Woods of Madness

XII

The hours flew by as we sat there in utter silence, barely moving, not speaking, not blinking - only sweating and being in utter disbelief at what we had seen. The creatures didn't come down to the cellar. Maybe they couldn't find us, or maybe they were just toying with us, waiting for us to come out. That thought terrifies me to my core. Eventually, one of us went near the cellar's door. It was the captain.

"Don't be crazy," said Charles. The captain motioned for him to keep quiet. He grabbed the handle and slowly started to open it. The handle screeched loudly, and then he opened it slowly, moving upstairs. I barely managed to muster up the courage to follow him. I knew that by now it must be daytime. I believe those things are only active at night. I followed the captain, with Charles and Martin close behind. We left the basement and the sun's rays hit our faces. The captain sped up and looked around. It's probably early morning. Looking around, there was nothing but the singing of the birds.Finally, some peaceful noise. We all laughed. We had survived this. Leaving the house quickly, we picked up the pace and ran like there was no tomorrow. It's cold despite the sun, but I don't care. We're free, finally.

 My eyes stung a bit, so I closed them and rubbed them quickly. It all went away, but then it felt colder, and it was all dark. The sun was replaced by a full moon, and worst of all, those freakish creatures arose from the trees, surrounding us and walking towards us.

"My God, what is this? What is this?!" Charles yelled. As that was the only option we had left, we ran back to the house and into the cellar, barricading it again. "This is it. We're done. We're gonna die in here!" Charles collapsed and sobbed. We all lost hope. We were done. The hours flew by, and the creatures clearly wanted us to come out. They were patient. Nothing here made sense. It was all utter madness, and we were all victims of being in a bad place at a bad time. All of us were hungry, thirsty, and tired. Martin looked almost dead; he was completely pale. Charles himself looked like all the life had been drained out of him. The captain had lost weight drastically. He was so thin, skin and bones. How is it humanly possible to lose so much weight in a couple of hours, or maybe it was days? I don't even know how long we've been in here. But what I do know is that my hands won't stop shaking, and I feel like I'll collapse into death at any second.

"D-do you guys think... that... we should just end it all right now?" Charles suggested, and then started violently coughing. "Y-y..." Doctor Martin tried to say something but couldn't form a sentence. He was barely breathing. "First things first, let's just... talk... might as well before we... end it," the captain said, holding back tears. "So this really is the end, huh?" I said, accepting our fate. Everyone nodded. The captain pulled out a bottle of whiskey. "For old times' sake."  we all took a sip, knowing it's the last.

"I... I joined to fight those damn Nazis... I... had a pen friend. We exchanged letters since childhood. I even visited him once. But when the Nazis took over, he never replied to my letters. Considering he was Jewish, I knew his fate. I killed all German men... women... even children." He swallowed heavily and began to weep. "Only now I see that I went too far. It's the ones in charge that are true evil. Not every soldier is a monster. Maybe this is God's way of punishing me. Out of all of us I am the one who's supposed to die - the only one," he burst into tears, a confession for all.

Doctor Martin opened his mouth and finally spoke, "I wanted to help people... I was naive... not being prepared for true war. I should've listened to my old man, but..." He coughed violently and then finished, "I was too idealistic." Charles was the next to speak up. "I enlisted because I thought that this would be an adventure. I listened to the propaganda, and no wonder why I ended up on the front lines." I was the last to speak. "I couldn't find a job anywhere after leaving the orphanage. I enlisted for the money, but I knew I was useless. I thought I could never end up on the front lines. Clearly, I was mistaken," I sighed.

We all took a sip of the whiskey one more time, draining it dry. The captain stood up. "We're dead either way; we might as well make a stand." We all pondered on it and nodded. We went outside; it was dusk. There was nothing, but we heard the sounds of marching, like a hundred buffalo charging towards us. We gripped our guns; Doctor Martin fell down. He gestured for us to come closer, saying, "Make a run for it. Try to see if you can escape. I'll do my best to distract them here." Martin was too sick to move further, and he opted to stay behind. Even though I did not know this man very much, I couldn't help but cry. We saluted him, saying, "Doctor." The captain shook his hand, saying, "You're a good man." Martin's final words were, "Keep moving, never look back." We all nodded and started running, going deep into the woods. I see many blurry images; I remembered all of my memories of the past. Behind me, I heard gunshots and screams of everyone, but I couldn't look back. I ran and ran.