It began with a twitch.
Maya's fingers moved.
Bhavna gasped, rushing to her side.
"Maya? Maya—can you hear me?"
Maya's lips parted, her eyes fluttering. Her breath stuttered as though trying to sync back with her body. Her gaze darted around—disoriented, foggy, panicked.
"Where… what is… Arjun?"
Bhavna touched her shoulder. "It's okay. You're safe. We found you."
Rana turned. "She's waking. Good."
Maya blinked, slowly registering faces. Rix. Tarun. Bhavna. And then Arjun, sitting quietly nearby, watching her.
She exhaled in relief.
But she hadn't even had time to speak—
When it happened.
A sound.
From deep in the forest.
Not close.
Not far.
Just… wrong.
It started low, like growling metal, and rose in pitch to a grinding, throaty screech. It wasn't like the mimic from the cave. This one didn't imitate anything human.
It was pure beast.
Instinct kicked in.
"Hide!" Rana ordered.
Within seconds, the group scrambled behind a giant fallen branch nearby, thick and hollowed by rot. Just a few meters from the clearing, it offered some cover—barely.
They ducked. Held their breath.
The jungle split open.
It moved so fast they didn't even see it approach—just a streak of grey fur, a blur of limbs, a gust of air—
And then it was there.
Massive.
Monstrous.
A creature shaped like a wolf, but towering—twice the size of a man, its back arched, bones like blades under its skin. Its snout was long and full of black teeth, curved backward. Its limbs were too long, and its eyes weren't animal—they were focused. Cold. Old.
It looked like a wolf that had evolved to hunt nightmares.
And before anyone could scream—
It lunged.
Its jaw opened wide and clamped onto the middle-aged man lying in the clearing. One bite. Gone.
Then the young woman.
Then the child.
Then the teen boy holding him.
One by one.
No hesitation.
No struggle.
Each body snatched, crushed, devoured, all in under ten seconds.
Blood sprayed.
Cloth tore.
Bones cracked.
It happened so fast, none of them behind the branch even moved. They couldn't. Their bodies wouldn't allow it.
Then—
The creature stood still.
Snout lifted.
And it howled.
The sound tore through the forest like a shockwave. High. Sharp. Endless.
The birds fled. The wind stopped.
And then, just as suddenly—
It turned and vanished, sprinting into the trees, kicking dirt and blood behind.
Gone.
Only silence remained.
Tarun was shaking violently.
Rix was frozen, his mouth open.
Bhavna had a hand clamped over Maya's mouth, who had just seen her fellow survivors ripped apart in seconds.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Ten minutes passed.
It felt like forever.
Then, slowly, Tarun began to crawl forward, toward the edge of the branch.
He raised his head, eyes wide with hope.
"Maybe it's gone," he whispered.
Rana grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.
"No."
He pointed two fingers to his eyes, then the jungle. "Watch."
He picked up a small stone and tapped it twice against the branch's hollow shell. A light, careful clack-clack.
Then waited.
Nothing.
And then—
A shape rose on the other side of the branch.
A massive head.
Yellow eyes.
Matted grey fur.
Its mouth dripping blood.
A piece of a leg—barely attached to a torn, twitching foot—hung from between its teeth.
It didn't snarl.
It didn't growl.
It just stared through the branches.
Right at them.
Tarun's soul left his body for a moment. His hands went cold.
Bhavna clutched Maya tighter.
Even Rana was still—his hand slowly reaching for the knife at his belt.
The beast didn't move yet.
It knew someone was there.
It was just deciding how to get them.
The creature's head lowered slightly.
The blood-soaked leg slipped from its jaws, slapping wetly onto the ground.
It sniffed the air once, twice.
Tarun didn't dare breathe.
Every heartbeat felt like an earthquake in his chest.
Then—
A sharp skittering sound echoed from deeper in the forest.
The beast's ears twitched.
Its head snapped to the side.
Movement.
From between the trees, a giant black spider—easily the size of a small car—emerged, clicking its legs against the dirt, mandibles dripping with thick yellow saliva.
The beast growled low, muscles bunching under its fur.
It forgot about the branch.
Forgot about the humans.
With a thunderous roar, the beast lunged away, crashing through the trees, chasing the spider with such force that the ground trembled under its paws.
Gone.
Just like that.
Rana didn't wait.
"Move. NOW." he hissed.
Everyone scrambled to their feet, pulling Maya along, half-carrying her. They didn't run wild—they moved smart, crouched low, staying close to the ground, barely making a sound.
They ran through the forest, dodging roots and ducking under hanging vines, adrenaline screaming through their veins.
When they finally dared to stop, they collapsed behind a thick growth of bushes, panting, sweating, trembling.
Rix wiped blood from his lip—he hadn't even realized he'd bitten it. "Holy...holy sh*t. That thing...that thing could've eaten us like peanuts."
Maya leaned against Bhavna, her body still weak, blinking slowly like she was trying to wake from a nightmare.
Tarun muttered, "I swear... one more surprise... and my heart's quitting."
Rana stood up first, scanning around.
In the distance, hidden by curling branches and shadows, he spotted it:
A wide, dark cave mouth, cracked open at the base of a rocky cliff. It looked unnatural—too smooth, too perfectly arched—but it offered shelter. Darkness. Safety.
At least, for now.
"There." Rana pointed. "We hide. Regroup."
No one argued.
They made their way toward it carefully, stepping over loose stones and broken branches.
The cave loomed bigger the closer they got—at least ten meters tall at the entrance, the rock around it damp and slick.
Inside, it was cold. The air smelled of wet stone and moss.
And something else.
Something metallic.
They pressed deeper in, their footsteps echoing.
The darkness swallowed them fast. Only Rana's small flashlight kept them connected to the world.
Maya shivered. "It's... too quiet."
Rix whispered, "Better quiet than teeth."
The tunnel twisted left, then right.
They moved carefully, tension rising with each step.
The deeper they went, the more unnatural the cave felt. Like it hadn't been carved by water or wind—but by something with a plan.
Bhavna suddenly froze.
"Wait."
She pointed ahead.
The beam of Rana's flashlight caught on something slumped against the far wall of the cavern.
Figures.
People.
Survivors.
Half a dozen at least.
Some sitting up, some lying down. All bruised, dirty, exhausted—but alive.
One man noticed the light and raised a weak hand, shielding his face.
Another woman clutched a stick like it was a weapon but lowered it when she saw the group.
One by one, the survivors blinked, squinted, faces breaking into shock and relief at seeing new people.
Bhavna ran forward, checking the nearest one. "They're alive!"
"They must've hidden here!" Rix said.
One old man muttered, his voice cracked and broken. "We...we ran...some didn't make it…"
Tarun crouched beside a teenage girl, offering her water. She snatched it with shaking hands, drinking greedily.
Rana stayed back, eyes still scanning the shadows. Trust was something he had abandoned back at the crash site.
Maya sat heavily on a stone, trying to piece together everything.
The survivors huddled in small groups, faces weary and hollow.
Some murmured quiet thanks. Others just sat, arms wrapped around their knees, staring into the darkness as if expecting it to move.
Maya leaned against the wall, closing her eyes briefly, trying to let the cold seep into her burning, exhausted skin.
Rana kept patrol near the entrance, knife ready.
Rix and Tarun shared what little supplies they had left—mostly two bottles of water and a handful of crushed biscuits. It wasn't much, but no one complained.
Bhavna tended to the wounded survivors, tearing strips from her scarf to bind minor cuts, offering soft words where she could.
Time passed slowly inside the cave.
The sunlight outside grew dimmer and dimmer until the mouth of the cave was nothing but a rectangle of dark blue.
Night fell.
And the cold grew deeper.
Tarun rubbed his hands together, his breath misting in the air. "Feels like we're sleeping inside a fridge."
Rix chuckled weakly. "A fridge that smells like sweaty socks and fear."
The survivors spread out across the floor, using whatever scraps of cloth, old jackets, or backpacks they had to make makeshift beds.
Maya curled close to Bhavna, who offered her half of her jacket to share.
Rix laid down with one arm behind his head, staring at the dripping stalactites above. "If I dream of giant spiders tonight, someone please kick me awake."
Tarun mumbled, already half-asleep, "Kicking you either way, bro."
Rana stayed awake longer than the rest, his back to the cave wall, knife resting across his lap, head lowered but eyes sharp.
Fake Arjun sat a few feet away, legs crossed, unmoving.
He watched Maya for a long time, face calm, almost too calm.
But no one noticed.
The exhaustion was too strong.
One by one, the survivors drifted off into restless sleep.
The only sounds in the cave were the soft breathing of the living...
... and the slow, steady drip of water echoing from somewhere deep inside.
For tonight — at least — they survived.