The Hike(Un-Finished)

Chapter 1

Michael Hall ran down the stairs into the basement as fast as he could. Only a few minutes left. Everyone else was loading up, everyone else happened to have everything they needed. Except Mike, who frantically ran past his pool table with the decaying top, he was going to have to get that thing replaced, but no time to think about that now, he needed his flashlight!

Jared Hall, Michael's brother, came down the stairs with the speed and force of a herd of elephants. "What in the heck are you doing, we're going!" He yelled.
"I have to find my flashlight, I can't find it!" Michael said.
"You're such an idiot, you've been playing x-box all day while we've been packing. Now get your big head outside and in the car!"
"Shut up!"
"Don't give me that crap, you look like a retard down here looking for a flashlight to scare the boogeyman away at night." Jared grinned.
"That is not why I need it, what if I have to go the bathroom at night or something?"
"Why bother, you'll probably do it in your sleeping bag anyway."
Jared shook his head and left the room.
Mike's face was red, his pulse rate accelerated, and his breathing was heavy after the exchange, a simple thing for his brother, but something more serious for him. Then, he saw the silver flashlight next to his dirtbike where he had left it.

He bent down and picked up his flashlight that he had got a Christmas ago. About 5 inches long, it gave off a blue light that didn't have a very good range, but lit up very fine a few feet in front of you. It was fine for how little he would use it, to go to the bathroom, perhaps find something in his tent.

The basement door leading out into the driveway was already open, technically, it could never close since the doorknob on it had been missing for years. Where glass had been, a see-through covering had been placed. Not exactly burglar proof, but they had been fairly isolated up until a few years ago, when construction had begun close to their house, and every year a new house was built closer and closer to their home.

Michael's parents prefered isolation, and that was why they were moving soon, but never mind to that as it is not crucial to our story.

Michael hoisted his backpack over his shoulder, and stepped outside. A mild, overcast day, it had rained earlier but had stopped for about an hour. A light breeze blew through the many trees surrounding the Hall home. It had been an unusually warm winter this year, even for the state of Alabama.

This train of thought was broken by Mike's older brother, Jon, who had been married for several years now.
"If you packed any shorts in this pack I'll make you eat them, you have no idea how cold it is going to be up there." He said, taking Michael's backpack and putting it in the back of the SUV.
"I didn't." Michael said.

And so they left the house, more would meet them along the way, and it would be a long journey indeed. No one would be unchanged after it, as you will see.



It was an overcast day as the Halls drove towards their destination. They had been driving up the meandaring roads of the smoky mountains for quite a while in their red truck when all of a sudden Michael had this sudden urge to use the bathroom. "Hey Dad, I need to spring a leak real reaaal bad. Could you pull over somewhere?" Michael interjected. Mr. Sonny and Jon were having a deep conversation about what they were going to cook when Michael interrupted. Jon turned around and looked at Mike who was starting to look a little flush. "Michael why didn't you use the bathroom at the last pit stop we took? Me and Dad both asked you if you needed to go and you said nahh." "Michael" his Dad broke in "You were givin several oppurtunities to go to the bathroom... and if I pull over this will be the last time till we get to the trail."
"YESS PLEASE PULL OVER" Michael bursted out. You see, Michael told his Dad that all he had to do was spring a leak, but in reality he needed to do both #1 and #2.


They pulled over and all the while Michael was digging in his pack trying to locate the toilet paper. Finally after several attempts at locating the paper he struck gold and opened the truck door. "Dad there isn't much cover out through here with it being winter and all." Mr. Sonny said "Michael James Hall, why do you need cover to take a pee?" Michael let the truth be known by telling him he had to do #1 and #2. "Boy you better hurry up and get done fast as you can. We have to be at the trail head by 7:00 am and if we have to make everyone else wait because you wouldn't use the bathroom at the gas station..." Michael butted in and said "Dad I'll be quick." and with that Michael bounded down the hollow.


Michael after heading into the hollow were he expected to have some privacy, noticed that there was a small little cottage at the far end. It looked deserted with its busted windows and rotten steps. But still he didn't want to be in sight of anything that had a hint of civilization. So further he trudged making his way over the hill, by this time he could see his Dad's truck with his Dad and Jon looking at him. He doubled his pace. After topping the hill he went a little further and found a suitable spot. Sitting on a log he thought about he wished he hadn't went to Guadalajara that previous day. The meal was taking its toil on him. Guadalajara! That made him recall the discussion the previous evening with the waiter Pedro. Pedro had heard his Dad, Jon, and Mom talking about their hike and had made the comment that bad things were happening on the trail they was to take. Mr. Sonny asked him what he meant and he said his cousin had went up there with some friends and that one of their buddies went missing and that they had heard weird noises. "We finally found our buddy." Pedro said "He was laying on the ground in a state of unconscienceness. We asked him what had happened to him and he said that he didn't remember hardly anything. He only vaguely remembered going off to use the bathroom and then one slight fuzzy image of a flash of fur."


A shiver ran down Mike's spine as he recalled the story. He finished his business about fifteen minutes later and dug his heels into the pine/leave covered rock soil and ran for the truck. He didn't like the feeling he had after recalling the story. Behind every tree he expected a large hairy beast to come out and attack. His mind was working on him or was it the specialty bean burrito he had eaten the day before. He ran with utmost speed. When he got to the bottom of the hollow his foot grabbed a root from an oak tree and he went flying face forward into the soil. The scent of pine nettles and decomposing leaves filled his nostrils then another smell filled it. The smell of smoke. He looked up and there was the old shack with smoke emanating from its chimney and in front of the house laid a backpack. He couldn't recognize the pack. I wonder if Jon has a new one I havn't seen before, he thought. Slowly he got up onto his knees and looked with an intense stare into the broken windows, looking for a face. Then ever so slowly a tuft of grey hair started to rise over the window sill. Then a head started to rise. The guy whoever he was had hardly any hair on top, the hair that was on top was long and grey just like the hair on the sides of his head which was drabby and dirty looking. Then he saw that he was wearing a pink jacket!


Michael screamed at the top of his lungs and in the process of turning the toilet paper dropped from his jacket. Michael ran and ran as fast as was humanly possible. He finally reached the top of the hill and saw the red truck. He ran up to the truck and opened the door and slammed it.

Mr. Sonny and Jon were listening to the radio about the weather when Michael busted into the truck. Michael was out of breath, breathing hard long gasps of air. Mr. Sonny and Jon looked at him and said "WHAT just happened." Michael proceeded to tell them the story and when he was finished he said I'll never use the bathroom on the side of the road again!



It was another dreary overcast day. The wind was strong, blowing the dry leaves on the ground up into the air and coincedentally into your face. Jon was ahead of the pack making long strides with his legs which was making the hike even more tiresome for Michael. Michael stared into the woods half expecting to see that hobo looking at him with those hollow eyes.

They had a rather quite night the previous day. When they finally reached their destination at 7:45 am everyone was there waiting on them. So after final preparations they set off on the hike. Hiking for a while they decided to break out the cooking ware and start a meal. After finishing their meal they started back onto the trail taking little breaks every now and then. When night fell they all setup their tents and went to sleep rather quickly, all except Michael. He was still shook up from the pink jacket guy and naturally the sounds of the night played with his mind.

Michael kept on holding it making his bathroom trips far and few between. Thankfully the effects of the burrito had wore off and he didn't have to suffer like he did yesterday.
The cafees were on this hike as well, who to Michaels dismay kept ragging him about the boogey man he had saw the other day. Michael finally could take no more and shouted "SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS." which all it did was make them laugh even more. Michaels face turned beet red and he turned towards Sam who was on the ground laughing his head off. Michael grabbed a limb standing by and took it and started whacking Sam. Then Michael started laughing as Sam was getting up onto his feet.

Then all of the Cafees got a limb and started whacking on Michael. Michael's face turned even redder as they kept hitting him with various sizes of pine limbs. Michael ran up the trail towards Jon and let his anger simmer as the cafees continued laughing behind him.

When night was near, they all setup their tents. The cafees were out in the woods grabbing up large amounts of wood to start a fire with as Mr. Sonny and Jon was getting the cookware setup. Jon looked at Michael and said "Why don't you act more grown up and go out there and do something constructive like helping your cousins gather wood." Michael looked at Jon again with this red eyes and he exclaimed "I don't want to go help them!" Mr. Sonny looked at Michael and said "Michael James Hall, I want you to go help your cousins bring in the wood NOW!" and with that Michael picked up his flash light and ran out into the woods yelling "Yes sir."

It was getting darker, the moon was starting to peak through the clouds causing the trees to cast erie shadows on the ground. Michael turned on his flashlight, illuminating the dark shadows with a narrow beam. He adjusted it so that he had a larger expanse of lighted pathway before him. He could hear the cafees down in a gulley laughing and picking up sticks that had evidently been left there by water that had rushed down the hills. It was dry though, there hadn't been a rain in quite a while.

Michael worked his way down, going under dead briars and underbrush he finally made it. There they were, but not picking up sticks. They were poking a dead carcass of some kind that was missing a head. Upon seeing the carcass, any anger he had dissappated as he stared at its unusual form. He said "What is this... and why is it missing a head?" One of the cafees said "I think it was a bear and it must have fallen off of that cliff over our heads." Michael followed Sam's finger towards what appeared as a sheer drop off and at the very top they saw the outline of a huge oak tree against the shine of the moon.

As they all stared at the tree a small silver gleam glinted in the moonlight. Then they saw it. The outline of a man with what appeared to be an ax in his hands. They shined their lights up towards the tree but they only had small hand held flashlights which only would reach about twenty feet. The man walked along the limbs with apperant ease, it was all too natural the way he walked, like he grew up in the trees. Then he disappeared behind the base of the trunk, as quickly as he appeared he disappeared. They heard a clacking noise and they turned their heads only to find that Sam was standing there with his knees hitting on each other. He said "I believe thats the same man I saw when I was walking in our woods. The man who was on an large oak tree with an axe in his hand who was ready at any moment to take someone's head off."

After that they all headed up the sharp incline back towards their camp with quick steps. Michael asked "Sam did you really see the guy take someone's head off?" Sam looked at Michael and said "No. Not really. But I saw blood all over his axe and he had the look of a bloodthirsty killer gleaming in his eyes."

They made it back to camp and related all that had happened to them. Jon grabbed a more powerful flashlight that he had and went down with the cafees and Michael to see what they was talking about. When they got there they couldn't find the carcass or blood for that matter. They kept saying I think it was over here or no its over here. So that Jon finally said "Lets go up to the top of that cliff and see if there is any campers up there." So up they hiked to the top and after searching the premise they only found a patch of ground under the tree that had been disturbed. It could have been an effort to cover up the blood Sam thought, that would have went everywhere when the guy severed the bears head. Off they went back to camp. They ate a helping of spaghetti that Mr. Sony and Jon thought was good. The spahgetti only turned to a soured knot in Michaels and the cafees stomach.

That night the cafees and Michael never closed their eyes...



Hiking through the woods for the better part of the day Michael finally could go no further till he had used the bathroom. Asking for a few sections of toilet paper from everyone there he was able to aquire enough to complete the job he had at hand, for you see he had lost his roll when he had ran away from the hobo.

Walking only as far as was necessary (He didn't want to be far from everyone) he proceeded to do his business. Taking in the scenery he looked at a small rock formation that spiralled into the air about fifteen feet. It had a pouros looking surface with small holes in it. The rock was black, kinda like a volcanic structure.

Then all of a sudden a little head popped out of one of the holes. It was a lizard poking its head out, a strange looking lizard nonetheless. It looked at Michael with a puzzled look. Michael hurriedly finished and walked over to where the lizard was. The lizard looked very intently at Michael. If Michael wasn't mistaken, he could almost see a little flame in its eyes as it stared even more so at him

Michael had an idea "Why not catch him and sell him at the reptile show!" he said aloud to himself. With this sudden outburst of noise the lizard sank back into its hole disappearing into the blackness.

Michael ran up to the rocks and peered inside the hole. He couldn't see anything so he grabbed a long slender stick to poke inside the hole. Grabbing the stick he slowly pushed it down the hole. He reach the end of the stick and nothing had happened. "Boy this must run pretty deep" he muttered to himself. He then started jabbing the stick back and forth down the hole getting faster with each shove.

He heard a noise and looked up. There at the top was about twenty of those lizards staring down at him. Michael could tell they were extremely irratated. Then one of them jumped up exposing its full body to his view. It was one of the wierdest things he had ever seen, it had the body of a lizard but the tail of what appeared to be a scorpion-like tail.

It was too late when Michael finally realized that the lizard had catapulted itself in the air, grabbed onto a limb and thrust himself forward with his back legs toward Michael. The thing flew through the air like a bullet with its tail drawed back ready to strike a blow. It landed on his fore head and pegged him with its stinger dead center. The pain that went through his body was horredous. Michael let out a scream as the rest of the lizards started jumping into the air to grab onto the limb to strike him. Despite the pain he managed to yank the stick out of the hole and began to swing furiously at the lizard on his head. Everything was running in slow mode. He swacked off the lizard on his head just in time to start swinging at the incoming swarm of tail raised lizards flying through the air.

He swung the stick back and forth, all the while kicking with his foot the lizard he had knocked to the ground. He was able to knock out six of them from the air but he wasnt going to be fast enough to come back around, so after hitting six he dropped to the ground and rolled. It worked, they all missed him landing on the ground below them. Mike thought fast and he broke the stick creating a sharp point. He jabbed the lizard that had stung him and he swung the lizard into the air sending him into the woods. The others were now preparing to jump again. Michael grabbed a large rock and threw it at where they was congregated most heavily at. It crushed two of them.

"Great" he thought "Now I only have to kill like fifteen more." The lizards were now launched towards him again. Michael took his stick and whacked at them. But they never reached him, they were too low to be able to reach him. So the lizards got smarter and ran towards trees so they could launch themselves from there, but as they ran for the trees Michael was hot on their trail stabbing them. He took out ten on the ground and four on the trees. There was one left who he easily dispatched as it flew through the air towards him.

Michael stood there in disbelief. "How could all these things be happening to me." He thought to himself "First the man in the pink shirt, then the man with the axe, and now these lizards." But even before he could finish these thoughts, out from under a huge rock stepped out the largest lizard he had ever seen in his life, and this lizard had the huge scorpion tail. "Those lizards must have been baby lizards and this is the momma lizard." and with that he grabbed up his stick and held his ground as the lizard was getting ready to launch upon him.

The lizard was so fast, so agile that Michael couldnt believe his eyes. When the lizard met the point of his stick it broke into pieces. Michael went backwards as the momentum of the lizard carried him over. If it hadn't been for the stick that lizard would have pegged him in the head, probably crushing him. But instead the stinger hit above his head.

Michael thinking instinctively grabbed a clip-on-knife off of his belt and jabbed it into the lizards gut hoping to hit the heart.

He was true to his mark, for the lizard lay still after he had jabbed the knife into its gut. Michael pushed the carcass off his body and stood up shaking. He wondered why blood wasn't gushing out, but when he yanked the knife out it looked like a fountian as blood came pouring out.
He staggered back onto the trail with hardly any energy left. Looking left then right he spotted everyone else up on a hill with smoke rising from their fire. He walked up to the camp and collapsed before he could even say anything to anyone...

Gatlinburg, TN
9:30 pm

As Michael and the Caffee's spent the night looking at the top of their domed tent in the snow-covered mountains of the Smokies, Amy Hall was taking a walk alone in Gatlinburg not far from the hotel she and her mother were staying in.

Her mom had objected to her walking alone, and in only a pull-over jacket. Amy didn't mind the cold much though.

Though cold it was, the ground was only lightly graced with snow down in the lower elevations of Eastern Tennessee. There was a slight, but bitingly chilling breeze tonight. The full moon illuminated the beautiful layer of snow laid across the ground, and cast a bluish glow on its surface.

It was a nice night for sure, but something didn't seem right. No, something didn't seem right with the tree to her left.

The wind blew a bit harder as she looked up, and saw the figure of a man in the tree. A man with an axe. She could not see the face of the man, only a sillouhette, and the glint of the axe he twirled in his left hand. Or his right?

Or his right? That thought didn't make any sense at all, of course it was his right, or left? Could she not make out the difference. Does it matter?

"Stop it!" She screamed.

"Stop what?" A voice that seemed to come from everywhere, but nowhere, spoke.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Amy asked.

"Such useless words, why should I be anyone at all? This world would be better without such rules." The man with the axe replied.

Amy shook her head and stared at the ground, not noticing the pool of melted snow right under where the man took his position in the tree. He wasn't making much sense. Why should he? She thought. He is a man that stands out in the middle of the night in a tree with an axe. Like one of Michael or the Caffee's stories.

She was suddenly overcome with nameless dreadful thoughts, and wished she was not alone. Someone with her, Amber maybe....

"You couldn't get me camping for five days!" The thing in the tree interjected.
Amy jerked her head up in horror. The man had spoken in the exact voice of Amber Hubbard, at the start of the sentence, but as the sentence was completed with "for five days", it's voice dipped into a guttural rasp, with the hint of screams of men and women mixed in.

The thing threw its head back and laughed. It looked down once more and spoke.
"You know, this world would be a lot better place without rules at all, Amy. And I'm not talking rules like, 'I want to go out tonight on a date and drink and party all night' kind of rules, those are all good and well in my book, I'm talking rules period.
"Infinte, randomness as opposed to rules, what if you woke up tonight not to darkness, but a shade of color your eyes or brain were not made to comprehend, let alone see? What if the sky was upside down tomorrow? Or inside out? What if around every turn you saw creatures, abominations really, made up of shapes and images that you don't even know exist.
"Fear of what you don't know, or what could literally kill you to see or know, infinite pain, randomness, no rules or limits. A lot like what Hell is like, and what I want this world to be."

"Stop, no more!" Amy screamed, covering her ears to his horrible speech.

"Couldn't get me in Hell for five days!" There he went in his Amber voice again, that changed to a horrifying rasping voice at the end of it. It shrieked with laughter.

Amy gained a moment of composure even amidst the insanity. "None of us are going to your Hell!"

It seemed to chuckle. "No this is not the devil himself come down to give you his time." It spat out the word time, another convention it was probably looking to get rid of.
It seemed to gain mass and height and little, and it rose up from its semi-crouching position
The voice this time was deep and dark, which would be nightmare fodder for Amy for years.
"Remember the creatures I was telling you about? The ones that might just kill you by looking at them?" The shape of it's face was growing a little more visible.

"No!" Amy turned and ran. She knew whatever she had to do, she couldn't see it's face. She kept expecting to feel it grip her shoulder and whip her around to meet whatever monstrosity from the Pit was here in Gatlingburg. Or mayber she expected to feel the cold thud of it's axe. Instead, she made it to the street, and with a glance back she saw the tree....empty.

Everyone rushed to Michael when he collapsed in front of them. Michael woke for a brief moment to relate to them all that had transpired and then he collapsed again. Everyone agreed that Michael was losing his mind and that the hornet stings that were all over him were having a negative effect on his ability to reason. Nobody had believed Michael when he told them that he had saw lizards with stingers on their tails. They had all agreed that the stings were nothing more than huge hornet punctures.

When Michael first collapsed his mind went into the fields of la-la land. In his dream he saw himself walking in the woods with the Cafees. These woods he was in were woods like none he had ever seen. The bark on the oak trees was black as black can be. About twenty feet away on Mike's right hand side ran a stream that appeared as mercury. It cascaded down the rocks, its shimmering causing one to squint at the occasional intenseness of its glare.

As they continued walking he noticed that they all had in their hands a small object. He looked at it and saw that it was a purple gum ball. "Huh, where did I get this?" Michael was looking at Sam when he asked the question. Michael noticed that they all grasped the object like it was a prized possession.

"Why! don't you know you meat head. Im starting to get tired of you and your ramblings about nonsense. Ever since you took that gum ball your mumblings have gone from bad to worse." Sam looked Michael in the eyes waiting to see if he would start asking another dumb question.

"Sam quit being such a retard! All I wanted to know is how I got this stupid piece of candy!"

Sam took his gum ball between his two fingers and held it up to Michael's face. "This is from the candy man... Ring any bells you moron eh?"

Michael was starting to get ever the more frustrated with Sam. "SAM WHO IS THE CRAP CANDY MAN, AND WHERE ARE WE GOING!"

"Michael" Sam exhaled a breath of air in frustration "The candy man is the one who gives us these gum balls." "I know that much." Michael interjected. "Well" Sam continued "Whenever you want a, a vacation I guess you could call it, from these woods you have to go through the tall gates. In order to get through the gates you have to present a gum ball to the gate keeper and then you will be let through."

"So I guess we are on our way to the 'Tall Gate' to take a vacation?" "That is correct." replied Sam.

Michael pondered upon what he had just heard from Sam and continued following the others as they made their ways through the woods.

They continued walking for several hours when finally they burst out into a clearing where a gigantic wall extended in both directions. In the center of the wall stood the biggest and tallest gate he had ever seen. They whole structer had stone that was just as black as the bark of the oak trees they had just walked through.

They all walked up to the gate and knocked several times using a large metal ring to clang against the iron bands running across.

After waiting for a few minutes they heard the sound of feet and afterwards the creaking of wood as a small opening appeared in the gate. Two eyes peered out and a scraggly voice was heard saying "Well don't you look handsome today." A moment lingered then the voice said "Give me your gum balls so I can let you through."

Everyone shoved their gum balls through the opening then the voice said "Open the gates!"

The massive doors opened up ever so slowly with creaking and grinding. When it finally opened all the way up Michael stood there staring at a field that looked like the grass back-ground on Microsofts background selection. The skies had the deepest blue hues he had ever seen.

Then all of a sudden his day dreaming was interrupted when dead center stood the person who had looked through the opening. "ITS THE HANDSOME LADY!"

She stood there smiling with her hands clasped in front of her. Michael kept close to Sam as they walked through the gate and on into the field. The further they got from the gate the better he started to feel and then something caught his attention. He saw a man running through the field with an axe over his shoulder. He peered closer at the man and then he heard "Michael. Michael. Michael James Hall wake up and eat this soup we just made."

Michael awoke to the sight of his Dad stooped over by him with a bowl of soup.

Michael found himself leaning against a rock in front of the campfire, wrapped up in his sleeping bag. All kinds of thoughts and sensations swirled through his mind. Thoughts of the field, the black forest, filled his conciousness. He could sense more than see his Dad fixing soup and feeding it to him, his cousins arguing about nothing, Jared saying something about not wrapping him up in his sleeping bag because he had probably wet it. The soup he was being fed was of little meaning to him, he hardly tasted it at all.

'MEET THE HANDSOME LADY!' seemed to scream across his thought waves. He could see it as if it were being scrolled across his vision like a ticker at the bottom of a news channel. 'MEET THE DUNGEON MASTER EARLY IN THE MORNING BUDDY!' This was flashed in his eyes, with everything else blacked out but the words, only for an instant.

A slight breeze shocked him from his brooding. He glanced around at the leafless trees swaying hauntingly in rhythm with the wind. The sky that had been gloomily gray from the beginning of their trip, and though the ground had been covered with snow from the start, that same sky had not produced precipitation of any kind.

'What if it rained blood HANDSOME?!'

Michael shook his head violently and moaned with the sheer fear of it all. He looked around. Something was there, somewhere. He saw his dad dishing out the soup in a bowl, Sam and his brothers yelling about something. Jon cutting something....firewood.....with a bloody axe. It wasn't Jon either, but something else. Something undescribable, because Michael could not see its entire form.

Bloody axe? Yes, it was bloody, the blood was dry in some places, old blood from many years ago. Some was fresh, and there was a few clean spots.

'YES, a few spots for you Mike, right on the axe, MY AXE!'

The axe? No, it was clean, it was just a small camp axe, and it was just Jon cutting firewood. Clean, wholesome reality had set back in once more. Though something was still clearly wrong with the place. Everything and everyone about him seemed to have an edge to it, and edge that could turn unspeakably evil at any moment.

It reminded him of a nightmare. Or rather, a dream that was on the verge of becoming a nightmare. Everything seems fine, right as rain, but you just have that feeling in the back of your head that anything could explode into horror at any moment.

"Dad." Michael said.

"Yes son?" Sonny Hall spoke.

"I'm not hungry, we need to get out of here."

"And how do you propose to do that?"

WALKING, NO FLYING, WHAT DO YOU THINK, WE'RE DYING HERE, WE DON'T KNOW IT BUT WE ARE-

"We need to hike out, right now, something isn't right." Michael said.

"What would that be?" Sonny asked.

"I don't know. Something is just wrong."

Something is wrong? Then what is right about this place?

Sonny Hall was about to speak, but then began to put out the campfire.

"Boys, get ready to start hiking, I think we need to hike on out of here....."

He finished with the fire and got his gear.

"Quickly."