Karen was helping Matthew walk since he had come out of the fight much more injured than she was. They continued walking down the tunnel until they came to a stairway that probably led outside.

Putting Matthew on the ground, Karen said, "I'll go first and check the situation outside. If everything is okay, you follow me.'' Handing the cell phone to Matthew, she said, "Keep the flashlight on me.''

Matthew at this point was very tired, so he agreed and stayed on the ground, "Be careful.''

"I always am.'' With that said Karen climbed the stairs. After climbing for a while, she finally reached the end. There was some kind of lid, so she tried to open it gently, but it wouldn't budge.

She then put a lot of force into it and finally, the lid moved. Karen wasted no time and climbed out.

Looking around, Karen could see the cabin about 200 meters away. There is no sound. 'No screams, no animals, nothing.'

And that startled Karen. She quickly looked around the place but saw nothing. 'But how do we get out of here?'

The hand Karen had was: As far as she knew, she had her and Matthew, who was in bad shape. No car, the only one they had crashed into a tree when they tried to leave, and apparently was no longer working.

The opponent's hand had: Demons.

Comparing both, Karen lost and lost badly. If she wanted to leave, she had no choice but to walk through the forest. She had the option to look in the cabin and see if Deadite had left or to go back to the basement, but something told Karen that the situation was not that simple.

Desperate and without many options, Karen quickly looked around the area, this time much more carefully, to see if there was any place for the two of them to stay protected.

And to her surprise, there was. It looked like a small warehouse a little way from the cabin. Karen hadn't noticed it before as it was very small and had many trees on the way.

'I don't have a better choice.' Making a decision to go to this small warehouse, Karen was going to shout for Matthew to come up but remembered the Deadite, ' If I shout and they are still in the area, they will hear me.'

Then Karen had to go down the stairs again. Reaching the tunnel, she quickly told Matthew, "I found a place that looks safer than here... Can you climb the ladder in your state?''

Matthew was waking up and fainting in succession, but he answered with a simple, ''Yes.'' He almost didn't get up, but when he did, he went straight to the ladder.

Karen then started to climb up before him, but always looking down to see his condition. After minutes that seemed like hours, Karen finally saw the exit from the ladder.

She then went outside and looked around and saw nothing. Matthew arrived soon after and immediately fell to the ground, knocked out cold.

Karen was worried about him and went to check. Looking at the distance to the small warehouse, she made a decision.

Carrying Matthew on her back, Karen quickly reached the small warehouse. She tried the door and it was open.

After entering, Karen placed Matthew on the floor and looked around. To her surprise, hiding in the corner of the small warehouse were 2 people, Sarah and Sam.

But they were trembling and had some blood on their clothes. They were so out of their minds that they didn't even notice Karen in front of them. It was only when she literally stood over them that they both reacted.

'' ... Karen?'' Sarah asked weakly when she saw the person in front of her. She almost didn't recognize her friend.

''Yes.'' Karen checked up on their condition with her eyes and knew that a fight must have broken out between them and Sheryl Deadite. ''What happened?''

Although she was still pissed that they locked her in the basement, Karen was curious to know what happened, ''Only both of you survived?''

Sarah began to shake so badly that she couldn't even speak. It was then that Sam, her boyfriend and also Karen's friend, hugged her. Looking at Karen, he said, ''As far as I know, only she and I managed to escape unharmed. The others ... either died in front of us or run away and were chased by the Deadite.''

FLASHBACK

Daniel smiled when he saw the look of desperation on Karen and Matthew's faces as he closed the hatchet leading to the basement, 'I hope they die down there.'

Even with the situation all screwed up, Daniel was more concerned about what happened to Matthew than the rest.

But, finally, someone acted. Janet asked, "What do we do now? The demon is out there, and we don't know if the car is still working...''

Everyone in the group looked at Daniel, waiting for a solution. And he didn't have one.

Daniel was far from being a leader or a good person, the only good thing about him was his money and, in the current situation, it wouldn't help him. So he finally panicked: ''I don't know what to do. Maybe try calling the police?''

Everyone grabbed their cellphone and tried to call the police or anyone, but they had no signal here.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

At this point, Daniel started to hyperventilate with fear. Sarah just glanced at him and looked away, because she knew he was a coward. But for the others, this was the first time in his life that Daniel had acted like this.

And before they could process what had happened, someone knocked on the door.

KNOCK KNOCK

Immediately the blood of everyone in the house ran cold. Everyone knew who was at the door.

Sheryl's normal voice sounded, "Hi guys. How about you open the door for me? I have a lot of nice things to talk to you about.''

Daniel's frozen status was the first one to break and he shouted, '' BLOCK THE DOOR!''

That woke everyone up, and they all rushed to the door to block it. Some grabbed the furniture around and put it on the door.

The disappointed voice of Sherryl came from outside, '' AWWWW, that was rude! You know what, I'll just barge in.''

BANG

The door, alongside all furniture and people there, was sent flying. Deadite Sheryl smiled, '' Hello there.''

Everyone who recovered started to run away. Bruce and Catherine tried to run past Sheryl, who let them go. Daniel was the only one who had gone upstairs.

Janet tried to run past Sheryl but, this time, the Deadite didn't let her go. Gabbring the poor woman by the neck, the Deadite said sadistically, '' You will be the first one to die!''

True to her words, this time the Deadite didn't play around with the food. With a punch straight into Janet's chest, the Deadite punctured it. The hand passed through Janet's body, and it now had the heart of the poor girl on it.

Throwing the body aside and under the gaze of Sam and Sarah, the Deadite eats the heart of their friend.

'' HMMMM, YUMMY!'' The Deadite glanced at the couple and smiled, '' You two can run. I'll chase the other two, kill them, and go after you next. Oh, and don't worry, I can find you in any place on Earth.''

The Deadite then disappeared from the scene, going after the others who escaped previously.

Sam and Sarah didn't hesitate and started to run away from the cabin. They went in the opposite direction of the Deadit, all while hearing the screams of their friend.

The couple found the small shed and hid in it, afraid of the Deadite.

END OF FLASHBACK

Karen, even though he expected this, was shocked. 'Even though they were horrible people, they were still my friends and shouldn't have died here...'

Sam then noticed Matthew on the scene as well and quickly asked, ''Is he here too? And how did you escape from the basement?''

Karen quickly explained everything that happened. The second Deadite, the tunnel, and the stairs. She didn't say that Matthew had transformed and returned to being human out of precaution because she knew that the couple would want to kill Matthew to protect themselves.

Proving her correct thinking, even without knowing what Matthew had been through, Sarah quickly recovered from her state of fear and said with venom, '' How about we throw him out and take advantage of the distraction and get out of here? If the Deadite is out there, it will go after Matthew.''

Karen was about to answer that it was crazy to do that, when another person answered for her, ''That's suicide. I don't know if you ran away before trying to fight a Deadite, but they are strong. At least 6x stronger than us, maybe a lot more.''

It was Matthew, who had recovered after a short 'nap'.

Sarah didn't like his tone and was about to say something stupid, but Matthew interrupted again, "If you're going to talk shit, don't even say it. My day is bad enough as it is.''

With Karen's help getting up him and under the gaze of Sarah who was surprised at the attitude 'new' him, Matthew searched the small warehouse for things he could use as weapons. He knew the only chance they had of escaping the forest alive was to fight... and probably die trying.

Sam didn't like the tone of Matthew's voice when he spoke to his girl, so he was about to defend her when all of them heard a sound coming from outside.

That made everyone pause, and Sarah started to tremble again. Matthew was the only one that was mostly unfazed, as he ignored the sound and continued looking for something to use as a weapon.

'' What was that sound?'' Sarah asked with fear in her voice.

Sam grabbed her hand and tried to calm her down, '' I don't know, but we are safe here.''

Matthew scoffed at that. Sam, who already didn't like Matthew, snapped, '' Why are you laughing, you idiot?''

While not even looking at the fool, Matthew responded, '' I laughed because you said we are safe here. We definitely are not, one swing from a Deadite and the door is broken. So, stop trembling in fear and HELP ME LOOK FOR A WEAPON!''

Sam finally calmed himself. ' Yeah, this is not the time to discuss like this. There's literally a demon out there and we have to survive first.'

So, now everyone except Sarah was looking around for a weapon. A few moments later, Karen exclaimed, '' I found something.''

Matthew immediately went close to her and saw Karen pointing to the ground. On the ground was another hatch.

When Karen felt the gazes of Sarah and Sam, she was confused, '' What?''

Sam spoke after some hesitation, '' We found the entrance to the basement almost in the same way...'' He clearly didn't want to open it.

Sarah also said, '' How about we search some more? I don't want to open it.''

CRACK

While Karen was cornered by Sarah and Sam, Matthew opened the hatch after some time trying. He totally ignored the opinion of Sarah and Sam.

Karen didn't hesitate to and went beside Matthew. When she arrived close, she noticed his remaining eye was staring hard at the ground. She followed his gaze and was surprised.

' So many guns....' There were a lot of guns in this mini basement. Karen saw a shotgun, a pistol, and some other things.

'' Do they still work?'' The state of the guns was strange. Well, they are old, at least 30 years old, and without any maintenance.

Matthew grabbed the shotgun and started to fiddle with it. After checking it and finding the bullets, he said, '' We will find out soon enough.'' He asked Sarah and Sam, '' Is Daniel still alive?''

The couple flinched when they heard the tone in Matthew's voice.

Seeing as they didn't respond, Matthew asked again, '' Is Daniel alive?''

'' W- We don't know. The last time we saw him he was running upstairs in the cabin, to grab the Kandarian Dagger. We ran away soon after and don't know what happened to him.''

Matthew accepted that answer. He checked all other guns, reloaded all of them, and passed one to each person in the cabin. '' Everyone knows how to use a gun?''

Everyone nodded.

'' Ok.'' Matthew passed some bullets to the others. '' Now we are ready.''

Sarah and Sam paused. '' Are you saying we are just going to go out ... and face them?''

Matthew seemed unfazed, '' Do you have any other plan?''

Silence.

'' We don't have much of a choice. Where are the car keys?'' Matthew asked.

'' Bruce left in the car when we crashed.''

''Hmmm.'' Matthew opened the door leading outside slightly. He roughly calculated the distance. ' 500 meters. Not too long and not too short. A confrontation will be inevitable. We just have to have lucky and face only one Deadite. If there's more... I don't know.'

Pumping his shotgun, Matthew looked at the other three. He explained this plan, which was simple. '' We go to the car, turn it on, and leave. Any question?''

Sam was dumbfounded, '' That's it?''

Matthew gives him a glance, '' Again, if you have any other plans please say it now.''

Silence once again.

'' Okay. We will not care about anyone inside the cabin. We will just leave.'' Matthew then asked, '' Are you okay with that?''

With some hesitation, the other nodded.

'' Good.'' Matthew took a deep breath, '' Let's go!''