Elaine stared at him so intently that his cheeks flushed crimson, forcing him to avert his gaze.
"So this is the face you've been hiding?" she asks, her voice tinged with curiosity rather than fear.
"You... you're not afraid?" he stammered.
Elaine let out a dry scoff. "After facing those monsters, you're practically radiant."
"Thank you for helping me," she added, her tone softening.
As he releases her, he offers her a plate of sliced fruit—each piece gleaming with unnatural hues: metallic bronze, sickly green, colors that seemed more alien than edible.
Elaine's eyes locked onto the plate, and in that instant, her appetite vanished. The distorted shades triggered memories of her fallen comrades, as imaginations of their brutal deaths replay in her mind.
"They'll be given proper burials," he said gently.
"My name is Keal, by the way," he reintroduces.
"Elaine," she replied, still visibly shaken.
"I don't know why," she murmured," but for a moment, I thought you were a native of this place."
"What? No way. The only natives of this place are flesh eaters. Wait, I'm huma...Oh my... I get it now," Keal said, a flicker of realization crossing his face.
"I wasn't always like this," he admitted quietly.
CRUNCH.
Keal's mandibles split the millipede's chitin, its juices dripping down his twisted jaw. He swallowed, then let out a hollow laugh.
"I was an explorer once too. Young. Curious. Let's be honest, stupid." His cluster of black eyes glazed over, staring past Elaine. "Blonde hair, brown eyes. E.G.C. Every Girl's Choice. School president. Rich. Popular," he says letting out a wet, clicking sigh. "Funny how remembering hurts now".
"Our leader, Mill, had a pregnant wife," she said, caressing the part of her wrists that was tied. I got a husband. Don't really know much about the others." her voice turned gravelly.
"See, whatever it is you came looking for, it's not here", he adds.
"Oh, trust me. It is," she fired back.
"You're going to die trying," he said.
"Everyone dies. Might as well make mine mean something."
"I don't want to, but I'd rather die trying than live regretting I didn't. Let me fail. At least then I'll know".
"And if you really die?"
"Keal." Elaine's voice cracked like a whip. " I just lost my team. I'm not going back empty handed. Because then, that will be real failure. I don't mind joining them—if it comes to that."
There was silence. In lingered as the hut's loose vines rattled like bones in the wind.
"Forgive my grim outlook," Kael said, his voice low. "If you're up for it, there's a way to make all this vanish."
"Lay it on me," Elaine replied, her eyes fierce.
"You have a death wish?" he asks, sarcastically.
"John 12:25. He that loveth his life shall loose it..." she replies.
Kael fell silent for a moment, his gaze distant. "One step at a time," he finally said, pushing a plate of fruits toward her.
As she tore into them like a starved animal, "Tomorrow, I'll take you places," he continues, "But let me just add that we have a flaw."
"What's that?" she asked, mouth full.
"Curiosity," he said. "We see the warnings, the signs, the signals blaring at us to stop. And still, we charge in."
"Curiosity kills the cat," she quipped.
"Yeah," Kael muttered, "and satisfaction ain't bringing any back to life."
Elaine finished the last slice of the strange fruit, its metallic taste lingering on her tongue. "And wait a min-". "Shh!," Keal shut her up, and suddenly rose to his feet, his posture alert—like he'd heard something.
Then came a soft, deliberate thud. Heavy paws pressed into the carpet of dead leaves outside, muffled but unmistakable to Keal's very detective ears.
Without a word, he sprang into action. "Pack, quickly", he orders. Elaine had already packed, her weapons strapped and ready. Keal quickly stuffed his gear into his bag, including the massive stake from the grotesque frog-like beast he'd slain earlier.
They crept to the edge of their shelter and peered out.
There it was. A creature that resembled a sabre-toothed tiger—only far larger, towering over any feline he'd ever seen. Its tusks didn't hang downward like a tiger's fangs, but curved forward and up like that of a mammoth, thick and brutal.
Elaine joined him, eyes narrowing. "Can we take it on?" she asked, voice low.
Keal didn't look away. "Honestly? No."
He pointed subtly. "That thing out there—it's an apex predator. It swims like a Shark, climbs like a Jaguar, and runs faster than anything I've ever seen. If I had a choice... I'd rather be that than me right now."
What's the plan?" Elaine whispered.
Keal's eyes gleamed in the dim light. "We run, dear."
The hut sat isolated in the forest—but the creature lurked behind it, its slow, scraping breaths just beyond the flimsy bamboo walls. An advantage. For now.
Keal snatched up a stone. They crept forward, heels barely touching earth. As they rounded the front of the hut, a shadow shifted—the monster was circling, closing in.
Now.
Keal hurled the stone. It cracked against a distant tree. The creature's head snapped toward the sound.
Elaine didn't hesitate. Pistol raised, she fired at a overhanging branch. Wood splintered; the monster hissed, dashing toward the new noise—deeper into the forest.
"Go!"
They ran as fast as their legs could take them.
The next day, after trekking for nearly two hours through the tangled depths of Dread. "I want to show you something," he says, leading her to a mass grave of at least a thousand people. On the grounds were very visible circles, intertwined, like a magic formation. "This is The Grounds of Lazarus. I bring every body I find here. Legend has it that at the end of it all, they will resurrect at the forest's entrance." Her eyes widen. "M…Mill," she whispers, kneeling. "Jasper," she murmurs, tears falling. "Wait, where's Han?" she asks. "Who?". "Asian looking guy, stocky, broad shoulders, chiseled chest?," she describes. "These are all I found," he replies. "He's alive," she says, a flicker of relief in her voice. "That's the push I needed. We're getting through this," she declares, her resolve stronger than ever.