Tim quickly sprinted away from the camp. A long slash along his side, almost like he had been slashed with a butcher's knife. He looked to the side of him and saw a creature cloaked in shadow, following him by his side, its glowing yellow eyes staring at him, from a long canine snout. Tim ran faster, His breath coming in large gasps. His legs felt like lead, yet he was determined not to stop. He was so focused on running that he didn’t notice the Stick in his way until he tripped. He crashed into the surrounding snow, not even feeling its coolness. He heard Cassandra in front of him yell his name, as the growling got louder.

*5 days earlier*

Tim woke up to his alarm in the morning, it was 7:00 am, a crisp cool fall morning, 3 days before the big storm was supposed to arrive. He heard his dorm mate groan as his alarm went off. Tim started his daily bathroom routine. Once he was done with his shower he went to the sink to brush his teeth. His brown hair looked smudged in the foggy mirror, his blue eyes scanned the cabinet, looking for his toothbrush as he heard the door open, as his roommate, Ian, stepped into the room. His darkly colored hair was standing on end as Tim left for Ian to take his shower as he left to get dressed. Ian had been his friend since 7th grade, where they had become friends. But still, Ian got Tim into a lot of trouble, like that one time where Ian pulled the fire alarm in the middle of class. But TIm was even closer with their friend Simon, who he had been with since 3rd grade.

After they were both done getting ready, they left the dorm walking towards the forest on the border of their college campus, where they would meet with friends. 

“Why exactly did we agree to go into the Woods with Cassandra again?” said Ian, slightly irritated at having to be woken up at 7:00 on a weekend. “Why couldn’t she just go with Sofia like usual, or Simon.” Simon and Sofia were their other two friends.

“May I remind you whose idea it was to bet on that when we were playing blackjack with the others?” 

“Ok, you don’t have to keep bring that up”

“I thought so” said Tim as they finally got to the edge of the woods. There at the gate stood Cassandra.

“So you didn’t chicken out” she said as they both got closer. “Man, I owe Sofia 5 bucks.” Cassandra had long black hair, with brown eyes that seemed to glow in the low sunlight of the early morning. She was dressed in a simple sweatshirt and pants with a hat and gloves. “I should have known,” she said to Ian. 

Tim was wearing a simple long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of jeans, while Ian, being the insane person he was, was dressed in a black tee-shirt and shorts. 

“What are you wearing, it's like 15 degrees out. Anyways, besides Ian’s choice of clothes we can get going. I set up the tents yesterday”, said Cassandra

“What are we even doing?” said Ian, irritated by needing to get up so early in the morning.

“Hiking and fishing, come on! You sound like my 5 year old cousin.” Said Cassandra as she started to walk through the gate, her hair swaying in the morning breeze. The other begrudgingly followed in suit. 

Tim had got to admit that fishing was a lot more fun than he thought it would be. The deal that they had agreed on, would be that they would spend a week in the woods, fishing to get food. Tim still had no idea how he had agreed to this bet, it was a crazy idea. He didn’t know how to fish, or how to find food or shelter. He didn’t even know how to light a match, and Ian wasn’t any better. And Cassandra was the one keeping them alive on this trip. She showed them how to fish, and which berries to eat and which not. She was the true wilderness survival expert. It was on the 5th morning that something weird started happening. 

“Did one of you wake up in the middle of the night?” asked Cassandra, “because I heard a quiet snuffling sound, and thought one of you was there. There was also a louder growling sound, almost like a dog or some sort of dog-like creature”

“No, we were both in our tent.”

“Maybe” said Cassandra as she started to walk back to her tent. 

“Wait up!” said Tim as he followed her. Cassandra hushed him as she got to her tent. There on the forest floor, was a bunch of dog-like tracks. The tracks were big, but not more than 5 inches in width. The smell of decay and death lingered in the air, the smell of a predator.

“Wolves” said Cassandra, looking grim. “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.”

“Wait what” Ian, looking as confused as I felt about this revelation. “I thought that wolves don’t go this close to human settlements.”

“Didn’t you hear, they said it on the news. They reintroduced wolves into these parts.” said Cassandra. Tim thought that she must be wrong. That the tracks were just some kids from school pranking them. But then the strange noises he had heard at night made sense. Wolves did indeed explain the weird howling noises he sometimes heard at dusk or dawn. 

“By the looks of these tracks, it’s a big pack of wolves as well. I count around 8.”

“Let's hope they stay home tonight.” Said Ian looking nervously at the sky.

The day was probably the longest Tim had ever lived. While they were getting their things ready to get out the next day, (Because of the wolves they had cut the trip short) Tim was sure several times that he could feel a pair of eyes on him, watching, waiting for the optimal opportunity to strike. Tim found himself looking behind his back all day, and not getting much done at all. When the sun finally started to set, Tim started to get even more nervous, as the sounds of the night began. The croaking of wood frogs as they prepared for their frozen sleep. The quiet the burke next to their camp. The sound of crickets. 

“Hey, what do you think of classes so far?” asked Cassandra.

“It's ok, I guess, but Mr Jones is script, he made me redo my entire paper, just for one sentence that seemed to be plagiarized from a book. I checked that paper like 15 times in a plagiarism checker.” replied Tim, still quite annoyed about that

“He has always been like that, didn’t you hear what happened to John?” and so on.

It had been awhile since it was just him and Cassandra talking, he had missed it.

After five minutes “Hey do you know where Ian is, he has been missing for like 30 minutes.” 

“No, I thought he went back to camp.” Said Tim, 

“Let's go check just in case.”

They both started to walk back to camp, as the sun finally started to set, casting a bluish purple hue across the sky. The trees around them had mostly lost their branches.  This was Tim's favorite time of the day, he just loved it in the winter with the way that the sky lit up from the aurora borealis. When they reached the camp, they saw Ian just picking up stuff from the campsite. 

“Where have you been?”

 “Just taking a walk, you know, looking at the scenery.”

“Ian, look out!” Shouted Cassandra.

Just then Ian fell to the ground, his hands protecting him from a wolf trying to rip out his throat. Before Tim could be moved, a second wolf came from behind the other one and with one bite, cut him open. Ian let out a scream as his arms fell to his sides, and the two wolves dragged him off, still screaming.

“No!” Shouted Cassandra as she ran to try to save Ian. Tim was faster, and managed to reach her before she got to him.

“It's too late for him, we have to go.” Cassandra was looking like she was about to cry but nodded. They both started to run, they just had to get to the end of the woods, it was only a 20 minute run from the camp. When they reached the pond halfway from the camp to the tent, they stopped for a breather. The pound, signifying the start of the cold Alaskan winter, had started to freeze over, the ice still being thin. Tim was sitting on a rock by the pond looking out on it, his mind racing. Cassandra to the right of him at the base of a large pine tree, and was crying over the loss of their friend. They sat like this for a while, not moving, just sitting. After a while, Ian checked his watch. It was nearing 7:00  in the afternoon, they had to get going before nightfall. They had left all of their stuff at the tents, not the most ideal thing. Tim was wondering what to do when an owl screeched to the left startled him, and he crashed to the ground. A sharp growing pain erupted in his side, followed by the feeling of something wet and warmth coating his side. The liquid was sticky and had a peculiar smell. Blood. Tim got up to inspect his wound. He had badly cut his chest on a sharp rock on the ground, it was bleeding heavily, and it was kinda hard to breathe. Cassandra seeing the blood on the floor, quickly got to help Tim. 

“What happened”, said Cassandra, putting pressure on the wound, having been lifted from her stupor.  

“I fell.” 

“We have to get going, we can’t stay here.”

“I know, we can run”

“In your condition?”

“I am fine, let's just get going.” and so they did. They started their way back to the campus. Tim’s arm was on fire, the pain unbearable. When they got back, they would get someone out here to look for Ian's body, or what's left of it. But first, Tim’s arm needed medical attention. It was about half way through their journey that the growls came. The wolves had found them. Tim and Cassandra looked at each other, and started to run. They would never be able to outrun the wolves in a marathon, but if they could just make it to the campus. Tim continued to run. His legs like lead, one of his arms on his wound, and the other swaying on his side. Cassandra was ahead of him, she being the better runner. She runs with the agility of a hare. 

The gate was in sight when a branch in his way caused him to trip. He came tumbling down, his full body falling into the cool snow. His gasps of air let out large plies of mist in the cold night air. Cassandra yelled his name as he tried to get up, but it was too late. The shadow of the wolf that he saw before came again. To the left, came the wolf, its muscular body, with greyish black fur, and glowing yellow eyes. It’s large maw full of sharp teeth stained with flecks of blood, and turned in a gruesome grimace. It was like a ghost in the darkness of the night. Its footsteps were silent in the darkness of the night. Tim just got to his feet, when it pounced. It’s jaws open wide to catch Tim by the guts, and rip him open like Ian. He dodged the attack, and turned to run, Cassandra was gone, probably gone to get help. Tim started to run when a sharp pain in calf stopped him. The wolf had its jaws around his leg and was holding tight. Tim thought he was a goner, when a rock sailed through the air, and hit the wolf in its eye. It was Cassandra. She came back. The wolf backed away, shaking its head, deciding it was too much work than it was worth it to fight. It turned tail and ran. Tim and Cassandra looked at each other for a minute and started to walk to the campus.

1 week later

Tim had done a lot in the past week. It was weird not seeing Ian anymore in the mornings or in class. They had sent a team out the night after they had returned, after Tim had got some medical attention. Tim had to get stitches. They had found the campside, but no sign of Ian. They searched all night but found nothing. Then 3 days later, a couple on a hike found a bundle of chewed human bones about 5 miles away. The team identified the remains as Ian Carter, but no records of wolves or any activity of wolves had been recorded in the area in 50 years. Today was the end of the week off from classes everyone had been given to greve and look for the body on their ground. Tim had spent the week with the friends, vowing to never go into those woods again. All was fine, at least for now anyway. Tim was not excited to start classes but who is?

The End