Outlast

Chapter 1

There are lockers either side of me. I look down to see my navy blue school skirt with my black tights and black velcro school shoes. I'm much younger all of a sudden. I start to walk forward, my tiny legs only able to maintain a shuffle. I don't get much further than 10cm before a locker door eases open before me. On the inside of the door are pictures, one standing out more than the others. It was a picture of me and my two best friends, Annie and Hazel when we were in year 7. Of course, I look at Hazel first, even now, the warm feeling spread through my body; the same feeling I get every time I look at her. But that's not important right now. I start shuffling down the corridor again, approaching a crucifix hanging on the wall. A feeling of dread landed in my stomach, unlike the usual hope of the Christian faith I always get when I see Jesus. I turn right to follow the corridor but I stop dead in my tracks. A teacher begins to walk away from me, down towards a set of double doors. It was him. I have to get him to pay the price of what he has done. I try running as fast as I can but am still limited to the shuffle. Calling out, 'Wait! Wait!', I close in on the teacher, impossible due to the speed of my shuffle, getting closer and closer to the set of double doors. When I reach them, they are still open after the teacher had walked through but just as I am about to walk through them, they slam shut. I push with all my might but they won't budge. I recall passing a photocopier with bits and pieces covering it. Maybe I can smash the glass with one of the utensils? I turn around, expecting the corridor to be empty, but, standing adjacent to the photocopier, is Hazel. I have just about processed this information when the world starts vibrating and a tsunami of blood comes crashing through the corridor, covering Hazel and whacks straight into me-

I woke up hyperventilating. My mum, sitting next to me, was holding my shoulders, desperately trying to calm me down. Once my breathing had slowed and my vision cleared, I took in the familiar surroundings of the plane we had got into not long ago. My mum wanted to make sure that this holiday was the best I had ever been on since my dad died last year. I hadn't had a nightmare like that in ages and hoped that they wouldn't be a continuous occurrence one we got to Florida. "Sweetie, what was that about? Did you have one of those nightmares again?" My mum asked.
"Yeah."
"Can you tell me what it was about?"
"I dreamt about Hazel again... and Mr Loutermilch."
"Oh Binah. I'm sorry honey. Shall we just concentrate on Florida before we think about all this again?"
"Yes please." I just had one more question, one that had been on my mind since I woke up: "Will I have to go to hospital again?" I looked up at my mum, her face unreadable. Her lips were pursed.
"I'm not sure." That was not the answer I wanted to hear. That year had been the worst year of my life, and I could not go back now that I was going into year 11. Determined to change the subject now I asked, "So, where are we currently?"
"The Arizona desert." I looked out the window to just make out villages and trees in the dark.
"It doesn't look very desert-y."
"That's because we are flying over the deadliest villages in the whole of America." The pilot chimed in.
"Woah. Cool." I thought nothing of it. Who would? People fly over this area all the time. Little time had passed since I had thought that, when the brightest light beamed from below. At the exact same time the plane suddenly lurched downwards but the pilot managed to get it back on track.
"Whoa!" He exclaimed. "That was a close one!" My mum and I exchanged a look, the worry growing on her face. All of a sudden, the bright light beamed again and plane immediately started to fall. I could hear the pilot shouting, "Shit! Shit!", but all I could focus on was hanging onto my mum, making sure that she stayed alive. The plane swung to the right, causing me to crash into the door of the two-seater plane which popped right off it's hinges and flew into the air. I flipped off the plane, screaming so hard my voice went hoarse. Just before I descended to certain death, I felt my mum grip onto my arm. I made the stupid decision and looked down to see my legs swinging 1000m above the ground, the rocks below getting closer by the second. I screamed with the little voice I had left, until felt myself being pulled back into the plane by my mum, the adrenaline causing her to have some sort of human super strength. We hugged tighter than we had ever hugged before, willing each other to stay alive. Glancing out the window, I saw the rocks becoming almost level with the plane and my world became dark as I passed out with fear.

"We're not alone here."

My face stung and my bones ached. Scraps of metal, some bigger than others, lay scattered around me. I slowly sat up, my muscles burning from the effort. I looked around and noticed that both my mum and the pilot were nowhere to be seen. Despite my muscles and bruised bones, I quickly stood up and searched the wreckage that lay around. Even after 5 minutes, I already knew that there was no one else here. That's when I noticed the fire down below. I hadn't realised that there was more of the plane on the ground below me. I looked for an easy way down but there was none in sight. So I headed towards the ledge and jumped down to a tiny cliff of rock, then down to another. I then put my back up against the wall and, trembling, stepped onto the narrowest ledge and shimmied my way across. There was a huge pitch black drop, no knowing of how deep it went. One more jump and I was finally amongst the second wreckage. Another search but yet again there was no one in sight. I began to call for my mum but it was to no avail. There was no way she could have died if she wasn't here: by the time I passed out we were too close to the ground for her to be flung away from here. I had to look for her. I couldn't lose her too. There was only one opening so I made my way towards it.

As I got closer, a strong stench filled my nostrils, so unpleasant that I gagged. I had never smelt anything so horrific. It seemed to be coming from the tree just in front of me. There was something attached to the trunk but I couldn't quite make it out so I moved closer. The sight that appeared out of the mist was the worst thing I had ever seen. I screamed and backed away. The thing attached to the trunk was the pilot of the plane, tied up in a horrifying way. His legs forced to bend so hard they were obviously broken, as had his arms. So many of his bones stuck out in unnatural ways. How that happened so quickly? How long was I unconscious for? Why didn't that happen me? Where was my mum? With tears of fear and horror streaming down my cheeks, I started to walk down the corridor of rock. It was so dark that I could only see about 30cm in front of me. Every time I heard a noise or felt like someone was behind me, I'd whip my head only to see darkness but no figure. The pathway seemed to continue on forever until I finally reached a slight drop into a deserted field. I slid down the pebbles onto the ground below only to find out that it wasn't field, it was, in fact, a village. A smile began to creep onto my face until I remembered something that was said on the plane. My heart stopped as I realised that this was one of the villages that the pilot had mentioned on the plane - the deadliest villages in the whole of America.