Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

7 A Beacon in Dark Times

Sam wasn't sure if the Hardass clone was still following him. He walked as quickly as he could, waiting for his stamina to recharge. He looked back into the forest when he heard footsteps and saw the clone approaching.

"Dammit, I can't lose this thing!" Sam cursed. "Even after I ran what feels like a half a mile."

Sam had to do a double take when he saw four other creatures that looked just like the Hardass clone behind it. It looked like the forest itself was chasing him. All five creatures looked like tiny man shaped trees. All were brown, with purple leaves covering their heads, and hollowed out holes where their supposed eyes and mouth were supposed to be. The leaves on their heads all shook in unison as they closed in on him. Behind them, Sam could see even more of them and in the distance, he heard one of them screaming that same foreboding scream that the original Hardass had screamed before Sam had attacked it. He was regretting the hell out of that decision now. He started sprinting again as soon as his stamina bar filled back up and managed to outpace the tree man army behind him before having to slow down again because of his drained stamina. He wondered how long he could keep this up before they finally caught up to him. He couldn't see anywhere around that could be considered safe. It was nothing but trees, darkness, moonlight, and death around him for miles it seemed. He had to think of something. These tree men were smart. In his battle with them they had managed to strategize a way to box him in. If the army that was chasing him managed that then there was no way out for him. Luckily the poison had completely run its course and he was left with a little bit more than a quarter of his total health. But one attack from a Hardass clone was all it would now take to kill him.

In the distance, he saw some sort of opening in the forest. There was a large concentration of moonlight and he could even see the sky. That was currently his best bet, or a complete dead end. Either way, he'd soon find out.

Now at the forest's edge, Sam found himself near a cliff. Way below, there was much more forest and a river but even the trees looked too far down for him to survive the fall. With the enemies at his back in the forest and certain death below, Sam decided to circle around the cliff and look for some other option out of this mess. He ran forward and saw that the cliff's path was leading back into the forest. He knew there was no way he'd survive in there. He looked over the side of the cliff for some place to hopefully drop down to, but found nothing below him. He looked across at the adjacent cliff and saw a little cave. He quickly cut through the forest to get over to the other side of the cliff. He nearly ran into a few trees during his scramble. He heard the tree men attacking, meaning they were now close. This was his last chance to escape. With his stamina nearly emptying out, he was at the part of the cliff where he saw the opening below it. He hoped to god that it was really a cave and he hoped even harder that it didn't have invisible walls covering the entrance.

"It was here!" Sam proclaimed nearly out of breath. At the cliff's edge he jumped and felt the wind against his body as he took flight. He immediately looked down to see if his memory was correct. He was in the cave before he even realized it and he instinctively rolled forwards as soon as his feet touched the ground. He huffed and huffed and tried his best to calm himself. He had made it by the skin of his teeth, but his health was still low and he was in a strange place. There was no telling what would happen next. He first looked back to see if any of the tree men were following him and if any were clever enough to make the jump. He let out a breath of relief when he saw them turn back into the forest.

"Well, at least that's over with...for now."

Sam looked around the cave for anything dangerous and saw that it was empty. He walked deeper into it and found the remains of some kind of campfire, only it smelled funny. It smelled like...cremated remains. Sam had an aunt who was cremated and one day, his six year old self made the unfortunate mistake of wanting to know exactly what was in the urn that sat in his parents' room. His curiosity had gotten the better of him and thanks to an ill-timed sneeze, Sam had found himself covered in his poor aunt's ashes. The incident resulted in several unavoidable nightmares and now Sam knew the smell of a dead person's ashes really well.