Every night at 7:45PM the park wardens were meant to close the gates for both car parks, switch the electric fences on and leave any new information about the forest and its inhabitants pinned to the multitude of notice boards scattered about the premises. For years they'd done this like clockwork, always on time and always armed, just in case.
The wardens were considered local heroes, risking their lives every single day so that the public might live near the forest, enjoying their cheaper housing with minimal potential issues. Through years of constant vigilance there was bound to be a slip-up somewhere, after all the wardens are only as human as the rest of their community (which was to say mostly, with a little forest thrown in a few generations ago that nobody talks about).
Of the two car parks, one is used far more than the other due to its close proximity to the information centre, while the other remains in the area right beside a housing estate who have long since learned to fear the forest rather than stroll its whimsically typical paths. This was the car park that they forgot to lock one night, the night everything found it could Get Out.
Now the average outsider might wonder what could possibly be that bad inside a small town forest - what would put an entire community in the hospital within the span of eight minutes? These are the kinds of people who either don't live near natural areas or have been too well protected to know anything about the creatures within them.
This doesn't mean hedgehogs, deer, foxes or even badgers. This means shambling amalgamations, centuries old but with the speed and rage of their youthful counterparts, leading whole civilisations right in plain sight and ready to strike when the defences are down. Wardens are the thin, mortal barrier between us and death whenever we are near the woods.
The night they forgot and everything Got Out was brutal but brief, a test of what the forest creatures could do before they waited their chance to strike again with finality rather than curiosity, Limbs were lost and scars were gained in equal measure, homes destroyed but no lives taken. They came to see how fragile the not-wardens were and now they know.
After untold centuries of being kept ignorant they know how they can best kill us, know how easily we bleed and what weapons they will use. The wardens have begun doubling their numbers and posting updates every hour on the forest creature's patrols, their whispered threats and desperate pleas for public donation to upgrade the defences.
The wardens were considered local heroes, risking their lives every single day so that the public might live near the forest, enjoying their cheaper housing with minimal potential issues. Through years of constant vigilance there was bound to be a slip-up somewhere, after all the wardens are only as human as the rest of their community (which was to say mostly, with a little forest thrown in a few generations ago that nobody talks about).
Of the two car parks, one is used far more than the other due to its close proximity to the information centre, while the other remains in the area right beside a housing estate who have long since learned to fear the forest rather than stroll its whimsically typical paths. This was the car park that they forgot to lock one night, the night everything found it could Get Out.
Now the average outsider might wonder what could possibly be that bad inside a small town forest - what would put an entire community in the hospital within the span of eight minutes? These are the kinds of people who either don't live near natural areas or have been too well protected to know anything about the creatures within them.
This doesn't mean hedgehogs, deer, foxes or even badgers. This means shambling amalgamations, centuries old but with the speed and rage of their youthful counterparts, leading whole civilisations right in plain sight and ready to strike when the defences are down. Wardens are the thin, mortal barrier between us and death whenever we are near the woods.
The night they forgot and everything Got Out was brutal but brief, a test of what the forest creatures could do before they waited their chance to strike again with finality rather than curiosity, Limbs were lost and scars were gained in equal measure, homes destroyed but no lives taken. They came to see how fragile the not-wardens were and now they know.
After untold centuries of being kept ignorant they know how they can best kill us, know how easily we bleed and what weapons they will use. The wardens have begun doubling their numbers and posting updates every hour on the forest creature's patrols, their whispered threats and desperate pleas for public donation to upgrade the defences.
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