Ciara almost died of embarrassment; the rumble had come from her. She hadn't been sure the first time, but the second time her belly rumbled, the rest of her squad looked at her. From their faces, she could tell that they were struggling to hold back laughs—their way of showing her respect as the de facto leader of the group.

In the end, not everyone thought that was enough reason to hold back, as she heard a hardly subtle snicker exit Pirlo, the wiry kid looking at her with a rare grin.

If whatever monster in this forest doesn't kill me, I'll probably die from embarrassment.

"It seems like the need for food has returned," Ciara said, keeping a facade of indifference as though her belly hadn't just embarrassed her.

"You don't say," Ruben chuckled, the sound of his voice irritating her. "Hey, what do you think about our chances of finding a fast-food restaurant on this beach? I'd sure kill for a burger right about now."

The other seven members of their mismatched squad let out snickers and chuckles at the Berserker's words, and Ciara wouldn't blame them. Only moments ago, before they were enveloped by a white light and sent to this beach, Ruben had been the same person who had refused to fight for his life. How in the hell was he going to kill for a burger?

Maybe food might force him to toughen up.

"Sure you would. Anyway, the first order of business: we need to source food," Ciara said, looking into the eyes of her squad mates as the words left her lips. "Now, I have no idea what we're going to find in this place as it's all unfamiliar territory, but I need you all to stick together. I need you all to listen to me if we want to survive. Do you guys understand?"

Her eyes went from person to person, receiving a nod in confirmation that they did understand what they had to do. Sticking together was their only chance to accomplish something, anything at this point. Hunting for food wasn't going to be easy; hopefully, they'd get some fruit.

Alternatively, Ruben is right, and there's a restaurant down here.

"It's quite simple: stay together at all times. Your weapons should be armed. Priests in the center of the formation. Rangers at the back, rogues at the front," she said before turning to Ruben. "Our Berserker here can do whatever he wants. Keep the formation tight and say something if you see something. Let's move."

The squad organized themselves in what vaguely looked like a diamond formation but with three at the front. Pirlo, Ciara, and Grant—the other rogue—led the squad while the rest followed in tow. They were making their way into the forest, hoping there would be some kind of establishment present here. At this point, even an abandoned building would do, somewhere they could easily defend on their own.

As it was, they were putting themselves at enormous risk by actually being out in the open, but what other choice did they have? Twigs snapped and dried leaves made crunchy sounds as they stepped over them. The noises made Ciara wince, but she couldn't blame the squad for not having survival instincts like her.

She'd been sent to military youth training programs by her dad, the man hoping that seeing other children of military backgrounds and relating with them during military exercises would make her see that life in the military wasn't so bad. It hadn't. The program had solidified the fact that she'd rather be a civilian. The people who actually joined the military sacrificed a lot to serve their countries. They sacrificed their own freedom just so that others could have that; they trained hard and barely had that much privacy. Ciara would always praise their choice, but it just wasn't the one for her—something that her dad had still yet to come to terms with. Her decision not to join the military had driven a wedge between the two, one that time still hadn't fixed.

At least I'm better prepared for an apocalypse than these guys.

"Try to watch where you're stepping. Too much noise and we'd attract attention," Ciara whispered.

Her words seemed to have an effect as the sounds of leaves being stepped on and twigs snapping reduced in frequency. It wasn't the best she would have hoped for, but it'd help their chances of getting something to eat without attracting trouble.

One thing that had stood out to her since they'd begun their exploration into the forest was the height of the trees; they were way taller than the trees back home. The absence of a sun in the sky had started to become unsettling. She'd assumed that it was the light from the system teleportation that had been affecting her eyesight, but it wasn't. There really was no sun, and for an unknown reason, the little bit of sky she could see from underneath the canopy of leaves was red, an unnatural red just like what she'd seen at the shore.

"I haven't spotted a single living thing since entering this forest. It's a little creepy," Tasha muttered.

She had to agree with the ranger's assessment, and judging by the mumbles of the others in the squad, she had to assume that they felt the same.

"Maybe it's just deserted," Ciara said.

It was highly unlikely, but the only other reasons why a forest would be this deserted was either if there was a big bad monster that had killed every other living thing present or there was one within their vicinity stalking them.

"Keep your guards up just in case. Attack to kill as fast as possible."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Her words seemed to quieten down the rest of the squad as they continued to walk in silence. A couple of insect sounds and bird calls occasionally pierced through the curtain of silence, but apart from that, nothing else did.

Ciara wasn't an expert on man management, but she was pretty sure that her squad had started to suffer from an acute case of fear—not just any fear, even they suffered from the worst kind of it.

The fear of the unknown.

A glance to her right confirmed that even Pirlo was feeling the effects of the awfully silent forest. His face was still stoic, but his grip on his daggers had tightened. The same thing was true with Grant on her left. The other rogue was much easier to read, and she could clearly see the fear and uncertainty painted on his face.

They were all scared, and it was on her to make sure they weren't. It was on her to make sure they were safe. Real safe—not the fake sense of security that would make them lose trust in her words when the illusion shatters. No, it'd be best to let them experience the fear, especially Ruben. The Berserker more than anyone else in the squad needed to sit up. He was supposed to be the one leading the squad, but he was too weak to do so, and Pirlo didn't seem to have an interest in leading, so the responsibility was now on her shoulders.

She'd lead in her own way, her own style, and her own tactics. If the silence wasn't broken by anything attacking them, then there was a good chance that the rest of them would acclimatize to the change in environment, because right now it was starting to freak them out.

"I see something," Pirlo whispered to her, his voice low enough that only she could hear.

"What?"

Ciara made sure to match his tone as she kept moving, even as a bit of hope seeped through her voice at the question she'd just thrown him.

"It looks like a town, but my perception isn't high enough to make out what it really is," Pirlo muttered. "Should I scout ahead?"

A town?

"No, just lead us in that direction. We have to stay together."

No way was she letting her best fighter scout ahead in what was an unsettling forest. If anything attacked him while he was out there alone, then that'd mean that he'd be on his own. It was a foolish plan. Pirlo was indispensable at the moment; she didn't have a better offensive fighter in the squad as it was.

The wiry boy nodded in affirmative before focusing on the forest and moving a few feet further than her, just enough to alert her to the direction they were supposed to head and at the same time make sure the rest of the squad had no idea what was going on. For that, she was grateful.

They'd walked for a couple of minutes, with her stylishly following Pirlo's lead while the rest followed hers. In front of her was the faint outline of a settlement. She turned her gaze to the back of the silent rogue, wondering how he'd even managed to see that minutes ago. As it was, she had to squint to make out the vague details of the place. Satisfied with the evidence of life based on the moving pinpricks, she raised a fist—their wordless signal to stop.

"Thank God, my legs were killing me. I was wondering if the rest of you guys had special legs or something," Ruben whined.

His voice echoed a little bit but he seemed unperturbed as he dropped to his arse with a less than grateful thud, a couple of her squad mates doing the same.

"It's not a rest break, Ruben. We've actually found signs of life," Ciara said with a sigh. The Berserker was turning out to be a bad influence on the rest of the squad.

"In other words, get your arses up, and let's find out whatever that could mean for us," Pirlo said. "And Ruben, try to shut up for five minutes."

Ciara watched in amusement as the people that had dropped to the floor stood up with grumbles underneath their breaths, no doubt none of them wanted to risk pissing off Pirlo.

Huh, power really is power.

She filed that for later as she began leading them towards the settlement for real this time, her eyes now able to see their destination. It took them an additional five minutes before they got to within a reasonable distance of the settlement that had caught her eye.

A couple of gasps echoed around the group, and Ciara could hardly argue with the reaction. The place was crawling with two races of creatures she couldn't quite recognize. Some looked vaguely human but were also comically short with beards that were an overkill. The others were a little bit green; she couldn't tell much apart from that from this angle.

"What do you think, Pirlo?" she asked the rogue to her right.

Ciara waited for an answer as she watched the rogue stare at the settlement from afar with a thoughtful expression. With a sigh, he turned to face her, and his eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"Duck!!"

She dropped to the ground as soon as the words left his lips, Flinching as something wet and hot splattered on her face. Horror spread on her face as a body with a crushed head dropped to the floor just beside her — Grant.

Thud!

"Bah, missed one."

Ciara glanced up to see a short-looking man holding a Warhammer disproportionate to his size with an overkill of a beard standing over her. He'd already recalled the finished strike and was about to swing at her with the massive Warhammer. She did the one thing that she could—cast a fireball. That split-second decision seemed to have bought her enough time to scramble away from the short man and get away from him.

Sparing a quick glance to check on the rest of her members, she almost cried. Another member of her squad was already down, a green-looking creature pulling what looked like a pickaxe away from the corpse of one of their priests—Jack.

"Hold, Talas. We'd get much more for turning in these trespassers than outright killing them. Perhaps Sarion might even pardon us," the green creature said while casually cleaning its pickaxe on Jack's sweatshirt.

"You're such a killjoy," the other grumbled.

The scene seemed to remind her of the way apex predators played with their prey before dismembering them. She focused on the pair, shock appearing on her face at the information that was displayed to her.

[ Gremlin

Level: 17]

[ Dwarf

Level: 15]

Unbelievable.

Ciara blanched at the information. Both assailants could clear out their entire squad alone. She couldn't even believe what she was seeing. Pirlo seemed to have come to the same conclusion as he was clearly preparing himself in some sort of last-stand defiance.

"Call me whatever you want," the gremlin muttered to the dwarf before turning to the rest of the squad. "You could surrender now or resist, and I'll let my friend here have his way with you all. Your choice."

I should've just joined the military.