Chapter 1
In a stressful world of schoolwork, responsibility, and anxiety about the future, 4 friends celebrate getting through their first year of college by planning a camping trip to the Freetown Forrest to start their summer break.
In the midday of a warm July, Kaz is awoken in his bedroom by the house phone ringing which echoes down the hallway into his room.
He snapped awake quickly and shuffled out of bed and down the hallway.
“What’s up” he says after picking up, “Yo Kaz you up? We’re waiting for you at John’s” Kaz looked at the clock on his wall briefly, “shit it’s 1:06 we said 1:30 right?” Kaz asks as he moves into his room and opens a dresser drawer.
“Yes numb nuts maybe lay off the weed and you won’t sleep for 10 hours straight” Roy says while laughing.
“I’ll be there in 15 I’ll see you guys soon” Kaz says before hanging up and pulling out a pair of jeans and grabbing a white t-shirt.
He then picks out a brown jacket and a pair of white Adidas Kaz typically used for a jog.
After getting dressed Kaz goes into his bathroom which is across from his room to brush his teeth.
Kaz runs his hands through his hair after brushing it, fixing it somewhat. He stares at himself in the mirror as he sorts out his medium-length curly hair.
He quickly left the bathroom going back to his room to grab his bag, which he had packed the night before.
He checked through it again to double check that he had everything, “bong, lighter, pot, machete, tent, food, water” he says quietly to himself as he sorts through it.
He walks out of his apartment and gets into his car lighting a blunt before he turns the key in the ignition.
Smoke slowly filled the car and began drifting out of the driver's side window, he sat for a moment pondering about the day as the cannabis entered his system.
He then put the car in drive and began heading towards John’s apartment.
At around 1:35 Kaz arrived at John’s apartment parking at the end of the driveway behind John's car.
“What up what up” Kaz says as he enters through the door to see Felipe and Roy playing Zelda on the Super Nintendo and John sitting across from them on the other couch watching.
“What up bro?” John says as he daps Kaz up. “We gotta make a quick stop at the liquor store before we hit Freetown.”
“Yeah, John forgot the Tito’s AGAIN!” Roy says turning and smiling at John and Kaz.
“It’s not like you can go more than 2 drinks before dying in the bathroom,” John says, laughing at Roy. “When we went to Mohegan Sun, he had 2 drinks and was leaning on the bathroom stalls.”
The room erupts into laughter from Kaz Felipe and John as Roy shakes his head with a slight smirk.
“Alright let’s get this shit going you guys ready?” Kaz asks, and they all get up and pick up their backpacks.
“Who’s driving?” Kaz asks. The 3 of them look back at him blankly, then briefly give each other side eyes.
“No no I’m not driving again bro” Kaz proclaims, “Felipe never drives like ever why is it always me?”.
“Bro come on it’s only like a 20 min drive to the forest and only like 5 to the store” John responds.
Kaz sighs before turning towards the front door, “whatever man let’s just go” he says as they follow him out to the car.
Shortly after they pull into the parking lot of the liquor store, “You got a fake?” Roy turns from the passenger seat turning to John.
“Of course I do I got it last year on my 18th” John responds before getting out of the car and heading inside.
“Imagine they reject him” Felipe says while chuckling from the backseat, “bro don’t manifest that” Kaz jokingly responds.
“I need to get a fake it’s another 2 years before we can get real id’s” Roy says while looking at himself in the mirror, “I feel like I still look 15” he says while viewing himself.
Roy had a buzz cut line up with a slight M hairline and white skin with piercings in his ears.
“Just enjoy it now while we’re still young” Kaz says, “when we’re older it’s not gonna feel as fun”.
The back door of the car opens suddenly and John gets inside with a bottle of Tito’s and 2 6 packs of beer.
“All right boys we are all set” John says with a proud look, “fake works like a charm” he proclaims.
Kaz pulls out of the parking lot and they begin driving towards the Freetown Forrest.
The sun shined and the sky was a light blue color with clouds scattered about, time by Pink Floyd played through the speakers.
“I wanna see that waterfall, I’ve heard it’s huge in person like you can’t believe” Kaz says.
“Once we set up our tents I’m down to venture out and see it”. John responds.
“If you can make it there” Felipe says jokingly, they would occasionally poke fun at John’s weight as their form of banter.
“I'm gonna lose it this summer bro watch, y’all can suck it when I have a 6 pack”.
“Well it’s summer bro I'd better see you doing push-ups out there” Felipe responds with a smirk.
Eventually, the car slows and pulls into the entrance of the Freetown Forrest, the car turns into a small dirt parking lot surrounded by an old short wooden fence.
They all got out of the car and began grabbing their stuff, Kaz attached his machete in its holder to his jeans and put on his backpack while Felipe Roy and John put on their backpacks.
“Can someone hold the gun while I hold this extra bag?” Roy asks looking around, Kaz reaches and grabs the Mauser 98 rifle and holds it pointing it downwards.
“The Mauser’s badass as fuck bro” Kaz says while he looks at it.
“Hopefully we don’t have to use it” Roy says walking past Kaz as Felipe and John follow him to the trail.
Roy approaches the big wooden sign that says “Freetown Forrest entrance” and notices a cubby below it that has maps inside.
He grabs a map and shows the rest of them
“This is dope they leave them right here” Roy says.
“Alright let’s go find a spot to set up I wanna smoke and eat, " says Kaz as he begins walking deeper down the trail.
Kaz walks next to Felipe as Roy and John walk next to each other behind them, the sunlight shone through the tall oak trees illuminating the trail they walked along.
The sounds of birds chirping and nature sounds had a calming soothing effect on them as they walked along the trail briefly pointing out cool birds and other wild animals.
“Hey so did you fix that shit with Sam?” Kaz says turning to Felipe, “nah we haven’t talked I think she moved on bro” Felipe responds.
He sounded bummed out in his response which Kaz picked up on.
“Honestly bro I think the best thing for you would be to also move on, she kept playing games with you treating you like an option”.
Felipe pauses before responding, “I just thought she actually changed after that night in Taunton, she looked me in the eyes super close and she seemed so genuine.
“Women are good at that bro” Kaz says, “you gotta realize a girl can be balling her eyes out right in front of you and still be lying through her teeth”.
Felipe sighs “yeah it just, I don’t know…” “You had feelings for her I understand” Kaz says filling in his sentence, “you cared deeply for her and she took advantage of that, she’s no good for you” Kaz says before patting him on the shoulder.
“It’ll be all good though I’ve talked to some smoke shows that thought you were good looking.”
“For real?” Felipe says turning to him, “yes bro I promise you still got plenty of better options” he says reassuringly.
The group comes across a big opening that leaves a large gap between where they are and where the trail picks back up on the other side.
Trees and bushes surrounded the area as sunlight beamed through making the area look euphoric.
“This seems like a good spot” Kaz says, “I like the view” John responds.
Kaz noticed something strange however, it seemed like it was slowly getting darker.
He started to notice while they were walking but couldn’t tell for sure.
“Am I the only one who feels like it’s getting darker?” Kaz says turning to the three of them.
The sunlight began appearing dimmer and dimmer as the sun appeared to be slowly setting.
Roy checked his watch and looked at it puzzled, “It’s 4:14…” he says with a slight crack in his voice.
“Is the fucking earth gonna explode?” Kaz says jokingly trying to lighten the mood.
“Let’s just set up our tents i think we’re alright” John says.
They spent some time making a fire and setting up the tents around the fire pit, by the time they finished and had the fire going it was already dark.
The fire cracked and illuminated the 4 of them surrounding it in chairs, the smell of cannabis lingered as they passed around a bong taking turns puffing it.
“This could be global news right now and we’re just out here camping” Kaz says with a smile, “Was there an eclipse or something I never heard anything about it” Felipe says.
“Nah an eclipse wouldn’t cause this” John responds, “and I don’t think we’re due for a lunar or solar eclipse for another decade or something”.
“How do you know that?” Felipe asks him, “I actually paid attention in school” John responds jokingly.
“They had to give you food for you to agree to sit in class” Felipe claps back laughing.
“Back then you had that nappy ass Mohawk” John responds as he laughs, Felipe quickly responds “Don’t hate on my beautiful hair bro, 4c hair is the best pattern I’m blessed”.
The 4 of them continued to drink and smoke and banter with each other until around 7:40 when they all fell asleep in the foldable chairs.
While all of them were sound asleep they were shockingly awoken as John was suddenly pulled out of his chair by a lanky figure from behind.
Kaz flew back as his chair tipped over while Roy and Felipe shot up and frantically moved away.
John’s screams echoed through the woods as he was dragged deeper and deeper into the dark forest.
Kaz got up quickly and the three of them immediately noticed the dark red glow illuminating the woods.
The moon was completely red shining a dark red light that creepily illuminated the woods, it sent shivers down their spines as the horror of the situation frightened them to their core.
John was gone, whatever had grabbed him had vanished with him in an instant.
“Where’s the fucking gun!?” Kaz shouts as the 3 of them frantically search the tents in a panic.
Kaz could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he grabbed a flashlight and the Mauser 98, he turned and shot 2 shots off into the woods.
A creepy silence followed as the gunshot echoed away slowly, the 3 of them stared into the dark red forest for a few moments in complete shock.
“We have to help him!” Roy says running in the direction of John’s screams, “What the fuck” Kaz says as he begins following Roy with Felipe right behind.
The three of them slowed into a fast pace walk as Kaz kept the rifle aimed, “What the fuck is happening bro?” Felipe says quietly.
Suddenly they all freeze when they begin hearing fast rustling moving around them, it went in circles around them at extremely fast speeds.
Suddenly Roy is swept off his feet as he is grabbed by a lanky grey creature and dragged
Away, his screams echoing.
“Roy!!” Kaz shouts before he fires multiple shots in his direction, Felipe pulls him away as they both begin running away.
“We gotta get back to the car” Felipe says as they book it through the woods frantically.
A horrible ear-piercing screech rang through the woods when suddenly an arrow came flying right past Kaz’s head causing him to stop in his tracks and turn around.
He sees Felipe on the ground off to the side with an arrow through his calf reeling on the ground in agony.
In an instant, the creature jumped out from the forest right in front of Kaz causing him to jolt back.
Kaz goes to shoot it but he pulls the trigger and the gun clicks… out of ammo, the creature swats Kaz across the face sending him flying back and knocking the gun out of his hands.
Kaz immediately scrambles to his feet and begins running as fast as he can feeling blood streaming down the left side of his face.
The creature's aggressive snarls and footsteps could be heard not too far behind him as he ran, barely missing roots sticking up and stones that could trip him.
Kaz eventually comes across another open field area with a large abandoned building that has an ominous look to it.
Kaz wasted no time running directly towards the entrance to the building as he heard the creature close behind him.
He runs into the building and heads down a long corridor with doors to the side of him, he reaches the end of the hall and goes through a wooden door before looking behind him.
The creature was bounding on all fours towards him which made him slam the door shut and run to another door.
Seconds later the door shatters and the creature comes running in following Kaz up a spiral staircase that leads to the upstairs.
Kaz gets a bit of a head start after making it upstairs and he quickly goes into a room closing the door behind him.
He quickly gets on the floor and rolls under a bed in the corner of the room and covers his mouth as he shakes in fear on the floor.
He hears the creature run down the halls, breaking doors and breaking things in the other rooms.
Then the room he is in gets broken into, the door shatters easily and wooden shards fall across the floor. He sees two thin legs and feet walking around the room at a fast rate, Kaz’s heart was in his throat, he had never experienced a level of fear like this in his life and he was totally shell-shocked.
The creature eventually moves out of the room and leaves the building entirely, its awful screeches got quieter and quieter as it went deeper into the woods.
Kaz slowly crawled out from under the bed and got up as his entire body vibrated in fear, he looked around in pure fear and shock.
He saw himself in a mirror on a dresser and got a look at the cut he got, the entire left side of his face had 2 large streams of blood that dripped down to his jaw and onto his clothes.
His curly dark brown hair was wet from sweating and his white skin glistened from the constant sweating.
Kaz slowly left the room and began down the spiral staircase, the stairs creaked as he shakily moved trying to be as quiet as he possibly could.
He walks out of where he ran in from and stares out at the glowing red forest that has a terrifying silence, no animals, no nature sounds, eerie silence, and nothing more.
He tries to stay low and move where the bushes are as he makes his way into the woods,
He shines his light ahead when he sees something that catches his attention.
The sight of a blue shirt and what seemed to be someone’s shoulder leaning on a tree made Kaz immediately recognize it as John.
“John?” He whispered as he quickly approached him sitting against the tree but as soon as he got in front of John, Kaz fell back in pure fear and horror.
John’s face was half missing… his left arm was also missing and his jaw was gone, like something had pulled it off.
He only shone the light at John for a second before he turned around and knelt,
He covered his mouth as his eyes watered realizing that one of his best friends had been murdered.
As Kaz quietly began freaking out he was suddenly hit in the head with a blunt object causing him to fall on his back, his vision blurred as he saw two dark figures standing over him before one of them swung something down and knocked Kaz unconscious.
Kaz’s eyes fluttered open as he slowly came to, he realized he was tied to a wooden chair and sitting in a dimly lit room with his shirt and jacket gone.
He looks around and sees Felipe tied in a chair next to him, they both had cloth tied around their mouths so they couldn’t speak.
Felipe looked at Kaz with eyes that showed nothing but pure fear. Suddenly, a door opens and two men in black robes wearing animal masks enter and walk towards them.
One of them holds a hot poker with a symbol at the end of it, and one man moves behind Felipe and holds his head to the side exposing his neck.
The man raises the hot poker and approaches felipe, his screams are muffled by the cloth but he tries to squirm and escape but is held still firmly by the man behind him.
Kaz watches in horror as the man burns the hot poker on Felipe’s neck engraving the symbol onto him.
Felipe screamed muffled sounds as he squirmed in pain shortly before passing out, his head slouched down and the poker was removed from his neck.
The man behind Felipe tipped the chair back and began dragging him out of the room while the other man held the door open for him.
Kaz watched with wide eyes as the door slammed shut leaving him in the medium-sized bedroom all alone.
He tried to use his momentum to move the chair but found it almost impossible because his ankles were also tied.
His hands were tied behind his back but he could grab them and he began pulling trying to wiggle his hands but they were tied extremely tight.
Kaz began having thoughts that he didn’t want to accept, he knew that, with the way his hands were tied breaking his hand was his only option.
If he broke his hand it would slip through the crease and he could try to untie his ankles,
It was his best shot, it was this, or get what happened to Felipe and be dragged off to what was certainly a painful death.
Those guys looked like some sort of cult members with the hooded robes and masks but Kaz didn’t remember seeing them at all in the woods.
Kaz took multiple deep breaths as he gripped his left hand tightly with his right hand, adrenaline was surging through him at a rate that seemed superhuman.
He trembled as he took heavy deep breaths and closed his eyes, he got a boost of confidence and twisted his left hand as hard as he possibly could, the pain was sharp and unbearable causing him to groan in agony as his hand slowly began slipping through as bones cracked and his hand warped.
He yanked it through the hole and his hands were free but his left hand was badly broken and mangled.
He shrugged off the ropes tied around his shoulders and began untying the ankle ties with his right hand.
Kaz frees himself from the chair and gets up
To scan the room, he sees a closet and a wardrobe next to a door.
He runs and opens the wardrobe and sees his white t-shirt hanging up and his brown jacket, he quickly puts them on and opens the closet door.
He sees his machete in its holster and the rifle with 4 boxes of ammo stacked next to it, Kaz quickly attaches the machete to his jeans and begins stuffing bullets in his pockets.
He quickly grabs the rifle and loads multiple rounds into it and turns around aiming at the door.
Kaz aimed with shaky hands as he slowly approached the door before opening it, he kept the rifle aimed straight forward as he slowly made his way down the hall when it suddenly happened to him… this was the building he was chased into when that creature in the woods went after him.
This cult and this monster are somehow connected, how would he and Felipe end up back at this building? He asks himself.
He suddenly hears footsteps approaching and he ducks into another room and hides behind a tall dresser.
He opts to hang the gun over his shoulder on its strap and take out the machete, he sits and waits when he hears footsteps walk into the room.
Kaz swiftly lunges out and swings his machete right at the throat of a cult member spraying some blood on Kaz and causing the man to choke and fall to the floor.
Kaz follows up by slamming the machete down on the back of the man’s head over and over, every swing the man’s head opened more and more until eventually his head began to look like a mushed pile of red.
Kaz backed up breathing heavily now covered in more blood as he looked upon the dead man, he layed completely still on his stomach his head now nothing more than a splatter.
Kaz quickly moves out of the room and notices a door half open at the end of the hall, he enters the room and suddenly stops in his tracks almost dropping his machete.
Sitting in a chair tied up was Felipe, his eyes were gone and his head slightly slouched as he sat there… dead.
Kaz felt tears form in his eyes and suddenly all of his memories of his and Felipe’s friendship over the years came at him at a million miles per hour.
He stared at Felipe’s lifeless body when he quickly turned around after hearing footsteps behind him.
He swings the machete and slices a cult member in the face knocking him down before a second cult member rushes Kaz.
He jabs the machete forward stabbing the man in the stomach before turning it and twisting it to cause more pain, the man groaned in pain before Kaz ripped the blade out and swung it right at his head lodging the machete deep into his face splitting the mask easily.
The man fell to the floor and Kaz looked over at Felipe, his head was now straight up and he was looking at Kaz, blood started to stream from his eyes as he just began to laugh, his voice was extremely deep and raspy, it started as a simple chuckle and slowly turned into maniacal laughter.
Suddenly the two cult members' bones cracked and they arched their backs and propped themselves up on their hands and feet as they began to laugh as well.
Kaz began to feel weird, he felt like his sanity was completely going as he began to find their laughing sort of… funny, he started chuckling with them as they continued to laugh their horrifying deep laugh.
“What the fuck?!” Kaz said in between laughter as he lost his grip on reality.
Suddenly a door slamming snaps him out of it and suddenly the room looks exactly how it did before.
Felipe sat lifeless tied to the chair and the two cult members lay dead, he froze for a moment in a state of fear mixed with confusion.
“Was that fake?” He asks himself, “Did I just absolutely fucking lose it?”.
He puts the machete away and takes out the Mauser 98 and aims it as he exits the room and makes his way to the spiral stairs he remembers.
When he gets to the bottom he notices multiple Jerry cans and sees an orange glow from outside.
Kaz gazes out the window trying to stay hidden and he sees 4 cult members in robes and masks surrounding a big fire doing some sort of dance.
“The fuck is that?” He says softly to himself when all of a sudden he is grabbed and thrown backwards through the air landing through a table.
He lost the gun in mid-air and he scrambled to his feet to see a huge man towering over him in a robe and mask.
He had to have been 7’0 and he looked like a bulky 300 pounds, Kaz whips out the machete and swings it but the man catches his hand and choke slams Kaz on his back knocking the wind out of him and making him drop the machete.
The man kicks Kaz in the stomach sending him sliding multiple feet across the floor, he tries to get up but the man easily lifts him overhead again and throws him into a bookshelf breaking it.
Books fell and pieces of wood landed on Kaz’s head when he was grabbed by the collar and launched through the air landing on the floor.
The man mounts on top of Kaz and begins strangling him, his two giant hands with sausage fingers wrapped around Kaz’s throat, and begins choking the life from him.
Kaz choked and gasped as he tried to hit the man but to no avail, he tried to reach around for the gun or the machete but found nothing.
He began seeing his vision fade to black as he struggled to breathe when he suddenly felt a knife handle on the man’s waist.
He quickly yanked the blade and jammed it into the side of the man’s neck and he dragged him all the way across to the other side of his neck causing blood to pour out all over Kaz.
He gaged in disgust as he scrambled and kicked away to get out from under the large man getting up to his feet.
He immediately ran and grabbed the gun before putting the machete back in his jeans.
He kicked the door open that led outside and was greeted by two cult members face-to-face with him.
He promptly shoots one in the chest sending him flying back but the other man drives a small blade into Kaz’s shoulder.
Kaz hits him with the end of the gun before reloading and shooting him in the face.
He walks outside to see the other two cult members rushing towards him, he shoots one from a distance dropping them to the ground, and lets the other get closer.
The cult member charges and swings a knife to which Kaz ducks under and turns whipping her with a gun in a spin attack knocking her down.
Kaz stomps on them a few times before shooting them in the leg, the cult member cries out in pain and Kaz rips their mask off.
Staring back at him was a very pretty blonde woman with a small symbol burned right below her eye.
“How the fuck do I get out of here!?” Kaz shouts aiming the gun at her face.
She smiles at him with a relaxed manner before responding, “You can’t leave, she wants you to stay”.
He stares at her confused as she begins laughing, “the fuck does that mean?!” He says but she keeps laughing and doesn’t respond.
Kaz stares at her as she continues to laugh before he simply shoots her point blank abruptly ending her laughs.
He turns around and looks at the woods still completely silent with its eerie dark red glow.
Then in the distance he noticed something.
He noticed a glowing triangle deep in the woods just floating, he focused on it for a few seconds but his attention was broken when a familiar awful screech echoed through the woods.
Kaz turned around instantly staring at the tree line, the dark red glow combined with the illumination from the fire revealed a lanky grey creature emerging from the bushes.
Its eyes glowed white and its mouth had rows of razor-sharp teeth, there was blood stains around its mouth and on its face.
Its fingers had these sharp long nails that dug into the ground, it slowly crept towards Kaz as it growled and sized him up.
Kaz stared the creature down not taking a step back as they faced off, the fire from the ritual suddenly started roaring as Kaz felt a surge of adrenaline, energy, and rage.
“Come on… let’s go”. He says in a confident tone, he felt nothing but an urge, that urge was to brutalize the monster in front of him and he was suddenly boosted with the confidence to do so.
The creature screeched as it began charging Kaz on all fours, Kaz shot it in the shoulder which slowed it down but it kept coming.
Kaz took another shot and missed so he ran at the charging creature and slammed the end of the gun into its face which stunned it.
Kaz kicks it in the stomach knocking it back before reloading.
Just as he aimed again the creature lunged at him redirecting the gun as it fired and tackling him to the ground.
Kaz kicked the creature off him and picked up the rifle again to reload.
He takes a shot and the creature disappears into the woods climbing up a tree, Kaz moves around as he hears it move from tree to tree.
Suddenly the creature comes lunging in from the air and Kaz shoots it in mid-air causing it to flail to the ground as Kaz moves out of the way.
The creature gets up and charges Kaz agin and he shoots but the gun clicks, he forgot to reload.
The creature slashes his arm and sends him flying to the ground, he quickly gets up taking out the machete as the monster closes in.
He swings the blade across its face which causes it to screech in response, black blood goes flying about as Kaz takes more swings.
The creature dodges a swing and jams its sharp nails into Kaz’s torso, it then lifts him and throws him through the air into a tree.
Kaz’s lays as his ears ring and blood deters his vision, he slowly starts to stir as the creature rapidly charges him at inhumane speeds.
Kaz jumps out of the way just in time and the creature goes flying face-first into the tree causing it to squeal in pain.
Kaz slices its calf which drops it to a knee and then stabs it directly through its body.
The creature screams before Kaz swings around and kicks the monster off his blade into the fire.
Horrible screeches ring out as the creature is burned in the fire when it eventually stops turning to silence.
After a few moments a figure suddenly emerges from the flames and the monster walks out of the fire with melted skin and horrible scorch marks.
Half of its face was burned off to the point where you could see its jawbone and part of its skull.
Kaz reloaded the rifle and took a shot hitting it in the chest.
The creature stumbled back but began limping forward shortly after, Kaz then shot its arm and the arm came flying off.
The monster curled down in pain as it screamed in agony, Kaz slowly approached it putting the gun away and taking out the machete.
The monster looked up at him and stood back up and walked towards him, Kaz closed the distance quickly and chopped its other arm off.
The monster stumbled as it stared at him with its white eyes driven by nothing but mindless instinct.
Kaz stabbed it directly through the chest and began cutting downward which dropped it to its knees.
He violently rips the machete out before raising it up and in one hard swift motion with both hands he swings the machete with every ounce of strength he has and decapitates the creature sending the head tumbling onto the ground as its body falls over.
He stands there for a few minutes as the fire continues to roar, he looks over at the abandoned building and then back at the fire, he walks in and out of the building with the Jerry cans and begins emptying them on the fire leading to a massive blaze erupting in the building.
He turns and begins to walk away back to the path as he makes his way back with the gun aimed.
The fire spreading and growing illuminated his way as he walked, he eventually reached the spot where they had originally set up camp.
He saw that all of their stuff was gone, gone as if they were never there.
Hours later he continued down the trail, exhausted but determined to escape he pushed himself to keep walking.
Suddenly he noticed something significant, he noticed it was slowly getting brighter, he turned around to see the sun slowly rising casting a calm sunlight over the forest slowly brightening it up.
Kaz begins jogging when he comes across the wooden sign at the entrance.
He looks past it to see his car still parked in the small dirt parking lot, he feels around his pockets and pulls out his keys as he rushes to the door.
He gets in the car and starts it and just sits there, he rests his hands on the steering wheel as the car idles.
“I’m alive, but they're not” he says to himself, he leans back in the seat, takes a deep sigh, and then opens the glove box and takes out tissues and wipes blood off his face.
He made it out alive, but with unanswered questions and a traumatized mind, Kaz still has a long road ahead.
What did that woman mean when she said “She wants you to stay”
“I saw Felipe and John dead but not Roy… could he be somewhere out there”
“Am I gonna go to prison?”
His mind raced with a million thoughts as he pulled out of the parking lot and drove away.
Kaz Everest escaped, but his life officially changed from here on out forever.
