Mir discovered that the bees chasing him were beginning to fall back. The deeper he escaped into the woods, away from the stream, the fewer their numbers became. And those that were left had stopped shooting the icicles and poison sprays, which was a massive relief because, despite the jacket's durability, the icicles had created small holes in many areas, causing most of the water sealed inside the suit to leak out. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could use it for cover.

Gradually, a numbness began to spread through his hands and shoulder, the areas where most of the punctures had happened.

Mir recalled the information about the purplevein poison. When injected into blood vessels, it could cause internal bleeding. He couldn't really tell from outside whether the blood vessels in his hands and shoulder were leaking blood by now, but the symptoms seemed to match.

Mir took out his communicator and calibrated his location on the map, finding himself quite a distance away from the beehive. He had to cross over half a kilometer of dense woods before he reached back to the grassland where they had hidden their backpacks, their rendezvous spot.

But the scene he found himself facing at this place was... horrifying. A body laid on the ground, curled up in a fetal position. Skin covered with a layer of blood, limbs swollen, flesh torn and mangled, bones melting off; this person was unrecognizable.

"Murray?!"

Heart throbbing like a drum, ears ringing, Mir shouted hoarsely and staggered over to inspect his face.

"I'm over here," shouted a familiar voice from a distance away. Mir noticed Murray's familar silhouette making its way towards him while keeping close to the edges of the woods ahead. There were still some bees flying around the grassland aimlessly, far away from their hive. Murray had to walk cautiously under the shadows of the trees, lest he should attract more unwanted attention.

"Then, Reno?" Mir's horror didn’t recede. He quickly pulled the person's arms away and checked his appearance.

It wasn’t Reno, either!

Mir didn’t recognize the face, but something about his appearance was strikingly familiar. It was an uncanny feeling. Had his features not been ruined, he might have been able to figure out where he had seen him. This man was much older than the usual explorers. How did he end up here? And how had he–

Mir looked around him, for the first time realizing that the grass beneath his feet was littered with dead bees. He hadn’t noticed the tiny corpses earlier due to the weak starlight.

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"Who's this? Where's Reno?"

Murray didn’t answer his question immediately. Crouching over the body, he inspected its condition and sighed.

"What a painful death! Good thing it wasn’t any of us who had to face the Purplevein Queen Bee. Not only was she a grade- 2 mutant at the peak of her power, she also had TWO special abilities instead of one! The purplevein poison she personally secreted mutated into something more powerful, corrosive enough to even melt human bones. Unbelievable!"

Mir cursed inaudibly and replied, "No, that's perfectly believable, if you ask me. This hive is literally in the peripheral area of the sacred ground. If you could find it so easily, so could anyone else. But the fact that this hive wasn’t attacked and ransacked by explorers means that there was a special circumstance here. I'd say we were lucky that the special circumstance was limited to a grade- 2 mutant with extra abilities. We were just too dumb to realize the oddity before making our move."

Murray looked up at him and nodded.

"I rushed the process. Sorry about that. This mistake could've cost us more dearly."

"Well, tell me what happened after I ran off. And where is Reno?"

"Reno ran towards where he was supposed to. The bees chasing him returned after he hid inside that ruined house. There's a pretty secure area there, surrounded by thick vegetation that makes it hard for flying insects to enter. Not sure what's keeping him occupied there." Murray didn’t sound particularly concerned.

"The queen...she's dead, right?"

"That she is, very certainly. Whoever this guy is, he could go toe to toe with the Purplevein queen for a while, causing enough damage to her that made her desperate enough to launch a suicide move. I watched the end of their battle. There was a lot of biting, scratching, penetrating, and body fluids involved."

"Did he come here for the...diary? What do you think?" Mir asked. That seemed like the most plausible answer to this mysterious stranger's identity. He also did not like the shade of glee on Murray's face while describing how this man had died. The year he had spent in jail had truly changed his older brother...not for the better, though.

"Probably not. Maybe he was just another explorer who got greedy, thinking he could take on the queen while the rest of us were busy distracting the worker bees. While I was busy trying to save myself from being killed, unable to even get closer to the hive, he tried to assassinate the queen from a hidden spot. He wouldn't have done so if he was one of the people hunting us. Either way, he's dead now. Someone will discover him soon enough. It would be best not to spend too much time here. Let's go look for your friend Reno."

"Wait, do you have any supplies for the poison? I got stung a few times and I don’t think I can feel my shoulders anymore right now–"

Murray handed him a tube of gel before he had even finished speaking.

"I had the plan to attack this hive if it was still here. So I bought some. Apply the gel directly into the injured areas."

The two of them picked the backpacks up from the hiding spot and made their way back to the other side of the grassland, where the ruined, old house was.

It only had one floor, but the number of rooms was more than a dozen. Countless explorers before them had gone through these rooms in the last 35 years. They weren’t surprised that nothing of value could be seen.

Only one room was locked from the inside. Murray kicked on it lightly, which resulted into the sound of rapid footsteps rushing towards the door. Reno, looking distraught, opened the door.

"Thank the Lord! I didn’t expect there would be so many bees in that tiny hive!"

Mir peeked into the room and found it entirely occupied by thick vines, climbers, and creepers. The vegetation had found a way in through the holes in the ceiling. A human might be able to push them aside to enter the room, but bees would need a ton of luck and time to make it in unimpeded. No wonder Reno's jacket looked unscathed.

"How did you do?" Reno asked Murray after an appraising look at Mir's ruined jacket.

"Did you manage to steal any edible honey? What happened to the Queen bee?"

With a start, Mir recalled the main objective of their mission. Murray wanted the safely consumable honey to increase his extent of viral infection!

Both boys looked at Murray eagerly, who chuckled and pulled out a water bottle from an inner pocket of his jacket. Under the light of Reno's communicator screen, the content of the bottle was revealed to be of a dark golden color.

"Gentlemen, get yourselves an eyeful of your hard-earned loot! The first of many, I pray to the Lord."