"What do we do?" Helen looked at Abigail. Her eyes were wide from the ominous cry for help.

"Maybe we should help?" Rodger tried to sound strong but his voice cracked at the end.

Abigail still looked at the impaled deer, feeling the hairs on her neck rise. She didn't even fully hear the call from the woman. Looking at the corpse and beginning to piece it together...

A hand urgently shook her shoulder, trying to gain her attention. "Abigail! What do we do?" Sheila demanded. No longer was she her usual chipper self as the situation unfolded in front of them.

Being jolted from one serious issue to another, Abigail put a hand to her head. "I don't know if we can help them, especially right at this moment."

Everyone looked at Abigail, waiting for her to continue.

"Fuck!" Abigail said stamping her foot.

Not wanting to debate about the matter, she began running in the direction of the woman. Looking back at her friends, Abigail yelled, "We need to hurry up! That deer means we don't have much time!"

There were looks of confusion being passed around, as they tried to process Abigail's words.

"I don't know what's happening, but I know she's being serious about us needing to get moving," Helen chased after Abigail's distant form.

--------

Pumping her fists, Abigail tried to increase her speed while not exhausting her stamina.

"Damn it! Why did this have to happen now?!" Abigail shouted in her mind, as she heard the woman call out again.

Cursing at the woman, Abigail thought, "Woman! You need to stop yelling!"

The voice grew louder as Abigail closed the distance. It wasn't long before she saw a woman with raven hair trying to carry man and woman on either side of her shoulder.

Both the man and woman looked older than the raven-haired woman, which explained why the woman was moving at such a slow pace.

"I can't believe she was able to yell for help, while half-carrying two people," Abigail was impressed as she continued her mad rush towards the woman.

Hearing Abigail crashing through the forest, the woman looked up and saw Abigail. Her face lit up with expectation and hope.

Seeing the woman about to yell out in greeting, Abigail began waving her arms crazily trying to signal the other party to be quiet. "Though, I don't know what good it'll do with me sounding like a freight train." She thought to herself.

Sliding to a stop due to the leaves on the ground, Abigail tried to catch her breath. Looking at the woman, she felt like the woman was the age of someone that finished school and should be at parties during college.

Noticing the blood on the woman's face, Abigail looked at the two she was carrying. Behind her was a trail of blood, making Abigail wince.

Abigail ignored the look that demanded answers, moving towards the older woman. Placing a hand near the woman's nose, she tried to find out if the woman was even alive.

Taking her hand away, Abigail did the same for the man.

Looking a little down from the reality, Abigail softly said, "Both of these people are dead."

"Wha?" Was all the woman could stammer, as she tried to use her shoulder and wake the two up.

"Dean! Ann! Wake up!" The woman's voice demanded. Not getting any response, the woman tried again. "Someone came to our rescue! You both need to wake up!" Her body began to tremble as she realized that Abigail's words were true.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"No. No. This can't...," She tried to rationalize a different outcome.

Sighing, Abigail sternly said, "If this was any other time, I would let you grieve..." Abigail turned her head to both sides as if to see any changes in the forest. "We don't have the luxury for mourning the dead. Our situation is a lot worse."

Not listening to any of Abigail's words, the woman continued to cry, still asking the two to wake up.

"Forgive me," Abigail said before shoving the man's corpse from the woman's shoulder and moving on to the woman. Both bodies made a thud as the leaves and dirt absorbed most of the noise.

Grabbing the woman's collar, Abigail said, "I don't know where the hell you came from, but here we have a situation with crazy looking monsters that seem to enjoy killing humans." Shaking her forcefully, in an attempt to drive in her point, she continued, "We are fucked if we don't get out of here. And I mean far."

Recognition flashed across the woman's eyes. It didn't take much time before the eyes grew larger in terror.

"Yeah," Was all Abigail said on the matter.

Behind Abigail were sounds of twigs snapping and crunching of several feet.

Whipping her head back, Abigail sighed in relief to see that it was only her friends catching up.

"These are my friends," Abigail said, anticipating the concern likely felt by the woman.

Nodding mutely, the woman looked at the group heading towards them.

Abigail saw that many of her friends still looked baffled about the words she shouted back at them. The only person that looked like they were starting to understand was Helen.

Helen looked at Abigail and mouth the words, "Here?"

Tilting a hand back and forth, Abigail signaled that she didn't know. Though the hairs on the back of her neck didn't relax one bit during the entire time.

Placing a hand on the woman's shoulder, Abigail said, "On your way here, did you see any place that looked safe? Like a lab?"

Judging by the woman's face, she had no idea what Abigail was asking about.

"Abigail, what's happening?" Rodger asked, sensing something big was occurring.

Realizing that it was inevitable and didn't serve a purpose anymore, Abigail sighed and faced her friends. "That deer, the way it was killed... I think there are those creatures close by."

Michelle tried to laugh but failed miserably. "You're joking, right?"

"Wait... If those things were so close to the community," Liam began piecing things together.

"I don't know why they didn't show up earlier," Abigail replied. Seeing him start to open his mouth, she quickly said, "That's not an option." Eyeing the woman, Abigail said, "If it was before then maybe, but not now."

Liam's eyes looked at the woman, discerning why Abigail looked so frustrated.

"Are you thinking of heading to the laboratory?" Timothy asked.

"Yeah. That's our only choice now. Even if we headed back to the community, we'd be just leading those things back with us. And we can't just stay in the open, exposed." Abigail said. She understood Timothy's concern.

Deciding to join in, the woman asked, "Laboratory?"

"There's an abandoned laboratory in that direction," Abigail pointed in the general direction of their destination.

The woman grabbed Abigail's hand and shook her head. "You can't go there!"

Seeing the woman act in such a dramatic fashion made everyone on edge. They had never met the woman before and the burst of energy looked suspicious.

Having her hand grabbed, Abigail quickly ripped herself out of the woman's grasp. Glaring at her, Abigail asked, "You said you never saw the lab!"

Thoughts raced through her mind, which was now contemplating whether the woman was part of a gang of bandits. It made sense that she would be shouting so loudly in the forest while carrying corpses.

Shaking her head, the woman said, "I don't know about any laboratory." Pointing where Abigail had previously indicated, she said, "There's something wrong about that place!"

"Wrong?! What are you talking about? We've been there before and it's safe." Abigail slowly stepped away from the woman as she tried to pay attention to her surroundings, expecting bandits to come rushing out.

"No! That place...," The woman raised her hands in an attempt to explain what she was talking about but failing. "It's just..."

Pulling out one of her daggers, Abigail said, "I don't know what you're up to, but I think we should part ways. Those things are out there and I don't have time to deal with your nonsense."

"The woods don't look like woods!" The woman finally shouted.

Pausing, Abigail waited.

"As I was carrying my friends, I started to see strange plants beginning to sprout out of the ground." The woman looked at all of them, making sure they weren't brushing aside her words.

Trying to discern whether the woman was lying or not, Abigail remained quiet to encourage the woman to continue.

Relief appeared on the woman's face. "At some point, the plants became distorted, like someone with no abilities was asked to draw what nature looked like."

"It wasn't long before we saw the forest that appeared to suck all the light from inside. There was also a strange glowing substance on the trees." Her eyes looking to the left side and up from the woman's perspective.

"Seeing such a thing, I tried to navigate my way around it, not wanting to go into a dangerous place while my friends are dying." Her voice thickened with emotion from remembering her friends.

Returning her dagger to her side, Abigail approached the woman. She gave the tearing up woman. It was reasonable to cry from such loss, making Abigail think of her mother.

Giving a quick comforting hug was all the time she could afford to give. Abigail placed both hands on the woman's shoulders. "Thank you for letting us know about that. It helps, considering we didn't know about such a drastic change near there."

The woman looked up and smiled, but it faded when it saw the determined look on Abigail's face.