I’m still recovering after a month after the accident. It happened last month during a trip into the Canadian wilderness. Normally, I could never afford such luxuries, but my boss wanted to treat me to a trip and since he was heading out, he invited me and a couple of his friends and another coworker, Charlotte, though we call her Charlie. The plane was not large, and I had my doubts about us all being crammed in flying into Canada, but Richie, my boss, talked all of us into it.
The flight was uncomfortable and became worse as the winds picked up. The plane began to shift around and groan. I prayed to God that we get off the plane alive. Suddenly, the plane became quiet and we went down. I felt the impact of the trees and then the ground. I heard shrill screams and felt bodies flying around, an intense heat, and then nothing. I don’t know how long it was until I woke up in what remained of our plane, but it was already getting dark, and the temperatures were unbelievably cold. I looked around to see if I was the sole survivor. I was happy to see Charlie was alive, although she hadn’t woken up. Richie began to groan in pain and checking on his friends. Michael was alive, but Jonah did not make it. His head looked as if something had crushed it.
We all knew we needed warmth and gathered what wood we could near us and used some of the leaking fuel to quickly ignite and burn what we had to stay warm using the plane as a kind of hut. After we began to warm, Richie tried calling out for help, but so far we had no luck. He called using his phone and just had no service. We had a couple of days worth of food with us, and we had a flare gun with several flares. Charlie spoke up “its getting dark, why don’t we fire a flare to see if someone could find us?” Richie quickly agreed, firing off the first flare. We spent the night fueling our fire, staying warm as Richie mourned his friend.
A whole night had passed and still no rescue. But we repeated and fired another shot. We started to plan how to navigate our way out of this forest, but we had no idea where we really were or how far we would have to go and if we could survive it. We decided to wait and keep trying to reach out. We fired one more shot. We then slept through the night, well some of us did. I woke up crying. I looked over and saw Richie eating something. It took me a minute before I realized he was eating meat and that meat was from Jonah. “I’m sorry Jonah. I was just so hungry.” He cried out. I couldn’t sleep hearing him eating Jonah.
I woke up, and the body was gone, and we all saw how withdrawn Richie became. He was no longer talking to us, but instead just stared with his blank eyes. Charlie asked “What happened to Jonah??” Breaking into a loud cry, Richie said “a wolf came and grabbed him. I didn’t have any way to fight it off!” I couldn’t believe my ears, Jonah was lying through his teeth. But I wasn’t sure if now was the time to start a fight, we had little food left, little fuel, and almost no hope. We fired off one more flare, leaving two more. We all went to sleep once more. This time, I woke up seeing Richie standing over Michael. But Richie looked off. His arms began to reach his knees and his eyes had a shine, like some animal. He was breathing hard over Michael. “RICH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I yelled out, waking everyone. Richie looked over and quickly sat down, “sorry I was just worried about everyone here and was checking”, but I already knew I couldn’t trust anything he knew. “I think he’s fine”. I said, “we need our rest.” Richie agreed and laid his head back, closing his eyes.
Charlie and I woke up to a horrible scream from Michael. We looked over, and his leg was just gone. Michael was bleeding out and we couldn’t find Richie. We were looking everywhere. I decided to tell Mike and Charlie what I saw with Rich, how he was eating the remains of Jonah and what he was doing before we went to sleep. “Why didn’t you tell us? Clearly he’s a psycho!” Charlie yelled out, “we are already in a situation I felt was more dangerous and a fight breaking out right now would only do more harm.” I replied, chattering my teeth. We kept our eyes out for Rich and periodically took care of Michael’s leg. He’s lost so much blood. It was sickening. I was almost glad I hadn’t eaten. Charlie armed herself with the flare gun and was waiting.
Hours passed, and it was almost impossible to see beyond the fire, so we stood close to it watching. “Hello?” A new voice called out as the leaves shuffled, “Hello, this is Ranger Bill and I came to investigate the flares that had been spotted. We yelled for his attention, and we heard Bill getting closer. But just before he came into view, I saw a faint orange shine, two eyes standing over six feet tall in the trees. Suddenly a blur swooped by and Michael was gone. We did not even hear him yell, just a single sickening crunch and the sound of meat being torn. Charlie stood right beside me. We were both shaking from the cold and from sheer terror. I grabbed her hand. I wasn’t sure if I was comforting her, or I was the one in need of comforting. Either way, all we had was each other.
Less than an hour later, we saw the same shine and could hear the leaves quickly being moved. Charlie shot the flare and it hit Richie. Richie was not even a foot away from Charlie and his jaw was hanging down as if it was only held by skin. His skin had no color and in his gaping maw were sharp teeth, reminiscent of a shark’s mouth. Just below his throat there was a hole and signed flesh. Charlie actually did it! Unfortunately, not soon enough because Richie was not the only one wounded. Right below Charlie’s ribcage was the long skinny pale arm of Richie. His hand was reaching up and blood pouring down. I saw the creature we called Richie drop, as did his blood-covered-arm, and the blood began pouring profusely from Charlie. I tried to save her. I really tried! I plugged the hole and kept her warm for I don’t know how long. I tried everything I could but, just like everyone else, she was gone too. I was alone. I went to look at the hairless pale creature that used to be Richie. I walked towards his direction, but he was gone. Charlie died for nothing. I just sat there and screamed until my throat went hoarse, and I took the flare gun from Charlie’s cold hand and fired off the last flare. I decided to finally let the fire die out and fell asleep.
A week later, I woke up in the hospital. I spoke to so many police and government officials from the states and Canada. They sent psychiatrists to give me exams and prescribe pills for my now intense anxiety. I spoke to the families of Charlie and Jonah. Michael did not have anyone left in his family that he could talk to. The pain in their faces was the most difficult part and having to relive the full memories that I had to spare them from hearing. I wish to go home, but they won’t send me home yet because they want to keep monitoring me, especially after the complaints I’ve been talking about over the past three days. I can hear Charlie and she’s outside.