Darik walked ahead, his eyes moving between the tree trunks, his hands loose at his sides. Behind him went Marcus and Alesandra. Eryndra brought up the rear, a few steps further back, silent as always. Their boots crushed wet leaves with a constant, soft sound that Darik would have preferred not to make but couldn't avoid.
They had been inside for twenty minutes and hadn't seen anything.
The forest was larger than it looked from the field. The trees repeated in every direction with that monotony that makes the distance covered impossible to calculate. Darik had tried to maintain a fixed course using the sun as a reference, but the canopy blocked it in too many spots, and he was no longer sure if they were still moving forward or if they had slowly curved without realizing it.
"Does anyone have any idea what exactly we're looking for?" said Alesandra.
"A Pumareth," said Marcus without looking at her.
"I know it's a Pumareth. I mean how we find it. I don't see tracks, I don't hear anything, there's no trace of anything. We could be walking in the complete opposite direction of where the animal is and we wouldn't know it."
"Because it hasn't found us yet," said Darik.
"How comforting."
Darik stopped, and the three stopped behind him. He looked at the ground. There was something that looked like a track in the mud, large, with claw marks that left deep holes in the soft earth.
"Is that it?" asked Alesandra.
"Looks like it."
"It looks enormous."
"They already told us it was enormous," said Marcus.
"Knowing it and seeing it are two different things."
Eryndra was already crouched down before they finished speaking. She observed the track without touching it, as if reading something invisible in it. Then she got up and kept walking in the direction it marked.
Without explaining anything.
The others followed her.
A few seconds later
"Hey,"
Darik turned his head slightly.
"We forgot Kael."
Darik stopped dead.
"What?"
"The new one. The one from yesterday. He didn't leave with us."
Marcus took two more steps before stopping.
"Not our problem,"
Alesandra looked at him.
"He slept with us."
"He slept in a bed," replied Marcus. "It's not the same."
"We left him stranded."
"We ran out like everyone else. If he couldn't keep up, he wasn't going to last here."
Darik clenched his jaw.
"Even so."
"Even so, nothing," said Marcus. "We don't know him. We owe him nothing. If he survives, fine. If not, he wasn't what we needed here."
Darik opened his mouth.
"Don't start," said Marcus.
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"You were going to say something about leaving him behind and that it's not right and that we should have waited for him."
Darik did not reply. Which was, in itself, an answer.
Alesandra looked at the two.
"Anyway. It's done. Let's keep going."
The forest closed in as they advanced. The trunks were wider, the branches lower, the light reaching the ground increasingly scarce. The mud gave way under their boots with a damp, constant sound. Eryndra continued ahead, setting the path, her eyes on the ground, following tracks the others couldn't quite see.
"Hey," said Darik after a while. "How many Pumareth are there in this forest?"
"They didn't say," replied Alesandra.
"The instructor said there was one."
"He said there was one in the forest," corrected Alesandra. "Not that it was the only one."
Marcus barely frowned.
"It's the same thing."
"It is not the same thing."
Marcus stopped.
"Why does it matter how many there are?"
"Because if there are several..." Darik gestured widely at the forest around them. "It complicates things for us."
"It complicates things for us either way. There's one or there are twenty, the problem is the same: we have to bring back a body part and we don't know how to hunt it."
"Well, there's something important there," said Alesandra.
"What?"
"The instructor said to bring back any part. He didn't say each one has to hunt their own."
Silence.
The four looked at each other.
"Are you saying if one hunts it, we all pass?" said Darik.
"I'm saying if one brings back a claw and another brings back a fang from the same animal, technically both fulfilled the mission."
"That's cheating."
"Where did he say we couldn't?"
Darik thought about it.
"Nowhere," he admitted.
"Exactly. He said bring me a part. He didn't say how to get it or that it had to be from a different animal for each person."
"It's still cheating," said Darik, but without conviction.
"It's survival," said Marcus. "Which is exactly what this is about."
Eryndra had not participated in the conversation. She kept walking, her eyes on the ground, her pace just as constant. But when she passed a tree with scratched bark at chest height, she stopped for a moment, touched the marks with her fingertips, and continued without saying anything.
"What was that?" asked Alesandra.
"Claws," said Eryndra without turning.
The four looked at the marks on the bark. They were four parallel, deep, clean lines, left by something that had passed very close and very recently.
"Great," said Alesandra quietly.
"Let's keep going," said Darik.
They continued.
The next half hour passed between tension and silence. Every creak in the forest stopped them. Every shadow between the trunks made them change their step. No one said it out loud, but they all thought it: the animal was near. The tracks were recent. The marks on the trees were frequent.
And yet, they didn't see it.
"Something occurred to me," said Alesandra.
"What?" said Darik.
"If the animal is close but isn't attacking us, maybe it's waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"For us to separate."
Silence.
"Predators do that," continued Alesandra. "They wait for the prey to isolate itself. While we're together, we're a more complicated problem."
"Then we won't separate," said Darik.
"I didn't say we should separate."
"Then why do you say it?"
"So we know."
Marcus looked around with narrowed eyes.
"Four people search slower than two groups of two," he said.
"No," said Darik immediately.
"The forest is big. We've been walking in circles for half an hour without finding anything. If we divide into two groups, we cover more area."
"She just said the animal waits for us to isolate ourselves."
"Two people isn't isolating ourselves. It's a smaller group, not just one."
"Marcus, no."
"Darik, we've been walking in circles for half an hour. If we don't find the animal before time runs out, we die anyway. At least this way we have a better chance of finding it."
Darik looked at Alesandra. Alesandra looked at Eryndra. Eryndra looked between the trees.
"I'll go with Eryndra," said Alesandra finally.
"Why?" said Darik.
"Because she's the only one who knows how to follow tracks."
Darik had no argument against that.
"Fine," said Marcus. "Eryndra and Alesandra to the left. The two of us to the right. If one of you finds the animal, shout."
"If we can, we will."
"Then at least the other group will know where the animal is."
Darik exhaled.
"I don't like this."
"I know," said Marcus. "Let's go."
Eryndra was already walking.
Darik watched as Marcus and he headed to the right and the two girls disappeared among the trunks on the left, and he had that feeling you get when something becomes irreversible even though nothing bad has happened yet.
"Stop looking over there," said Marcus.
"I wasn't looking."
"Yes, you were."
They kept walking.
The forest to the right was more open but also quieter, with a quality of stillness that was less reassuring than threatening. Their two pairs of feet on the leaves were the only sound, and Darik found himself wishing there was something else, birds or wind or anything to fill that silence that felt too complete.
"Are you scared?" said Darik.
Marcus took a moment.
"Yes."
"When did you get to the Sector?"
"Four months ago."
"Was it like this from the beginning? The exercises, the tests, all of this?"
"Worse," said Marcus. "It's worse at first because you don't know what to expect. Now at least I know what's coming will be bad, and I can prepare."
"That doesn't sound much better."
"It's not."
Darik looked at the ground as he walked. He found something that could have been a track, poorly defined, half-erased by the rain from the night before.
"Marcus."
"I see it."
Alesandra followed Eryndra among the trees without speaking. Eryndra walked looking at the ground with that attention of hers that never quite faded, her eyes moving from the tracks to the low branches to the marks on the bark with a fluidity that made Alesandra feel like she herself was looking at the forest with her eyes closed.
"How do you know how to read tracks?" asked Alesandra after a while.
"I watched them."
"Where?"
"At home."
Alesandra waited for her to say something else. She didn't say anything else.
"Where are you from?" she tried again.
"From the north."
"I'm from the south. Near the coast. I'd never seen a forest like this before coming here."
Eryndra didn't respond.
"Have you been in the Sector long?"
"Long enough."
Alesandra decided to stop asking.
They walked for another five minutes in silence. The forest became denser, the vegetation more closed in, the ground more uneven under their boots. Alesandra began to notice that the tracks Eryndra was following were becoming more frequent, deeper, as if the animal had passed through here several times.
"Eryndra."
"I see it."
Alesandra hadn't seen anything. She looked around.
"Where?"
Eryndra gestured with her head toward a spot between the trees, about twenty meters away. At first, Alesandra saw nothing, just shadow and trunks and leaves. Then she saw it.
The Pumareth was motionless between two trees, its golden and brown fur blending with the light and shadow of the forest. Only its eyes moved, fixed on the two girls with an attention that was in no hurry.
"Don't move," said Eryndra in a very low voice.
Alesandra didn't move.
Neither did the animal.
It was several seconds like that, the three motionless, the forest still, the only sound that of Alesandra's own breathing, which she tried to control without fully succeeding.
Then the Pumareth leaped.
Alesandra screamed and jumped to the side. The animal's claws passed where her head had been and ripped bark from the tree behind. The Pumareth fell to the ground on its front paws, reoriented itself in less than a second, and its claws found Alesandra's arm before she could finish moving away.
The pain was immediate and immense.
It wasn't a cut. It was four parallel lines that tore the skin and muscle of her forearm from top to bottom, the same clean pattern she had seen on the tree bark, and Alesandra screamed with an intensity she hadn't planned but that came out on its own, completely alone, without her being able to do anything to contain it.
She fell to the ground with her arm pressed to her body.
Eryndra was three meters away, motionless, her eyes on the animal.
The Pumareth looked at Alesandra on the ground. Then it looked at Eryndra. Then it returned to Alesandra.
"Run!" cried Alesandra.
Eryndra didn't run. She took a slow step back, without taking her eyes off the animal.
"Eryndra!"
"Don't run. If you run, it will chase you."
The Pumareth took a step toward Alesandra.
Eryndra took another slow step back.
The animal turned its head toward her.
"Get up," said Eryndra without looking at her. "Slowly."
Alesandra got up. Her arm was burning with an intensity that blurred her vision, but she got up, clenching her teeth, her other arm free, searching for something to lean on.
The Pumareth looked at both of them alternately, evaluating, with that calm that was more terrifying than any roar.
Then Darik and Marcus appeared between the trees.
"Don't move," said Eryndra without turning her head. "And don't make any noise."
The two stopped dead.
Darik saw Alesandra's arm. He opened his mouth.
"No," said Eryndra.
He closed it.
The Pumareth was looking at all four of them now, its eyes moving from one to another with a methodicalness that shouldn't belong to an animal. The group was scattered, two on the left, two on the right, the animal in the center, and no one had a clear position for attack or escape.
"What do we do?" whispered Darik.
"Back up," said Eryndra. "Together. Without turning our backs."
"How far?"
"Until we find better ground than this."
"What if it follows us?"
"It will follow us."
Marcus looked at the animal. He looked at the forest behind. He looked at Alesandra with her ruined arm.
"Fine," he said quietly. "We back up."
They began to move.
It was harder than it sounded. Backing up as a group, without turning their backs, on uneven ground full of roots and mud, with an animal of that size following them four meters away, required a coordination that none of the four possessed. Alesandra tripped on a root, and Marcus grabbed her good arm before she fell. Darik stepped in deep mud and took a second to pull his foot out. Eryndra was the only one who backed up with a completely stable step, her eyes always on the animal.
The Pumareth followed them.
It didn't run. It didn't prepare to jump. It just walked behind them with the same calm as before, as if it had all the time in the world and knew it.
"How's your arm?" said Darik quietly, without taking his eyes off the animal.
"Bad," said Alesandra.
"Can you keep going?"
"I'm walking, aren't I?"
"Alesandra."
"Yes." A short pause. "But if I have to run, I won't be able to do it well."
"I know."
The Pumareth stopped.
The four also stopped, instinctively, without coordinating it.
The animal sniffed the air. Its head turned to the right, toward a point between the trees that the four couldn't see. Then it turned to the left. Then it returned to the group.
"What is it doing?" whispered Darik.
No one replied.
The animal sniffed the air again. Something in its posture changed, something subtle that none of the four could have precisely described but that they all noticed at the same time.
"Keep backing up," said Eryndra.
"Why did it change?" insisted Darik.
"There are more."
Then they heard it. Not a creak. Several. From different directions, with different rhythms, but all with that same deliberate weight that the forest absorbed poorly.
"Run," said Eryndra.
They ran.
There was no planned direction. Just the instinct to get away from the sounds, which were coming from the left and behind and from some undefined point on the right that they couldn't quite locate. Darik ran ahead, Alesandra behind, clinging to Marcus, who held her good arm, Eryndra closing the group with a speed that didn't match her usual attitude.
The forest passed on either side in dark streaks.
Roots appeared without warning.
Alesandra stumbled twice. The second time she almost fell, and Marcus pulled her forward without stopping running.
"This way!" cried Darik.
They turned to the right and suddenly emerged into a wider clearing, with fewer trees and more light and firmer ground under their boots. Darik braked, and the others braked behind him, and the four turned to look at the forest they had just left.
In the clearing were other recruits.
Six, seven, perhaps eight. They arrived from different directions, all with the same expression, all looking back. One of them had a wound on his shoulder that had soaked his clothes in red. Another was limping. A girl Darik didn't recognize arrived last, panting, her eyes wide open.
"How many are there?" said one of the unknown recruits, looking at the forest.
"I don't know," said another.
"I heard three from my side."
"I heard more."
The forest creaked from three different points at the same time.
The recruits gathered without anyone ordering it, the instinct of the group against the threat, and formed an irregular circle with everyone looking outward. There were twelve in total, counting quickly. Twelve against whatever was between the trees.
"Does anyone have a plan?" said Darik.
No one answered immediately.
"Does no one have a plan?"
"Shut up," said someone Darik didn't know.
"We have to talk before they get here."
"You shut up."
The Pumareth that had been following them came out of the trees at the edge of the clearing. Then another, from the opposite side. Then a third, smaller than the other two but with the same deliberate pace, the same evaluating eyes.
The circle of recruits tightened.
"We need an opening," said Marcus quietly. "Someone to distract the animals while the others run."
"One of them or one of us?"
Marcus didn't answer that.
"No," said Darik.
"Darik."
"No."
"Then they kill us here."
"There are many people. If we coordinate—"
"Look."
Darik looked.
The circle was no longer a circle. The recruits were pushing each other, each one trying to put someone else between himself and the animals, the group disintegrating into a mass of elbows and shouts and looks calculating who it was best to have in front.
"Work together!" cried Darik. "If we stay united, we have more options!"
No one paid attention to him.
"Listen to me! If we separate—!"
One of the Pumareth advanced two steps toward the group, and the circle exploded. A recruit shoved the one next to him toward the animal and ran. The Pumareth pounced on the one who had fallen, and the noise that followed made several others run in different directions without looking where they were going.
"Together!" cried Darik. "You have to go together!"
Another recruit grabbed a girl by the shoulder and threw her toward the second animal, forcing his way through the others to escape. The girl screamed. The animal reached her.
The clearing turned to chaos.
Darik looked for Marcus among the running people.
"Marcus! Alesandra! Eryndra!"
"Here!" Alesandra's voice came from his right.
He found them. The four together, alone among the people dispersing in all directions, the three Pumareth occupied with those who had fallen but not for long.
"We have to get out," said Eryndra.
"Which way?" said Darik.
Eryndra pointed toward the north of the clearing, where the trees were more spaced out and no animal was visible yet.
"There."
"How do we get there without them seeing us?"
The Pumareth were scattered, each in a different point of the clearing. Between the group and the north exit there were at least forty meters of open ground, and two of the three animals were oriented in that direction.
"We can't," said Alesandra.
"The four of us can't," said Marcus.
Darik looked at him.
"Marcus, no."
"If one of us distracts the one closest to the north—"
"No."
"Darik, if we don't, the four of us die here."
"There's another way."
"Which one?"
Darik looked at the clearing. The Pumareth. The forty meters. Alesandra's arm. The north exit. The recruits who were left, crushed against the fallen tree with the eyes of someone who had already stopped looking for solutions.
He didn't find another way.
"There isn't one, is there?" said Marcus.
Darik didn't reply.
Marcus closed his eyes for a second. Just a second. He opened them and looked around with the same expression as always, cold and direct, but something in the line of his jaw was different.
There were three unknown recruits left in the clearing, those who hadn't been able to escape yet, huddled against the fallen tree. One of them, a boy with a shaved head, shoved the one next to him toward the nearest Pumareth without hesitation and ran to the east.
The Pumareth closest to the north turned its head toward the movement.
Marcus moved.
He grabbed the recruit who was left by the fallen tree, the closest one, the one who hadn't done anything yet, and shoved him toward the center of the clearing.
The boy screamed.
The Pumareth turned toward him.
The north was clear.
"Run!" said Marcus.
They ran.
Darik ran looking back. He saw the boy on the ground. He saw the Pumareth. He saw Marcus running next to him without looking back, his jaw clenched, his eyes forward.
He didn't say anything.
They ran until the clearing was behind them and the forest swallowed them again, and the sounds of the clearing faded behind them, first the boy's scream, then the noise of the animals, then nothing.
Only their boots on the mud and the breathing of the four of them.
They stopped next to a fallen trunk covered in moss.
They fell.
It wasn't a decision. It was the body deciding on its own that it couldn't take any more. Darik sat against the trunk with his legs stretched out. Marcus fell to his knees and stayed that way, his hands on the ground, his head low, his hair stuck to his forehead. Alesandra let herself fall sideways and stared at the forest floor with her eyes open, her arm pressed to her body, her breathing still irregular. Eryndra was the only one who didn't fall completely. She leaned against a tree and slid slowly down until she was sitting with her knees drawn up.
No one spoke for a while.
The forest around them was still. Completely still, with that stillness that after chaos feels almost unreal, as if the forest didn't know what had just happened or simply didn't care.
Darik looked at the branches above his head.
He thought about the boy Marcus had shoved. He didn't know him. He didn't know his name, or where he was from, or how long he had been in the Sector. He was a stranger in a clearing full of strangers and he had ended up on the ground so that the four of them could run. And Darik had run. He had seen what Marcus did and he had run.
'He didn't know how to keep that in.'
"How much time is left?" said Alesandra finally.
"I don't know," said Darik.
"If we don't find a part of the Pumareth before time runs out..."
"I know."
"How's your arm?"
"Bad."
"Can you keep going?"
Alesandra took a while to answer. She looked at her arm. The four lines crossed her forearm from top to bottom, the skin open, the sleeve fabric dark with blood that had already stopped flowing fast but not stopped flowing.
"Yes. I can keep going."
"Alesandra."
"Yes, Darik."
Marcus raised his head. His face was dirty with earth and his jaw was clenched, and his eyes were looking at a point between the trees that wasn't any specific point.
"We have to move," he said.
"Give me a minute," said Darik.
"We don't have a minute."
"Give me a minute, Marcus."
Marcus closed his mouth.
The silence between the two lasted several seconds. Eryndra looked at them alternately without saying anything. Alesandra looked at her arm.
Darik looked at Marcus.
He didn't say what he was thinking. He left it still, where it was, in that place between the two where neither had to name it for it to exist. Marcus held his gaze without looking away, without justifying himself, without asking for anything.
"Fine," said Darik finally. He stood up. "We get up. We keep searching. If we find a recent track, we follow it. If we find the animal, we improvise."
"That sounds bad," said Alesandra.
"It is."
The four of them stood up. Slowly, with visible exhaustion in every movement, but standing.
Eryndra was already looking at the ground.
"This way," she said.
The other three followed her.
The forest remained still around them as they walked. The light between the branches had become dimmer, more golden, which meant the morning was advancing and time was being consumed with it.
No one spoke.
Darik walked looking at the ground and thinking about the boy in the clearing and about Marcus and about Alesandra's arm and about Kael who had stayed behind in the field and about all the things that place made normal without asking permission.
Eryndra stopped.
The other three stopped behind her.
She didn't say anything. She just raised her right hand, very slowly, palm outward.
Darik listened.
At first, nothing. Then, between the trees, from some point that couldn't quite be located, the sound of footsteps on the wet mud.
Slow.
Deliberate.
The four prepared themselves.