Multiversal Swarm

Close Encounter

When we decided to go in the house we found in the woods, we were having fun. Me and my friend Tom were experienced hikers and woodsman. We'd climbed Everest at that point in our lives. We'd been friends from childhood.

We both lived on the edge of the forest that was south of our town. We always were in those woods. We saw all kinds of wildlife. There was a time when we were 16 and went out into the woods for four days. We'd managed to save up our birthday and Christmas money to buy Hiking gear. We loaded up with everything we knew we'd need and set out. The error was we didn't tell our parents. When the search and rescue wandered up on us at our campfire for the night we knew we were in big trouble.

After highschool we set out across the United States. We started in south Carolina and set out for Oregon or California. We didn't really decide until we were in Utah that we should go to California. We found a wooded area and set out to find some deer to watch.

When we got out of the car we heard something way off in the distance. Tom asked me if I heard it and I said that I did. It was so far away I couldn't hear anything other then white noise. We decided it was time to break some laws. Along our travels we managed to get ahold of some Protection. Two 9mm handguns. With an extra clip.

We weren't packing to hunt. If we hunted something we managed to get tags or go hunting with someone who had them. If we drew these weapons we wanted to scare more than kill.

We both put the guns on safety and slid them into the back of our waistbands. I also grabbed the very illegal trench knife out of a hidden compartment we made in the back seat. Believe it or not, we got pulled over three times and it didn't get found the one time we got searched.

We hiked at least 5 miles before we heard the loud ass sound again. We were kinda curious about it. So we decided walking towards the sound was the best idea. We were confident in finding it because you never know what will be out there. We were young... And stupid.

It was probably an hour later we found the house. We'd been shooting the shit and just enjoying the weather compared to the winter conditions at home when we left home. When we saw it we immediately went over to it. It looked like it had been there a couple of years.

Tom voiced the oddity that it wasn't really overgrown. If I remember the quote correctly...

"We're in the middle of fucking nowhere... Why isn't there even weeds in the front yard?" Tom rarely was one to be cautious.

"Weird I agree. Still want to go in though? You still owe me for the mine bro." I said eyeing the front door.

"I don't see why not. But I'm going in with my gun in my hand."

I laughed and pulled mine as well. We walked in and quickly flicked on our flashlights on. We weren't really scared but you never know what weird shit could be in the world. We didn't spend too much time on the internet so we didn't know those stories we read as kids weren't real.

The house was pretty empty. There was a couch, couple of tables, an old TV, and the smell of rot. It smelled like death in here. It was the defining characteristic of the establishment.

"You smell that man? It smells like-" I started to say.

"I know..." Tom said.

As we looked in the rooms we didn't see anything except in the bathroom. The whole wall was torn out. It lead to the open wilderness. Except it didn't look like it was burned or collapsed. It looked like something ran through it... We walked through the living room again and started for the staircase.

"Did you hear that?" Tom asked as we reached the base of the stairs.

"No... What'd you hea-"

At that moment we heard an ear piercing scream from upstairs! We both jumped back in wide eyed shock! A loud thump and a crash came from upstairs as whatever was coming after us started to tear it way to us! We both stepped back again at what we saw tear down the stairs towards us...