Chapter 8: The Birth of a Monster

“How are you feeling?” asks Code, trying to forget what he just saw.

“In terms of my health? Not too bad, these tiny scrapes don’t bother me. But mentally… heh, not too hot,” says Hunter, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “I can go grab more water myself in a few minutes.”

“Don’t force yourself to recall something you don’t want to remember. For now, just relax. You’re safe,” says Code, not knowing himself if the last bit was a lie while hoping it was just his imagination earlier.

Hunter quietly nods, and oddly enough, Code finds comfort in their mutual silence. After another minute, Hunter takes off to grab some more water. When he returns, he sits beside Code and asks a question.

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

“I wanted to stay behind, make sure you were okay,” answers Code, once again not knowing if what he just said was the honest truth or not.

They both then spot Ace slogging back into the campgrounds holding a body. At first, Code’s concerned countenance eases, hoping that Ace brought somebody back safely; however, as if his brain was at first playing tricks on him, the blood eventually appeared. His grave expression creasing, Code watches from afar as Ace continues forward, one step at a time, as if he were in a trance following a monotone beat.

Hunter, who must not have comprehended the gravity of what happened just yet, loudly asks, “Oh, Ace! You found one! What about the other two? Are they okay?"

His eyes fatigued, Ace promptly answers, "Can't say, I didn't see them.”

As Ace walks by Code and Hunter, Code has to take a peak at the body Ace is carrying. Immediately, his stomach buckles.

That… is no longer a girl. It’s just… an unrecognizable corpse…

Looking at Hunter, Hunter shakes his head back at Code, which arouses the suspicion of somebody else nearby. 

***

Following Ace into camp, I take note of Code and Hunter’s reactions. As I suspected he would, Code almost seemed to freeze at the sight of Flora while Hunter hung his head. When the two lock eyes a moment later, Hunter slowly shakes his head at Code.

He knows something…

Walking up to the two of them, I address Hunter, "Are you okay? Were these cuts and scrapes the only injuries you got?"

Hunter keeps at least one eye on Ace, saying, "No- no, I wasn't hurt. These nicks were just from running through the tree branches and bushes."

He then takes a sip from his canteen, his eyes trembling.

Code asks, "Hunter, what exactly happened to Flora?"

Hunter doesn’t respond, so I say, "No need to sugarcoat the obvious… she is dead."

Biting down on his bottom lip, Code moves his mouth off to the side as he feverishly shakes his head back and forth.

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious Scar, as if I couldn’t figure that out myself!”

Ignoring his sarcasm, I say, "Ace was the one that found her. She was dead by the time we arrived. We have no idea how she died."

Code lets out a brief chuckle, perhaps unable to properly deal with the frightening circumstances we now face. Popping a quick peek at Hunter, his face remains unchanged even after the confirmation of Flora’s death.

Code might be less reliable than I initially believed. Hunter, on the other hand, must’ve known Flora was dead. Maybe he even left her for dead. I want to believe neither of these guys is involved in her death... I really do. Of course, I don't want to consider the fact that anybody here could be a murderer…

Footsteps from behind me grow louder, and I glance over my shoulder and see Sky. She points behind her back toward a path, and I catch Delta and Grace casually strolling back into camp, conversing as if they were oblivious to everything happening. Something I notice before averting my gaze is that Grace is seriously attempting to stay engaged with whatever Delta is talking about. It’s clearly a one-sided conversation, with Grace’s only purpose being to listen.

“Both are unharmed, thankfully,” says Sky.

Code, who’s a little shell-shocked, concurs, "That's good, really good, yes good. It's good that they're safe.”

This atmosphere is not ideal. Not for me, not for Code, not for Sky, not for anybody. But what’s concerning is that Code stepped up and advertised himself as a leader this morning. We can not afford to have him be distant at a time like this. And yet, here he is, freaking out when he was the one who stayed behind at camp.

"Look… I get this is an emotional time for everybody,” I say, directing my words at Code. “But I need you to level yourself out and get your head back in the game."

Code meets my gaze, taking quick, short breaths.

"So far, these people have looked to you for guidance. If you back out now, we will plunge into a downward spiral. We need you to take the initiative here. Control this panic."

I hear the snap of a twig as Delta sadistically remarks, “Finally got to leave this wretched campsite, no thanks to you.”

She kicks some dirt onto Code before turning around and glaring at Grace, who’s standing a few feet behind her. Code tries to get up, but I hold my arm out in front of him. Something I’ve realized that Code and I have in common is that we always think first and act second, and I know Code also understands this. He backs down a moment later.

"What are you doing back there? Come stand next to me right now! You're making me look bad!" exclaims Delta.

Grace bows slightly as she hurries, "Sorry, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

Disgusted at Grace’s apology, Delta rolls her eyes. "Listen, stop apologizing. You're prettier than, like… everybody here. Except for me, of course. Own up to your beauty. Do whatever you want, just make sure to walk where I walk and talk well… whenever you want, just don't ever interrupt me though."

A deep voice says, "Why don't you do us all a favor and shut the hell up."

Joining the conversation, Ace’s shirt reeks of blood and gore as he holds Flora up with only one arm.

Facing Ace, Delta scoffs in dismay, "And who do you think you are? You do realize who you're talking to, right...?"

Just as she finishes her question, Ace slaps her across the face, and the sound of a whip rings for a split second. As Delta stumbles back, some blood from Ace’s hand is splattered onto Delta’s cheek and shirt.

"As I said before, shut the hell up."

Delta slowly brings her hand to her cheek and delicately grazes it with her fingertips. Moving her hand to look at it, she eyes her fingers stained with a red similar to that of her fingernails. In disbelief, Delta starts marching toward Ace.

"You disgusting...! How dare you touch my face! And what the hell are you holding?! What an ugly… get that thing out of my sight right this instant or…"

Ace slaps her across the face again, a much louder ‘snap’ going off this time as the impact was forceful enough to knock Delta out instantly. A tooth goes flying through the air as her body topples over, and lays unconscious on the ground. A yellow outline of his hand has temporarily outlined itself onto her cheek.

In shock, Code, Grace, and Sky are speechless by what Ace has just done.

Glaring down at Delta, Ace says, "Disrespect the dead again when you wake up, and I'll make you wish you were dead."

After the shock dissipates, Grace carefully sets her knees on the ground, leaning forward to check if Delta is okay, a worried tear shedding down her cheek.

Shifting his attention, Ace asks the rest of us, "Where should we bury Flora?"

Sky softly replies, "I know it's not much, but I was thinking beneath her tent. It's where she woke up here, and I think that's where she should rest. But if any of you have any other ideas, I'm sure they're better than mine…"

"No need. That sounds good enough to me. Which tent was hers again?"

"I'll take you there, come with me,” says Sky, and the two walk off. 

Fixing my attention back on Hunter, I ask, "What the hell happened out there?"

He sips from the canteen and replies, "It was fine at first. We found a creek really early on. It's not too far out from here. That's where Code filled up this canteen and got me some water earlier."

He takes another sip, "But then… things got out of control. After maybe another thirty minutes of walking around, Delta… she ran off with Grace. This left me and Flora all alone, and after about an hour of calling out their names, trying to find these two and not hearing a response, we gave up."

Hunter meets my gaze, "But the problem was that Delta was also the only one who knew our way back."

Itching his ear with furrowed brows, Code asks, "Why only her? You were all together, right?"

"Yeah, but she led the way. That said, I was always looking, scanning the forest for wildlife as often as possible. So, I never really paid attention to how we got there. She was moving quickly, and I didn't think she would run off on us…"

I jump in, "Okay, so you're now split into pairs. What happened between when you realized you were split and when you came sprinting into camp?"

He shakily grips the canteen, and some water spills out, "The girl I was with at this point, Flora, she didn't know our way back either. We were both sitting ducks. We started walking around aimlessly, looking for something we might recognize that could help us, but no dice."

Hunter turns to me, "But then, weird things began happening. At first, I didn't even notice it, but thinking back… it was like we were being stalked like a predator does to their prey. The plants kept rustling around us, I thought it could've been from the slight breeze coming and going, but then we began stepping on twigs and small branches. We were most likely giving audible signals as to where we were. The various paths we took up to that point were completely empty. Then, all of a sudden, they were covered everywhere with leaves and twigs. It was like they were deliberately placed there. We tried going off-course, just walking where there weren't paths, but the same thing kept happening. It was an endless cycle.”

He leans his arms back on the ground, resting his upper body weight against them, and looks straight ahead at Code, "We were being toyed with like we were trapped, and something was slowly closing in on us. The crunching of the twigs felt like they were growing louder and louder, and less time passed between each one. And then… out of nowhere. Flora… she just vanished…"

Code raises his eyebrows, "Vanished? What do you mean vanished? Weren't you just saying you were with her the whole time?"

Hunter angrily remarks, "Listen, I don't know, man! She was there one moment and gone the next! I called out for her, no response, called again, no response. Again and again and again, nothing!"

I ask, "But you saw something, didn't you?"

His breathing, which rapidly picked up following that short outburst, began settling back down, and Hunter closed his eyes to try to recall a memory as vividly as possible.

"I did… I did see something. Something is the only way I know how to describe it… That thing, I bet it took her and…"

Hunter winces as his face folds in on itself, and Code utters, "Don't force yourself to relive this if-"

"No! You all need to know! Know what's out there so nobody else here dies!"

Hunter then takes a long sip from his canteen and gasps. Code and I wait for him to resume talking.

"I found her… eventually. I don't know how long it took me, but it was definitely Flora, and she was alive when I saw her."

He bites down on his lower lip and clicks his tongue, "She was at the end of this path when I saw her... in a large space with not many trees. Her back was up against a tree, and her feet were elevated off the ground… it was like she was just floating there, pinned against the tree. Her arms were outstretched to either side of her, sprawled out like wings. Her legs… it was like they were locked tight against each other like they were glued together... and her mouth was gagged. She was just… hovering there like she was possessed or being controlled by something. I could tell she was still conscious; she was struggling to move her body. She was crying, but I couldn't hear her if she was yelling for help. Maybe she was trying to… or maybe she couldn't yell or scream or fabricate any sort of noise with that gag… hell… how would I know? She was probably one hundred feet or so away when I first saw her, and I began to run toward her as fast as I could. I don't exactly know why, but my feet just moved. It was like my body had a will of its own, acting as if I could actually help her, try and save her…”

Hunter shakes his head, “How stupid… I couldn't save her… from that… thing."

He scoffs in embarrassment and takes another sip, "I couldn't tell you what I was thinking then. But I ran and got closer and closer and closer. Until I reached the end of the path. I could clearly see her then. I was maybe twenty or thirty feet away. But then, I saw something else with her…"

Biting down on his lip again, Hunter continues, "It was huge; it towered over her. It must've been at least seven feet tall. Its' face… it had only eyes. No nose or mouth. There was no skin… it was just pure flesh, muscles, and bones. Its desiccated flesh was bubbling, crawling, shifting, moving like it was… magma or lava or something. It was moving like it was alive, like it was its own entity of life as if it was a parasite living on this… creature. There was this… glowing, deep, dark purple and black array of color all over its body."

Code’s eyes widen as Hunter says, "It stroked her chin with these long fingers… if you can even call them fingers. I could hear her screams, although they were mostly muffled by the gag. She tried to turn away, but she couldn't move her neck. She just closed her eyes, and I just stood there and watched. That thing… it killed Flora… it's a monster."

I stare at him intently as Hunter nods off and takes a long sip from his canteen.

Things are starting to connect now. Why we're here, why our memories may have been wiped, the riddle, Flora’s death, this monster.

I stand back up and look at Ace, who has now moved Flora’s tent off to the side and is beginning to shovel dirt.

She was the first one, the first death. And she won't be the last.

I look over toward the slab near the supplies.

Only one can remain; that was the code we deciphered from the riddle. If we don't put a stop to this, I have a feeling that monster will kill us all.

Or maybe... we might just become monsters ourselves. Either way, every single one of us will die. Except for one. That’s right. Until there’s only one remaining. Only one can remain. And that one...

Will be the monster.