The Cabin in the Woods

Anna Patience Buckner, her single arm swinging by her side as she walked quickly toward them. Marty saw doubt disappear from Dana’s eyes as she considered their predicament.

She nodded and went for the hole.

Of all of them I thought she’d be the first to die, he thought, but he instantly regretted it. Dana had surprised him with her strength and determination; he’d seen her fighting the big zombie as he’d crept up behind it. He’d never believed that he judged by appearances, and he never would do so again.

Marty knelt by the hole and reached in, grasping around for the ring he knew was there. He found it quickly, curved his hand through and pulled, and the hatch-like a storm door, only hiding something more than just a shelter-hinged up easily. Leaves and soil slipped away from its upper surface, and the stars reflected on the smooth, clean metal underneath.

Dana held back for only a second. Around them sang the sounds of pursuit-Mother’s saw, Matthew’s bear-trap, Anna’s inexorable footsteps. Then she nodded to Marty and slipped down through the hatch.

He followed her and slammed it closed behind them, turning the handle and hearing the satisfying clunk of locks engaging. Moments later he heard scratching from the other side. The ring on the topside flipped over and hit the lid, something scraped the metal, and then came a faint, chilling cry of zombie frustration. It was the kind of sound never meant for human ears, and Marty and Dana quickly backed away.

The sound of their breathing echoed from the metal walls of the small, poorly lit chamber. It was barely tall enough to crouch in, but a good twelve by twelve feet square, with another metal hatch in the middle of the floor. A faint light came from a panel in the metal ceiling that had been removed to reveal several glowing cables. Hanging down from the panel was a spaghetti of wires, some stripped and spliced, others disconnected.

“What is this place?” Dana asked.

“You better-” Marty began, but then Dana stepped on Judah’s mewling face. She stumbled back from the pile of zombie parts, and Marty held her hand and guided her away. Each part was moving, twitching, throbbing with unnatural life.

“Yeah, I had to dismember that guy with a trowel,” he said. “What’ve you been up to?”

Dana stared at him in despair. Her mouth opened but nothing came out, and he saw the terrible truth in her eyes.

“Nobody else, huh?” he asked. She shook her head, and he added, “I figured.”

“You figured everything,” she said.

“Not even close,” he said. “But I do know some stuff. Check this out.” He went to the hatch in the floor and slid it open. The faint whiff of antiseptic he’d caught the first time he’d done so came again, reminding him of hospitals and endless echoing corridors and places that people only ever wanted to visit when there was something wrong.

Dana’s mouth hung open. She shook her head and looked at him, her expression saying, What?

“It’s an elevator,” he said. “Two sides metal, but two are thick glass. You can’t tell unless you… dangle your head in there. Somebody sent these dead fucks up to get us. There’re no controls inside, but there’s maintenance overrides in there.” He nodded up at the dislodged panel. “I’ve been playing around. I think I can make it go down.”

“Do we wanna go down?” she asked.

“Where else we gonna go?” He glanced at the closed ceiling hatch in the corner. “Sure as fuck don’t wanna go back up there.”

“But down there must be… ”

“Whoever’s done this to us? Yeah.” He moved to her side and they both knelt, arms around each other. What has she seen? he wondered. Curt and Holden were dead and gone, and it must have been terrible. He could ask her, but he didn’t really want to know. The terror came off her in waves, but also the defiance that he himself had been feeling ever since taking Judah’s head off. That brief triumph had given him power, and he felt the power thrumming in both of them.

He’d already destroyed one of the puppets. Perhaps it was time to find the puppeteers.

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Okay. We got nothing else going for us, I guess.” “Only our anger,” he said.

“I thought you couldn’t get angry on dope.” “Haven’t had a smoke in over an hour.” They grinned at each other, then Dana dropped down into the small elevator.

Marty moved to the open ceiling panel and the mass of wires that hung from it.

“Get ready,” he said. “The timing on this might be pretty tight.”

He wound two wires, flicked a switch, then slid across to the elevator. The hatch was already sliding shut and he fell in just in time, the metal brushing his head as he landed next to Dana… and something else fell in with him.

Dana screamed and kicked him in the shin. The elevator started to drop. Something grabbed his leg, and he looked down to see Judah’s arm flexing as its fingers squeezed against Marty’s leather boot.