Monsters and Maidens

Mark Dodson walked next to his limping brother, Barry, and behind the rest of the group. The surrounding forest had grown dark, it was hard to see where they were going. Even with their mobile phones, Barry had some trouble navigating the labyrinthine layout of roots that made it all but impossible to take so much as a careless step without stumbling. And stumbling Barry did plenty.

“How long until we make camp?”

AWWWOOOOOOOO

Everyone stopped dead on their tracks, sharing concerned looks with one another.

“That… was far away,” Veronica spoke.

“I don’t think any of us want to stay put and find out exactly how far away that was. We move,” Daniel said. The man scowled at Barry as he said this, but didn’t add further commentary.

“We’re half blind.” Veronica twirled her phone in her hand. “We don’t have infinite charge either.”

“And?”

That was as far an answer he would give. Daniel turned to continue forward. The others mostly shrugging and following along. That left Mark only able to glare at the back of the older man’s head. A part of him wished he could just cause the growing bald spot to spontaneously burst into flames through anger alone.

No fire emerged, so it left him venting his frustration by lending a shoulder for Barry to lean on. “Asshole,” came the angry hiss. Their trek through the roots was a nightmare, their movements were being constantly slowed down with the tricky terrain.

“I’ll light the way, should make walking easier.” Veronica pulled out her phone as she spoke, illuminating the forest floor ahead of them.

It was unfortunate that the light had been focused mostly ahead of Mark’s steps. The younger Dodson brother mis-stepped and fell with a gasp. He’d almost managed to drag Mark down with him, though had let go before it could happen.

And no sooner had he began attempting to stand up, Barry let out a shriek.

The sound drew attention from the others. They turned towards what had startled Barry. With the added illumination from Veronica’s phone, they looked upon a half cracked skull laying next to where the younger Dodson had fallen. It was shattered and old, covered in dirt and worn out. It appeared human in both size and shape.

“Fuck me.” Mark grabbed his younger brother’s hand, helping him to stand up.

“This must really be some sort of hell,” Daniel commented ahead, a dull whisper.

“If this is hell, I must have missed the fire pits.” Veronica approached the broken skull, stomping on it into tiny shards under her boot. “We’ve seen the things that live here. We saw the cat kill a bat. Of course there’s going to be skeletons around. Grow up.”

The others looked at her with looks that barely hid glares. She just snorted and rolled her eyes and continued walking, prompting the rest to keep moving.

“You’re… not scared?” Barry asked, looking down to avoid tripping again.

“Animals kill animals all the time, it’s stupid to pretend things are evil just because they can or will kill you.” She pointed over her shoulder in the direction of the howls. “They need food, you are food. It’s that simple.”

“Seems pretty damn evil to me.” Mark frowned. “Nothing respectful about eating the dead.”

Veronica chuckled. “You vegan?”

“Fuck no. But animals are animals, people are people.”

“Not to them you’re not. Meat is meat, and at the end of the day we’re all animals.” The young woman’s voice carried a lilt to it. “The cat ate her fill and played with that teacher. Whatever howled, I’m sure it’ll be the same thing. If they’re not protecting their territory or their young, they have little reason to hunt when they have their stomachs full.” Her lips turned upwards into a smirk. “The question is who gets to jump first down the gullet.”

“Not it!” Barry proclaimed, trying to hide his nervousness.

“Cats are assholes, pretty sure they like toying with their food and killing for fun.”

“Domestic cats are the assholes that kill stuff for fun.” She replied.

“I’m allergic to cats.”

“I know.” Mark glared at Barry. The bespectacled young man squirmed slightly as he hopped over from one root to the next, taking a second of assistance to regain his balance.

The younger Dodson brother could only grimace and nod, thanking the light Veronica was shining to help him navigate between the trees. Despite Barry’s best efforts, it was easy to see he was regretting having come over with the others. The expression was a rather well-known one to Mark.

The older Dodson brother pretended not to notice, the sigh restrained. What was there to do? It wasn’t like the people at the bus had any hope of fighting whatever had howled back there. There was a frustrated, roiling feeling within his gut. “We won’t be able to keep this up for much longer.”

“It’s probably nine.”

“What?”

“Nine in the afternoon,” Barry said, nodding a little. “I synced my watch when I saw the sun at its zenith. It’s probably around nine.” A slight smile appeared as he spoke, his gaze flickering at Veronica, but not staying for longer than half a heartbeat. There was a moment of hesitation as he adjusted his glasses. “I’m also fairly sure we’re far from civilization.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Veronica rolled her eyes, snorting loudly.

“What do you mean?” Mark ignored her.

“Well, last night… the night sky was beautiful.” Barry let out a slight chuckle as he said this, pointing upwards. “The trees blocked a lot, but I’m sure I spotted the Airuga constellation better than ever. There’s definitely no light contamination, not like in the city. Not even close. Pretty sure it’s clearer than even out in the rural areas.”

“Anything actually useful?”

The younger Dodson flinched as Veronica spoke. The proclamation caused Barry to go silent, lowering his head as he quietly shook his head, keeping silent. They said little else as they continued moving through the looming dark spires of wood.

Bit by bit they progressed through the obstacle course that were the ancient roots. Everyone kept their gazes attentive even when all that greeted them was the darkness of the forest. There was something haunting about the cool stale air that lingered around them. They moved like ants, the trees large enough their imagination played tricks on them. Giant shadows that moved through the darkness, shapes and sounds that were alive but vanished as soon as they paid closed attention.

They would keep moving forward until Daniel stumbled down one of the thicker roots.

“We’ll set up camp, and a watch rotation,” Daniel spoke without so much as acknowledging the trio were there, instead focusing on the others.

Mark helped his younger brother down. “Gonna smoke,” he said, dropping his backpack and pulling out one cigarette from his pocket. His eyes lingered on Daniel but turned away. He’d been about to take a step but paused, glanced at the backpack again, and yanked it over his shoulder before anyone could notice he’d put it down first.

He noticed a second later Veronica’s eyes had been upon him, following him to the edge of the small area. She kept quiet, pulling out her own choice of breathable poison.

“Why did you bring your brother?” Her words came out calm, almost soothing. It was a stark contrast to the sharpness she’d wielded since leaving the bus.

“Better here than with the hag.”

A cocky look was thrown his way. “You really think so?”

“You don’t know her as well as I do.” Mark looked over his shoulder at his sibling, watching the younger brother pull out some water to drink, appearing oblivious of everyone else. “Here’s safer.”

The woman leaned into him, dark brown orbs looking at him from between the strands of black silky hair falling at either side of her pale face. “Why do you figure?”

Mark snorted, rolling his eyes. “What do you figure draws the most attention from things that eat people?”

“More people?”

“Blood and corpses.”

Veronica nodded solemnly at this proclamation, turning away and taking a deep drag from her cigarette. “I guess it was the right choice to follow along, then.”