After a while the run came out onto flat ground.
The plants suddenly stopped.
The rocks thinned out.
There was nowhere left to hide.
I didn't know whether this was good or bad.
But at least now we could see the creatures clearly.
Seven… no, there were eight of them.
Like the warped forms of different animals.
A six-legged squirrel, a rat with a shelled back, a rabbit with torn skin, a hedgehog with antennae…
Their speed wasn't dropping.
My breath was burning my chest.
In that moment one of them came up very close to Poyraz. Poyraz staggered for an instant out of fear. Then the six-legged squirrel lunged at his leg.
Just as the squirrel was about to bite, Poyraz reflexively raised his foot and stamped on it. Then, in fear, a few more times…
When the creature stopped moving, he realized he'd succeeded. Whatever these things were, they weren't like the eyes or the shadow. These we could fight back against.
"Stop running!"
At first no one understood what he meant.
"We can beat these!" he went on.
"You don't need to be afraid!"
The moment he finished speaking, he changed direction.
He turned toward the rabbit-like creature charging at him.
At the last instant he jumped to the side and brought his foot down with all his weight.
"Crack!"
A sound like a shell breaking came out.
The creature trembled on the ground… then didn't move.
There was a moment of silence.
Then everything changed at once.
We weren't running anymore.
I turned. I saw one of them leaping at me: a rat, a fairly large one. Where its mouth should have been, two horrific pincers, like an ant's, opened and closed like shears.
I swung my foot on reflex. The creature, flung by my kick, couldn't get up for a moment.
I rushed at it and crushed it with my foot.
It wasn't soft. It wasn't hard either.
There was a strange resistance.
It started thrashing; in fear I crushed it a few more times with my foot.
Finally it stopped.
"Grab rocks!" Tekin shouted.
Hak had already bent down.
He brought the large rock in his hand down on the rabbit-looking one.
Shell fragments scattered everywhere.
Sevda was kicking.
Duru swung a thick branch she'd found on the ground.
Sounds of impact, sounds of breathing, short shouts…
Everything took a few minutes.
Maybe less.
When the last creature lay motionless on the ground, no one could speak right away.
Our chests were heaving.
Our hands were trembling.
As Poyraz leaned on his knees to catch his breath, he let out a short laugh.
"What the hell is this damned place? What are these creatures?"
Hak didn't answer.
He was just looking at the shattered shells, the legs, and the corpses turned inside out on the ground.
"These animals were already dead before we killed them—they've already rotted."
He was right. We hadn't noticed when the animals first attacked, but their bodies had splits and disgusting wounds.
The unbearable smell was on top of that.
Tekin had screwed up his face—he looked like he might vomit. Sevda's teeth were clenched, her eyes shut. Poyraz had gone white.
I just wanted to wipe off my feet.
Was this anything? The others' nightmare had felt to me like an everyday lesson. Maybe it was shock. I'd feel it later, I told myself.
But there was a voice inside me saying, "You won't feel it."
I ignored that voice and looked back at the creatures.
The only part of their bodies that hadn't rotted was, strangely, the limbs that would normally be found on insects: the legs, the shell, the antennae and such.
I said the first thing that came to mind: "The thing moving them must be their insect-ified parts. Like a kind of zombie, but it turns them into insects."
No one answered right away.
Poyraz prodded the crushed squirrel's body with the tip of his foot.
The shell crackled. A dark, sticky fluid seeped out of it.
"So you're saying zombie…" he murmured.
"Someone, or something… is making these walk again."
Tekin grimaced.
"Less like making them walk… more like controlling them."
Hak had knelt down.
He held the leg of one of the creatures and examined it carefully.
The limb stood hard and alive, as if it didn't belong to a dead animal's body.
Sevda scanned the area angrily.
"Damned place!" she muttered.
The silence had returned.
But it was no longer the silence of before.
This was a silence that gave the feeling of being watched.
Poyraz stood up. The tense smile on his face was gone.
"Let's not stay here long. Let's get away while we can. If these things have a whole pack…"
Sevda cut him off: "Where to? Where could we even run? We have NOWHERE to go, NO purpose. WHERE WOULD WE GO AND WHAT COULD WE DO?"
Her shouting was painful. No one tried to stop her. Because she was just saying out loud what the rest of us didn't want to.
The mood had soured completely. The little sense of ease we'd had from finding water a while ago was gone now.
"We have to move forward. Stopping here or going back isn't an option. If there's even the slightest hope, it's worth fighting for."
My words didn't put out the raging fire, but they eased it.
Duru and Hak nodded. Tekin sat staring at the ground.
Poyraz's speech had calmed things down for now.
Yavuz joined in: "So are we continuing? What are we doing?"
"We've met our need for water, dangerous as it was. Next is food. We need to find food," said Poyraz.
My gaze slid to the shattered squirrel body on the ground with its strange fluid leaking out. My stomach turned. The hard resistance I'd felt stamping on it was still under my foot. I thought a little, then answered:
"First, we should split into two. Those who stayed behind don't know about these creatures. Maybe they've been attacked too. They also need water. A few people should take water to them.
If Hazar's able to move, ideally they should head this way.
The group that goes on ahead should make finding food its task. If these insect-zombie creatures exist, it means there are animals around here too. If we can find them, we can meet our need for food."
My long speech caught their attention and got them thinking.
"Both sides would be in danger. They could attack again. Do you think this makes sense?" Poyraz objected.
"What else should we do? We're hungry now, but we're not tired yet. If we go back together and then come back here, at least six or seven hours will pass. And after that we'd still have to search for food. I don't think we could manage that exhausted.
Moving forward without going back isn't an option either. We have to make contact with the ones we left behind."
I was about to go on when Hak cut in:
"Tunay's right."
With Hak's agreement too, the talking began and we started forming the groups.
Tekin said he'd go back for Hazar; he seemed worried about his friend.
Yavuz wanted to go back too.
The groups were set.
While Yavuz and Tekin would go back, the group made up of me, Sevda, Poyraz, and Hak would press on.
We'd split up again. I felt uneasy, but to me this was the most sensible move. I decided not to dwell on it.
After Yavuz and Tekin left, we rested a little more and set off again.
Studying the surroundings, listening for sounds, with timid steps…
Silence ruled the group. It must have bothered Poyraz, because he sidled up to me:
"Tunay, do you think we could eat these creatures? Should we maybe try?" He was grinning slyly.
Sevda answered in my place: "Your recklessness frightens me. You must be looking for a place to die."
"Says the girl who was gulping down water at the pool before we even knew what it was. Where was your head then?"
She must have gotten angry at his answer, because she started shouting.
"Is eating some insect-zombie thing the same as that?"
"Don't you think the water could've been dangerous? In fact maybe we've even been poisoned right now and the effect just hasn't hit yet. How would you know?"
When she couldn't answer Poyraz's words, she went bright red, quickened her pace, and moved to the very front. She'd answered the question by fleeing it.
Poyraz's faint laughter echoed.
Duru chimed in: "What if it really is poisonous or full of bacteria?"
Poyraz's lips twisted and he looked the other way. This time he was the one fleeing the question.
Sevda turned around and, smirking, said: "Yeah, what then, Mister Poyraz?"