NO RETURN, NO RETURN

NO REASON

NO RETURN, NO RETURN

NO REASON!

FLESH AND BONE

(a horror apply fic)

In the wilderness, there is only one rule: Eat...

***

In the summer of 1988, the biology class of Pennhaven Girls' School was excited about one thing, and one thing only:

A two-month field trip to Alaska, to enjoy the natural beauty and as a reward for how much hard work the class had done this year, to enjoy that was the last thing they would do connected to school, that they all would have graduated by the time the field trip came about. That no matter if they enjoyed biology or not, they were all looking forward to this field trip, that it promised them one thing:

It was something exciting, something that promised escape from their small town, a taste of freedom they'd enjoy when they got out of their hometown and, for most, would never look back as they either travelled across the country, moved to a big city to pursue a dream, or got into college. And the best part—it wasn't educational at all, that they could enjoy being in Alaska without worrying about filling out forms or doing it as a last school assignment, the only requirement being they had to spend at least a couple of hours a day in the nature surrounding Anchorage, but other than that, they could do as they pleased.

And that was freedom of the most intoxicating sort.

So, with forms signed by parents and excited grins on the faces of twenty girls, they boarded a school-paid private jet with their biology teacher Mrs. Shawn, eager for two months away from the town of Baymore, Maine, and enjoy the glimpse of freedom and a chance of seeing something that wasn't their small town promised to them in Alaska, with parents believing their children would have fun two months in Alaska and then come back before packing up to move away and experience being adults.

They had no idea that, just before the plane could land in Anchorage, there was an issue with the plane's engine that combined with severe turbulence, that turned into a fatal storm that would lead to a plane crash in the depths of the Alaskan wilderness, and strand a class full of terrified teenage girls in it.

At least, those who survived the initial crash.

As they try to survive and wait for rescue, at first it seems like it might be okay. Rescue will come and they will be home soon, and it might be a trauma they could heal from and forget, especially as they quickly find shelter, a source of water, and are able to find a means to hunt and forage for food. That they might be able to make it out of this okay.

But days, then weeks pass, and hope of rescue soon begins to dwindle. And as that hope fades, they notice that there is something wrong with the woods—something that makes the Alaskan wilderness seem bigger, wilder, darker. Something insidious that creeps among the woods and lurks inside the animals, that is slithering into them, infecting them, changing them. That as it feels like it is transforming them, it is hunting them, taking them one by one into the wilderness' depths, feeding them to its hungry maw of branches, roots and animal teeth. 

That when winter comes with it's near-endless, bitterly cold nights and all hope fades into nothing, that it becomes clear the wilderness does not seek to let them go, the girls let it change them further, that they learn that there is something in the wilderness and that the wilderness is something, that it provides for them and takes away, that it tears away the foundations of civilisation and leaves behind only the primal, only the basic measures of animalistic survival. That it strips away the facade of the sweet innocence of girls and leaves behind the bestial nature beating in the heart of them, as the things lurking inside the woods—that the girls are becoming like them—seek to both protect and destroy, to guard them and to hunt them. 

To defend them and to eat them.

After all, the things in the woods, in the darkest corners of the wilderness that only a couple of the girls seem to understand, are the monsters hidden in the dark and whispered about in stories, that still exist, that still live in the heart of the wilderness, that obey only the wilderness. And the woods, the wilderness in all its primal, savage, glorious brutality, is an old god, the oldest of old gods, the monstrous of all monsters.

And as it and its monsters demand blood sacrifices, as girls are brutalised into beasts, they make the blood sacrifices for survival, for safety, for worship, they consume  each other and the wilderness and its monsters consume them and they consume the monsters until the line between who they were as girls and who the monsters are in the woods are blurred, to learn it's one and only rule and claim it as their true, blood-soaked and gore-stained tenant.

That in the end, when rescue arrives after twenty-one months, only three would survive the brutalisation and bloodsport and sacrifice of the wilderness and the monsters inside it in the end.

The question is: What exactly happened to them in those twenty-one months in the Alaskan wilderness? What killed all the others aside from the plane crash?

And were the dead, were the ones who died in the crash, the true lucky ones?

***

... or be eaten

Diana Silvers as Mina Harwin

final girl

17. Aromantic asexual. Virgo

Christina Ricci as Mrs. Georgia Shawn

the biology teacher

45. Straight. Pisces

Warnings

This apply fic contains descriptions or mentions of: Horror, survival themes, violence, blood and gore, cannibalism, trauma, gun violence, swearing and cults. This apply fic is rated mature.

Dedications

To harringtonssss, skainatbilda, stilestastic, and starryeyedturtle, my absolute faves. I hope you're ready for this >:)

Author's Notes

Hello hello hello!! And welcome to my apply fic!!

No, but seriously, welcome!! This is my first apply fic (fingers crossed I don't mess this up!), but my second original horror (I think I might be enjoying writing horror a little bit TOO much, especially since I have two more horror fics planned for this year >:)), and I'm so so so excited for it!! If you couldn't tell, this was 1000% inspired by Yellowjackets (still annoyed we won't get s3 until NEXT YEAR), and while I have an Yellowjackets fic, I couldn't resist doing an apply fic inspired by it—with my own twists, of course >:)

Still, I hope you all enjoy this and be a part of this!!! Though, don't expect most of your OCs to make it out alive—I have many plans that include cults, sacrifices, and cannibalism >:)

GhostWriterGirl out!