Chapter 2: Containing the Hillicker
Looking at the pale corpse in the bathtub, Chris and the others began to believe Danny's warnings about mutant cannibals, though they still clung to the hope this might just be an ordinary murder.
Everyone's thoughts aligned instantly: get out of the cabin and back to the road before the killer returned.
But as soon as they reached the door, the rumble of an approaching vehicle echoed through the trees.
Chris and the others had no choice but to retreat back inside. Chris had already checked—the back door was sealed shut with planks and wire.
They had to find places to hide.
Danny dove under the bed directly across from the entrance, with Jessie scrambling after him. Seeing Danny's quick thinking, Scott and Carly hid under the bed near the door, while Chris ducked into the back room.
The cabin fell deathly silent.
Then the front door crashed open with a violent bang.
Three deformed men lumbered inside, one after another.
The largest one carried a woman wrapped in barbed wire, already dead. He threw her body carelessly onto the floor.
She landed directly in front of Scott and Carly, her lifeless eyes staring straight at them.
Danny lay flat on the ground, gripping the machete tight, as a card materialized in his hand.
[Detecting containable entities: Hillicker Brothers]
If there'd been any doubt before about whether they'd stumbled into Wrong Turn, it was confirmed now.
Jessie, seeing her friend's corpse, was so terrified she couldn't breathe. She clung tightly to Danny, her body pressed against his back.
Soon, the woman was hauled onto the dining table like butchered livestock. The mutants began sawing off her limbs—left arm, right leg—fresh blood re-staining the table and dripping steadily onto the floor.
The three deformed men began their feast.
Only then did Chris and the others truly accept the reality of these mutant cannibals. Too late for regrets now.
Time crawled by agonizingly.
Danny's nerves remained on high alert. Even with Jessie pressed against him, he felt nothing but cold focus.
This continued until late afternoon.
Hearing heavy snoring, Danny realized their chance had come. He gestured to Scott and Carly across from him, preparing to crawl out from under the bed.
Just as he moved, Jessie grabbed his hand and shook her head frantically. She didn't release him until Scott emerged first.
After cautiously crawling out, Danny glanced at the mutant sleeping on the bed.
His appearance was revolting: patchy hair, twisted and malformed features, no eyebrows, and clothes covered in filth and gore.
Three Finger. Living up to his reputation.
Danny tightened his grip on the machete and gestured for Jessie to pass her knife to Scott, then pointed at the sleeping mutant.
Scott looked at the deformed man, swallowed hard, and shook his head. He didn't dare.
Chris quietly opened the door and emerged, making a gesture indicating they should all go outside first to discuss their next move.
Jessie and the others unanimously agreed.
But Danny didn't want to miss this opportunity. He'd already tested—the sleeping mutant couldn't be contained by the Three of Hearts card.
Then he'd have to try another method. Perhaps a corpse could become a containment object?
Looking at Three Finger still asleep on the bed, one hand resting on a shotgun, Danny pulled out his pistol and aimed at the mutant's forehead.
Chris was opening the door when he noticed. He wanted to stop Danny—waking the mutant would put them all in danger—but it was too late.
Bang, bang, bang!
Three explosive gunshots shattered the silence.
Danny fired three more rounds into the mutant's skull. If that didn't kill him, nothing would. He then grabbed the machete and brought the blade down hard.
Three Finger's wrist severed cleanly.
A blood-curdling scream erupted.
The entire sequence took less than three seconds.
The other two mutants woke instantly, howling in rage.
Everyone finally snapped into action, running wildly outside and up the mountain along a game trail, with gunshots echoing behind them.
But the group had gotten far enough away, and with the Hillickers' poor aim, no one was hit.
The shorter mutant—Saw Tooth—stared intensely at the fleeing group, releasing inhuman screeches, while One Eye started up their truck.
After reaching higher ground, everyone's adrenaline slowly subsided.
Chris, breathing hard, looked at Danny with disbelief.
"Dude, have you always been this hardcore?"
"I've had some tactical training. If they don't die, we do," Danny said, panting. He nearly vomited when blood had splattered across his shirt.
At that moment, Carly broke down completely, crying and babbling. If he heard correctly, she was talking about the woman who'd just been dismembered.
Classic dead weight teammate.
Jessie and Chris ran back to comfort Carly.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Danny gradually slowed to a stop.
Jessie noticed and called out anxiously, "What's wrong?"
Danny made what seemed like an insane decision: "I need to go back."
"Shit, man, are you crazy? Didn't you see how brutal those freaks are?" Chris couldn't hold back. It was bad enough that Carly was having a breakdown, but now their only fighter wanted to go back and die?
Jessie grabbed Danny's hand, pleading, "No, come with us. It's too dangerous to go back alone."
Danny shook his head. He was certain he wasn't being suicidal.
When they'd fled, the mutants had driven after them. Rather than running aimlessly through the woods, it made more sense to go back and take a calculated risk. The most dangerous place might now be the safest.
Plus, with the extended magazine in his pistol, he wouldn't be completely defenseless if he encountered one of them. As long as he stayed alert, he'd be fine.
He hadn't lied about the tactical training—after learning about Valak's existence, he'd taken firearms courses to give himself some peace of mind in this horror-filled reality.
Most crucially, he needed to understand the true mechanics of the card system.
"Then I'm going with you." Jessie seemed determined to stick with Danny. She only felt safe near him.
"No, you stay here. I'll scout ahead by myself." They hadn't run that far, so there was no need for two people to go back.
If he found one of the mutants active, he wouldn't engage—he'd retreat immediately.
After separating from the group, Danny quickly returned to the wooden cabin, cautiously peering through a crack in the door.
Three Finger lay on the bed, clutching his shotgun, his forehead crudely bandaged. He was barely breathing, but somehow still alive.
Three shots to the head and he survived? Or had Danny's aim been off?
After scanning the area and confirming Three Finger was alone in the cabin, Danny rushed inside, wrenched the shotgun from the mutant's weakened grip, and pulled out the Two of Spades card.
Text appeared on the card's surface:
[Name: Three Finger (Hillicker)]
[Status: Critical, Incapacitated, Containable]
Critical and incapacitated—that made him containable. Danny was leaning toward the latter restriction.
Contain.
Danny didn't hesitate. With a focused thought, the Two of Spades flew from his hand to Three Finger's forehead, and the mutant's entire body was absorbed into the black card with a flash of dark energy.
The card's face was no longer blank. A disturbingly lifelike image of the ugly, deformed Three Finger now occupied the entire surface.
It seemed the Hillicker brothers could only exist as the lowest-tier entities within the card hierarchy.
Now he had his first contained horror. And two more brothers were still out there hunting.
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