Chapter Twenty-Two: Blown To Smithereens

(Desperation, Part 3)

***

As they walked up to the craggy surface of the cave wall, Sam turned to Jordan, a serious expression on her face.

"Okay. Before we do this, Jordan, I want to tell you this. Since we're climbing free-hand without anything to stop us from falling, I want you to climb exactly where I climb. Place your hands and feet where I've placed mine, and do not deviate. If you do, you might slip and—"

"Fall and die. I know, Sam," Jordan finished, eyeing the rock wall determinedly. "I survived literal monsters. It'd be anticlimactic if a fucking rock killed me."

"Pretty big rock with a pretty big fall, but... fair point," Sam said, grinning before it dropped as she walked over and began climbing. Jordan was right behind her, following in Sam's path like the blonde told her, heart thumping frantically. She resisted the urge to look down as she kept following Sam, the blonde calling down, "That's great. You're doing great, Jordan!"

"Thanks," Jordan gasped as she grabbed a pipe, placing her feet and hands where she'd seen Sam place them as the blonde hauled herself onto a wooden platform, only for it to break. Jordan's heart stuttered at it, but she shoved it down as Sam leaped higher, as Jordan took the same path Sam did to the platform and grabbed it.

"Come on, we can do it!" Sam encouraged, Jordan panting as she recovered her breath and calmed her heartbeat. Her muscles were screaming, her leg injury had flared up with pain, her still-sore shoulders were straining with agony, but she ignored it all. Mateo needed her. She could ignore a little pain if it meant getting to him.

As Sam climbed up the last of the way, she turned to Jordan and stuck out her hand. "Here! I'll pull you up."

Jordan nodded, relying on her last reserves of strength as she climbed up and leapt for the part of the wall Sam did, fingers digging in as her boots found footholds—never was she so glad for wearing hiking boots than she was now. Panting. Jordan climbed up further until she reached Sam's offered hand, grabbing it as the blonde helped her over the edge, both girls panting and doubled over from the exertion of the climb, Jordan more so given how physically tired her body was and her leg.

"We beat you. We fucking beat you," Sam crowed between breaths before she straightened, looking at Jordan. "You okay?"

"I'll survive," Jordan said once she caught her breath and the pain dimmed back down. "Let's just get out of here and get to the guys before it's too late."

Sam nodded as she turned and headed down a tunnel, Jordan right behind her. Her skin crawled at the uncomfortable familiarity of this tunnel resembling one of the labyrinthine mine shafts, expecting a pale, bony hand to lunge out and claw her face off or to see a spindly, cannibalistic monster with a face full of fangs on the ceiling screeching at her before dropping down to tear her and Sam apart. Jordan was keenly aware of her knife and the makeshift flamethrower comprised of the deodorant and lighter, her weapons against these things that felt lacking as well.

Could she and Sam and Mateo and Mike make it out of this alive when against such monsters? Could any of them?

Jordan hoped they would. Now was not the time for doubt, for fear. They just had to make it through the rest of the night and find Josh. They just had to survive until dawn, when help would arrive.

Then they could all leave this forsaken mountain for good.

As they walked down, they came to a dead end of wooden doors, keeping them from going any further.

"Huh, okay then," Sam said as she and Jordan turned around, before Jordan noticed a set of stairs, weak light filtering down at the top. She made a beeline straight for them, Sam right behind her as they climbed up the wooden stairs and onto a platform—and just as boulders dropped from the ceiling, smashing through the stairs.

"Ah! Jesus," Sam hissed.

"Guess we can't go back through that way," Jordan commented, frowning as she and Sam turned back, knowing the only direction they could go now was straight ahead.

A railing kept her and Sam from falling over the side, but Jordan's stomach still swooped at the idea of more boulders raining from the sky and smashing them to pieces. As they came to a set of stairs and the wooden corridor going left, Jordan and Sam made to go left—until boulders smashed through it, shaking the railing.

With one hand, Jordan grabbed the railing with a death grip as with the other she looped her arm around Sam's waist as the blonde held her arm, the girls clinging on before Sam pulled away and leapt across the gap, Jordan following right behind her. They stared at the gap, before pushing onward—right as they heard a grating scream.

Sam whirled around, Jordan pulling the switchblade knife free, both of them staring wild-eyed at the gloomy space of the cavern, memories of being chased in the mines, of hearing those screeches and seeing the monster's shadow dart through the trees, flooding Jordan's mind.

"Keep going, Sam," she whispered. "We need to get out of here."

Eyeing her surroundings, she added, "You do not want to be underground with one of those things."

Sam nodded, getting it before she turned and noticed something. 

"Huh," she said, grabbing a pipe. As she did, Jordan noticed a shovel leaning against it. Picking it up, Jordan decided to keep it—it could be a good blunt-force weapon, and she was confident she could use the edge to try and decapitate a Wendigo. Hopefully.

With new weapons in hand, Jordan and Sam walked down the railing before it came to an end, dropping down and walking along the ground until they came to a corrugated metal door. Setting her pipe down, Sam pulled down the latch, sending the bar up and the door open with a scraping groan, revealing the outside world in all its blustery winter glory.

"Thank fuck," Jordan breathed as Sam walked through, pipe back in hand, Jordan walking out behind her as they left the door open. Stupid, probably, but better to leave it open than risk it latching behind them if they needed a quick escape.

Heading down the stairs, Jordan and Sam headed down a pathway surrounded by bare-branched trees and shrouded with snowy haze. Wind snapped and howled, cold cutting into Jordan's face. Her leg throbbed with pain, but she ignored it, just kept on walking until she and Sam came across a bridge, walking across it before an ominous shape loomed out of the distance.

"I think that's the Sanatorium," Jordan murmured, pointing with her shovel at it.

"Yeah," Sam murmured. She looked at her. "You ready to do this?"

In response, Jordan held her shovel tighter and walked straight up to the gate, Sam right behind her.

There, Jordan and Sam forced the wrought-iron gate open, leading them into a narrow alley between a fence and the wall of the Sanatorium. A sense of unease filled Jordan as they walked down it, feet crunching through the snow, like when you were watching a horror movie and could predict the next jump-scare coming at any second now.

The jump-scare came when she and Sam turned a corner, passing some barred windows, as a screech resounded and one of the monsters the stranger had imprisoned lunged at the bars.

"Holy shit!" Sam yelled as she and Jordan stumbled back, Jordan waving the shovel defensively as the monster darted out of sight, and even though it wasn't the same one that hunted her and Emily down, that had left its parting gift on her leg, Jordan's heart still thumped with the same terror at seeing it.

A bang came from behind them, along with what sounded like a muffled growl.

Mateo.

"Shit!" Sam cursed as the girls ran to a set of stairs, a familiar screech ringing out from behind doors kept closed by a wooden bar. Jordan didn't hesitate, running up the stairs and grabbing the bar, pulling it off as more screeches sounded and she and Sam opened the door.

And saw a heart-stopping sight.

"Mike!" Sam yelled, eyes fixed on Mike as he struggled to keep one of the monsters from tearing out his throat, but Jordan was fixated on Mateo, teeth bared, blood staining his flannel shirt as another monster snapped its jaws, trying to tear his throat out as a wolf snapped and growled, teeth biting at the monster's leg as the monster flailed its claws but the wolf dodged nimbly away, avoiding its strikes. 

But Jordan hardly cared, a fiery, protective rage fuelling her. That was Mateo, about to be a Wendigo's dinner, struggling to fend it off. That was her love, that was her husband. Recently engaged or not, it didn't matter. That man was the man she loved, was her husband, and that monster was trying to kill him.

And Jordan refused to let that happen.

"Hey!" she yelled, charging forward and swinging her shovel against the monster's head with as much force as she could. Its head swung around as its body followed, toppling off Mateo as she stood protectively in front of him, teeth bared as she snarled, "Stay the fuck away from my husband."

The wolf came to her side, teeth bared as it growled as the monster screeched before making to lunge at her. Jordan didn't give it a chance to, charging forward and driving the edge of it into its neck, teeth gritted as she used as much strength as she had to try and decapitate, earning herself scratches from the flailing, clawed hands scrabbling at her arms, but all she accomplished was making it angry as the shovel wasn't cutting into its skin.

So instead she lowered it favour of swinging the shovel against its head again, sending it crashing against a pile of oil drums as the one that had been on Mike was also sent flying into them. A hand grabbed her, pulling her back to stand with Sam as Jordan realised it was Mateo as the wolf growled and barked, the monsters getting to their feet as Mike stood up, before they leapt up onto the boiler.

Without hesitation, the four of them plus the wolf sprinted up the stairs, Mike shouting, "That's it, that's it! Come on, come on, let's go!"

"No need to tell me twice!" Jordan shouted back as they sprinted up the stairs, her and Mateo holding hands fiercely.

The monsters screeched as they turned back, seeing them leap across the floor, then back onto the barrels in seconds, looking prepared to lunge at them. Jordan raised her shovel as Mateo raised the gun and fired at the barrels, him and Mike shouting, "RUN!"

The explosion of fire that erupted from the barrels was a good signal as any to get the fuck out of there, sprinting outside before they were flown forward into the air from the force of the explosion onto the snow.

Groans rang out as they sat up, Jordan and Mateo clutching each other as the wolf got to its feet, shaking itself out as sparks rained down like snow, fire burning as a fiery, ghoulish skull spiralled out of the fire screeching before disappearing as they got to their feet. Jordan winced, remembering what the stranger had written—that killing the monsters would be unleashing the spirit again to possess someone else who had to resort to cannibalism out of desperation to survive. She just hoped the soul of the person who'd been possessed and transformed into a monster was finally at rest now, offered peace after who knew how many years he'd spent as a monster.

"Got any marshmallows?" Mike asked as Mateo helped Jordan up to her feet, staring at her.

"Jordan," he said, wide-eyed. "What are you doing here? You should be in the safe room, not—"

Jordan lunged forward and hugged him tightly. He hissed in pain, but he returned the embrace, holding her tightly as she whispered, "You're alive."

"I'm alive. I'm alive, Jor," he murmured, stroking her hair. Pulling back, he asked, "Did you just call me your husband? I thought we weren't married yet."

Jordan's lips quirked up. "It felt appropriate."

Mateo smiled, before he hugged her again, holding her as they stared at the burning Sanatorium before remembering the monsters inside—the monsters they'd just narrowly escaped from.

Letting go in favour of holding her hand, Mateo handed the gun back to Mike as they ran out of there, back to where Jordan and Sam had come from. Before they did, Mateo turned to the wolf and asked, "Hey, Wolfie? You know the Washington Lodge?"

The wolf, Wolfie, barked, staring at Mateo.

"Go to it. Our friends should be there. Stay around the woods and try to avoid the monsters, okay? If you have to, hide. Stay safe," Mateo ordered.

The wolf barked before it loped away, disappearing into the woods.

"You made a friend," Jordan observed.

"Yeah. Hope he stays safe from these fuckers," Mateo muttered as he and Jordan got inside, joining Mike and Sam. Once he notice the engaged couple were inside, Mike closed the door, sliding the shotgun into the latch to lock it as he turned to Sam and Jordan and asked, "Whoa. You two alright?"

"Uh, define 'alright'," Sam answered as Mateo stumbled against Jordan.

"Mateo?" she asked, but he muttered, "I'm fine. Just glad you're okay."

Before Jordan could press further, Mike spoke, saying, "Alive for a start."

"That's a pretty good definition," Mateo admitted as Jordan frowned at him before they turned away, Mike saying, "Let's find a way down to where this fucker lives."

"Agreed," Jordan murmured as they kept walking into what she was certain was part of the mines given Mike's response and Mateo's grim look, bracing her fear of heading back into the nightmare just so she could get to Josh and save him if he was still alive.

To end this for good.

***

Jordan: Smashes a cannibalistic monster off her husband-to-be and tries to decapitate it and probably would have if not for the armoured skin and definitely bruising its throat before smashing it in the head again

Mateo: I was already going to marry her, but I'm marrying her even more

Seriously though, I really enjoyed writing this and the Jordan and Sam interactions before the action scene and Jordan going into protective mode over Mateo!! It was very fun. And yes, the couple is reunited and Wolfie is safely in the woods! He's gonna be safe and survive the night, because there is no way I would kill off this good boy 🥰

Also... WE'RE NOW AT THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE GAME!! That means we're nearing the end of the fic!!! I am so excited and I can't wait for you guys to reach this final half—and see if our fave couple does indeed make it until dawn >:)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!