SNOW

- Chapter Four -

Dragging his feet through the frozen land Doug could feel his shoulders getting heavier as the minutes go by. "So how do you think we'll get out of this?" he piped up, trying to distract himself from the pain. His friend snapped out of his focus, taking a second to respond, "To be honest, I have no clue." Pausing, he continued. "And it actually scares me."

Doug patted his friend's back, trying to reassure that there is still hope in the void of the forest. "Not that this helps, but at least we have each other."

Jerry let out a breath and slightly smiled, there was still hope for the lost men, even if it seemed scarce. But walking through the forest seemed to be the only option at the moment. So they did, and they hated it. Hours passed by, at least that's what they thought, all they could do was talk and listen to each other. Soon enough Jerry noticed something out in the distance, "Hey, do you see that? Out in front of us?" Doug looked up and saw what his friend was looking at. "Yeah... why does it seems like it's getting closer to us?". They both stopped in their tracks, as if it couldn't get any worse. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!". Doug slapped Jerry's shoulder. "Not so loud, we still have those creatures to worry about."

Jerry grunted, nodding his head. Doug looked over his shoulder only to find that they were surrounded, "We continue forward."

"Huh?" his friend turned towards him. "We're literally surrounded and its closing in on us. You wanna turn back?" Doug quickly responded. His friend obviously declined. With a dense blanket of snow rushing towards them, almost targeting them, they needed to stick together.

They were engulfed before they even knew it, barely seeing anything in front of them. Holding onto each other's shoulder, they continued through the woods. "You know," Jerry started "this really sucks."

"Gee, what could've given you that idea?" his friend sarcastically responded. "The never ending forest, the monsters? Or, could it be this annoying fu- Ugh!" Jerry felt a hard rush of wind next to him, forcing him lose his balance and fall back into the snow.

Doug was gone.

With his mind racing he knew he couldn't call out for his friend or he'd certainly be found by the monsters, but he needed to find Doug. Wiping the snow off his goggles, he found it difficult to stand up with the adrenaline pumping through him. He had all the energy to run through the forest and yell for his friend, but if he did that, he'd be dead before he knew it. Was Doug dead? Did he survive? If he lived where was he? How did those monsters find us? How will I ever find him? All these questions raced through Jerry's mind over and over like they were on a loop. It made him insane. Every passing minute felt like an hour, and he had no idea what to do.

But as he settled into the snow, feeling that all hope was lost, he spotted something in the ground. A blood stain, and it had a faint trail. Getting up once again, he started walking through the snow, staying low to see the blood trail. With the moonlight glinting off the snow it made looking out for blood ever so easier. Gazing up every so often to see any other sign of his friend gave him a sense of false hope, but he continued through the doubt. He knew Doug wouldn't want him to just give up, that's not who he was. Suddenly he saw a bright light in the distance, then it was gone. A car? Helicopter?

A flashlight. The light came back, it had to be Doug. But the blood didn't continue in that direction, so Jerry took the risk and followed the light. The light was flashing with purpose, he put in all his hope that it was Doug. The snow continued to fall, still blocking his sight from anything even five feet in front of him. But the light was getting closer and closer, that he knew for sure. With every freezing step through the snow, the light eventually got so close it was almost blinding him through his goggles, but he continued on. Holding his arms out not to run into anything, he could now vaguely hear another pair of footsteps crunching in the snow; he was close. "Doug?" he whispered, trying not to alert the creatures. "Where are you?" suddenly there was a quick flash in front of him; then it came again. But this time he caught it; an arm with a knife in its hand. "Jerry?" the voice said. "Doug!" he quietly exclaimed, falling forward and hugging his friend, he could finally let out a sigh of relief knowing he was alive. "What happened? I- I lost you, how are you not dead? Where are you bleeding from?" he had too many questions and too little time for answers. Doug pulled down his cracked goggles and finally responded, "Hang on hang on, let me just rest for a second." Doug said as he was pointing to one of the nearby trees, just barley seen behind the wall of snow. He was hurt for sure, the limp made it too obvious for Jerry to ignore. After getting Doug to the tree he was finally able to rest and answer his friend's many questions. "Ok, I guess there's some explaining to do." Jerry nodded his head in agreement. "So somehow one of those damn creatures was able to find us and chose me as its target. It rammed into me, which is why we got separated, obviously. I have no clue why, but I didn't die, but it sure as hell felt like it."