Chapter Text
The sun is starting to set over the forest trees.
Techno’s debating on sticking around for the night to fall entirely. He’s got most of his hiking equipment on him- a flashlight being a part of it- and he likes stargazing out here by the trails, sometimes.
The stars are more vivid here compared to how they are inside of the town. With the lack of light pollution, the quiet hum of nature, it’s a tempting thing. It’s always nice to remind himself of the constellations over his head. He feels like it’s been a while since he’s named them out. He doesn’t want to forget.
He stares up at the colorful sky, his hand shifting over the straps on his shoulders as he turns his eyes to where the red bleeds across from where the sun hides past the horizon. Is it really worth it, he wonders. He’s got a long work shift for tomorrow, though stocking grocery shelves doesn’t really require him to be all that well rested. It’ll be a tedious afternoon for it, but he can bear it.
He looks down at the trail he just came back up from. No harm in returning down there, in his opinion. His reward for the effort will be the sight of the universe around him.
It’ll be a nice night.
He starts walking through the trail. It’s a familiar thing to him, by now, though he won’t be so confident to say he has it entirely memorized. It’s better to just stick to the path, over everything. Stay out of the trees, stay in what he knows.
The rocks crunch under his feet as he moves along. It’s almost a bit too loud, all his focus drawn towards it, and at giving his attention to the noise, he realizes- there’s not very much else to hear.
He pauses for a moment, trying to pick out the sound of a bird, or any rustling leaves, any wind, but there’s an odd silence that’s come over the area. A dead quiet. Everything has gone still.
It’s…strange. Nature isn’t ever so silent like this. Techno almost finds himself concerned for a second, and then he’s distracted by a voice.
Faintly, in the distance, there’s someone calling out.
Technoblade turns his head, brows furrowing together. Following random voices in the forest is probably the best way to run into a ghost or something, but in all honesty, it could also just be someone who’s fallen badly on the trail, or gotten terribly lost. Most likely it’s just some group of campers messing around in the trees, having strayed too far from the path, though Techno’s a little far from the camping area in general. Maybe they’re very lost.
He waits for the voice to call out again. It comes a little louder, and sounds shrill, sharp. Techno looks out through the trees, something like worry pulling on his chest. They could be hurt, wherever they are. Or just scared in not knowing where they are. Technoblade doesn’t particularly feel like conversing with anyone today, but it’s kinda an asshole move to just leave someone lost in the trees. Especially when they’re calling out like that.
It comes louder and louder as the seconds go by. As if they’re running towards his direction, their cry becoming more clear through the forest. Technoblade feels his heart pull tight.
It’s a call for help.
He hears it again, enough to make out the words, and he starts moving fast, because it’s not just a call for help, it’s a scream. It’s colored in panic, far too afraid for him to just take his time.
“Help me!” The voice shrieks, Techno going down the path in a slight jog, careful to keep his footing as the hill goes down. “Someone help me!”
“Hey!” Techno calls back, hands cupping around his mouth. “I’m on my way! Do you hear me!?”
“Help!”
The voice comes close rather quickly. Technoblade almost jumps a bit at seeing some guy pop out from the trees, caught in a running sprint, his legs stumbling to a stop upon seeing Techno up ahead. He hardly seems all that prepared for a nature walk. He’s wearing jeans and a sweater, his curls frizzy and mismanaged, and his shoes-
Technoblade comes to an abrupt halt at seeing the guy’s shoes, the end of his pants. He’s wearing a pair of simple grey sneakers, but they’re splattered and stained in what looks like- like-
Is that blood?
“Oh my god!” The stranger screams out, a near sob of relief, and his hands reach forward as he runs to Techno, his palms also covered in red.
“Oh my god.” Techno repeats, taking a step back as he’s approached, though the guy doesn’t do much other than stop in front of him, his panting breaths shaking in his lungs, his body bending at the hip as he tries to compose himself. “You’re- you- what happened?” Techno can’t help but ask, because he’s hesitant to name that as actual blood on his hands and shoes, but he’s not sure what else it could be. And with the way the guy seems so shaken, hyperventilating right in front of Techno- this feels like he stumbled in on a murder scene.
Techno reaches for his phone in his pocket. He’s going to need police if this is a murder scene.
“They- They’re-” The guy shakes his head, hands grasping at the front of his shirt, staining the fabric. He’s gasping so fast and so hard, Techno’s a little worried that he’s about to puke. “All dead. They’re all dead- all of them.” He lifts his head up, and he coughs on the next sob, tears pooling within his eyes. “It didn’t see me, but it heard me, it- we need to go. We need to go, right now, right now, we need to-” He begs, hands reaching out to Techno, Techno letting him grab onto his arm, because the other option seems like him passing out on the forest ground.
“Calm down, breathe.” Techno holds his phone in his hand while lifting his arms out, letting the stranger hold onto him for balance. He leans forward, trying to keep his voice steady, though his words feel like they want to shake at what he’s said. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“It killed them!” He cries at Techno. He heaves in a stuttering gasp, fingers digging into Techno’s sleeves. “It’s gonna kill me. It’s gonna kill me. They’re all dead, it’s gonna kill me next.”
“Okay. Okay. It’s okay. You’re fine.” Technoblade reassures, and he reasons that maybe the guy is currently in shock.
Maybe his group encountered some sort of wild creature out there? A bear? As far as he knows, there aren’t really bears in this part of the forest, but it is a forest all the same. Who is to say they can’t run into something of the wild?
“Just-” Techno tries to focus. First things first. “What’s your name?”
“No, no, it’s-” He shakes his head, pushing at Techno, making him stumble back. “We need to get out. We need to-”
“What’s your name?” Techno asks more firmly, trying to distract him out of his panic while also checking his phone. His signal is somewhat poor, which is to be expected, but he supposes it’d be better to get out of the trees first before getting law enforcement here. No need to have them all be lost, trying to find each other on the paths. “Tell me your name.”
“I-” The guy hesitates, eyes blinking fast. “Uhm.” He breathes, hand pulling at Techno’s sleeve again. “Wilbur. My name is Wilbur.”
“Okay. My name is Technoblade. It’s alright, we’re not far off from the main road. I know the trails, okay?” Techno insists, pulling one arm away to point at where the treeline eventually ends. “We’re gonna go get somewhere with better reception, then we can call the police, and try and get this figured out for you, okay?”
“I- okay. Okay.” Wilbur nods frantically, eyes wide. He’s breathing a bit better now, not so much like he’s losing all the air in his lungs. “Let’s go. Please, let’s go.”
“Alright.” Techno agrees. He starts walking along the path to the end of the trail, and Wilbur stays holding onto his arm, lingering close as if afraid Technoblade might suddenly make a break for it and leave him on his own. Usually, Techno would say something about some stranger being this close, but this guy looks a bit traumatized, so just this once, he can kinda let it be.
He looks at Wilbur as they stay walking on. The blood on his shoes and his hands is still wet, streaks of it now being put on Techno’s sleeve, and again, Techno really does wonder if he’s now a witness to some murder made out in the wild. This would be the place for a serial killer to finish off their victim, wouldn’t it?
“Are you hurt, Wilbur?” Techno asks, to both fill the tense silence between them and to find out if the blood on him is his own.
Wilbur doesn’t say anything in reply. His eyes stay looking over his shoulder, staring at the trees. Like something might be following them.
“Hey.” Techno presses. Wilbur turns his head to him, blinking fast. “I gotta know if you’re hurt or anything, so we can tell the police when they get here.”
“They can’t go in there.” Wilbur mutters, eyes falling down to look at the ground, at his feet. His shoes covered in blood. “They’re all dead. It’s- it’s not gonna-” He stops, abruptly, in both speaking and in step.
Techno is pulled a little by his sudden halt, and he watches to see if maybe Wilbur’s finally reached his breaking point or something. He worries if the silence might’ve been a better choice.
“Wilbur?” He asks, leaning in a bit to see Wil’s expression better, and he can see the way his face has gone pale, all his features frozen in horror. “Hey. Hey, it’s fine-”
Techno’s words die off in his mouth as he hears something in the distance.
He turns his head.
There’s something coming through the forest. It’s a rustling of the tallest tree branches, and a low rumbling through the dirt under their feet. There’s a groan, some aching, deep voice echoing out, but it’s not human. It’s quite an animal, either. Technoblade wants to name it as a bear, but he can see the movement of it far off ahead, see the shape of it through the woods, and it’s not-
That’s not a bear.
“What is-” Techno’s words choke together in his throat, a sick, cold feeling running down his back. He sees it take another step, sees something like claws dragging through the dirt. There’s eyes. Eyes of something, looking directly at him.
“Oh, god.” Wilbur breathes out, hands gripping down tight on Techno’s arm.
“What is that.” Techno whispers, and he feels the shock of panic start to course through his veins, his skin crawling as his hands start to shake. “What is that? What is-”
“It’s gonna kill us.” Wilbur hisses out plainly, hands shoving at Techno, Techno’s eyes still caught on that- thing.
It’s not a bear. That’s not a bear.
That’s not a fucking bear.
“It’s following, it’s gonna kill us, we need to go! Technoblade- We need to get out of the forest, we need to go-!”
“What is that?!” Technoblade cries, feet moving, stumbling over the rocks of the path, crunching so loudly to the silence of a forest knowing there is something nearby to hide from.
“Technoblade, FUCKING RUN!” Wilbur shouts, and they sprint off in the opposite direction, trying to flee to some sort of safety. They run as fast they’re able, Wil’s hand grabbing out to Techno’s own palm in trying to stay at his side, and Techno closes his fingers around Wil’s and just pulls him along, not wanting for him to be left behind.
They have to stay together. Being alone against that- oh god, there’s no chance. There’s no chance even if it’s the two of them.
They need to get out of the forest. They have to get away.
“What the hell was that?!” Techno screams as they run, the trail ignored, forgotten easily in the need to just make some sort of distance. They rush past the path, straight into the dirt, right into the trees, just running away, just trying to escape. “What was that?!”
“I don’t know, I don't know, I don’t know-” Wilbur repeats, looking over his shoulder, a sob within his words again. Techno tries to lead them on. He knows this part of the forest somewhat, he’s done these trails so many times, but even in the blur of panic, things are hard to recall, and the sun is setting. The forest is going dark.
Oh, god, they need to get out before the forest goes entirely dark.
“This way, this way!” Techno insists, hearing the creaking of trees moving behind them, a crack of a wooden trunk being displaced, ripped from the ground. “Come on!”
“Fuck!” Wilbur swears, sharp and afraid, Techno refusing to look with him and see what he knows is following behind them. “No, no, no!” He holds tighter onto Techno’s hand, and Technoblade squeezes back in a useless comfort.
“Over here!” Techno points out, towards a hill that looks more like a cliff with the way the incline sits. “Can you climb?!”
“Yes!” Wilbur insists. There’s no other answer to give. They cannot stay in place.
“Go, then!” Technoblade shouts, and Wilbur lets go of him to go on up, Techno staying behind him, pulling himself up after him with all the caution of being ready to catch Wilbur if he so much as slides back an inch. Both his hands are free in climbing up. He’s not sure where his phone went, now. He thinks he might’ve just dropped it upon seeing that- the-
Something breathes deep from far behind him, taking in a long breath, like a dying gasp, and Techno kicks harder against the dirt, clinging to a low hanging branch. Wilbur gets over the top and instantly turns back to reach a hand out to pull Techno up. His eyes turn wide when looking over Techno’s shoulder.
He screams at the same time as something grabs around Techno’s ankle, freezing cold and soaking wet, sharp points poking through the edges of his shoe. He hauls his leg up on instinct, and takes Wilbur’s arm, and Wil pulls him with such a frantic strength that they both go falling down at the dirt on the top, rolling across the ground.
“GET UP!” Techno shouts, scrambling to stand, Wilbur reaching out to his hand again. They run a second time, as fast as they’re able, and Technoblade hates to admit it, but he’s not too sure of the direction they’re going. He’s not too sure where they are. He’s just moving, and pulling Wilbur forward, and trying to get away, get away from it, get away from it, get away from it, get away from it get away from it get away from it get away from it get away from it get away from it get away from it get away-
“Techno-” Wilbur heaves in a gasp for air, and it’s as if Techno has remembered he has to breathe too, with how suddenly he tries to suck in a breath.
He slows, fatigue now catching, his legs aching hard. His backpack weighs so heavy on his shoulders, enough to make him now falter in step, and he lets go of Wil’s hand to shrug it off, falling to his knees to get a break and to look through it.
He takes the flashlight, and nothing more. It’s weighing him down, there’s no point, he’s fucking exhausted, now, just from having this come along. They’ll need to keep moving. He can’t end up being too slow. It’ll get him killed, he’s so sure of it. That thing will- that-
“...What was that?” Techno asks quietly, still knelt over his open backpack, Wilbur lingering at his side, fingers twisting nervously together in front of him.
“I don’t know.” Wil mutters. “It killed- It killed my friends. They’re dead.” He says, so matter of fact, so mournfully sure. “They’re dead.”
“We need to get out of the forest.” Techno says, and he looks up at Wilbur, seeing the way his face twists up in concern through the dim light. “Shit, we need to get out before it’s fully dark. I- I have a flashlight, but-”
“You said you know the trails?”
“We’re off the trails, now.” Techno reminds, grunting as he goes to stand back up, Wilbur offering a hand to help. “I don’t know where we are.”
“Well, I-” Wilbur lowers his head, teeth passing over his lip as he tries to put together his thoughts. “Maybe we can just- we can-” He sniffles, tears welling up in his eyes. Techno can’t fault him for it. He can’t imagine what he witnessed, with that blood on him, with his insistence of his group being dead. “We can just get out, right? We can get out.”
“It’s not far.” Technoblade tries to reassure. He looks off into the growing shadows of the forest, and his stomach turns. “Let’s not stay in place. We should keep moving.”
“Yeah.” Wilbur whispers, as if the light starting to fade has made him that much more careful.
They pick a direction and start walking. Wilbur holds tight to Techno’s sleeve. Techno holds the light up for the two of them.
Something follows far behind.