"What are we going to do?" she whispered, her eyes searching Sam's.
Sam took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions within him. "We're going to stay strong," he replied, his voice steady. "We're going to get through this together."
The officers, having cleared the room of any immediate danger, approached the group with notepads and solemn faces. "We need to go through everything that happened up there," Officer Ramirez began. "One by one, tell us your story."
"Okay," Sam started, his voice shaky but determined. "We arrived at the lodge to celebrate our friend Hannah's birthday. We had no idea what was waiting for us."
Officer Ramirez nodded, his pen poised over the pad. "And what happened once you were there?"
Sam's gaze darted to the floor, his thoughts racing. "Things... they started off okay, I guess. We had a bonfire, told ghost stories. But then..." His voice trailed off, the memories too much to bear.
Officer Ramirez's expression remained neutral, his pen hovering over the pad. "What happened after that?"
Chris stepped forward, his eyes dark with the weight of his own memories. "We played a prank on Hannah," he admitted. "It went too far."
Officer Ramirez raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"We pretended she was dead," Jessica spoke up, her voice trembling. "It was just a joke, but she ran off and we didn't find her until it was too late."
Officer Ramirez wrote furiously, not looking up from his pad. "And when did you notice something was truly wrong?"
Sam took over the narrative, his voice tight with tension. "It was after we saw the twins. They were... changed. Something was after us."
"Changed?" Officer Ramirez repeated, his eyes darting up from his notepad.
"They weren't human anymore," Ashley chimed in, her voice shaking. "They had become... something else. Something monstrous."
The officers exchanged skeptical glances, but kept their questions coming. "How did you survive? What did you do?"
"We... we stuck together," Sam managed, his voice wavering. "We had to make some hard choices, but we did what we had to."
The officers listened intently as the survivors recounted their harrowing night, their expressions a mix of skepticism and horror. They spoke of the twins, the creature they had dubbed 'Wendigo', and the series of events that had led to their escape. Each recounted their own brushes with death, their voices tinged with the raw emotion of the ordeal.
Officer Ramirez nodded solemnly as he jotted down notes, the gravity of their story weighing heavily on his shoulders. "Alright," he said finally, his voice low. "Thank you for your statements. We'll do our best to piece together what happened."
The survivors sat in silence, the weight of their words hanging in the air like a thick fog. They had made it out, but the cost was high. Each of them carried a burden of guilt and terror that no one else could truly understand.
"We should get going," Mike murmured, his voice strained with pain. "The helicopter?"
Officer Ramirez nodded. "It's on its way."
The wait was agonizing. They could hear the distant wail of the helicopter's rotors cutting through the mountain air, growing louder with each passing moment. The survivors huddled together, sharing a collective sigh of relief when the thumping sound grew to a crescendo, signaling the aircraft's arrival.
"Alright," Officer Ramirez announced, his voice carrying an urgency that hadn't been there before. "We need to get you all ready to board. We're going to take you to the hospital."
