Regan Carrigan was an avid photographer. Every year he'd come to his house in the woods at the edge of a lake to take pictures of the wildlife and the turning leaves. Magazines and nature documentaries ate up his photos like they'd been hand delivered by the muses. In the past few years however, his photos had begun to focus on something besides the birds preparing to migrate south.

Across the room of Regan's darkroom, Graham could see photos dating back to three years ago. Most of them were blurry and he could mistake them for shadows on trees. The first of them was in a cheap wooden frame at the very center of the wall. A red circle was drawn on the glass around the shape of a man. Though there were no antlers it was immediately recognizable as one of the things that had attacked them.

Sticky notes in every color radiated out from the photo. They circled it, giving way to more photos with sloppily drawn circles and arrows. The further they were from the first photo in time the clearer they were.

There were a few still in the developer fluid waiting to be moved. Graham didn't know the first thing about developing photos but he decided if he could see the image they were done. He lifted the first one out using the pair of tongs abandoned on the floor. The lake was immediately recognizable, as was Scarlet sitting in the boat. She was far off to the right side and the antlers took center stage across the lake behind her. Her face in the photo was already contorted in anger as she yelled at him,

"That was the day he was taking creeper photos at me," Scarlet whispered from behind Graham. She had a stack of notes she'd gathered from the wall which she slid into her pocket.

"Look behind you. They've been watching us the whole time," Graham told her. Every one of the photos in the bin showed the clearest images so far. Their faces were almost visible in some of them. "How did he get so close?"

They dug through the photos scattered across the ground. Footprints from a pair of heavy hiking boots made a hasty trail of dirt against the images. The majority were of patches of sky where a dark shadow streaked across the blue.

The rest of the cabin was secure but empty. Cabinets were thrown open and the last few empty bullet containers littered the floor by the door. There was no sign of anyone in the cabin. "We should just find the radio and try to get something out," Scarlet said.

"Do you know how to work one?" Graham asked. He took the lead investigating the house. There were only two rooms besides the darkroom. The large bedroom was tidier than the rest of the house, but only slightly. More papers littered the floor and he heard Scarlet pushing them around and lifting a select few.

"How hard can it be?" Scarlet muttered.

The last room looked to be an office and it was completely destroyed. The radio they had been desperately searching for was in pieces along with the large wooden desk. A jumble of wires lay in a heap beside it. Blood trailed along the floor and wall. Deep scratch marks scarred the floor beside the blood.

"Something tells me he won't be too helpful," Scarlet said, kneeling beside the broken radio. Even the outer casing of it was cracked into pieces. A thin fragment hung from her hand before she let it drop.

Something hit the roof and they jumped. Graham pulled Scarlet to her feet and tried to put her behind him. The problem with that was that the shuffling they'd begun to hear outside was coming from all sides. When they'd run over initially, the plan had been to stay there until help arrived. There was no backup plan for getting back.

"We should just run for the boat again," Scarlet suggested. Her hand on Graham's shoulder was surprisingly calm despite her shaky breathing. "They didn't try to get in the water, maybe they can't swim."

Graham shook his head as he looked back at her. "Why wouldn't they be able to swim?"

"I don't know! I'm just trying to think positive or some shit like that," Scarlet snapped back. She scooted from behind him to peer out a window. Her face brightened after a moment. "Graham, they're gone. Like actually gone. I can see Phoebe outside across the lake."

"But where did they go?" Phoebe was in fact outside the cabin, something metallic glinting in her hand.

"I don't care, we should go while it's clear." The door opened quietly, the hinges clearly well cared for. Regan likely kept them oiled so that he didn't scare off his photo subjects. Their shoes tapped softly against the porch. The pace increased as their confidence grew. Nothing had run at them and they couldn't see anything among the trees.

Scarlet reached the railing and nodded at the boat. "We run, get in and motor back. Won't take long at all," she told him. With no further talk, they launched themselves off the top step and dashed for the boat. The midday sun nearly blinded them after the dim interior.

It felt strange to be running in broad daylight. Graham had always looked into the darkness for his fears and clung to the light for safety. Running in daylight had always been about winning, reaching the end before the other guy. It would never feel the same again.

The wind came before the wings. The pitch black feathers of its belly brushed Graham's head as it dove at them. Talons reached out and wrapped around Scarlet. She was gone before he could say her name in full. The bird, if you could call it that, was the size of a car but moved as if it had the weight of a regular sized bird. It lifted her easily and her screams echoed over the open space.

Graham had fallen back on his hands when the wing hit him on the way by. A cold wash of fear kept him rooted to the spot. The dull ringing in his ears nearly drowned out Phoebe's frantic screaming but eventually he properly heard her screams to run.

They'd been hiding behind Regan's cabin and they swarmed forward like bees as soon as Graham was alone. His feet slammed against the dirt until he dove into the boat. The momentum of his weight gave the boat its initial push into the lake but it wasn't far enough.

One of the ones without antlers made the same leap and knocked him down into the bottom of the boat. Its hands went for Graham's throat and he could smell the blood under its nails. The boat rocked, throwing it off balance enough for Graham to bring his knees to his chest and kick out with his feet landing squarely in its chest. Despite the exhaustion in his legs, he found the strength to shove and watched with satisfaction as it went tumbling over the side of the boat.

The motor took a moment to understand but Graham was sprinting across the docks on the other side in no time. More of them were closing in on either side as he grabbed Phoebe's hand and pulled her inside. The door slammed closed.

Scared faces met him from every side of the room. Nora had made it back inside looking unharmed. Tears streamed down her face and he knew without asking that she had seen Scarlet disappear.

Gio held out a bottle of water and waited until Graham had gulped down half of it before asking any questions. "Did you call for help?"

A drop of water fell slowly down his chin from the side of his mouth. Graham wiped it away with his sleeve before it could fall. "The radio was trashed and there was no one in the house," he answered. He looked around at the crestfallen faces around the room.

Phoebe, her back still resting against the door, sighed loudly. "Alright, then we move onto plan B," she announced. The knife in her hand caught the light again.

"We can't fight those things," Cass argued from a stool at the counter. Another large knife was laying across the granite countertop in front of him.

"We don't need to fight, we just need to pull their distraction away long enough for a few of us to get to a car. Then they can go for help while the rest of us hunker down," Phoebe explained. Her eyes landed on Cass and Amy. "You two should go. Cass can't run and you drive like you think you're a race car driver. I still don't know how you got your license."

"I'm not leaving Nora," Cass snapped. He grabbed her hand tightly as if daring them to send him away.

The argument went on for too long as they decided who would go. Eventually, Amy retrieved her keys and she and Phoebe scouted out the most direct path they could see from the window. The rest of them found anything they could use as a weapon to keep the things away.

"We'll rush out and get their attention. Once they have us surrounded, just go for the car. Don't stop driving until you get back to town," Graham instructed them. He hugged Phoebe tightly, crushing her to his chest. "Stay low to the ground and be ready to roll if the bird shows up again." They reluctantly pulled away when Spencer cleared his throat.

"It's time."