Note from Devin: This past weekend my brother went to Colorado’s Stanley Hotel as part of the SciFi Channel’s digital press weekend. He got to do a ghost hunt with the actual Ghost Hunters themselves, which you’ll read about in the next installment. This time, he gets chased in the rain by single-minded black suited men known as Hunters.
Read the first part of Derek’s adventure here.
The photo of The Hunter was stolen from Jenna Busch’s Facebook.
“Wait… he’s coming this way. Run!”
Chris Canada – Press – Sci-FiMeshes.com
A simple one line text came across my iPhone: “A Hunter has been released” and suddenly my heart was pounding. I had been one of the lucky ones so far, getting a Deflector before they were all taken, so I knew I had a small bit of security in my hand, but how long could it last. They were out there, eyes darting from person to person at the Stanley Hotel looking for me and nine others who all had one task; survive the next twenty minutes.
As if on cue, the rain began falling when I read the text. Again, I was one of the lucky ones, wearing a hooded zipper-up to shield me from the elements. Still, I knew the downpour would be a hindrance to me; I’m no athlete and running on rain slicked grass and cobblestone was not something I have ever been good at, but I knew that sooner or later I would have no choice.
A group of us walked carefully and peered around every corner before making any moves. We came across Sci-FiMeshes.com’s Chris Canada who was hiding behind a car atop a hill, peering over the hood. The others stayed behind as I made my way to Chris to see what was happening. I tell you now, and I do not lie, that I have never chosen each step so carefully, looking to make sure I didn’t snap a twig or ruffle a dried up leaf as I moved in a crouch up the hill. Chris put out his arm, telling me to stop and I took the advice. Without looking back to me he spoke in a whisper, “There’s a Hunter up ahead”.
The Hunter, dressed in a black suit and completely without emotion, surveyed the area. He stood motionless, except for his head, which turned quickly towards any sound. I signaled to the other to be ready to run as I hid behind a large electrical box. The pitter patter of the rain against the box mixed with its low hum as I considered my escape options if something was to happen. The best option looked to be doubling back and hoping that I would be faster than at least one member of our gang. I wondered if I had it in me to play dirty pool and trip up one of the others in order to get away. I mean, Darwin would demand that I do whatever I could to survive above all others, wouldn’t he? I wouldn’t really be playing dirty pool, but just following the laws of natural selection, right?
I fiddled with my Deflector, making sure it hadn’t fallen from my pocket and tried to move as little as possible. At the bottom of the hill stood four others of my fellow press, all of them ready to run at the slightest gesture from myself or Chris. From around a corner, a hotel guest came out and instantly spotted the Hunter. The guest stopped dead in his tracks and quickly turned around and walked away. The Hunter watched the guest carefully, and then moved along away from us. I breathed a low sigh of relief and slumped against the electrical box. The others down the hill also relaxed, but this moment of safety was not to last. Chris spoke with urgency, “Wait… he’s coming this way. Run!”
Staying crouched, Chris and I made our way down the hill at what I can only imagine was upwards of 20MPH. We were well passed the others before they even noticed we had moved, but they quickly followed out lead. As we came to a spot of the hotel grounds that went off in two opposite directions, Chris took one while the rest of us went the other way. This would be my first step towards self-destruction.
We hid under an awning for a few moments, catching our collective wits when the next text came, “A second Hunter has been released”. Cinema Blend’s Steve West and I decided that it wasn’t safe to stay in one place for too long and left the others behind. We moved carefully, I was in front checking around corners before moving forward while Steve watched our backs. We made our way past the one of the hotel’s outdoor patios when Steve moved quickly behind a table. I followed his lead and hid behind a bush. Across an open field I could see Chris Canada hiding behind a line of shrubbery. One of the Hunters walked past us, looking left and right but our hiding spots were too good. We didn’t know it at the time, but the Hunter had just taken out a few of our kind. I imagine that if his thirst for reporter blood hadn’t just been sated, he would have smelled our rain soaked fear.
Steve and I began to move again, though Chris Canada seemed to feel that his spot was too good to give up just yet. We made our way back towards where we saw the first Hunter, feeling that as we just saw one come from that way, it was safe. As we moved like cats on the prowl, we would see the random hotel guest who looked at us with both confusion and concern. Our breathing was short, and the thin Colorado air was taking its toll on us. Our clothes were soaked through and our eyes were surely filled with fear. At one point we watched one of the Hunters running at full speed a good distance away from us. I don’t know who he was after, but I knew they were dead.
It was watching this Hunter that became my second step towards self-destruction for in that one brief moment I had failed to peer around a corner before moving. I came around the corner of the Presidential Suite and stood, standing no more than twenty feet away with his back to me, the other Hunter. My body filled with adrenaline as I quickly stepped back behind the corner. I signaled to Steve and we both started to quickly but quietly walk back the way we came, looking behind us to ensure we had not been spotted. Just as I began to feel safe, the Hunter turned the corner and saw us. There was no need to say anything, nor any time to even try. Before my mind could register a thought, my feet were moving fast. Steve and I ran across the hotel grounds as the Hunter gave chase. He was faster than us, much faster. As we ran past the patio in which he has hid before, I saw Chris still in his spot. He pushed himself into the shrubbery as we ran by and I cursed his luck.
Steve and I took every turn we could to try and get out of the Hunter’s line of sight. More than once we nearly barreled into random hotel guests, though I have no idea why they were walking about in the rain. We passed by the other press, including the ones who had already been taken out and they all screamed for us to run, which we were already doing about as fast as we could, but their bellows let me know that the Hunter was still on us. It was here that I would make my third self-destructive move.
Steve and I turned a corner to a dead end. We moved quickly to hide and were lucky enough that the Hunter did not see us take the initial turn. We watched him race past us and up some stairs, stopping for a moment to look left and right in hopes of seeing us before taking off to the left. Out of breath, Steve and I stayed in out hiding spot thinking we were safe. We even let out a laugh, “Look at us, evading the Hunter. That Hunter can’t match us”. And then the second Hunter came around the corner.
I fumbled for my Deflector, fearing that it had fallen from my pocket while we were running for our lives. The Hunter had us cornered and he knew it. He moved slowly and dragged out the moment of our demise. Finally, after what felt like a century, my hand found the Deflector. I pulled it out quickly and used its one shot to get the Hunter off of us. He scowled, turned away and began to leave. Again, Steve and I breathed a sigh of relief and again, we called safety before we should have. Before the deflected Hunter was out of sight, the other Hunter came around the corner. I still held the Deflector in my hand, but had already used its juice, now it was nothing more than a worthless piece of junk. The Hunter, which was the same one that we had evaded only moments ago, saw us and smiled for just a moment. Like his counterpart, he moved slowly, knowing that he had us cornered. I looked at Steve and knew that, with luck, one of us could get away. We started to move away from each other and the Hunter stopped in his place, waiting for us to make our move.
I swear to you it felt like an eternity passed in those few moments. The Hunter stood ready to pounce, but towards which of us, I could not tell. I held my breath and my muscles tensed. I was against a wall and would have to move fast and low in order to have even any chance of getting away from this death trap, and even then I would have to hope that the Hunter would go for Steve and not me, because at this close of a distance, there was no way I could outrun him. The rain continued to fall as we all waited for someone to blink.
I moved my leg to get into a better position to start moving and the Hunter turned his full attention to me. Steve took this opportunity to make a run for it, using a standing heating lamp to try and create an obstacle for the Hunter. And for a moment, Steve’s plan worked; the Hunter, whose focus was on me, turned quickly towards Steve and used the heat lamp to keep his balance. The lamp tipped over and the Hunter was forced to use both hands to catch it before it came crashing down. Still, the Hunter was too fast, he was able to steady the lamp and pounce on Steve before Steve could even take three steps. I tried to use this moment as well, and made it a whole five steps before the Hunter was one me. And as quickly as he incapacitated us, the Hunter was gone, off to find more press meat for his gullet.
Oh, did I mention that this was all a game? I should have. And congrats to Chris Canada for winning the game in what was also an exciting moment as he and another contestant were neck and neck to the finish line with the Hunters right behind them.
As it turns out, the SciFi Channel has a new game show coming on called Cha$e and instead of having us sit in a room while they told us about, they felt it would work best if we lived it. Now, the show itself won’t take place on the grounds of a hotel but throughout various Los Angeles landmark locations including San Pedro Harbor, Universal Theme Park and thirty square blocks of Downtown LA. The contestants will have to deal not only with Hunters (while there were two for our game, in the actual show there will be many more) but with pedestrians who have no idea what is happening. The contestants, called Runners, are not only staying on the move to keep away from the Hunters, but playing through challenges to get power-ups, such as the Deflector I had, or looking for bonus money. The end goal for the Runners is to stay alive long enough to get to the final safe spot. The first person to get there not only gets to keep any of the money they won from challenges, but also a grand prize that could earn them up to fifty thousand dollars. And if you are caught by a Hunter or aren’t the first to the safe zone? You get nothing. The Cha$e is like a video game version of manhunt brought to life and begins airing on the Sci-Fi Channel November 11th.