The Seven

Chapter 1: The Cabin

ONE WEEK LATER

"Stop whining." Claire said to the younger girl next to her, closing the blinds, ultimately stripping the group of any natural light source. Harley wiped her tears and clinged onto her sister's long cardigan, "We're gonna die!!" she wailed, her hiccups and sniffles being the only noise in the cabin.

Cam sighed, "Don't say that, we have a lot of options, we just need to..." his voice trailed off.

"...Strategise?" Sena looked up from the gun she was fiddling with to give a slight smile to their leader.

"Sitting here won't do anything, dumbasses." Cosmic said with a bitter tone, her head resting on the dark wood of the shabby cabin they were in. Bugs crawled out of a crack in the wall and she squinted, half disgusted, half fascinated.

"Really helpful, Cos, thanks for telling us what we already know," Rick murmured from his corner in the cabin, shifting uneasily in his seat as all eyes were on him now.

"So what do we do?" Everyone turned to Harley as she started having a breakdown, "Fight those...those THINGS?"

"Wendigos," Nathan corrected.

"DOES IT MATTER?!" the small girl exclaimed.

Nathan sighed and patted her shoulder, giving a pitiful look to Claire who had to deal with her crying sister. Claire shrugged, saying, "I guess we have to." She sat down next to Sena, nodding at her. "Let's figure this out and get it over with already."

They all looked towards Cam, thinking he would already be coming up with plans A, B, all the way through Z. He looked inquisitively around the room at all the faces staring back at him, all of them waiting for an answer. He let out a sigh and said "I don't know why you're all looking at me, I'm just as clueless as the rest of you right now."

Claire piped up, "What if we sent someone out as bait, y'know? Just send someone out front and then send two groups from either side as a sort of surprise attack."

Cam looked at her and his face lit up a bit. "Yeah, yeah that could work!" His expression immediately turned back to grim. "But that leaves the problem of figuring out who would be the bait." He looked around the room and asked, almost as a joke, "Any volunteers?"

They all looked at the center of the room, wondering who in their right mind would volunteer to go out and be a distraction to the wendigos. They'd been in two or three encounters with damn things now. They were terrifying creatures, desiccated skin pulled tightly over their bones. Looking like a mixture of deer, dog, and human. With their bones pushing out against their skin, their complexion was gray and deathly, and their eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, so they looked like gaunt skeletons recently dug up from the grave. What little amount of lips they had on their faces were tattered, bloody, and torn at the edges. The worst parts? They were master hunters and could mimic human voices to lure people out of safety. Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to be the bait.

"Alright I guess we've gotta pick someone," Cam stated. He grabbed an empty glass bottle from the once full box of sodas beside him. A slight smile fell upon his face. "Usually playing spin the bottle is a bit more fun than this."

Everyone gathered around in a circle as he placed the bottle on the floor in the center of them. He gave it a quick spin and before standing up and taking his place in the circle. The bottle span and span and then slowed down. Everyone was dripping with anxiety and anticipation, wondering who the bottle would land on. Finally it came to a stop.

"Cosmic", Rick said, "Cosmic is the bait."

Immediately, Cosmic's brows furrowed in a combination of confusion and anger. "Whaddya mean I'M the bait?" Her arms immediately crossed on her chest as she huffed and sat back, staring angrily at her group of friends around her.

"Well, someone has to be the bait, and the bottle did land on you." Cam said. "There is no way in hell I am stepping outside and causing a distraction to those things." Cosmic responded, her voice getting louder and more emphasized with every word. "Well if not you, then who?" Cam asked. He looked around the circle, the group backing up a bit and trying to avoid eye contact, not wanting to fall victim to the first part of their plan.

Someone had to be bait, to distract the wendigos before the ambush. "Hit and run," Harley liked to call the plan, and it was just then that Cam put his hand on Harley's shoulder and she squeaked.

Tugging on Claire's sleeve, to which she slightly shuffled away, not wanting to be involved. Harley shook her head. "I am not going to be the bait." Nathan raised a brow and nudged Sena, clearly implying that she should assume the role of bait, before Rick butted in.

"Why don't YOU be the bait, Cam?"

Cam turned his head slowly to the boy, "ME? I'm the leader, the leader is never bait!" he said in a huff.

"It's like you said, someone needs to be bait. If no one else will do it, why not you?" Rick said with a smirk.

"There's no way that I'M gonna be the damn bait. I say we go with the original plan of Cosmic being the bait."

Cosmic looked shocked. "What the hell?! We just went over this, I'm not gonna be the bait."

Cam looked annoyed at this, thinking it was unfair to break the agreement of whoever the bottle landed on being the bait. As everyone looked at him, he looked back around at the worried faces of his friends, the people who he loved and who loved him, and he caved in. "Fine, I'm the fucking bait, is everyone happy now? Just look around for any spare ammo and then we can do this."

Cam's words were spoken with an air of assertion and level headedness, and easily provoked a feeling of respect; although that's not necessarily what he felt was needed. He needed the group to feel a sense of fear, to keep them sharp for what they were about to do. Harley sensed it immediately; the urgency and worry hidden beneath his tone wasn't completely blatant, but it wasn't fully disguised either. She knew how to read him better than anyone, and knew when something was wrong. Her previously scared demeanor quickly turned to one of reassurance. She instinctively slung her arm around him and pulled him close. Her scent and familiarity of her arm comforted him. She then reached down to her waist, pulling out one of her two pistols from its holster and dangling it carelessly between her fingers, "I have 6 bullets in each pistol, and I think Rick has 10 in is his. I'm not quite sure about everyone else, but it's a start." She put on a wide smile and patted his back, putting aside her own fear and sadness to try and make Cam happy, and it was easy to see that he had already begun to feel more assured. "'I'm not sure about everyone else' isn't quite reassuring, let's take inventory."

Cam looked around at everyone as they flashed their weapons. Harley had two sidearms, Rick had one. Cosmic flashed hers before storing it in her waistband. Nathan proudly held up an SMG and a bandolier of grenades. Sena pulled an old fashioned revolver from its leather holster. Cam his pistol from its holster on the side of his hip. He had a revolver in another holster on the front of his waist. In the corner they had 2 assault rifles, a shotgun, and a large flamethrower.

After everyone had showed what they had on them, Cam started feeling a little bit more assured.That feeling of assuredness was immediately replaced with one of dread as everyone heard a large thud at the door.