A shadowy figure came out from the woods and grabbed Jeff by his hair. Carla screamed "No" as he reached his blade back and cut Jeff's head off in one clean swoop. Everyone watched as three more figures came out of the woods and one of them blew the horn. Jordan regained his composure and begin to aide Brian in getting up.
"Brian let's go; everyone start running back to the car!" he yelled.
Carla went down to her knees crying, not taking her eyes off of Jeff's decapitated body. As all four of the figures walked towards the camp, Rachel grabbed her and started to pull her away to run.
"Oh my God, Oh my God," Penelope screamed, leading the way to the cars.
"Just leave me man. I am slowing you down. Just get Carla to safety," Brian said.
"I'm not leaving you man." Jordan said.
Just then an arrow hit Brian in his good leg. Jordan looked down and started to drag him as he saw one of the shadowy figures advance with a bow in his hands.
"Leave me Jordan; save the girls." Brian said.
"Come on man, I'm not leaving you."
"We are both dead if you don't leave. Here are the keys to the truck. Go man!"
Jordan took one last look at him as he took the keys from his hands. Jordan looked up and saw that the shadowy figure was a man in a hooded cloth. Jordan took off running the other way. He heard Brian fighting and swearing until his voice grew faint as he ran to catch up to the girls. Carla turned around and saw Jordan right behind them.
"Where is Brian?" she yelled, out of breath.
"One of those guys shot him with an arrow in his leg. I couldn't help him. He gave me the keys and told me to go on." Jordan explained.
Penelope stopped running. She just kept crying in between, panting for air with her hands on her knees.
"Babe we have to get out of here. Those guys are not going to stop chasing us." Jordan said.
"They killed Jeff and Brian. They are going to kill us too! We are going to die!" Penelope screamed.
"Stop it! We have to get to the car." Carla said.
"Let's go and report what is going on here." Rachel said.
"Come on before they catch up to us." Carla said.
All four of them continued to run until they reached the parking area for the vehicles. As they approached Brian's Tahoe, Carla noticed Jeff's Jeep. She kept picturing his head getting cut off. Jordan noticed that all of the tires were slashed on the Tahoe and Jeep.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Rachel asked.
"Can't we just drive on the rims; it’s only a mile out to the road." Carla said.
"We can try but it’s a chance we might get stuck on the dirt road," Jordan explained.
"Is there another choice? I can't run another mile." Penelope said, crying.
"Let’s get into the car and see what we can do," Jordan said.
They got into the car and started to back out. They headed down the road; Jordan feeling more relieved. Rachel glanced at her phone waiting for a signal to come back so she could call 911. As soon as she got a bar on her phone she started dialing.
"Hello, we are at the camping grounds off highway 9 and two of our friends just got murdered by someone."
They all listened to the operator, who seemed to be laughing.
"Do you think this is some type of joke?" Rachel asked, putting the lady on speakerphone.
"I'm tired of you young kids calling in with the joke. Every three months somebody is calling in with some type of murder story. I'm going to send a car out to the entrance. You will be fined when they don't find anything" the operator said, laughing.
"Did you hear that? They said every three months. There are people dying here every three months." Carla said.
One of the truck’s rims hit a ditch and got stuck. Jordan tried to drive it out of the ditch but he could tell that the rim was being destroyed.
"Look we have made it more than a half mile out. We can run the rest of this road to safety," he said.
"I can't run anymore," Penelope said.
"You are going to have to," Rachel stated.
"We are almost home free, let’s go!" Jordan said, hopping out of the truck.
They all begin to run; Jordan looked back a couple of times but couldn't see anyone following them. As they reached the highway they saw two Sheriff SUVs come through the entrance. They stopped as four officers stepped out of the trucks. One stepped forward and begin to speak.
"What is going on here kids? Are you the ones who called the 911 operator?" he asked.
"Yes, there are people on the camping grounds trying to murder us. They have already killed two of our friends," Carla said.
"Are you serious? C'mon you guys have to put more into your story then this." One of the other officers said.
"What is with you people? There are four men trying to kill us in the woods. We need help!" Rachel said.
"We get this story all the time. People dying in the woods; but there is never a murderer or victim found," another officer stated.
"We know what we saw." Penelope said.
Just then Carla realized that there were four officers just like there were four men in the woods. She also realized how fast the officers got there seeing how it was a big joke about a murderer in the woods. She began to warn the others.
"Guys they are the murderers in the woods. There is four of them."
"What are you talking about Carla? These are the cops right?" Rachel asked with uncertainty.
Carla turned to run and when she turned around, four hooded men were behind her; the leader with his blade out. Carla turned back around realizing that the officers were shocking them with tasers. The fourth officer approached her and chloroformed her with a handkerchief.
Carla had awoken feeling woozy, handcuffed to a stake in the ground. As her vision began to clear, she noticed that she was back at the camping site right in the middle of the judgment table. She looked around saw Jordan, Penelope, and Rachel tied up behind her. When she looked over at the entrance to the camping grounds she saw one of the Sheriff's Departments SUV's parked. The officers were talking.
"It's ok Carla. You have nothing to fear," a voice from behind her stated.
She turned around and saw the leader of the hooded men. She was scared and started pulling away so much at the cuffs her feet slipped on the dirt. He approached her slowly and when he stood in front of her, he removed his hood.
"Dad?" she said in disbelief.
"Yes Carla, it is me." he said.
"No, you are dead. This is not happening."
"You couldn't be more wrong Carla. This is your heritage; this is your calling in life".
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You know the story I tell you every first night of our camping trip?"
"Yes, I told them last night."
"It’s true. Several generations ago the white man invaded this land and took it from the Niko Tribe. Well the tribe even though defeated never truly left; they hid in the woods. There were so many deaths over the generations of anyone who tried to settle here that they left the land alone. The land just became camping grounds in the seventies. The Niko Tribe had died off; but there were 20 descendants from the Niko Tribe in '79, one was your grandfather. They decided in order to bring our people peace they would need to make sacrifices to the earth."
"So every summer we were coming here for what exactly?"
"I had to make a sacrifice once a year; that is my duty. While you were sleep at night I would go back to the highway and pick up a driver willing to give a hitcher a ride. I would make my sacrifice and spend time with my daughter. Also I got to see your grandfather who was chieftain."
"So granddad didn't die before I was born?"
"Your granddad died two years ago honey."
"That’s when you supposedly died as well."
"As chieftain I can not
live among the outside world; so I died and burned in a car accident. It was another sacrifice that was used for a higher purpose."
"Did mom know about this?"
"Your mom was a racist whore! I brought her up here when you were two for the first time. You were not old enough yet to accompany us so you stayed with her parents. I told that whore the story of how the white man took over the land. She said the dirty engines needed to move on. Well I can't tolerate disrespect; so I poisoned that whore with arsenic in her health smoothie she was always buying. Get this, I then sued the company that made the health smoothie drink." He said laughing.
"You are a monster dad."
"Don't get self righteous on me dear. What do you think funded your fancy education? Also, if I am going to live among the white man I might as well be sue happy like them. Moral of the story is this; we make sacrifices to honor our tribe. Don't let that white skin of yours make you think that you are not a Niko Tribe member. This is your heritage."
Just then one of the hooded members came over and whispered something to Carla's dad. He whispered back and she removed her hood; Carla was surprised she was a woman.
"Carla this is Yvette. She is the one that shot your boy Jeff. He cheated on you honey; I thought he deserved to die.”
“How did you know that?”
“I keep tabs on my baby girl. That’s why I had such great pleasure taking his head.”
“Let me and my friends go. I won’t tell anyone.”
“That’s a joke. Like I was saying this is Yvette; she will be your mentor. She will teach you how to be a true Niko”.
“I’m not joining your band of lunatics. You and this skank Yvette. Your paid off cops.”