Salvation [Until Dawn]

❄️ Chapter 15 ❄️

Gwendolyn, Samantha and Michael were forced to go back into the icy water and to another dock to see if they could find the Wendigo's lair there. They carefully waded through the pond, keeping as quiet as they could and keeping their eyes out for any movement so they could freeze in their place.

"It's getting deeper," Michael warned the girls, as he was walking ahead of them. "Be careful," Gwendolyn and Samantha nodded as they followed him slowly.

"Yeah, uhm..." Samantha said as she and Gwendolyn reached the lowest point of the water body, the water now reaching their shoulders. "Are you okay, Gwen?" Gwendolyn nodded.

"Okay – okay – hey, it's sloping up again," Michael told them. "We're gonna make it,"

"Oh, my God, don't jinx it!" Samantha responded but the three teenagers managed to reach the other dock of the pond, and Michael helped up out of the water and onto the ground.

"Come on, come on, we made it," Michael urged the girls on and the three of them walked over to the metal door, which Samantha went over and reached over to unlock.

The door was thrown open and a strong surge of water flushed out of the door, making Gwendolyn, Samantha and Michael stumble back, and Samantha to scream slightly when she saw a decomposing head roll out of the room as well. Gwendolyn looked around quickly to make sure no Wendigo saw them.

"That head... that head belongs to the stranger, the flamethrower guy," Gwendolyn breathed as she grabbed Samantha and Michael, pulling them into the metal door. "We can't linger around,"

"You see that...?" Samantha asked, noticing a body hanging from the ceiling. Gwendolyn and Michael nodded slowly. "... bodies... a body..."

"Yeah," Michael breathed. "Yeah, a lot of them," He used the flashlight to look behind the stranger's decapitated body to see even more old bodies. "Oh... Oh my god..."

While Samantha and Michael lurched and gagged at the sight and smell of decaying bodies, Gwendolyn was already looking around to see where Joshua was. Or his body. She noticed movements through the boarded-up wall to their right and moved over to peek through it to see.

Joshua.
Alive and well. 
Well, at least physically.

"Joshua!" Gwendolyn whispered, noticing that he was muttering to himself. "Guys! I can see Joshua! Oh, Josh, Josh, Josh!" She felt her heartbeat ease a bit in relief. "Oh, my poor Joshua..."

"No... no, no... no, no, no... 

... I don't ... I don't take orders from you..."

Gwendolyn, Samantha and Michael looked around and fortunately found a door that led them to the location where Joshua was, and their lost friend was still muttering out aimlessly to himself.

"I don't take orders from you, you can't tell me what to do... 

... You can't tell me what to do anymore!!"

"Hey... Hey Josh!" Michael called out. "Josh? Buddy?" He, Gwendolyn and Samantha slowly approached the twenty-year-old. "Josh...? What's going on?"

"You can't tell me what to do anymore!! 

You can't tell me what to do!! Okay... okay... I trust you... I trust you... I trust you..."

"What's the matter him, Gwen?" Samantha asked in quiet voice, unsure what was going on with their friend. She turned to look at Gwendolyn. "Gwen...? Gwendolyn?"