After what felt like forever, the SWAT van pulled up to the tiny, derelict mountain cabin. It had been a long, complex drive, beginning with a knot of winding, dusty backroads and swiftly regressing to 'no roads at all'. The woods were thick, a sea of pine trees which spread out across the mountains in every direction. Somewhere in the middle of it all, a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean, was a small house, no bigger than a travel trailer. They would surely have never found it, nor would they have known to ever look for it, if not for their guide.

Out of place among the van's heavily armored passengers was a nervous-looking teenage girl. The leader of the squad put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Is this the place?”

The girl couldn't respond, not even with a nod. She just sat, paralyzed with fear, staring out the windshield at the tiny shack. Memories of the horrific events that had transpired there flashed through her mind.

“Ma'am?”

She shook her head. “S... sorry,” she mumbled. “I just... I must be crazy to come back to this place. I barely got away with my life last time.”

The soldier sitting across from her looked up. “It's okay, ma'am. You're safe now. You've done your part; from here on just leave it to us. We'll make sure these white trash bastards can't hurt anyone ever again.”

She pursed her lips and summoned her courage. “If... If it'll bring them to justice, after what they did to Matt, and Wally, and Jessica... I'll do anything.”

The squad leader smiled in response, gave her shoulder a gentle clap, then turned to his team.

“Alright, boys,” he said, raising his voice “We've finally managed to pin down who's responsible for all the disappearances in this area, but the fight isn't over yet. We don't know what's waiting for us in there. Be ready for anything.”

One of the armored men jammed a clip into his gun. “Those hillbilly assholes ain't gonna know what hit 'em.”

“Please. Don't be too careless,” worried the girl. “You... you don't know what they're capable of.”

“Ma'am, trust me,” promised another man. “We can handle anything these inbred hicks can throw our way.”

…..

As one assault was just being set into motion, another raid elsewhere had just ended. Its successes were being heartily celebrated.

Alicia had given it her all. Her whole squad did, and she couldn't be prouder of them. They had just delivered four quarters of relentless reassurance and unbridled boosting, and both the team and the crowd had definitely felt it.

But that was then, and this was now. Now, the game was over, and now, she still had plenty of energy and school spirit to burn.

Desperate for an outlet, she jumped up into the bed of Kirk's pickup truck and gave her pom poms a vibrant shake. “Alright, everybody!” Every head in the parking lot, helmeted or non, turned towards her makeshift stage. “Who kicked Northview High's butts?!”

With her long, wavy red hair and broad, charitable smile, it was rarely hard for Alicia to command attention, and tonight was no exception. A sea of red plastic cups lifted up to her. “WE DID!”

“And who's going to state?!” she added.

“SUNNYCREST HIGH!” the throng roared.

The football team had just led Sunnycrest to a whopping victory over their closest rivals. 31-0. Utter domination. At an away game, no less. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, and that meant drinking: unchecked and underaged. Alicia was the captain of Sunnycrest's cheerleaders, and she was was smart to ask these questions while the night was still young. The whole call and response thing didn't work so well when your audience was unresponsive.

“H-h-hey, Alicia? Are you sure we should be drinking?” fellow cheerleader Caitlin worried up at her. Concern accented her sweet face and filled her deep, spacious blue eyes to the brim. “Wh-what if our parents find out?”

“They're not gonna know! Lighten up!” chirped Alicia. She grabbed her own drink, and took a gulp.

The lights of the field were shutting off, and the new moon was invisible, black on black, against the cloudy night. Northview was a small town, even smaller than Sunnycrest, and aside from the few lights, there was nothing but blackness outside the wan, yellow light of the parking lot.

They partied hard, and when they were all extremely drunk, it was time to drive home.

“Woohoo!” cheered Alicia, staggering to her feet after a half hour of lying face down in her own vomit. She rummaged aimlessly in her purse. “Now wherrrre did I put my keeysh?”

“A-Alicia? M-m-maybe you shouldn't drive!” worried Caitlin.

“Nonshensh! I'm barely even buzzed!” Alicia boasted. Lying on the ground about twenty feet away, not obstructing her path in any manner whatsoever, was an unconscious wide receiver. She tried to step over him, lost her balance, and fell.

Caitlin helped her up. “I didn't drink at all! If you give me the keys, I can—”

“Don't be shilly! This 's my mom's car! She'd kill me if anyone wrecked it!” replied Alicia, opening the door and hitting it on the car parked next to them. She looked around. “Wait a shecond... where's Lindsey?”

They hunted around and eventually found their squadmate making out with a defensive lineman in his car.

“Lindsey!” gasped Caitlin. “What about your boyfriend?”

Lindsey unlocked her lips long enough to cast them a mischievous look. Long, flirty blonde bangs swooped down over one of her eyes. “Which one?” she replied.

Alicia sighed. She and Caitlin each grabbed an arm and pulled Lindsey out of the car. “Come onnnn, Lindshey. We're GOINGGGG.”

“J-just five more minutes!” Lindsey protested, kicking her legs wildly as they dragged her over to Alicia's car. “I was about to break my Most Guys Per Party record! Noooo!”

…..

“Blargh!” shouted one of the soldiers, getting gored by a pitchfork.

The mutated, inbred hillbilly who wielded it gave a shrill giggle, then used his third arm to clean the man off his weapon.

The little mountain cabin was filled with the sounds of screams and the ratatatat of gunfire. A huge cauldron was bubbling nearby, with human heads and feet and hands tumbling around in the frothy water. A victim was lying flayed open on the table, his guts and entrails spilling out of his open chest cavity.

A soldier blew the redneck's head off and kicked open a door. Inside was a scared looking teen girl.

“We got a live one here!” he shouted. He held out his hand to her. “Come on, stick with me, ma'am. You're gonna be okay.”

The girl looked up at him hopefully.

“No!” cried a female voice from the cabin's entrance. They looked, and saw the girl who'd led them here, the girl who'd already survived this house of horrors once. Fearing the worst, she followed the SWAT team inside.

“What's she doing here?” demanded the squad leader

“Stay away from her!” she shouted. “She's one of—”

But it was too late. The girl lunged at the guy and bit down on his hand. “Aaaaaaaagh!” he screamed.

She ripped off two of his fingers with her teeth and swallowed them, then lunged at him and bit again, this time on his neck.

“Oh god! Oh god, get her off me!”

…..

“Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer!” belted Alicia, swerving all over the highway.

“A-Alicia, p-please!” stammered Caitlin from the backseat, horrified, as they narrowly missed an oncoming truck. “M-m-maybe you should keep your eyes on the road!”

“Maybe the ROAD should keep its eyes on US!” replied Lindsey, riding shotgun. “DASHBOARD SHOTS!”

“Hell yeah!” cheered Alicia as Lindsey put a line of shot glasses on the dashboard and started pouring from a bottle of Everclear.

“I, I really think that's a bad idea, you guys!” said Caitlin.

Unfortunately for her, it was an awesome idea. “Three, two, one, GO!” shouted Lindsey. They began knocking them back and the swerving intensified.

“Aaah! Aaah!” shouted Caitlin, holding on for dear life.

When they were done, Lindsey and Alicia both cheered. “WOOOOOO!”

Against all odds, Alicia somehow noticed a road sign. It indicated an exit. “Hey, let's take the shortcut!” she suggested, nodding at it.

“Okay, sure!” agreed Lindsey, as they turned off.

“What?! McGuff's Pass?! That windy, treacherous mountain road? I wouldn't go through McGuff's Pass sober! In the daytime!” worried Caitlin.

“Psshhh! We'll be fiiiiiiine!” laughed Alicia, plowing over a traffic cone.

….

The girl who came back picked up one of the fallen soldiers' guns as the cabin burned around her. Dead. All of them were dead. Why didn't they listen to her? Why didn't they believe her when she said they'd never faced a threat like this before?

A cyclops hillbilly woman wearing a shower cap and a dress leapt at her holding a scythe, howling gibberish. The girl turned and filled her with bullets. The head. She had learned to always aim for the head.

The woman fell to the floor, deceased. The smoke was getting too terrible for the teen to remain in the cabin, so she did her mental arithmetic while she dashed out the door. That was the mother. The father was dead, and the uncle, and the brother.

That meant there was just one left. The daughter.

She kept her gun trained on the building. She'd get her when she came out of the burning building. Eventually, she had to, and as soon as she showed her face, she'd pick her off. She'd make sure that bitch would pay for what she'd done.

But then... SHUNK. The girl looked down. Poking out of her chest was an arrow.

The girl staggered. The pain hit her in a thick, heavy clot. She grabbed the arrow in a daze, her consciousness fading. Her failing mind raced, searching for an explanation. The daughter... she must have snuck out of the cabin first.

She turned. There, skulking out of the bushes on all fours, bow clutched in her teeth, was the daughter, illuminated by the flickering firelight.

Unlike the rest of her family, she crawled out of her stagnant gene pool looking like an actual human. She was even somewhat pretty. But the girl who came back had already been fooled by her appearance once. That was minutes before Matt got made into steaks. It wouldn't happen again.

She raised her gun at the daughter and fired off a quick smattering of shots. The girl dodged to the right in an apelike way, springing off her hands. She grabbed an arrow out of a quiver on her back and fitted it into her homemade bow. She pulled it back and let the arrow fly.

Another SHUNK. This time, the arrow found the survivor's stomach. She fell to her knees in agony, but kept her gun raised. She fired another burst of shots. Alarmed, the daughter turned and fled into the woods.

The teen forced herself back up to her feet. She had to chase her down. Couldn't let her escape. Had to end this. She wasn't going to let them hurt anyone else.

At first, her steps were weak, but as she built up momentum, she was able to pursue the girl at a slow trot, using trees for support to keep her from collapsing.

She ran for what seemed like hours, pulled along only by the rustling of movement up ahead. “Come out and face me!” she shouted angrily, as she wandered deeper and deeper into the forest. She was fading fast. She didn't have much longer. If this confrontation was going to happen, it needed to happen soon. “Fight me, you bitch!”

And then, a flash of movement up ahead. It was her! She poured the rest of her strength into her legs and broke into a run. She thought she saw headlights through the trees, and heard the roar of a car. Were they near a road? Or was this a hallucination?

She was gaining on the girl, slowly but surely. No mind was paid to the branches that swacked her face or the thorns that bit at her legs. Bit by bit, the cannibal came into view. As soon as she thought she had a good shot, she raised her gun and-

WHOOSH. The ground opened up beneath her, and she was falling. She tumbled down into darkness before being impaled on a bed of sharp metal poles.

She barely had time to realize she'd been led into a trap before everything went black.

…..

“...And it's like, I WANT to sleep with Chad tomorrow after school, but I already promised Brad I'd sleep with HIM...” gabbed Lindsey drunkenly. She sighed. “It's just so hard being this sexy and desirable, you know?”

There was a jarring thump as a deer went under their wheels.

“A... Alicia, that's the fourth animal we've hit! Don't you think you should slow down?” reasoned Caitlin.

Alicia took a somber drink. “I could... but then, their sacrifices would be for nothing.”

Lindsey gave Alicia a devious look. “But enough about MY love life, what about yours?” she pressured with a sly grin. “How long have you and Kirk Steller been a thing?”

Alicia almost hit another deer in surprise. She blushed. “Wh-what are you talking about?! There's nothing between me and Kirk!”

“Oh yeah? Then whose truck were you hanging out in all night?”

“We're, we're just friends, okay?” Alicia fumed.

“Are not! Are not!” shouted Lindsey, poking her.

There was no way she was going to just sit and take that. “Are too, are too!” Alicia laughed, returning her pokes in earnest, hands leaving the steering wheel. A poke fight was on.

“H-hey! B-b-be careful!” yelped Caitlin.

It happened in an instant. A girl fled out of the bushes on all fours, directly into the shine of their high beams. Alicia couldn't hit the brakes in time. The girl froze, shocked, in the headlights, before the car barreled into her. She flew up over the hood, smashed against the windshield, and rolled over the top of the car before landing with a splat on the pavement behind them.

Alicia screeched to a halt.

“Whoa,” she said.

“Holy crap, did we hit somebody?!” asked Lindsey dizzily.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no...” repeated Caitlin.

They hurried out of their car to check on her.

The girl was lying on her side, eyes closed, completely still. The car's red taillights cast a fitting filter over the violent scene.

“It's a girl!” exclaimed Alicia. “What the heck was she doing all the way out here in the middle of the night?”

Alicia's victim was very dirty. Her dress, evidently handmade, was stained from years of abuse, and her blonde hair was straggly and unkempt. She was completely barefoot. If they had to guess, they'd say she was about their age.

“Look at her clothes,” giggled Lindsey, staggering around, holding a bottle in her right hand. “That outfit? So last millennium.” Upon realizing this may not have been the most sensitive thing to say about someone they just ran down, she added: “Sorry. That was the alcohol talking,” and then: “For the record, I happen to agree.”

Caitlin didn't hear her anyway, being in the state of complete panic that she was. “Oh god, oh god!” she cried, putting her hands on her head. “We killed somebody, we just totally killed some girl!”

“You worry too much, Caitlin! She looks fine to me!” bubbled Alicia. To a certain extent, this was true. There were no signs of serious external injuries. Alicia put her ear to the girl's chest. “Yeah, there's a heartbeat!”

“We'd better call 911!” said Caitlin, taking out her phone.

“Are you kidding me, Caitlin?” asked Lindsey, putting a hand on her hip. “Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd be in for running somebody over? She's fine! Let's just take her back to Alicia's place and let her rest up!”

“Good thinking, Lindsey!” said Alicia. She slipped her hands under the unconscious girl's arms. “Come on Cait, grab her legs!”