I stood there without making any sounds and waited until that field guide, no, that thing had disappeared in sight. I slowly and quietly moved forward hoping that it wouldn't come back. I needed to get to Peter, and we needed to get out of here and head back to Mr. Flounders and the rest.

I approached Peter's team who had been anxiously sitting in silence. Their chaperone was not with them. I signaled for them to come down and follow me. I thought that we could be safer with an adult like Mr. Flounders. I couldn't leave them behind.

Peter was the first to stand up and he began to climb down the roof. It seemed like they were able to get on top of the bathroom cabin through one of the garbage bins nearby. Peter slowly and quietly stepped down onto one of the bins. I held out my arms for him to balance on as he finally landed on the dirt. He gestured for the rest to come down. One of them had been crying and shook their head sideways to tell us that they didn't want to come down. The other two had followed Peter behind and were finally on the dirt ground. Peter looked relieved and quickly hugged me.

We didn't say anything but only made hand signals so as to stay quiet in case that thing was still around. I wanted to tell her that she was going to be okay and that we needed to hurry up and leave now before it was too late. I signaled for her to come down with a pleading hand sign. She looked at me and then looked at her surroundings. After a few seconds, she finally stood up quietly and headed down using the bin. We helped her get down and once everyone was on the ground, I gestured for everyone to follow me.

We rushed back in the same direction that I came from so that we could find Mr. Flounders and the rest. We entered the dense forest leading northeast of the campsite, and I noticed how quiet it was. No birds, not a sound of crickets, no sound of leaves rustling on the trees, nothing. Just the sound of our own footsteps moving along the dirt path.

On our way, I learned the names of the students in Peter's group, two of whom were also his classmates. Tom and Henry were twins who I'd often see when I visited Peter in his classroom. They were typically loud, and I would sometimes catch them poking and joking around with each other during passing periods. Sally, on the other hand, was one of my classmates. I've never really talked to her or had enough time to familiarize myself with everyone's faces during class this year since it's only been a few months since we started. She was shy and often quiet. I didn't see much of her outside of class periods, but that's because she would usually hang out and eat by herself somewhere else. At least that's what I heard from Reina and the other girls in my class.

We tried our best to move fast but quietly to avoid getting the attention of those things. Those human creature-like things. I don't even know what they are, and I don't think anyone here had any clue as to what they were and why this was happening. I held Peter's hand and noticed how sweaty they were. I looked at his face and smiled. He held my hands tighter. He must've been nervous and terrified. We all were.

I turned my head back for a few seconds as I walked to make sure that everyone was doing okay. Hopefully, we'll be out of this dense forest soon. Who knows when one of those things will come around.

We kept moving forward until we encountered a figure up ahead. We stood quietly in fear at the sight of that thing sniffing the air like it sensed something was around. The longer I looked at its face the more I noticed that its eyes were covered by a layer of thick white cells. Maybe this was preventing it from seeing but it was still able to hear and smell. Peter's team must've already speculated that before I spotted them on top of the bathroom cabin.

We did our best to stay still and silent but after a second of standing, Sally jumped from her spot and screamed in pain when a snake bit her on the legs. Tom instantly grabbed a nearby branch and poked at it to drive it away. This was not good. I quickly ran over to Sally to cup her mouth and I could feel her tears dripping down on my hand. The venom was likely affecting her, so we needed to rush out of this and seek medical help as soon as possible. But before we were able to move, that thing had already made its way in our direction.

"Henry behind you!" Tom shouted as he got into a ready position to swing the branch at that thing. Henry didn't have enough time to react, so it pinned Henry on the ground. We stared in horror as it bit through Henry's neck and half of his face. Tom kept hitting that thing with his branch, but it continued to bite Henry.

"Leave my brother alone you fucken monster!" Tom was enraged. He stabbed the bottom half of that thing with the sharp tip of the branch, but it kept biting. Peter stood there shocked at the scene when suddenly he came back to his senses and picked up a big rock to the left of him. Without hesitating he rammed the rock onto the head of that creature. He rammed onto its head until it began to bleed out of his head, and we could see parts of his scalp were ripped open.

This was a field guide. This thing used to be one of our field guides. I couldn't think straight. I began to panic at the sight of its head and its now motionless body. We killed someone. Oh god, we killed someone!

"Yuri. Look at me. It's okay. It's dead. It's gone now. Henry is okay," Peter walked over and held my face as he must've noticed that I was panicking internally. Tom tried to move the thing's body off of Henry. We helped him move the body aside and tended to Henry who was trying to utter some words.

"T-Tom...my...my body feels...different. I can't see anything," he attempted to speak.

"Henry. Henry listen to me we're gonna get you out of here, okay? Okay, listen to me. Peter, Yuri, let's help him up. We can take you and Sally to a safe place, okay?" Tom was crying as he held on to Henry's face. He couldn't stand to see Henry in this condition. He was bleeding from his neck and cheeks. Parts of his skin were missing.

As we moved his body to a sitting position, Henry grabbed Tom's shirt and instantly pulled him towards his mouth, but Tom reacted quickly by shoving the other piece of the branch he was holding onto Henry's mouth. This prevented Henry from biting anything. Peter and I held Henry's arms down to stop him from moving around. We called Henry to knock it off, but he continued to act wild and only screeched at us. We began to notice that his eyes were the same as that dead field guide's eyes.

"Tom, he's not Henry anymore!" Peter yelled at Tom. Tom cried and hesitated as he looked into Henry's eyes.

"Tom! Through the head! We have to kill him now!" Peter called out.

"I—. I know. It's just—," Tom continued to look at Henry.

"Tom—!" I heard Peter call again and this time Tom had grabbed the rock Peter used earlier and smashed it onto Henry's head over and over until Henry's body became at rest and he no longer resisted. I looked over at Tom and he wiped away his tears. I sat and stared at the ground, eyes wide open in shock, and blood splattered on my clothes and my face. I wasn't sure why it became hard for me to move. It wasn't right. No, this wasn't right. They used to be like us. Why is this happening? My eyes began to tear.

"Let's go. We need to take Sally to the infirmary!" Peter patted my shoulder and then rushed over to Sally.

I stood up slowly and turned to look at Sally who had been sitting on the ground in pain from the venom of the snake. She looked like she was about to faint. I removed my backpack and took out a small med kit that I had with me which was given to every student before the first activity. I was the only one with a backpack since Peter and his team didn't have enough time to grab theirs when the creature found them near the lake. I took the bandage wrap and wrapped it around her affected leg to help with the bleeding. Peter and I pulled Sally up and we continued to make our way out of the dense forest with Tom following behind.

I guided us to the same spot where I left Mr. Flounders and the rest, but they were no longer there. We can see the campsite from here but no trace of them or anyone that can help us from afar. Our option right now is to take Sally to the infirmary so that we find some painkillers for her and something to help clean out her wound. Peter, Tom, and I discussed how we should go about this. Taking all of us would put all of us at risk but having one person and leaving the rest could also be risky.

Peter volunteered to head down to the campsite and into the infirmary to grab as many medical supplies as he could while Tom and I stayed behind to watch over Sally. I disagreed with his plan. I informed them that early on my team and I saw two field guides getting attacked by one of those things inside the infirmary. So, there was a likely chance that it was still there or by now who knows how many of them have turned into those things.

I told them that we could maybe split into two. Tom and Sally can stay hidden inside a nearby bathroom cabin inside the campsite ahead of us, while Peter and I can grab some more medical supplies and possibly some water. We all agreed with the plan and proceeded to head down. Sally wrapped her arms around the back of Tom's neck so that Tom could help her walk to the bathroom.