They had been walking for an hour, and one might think they had traveled miles, but Ace knew that if he turned his head, he could still clearly see their original landing spot.
Not a single sound could be heard from the group as they slowly parted the dense underbrush aside. This was in stark contrast to how the journey had started, with some even cracking jokes, trying to turn this into a casual stroll. Now, they were as low to the ground as possible, trying to keep their visual profile to a minimum.
Growl!
Ace frowned but didn’t turn his head. As stealthy as they were, there was one loud exception.
Growl!
“Stop!” grimaced Decan. “And how come you’re still hungry after eating all that?”
Ace looked back toward Riley, the kid who in his eyes must have been the dumbest of their bunch. Riley's stomach had only grown rowdier over the past few minutes, and at this rate, Ace worried those things might hear them the next time they passed them by.
Decan gave Ace an aggrieved look. “We can’t risk it, Ace. I know you’re in charge, but if it were me, I would leave him right here.” Most of the other boys seemed to agree, cautiously scanning their surroundings.
Riley’s face fell. “Ace, you can’t leave me here. What will I do if those things find me?”
“That’s the point, idiot!” shouted Decan, his voice cracking an octave too high for Ace’s comfort. “If they find you because of your loud stomach, they find me too!”
Others began chiming in, voicing their concerns to Ace, but it still felt too soon for Ace to decide. Did he really have to abandon someone for a simple upset stomach?
Just as Ace wanted to interject, he felt a small tingle in his feet. His expression instantly turned grave, and he exclaimed in a hushed tone, “Get down, now!”
His body sank beneath the tall grasses, and the rest of the group followed suit like a well-oiled machine. It was as if they had rehearsed this a million times, and in their minds, they most certainly had.
All sound had stopped, and only loud breathing could be perceived. For a third time today, Ace prayed that whatever had brought them here would keep them hidden once again. He didn’t dare imagine what would happen if they were sniffed out.
Moments later, a loud sound began reverberating through the forest, as if an avalanche was approaching from afar. The noise continuously boomed, bouncing from every massive tree and amplifying the sound beating inside their heads, and when it reached its highest peak, Ace gathered all the courage he had and peeked through the green and purple camouflage.
Despite this being the third time he laid eyes on them, and despite mentally preparing himself for this moment countless times, his breath still stalled, and his heart skipped a beat.
A dozen large beasts galloped across the forest floor, throwing a massive wave of vegetation fifty feet high, trampling everything in their path. This time, they were at their closest, and Ace managed to make out finer details: they were humongous, with grey fur covering their bodies, looking like bisons enlarged five times, with crocodilian long snouts. In their wake, a trail of purple sparks danced, almost mesmerizing if it weren't for the horror Ace felt in the moment.
Growl!
Everyone’s blood chilled, lives summarily flashing before their eyes. Despite the storm of noise from the pack of enormous flesh, Riley's growl still seemed infuriatingly loud.
Even though they were more than half a mile away from the pack, Ace’s blood curled when one of the beasts stopped and looked in their direction. His heart stopped completely, and each breath he drew seemed to elongate to miles. Only after the beast resumed its course did Ace feel his soul return.
That’s it, he thought to himself. I’m killing Riley.
Once he made sure the monstrosities were out of sight, he quickly got up and made a line straight for Riley, who was still hiding beneath the grass.
Decan watched with bated breath, his hands shaking, but only he knew if from fear or excitement of what was to follow. Norman saw Decan lick his lips when Ace grabbed Riley by the throat, and he took note of this small detail, a mysterious light flashing in his eyes.
Just as Ace was about to squeeze his hands and break Riley’s spine, the boy smiled and gave an innocent laugh, “Why do you have two heads, Ace?”
Riley’s joyous smile brought Ace out of his nightmare, and his hands turned clammy. He dropped Riley and took two steps back, visibly shaken. He realized he was about to end someone's life over a stomach ache.
He quickly turned to Norman. “What should we do about this idiot?”
Norman was surprised Riley wasn’t dead yet, and the apprehension he felt for Ace decreased tenfold. He looked at Riley’s dumb smile and shrugged. “To be honest, he is probably going to get us killed. Those things heard a small growl from half a mile away. Can you comfortably say he won't get up to wave at them next time they pass us by?”
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Ace knew Norman was right, but killing Riley was suddenly out of the question. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want to be responsible for it. If Riley killed himself, good riddance, but doing it himself seemed unspeakable.
“My belly feels so full it’s about to burst! Haha!”
Watching Riley pat himself on the stomach like an oblivious child, Ace gritted his teeth and strode toward him. He leaned forward and sent his palm crashing down behind Riley’s neck. Riley instantly fell unconscious, and Ace hoisted him onto his shoulder.
“I’ll carry him.”
“What about his stomach?” Decan shouted.
Ace turned his cold eyes on Decan, silently telling him this wasn’t a debate. Norman shrugged, knowing this was better than letting Riley follow them himself. Who knew what he would do if he was up and about on his own. Plus, Ace seemed like he had a body capable of carrying him.
“Why do you think he’s acting this way?” asked Ace. “Like he is high or something?”
“It’s possible those fruits have that effect on a human’s biology,” Norman answered.
The group resumed their trek, their progress abysmally slow as they made their way through the dense undergrowth. Yet they didn’t dare to stop. If that woman changed her mind and led a pack of monsters back to them, they would regret not moving.
Ace frowned and asked Norman about the monsters. “I don’t get it. How are they so big and so fast? Those things look ten times bigger than a cow but ten times faster than a tiger. How does that make sense?”
Norman was confused as well. Nothing he knew about biology prepared him for this. “To move something so big, that fast, the muscle would need to consume enormous amounts of energy. They would be hotter than boiling water after just a couple of seconds. I calculated the distance between two of the big trees they passed by, and they were moving faster than a sports car.”
Ace gulped loudly. Not to mention there were dozens of them running around here, and it wasn’t just one pack passing by three times. It was three packs passing by once.
“At least that’s the biggest creature around. They must be the apex predator in these woods, casually running through the forest like that.” Ace said, but when he turned to Norman, he saw him seemingly not agreeing with his assessment. A bad feeling assaulted his stomach, like the sensation right before explosive diarrhea.
Norman smiled ruefully. “Just because they run in broad daylight doesn’t mean they are the top predator. In the African savannah, a pack of wild dogs acts the same way, but the lion is a hundred times stronger and runs in packs too.”
Ace drew a sharp breath and slowed his pace even more. He looked around the forest cautiously, wondering how big things could get in this world. He looked up, thanking the heavens that no flying creature could see them through the canopy. He had once thought of climbing a tree to see further of some signs of civilization, but Norman shut that idea down.
He explained that, like the Amazon forest, there could be entire ecosystems up there, and the beasts there might never interact with the creatures on the ground. Since they were at least somewhat familiar with the ground, Ace let go of that idea. Why test the monstrosities in the canopy, since the ones on the ground seemed more than enough.
By the time the forest began to dim, they had put a couple of miles between them and the landing spot. They hadn’t heard another scream since the initial one from the woman, and no one thought she had any chance of her making it back home alive at the end of the countdown. And that was if their conjecture of the countdown sending them back home was true. But no one dared think of the alternative. Imagining being stuck in a world flooded with beasts that made lions seem meek and cute, was not something anyone had energy for.
Ace found a spot as good as any other, a large tree that would shield them from the view of half the forest and began setting up camp. Camp consisted of getting to know the lay of the land in their surroundings, so if they had to hide, they wouldn’t stumble on reeds or anything.
No one dared to clear the thick underbrush; they even hoped it would grow thicker in fact. They wished to be hidden completely and never found. The tall grass and fern-like plants around them were the only things that gave them any semblance of peace. They were also scared of destroying the plants. Raven, the guy who tried hitting Ace with a piece of wood, had tried going to the toilet once and ripped a couple of leaves for material. Seconds later, his hands began swelling as if he’d dipped them into boiling water.
Ace went to check up on him and saw that the swelling had gone down. He was interested not because he particularly cared about the guy’s wellbeing, but because he’d moaned quite loudly for the better part of two hours, and he needed to know if he’d make more noise come nightfall. He was surprised to see the hands healed already, as he thought they were pretty badly damaged. He didn’t think more of it and put it at the back of his mind. It was one less thing to worry about.
Ace went to the middle of the group to give a speech to prepare them for the coming darkness. He knew what he was about to say was already common knowledge, but he felt it was best to not take chances.
“Listen up, night is coming, and as we all know, different creatures might roam this forest at that time. I know that besides those massive wolves—”
One of the boys interrupted Ace, drawing everyone’s ire. “It is a mistake to call them wol—”
Norman frowned and shouted, “Shut up, Brian!” making the boy who was twice the size of Norman lower his head. Ace’s eyebrows lifted; he never thought Norman would have the guts to tell someone to keep quiet. But apparently, the forest had changed him, making him unafraid to bark.
Ahem!
Ace cleared his throat to grab everyone’s attention again. “Besides those massive wolves, we haven’t seen anything other than some insect creatures and slimes. Don’t drop your guard. We all know what happens when we touch things we shouldn't. We are foreigners in this world. We didn’t evolve here, and we don’t belong here.” His voice lowered, “We never will. Your next move might be your last. So be smart and keep as still and quiet as possible. We don’t know what the night holds.”
He then pointed to Riley, who, despite the ten-hour trek, hadn’t woken up. At first Ace believed he’d been too rough on him, but Norman assured him it was the fruits he ate. He was running a very high fever.
“Don’t be like him. That’s it.”
Just as Ace finished, the whole sky lit up with a myriad of small green lights, flooding the entire world in a warm and gentle glow. Gasps resounded from the crowd and they feared that green fire had caught the entire forest in a blaze. But as the seconds passed, the dim atmosphere of moments earlier was nowhere to be found anymore, and everyone could feel the light from above casting down only warmth. Everyone could feel their bodies grow relaxed and even their fatigue seemed to grow weaker.
Ace turned to Norman, and seeing the same confusion in his eyes, shrugged. “Get to sleep. We have thirty-eight hours left.”