My friends and I are trapped in a small town in Michigan, something's very wrong here

Hello everyone, my name is Andy Gillard. My friends and I are trapped in a very small town in Michigan. I know, how are you trapped in a town? Why not just leave? I'll get to that later. For now let me explain how in the hell we got into this mess in the first place...
My two buddies Ryan and Tommy (not their real names, they want to remain anonymous) came with me on a stupid big foot hunt. Yes I know... Childish, but hey, I've always been fascinated with the idea of a giant undiscovered ape living in the most remote areas so deep in the woods that it's possible nobody's been in for a hundred years. Ryan and Tommy both are into the existence of Bigfoot as well so when I asked them if they wanted to travel the 3 hour drive and search for a couple of days they were more than willing. God I wish I would've just went to Florida or something for vacation instead...
Tuesday was the day we actually hit the road and our adventure began.
"I can't believe we're finally doing this!" Tommy said excitedly as we neared the tiny town.
"Yeah we've been talking about this for how long?" Ryan was equally excited.
I looked down at the GPS on my phone, instructing Tommy when we'd turn onto the road leading into town. " 5 more miles guys!"
We all wooped in excitement, staring out the window at the vast forest. There was literally nothing but trees for the past ten miles. This was as remote as it gets. My phone kept dropping in service, one of the downfalls to being so far out in the boonies. If something were to happen out in those woods we'd be screwed.
"Take the next left." I pointed to the upcoming road.
As soon as we made the turn there was a cleaning, revealing a couple of small buildings. There was maybe 5 or 6 buildings in total, including a small gas station. There were only a couple of people out but as we passed every one of them craned their necks to watch as we passed by.
"I'm guessing they dont see many outsiders pass through..." Ryan muttered.
"Guess not, hey take the next right and the motel should be right after the corner." I instructed.
As we made the turn a sign that simply read "Motel" was lit up. The building itself looked relatively nice compared to the rest of the buildings we'd seen up until this point. It was tiny though, looking like it had 8 to 10 rooms max.
"Damn this is one small ****ing town." Ryan said as he looked the motel over.
"This isn't a town, it's a ****ing village!" Tommy laughed.
We all laughed and pulled into the parking lot. We jumped out of the car before it was fully parked, barely able to contain our excitement. Ryan and Tommy walked to the back of the car and popped the trunk to get our luggage. I went inside to book us in our room. When I walked in the doors I immediately smelled stale cigarette smoke. The inside was in far worse shape than the outside. The walls stained a murky yellow from years of smoke. The paint on the walls desperately needed a paint job as they were crumbling and peeling everywhere.
"Can I help ya?" I deep voice startled me.
An old man probably around 60 years old stood in the doorway of what I'm guessing was his office, a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth. He wore a flannel with suspenders adding to the hick town feel.
"Yeah my name is Andy Gillard, me and my grin friends have a room reserved." I walked up and pulled my wallet out.
"Ahhh yeah... 4 days right?" He walked to the counter and started clicking on a keyboard.
I was surprised he didn't shuffle through a filing cabinet for the paperwork.
"Here we go. 4 days that'll come to two hundred even, cash or card?" His cigarette bounced as he spoke.
"Uh cash." I said as I payed in full. "So just out of curiosity you ever hear of anyone seeing anything strange out in the woods?"
He stopped completely and froze. After a second of seemingly lost in thought he finally spoke. "You boys best not go out in the woods if you plan on it, people come out here and do their little spooky videos and end up lost, or worse..."
I looked at him puzzled. "Or worse?"
He looked up at me stared daggers. I felt a shiver run down my spine as he made me feel a little uncomfortable.
"Just take my advise and you should be just fine..." He said before he tossed the key on the counter then turned and walked away.
Should be fine? What in the hell was that supposed to mean? I shrugged it off and grabbed the key, an actual key and not one if the cards normally used. As I stepped outside I waved the key to Ryan and Tommy with a smile on my face.
"Holy **** is it an actual key? Man this place is stuck in the old days." Tommy laughed.
I helped grab the bags and we headed to our room. I looked at the key and we were in room 4. We quickly found it and after stepping in we tossed our bags on the floor and examined our home for the next 4 days. There was two beds and a rather large chair with a foot rest at the base of it.
"I call one bed!" Tommy shouted.
"I got the other!" I shouted just before Ryan.
"You ****ers!" Ryan laughed as tossed his phone on his chair/bed.
We all sat and relaxed for a while after our long drive. It was nearing noon and planned on taking a quick walk through the nearby stateland around 2 p.m. we tried to search if there were any sightings in the area of Bigfoot but our phones were loading super slow due to the lack of service. After a while we gave up and just decided to go take our stroll a little earlier then planned.
After we piled back in the car I struggled to load up the directions to the nearest stateland and after a few minutes it finally loaded. It said we had just 7 miles to go so we were relieved to not have far to go. We chatted excitedly the whole way and arrived rather quickly.
"Dude this place looks kind of creepy..." Ryan said as we pulled in the entrance to the parking.
He wasn't wrong. The trees were so dense that even in middle of the day it was hard to see very far in.
"Hopefully after we walk a little ways in it gets less dense." I said hopeful.
We parked and once again got out of the car. We grabbed our headlamps and Tommy strapped his pistol he always carried just in case. It made me feel a little better knowing we at least had some kind of defense while out here. We walked to the first trail we saw and headed straight in. I had a pack of orange ribbons to tie on the trees as we walked to avoid getting lost but didn't really need to use it. Our footprints were pretty easy to follow so we figured we'd save the ribbons so we didn't have to tie and untie them as we walked. A big mistake we'd soon regret.
We'd been walking for probably an hour or 2 when out of nowhere it started dumping snow like I'd never seen before. At first we just grumbled about the snow and how it'd make it harder to see if we happened to see anything at all. Then the realisation hit me like a ton of bricks.
"****! We need to go back now!" I shouted as i started to panic.
Ryan and Tommy looked at me with puzzled looks on their faces.
"Our footprints! The show's gonna cover them!" I shouted.
I could literally see the color drain from their faces as they finally got it. We all turned around and started jogging back the way we came. Of course our dumb ***** strayed from the main trail as well. The snow was falling so heavy it was already having an impact on our footprints, making my anxiety sky rocket. I did NOT want to be stuck out here for the whole night, or longer...
The longer we jogged the harder our footprints became to see until finally they were gone all together.
"****!" I shouted as I leaned in closer to the ground, desperately searching for our prints.
With the snow still coming down and the light fading fast there was no way I could navigate my way back. Everything blended together and I had no idea where we were. Ryan and Tommy were starting to panic too at this point as we all realised just how much trouble we were in. It would be completely dark within the next 20 minutes and we didn't know if we were 10 miles in or 1. I cursed myself over and over for not tying the ribbons as we went. Just as I was about to go into full blown panic mode a noise caught my attention.
"You guys hear that?" I asked my friends.
They both stopped moving and we all listened closely, fear plastered across all of our faces. We waited a couple minutes until we finally heard it again.
"Heeeeeyyy!" Someone shouted in the distance.
We all three looked at each other in shock before we started frantically shouting back.
"OVER HERE! HEEYY!" We shouted, praying whoever it was would find us.
We stopped once again and listened closely.
"Ovvverr heeeerreee!" It shouted once again.
This time we heard which direction the voice was coming from and we all looked at each other again before bursting into a full sprint towards where we heard the voice. We ran for a solid 5 minutes before stopping to listen again.
"There!" I shouted and pointed.
About a hundred yards away I saw a shadow move before it slipped behind a tree. I didn't find it weird at the time but I now realise, if it were someone shouting back and looking for us why wouldn't they have hollered now that we were closer? Or an even bigger question, how did they know we were lost out here in the first place? We'd been gone only a couple of hours and didn't tell anyone where we were going. Not even the clerk at the motel. None of that registered at the moment though, my mind was solely focused on getting the hell out of there.
We all took off running once again to where I seen the figure but couldn't see anyone.
"You sure you saw someone?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah right here!" I said, spinning around searching frantically.
"HEEEYYY!" Ryan shouted desperately.
We waited for a response but was met with silence.
"Hey guys?" Tommy's voice was shaking as he stared at the ground.
We walked over to him to see what was wrong and when I got to him and seen what he was looking at a pit formed in my stomach.
Footsteps.
Not boot prints like our own, but bare feet imprinted into the snow.
"What the ****?" Ryan said from over my shoulder.
Just then we heard a branch snap to our left and all our heads shot up and looked over. We caught a glimpse of something moving extremely fast before it disappeared.
"Dude I don't ****ing like this..." Ryans voice quivered.
I was right there with him. Something felt very off all of a sudden and I had this overwhelming feeling of dread. Like something horrible was about to happen. We all stood close in a circle watching all around us for any sort of movement, jumping at any sound around us. We thought we saw something move a couple of times but weren't completely sure. It was hard to tell with just or headlamps on as it was completely dark at this point. As I nervously shined my light around I happened to catch a glimpse of something in the distance. A light...
"Hey you guys were that?" I asked, my heart racing with hope.
"Is that a ****ing light?" Tommy asked excitedly.
Without wasting another second we took off running full blast towards the light. The closer we got the more clear it became that it was indeed a light, 2 actually. It was headlights from a vehicle. We ran even faster upon noticing and that's probably why we didn't hear what was behind us. I noticed footsteps following behind us and I quickly turned my head around and about **** myself as soon as I did. It was the ****ing old guy from the hotel. Only he had this blank stare on his face and it looked like there was no pupil in his eyes, just the whites. I happened to glance down and notice he was barefoot as well.
"****ING RUN FASTER!" I shouted as I pushed myself even harder.
We were almost out of the woods and I could hear him gaining on us. His deep raspy breathing getting closer and closer. Just as I thought he was gonna grab me we burst out of the tree line and by some miracle we were back at the entrance. Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, desperately hitting the unlock button. As we got to his car we jumped in as fast as we could slamming the doors shut and locking them behind us.
"Go dude hurry." Ryan looked around us.
I was scanning to but thankfully he quit chasing us Abe retreated to the woods. Tommy started the car and peeled out of there.
"We're getting our **** and getting the **** out of here!" Ryan shouted.
"The ****ing clerk from the hotel was out there with us!" I shouted.
"What?!" Ryan and Tommy both blurted at the same time.
I explained exactly what I saw and it only made Tommy drive faster.
"Dude slow down! I don't wanna crash and be stuck in these ****ing woods!" Ryan shouted.
"No we need to get back and get our **** before that crazy ****er gets back and kills us!" Tommy shouted.
He definitely had a point. We drove the 7 miles in less than 5 minutes and jumped out of the car rushing inside. As soon as we got in the doors I froze in place and my heart jumped into my throat. The clerk was standing at the desk, the clerk that just chased us through the ****ing woods...
"How the **** did you get back here so fast?" I blurted, backing up to the door.
"Look man we don't want any trouble, we...we just wanna grab our stuff an go thats it.." Ryan said as he must've realised this was the guy I was talking about.
The old man looked us up and down then turned his attention to me.
"You went in those ****ing woods didn't ya? After I warned you not too.. You dumb son of a bitch!" He scolded.
"What?" I looked at like he was a lunatic.
"God Damnit... You boys go in your room lock your door, ill explain everything in a few minutes. I've gotta call the sheriff first..." He instructed.
"What? No way you just chased us through the ****ing woods!" Tommy shouted.
"It wasn't me you dip **** how the **** would I be sittin here in dry clothes if I was running through the damn woods... Look at ya's, you're soaked!" He pointed at us.
We looked down at ourselves and he was right, we were drenched.
"I swear you boys will be fine just go wait in your room, I'll be there in 10 minutes." He said as he t Picked up the phone to dial out.
We all looked at each other before silently agreeing to go back to our room to wait to hear just what the **** is going on on this ****ed up town...
This is where I'm going to stop tonight but I'll update what the old man told us as soon as possible. It gets weirder, trust me...


Source.