Gale laid down on his tree branch with his eyes closed and feet hanging at the edge.
"Gale! We're planning an expedition. We're going to come back in a couple of days." Rachel shouted from below, breaking his peace.
"What's an expedition?" he asked.
"It means to go out and adventure and find stuff."
"Why?"
"The red marble can show us an exit. We've been having regular expeditions to find any near camp." Ollie said.
An exit? He didnt think that there was a way to go back. But these people were from the society called Aur back home. And the marble he talked about, that was the one that led them back to the camp.
Gale sat up and looked down, grabbing the edge of the branch. "If it can find an exit, why haven't you found one yet?"
"It's... complicated. I guess you could say I don't have enough ether, so I can't really boost the marble's range too far. We're stuck searching until it sniffs out an exit within the range," Ollie said.
It was tempting. The exit was something he wanted too. The system told him to find one and get out. It could give him another reward, just like after killing that first beast.
Gale dropped down from the tree. He landed softly and walked over to where a large sack lay by the smokers. He picked it up, went to Rachel, and handed it to her.
"For everyone," he said. "Arm yourselves."
Rachel opened the bag and saw all the bone breastplates, spears, and swords inside. She looked at Gale and smiled.
Ollie stood on his toes, trying to see around Rachel. "Anything for me in there?"
Gale reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of hand guards.
Ollie swiped them off his hands, smiling like a kid with a new toy. He put them on and flexed his fingers outward. "These are perfect! Thanks, Gale!"
Rachel put the sack on her shoulders.
"I'll take these back to camp, see who's willing to join us." She paused. "Remember, Gale... everyone here is ready to risk everything. As long as some of us make it out of this hell, they'll consider it worth it. Everyone is in this together."
Self sacrifice was foreign to him; yet a part of him understood their desperation. He only considered joining the expedition because he wanted to see what the reward from the system was.
"Just make sure they know how to use those weapons," he said, turning away.
Rachel nodded and watched Gale walk toward his weapons pile. She looked at Ollie before heading back to the main camp.
Gale busied himself checking his own gear. The thought of an expedition a couple of days long excited him. This place, even with all of its horrors, had become familiar. He knew its rhythms, its dangers. The world beyond was an unknown. The system had told him there was a civilization here before from the cryptic extraction messages. This place couldn't possibly just be all jungle or forest.
He heard the chatter grow in the camp. Excitement over there was also at a high. He heard a child ask Rachel about wanting to go back home, wanting to eat ice cream and a rotisserie chicken.
Gale closed his eyes, calming himself down. He remembered the hikes in the mountains he had with his parents before all of this, before the orphanage, before they disappeared. Those weren't the hikes that normal people would talk about. Those were adventures, lasting more than a couple of days to maybe even months if mom and dad wanted to. He'd be having such an adventure with his people he barely knows for who knows how long.
When he opened his eyes again, he knew what he wanted to do. Gale grabbed his weapons and walked toward the edge of camp. He stopped and looked back at his tree. He glanced back at the tree, wanting to stay. That very feeling became smaller and smaller as he thought of the camp.
He took a deep breath and stepped into the clearing where everyone was meeting up. People watched him as he walked through camp. He ignored them and focused on Rachel and Ollie organizing the group.
Rachel saw him and gave a small smile. "Welcome to the expedition team."
He nodded and checked out the group. Three people wore the bone armour and held weapons he made. Gale watched how they stood, their posture was correct, except Ollie's. He had his gun in his holster while holding a spear.
"Do you know how to use a spear?" Gale stared at his lax hold on the spear, hands too close together.
"What? Am I holding it wrong?" Ollie asked.
Idiot trying to hold a spear, found.
Gale came up to him, and spread his hands out, allowing Ollie to steady the spear better.
"You know what, on second thought, I could probably use a gun," Ollie said, dropping the spear and then taking out his pistol from the holster.
"Ok, now that's settled. Ollie will be our scout," Rachel said.
Ollie took out the red marble and fidgeted with it. "You ready, bro?"
Gale stared at the small marble that caught the dim blue moonlight.
"How does it work?" he asked.
"It uses ether. If I constantly put a small stream into it when we're near an exit, it'll start to glow. I just toss it up and it points us the right way. That's the theory, anyway." Ollie said, grinning.
"Theory?" Gale raised an eyebrow.
Ollie's smile faltered. "Well, we haven't actually found an exit yet, but…"
"We have to try," Rachel said. "It's our best chance of getting home."
Home. Though for him, he wasn't sure if life at home would be any better. Other kids beating him up constantly. He did get his wish to live in a forest after all.
"These are Anna, Dmitry, and Alex. They'll be joining us for the expedition," Rachel said. "Anna and Alex handle supplies while Dmitry defends them. Ollie, you're with Annett in the middle, and Gale, you're in the rearguard."
"Why am I in the back?" Gale asked.
"The back is the most important." Rachel's voice grew serious. "Most ambushes come from behind, and I trust you the most there. Otherwise, I'd be in the back myself."
Gale didn't like the idea of trust, but he went with it. No point arguing now.
"Everyone ready?" Rachel asked.
The group all nodded.
Dmitry walked up to Gale, asking him, "Do you remember me?"
Gale looked him over. Gray hair, gray beard. Muscles showing through torn clothes. The guy was two and a half heads taller than him, but Gale wasn't scared. He'd taken beasts the size of 3 garbage trucks.
"I was one of the people you saved back in the forest." Dmitry scratched his head. "If we ever make it back out of this mess, how about a couple of drinks together?"
"I'm underage," Gale said right away.
"Age is just a number! Even the kids drink in Russia. Just think of it like juice." Dmitry laughed so loud Gale thought it might bring monsters to them.
Dmitry hit Gale's back, pushing him forward a step.
"Can you believe he had a vodka bottle in each hand when we found him?" Anna said. She was tall but still half a head shorter than Annett. Her wide shoulders and muscled arms showed she was used to hard work.
Anna continued, "Then again, who wouldn't want a drink in the shit hole we were in before and the shit hole we're in now?"
"You're not scared?" Gale asked.
"Hell no. If I die, I die. My life back home was already shit anyways. Besides, might as well do something about our situation. Only thing keeping me alive right now is probably my daughter," Anna said, her voice monotone.
"She's right. We're all basically dead anyways, might as well try to do something about it," Alex added.
Rachel's words came back to Gale. Each person here had their own baggage and their own reasons for taking this potentially deadly trip.
Dmitry's breath smelled like booze. His soft smile and gaze at the treeline said more than words could ever say. To Dmitry, this forest could've been similar to Gale's fresh start.
Anna kept looking back at the resting area. Her daughter played with the other kids. Both mom and child were caught in this nightmare world together.
Alex moved like someone who'd given up on life. But her eyes lit up when she helped others, as if she found some reason to keep going in what might be her last days.
Their determination came from desperation and tiny bits of hope. It kept these damaged people together, all willing to risk everything for a chance to escape.
Gale partly got it. Staying in the forest felt like running from his old life. Still, he kind of wanted to go back, even to that crappy situation.
"Ollie, how much ammo you got left?" Rachel asked, snapping Gale back to reality.
"Let's see..." Ollie pulled out a black box and looked through it. "About 350 homing bullets left. No more freezing bullets, and maybe a hundred fire bullets. Just enough for one trip."
Rachel looked at Ollie with a sigh. She walked to the spear that he'd dropped and picked it up for him. "Save as much of your bullets as possible. Just hold it properly. Even an idiot knows how to use a spear."
"Got it, boss lady," Ollie grumbled, taking up the spear after holstering the pistol back.
Gale managed to hold back his laughter.
The forest closed in on the group as the trunks, the thickness of a house, surrounded them. They'd been walking for hours, their feet crunching on dry leaves. Aside from their footsteps, the forest seemed too silent, too quiet.
Gale didn't like the sound of it. He stayed at the back, always checking around them. The lack of monsters bothered him. This quiet felt off.
"It's too quiet," Ollie whispered, saying what Gale was thinking. "Where are all the thingies?"
Rachel nodded. "Stay alert, everyone."
Part of Gale thought that maybe the monsters had avoided them because of him, but he quickly threw out that idea. Most beasts would probably avoid him, but he wouldn't be able to protect all of them with just himself if they were to rush out at them in a herd like yesterday.
"Maybe they're afraid of us," Anna said. "We did take down that big one, after all."
"Or maybe they're gathering for an ambush," Dmitry said.
Gale's grip on his sabre grew tighter. Dmitry's words matched what he was thinking. He opened his mouth to agree, to warn everyone-
A low growl broke the silence.
Dammit, he jinxed us, Gale spun around, then shouted, "Everyone, prepare to survive!"
The group quickly formed defense positions. Rachel's hands covered themselves in fire. Ollie raised his gun, forgetting about the spear. Annett held a hand out, waiting for the first one to strike to time-slow.
Gale activated Distort around the group, refracting the light in multiple ways. He looked at the tree line, scanning for any movement.
There. A bit of leathery fur patched skin.
"Three... no, four of them," Gale called out. "Circling us. Forest Beasts."
Monsters came out from the shadows, bigger than the usual forest beasts Gale normally saw. They had a mix of scales and fur. Bones stuck out from their spines, and their eyes had a green glow.
"What the hell?!" Alex whispered, voice shaking.
Rachel's flames got brighter. "Get ready!"
The beasts snarled at the group, moving slowly in a circle as if wolves hunting in a pack.
It was a new way of hunting, one that Gale had never seen before with these mindless beasts. These weren't the dumb animals he fought. They hunted as a team, using a plan.
Wolves hunt in packs. They work in a team. Break that teamwork. And you win.
Those were his dad's words. But that was when he was alone, and he knew he could do that alone. The risk came from one of these people being dragged out of the fort they have, especially the mundanes. He needed to somehow mess up the teamwork.
Ollie shot at one of the beasts. The bullet curved around trees and hit the beast's flank.
The beast flinched. That was all. It didn't do much to a garbage sized truck beast. Instead of running away, it charged straight at Gale.
Time slowed down. Gale lifted his bone saber. Breath of the Void cleared his whole view, even turning the darkest corners bright.
The beast jumped at him. His sabre swung.
The blade went through the neck as it it crossed over above him. One slice, one kill. The beast's head fell off its body.
No time to celebrate. The other three beasts pounced at the group as he was distracted. Classic.
Rachel moved between the beasts and the vulnerable mundanes. She punched the air, and a small wave of fire crossed over to the beast, but it did nothing other than slightly char its skin.
Annett's hands glowed as she slowed time around another beast. It moved slowly enough, giving Dmitry and Alex the chance to stab it with their spears.
The fourth beast got past them. It jumped at Anna, frozen by fear, her legs shaking.
Gale lunged over without thinking. He jumped forward, grabbing Anna into his chest as he put his back against the ground. He skidded hard until finally hitting a tree.
He got up fast, not caring about Anna's well-being. The beast already pounced, drool dripping from its bared teeth.
Gale swung his saber upwards, hitting right at the beast's snout. The blade cut through the bones like butter.
However, it wasn't dead. It tried to run. A new group of forest beasts, different from before, appeared to block Gale's way from the chase. However, what the group did wasn't what he expected.
The beasts had circled around the injured beast. All of them took bites at the injured creature as it groaned, being eaten alive.
"Shit..." Anna whispered.