Eric and Andrew Try to Flee the Cabin with Wen

Eric and Andrew Try to Flee the Cabin with Wen is an attempted escape that turns a calculated route to safety into a close-quarters attack on the family. With Redmond breaking into the kitchen and movement in the basement indicating another intruder inside, Andrew decides to get Eric and Wen to Andrew’s SUV; instead, a woman emerging from the bedroom doorway trips Eric while he is carrying Wen, and the effort ends with Eric unconscious on the floor.

The Breach and the Escape Plan

The attempt begins amid signs that the cabin is being entered from more than one direction. From the basement come the sounds of movement across concrete, followed by the creak and low taps of feet trying to climb wooden stairs without being heard. At the same time, Redmond smashes through the glass slider with his makeshift weapon, forcing a fist through the curtain and then hacking away the remaining glass. The barricade couch shifts under his shoulder as he drives it into the kitchen.

Andrew assesses the attackers in practical terms: Redmond is nearly inside, at least one person is in the basement, and no more than two others can still be outside. He believes that he and Eric can fight their way past them or reach the SUV. That belief makes escape seem possible, but the scene gives it no easy route. Andrew’s calculations include the front door, the attackers’ positions, and what to do if neither he nor Eric can reach the vehicle. He considers running down the road, scattering into the woods, or going behind the cabin to the lake. He and Eric are both strong swimmers, he thinks, and might cross with Wen if necessary. Each alternative is an emergency contingency rather than a secure plan.

Andrew and Eric Move Wen

Andrew takes the keys and puts them in Eric’s shorts pocket, then urges him to come. Eric does not argue: he scoops Wen up and holds her chest to chest. She clasps his shoulders and buries her face against his neck. Eric supports her with his left arm and carries woodstove tongs in his free hand, a makeshift defense that is visibly less formidable than the weapons carried by their attackers.

Andrew runs for the front door, thinking through the seconds available before Redmond crosses the cabin. He considers whether to delay Redmond, open the door quickly, or go ahead and clear a path for Eric and Wen. Reaching the SUV would also give him access to his gun, which he believes would let him keep the others away while they escaped. But his focus narrows to the door’s latch and twist lock. Moving too fast to stop, he crashes into it and drops the poker he is carrying, then picks it up. Eric is at least two steps behind him, with Wen still in his arms.

The Attack at the Bedroom Doorway

The escape is interrupted by a woman in an off-white shirt standing in the bedroom doorway. She holds a long-staffed weapon with a curled, shovel-like head pointed into the room. The open bedroom window behind her shows how she entered: she has come through the window of the room Eric and Andrew share. Her plea for them to stop briefly makes a different resolution seem possible, but the movement of the next moments turns the encounter back into violence.

Eric pivots while still moving toward the front door and swings the tongs at her. The first blow strikes her weapon and makes it ring; she drops it. Eric nearly loses his balance, but swings again and hits her left shoulder. The blow glances off, yet it is enough to make her cry out, fall to her knees, and clutch her arm briefly. She recovers quickly, retrieves the weapon, and thrusts it toward Eric’s legs. The strike lacks much force but lands accurately: the blade and handle catch between his ankles and trip him.

As he falls, Eric twists his face and chest away from the floor, apparently trying not to land on Wen. The added torque makes the fall faster. He lands awkwardly on his back, and his head strikes the floor with a soft, hollow sound. His body goes limp; his arms twitch and remain open. Wen rolls off his chest and slides into Andrew’s feet.

The Failed Escape

Wen scrambles back to Eric and screams his name. His eyes are closed, and his arms have drawn back so that his elbows rest on his chest while his hands hang above him, slack and curled inward. The attempt to get Wen to safety has therefore produced its immediate opposite: Eric is incapacitated, Wen is beside him, and the attackers remain inside the cabin.

Andrew yells both Eric’s and Wen’s names, then can only keep yelling. With his back against the front door, he cannot make himself open it and leave. His attention, previously fixed on the lock and the route to the SUV, is overtaken by the need to get a gun and the impossibility of abandoning Eric and Wen. He grips the poker and swings wildly toward the woman as she creeps along the floor toward them. The attempted escape ends not at the vehicle or outside the cabin but with Andrew forced to defend his family at the threshold he had been trying to pass.