached for me just as I was leaping across a bear trap. Even though he failed to touch me, the heat radiating off him started to burn my skin, and I cried out in pain. Since he missed me, he reached out more and grabbed Daniel's arm. He cried out as his skin started to burn. Claire fell forward, and a bear trap clamped down around her head. Her scream of pain fell into a gurgle of blood as the bear trap ripped into her throat.

The Emberman started to pull Daniel into the burning trees with him. Daniel reached out, and I grabbed his arm to pull him free. The heat from the Emberman and the flaming trees started to burn my hands, but I held on. The Emberman was so strong that I didn't even slow him down. He pulled Daniel in and started pulling me towards the flames' maw. I saw Daniel's clothes ignite as he was pulled away from me and into the burning trees. There was one last moment where I met his panic-filled eyes, and then he let go. As I fell back, he was engulfed in the flames.

When I hit the ground, one of my outstretched arms almost landed in a bear trap. I recoiled from it and quickly got back up. I stumbled out from the pile of trees, coughing from inhaling the smoke as Daniel was burned alive.

"What happened to Daniel and Claire?" Beth asked me.

"He got them," I said. There was a stunned silence for a moment. "Come on, let's go back to the cabin. If we can make it to the lake, we might be safe," I said.

We ran back down the road, struggling to keep up the speed since we were all injured. The fires were starting to spread throughout the woods, almost seeming to chase us as we ran. We were exhausted by the time we returned to the cabin. We piled inside, and I locked the door as we caught our breath. Beth rushed into the kitchen and started looking underneath the sink. We followed her to drink some water, and I saw her pull a small fire extinguisher from underneath the sink. I saw the look of determination on her face, and it steeled my resolve. I was still terrified, but we might be safe from the walking forest fire if we could make it to the lake.