Chapter 384: Blood In The Water
The first group of hunters, those out looking for food, left the village long before the second group. Their footsteps were silent and steady; the soles of their shoes were built up like foot-high platforms of broken branches and dead vines.
They were the only thing to mask their footstep, the only thing that kept Death from figuring out that they were prey and not plants. But even with every precaution they took, they still knew that the jungle was waiting for them to mess up again.
After all, it had taken a lot of trial and error before even these shoes had been created.
It was barely morning, the sun still hidden behind the tallest trees, but the humidity was already so bad that it threatened to take the very breath from their lungs. The team of six melted into the jungle, not even their breathing giving away their location.
The jungle was still, and that was never a good sign. Even in the middle of storms, the jungle teemed with life. But not now, not today. Instead, it seemed to be holding its breath just like the men were, worried that a predator would be able to find them with ease.
Cedric moved with practiced ease, his mind not even concentrating on the task at hand as he ducked under low-hanging vines and brushed away the gnats swarming his face. His body still ached from the last raid—the claw marks on his back barely healed before he had to go out again and find supplies. But he was alive, and in this hell of a world, that was all that mattered.
The other men with him moved just as silently, their movements flowing like water as they seemed to merge with the jungle. But each and every man bore their own scars, proof that not only were they alive, but they were good at what they did.
Between the jungle itself, the creatures that stalked them, and the predators they couldn’t even see, staying alive was a full-time job.
"Fresh water up ahead," signed one of the younger hunters, pointing toward a clearing just off to the right. A slow-moving stream glistened under the early morning sun, its banks soft with moss and dotted with bird tracks.