The sand burned their feet even through their shoes. After four hours of walking, fatigue finally caught up with them. Karma complained nonstop about the heat—how it ruined his skin, his hair, his entire existence—and he only grew louder when he realized no one was listening.
"Listen to me I tell you! Stop ignoring me, all of this is your fault! We would still be at the oasis if you guys didn't decide to explore this dead land!"
He shouted, annoyed.
Ren managed to bear with how loud Karma was but he was clearly getting on Rita's nerve. She looked one word away from punching him quiet. You could even hear her mutter words at herself to calm down:
"Hold it in… he'll stop eventually…"
'This isn't going to end well..' ren thought while looking at the group.
Not only were the relentless whining of Karma annoying, but the heat was also getting to them too. Ren was starting to need more and more water, while Rita was on the verge of collapsing from both the heat, and her immense frustration at Karma. Eric was somehow the least affected by the heat despite his high amounts of fat and the least fatigued with Ren despite his weight.
After a few more minute, some rocks and greenery were found by the group. They immediately hid in their shades to rest, they hadn't even walked for a day and they were already exhausted, burning and on the verge of blacking out.
"This is hell…" Ren said while laying down like a ragdoll.
"Couldn't agree more.." answered Karma while nodding.
Ren couldn't help but laugh at their slim chances of survival.
'We're going to die because of this heat!' He thought while looking at the sky.
"We can't keep going like this." Said Rita.
Ren answered without even bothering to look at her:
"Agreed."
Karma and Eric also nodded in agreement to their decision, but they still needed to find out what to do now. Because they could keep going because of this heat, but going back at the oasis wasn't an option either.
That's when Eric spoke up:
"Couldn't we just… move at night?"
Everyone stared at him, dumbfounded at how they didn't think of this sooner.
'The heat is really getting to us..' Ren realized.
And so they quickly agreed. All they needed to do was stay here and rest until the night came. But this was easier said than done. Despite hiding in the shadows the sand was still burning hot and uncomfortable, which stopped them from getting proper rest. Ren, though, managed to sleep rather easily. He always had this ability to sleep almost anywhere, because of how tired he always was from gaming all night. Though he did sleep with one eye open,
Since he was still not trusting the others.
Eventually night came. It was cold, contrasting with the harsh, hot and unforgiving day.
'This is nice…'
At first the cold temperature was bliss for their burned bodies, but eventually, the cold hair hitting and caressing their skin started making them shiver, but even so it was still much more bearable than the day, so they kept on walking.
Eric and Rita were at the front, talking to each other and making conversation. Karma was right behind them giving himself countless praise who were all ignored by the two. Ren was behind all of them, analyzing them and doing his best not to get in their radars.
After walking for a while, Rita's gaze landed on him as she looked around, she froze for a second then asked:
"Hey what even is your name? I don't remember you telling us."
Ren froze at her sudden question, and Karma quickly replied in his stead.
"His name is irrelevant next to my person!"
Rita ignored Karma's antics once again starting daggers at Ren.
"So?"
"It's not important."
Rita quickly changed tone, annoyed at Ren's response.
"It's only fair to tell us your name since you know ours isn't it?"
"I don't remember asking for your names though?" Ren shot back.
"Why won't y-"
Rita start arguing back but quickly stops as a she and the others felt something move within the sand, clearly worrying most of them. Especially Ren who was on immediate high alert, considering all signs of danger as actual danger, which was the correct choice as it allowed him to barely dodged something who came out of the ground under his feet.
"Shit- what the he-"
Ren said before freezing at what was in front of him.
It was a huge worm-like creature who was around two times Ren's size— So around 3 meters and 30 centimeters— had a round mouth with multiple layers of razor sharp teeth around and inside it, and a stone like skin with a red blood color.
Everyone was frozen. Ren was thinking of what to do to possibly escape, and if pushing someone towards the creature would buy him enough time. Rita was too terrified of the beast to move or even make the smallest noise, she just stared at the already bloody, and putrid mouth of the creature. Eric also stood still, shocked at the unknown animal that stood before him, not understanding what it was. And karma stood there for a bit, his annoyed face having disappeared the second his eyes landed on the creature. After a few more seconds Karma screamed and sprinted away as fast as he could.
"… a- AHHH!!"
The rest of the group quickly followed.
"SHIT!" Exclaimed Ren.
The beast swam in the sand to follow the group, it was pretty slow, barely under the average human's speed.
Karma wasn't a professional runner for sure, but he was definitely faster than average, Eric, was surprisingly pretty fast despite carrying most of the supplies and a still frozen Rita, somehow managing to easily keep up with Karma.
Ren, on the other hand, was barely above the average guy in speed after spending most of his life rotting away at home playing games and only going outside for school or primary needs, his form was also atrocious. Not being used to running often and mostly being used to fast walk, his technique was far from optimal.
"For fuck's sake!!"
He was far behind the others and barely ahead of the worm.
'Shit, shit, shit, shit!'
While the worm was by no mean fast, it had probably much more stamina than humans, meaning that their speed was not gonna be enough to survive this encounter.
After a few minutes, Karma was already out of breath, from all the screaming and running. Hapilly for him, Eric, the gentle giant noticed Karma's loss in velocity and grabbed him to carry him alongside a calmed down Rita, looking for anything of use in the surrounding area.
Ren, though" was surprisingly still running as fast as when he started. Despite his lack of exercise and technique, Ren was blessed with an enormous quantity of stamina.
"How long… *pant* is this.. *pant* thing going to… *pant* Chas us??!"
After half an hour of running away, Eric started slowing down, letting the barely faster than the worm Ren catch up to his level.
Ren himself was breathing heavily, and unable to talk anymore, but he had not slowed down.
Just as the situation got more and more dire, Rita screamed:
"Guys- There! A building! Over there!!"
While pointing to the right. Ren and Eric immediately followed her directions, and saw the building too. Using their final ounce of strength, ran toward the building, there themselves inside, and locked all entrance.
Ren and Eric immediately fell on the concrete ground, breathing heavily. Rita went to explore the place they arrived in, while just went and sat in a corner hidden in the shadows.
"You guys rest.. I'll go look around."
Ren quickly recovered and sat back up. He started to look around the room. It was some sort of lobby. The first thought that crossed his mind was that they finally found one of the base they were looking for, but something was off. They said the bases would be occupied, yet this one was silent, dusty and filled with cobwebs. This was not a good sign. But before he could look around, Rita came back from her own investigation.
"This place isn't the one we're looking for, it's abandoned. At least that's what I managed to get from this place."
"No you're probably correct.. thank you." answered Ren.
Dust coated everything. Cobwebs sagged between broken furniture, and several doors were punctured with jagged holes. It had to be abandoned to reach such a state is what Ren was thinking when he agreed with Rita.
"There doesn't seem to be any… of those things in there at least.."
Rita said trying to find a positive aspect to their situation.
The fact that this place was abandoned was both a good thing, and a bad thing.
Good because they good because they had a safe place with no dangers from those creatures or other humans was here.
Bad because they were stuck in an abandoned building with one of those things waiting for them outside.
"Fucking hell…"
Cursed Ren as he laid back down in frustration.