All of the human presence on Altus was gathered around a campfire in the dying light of dusk. The days on Altus seemed much longer than those on Earth, as most agreed the time from noon to dusk was approximately four hours longer than it should’ve been.

The campfire was large and imposing, casting long shadows through the woods in the clearing. A man, who I learned was named Quentin, had gathered the people for a meeting. Apparently he was the one responsible for organizing the survivors into a cohesive group, greatly improving their survival chances.

It was a good thing too. From what I had seen earlier, the sullen and listless people hiding under trees would’ve only been a hindrance on those of us who wanted to survive.

It was truly miraculous how big of a change the group had gone through in just a few hours. Was it really possible to change so many peoples’ attitudes toward survival so quickly. I wasn’t sure, as I had never been the type to lead. Maybe it was a special skill of his to inspire confidence in others?

I was sitting on the ground next to Nora. The two guys were still field dressing the bird for meat and usable materials. People nearby had also complained about the smell, so they were kept a good distance away from the group.

I looked over to the group who had come back with Quentin. The young man had skin the color of walnut bark, with an equally rough looking appearance. His sharp cheekbones and deep frown framed his face to look rather menacing at the best of times. His broad shoulders gave him an imposing silhouette against the light of the fire as he crossed his arms in front of him.

“Sorry for the wait, everyone. I just figured we’d all feel safer going into this if we had a fire started before dark. Thank you for gathering all of the wood to make this possible.” He nodded to a duo on his right, who sat up a bit straight and nodded in response.

Quentin continued, “As all of you know, we are all working together towards a common good: the survival of everyone here. I am impressed with how quickly you have all gotten acclimated to all of this work and have high expectations for our collective future. With that said, I understand that we are not yet a unified front, so we still have some work to do.”

As he said this, he swept his gaze across the people gathered around the campfire. The sky, like the fire, was alight with red and orange as the fire of the sun danced across the sky. His gaze lingered on me, no, on Nora for a second before continuing.

“In order to bring us together as a group, I have decided that all important actions are to be discussed and voted on democratically by the entire group, no one excluded.”

A man on my side of the fire interrupted Quentin’s speech. “Well, aren’t you already acting as our leader? We didn’t vote on that, did we?” A few murmurs of agreement followed, and Quentin nodded his head in acknowledgement.

“That is true, I did take the liberty of organizing the group up until this point. While I don’t believe I’ve been perfect, I’d like to think I’ve set the groundwork for cooperation between us all in the future. As for the matter of my leadership, I believe that is one of the first things we should vote on before continuing.”

He gestured to everyone present and spoke loudly, “Our first order of business: Will the twenty-one members present allow me to continue acting as leader working towards the organization and survival of everyone present? Raise your hand if you are in favor of my presence as leader!”

As Quentin announced the vote, I felt a tiny, almost unnoticeable prod on my being. It was similar to the pressure the bird’s body released when I dispersed it, only it was weaker.

“Something about this is odd,” I thought to myself.

I looked around and noticed that nearly every single person raised their hand. The only people who didn’t were me and a woman on the other side of the campfire. Quentin looked around, counting the votes. He lingered on the two of us for only a split second before he tallied the votes.

“Nineteen in favor. Two withholding.” He looked to me and the woman near him. “All who wish to reject me as leader, please raise your hand.”

I didn’t raise my hand, and neither did the woman to the side. Quentin seemed a bit taken aback at this, seemingly expecting us to reject him as leader.

“You two, are you abstaining from voting?” he said as he looked to us.

I spoke up before the other woman, “Listen, you seem to have done a good job organizing everyone here, but I’ve personally been unconscious for a majority of your leadership. I’m not saying you don’t deserve to be leader, just that I’m not informed enough to make a decision.”

He nodded and turned to the other woman. “It’s a similar answer for me,” she said sheepishly. “No problem with you Quentin, I just don’t care either way.”

Quentin raised his hand and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “Fair enough, I guess. Alright, I will be acting as leader until someone proposes for someone else to take my place.”

“Hold on,” the man right next to me said, “We did a headcount earlier, and I seem to recall there being twenty-three people here. Why did you only count twenty-one votes?”

The guy was right. Nineteen people said yes, two said they didn’t care. That left two people who didn’t vote or weren’t mentioned.

Quentin’s frown grew deeper as he said, “Well, for one of them, I didn’t count my vote, as I think you all know where it lies.” He paused, looking to the people beside him before he continued.

“As for the other, that’s what I called this meeting for. I sent a group of three to scout the perimeter of our camp while we were gathering supplies for the night. As I’m sure many of you heard earlier, things didn’t go as planned.” He face was deep in thought as he seemed to hesitate to continue.

“There was a body, a woman’s, about two-hundred meters from the edge of the clearing. She was mangled up worse than any I’ve ever seen, and I was a police officer, so I’ve seen my fair share.”

The crowd was silent for a second before exploding into conversation. Everyone was shocked to hear the news, as we were all under the impression that everyone was accounted for.

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One man seemed to doubt Quentin’s words as he yelled, “Bullshit! There’s no way that’s true! Look, we’re all here, right?” A few more people shouted in protest, but a majority were still shaken by the news of an anonymous person’s death.

Quentin seemed like he had enough of the uproar, so he shouted, “Alright, alright! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To those of you who doubt me, feel free to count everyone here yourselves, and don’t forget those two behind us.” He gestured to the meat duo further behind the fire.

“Whatever you say, it’s true, and I have five witnesses to back me up. We are running under the assumption that this mystery woman was killed by a creature native to the planet. If the Altum man named Scalisth is to be trusted, then we can rest assured knowing he will protect the group.”

This seemed to calm people down, but only slightly. I myself was skeptical, as I didn’t think Scalisth was the type to be easily trusted.

Quentin continued, “I do not trust easily, but we have no option other than to rely on him to guide us to our destination. That does not mean we can’t take action ourselves to ensure our collective safety. I’m proposing a fire watch, where groups of people guard the rest while the others sleep, rotating every so often.”

The group of survivors collectively groaned in annoyance. Was his idea reasonable? Yes, yes it was. Was it going to be fun staying awake for hours at a time? No. No it was not.

Instead of Quentin speaking again, another man jumped in. This one was extremely tall, towering over the already large ex-police officer. He seemed a bit nervous to speak, but composed himself quickly after he interrupted the flow of conversation.

“Uhm, hello everybody. To those of you who don’t know me, I’m Carlos Lowell, but you can call me Carlos. I’ve spoken with a few people and wanted to discuss see how everyone was feeling about Scalisth moving forward.”

The man seemed nervous, but Quentin stepped back to let him have the floor, so he must at least be somewhat confident. Quentin’s frown even lessened when this Carlos guy started speaking, showing that he had something hidden up his sleeve.

Before Carlos could continue, I felt a twinge of pressure in my chest. As seconds passed, I felt the pressure grow as it threatened to squash me like a bug.

“Something is attacking me, no, my will,” I thought to myself. Did that mean that someone or something nearby was pressuring me with their will? A grunt of pain almost escaped my lips as I fought against the growing pressure on my nascent will.

Right before Carlos continued speaking, I could see a figure emerge from the darkness behind him. There was hardly a rustle of leaves as it emerged into the light of the fire. The second I saw it, I knew it was the source of this mysterious pressure.

As soon as I could, I yelled out, “Look out! Behind you!” The group on Quentin’s side of the fire turned around, but they were too late to stop what was coming. A cloud of dust was raised from the ground as a lightning-fast movement registered in my vision.

A few of the people stood there in fear while some of the others, Quentin and Carlos included, jumped forward to escape whatever was attacking them.

As the dust cleared and everyone back off from the spot, I noticed that the figure in the woods was oddly humanoid in shape, not looking much like an animal from the silhouette alone.

“Wait a minute, it couldn’t be.” A possibility appeared in my mind as the figure stepped fully into the clearing. With milky white skin and pitch-black eyes, Scalisth was still an imposing figure to see attacking you from outside the woods.

“You!” Quentin yelled in anger, realizing who the assailant was, “Why did you attack us?!” Scalisth simply sneered at the man before he turned his unsettling gaze on me.

“I am not attacking you, I’m teaching you,” Scalisth said mockingly in response.

Quentin stood up straight and squared his shoulder to the Altum man. “It doesn’t matter what you call it, you attacked this group.” He spat on the ground in front of him. “What kind of guardian tries to kill the people he is protecting?”

Although many likely agreed with Quentin’s statements, few would be brave enough to stare the Altum down and say it to his face. Scalisth seemed to also be surprised at Quentin’s boldness, but remained sneering down at him, nonetheless.

“Oh please, if I wanted you all dead I could kill all of you before this one’s head hit the floor.” He gestured at Carlos to punctuate his statement, causing the tall man to step back in fright.

Scalisth continued, “You all are soft and weak, much more so than even the smallest creature in this forest. Only two of you noticed my approach, and only one of you saw fit to inform the rest of the group about the threat.”

That was interesting. Someone other than me noticed Scalisth’s approach? This mystery person also apparently kept quiet about it, which was alarming for many reasons. I scanned the crowd to see if anyone reacted negatively to that last statement but didn’t know anyone well enough to see a difference in behavior.

“Regardless, I was not attacking you,” the Altum said as he gestured to the ground between the alien and the group of scattered people. On the ground was a perfect semicircular line, engraved into the floor.

“This line represents how many people would’ve died instantly in the event of an ambush. I count five immediately in the vicinity, as well as one halfway inside. This would have cut you down to eighteen, which would be a massive blow to your numbers and chances of survival.”

“Seventeen,” Quentin said, his shoulder shivering with rage. “There would be seventeen of us remaining since you let one of us die out there!” He looked up at the Altum man, his eyes burning with fury.

Scalisth’s face didn’t change in the slightest as he responded, “Oh good, you’re aware of her disappearance. I was wondering how long it would take you to find her.” The crowd grew silent as they processed his nonchalant statement.

“Wha- you knew?” Quentin said with surprise.

Scalisth scoffed, “Well of course I knew, I have been watching over you all this entire day. I’ve seen everything that’s happened in the immediate area, and I must say that some things seem rather… interesting.” As he finished speaking, his eyes imperceptibly moved in my direction. The only reason I could tell he looked my way was that I felt the pressure on my feeble will quiver under his gaze.

“You- I can’t believe this! Are you just blatantly admitting to watching one of the people you were supposed to protect die?” Astoundingly, Quentin walked even closer to Scalisth before adding, “Her blood is on your hands.”

Scalisth waved his hands, and Quentin was flown backwards a few meters. He was frozen in place before he hit the ground, allowing him time to prepare to land on his feet. Quentin dexterously did so, not even flinching at the sudden rebuke.

“Watch your mouth when you speak to me, half-breed, I will only tolerate so much indignity from you. Yes, I watched the young one die, but it was not within my purview to intervene. I only promised I would protect you from local threats, not foreign ones.”

“What? What does that mean?” I thought to myself. “Does that mean that it wasn’t a creature that killed that woman?”

The crowd of people, to their credit, was taking all of this surprisingly well. They had stopped talking amongst themselves and were silently observing their newly elected leader argue with the Altum master.

Quentin chose to break the silence first, “So you’re saying it wasn’t a beast, but something else that killed her?”

“Not something else, someone else.” Scalisth’s face twisted into a cruel smile. “I could tell you who did it, but where would the fun in that be? Plus, it would be easier for me if there were less of you to keep up with anyway.”

No one responded to that, but Quentin was closing his fists visibly in anger. He didn’t have anymore outbursts, as it seemed he realized he could do nothing to convince the alien to change his mind about the group.

“Regardless of who among you kills another, there are more meaningful ways to improve your chances of survival. Having a rotating guard at night is a not the worst decision, but you can’t stop there. You’ve collected materials for a fire, but all that’s going to do is attract unwanted attention.”

As the words left his mouth, a sound echoed throughout the forest. It was a cacophonous bellow that seemed to originate from somewhere behind the Altum.

Scalisth smile grew as he answered, “I’d put out that fire if I were you.”

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