The Cabin In The Woods

A Big Bang

       Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Lenice, Lenice wake up!" Hannah shakes me awake. "I heard gun shots."
I rub my eyes and sit up in bed. Hannah looks at me with fear in her eyes.
"Hannah, have you slept?" I ask her.
"No. Sam and Alaina going outside kinda freaked me out."
I turn towards the clock on the nightstand, it read one in the morning -we've only slept for three hours. Hannah throws the blanket off of her and runs to the bedroom door. She opens the door a crack and the hallway light foods through. She turns towards me and waves for me to come over. Rolling my eyes I walk over to her. Quietly, we walk out of the room, through the hallway and halfway down the stairs. We squat on the stairs trying not to be seen. Sam comes in through the doorway with a gun in her hands. Sweat trickles down her face.
Sam walks over to the kitchen sink, sets her gun down on the counter, and retrieves a beer from the fridge.
"Hannah, don't do anything stupid." I warn her.
Without hesitation, Hannah rushes down the rest of the steps, I follow suit.
"Hey Sam," Hannah greets casually.
"Oh, hey guys. What are you still doing up?"
"This girl just wouldn't let me sleep! We just kept talking about our lives and whatever."
I look at Hannah wondering why she was lying. She looks at me with a smile, but her eyes urged me to go along with it.
"No, you wanted to talk about boys," I lie.
Sam looks at the both of us suspiciously, then soon laughs.
"Please don't tell me you guys like one of the boys here," Sam chuckles.
"What, oh goodness no!" Hannah says defensively.
We all start laughing hysterically. Once we calm down, Hannah's face turns serious.
"I was wondering... where is Alaina?" She asks curiously.
"She went home early, something about her mom needing her or whatever." Sam answers.
"Hannah heard gun shots," I add, "what was that about?"
"Before she left, I thought I'd teach her how to shoot a gun since she didn't practice yesterday. Once we finished, she packed up and went home."
"Oh, okay." I can tell Hannah didn't believe it, but I wasn't about to question it.
"We all should get back to bed," Sam states, "I have some big plans for us!" Sam beams.
"I'm sure you do." Hannah uttered.
"Well, goodnight!" Sam walks up the stairs, out of sight.
"There's something going on here." Hannah proclaims once Sam is out of ear shot.
            "Yes, this whole situation is weird, but maybe she's telling the truth. I know Alaina's mom. She has been ill for quite some time."
"That may be true, but I know one thing for certain, Alaina wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."

* * * * * * *

Hannah and I didn't sleep the rest of the night. The thought of Alaina leaving so abruptly wouldn't leave our minds. After a few hours, Sam calls out for all of us to wake up. Groggily, we get up from bed and Hannah takes a quick shower while I wash my face with cold water. I look in the mirror and my reflection isn't a pretty one. My eyes are red from lack of sleep, bags formed under my eyes, and everything just seemed to sag. Not having the energy to do anything special with my hair, I wrap it up with a purple scarf. I then throw on a pair black sweats and a soft white sweater.
Hannah turns off the shower and I exit the bathroom. I sat down on the edge of the bed and kept thinking of Alaina. No matter how much I wanted to deny it, I knew something was wrong. I walk out the bedroom and into the hallway. Two doors down is Sam, Defrain, and Alaina's room. The room is empty, everyone must already be downstairs. I check behind me before stepping into the room and closing the door behind me.
The room looks just like ours, but there was a little cot on the floor next to the bed. I look around the room for no specific thing at all, just anything out of the ordinary. I lift up mattresses, look inside pillowcases, check suitcases - that's when I find Sam's journal. The journal was made of light brown leather with intricate, golden flower designs. I thought back to the time I saw Sam writing ferociously into the journal, I remembered how she said 'who's first' and 'Alaina'. I open the journal to the first page.
I quickly skim through it, catching a few words in names like 'Detective Gibbs', 'get together', 'Alison', 'gun', 'interrogation', and 'revenge'. I thought back to last night and how Sam told Alaina about Alison. Why would she tell Alaina about her? I assumed that Sam interrogated Alaina about Alison, then Alaina left because of discomfort. It may have been a dumb reasoning but it was the best I had.
Footsteps in the hallway caused me to return the journal to its hiding place and slide under the bed. The door to the room opened wide and someone walked into the room. Based on their shoes, I assumed it was Sam. She walked around the room before stopping right in front of the bed I was hiding under. I held my breathe for what seemed like forever. Sam then walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. I stayed under the bed for a while longer to make sure she was gone before sliding out from under the bed.
I tiptoe over to the door and open it a crack. I peek through it making sure there was no one in the hallway. Voices from downstairs raced downtown the hallway. I scurry out the room, close the door, and walk down the stairs into the livingroom. Hannah spotted me and motioned for me to sit next her her on the sofa.
"Great, now that everyone is here, we can get started with the next activity - racing!" Sam cheered.
We all began to grumble in annoyance. Sam walked out the back door and we followed suit.
"What about the snow?" DeFrain asks.
"Don't slip." Sam advises.
We walk to the same clearing where we shot the guns. At one end of the clearing is a ribbon tied to two trees to indicate the finish line, on the other end is a rope to indicate the starting area.
"Alright, everyone stand in a line in front of the rope." Sam orders.
We all slowly work our way to the rope and find a place to stand. I stand next to Hannah, worry is etched onto her face.
"We will be doing three races. Whoever wins gets their hot chocolate first when we get back. If there is a tie, we will have a tie breaker finale."
Sam walks to one side of the rope and lifts a gun above her head.
"You all ready?" Sam asks. We all nod our answer. "On your mark, get set, go!" She shoots the gun and we all take off running.
Racing was one of the things I did best back in highschool. I was ubercompetitive, so losing wasn't an option. My competitively kicked in and I made sure to at least beat the other girls. At the corner of my eye, I see Mike running his hardest, determined to win. I look back to the finish line and push my hardest, but it wasn't hard enough. Mike made it there before me. The next race, I won. The final race, Hannah beat us both by a hair.
"A three-way tie, great!" Sam shouted. "As a tie breaker, we will do one more race. Mike, Hannah, Lenice, line up." She ordered.
We walked back to the rope, breathing heavily. We get into a running stance and Sam raises the gun above her head.
"On your mark, get set, go!" And the gun goes off.
We take off running towards the finish line, not willing to give up. My heart attempts to beat out of my chest, sweat races down my face in the crisp cold weather. Mike is slightly in front of me, almost at the finish line. I push with everything I had left, but it wasn't enough. Mike took the victory. I fall down into the cold winter snow trying to calm my breathing and racing heart. Hannah stops running and jogs over to check up on me.
"You okay?" She asks breathily. I could only manage a nod in reply. She brings her hand towards me and I take it. She pulls me up onto my feet.
Mike runs over to us.
"Congrats, Mike." I manage to say.
"Thanks." He replies.
"Ima leave you two alone," Hannah says before she slowly walks away. I glare at her as she gives me a thumbs up.
"Everyone, back to the cabin," Sam shouts.
Everyone besides Mike and I walk back to the cabin. Once everyone is away, he begins to speak.
"Listen, about highschool, I wanted to apologize. How our friendship ended, it stuck with me."
"Me too," I admit, "congratulations by the way, on your engagement."
"Yeah, thanks."
The silence was very awkward, so I broke it.
"Well winner, you have some hot chocolate awaiting you."
"Yeah. Sorry again." He said sheepishly.
"We're good." I raise my hand to his and he shook it. We then walked back to the cabin with all things behind us.
When we reached the cabin, I felt all eyes on us. I look over at Eliza who's trying to burn me with her furious gaze. Mike walks over to her and wraps his arm around her. Her face instantly cools and she kisses his cheek. I look over at Hannah then take a seat next to her. Sam rushes over with Mike's victory beverage and he thanks her.
"Alright! We still have about two hours before we need to get to bed. So, what should we do?" Sam asks us.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm beat," DeFrain states, "Goodnight."
DeFrain walks up the stairs and Brock follows close behind. I realized that no one has asked about Alaina, so I assumed she told them this morning.
"Do you have any board games?" Nathan asks.
"Yes, theres monopoly!" Sam walks to a closet on the other side of the room  and pulls out monopoly.
"No! I'm not about to play monopoly," Hannah exclaims with disgust on her face, "it takes too long."
"Then you don't have to play," Sam says with anger in her voice.
Hannah, taken aback rises from her chair and walks up the stairs.
"Maybe we should all just go to bed," David offered.
We all rise from our seats and Mike falls down.
"Mike!" Eliza screams. We all rush towards him. I take one of his arms and Hannah takes the other, trying to help him up.
"I'm fine guys, I'm fine." Mike attempts to stand again, but he falls again, his head lolls to the side.
"Take him upstairs," Hannah orders.
Nathan and David take their places in supporting Mike and help him up the stairs and into his room. Hannah and I rush up the stairs behind them.
"Everyone else, stay downstairs. We don't need a crowd. Eliza, you stay too. When we get him better, we will call you." Hannah demands.
Eliza rushes over to Sam and cries into her shoulder. I look at Sam and I thought I saw her smile, but it was gone before I could define it. I run up the stairs and into Mike's room. David and Nathan had him on the bed.
"Guys, please. I'm fine, I just ate too much before we raced. I just gotta sleep it of-" Mike leans to the side of the bed and hurls.
I run to the bathroom and get him a trash can. I put the back of my hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up," I state, "we need fans and cold rags. Now!"
David rushes to the bathroom and puts some cold water on a few rags. He runs back into the bedroom and hands them to me. I set one on his forehead and the other around his neck.
"We need ice packs." Hannah states.
"I'm on it," Nathan says before he races out the room.
Sweat pours down Mike's face and his eyes roll backwards.
"Nathan hurry up with those ice packs!" Hannah yells.
Nathan rushes into the room and hands her the ice packs. Hannah set them on his chest, legs, and arms. We step away from Mike and sees that he's stopped moving.
"Mike?" I say cautiously.
Hannah rushes over to the bed and places the side of her finger underneath his nose.
"He's not breathing!" Hannah says frantically. "Someone call 911!"
Hannah instantly begins to perform CPR, I sit back and watch, praying that he will come back. I hear someone rush into the room, it was Eliza. A blood curdling scream escapes her mouth. David runs over to her and tries to calm her down.
"There's no signal here!" Nathan shouts, fear visible on his features.
Sweat shows on Hannah's face as she continues to perform CPR. Hannah puts her ear to Mikes chest in search of a heart beat. The room goes deathly quiet.
"He's breathing." Hannah says with relief evident on her face.
I sigh with relief.
"Lenice and I will stay in here to make sure he's okay during the night, since we're the only ones who really know what we're doing." Hannah declares.
Everyone nods in consent. Sam walks into the room.
"Eliza, you can take Alaina's bed in my room." Sam says warmly.
Eliza shuffles over to Sam. Sam wraps her arm around her and guides her to her room.
"I'll bring a tub of ice into the room, just in case." I say before leaving the room.
I check the closet for a bucket, then enter the kitchen and empty out all the ice in the fridge into the bucket. I carry it upstairs and into Mike's room.
             Everyone else has gone to their room except for Hannah. She sits at the foot of the bed, looking stressed. I walk over to her and pat her gently on the back.
"You did amazing tonight." I say.
"Thank you." Hannah begins to yawn.
"Take a nap, I'll take first shift in watching him."
"You sure?" She ask, hopeful.
"Of course." I answer, smiling.
Hannah leaves the room and retrieves two chairs from another room. She sets on on each side of the bed. She takes one seat and falls asleep, instantly. I watch the rise and fall of Mike's chest as he sleeps. I smile, to myself as I think of the good times we've had together. He can't die, he has to live. I stay awake for a few more hours before sleep claims me too.

* * * * * * *

I don't know how long I've slept before I heard the soft creaking noise of the door opening. I slowly open my eyes. Everything was blurry. A dark figure stands in the doorway. The figure walks over to Hannah's side of the bed and leans over Mike. A hand reaches over him and caresses his face. With the other hand, what looks like a syringe is inserted into his neck. The figure removes the syringe from his neck and leaves the room. I fall back to sleep, assuming it was just a dream.
Around eight o'clock, Sam does her routine call out. I wake up and check on Mike. I place my ear to his chest, his heart wasn't beating.