The soldier pointed his torch around the trees and branches, but no one was there. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, trying to process what he had just seen. If he wasn't mistaken, he had definitely caught a glimpse of something.
The other soldiers finally stopped turned with raised brows, wondering why one of them had suddenly stopped.
"John, what is it?" one of them asked curiously, a question the others were also itching to know.
"I swear I saw something," the man said, and they all looked at him as if he had just lost a brain cell.
"So… where's the thing you saw?" another asked, equally curious. The man moved the torch once more around the area, his face confused. Had he just imagined it? Was it a trick of the shadows? He wondered as he spoke again.
"I don't know where it went, but I know I did see…"
"When was the last time you drank beer?" one of them interrupted with a smirk, watching him carefully as the man continued scanning with his torch.
"Last night," he admitted.
They all broke into laughter.
"I see you're not fully sober," another one added as the man finally turned back around. Maybe he had just been seeing things.
"But I thought I—" he tried to explain..one of the soldiers, probably the youngest among them, interrupted him.
"Very true. And that means sharks can walk," he added sarcastically, laughing to himself. To make things worse, he was the only one laughing as the others stopped laughing. They stared at him like a few screws in his brain had fallen off.
"That was so not funny," one of the soldiers said dryly while another just sighed, and the atmosphere turned awkward.
Zavry, having noticed the footsteps had faded, stepped out of hiding the soldiers were now gone.
"You almost got yourself caught," Rune said, as if he'd expected Zavry to mess this up.
"Almost can't kill a bird," Zavry shrugged, moving over to one of the tree branches. He picked up his grape plate. His eyes narrowed as he noticed ants crawling on it. Without flinching, he casually tossed the grape the ant crawled on aside.
Rune began laughing as he spoke,
"Do you know what's funny about what you just said?" he asked, then added,
"It's how you thought you ate that line up… when you clearly didn't." Zavry ignored him.
He walked toward the large open field, his eyes locking onto the warning rope. He crouched and slid under it. As he looked down, he realized the deep hole beneath was even deeper than he had imagined. He leapt, his body moving swiftly through the air, his hair flying up before landing with a soft thump.
He looked ahead. The aliens had dug different tunnels and paths.
Still squatting, he placed the grape plate down and clapped his hands,
CLAP 'twice'
CLAP 'once'
CLAP 'three times'
"Bro, stop. That's noise, not music," Rune muttered irritatingly.
Zavry stood, picked up the plate again, and moved toward the left side of the cave.
"Stupidity would tell you I'm clapping for fun. But no. If you noticed..which I know you're too dumb to, when I clapped, the echo was stronger on the right and weaker on the left. That means these aliens aren't on the left. The vibrations tell us that," he explained.
Rune fell silent.
As Zavry walked, he noticed the place had been dug neatly—his feet weren't even pressing into the soil as expected.
"This place looks too clean to be dug roughly," Zavry observed.
"They're creating a home," Rune replied.
"Do you think this is a trap?" Zavry asked, sensing something off about the mission.
"I don't know… my mind's blank on this one. All I know is…you've got twenty minutes," Rune answered.
The reason for the time limit is because Zavry's powers are restricted, and once the time runs out, they'll disappear completely.
Zavry clicked his tongue and walked further. His gaze flickered around until he reached the wall and rubbed his thumb over it. It was unusually smooth. He stared at it the dust was much compared to how smooth the wall was.
"Something's wrong," he said. Just as he moved to touch it again, his body stiffened. The air behind him suddenly felt empty.
He swiftly turned and dodged to the side.
An alien emerged, moving with shocking speed, standing back upright.
"Impressive," Zavry muttered, tossing a grape into his mouth he knew he had been a millisecond away from getting hit by that alien.
"That was close… how come we had no idea about this?" Rune asked, surprised curious to where the alien had come from, as Zavry stood upright.
The alien looked different. It was green with a tail and scaly black skin, but it was short in height. Its large, entirely black eyes stared at Zavry—so black that Zavry could see his own reflection in them.
Then it leapt.
Zavry moved just as fast. It landed exactly where he had been standing. Zavry slid across the ground so hard the sand turned smoky beneath him.
"These aliens have speed… about one times faster than me," he muttered as he swallowed the last grape.
"The only option now is to fight it, as we have no time for silly games' Rune suggested.
Zavry raised his hand and a small, sharp blade appeared.
It looked more like a kitchen knife the only difference it was see-through and had no handle.
"Bro… this is too small. You can't tell me this is what you're planning to use."
"Watch me," Zavry's lips curled into a smirk.
But then, the alien began to move backward—fast. It wasn't attacking anymore. It finally stopped when it was far from them. Zavry raised an eyebrow.
"This is the only one I could unlock for this mission…" he said as he ran his eyes through it as if calculating it.
Then, the alien let out a strange cry.
"Ukaka ulala!" it screeched.
And then louder came through,
"UKAKA ULALA!"
"Fuck," Zavry cursed, as more of them began to yell from both the left and right, surrounding him with the chant.
"Oh no… this is bad," Rune warned.