The howling danced across the mountains, danced through the trees and through the camp. Tyler sat bolt up right, sleeping calmly but now suddenly alert. He shook his head all around the inside of the tent, looking for any kind of threat, but found nothing. The boy looked over to Mitchell, still soundly asleep in his sleeping bag, Tyler scanned the rest of the tent before coming to the conclusion that he was safe. He roughly fell back into his makeshift pillow and dug himself deeper into his sleeping bag, the inside of the tent was warm, but now the night had brought with it a freezing cold wind and air. Tyler could see the frost on the grass outside the tent, as Tyler looked around outside through the mesh tent window, he could see other tents and a little bit of the forest thanks to the close by fire's glow.
But then, just on the edge of the treeline, something moved.
Tyler stood still, his mind racing, he sat there, wondering just what that thing was, it had darted from one tree to another in such a quick pace all he could see was a dark blur. His gaze went about, looking to see where it went, but could not locate the thing. Then just as quick as before, he could have sworn he saw it again, a large humanoid shape moving ever so closer to the camp's borders, and the traps.
"Might just be a wolf or a bear" Tyler though in his head, he continued to watch as the mysterious animal crept closer to the edge, then eventually, it walked out into the open.
the young boy could believe what he was seeing, he couldn't even fathom what the "animal" was, if he could even call it that.
It looked like a wolf, but was larger than any man he had ever seen, it stood on its hind legs, looking about the camp, and what looked like a grin, grew on its muzzle.
Tyler retreated into his bed, reaching for his rifle but remembered, all the cadets except the officers with their defence weapons, had loaded their guns with blanks.
Tyler realised that it was no good, and just went back to the tent's window to watch what the creature was doing. But Tyler realised, with wide open eyes, this thing, wasn't alone.
Behind it, a large pack of the things emerged from the woods, licking their chops. Tyler wasted no time in grabbing his burgeon and hurriedly stuffing all his stuff into it, as quickly and as quietly as possible. in his panic, he knocked into Mitchell, who stirred and groggily woke up, rubbing his eyes and glancing up at Tyler.
"Tyler, what the hell are you doing, its like the middle of the bloody night?!"
"Mitchell, get your kit packed, we need to get out of here" Tyler said, trying not to scream.
" The hell are you talking about, what's gotten into you?" Tyler rushed as he went about, grabbing his sleeping bag, book and stuffing them into his burgeon before grabbing his weapon.
"look, we need to run, there's someth-" Tyler couldn't finish his sentence as a loud sound bellowed out from an unknown source, but Tyler knew damn well what it was.
Screaming.
Both Tyler and Mitchell looked at each other as more screams of horror wailed out across the camp, it seemingly coming from all sides at once.
Tyler shot a look at Mitchell, who was beginning to shake and spin his head in all directions according to the sounds coming from outside. Both the boys looked out their side windows and saw absolute chaos, people rushing about, black shapes dashing back and forth, catching any unfortunate people in their grasp, and dragging them into the darkness.
The boy's moved to the entrance and Tyler reached for the zipper, before Mitchell grabbed his wrist and glared at Tyler.
"Are you seriously considering going out there you madman?!"
"Would you rather be caught in here by those things?"
Mitchell thought about it, and nodded.
"Listen, as quickly as we can, we're going to run for the woods, okay?"
"But Tyler, our weapons are useless!"
"That's why i plan on running for the officers tent and grabbing their weapons"
Both Tyler and Mitchell opened the tent and ran out, heading in the direction for the main tent. As they looked around, everything had gone quiet, tattered uniforms and equipment scattered everywhere, and what looked like fresh blood covered the frosty grass.
The 2 boys eventually found the main tent and found the rifles inside a case, Tyler looked around and spotted a mauled officer with keys in his hands.
"Sorry, i need this more than you do" Tyler said, grabbing the keys and opening the case.
After the duo were done gathering whatever they needed, they made their way into the same path they took to get there, and started their journey back to civilisation.
Several minutes later
"Tyler, i'm getting tired, i need a break" Mitchell moaned out, close to collapsing on the floor out of pure exhaustion.
"Come on, we need to get of this forest, after what happened back there, i ain't hanging around to see what did it!" Tyler Said in an angry tone, getting ever more so the longer the walk became. They had gotten lost a while ago, the sun was just starting to appear over the horizon, its glow reflecting of of the frost covered surfaces.
Tyler glanced back at Mitchell and said,
"how about you sit here while i go look for some clean water or something" Tyler looked at his canteen, noticing how it was almost empty.
Mitchell nodded, too tired to say anything.
"Okay, i'll be over the next rock over there, so if you need be run over there" Tyler said whilst pointing to a large boulder close by. He walked over and began looking for a stream that had water flowing, that was when he noticed the dripping water coming from the ice in the trees.
He thought about it, and reckoned it was better than nothing.
"Hey Mitchell, i found some water, come over here" Tyler shouted.
....
no response
....
"Yo Mitchell, get over here, seriously, come on" Tyler shouted again.
.....
Then again, no response.
....
"GOD DAMMIT MITCHELL!" Tyler shouted whilst storming over to where Mitchell was sitting.
"You lost your heari-" Tyler got round the corner only to see, nothing.
Mitchell's kit, burgeon and rifle, even himself, was missing.
"Mitchell, where the hell are you?!" Tyler screamed into the woods, but that didn't matter now.
Mitchell.... was gone.