Chapter 26: Chapter 6.4
The next day Rickon notifies the squad that we will be returning to active duty outside Garlantia, and within a few hours we were back at the outpost. The days before our next mission were ones of frenzy and tension.
Rickon spent hours planning in the war room with his superiors and other squad members. I was mostly left to my own devices, which normally would have meant learning to read Garlantian with the Captain. I went to her office, hoping in vain to see her there, but instead I'm met with an empty office. Her books had been removed, the pictures of her son were gone, the chaotic stacks of never-ending paperwork were missing, and her bed were bare of her sheets. The office was a carcass of what it was. There was little trace that she lived there at all. The grand oak desk that looked so grand with the Captiain sitting at the other side of it, stood ominous and brooding.
Suddenly, something hard knocks me from behind and I look up to see a tall stern looking man carrying boxes in his arms. The corner of the box struck me in the back of the head. "You're in the way boy." I quickly leap out of his way, skipping further into the room. With the next breath he tells me to get out, as he settles the box on the empty desk, and shoots me a superior look as if I was something nasty smelling under his nose. Admittedly I probably didn't smell very good.
I scattered out of the room before he could shoot any more insults. Back at our bunks, I stared at the little translation cards the Captain gave me. I knew most of it by now, and I could work out what most things said by sounding them out, but I'm sure she could have taught me more, given the chance.
My thoughts are disrupted Rickon bursting into the room followed by Jay and Quin.
"The creature has been sighted in the jungle between the wastelands and Paela, we need to kill it before it escapes into Paelen territory." My ears twitched at the mention of a creature. Why were we hunting a creature? What does that even mean? I huddled in my corner listening until Jay says "Get up boy. We're going hunting."
"Quin grab the rest. We need to leave now before it moves again." Rickon orders.
In minutes, Quin had assembled the rest of the squad and with a bustle of activity we were ready to leave within the hour. With my few belongings, I only had to steal a few rations from the kitchen, and I was ready. Before leaving, Rickon wordlessly hands me another bullet and waits until I slide it into the barrel.
To my surprise we rode the truck out of the West gate, treading the border between Garlantia and Paela until we met with the wastelands in the south. We didn't care for being seen, usually stealth was so important we used enemy transport or walked on foot, but today it seemed there was little time for that. We sped through the terrain, ending fights quickly, but ignoring the loot that the men usually embellished in.
There was a tense atmosphere that settled across the transit. Apart from the hissing of the radio and Rickon given directions to Jay who was driving, there was little other chatter. I didn't understand the tense atmosphere, but I also didn't understand what sort of creature we were going to face. That made me nervous.
When the path got too difficult for the transit and ridden with roots and vines, we took the rest of the journey on foot.
The jungle was more difficult to navigate than the forests we'd been in since I joined the squad. There were trees with trunks large enough to fill a house, and impassable pieces of land where the bracken was too thick even for machetes to cut through, which made our path convoluted and inefficient. Several times we were forced to veer off course for miles, which took several more to get back on course. Most of the sunlight was blocked by the sheer amount of foliage. It seemed like trees grew on trees, and there was no spare room for footing.
The jungle was humid and sticky. Sweat dripped from my pours, causing my skin to chafe against my clothes and attract mesquettios. Hours into the journey when I started to lag behind the group, something heavy and dark dropped out of the trees above me. Before I could even flinch, a dark arm passed over my shoulder, and when I turn to look, I see Shadow grasping a snake by the base of its neck, its fangs rearing and ready to sink into flesh.
My heart hammered in my chest from the close encounter. I could barely see the backs of the squad members, but I wonder what they would have seen if they'd look back at that moment. Would they have seen a snake suspended in the air? Or was Shadow a figment of my imagination along with the snake?
He throws the snake, spinning over and over as it disappears into the jungle, and moments after I loose sight of it, I hear a light thud. After that, instead of disappearing, he walked beside me, fazing through bits of branches like a ghost and returning semi-solid at the other side. I decided I would try again to talk with it.
"What are you?" I asked the large fleeting shadow, but its faceless head continued staring past me, "can you talk? Whats your name? are you a shadow?" I asked the questions rolling off my tongue before I had a chance to stop them.
After a small pause "sshhaaddooooww." It hissed in reply, awkwardly, as if trying out words for the first time.
"Is that your name?" I asked again.
"Sshhhaaaaadddooowww." He repeats.
I sigh, "is that the only word you know?" I ask it, completely entranced in its mysteries, that I didn't notice I'd caught up with the rest of the squad.
Rickon suddenly grips my shoulder, and forces me around, "Who are you talking to?" he studies the trees behind me in confusion, and when I look over my shoulder Shadow is gone.
"no-one. Myself…" I stammered. Where is he gone? Did he just disappear?
"Don't be so creepy." He hissed, then turned to address the rest of the squad. "From now on, be on high alert. This was where the creature was last sighted. Liam, Reece head North East East; Quin, Leon head North East; Caelem, Arthur will head North West and Jay and Xeon take North West West. Boy, you're with me. We need to catch this creature at any cost so enter Paela if you have to but be back to these co-ordinates in two hours." He instructed. Rickon and I continued North on our own as the rest of the men spread out into the jungle. From this point on I noticed how still the jungle had become, for something so overgrown, it had been teeming with life up until this point. The further we went, the more it felt like the jungle was holding its breath in wait of something.
I always kept Rickon in my sights, but I let us drift apart in our tense searching, and at some point Shadow reappeared. I wondered if that was a bad sign as he usually only appeared when there was danger. In the silence I kept wondering what sort of beast we were chasing; my imagination didn't do it justice.
I felt it before I could see it. The hairs on my arms stood on end, and my sweat ran cold, sending shivers down my spine as beads of sweat ran down my back. I could feel my heart thrashing in my rib cage, and a sense of dread that turned my stomach sour. Then I saw it. Just beyond the trees there was a dark mass. It was difficult to see what it was exactly, but it expanded and retracted as if it was tasting the environment for danger. What the hell is that? I wondered silently, looking for Shadow for an answer, which of course he didn't give. Instead he ducked behind a tree, the first real sign that Shadow was sentient, but why? Nothing could see him but me, why was he hiding?
The black blob stopped its advance, and it seemed like it was looking at us. On its other side I could see Rickon creep up to it, but as he got within a couple of feet it sensed his hostility and lashed out. It grasp him from around the waist and threw him into the jungle. The sounds of branches cracking and a dull thud preceeded, I couldn't see where he landed, but I knew that thing knew we were there. We ran, Shadow fazing through anything he couldn't avoid.
I threw glances over my shoulder and each time it was closer, and I could see another monstrous detail of what was chasing us. How was it so fast? It seemed to be a swarm of black ghostly bees fused together with a black gas.. But they didn't buzz- they were silent, which is why it was so hard to work out what they were until it was almost on top of me. But in that second, the jungle grew impassable, and I fought with hanging vines and thronged shrubs. It seized me by the ankle, I struggled to break it hold and stamped at it with my other foot. But instead of letting go, it grabbed my other ankle from under me and I hit the floor, my head hitting against a tree and the air expelled from my lungs. For a moment, my vision goes dark and I lay there in a daze.
Slowly, it was pulling me into the swarming mass, and I knew that if I did, I wouldn't make it out alive. The bees stung. Alone, it was like a nettle sting, but it was as if the bees themselves were holding me down, hundreds of them attacking the same location simultaneously.
I flailed about trying to find something solid that I could fight with but while the bees stung me, my hands passed through them like smoke. Was it like Shadow? My hands desperately searched for something to fight and just when terror almost overtook me, my fingers skimmed something solid and I grasped at it. The bees react in a fenzy, attacking more violently and dragging half my body into the darkness. I dove my other hand into the smoke in the same direction and clasped. It felt like a neck. I squeezed it. The bees fought against me, desperately striking at my hands, as if it were trying to prize off my fingers. But instead I griped harder, gritting my teeth against the ongoing onslaught of stings working its way up my body, and attacking through my clothes.
Just when I thought I could take any more, and only the top of my torso and my head were free, it stops. The black bees fall to the ground, then disappear in a haze of black smoke. I release my fingers in shock, which were covered in small blemishes that looked like burns. But that isn't why I was shocked.
Beneath the mist was the body of a child.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone