Not Lost Forever (Discontinued, Possible Re-write?)

Chapter 2- Cold

The car door shut behind Chris as the snow crunched under his boots. He stared up a mountain trail, preparing himself mentally for what they coukd face.

They will eat you alive. The Stranger's voice echoed in his head. It hurt to think of him but Chris needed to remember his advice.
They see movement. Go completely still. Only if you have no other choice.
Chris gulped, not sure if it was his fear or if he was swallowing down the emotions about to burst from him.
That man had helped them. He had saved them and helped Chris try and save Josh.
And he had paid for it. He had paid for their stupidity.
Why did we leave him alone in a cabin? Even if it weren't for the demons, there are still bears and wolves...
And I still dared to call him my friend. After what I did. We left him. I didn't even go down to the goddamn mines to save him.
I am the worst friend in the world.
And to think I-

His thoughts are cut off by Mike's authoritative tone.
"We are nearly at the cable car. Last chance for anyone to leave.
Sam looked at Chris, almost willing him to give in and go home. It was like she could read his mind and knew what this place was doing to him.
How the guilt that twisted in his chest was ripping apart his lungs.
He shook his head with a determined step forward, and his friends shared a glance of unreadable emotion before they continued up to the increasingly less distant station.

Upon reaching the station, the cable car was lazily sliding down toward them. It had never been turned off, it seemed, the last time it was used.
Chris didn't really know when that was.

Mike turned to him, concern darkening his eyes.
"Chris, dude. We could take it from here if you want. I don't think-"
Chris felt a sudden rage.
"SHUT UP! I'M DOING THIS, OKAY?"
Mike flinched at his outburst and Sam gently placed a hand on Chris's shoulder. Chris pretended not to see the meaningful glance Sam shared with Mike, who then relaxed, as if he had been tense.
They don't take it personally. They think I'm not really all here mentally.
Chris took in a deep breath.
They could be right. He admitted.
Ever since he had seen the Stranger die, he had gone oddly silent. He tried not to talk much, if at all, and no longer made all of the stupid puns that would nearly kill Sam of secondhand embarassment.

He didn't only change outwardly. His mind had changed too.
It was like a dark ocean now. He couldn't think clearly, and it felt like he was both enclosed and floating in a giant empty space. His thoughts were dull, his head hurt to think. The only things he clearly saw in his mind anymore were the nightmarish figures, blades and saws of that night. Heads torn from their bodies, blood pooling from open flesh.
His leg still hurt sometimes. Even if he wasn't limping as he did that night.
He had tried going to therapy, but it didn't work. He knew they thought he was confused and making up for gaps in his memories.

The cable car floated into the station, and the three of them hopped right on. Chris felt ill at the ground getting further and further from them, feeling like he might fall from the cable car and go hurtling down towards snow-covered rocks. That he would lose his life on the mountain before even reaching the mines.
Part of him was fearful.
Another longed for that quiet.
He pushed both these thoughts away and looked up the mountain towards thick forests and falling water. Towards where the impossible was real, and hunger was deadly.
To where he knew Josh would have to be.
Once again, a wave of guilt crashed into his thoughts.
Josh is only here because of me. We left him in a shed. I left my sick friend in a shed alone with his personal demons and the very real ones who wanted to eat him whole.
Chris hadn't realised his tears until Sam and Mike, suddenly on either side of him, squeezed against his sides. Sam leaned into him comfortingly, enveloping him in a hug. Mike wrapped an arm around Chris's shoulder.
Nobody said a thing.

They reached the next station, and finding the door to the station unlocked, pushed out into the cold. The sun was in the middle of the sky, shining down on them as they made their way over the busted gate and up to what was left of the lodge.
"I think we should check where Hannah last took him." Sam decided, and Mike nodded. Chris stayed quiet but they assumed it was compliance. Chris wasn't bothered about where they started looking as long as they did.

The lodge's remains were charred and dusted. Random polls and beams still shot up from the debris, and a few walls stood barely above all the mess. Snow collected over what was left of the Washington cabin.
Sam immediately made her way to where she knew the cinema room once stood, and began scrambling over a waist-height wall. Mike and Chris followed, and Mike threw himself over the wall in ease, turning to help pull Chris over.
The three of them stood in the ashes of what was once somewhere they would hang out as a group, laughing and watching awful movies.
Mike started toward the other side of the room, where a door to the basement once stood. The steps downward into the darkness made Chris want to turn back, but as his friends pushed forward he knew he couldn't change his mind now.

About an hour of walking in darkness, climbing down ladders into darkness, and hopping over random fallen objects in the darkness, Chris was just about fed up of the darkness.
Just as he was going to complain, he recognised the steep rock wall in which Sam had split from them on their mission to save Mike. Sam turned to them.
"Do you guys think you can handle this?"
Mike scoffed. "Of course we can."
Chris understood Mike was trying to give him confidence, but he wasn't so sure.
Sam climbed up the wall so fast Chris was convinced she was part squirrel. Mike clambered up behind her, considerably slower and more clumsily.
Chris walked over to the wall, took a deep breath and reached out for the first foothold. Carefully, he pulled himself up and slotted his feet in hollows of the rock. Mustering all his strength, he pushed up and reached a ledge, where he stood for a moment before continuing his long journey up the stone surface.
As he reached the top, Mike and Sam reached for him and pulled him up. He lay next to them now on his stomach, legs half hanging over the side of the wall. He pushed himself upright and stood, helping Sam up while Mike was already wandering towards a small drop down.
'This the way?" He called back to Sam, and she nodded.
"Yeah. I went that way when I got you. It's where I found the shovel."
With that, Mike nodded and dropped down the small distance to the cave floor. Chris followed after him, made a bit braver from his successful wall climbing. Sam landed behind them as they moved forward, following a twisted path which led past a metal door.
Beside that door lay the corpse of one of those monsters, headless and rotting. Its head lay more to the side of it, closer to some barrels.
Sam and Mike exchanged a look, and Chris figured this was their doing.

Eventually, they stumbled across a body of water.
"This... Is where Hannah took him away."
Mike's voice was soft, and it unnerved Chris. Sam tried not to pay it much mind, it seemed, as she dropped into the water.
Chris followed after her, Mike dropping in behind.
And they began to wade through the cold.