"Reno! Oi, Reno! Son of a bitch!"

No matter how hard he shook and prodded his sleeping teammate, Reno showed no response.

Crouching down to flatten himself against the raft, Mir pulled the bags nearby to himself, using them as shields to cover him from anyone with a gun roaming the woods in the East.

Bang!

A second shot resounded through the area, alerting some nocturnal animals. Some birds were shocked out of their slumber, their surprised screech creating a disturbing cacophony.

Mir kicked Reno as hard as he could while lying down. Worryingly enough, Reno's sleep seemed too deep, unnaturally deep.

Had he been knocked out by something? Mir had no way to tell. He could only hope otherwise and continue kicking the guy.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Shots continued to strike fear into every creature in the area. Mir stealthily used the paddle to guide their raft towards the northern stream, an easy feat due to the current helping him. By the time the gunman had run out of ammunition, their raft had crossed the junction and was no longer visible from that area.

Mir found an enormous tree sticking out of the water in this new channel, not far away from the entrance. He quickly paddled to reach the tree and docked the raft against its body. Leaving the sleeping Reno below, he began to climb the tree cautiously.

The tree was taller than most other trees nearby, something which puzzled Mir greatly. How did a tree so huge grow out of water?

But his Botanical Knowledge couldn’t answer that. Neither did the ExplorerAid software have a database for plants unless its mutation made it a remarkable existence. So he could only keep climbing until he reached the height he needed to be to observe what was happening in the jungle they had just left.

From this distance, it was difficult to tell much. The narrow strip of land that separated the Eastern stream and his current channel was occupied by tall, but scattered eucalyptus trees. He could just barely make out the scenes on the opposite bank through the gaps. Using the map on his communicator, he estimated that the bank there was almost three hundred meters away from his current position.

But as he waited patiently, he found something worth the time spent on top of the tree.

Past the sparse trees separating them from the Eastern stream, on the opposite bank where the jungle lay, a four-legged creature staggered out of a bush like a wounded dog.

Faintly, Mir heard one last gunshot being fired from within the woods. The creature jerked to a standstill for a brief moment on the bank, and then fell down lifelessly into the water.

Frozen in his position, Mir tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Was the creature a contracted mutant beast? Who shot it? Why? Killing other people's contracted creatures was a huge taboo. Only two opponents ready to kill each other would do such a thing.

Before he could sort his thoughts out, he saw several hooded figures emerge from within the woods, heading where the beast's corpse had sunk.

Three of them were carrying a person. Due to the lack of bright light, Mir couldn’t tell who these guys were. All he could determine was that the person they were carrying wore a full body jacket just like his.

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Their figures didn’t resemble anyone he had seen in the data tower. Their all-black clothing stood out starkly compared to the regular apparel seen in the sacred ground.

The person they were carrying was taken further into the stream, where his carriers had to stand in chest deep water. Another guy tied several large rocks to his body. Realizing what was about to happen, Mir felt a chill crawl down his spine.

He was witnessing a murder!

They threw the body several meters ahead, right into the middle of the stream. Weighed down by the heavy rocks, he sank straight down. His lack of struggle made it apparent that he was either unconscious or dead already.

Job complete, the men returned to the bank and waited there for almost ten minutes, as if making sure that their victim was truly dead and no one was coming to save him.

All seven of them then took their leave together, running back into the woods at a moderate speed.

Mir found it difficult to breathe. That guy they had drowned...it couldn't be Murray, right?

If so, then his brother had just been killed right before his eyes...

Mir took several labored breaths. There was a ringing sensation in his ears. The oxygen he was taking in didn’t seem sufficient for some reason.

"It couldn't have been Murray. Murray doesn’t have a contracted creature...right?" He muttered to himself in a stubborn tone.

Yes, Murray didn’t have a companion beast. The guy who had been killed must be another explorer.

So where did Murray go? He had already sent several text messages to Murray's communicator. But no replies had been sent.

Instead of climbing back down, Mir chose to sit there and wait. If Murray was alive, he would definitely return to where their raft had been. He'd come looking for them.

Almost half an hour passed like that. Below on the raft, Reno still slept soundly. Mir was almost about to lose his patience and do something reckless when he noticed a new arrival sneaking out of the woods to hide behind a bush near the bank.

Even from the distance of three hundred meters, Mir immediately recognized his older brother's silhouette.

A massive weight seemed to disappear from his heart. He watched Murray spend some minutes surveying the area before stealthily heading towards the junction of the two streams.

Quickly climbing down, he ran across the narrow strip of land between the two streams to reach the juncture. Soil occupied by eucalyptus trees made for a great place to run on. Few vegetation could grow near these trees. He easily reached the edge of the narrowing strip of land and threw a pebble at the Eastern bank. Due to the breadth of the junction, the pebble couldn’t reach the other side. But the disturbance caused by it would be noticeable to anyone who was keeping an eye on the junction.

Murray appeared on the other side almost immediately, showing him a 'good job' sign with his fingers. Then he took out his communicator and tapped on it emphatically.

Mir checked his communicator and found Murray's recently sent message.

"Did you see the hooded men? What did they do?"

Mir sent a message describing what he had seen from the tree.

"Alright, got it. I've had a run-in with those guys. Pretty sure they belong to the teams of hunters sent to track us down. The explorer they killed must have seen or heard something he shouldn’t have. Since I've already come into contact with their party, it might be safer to spend some time separated like this. They'll definitely be trying to track me. I'll guide them towards the channel you're in right now. You and Reno should hide in the junction and wait for my next message. Spend this time drinking the honey I've left for you in your bag. We'll attack the hive after I guide them deeper into the sacred ground and return here."

Mir read the instructions and breathed in relief. So the worst possibility he had assumed wasn’t true. Murray hadn’t used them as bait to draw out their enemies.

"By the way, what happened to Reno? Why is he not waking up?" Mir typed another message. Murray replied immediately.

"Not sure. An hour after you fell asleep, he said he was feeling sleepy. I let him sleep, that's it. Why would he not wake up if it’s just normal sleep?"

Murray sounded as surprised as Mir had been.

What in the world was Reno hiding from them?