Chapter 6: Creature?
He stood at the treeline for a long moment before walking in, just breathing, steadying his hands until they stopped shaking enough to pass for normal.
’Something killed me in my sleep. Something that got past all three of them without a sound.’
That thought sat in his chest like a stone the whole walk to the fire, through Bertram’s "Who’s there," through the same wary appraisal, the same slow letting-go of a hand near a blade hilt.
Lucas gave his name again like it was the first time, because to everyone here, it was.
"You said you got separated from your group," Bertram said, poking at the fire, and Lucas had to fight the urge to laugh, not because it was funny, but because his body remembered this exact rhythm now, the way you remember the second verse of a song you only half-know.
"During the drop. We were supposed to land together. Three of us..."He caught himself watching the treeline this time instead of the fire, cataloguing shadows instead of settling into the warmth.
"Nobody lands together, though. Not from what I’ve seen."
"See, he gets it," Bertram said, jabbing a thumb toward Callum, who groaned from the far side of the fire.
"I told him that literally an hour ago and he laughed."
"Because you fell in a ravine."
"ONE TIME—"
The bickering rolled on exactly like before, and Lucas let it wash over him, grateful for it even now, even rattled as he was.
Iris introduced herself, then Callum, then gestured at Bertram like she was finishing a formality. Same scar along her jaw. Same eyes that tracked him.
This sense of dejà Vu was making him sick.
"Since we’re being friendly," Bertram said eventually, setting his stick down. "What’d you get? Ability-wise."
Lucas hesitated exactly as long as he had the first time, weighing the same trust-has-to-start-somewhere calculation, except this time the weight of it felt different.
Last time he’d been cautious because he was new. This time he was cautious because somewhere in this camp, or close enough to reach it was something or someone had already killed him once and didn’t leave a mark to explain how.
"Ignition," he said, raising his hand, sparks catching faint along his knuckles. "Fire that boosts damage. That’s basically it."
"That’s it?" Iris again, same question, same sharp focus. "Nothing else?"
"Nope." He held her gaze this time instead of glancing away.
Since he had died here, it was only natural to suspect the people first, right?
Of course, the possibility of him being attacked by a beast was also there as well...
He held his stare against Iris’. Something about the steadiness of it seemed to land differently than it had before.
She tilted her head slightly.
"Huh," she said. "Didn’t flinch. Thought you’d be embarrassed at only having one ability"
"Should I?"
"Most people do. Lying or not." A small pause.
"Interesting."
Bertram showed off Stoneskin again, the same grinding shift of plates across his palm, and made the same joke about his machete, and Callum mumbled about his healing skill and went red at the ears when Bertram ribbed him for it, and Lucas sat through all of it feeling like a man watching a play he already knew the ending to
Except the ending this time, was the one part he desperately needed to change.
Conversation drifted the way it had before — stories of the drop, dark jokes about dating apps in a world full of monsters, Callum’s ravine story as well.
Lucas laughed in some of the same places and different ones, small variations rippling outward the longer the night went, like the round wasn’t a perfect copy so much as the same song played by a slightly different band.
.
.
.
.
.
Eventually Bertram and Callum peeled off toward the far side of camp, same as before, leaving Lucas and Iris to the dying fire.
"You’re not from around here," she said.
Same words... Same weight behind them.
"College. Last day... Was supposed to be graduating." He answered as he’d done before. Same words, different phrasing.
"Guess the universe had other plans."
"Yeah" No line about the universe being a sick bitch. He was cautious... paranoid even.
That got a huff of something almost like a laugh out of her.
"You’re a really plain guy."
However, Lucas’ mind was elsewhere...
’Something is going to try to kill me again tonight.’
He didn’t wait for her to ask about his ability a second time.
A thousand thoughts skipped through his mind... he was busy. Busy recalculating his next moves.
"I’ll come with you," he said, when Iris finally rose to head for the treeline.
She stopped. Studied him the way she’d studied everything else about him tonight.
"You should sleep. You said yourself that the fight took a lot out of you."
"I will. Just, not yet." He kept his voice light, kept the fear out of it as best he could. "Not tired yet. And two sets of eyes beats one."
His plan was simple: If whoever killed him was in camp, then his first move was to avoid being there...
"You don’t know the perimeter."
"You could show me."
Iris held his gaze a moment longer, some silent calculation running behind her mind.
After a moment, she sighed. "Fine. But if you fall asleep standing up, I’m leaving you for the wildlife."
"Fair."
That was the least of his worries anyway...
.
.
.
.
.
The forest at night was different than the one he’d walked through at dusk.
Darker, denser, every shadow making small, creepy movements.
Iris moved through it like she’d already memorized every root, bow held loose but ready, and Lucas fell into step a pace behind her, senses straining against a darkness.
"You’re jumpy," she said, after his third flinch at a sound that turned out to be wind.
"Rough day."
"You keep saying that. Rough day, rough fight." She glanced sideways at him. "You sure that’s all it is?"
It wasn’t, though. "Yeah. Just adjusting."
She let it go, which he was grateful for, and they walked the perimeter in a quiet that wasn’t quite comfortable but wasn’t quite hostile either.
"Can I ask you something?" Lucas said eventually.
"Depends."
"Has anyone gone missing? Since you got here. Or... died somewhere nobody saw it happen?"
Iris’s steps slowed, bow shifting a little tighter in her grip. "Why do you ask that."
"Curiosity."
It wasn’t, and he suspected she knew it wasn’t, but she let that lie sit between them without pushing.
"No one’s gone missing. Not from this camp." A pause, considering. "There were two other groups near here when we first landed. Both gone within two days. We don’t know why. Figured it was beasts."
"Figured?"
"Nobody found bodies to say otherwise."
"No reason." Lucas made kept walking, keept his voice even, even as that particular detail settled into his chest like a stone dropped into water.
No bodies.
"Just trying to understand the rules out here. Since apparently there aren’t many."
Iris didn’t push further, though he could tell — from the extra second her eyes lingered on him — that she’d filed the question away somewhere she intended to return to later.
They talked more as the hours wore on, quieter things this time, less performance than the fireside conversation had been.
She told him about a childhood dog that used to steal socks off the line.
He told her, carefully editing around the parts that would sound insane, about a friend who was probably somewhere right now trying to flirt his way through the apocalypse.
She actually laughed at that one, real and unguarded, and something in Lucas’s chest ached at how easy it would be to let himself enjoy this if the dread sitting underneath it weren’t so heavy.
Soon, they heard a scream.
"Callum" Iris dashed forward with Lucas follow close behind her.
Open reaching the site, Iris’ steps died totally.
"No!"
Skidding to a stop, Lucas’ eyes widened.
"Fuck."
In front of him was the campsite—what was left of it anyway....
Dead bodies were littered everywhere blood flowed across the ground in a sea of crimson...
Lucas walked over to a corpse. His eyes widened.
Below him lay Callum. Half his face bitten off. His face frozen in twisted and horrifying terror.
"Iris, we have to—" But by the time he turned, he was met with another horrifying sight...
Iris stood there unmoving. Something seemed to be dripping from her body.
"Iris?"
He cautiously walked over... "Iris?"
By the time he reached her, his face contorted in pure horror.
Iris stood there, half of her body missing. As if something had tore into her.
"Fuck!"
He fell on his back. His knees had buckled, too petrified to move.
**WHOOSH**
**SPLAT**
"Ack!"
His vision blurred.
**THUD**
He fell in a wet thud. He could feel anything from his waist down.
He managed to drag his gaze downward....
His lower half was missing.
His vision began to darkened, as consciousness began to fade.
Before his vision gave out,
he caught a glimpse of something.
A hulking shiloulette stood before him. It’s form almost invisible in the darkness.
In his dying moment, only one thought crossed his mind...
’I...I don’t want to die...’
[You have died.]
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