Troop 1031

Troop 1031: The undead scouts

In 1988, a troop went on a trip in Cimarron New Mexico for halloween weekend.The troop was warned by the scoutmaster not to go out at midnight or else the spirits of the forest will take you away, never to return to the mortal realm. But there were four scouts that decided to go off and play at 11:30. Losing track of time they got lost in a nearby forest but this forest was off. Harold, the scout with the most logical sense, decided that it was time they hiked back to camp before the scoutmaster would yell at them.

As the four scouts hiked back, Aurthur noticed that the trees looked weird, they almost seemed to be bending towards them, twisting unnaturally, but Arthur just thought he was very tired. Three minutes after walking, they all realized that something was off, they should have been at the campground long before now. Chris took his whistle and blew it as loud as he could, wanting to hear the response and let people know that there was a lost group, but nothing returned. Not even an echo came back.

The scouts did what they were taught and started to set up a makeshift camp for the night while not moving very much from where they are now. The moon hung low, directly over the scouts, Jacob was on night watch to flag down any search parties or helicopters, in boredom he looked up at the moon and saw something strange. The moon darkened as if the bouncing sunlight was being turned down like a flashlight. Jacob woke everyone else up in time for them to see the phenomenon, soon after the moon and stars disappeared.

The four scouts scramble to create a light source. Arthur began to panic as the flashlights weren't working at all and the lighter and Fire starter they had didn’t produce a flame or sparks. Harold and Chris were able to calm down the other two but they could only hold out hope for so long. They stayed with each other so they could not get lost as the paranoia set in. As the heat of the forest falls, and the breaths of the lost scouts become long and exasperated, they sit in the dead silence of the woods, nothing to be heard other than each other's heartbeats.

Three hours passed, the scouts were cold and hungry, they wanted to go home. Then the wind started to pick up. Soon a wind storm howled loudly through the silent forest, the sound was almost deafening. Then the light came back, but it was wrong. The moon, or what they thought was the moon, was still in the middle of the sky staring down on them. The moon was as black as an endless void with a deep red hue dripping off from the edges, almost like blood. All of the stars in the sky were glowing crimson and the forest was stiped of its leaves. The trees seemed to have grown and are even bending. They looked around to see if they could find a way out. Then the wind howled again. In the sound of the wind…. It almost sounded like hooves pounding on the ground, and men chanting something. The chants were in a language that the boys didn’t understand: “Bra vind i ryggen er best”. The sounds were getting louder.

The four boys begin to run for their lives with no real direction, just staying together. With the sounds of the wind drawing ever closer, the run ever further into the dense forest, only stopping when the wind stopped, and a man riding a grey horse draped in black stood in front of them. In silence, the man reached his long arm out in an effort to grab Harold. The four scouts panic and all run in various directions. But the dark rider was faster than them, in a blur, he ran after Chris and grabbed the back of his neck. Picking him up almost effortlessly, a black cloud begins to swarm him. Chris’s blood curdling screams of pain cry out feeding the fear of the other scout that heard it. The rider drops the black mass on the ground as it stops writhing in agony. The rider moves as if he was the wind itself, and grabs Aurthur and Jacob as they suffer the same fate. Lastly he catches up to Harold and grabs him. The black cloud swarms him and painfully rends his skin and tears away at his muscles. The pain is mind numbing and the rider's hand is frozen cold. But he hears something before he faints from agony. “The Hunt will be satiated”. Then the world fades away.

Harold wakes up to the sound of a horse sniffing him but he can’t feel the horse's breath, or smell it. The rider looked down on him. Panicked, Harold scurries backward not even getting to his feet. But he stops when he realizes that he can’t feel the ground, or his own breathing. Is he breathing at all? Harold takes a good look at himself, only to see all of the flesh from his body has been torn away. Before he could process another thought, the rider spoke, “ Every year, on the thirty first day of the tenth month, you may walk among the living. But you will have one or more other boys join your company. Farwell”. As the rider’s horse trotted away, Harold notes the horse had eight legs, strange. He looks around to see the other scouts he came with are all skeletons like him. After some questioning, they sit in silence as they solemnly come to the same realization; they are in the world between life and death, and all on their own.

Ever since they have been known as “Troop 1031: The undead scouts''. Sightings of the troop have been sporadic. But they all have one thing in common; they always appear around halloween and their numbers increase every year. And the original troop? After their council found out of their negligence, the troop was disbanded. Any one who knew of the event did not want to speak of it. As after the whistle, they blew back and went looking, but they could not find them. The last thing they heard was their pained screams, their bodies never found.

-Harold and Chris (campfire): The first two founders of troop 1031, the synergy between them is close enough to mimic that of brothers. They usually set up the “outings” that happen on the 31st and they are the leaders of the troop. Without parents to run the day to day operations behind the scenes they try to do the best they can together. Harold is an open individual and was always the first to talk to a new soul and guide them into the troop and give them a place to feel at home, “we are all boneworks here pal, best thing to do is at least act like you enjoy the company of friends”. Chris is a soft spoken kid but as smart as any adult. His forward thinking usually helped plan for the most likely outcome. Even though he might be a little hard to approach, he is one of the most creative members of the troop. “A strong leader can't go anywhere or do anything without the brains and hearts of others”.

-Arthur(tent): Arthur is a recluse. He is not very open about what he wants to do but is very flexible with the situation. He has a natural charisma and is easy to work with in any situation. The 1st member of troop 1031 he is also the one to introduce souls to the wider array or equipment that is stored elsewhere. “I am not one to criticize failure without showing you a way to succeed”.

-Jacob (Hammock): The last of the first four was Jacob. He is an interesting individual. Somehow, he is not what you would pick as a good team player. He is witty and sarcastic and usually acts as if he was lazy and apathetic. But when anything needs to get done, he is one of the fastest workers on the team. He has taken up the role of the quartermaster but refuses to give anyone a guide unless he is passing on the role of quartermaster. “I am not ‘lazy’, I am saving my energy for something useful and worth everyone's time”.

-John (Zipline): John was a missing scout in 2000 while doing a night time zipline in Camelback Mountain. He went down on the zipline and in the middle of the line, it snapped. Screaming while falling, John saw a black hooded figure on a horse hovering above the treeline. He woke up in the same dead forest with Harold there to greet him. John is an overly eccentric individual that loves being the center of attention. “If i can be the reason someone smiles, then I can smile”

-Wayne and Garth (climbing): They Are not brothers, but you would be mistaken as they do everything together, including suffering the consequences. In an act of hubris, the two scouts decided to do a climbing adventure in the rain. Before going, lightning was not sighted nearby and was not a problem. So as they were climbing they were getting drenched, but the storm started to slowly change. When the scouts were nearing the top, Wayne looked at the storm… and was horrified. The clouds moved in a pattern similar to a hurricane and in the eye… a blood red moon staring at them,ominously, unblinking. The storm almost immediately got worse, lightning started striking the mountain every few seconds, the wind whipped and thrashed at the boys. Holding their ground, Garth started to mock the storm, out of arrogance or a response to fear he wouldn't say, but this time the storm spoke back. “All that awaits your foolishness is decay” a loud nebulous voice stated with an inhumain grumble to its words. The voice brought terror to the two. Soon after, the mountain itself began to crumble, massive cracks began to form on the side and boulders began to tumble towards the bottom. One of the rocks clipped Wayne in the shoulder, causing him to lose his grip on the wet stone and fall with the mountain. As Garth caught him though, he caught a glimpse of something in the distance…a gray horse? It was floating, with a rider upon its back. This was enough distraction as a large boulder came down on Wayne and Garths’ heads. Wayne woke first with Garth, or what is left of him, beside him. Looking up he was met with a walking skeleton, introducing himself as Chris. “We operate on the code that we don’t leave the other behind, even in the face of adversity”

-Tim and Drake (canoe): Drake is a wild scout with a bad temper, he often gets on the nerves of the other scouts for how self centered he can be at times. “I am the best I can be, and I will be etter”. However, Tim is there to reel his brother back in. Tim is not what you think of when you think of a good scout, but is his own words; “I'm a work in progress”. Tim has potential to be a great scout and is good at keeping Drake in line. The brothers were on a multi day canoe trek with their troop up north. As Drake got into an argument with his brother the two slowly fell behind the group. Tim noticed after a short while that the group was almost out of sight and told his brother that they will pick this up later, so they both paddled hard to catch up to the group. As they paddled, Drake noticed that the adults that were normally at the back of the line weren't there and the scouts didn't seem to get closer. Slowly, the air grew cold and Tim could see his own breath. Stranger still, the trees began to lose their leaves rapidly and the leaves would decay before they could hit the ground, the sky became a deep teal hue and the crystal blue river turned to a green slush of ice and…something otherworldly. Tim could swear that he heard the river whisper something repedily…“seiðr alla ævi”... Tim and Drake stopped paddling to get a better look at where they were, but it was unrecognizable. No landmark matched what they were told. Out of nowhere, the river began to move at incredible speed, flipping the canoe into the water and dumping the two into the frigid water. The boys tried to swim, but the water was two cold and for some reason…couldn't hold them up. Tim was panicking and trying to swim faster, he made it to the surface for a brief moment. And noticed the hooded man on the gray horse. Tim called for help, but got no response. The man just waited there and watched, unmoving, unfeeling. Tim was dragged under the water again but not by the current, by something grabbing his legs and pulling down. As he is struggling to get free he can hear the words as clear as day… “seiðr alla ævi”. He passed out struggling to get free. Tim was awoken by Drake, now nothing but bones, and another scout not a part of his troop. This scout was over the top, but introduced himself as Jacob.

-Geralt (Toilet):

-Xaver (Mountain biking):

-“king” Bob (backpacking):