The jungle didn't breathe—it hissed.
Every leaf on Jou had teeth. Every vine twitched like it was waiting for blood. The ground itself was uneven and treacherous, a mixture of moss, fungi, and roots as thick as steel cables. In the distance, something howled—a low, guttural bellow that made birds scatter from the canopy in a shriek of panic.
Kaiell and Joran moved carefully, weapons drawn, packs strapped tight. Their boots sank slightly with each step into the spongey ground, and the dense humidity clung to their skin like a second, wet layer.
"We need higher ground," Joran muttered, checking his scanner. "Something with cover. Maybe even a water source."
"I saw a ridge on descent," Kaiell said. "Looked west. Sharp rise. It might have a cave system."
Joran grimaced. "Great. Caves. Nothing bad ever lives in caves."
The air shifted suddenly. Their comms buzzed to life.
A hologram flickered into existence midair—a crimson-tinged projection of Commander Seth, standing with arms behind his back, unmoving, cold.
His voice spilled out like poisoned static:
"Attention, candidates. Effective immediately, all survival scenarios will proceed without Kruger intervention."
"If you are injured—no medivac. If you are dying—die with purpose. If you are killed—be useful in doing so."
"This world is your test. You are not being protected. You are being watched. And judged."
"Prove yourself. Or perish."
The message cut out with a faint pop—no farewell, no encouragement, just silence.
Joran stared at where the projection had been.
"Cool. No pressure."
Kaiell was quiet, watching the treeline.
He could feel it now—everything watching them. Every rustle in the branches, every twitch in the vines, every flicker in the shadows.
"This isn't a test," he said. "It's a culling."
Joran scoffed, wiping sweat from his brow. "Then let's not be the culled."
It took them another hour to reach the ridge—a steep incline rising out of the jungle like a scar of dark stone. The sun—or whatever passed for it on Jou—was beginning to sink, casting orange and green shadows across the treetops. Strange birds flew in lazy spirals, and some of the trees had begun to glow, veins of bio-luminescent sap pulsing in time with deep thuds from somewhere underground.
Halfway up the slope, they found it.
A cave entrance.
Black. Wide. Cool air wafted from within, damp and metallic. The stone around the entrance was jagged, as though clawed open. Something had been here before.
"Looks safe," Joran said sarcastically.
"Nothing on Jou is safe," Kaiell replied. "But it's shelter."
He stepped in first, flashlight clipped to his belt casting a cone of pale light over the walls. The cave was narrow at first, but widened after a few meters into a chamber with a raised ledge of stone. Dry. Elevated. Defensible.
"Here," Kaiell said, tossing down his gear.
Joran followed, scanning the walls with the survival scanner. "No movement signatures. At least, not yet."
They set up what little they had—ration packs, knives close at hand, pistols loaded. They didn't dare build a fire. The heat sensors on the scanner lit up like a swarm just from nearby plant life alone. Fire would just announce dinner's ready.
Joran sat down with a groan, rubbing his temples.
"I can't believe they just said it like that. 'We won't help you.' Like we're disposable."
Kaiell leaned back against the wall. "We are."
Joran looked over, brow furrowed.
Kaiell didn't flinch. "They're not here to protect us. They're here to strip us down. What's left afterward… that's who becomes a Kruger."
Silence stretched between them.
Then, faintly, a sound—distant, but real. A scream. Human. Panicked. Cut short.
Joran swallowed. "Candidate?"
"Maybe."
"They said they wouldn't step in…"
Kaiell didn't answer. He just stared out into the blackness at the cave's edge, where the jungle pulsed and shifted like a beast waiting to pounce.
Joran eventually lay back, staring at the stone ceiling.
"I miss the mines," he said.
Kaiell raised an eyebrow.
"At least you knew what was going to kill you down there."
Kaiell gave a half-smile. "Yeah. And it wasn't breathing on your neck."
Outside the cave, night fell like a hammer.
The jungle howled.
And deep in the shadows, just beyond the scanner's range, something watched the flickering edge of their flashlight… and waited.