The Cabin in the Woods

Survival, he was thinking. Of everything. It’s all at stake here.

So he checked all nine images, then tapped a button that would present nine more. How the Fool had been missed, how no one had noticed, how they’d overcome Matthew Buckner, how the fuck they’d managed to get down into the complex… all these were questions for later.

If there was a later.

“We saw them go down the access drop,” he said into his microphone. “They have to be in one of these! Internal security should be able to-”

“That’s not protocol,” a static-filled voice said into his ear. Static? That was unheard of. Their systems were perfect.

“I don’t care if that’s not protocol!” he shouted. “Are you fucking high?” He looked to Hadley, hand held up in a what the fuck? gesture.

“It’s the Fool!” Hadley shouted into his own microphone. “No, you can’t touch the girl. If he outlives her, all this goes to hell! Take him out first.” He shrugged back at Sitterson. Fucking amateurs!

There were security teams sweeping the complex, cameras everywhere, the creatures were contained… things would settle, everything would work out okay. But none of this was in the Scenario. Hell, the Scenario was fucked. Sitterson only hoped…

“Hope they’ll accept our apology,” he whispered. Hadley heard him, but said nothing.

Lin stood and turned to look up at them.

“Clean-up says the prep team must have missed one of the kid’s stashes. Whatever he’s been smoking has been immunizing him to all our shit.” It was a startling admission from the Chem team leader, but this wasn’t a time for cover-ups. Later they’d rag her on it, if they had the opportunity. And if she wasn’t executed for incompetence.

“How does that help us right now?” Hadley said. Then he spoke into his mic. “What? Yes. If the Fool’s a confirmed kill, you can take her out too. But for fuck’s sake… for all our sakes… make sure it’s a confirmed kill on him first. Dead. Headless. Blown up. A confirmed… fucking… kill.”

“There!” Truman snapped. He’d walked over from the door to stand behind Sitterson, and Sitterson couldn’t shake the irony that it was the newbie who saw them first. But that was good, that was fine. He’d buy him a drink if this all turned out okay.

He froze the current crop of nine elevator images and spotted them instantly.

“Thirty-six-oh-six. Gotcha.”

“Bring ’em down,” Hadley said.

Sitterson did so. No relief yet, no sigh of satisfaction. Too much had gone wrong to assume that everything would go right from here.

Every single detail, every single second, had to count.

ELEVEN

Maybe it was the screaming and the thumping against the toughened glass that had vented her terror and calmed her a little. Or maybe she’d just seen so much that there was really no alternative other than to remain calm. Her heart still thrummed faster than usual, but she felt removed from the reality she’d always been a part of and comforted by. Talking boys with Jules, going out for a drink with friends, running each morning around her neighborhood, college, exams, worrying about how she looked and whether she needed a haircut and what shoes to wear to the party next Saturday… this was all from a world so distant to her now that she could barely comprehend it anymore.

Everything that was safe and normal had been blown away, and Dana could not imagine it ever settling down again.

I’ll always know, she thought. This will always behere, whether we get out or not. The puppeteers had their hooks in her now, and even if she did manage to escape she suspected the strings stretched too far for her to break.

Marty was still holding her tight. She looked over his shoulder, and knew that he looked over hers. They had each seen things that the other hadn’t, but she didn’t want to know. Maybe much later, if they survived, when they huddled together in dorm rooms while their new, distant friends enjoyed themselves and lived normal lives… maybe then they’d talk of what they’d seen, and try to make some kind of sense.

But not right now.

The elevator was descending again. The walls visible through the thick glass walls were now rough stone. As they jarred to a halt and a mechanical whirring noise sounded somewhere far away, Dana wondered just how the hell any of this was possible.

Comprehension hit her like a brick.

This was not possible.

And was it really the first time she’d allowed herself to think that?

The door slid open onto a small, metal-lined lobby. Clean, unfurnished, clinical. A guard was aiming a gun at her face. He shifted quickly until he aimed at Marty, and jammed his foot in the door. He wore a black suit, black mask and goggles, and his mouth and nose were enclosed behind very modern-looking breathing apparatus. It gave his voice an electronic taint.