Chapter 30: The Next Day

“Congratulations,” says a distorted voice, a hazy figure leaning closer toward me. “You have been chosen.”

“Chosen… for what?” I ask, my voice higher.

“To become something greater,” says the hazy individual, a needle being injected into my arm. “‘The Six’ need you.”

Abruptly waking up to a bizarre sensation, I quickly look toward my tent flap, which is swaying back and forth. Thinking it might’ve been the wind, I feel a subtle pain on my forehead. Still drowsy, I lay back down and closed my eyes, wanting to fall back asleep.

With a chilled morning atmosphere looming over the campsite, a calm breeze rustles the leaves as they scurry along the ground, a crow cawing from high in the sky.

Walking out of my tent yawning, I shielded my eyes from the beaming morning sun rays.

So... bright. Well, at least nobody threatened to wake me up today…

A cheerful voice then calls out to me, "Morning! Sleep well?"

Rubbing my eye with one hand, I wave to Sky with the other, "Morning. What's got you all merry?"

Sky hands me a banana, and I groggily accept it. She then points toward the campfire where Code, Ember, Forest, Hunter, and Falcon have all gathered.

"Well, it sounds like they were able to figure something out!"

Immediately alerting my attention, I stop rubbing my eye and ask, "What did they figure out?"

Sky shrugs, "Beats me, I've been passing out breakfast since I woke up."

I unpeel my banana and say, "I'm going to go ask them. Thanks for breakfast."

Sky smiles, "Of course, hope it goes well!"

As I walk over to the campfire group, I ponder about what they could be discussing as I spot Faith over by the supplies, inspecting the wooden plank we found inside the only crate we opened.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

These past few days have been so hectic... maybe Code was able to decipher the riddle some more…?

Code notices me approaching and eagerly says, "Scar! I'm glad you're awake. Come take a seat!"

Code pats on a tree stump next to him, and I sit down.

"Did you figure something out?" I ask before taking a bite from my banana.

Code replies, "The five of us were sitting by the campfire last night after you all went to bed, keeping an eye out in case Ace tried to come back, you know?"

Falcon chimes in, "Yeah, and we haven't been able to really tell anybody about what our group saw out in the woods these past few days."

Forest adds, "And we finally got a chance to sit down and talk about it."

Ember grins, "You didn't seriously think we'd come back empty-handed, did you?"

My curiosity is brimming as I take another bite from my banana.

This is huge. If they were able to recall something related to the riddle or the code we deciphered, we might finally start making some progress toward figuring out where we are.

I clear my throat after swallowing and ask, "Well, what was it?"

Forest says, "It didn't exactly click for me until last night when Ace left."

Falcon picks up, "Ace mentioned that we need to be on the lookout for trees and crows."

Forest and Falcon continue to bounce off one another as Forest says, "And at the time, we didn't know what to look for, but after Ace told us that, I remembered something."

"After walking around for a few hours, we found a cave,” says Falcon. “We decided to take a break and rest there for a few minutes. Near the cave, Forest brought up that there were these four trees, all lined up next to each other.”

"These trees, they had markings on them. Each marking was different, and these weren't just any random tree marks that you may consider normal. They were black and thoroughly etched into the trunks," adds Hunter.

"Which got us thinking maybe we weren't supposed to see those markings. Maybe we just happened to be at the right place at the right time and got lucky," notes Forest.

"If Ace was telling the truth that there really is some monster out there killing us… it probably targeted those who saw things similar to what we saw. Remember what Violet said during the trial? Flora and Violet ran into each other; Violet mentioned that Flora was visibly panicked. She warned Violet that it wasn't safe and that Violet needed to run. And then Violet stated that Flora was constantly looking around, checking everything. Shortly after, we found her dead,” says Forest while I finish the last of the banana.

"There has to be a connection. That monster, the man, whatever, was probably preoccupied with Ace's group when we saw those markings on the trees. Who knows what might've happened to us had we gotten there just a little sooner," says Hunter.

I ask, "These markings… do you remember how to get back to where they are?"

Ember grins, "Of course we remember the way back, and we remember a lot more than just that.”