Samantha arched her back and rubbed her aching shoulders. After hiking three miles, they throbbed from the weight of her thirty-pound pack, but still, she was in heaven.
"How much further?" Josh ripped open a protein bar and took a huge bite, disregarding the wrapping that fell to the dirt. She eyed the litter as he chugged from his water bottle.
"Two more miles," she said, discreetly picking up the trash and putting it in her pocket.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."
"You don't like it?"
"Walking through the middle of nowhere with fifty pounds on my back? Sorry, babe, but I don't know anyone besides you who would call this fun."
She tensed, folding in on herself. "You didn't have to come."
"And let you come all the way out here by yourself? What kind of asshole would that make me?"
The same kind of asshole you're being now, she thought.
"Well, I appreciate you coming with me," she said, picking up her pack. Josh groaned as he did the same, and they continued hiking in silence.
Half an hour later, Samantha was enjoying relative solitude on the trail. Josh had pulled ahead almost immediately, claiming he couldn't walk at her slower pace. He wanted to get the hiking part over with, so she could keep up, or he'd meet her there.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, both disappointed and relieved. They'd been dating for about a year, and it was becoming increasingly obvious the charming man she'd met wasn't the same one that was leaving her behind in the woods. Maybe it was time to cut ties.
She planned to come by herself, but when she brought up the idea to go camping alone for the weekend, Josh became adamantly pissed and insisted she needed him to go with her. For protection. The barrel of her Glock rubbed against the hollow in her hip as she walked. She was as at home in the woods as anywhere else, and she had decent aim. Then again, he held on to the belief she couldn't even hold a gun.
The evening darkened quickly under the canopy of the piney woods. By the time she reached the fork in the trail meeting the lake, Josh was huffing and thrashing around, trying to clear a place for them to set up camp. She tensed, preparing herself for his dramatics. He never did anything gently or with pleasure. Anything that had nothing to do with him was always a chore, and her decision to break up with him after this weekend solidified.
She set down her pack and silently went about unloading supplies and assembling the tent. She was gathering wood to start the fire when Josh came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey."
"Hey." She stood stiffly, both enjoying his warmth and angry he wanted to be sweet now that she'd done most of the work setting up camp.
"I'm sorry, babe. You're right. This is really nice. I guess the thought of roughing it doesn't appeal to me anymore, but I'm glad I came with you. Sorry for being a dick. I promise, I'll make it up to you."
She smiled and turned to face him. His lopsided and apologetic grin was both frustrating and adorable. His charm hooked her from the moment they met, and he used it to keep her around, but even so, she wasn't sure it would be enough in the long run.
"You better," she said.
After eating a meal of rehydrated mac and cheese and beef jerky, they sat in their respective camp chairs and stared at the fire while music played in the background from her portable speaker. He passed her a flask, and she sipped, letting the whiskey loosen her sore muscles from the day's hike.
The sky was lit with shooting stars, and they listened to her camp playlist. For a moment, she was the happiest she'd been in a long while. Perhaps Josh needed help seeing the world wasn't always against him. She passed the whiskey back to him, and he flashed her a relaxed smile, leaning back in his chair and taking a long swig until it emptied. He shook it, laughing.
"You shoulda brought extra."
The forest was loud with the symphony of insects and frogs. Josh snored next to her, completely unconscious with exhaustion from the long hike and the numbing effects of the whiskey, so she grabbed her own hidden flask and snuck out of the tent. Stoking the glowing embers of the fire, she threw on another log, sipping and enjoying the music of nature.
The buzz from the liquor was filling her head when a loud moan cut through the night, cutting off every other sound to end in a silence that made her ears ache. Her heart found itself stuck between beats, frozen in place while the fire crackled. She was paralyzed with the sensation of something watching her, listening for any other sound but her own breathing.
A crash erupted through the trees, followed by another howl that was not quite human but not animal in nature either. It was primal, and it awakened the natural instinct of prey being hunted by a predator. She fled for the tent and the pistol hidden beneath her pillow.
Her fingers were yanking on the zipper when Josh broke through the opening with a gun pointing at her.
"Get in the tent," he yelled, as something massive thrashed its way towards their camp, its howls and grunts becoming deafening.
She ducked behind Josh, instinctively reaching under her pillow only to realize the gun Josh was wielding was hers. As if on cue, a shot went off, and an unearthly scream erupted, shaking the ground beneath her. She covered her ears as tears began streaming down her face. The world around her became a warzone of earth-shattering growls and gunshots followed by Josh's shrieks of pain.
The unzipped entrance to the tent was flapping in the breeze and the gentle glow of the fire illuminated the horror of a massive, shaggy creature holding Josh by the throat. Josh was easily over six feet, but this monster loomed over him, lifting him as if he were nothing.
Josh's legs flailed as the beast screamed in his face, dark spots of spittle flying in every direction. There was a distinct snapping as delicate bones in Josh's neck broke.
Samantha visited a butcher with her dad once, and it just happened to be the moment they were grinding fresh beef. The wet, suctioning sound of flesh being pulverized nearly made her vomit and turn to vegetarianism. It was the same sound that preceded Josh's feet hitting the dirt. He collapsed, blood pouring from the mangled stump where his head used to be.
The monster tossed her boyfriend's head over its shoulder like a discarded basketball, and it hit the ground with a thud, rolling and leaving a trail of gore, Josh's eyes open and round in surprise.
Samantha whimpered.
The creature looked up, its eyes meeting hers. She thought about the gun laying somewhere next to Josh's decapitated body. They stared at each other for a moment, and Samantha jolted as the creature turned away from her, reaching for Josh.
It lifted his limp body over its shoulder and abruptly stomped back into the shadows of the woods, Josh's arms dangling, patting its shaggy back with each large step.
Footsteps echoed throughout the camp, fading as the beast packed out its prize, leaving her with the soft, peaceful crackling of the fire. As she sat there with Josh staring accusatorily at her, the frogs and insects carried on with their interrupted song.