The Branding Ax

For Dominic, the annual fishing trips with his grandfather Earl were usually uneventful. Now at eighteen, he knows this will be the last trip they take together because Earl has recently been diagnosed with dementia and his lucid time is running out.

Clearcutting has resumed in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and, unbeknownst to Dominic, Earl has decided to sabotage the logging equipment nearby. When Earl returns to camp in a panic, raving about being attacked by something evil in the woods, Dominic fears his dementia has caused Earl's delusion and as he tries in vain to calm him down, an explosion erupts in the distance clarifying to him what Earl has done.

Back in their tent, Earl succumbs to a heart attack. Dominic, afraid and alone, covers him and tries to figure out how he is going to get home. But Earl's body does not remain dead very long. In the darkness of the tent, Dominic hears his corpse moving and realizes the nightmare has only just begun.

Pursued through the forest by his undead grandpa, Dominic struggles for survival as the wildfire rages. He will soon find out that an ancient evil has been stirred up by the activity and it is determined to protect its forest sanctuary at all costs.