It had been more than fifteen minutes of us rushing deep inside the forest, and Billy who was leading the line had yet to show any signs of slowing down. Sure, it did look like none of us had shown any slightest sign of fatigue yet, most probably because all three of us had a relatively good rest. Although, a matter of whether or not we had enough of it would be different for each of us.
Then, shortly after, we had reached the point where the ground began to get steeper. At first, we tried to keep up the same exact pace like when we were traversing the relatively easier grounds, however we kept on getting tripped by what seemed to be the large roots of countless tall trees on our surroundings that it finally forced us to reduce our pace about maybe to a quarter slower than before.
There were also times when Billy got tripped twice and made him fall pretty hard to the soil ground that Jessica had to lend her hand to get him up on his feet again. It was then when I finally offered him to switch leading the line for a while, but he refused and said that it was just his recklessness on not paying attention to where he was stepping.
"Are you sure you do not want me to lead for a while?" I asked Billy, squinting my eyes a little.
"I am fine." He said as he wiped his hands on his pants before he began to proceed again. "I was just reckless, that is all."
I never expected that he would also have his own reckless and impatient side as well, but it was actually due to him tripping the large roots that made me wonder what our current surroundings might look like since it was really dark. Therefore, I decided to briefly aim my flashlight towards the silhouettes of tall trees around us.
Even though I was not surprised to say the least, I had not expected that the trees around us were in fact, tall pines and teak trees. I could not guess the possible ages of the trees, but I was completely sure that they must have been around when the third village had not yet been abandoned. The trees could even be there already when there had not been any villages in the past either.
The diameter of the pine trees might be no less than five feet on average, and their heights reaching more than fifty five feet. The teak trees however, were seemed to be mightier than the pine trees. I noticed that their diameters must be at the very least reaching nine feet for the smallest ones, while the heights even for the shortest ones definitely surpassed sixty feet since my flashlight could not reach any peak of the trees.
Aside from those features there were also two other things that convinced me to reduce my pace – the exposed roots of the trees, and the lengths and sizes of the fallen branches. It really did surprise me when I noticed that my hand would not be able to get a full grip on the roots, since their sizes exceeded the span of my thumb to my pinky finger.
As for the fallen branches, I would not give my attention that much to them had the three of us did not have to take a small detour due to some branches blocking our way. Unlike the previous fragile and thin one that I used to get out of the mud the previous day, more of the branches probably belonged to the teak trees rather than the pine trees since they had the sizes of nearly three times the thickness of the one that I had used and seemed to be far sturdier.
If there was one more thing that caught my attention on the branches, it was the marking on one of their edges. It appeared like something had cut them down, something sharp like a machete or perhaps sword. However, since there was absolutely no one living around that area, I quickly dismissed it and assumed that it was caused by lightning strikes.
By the time I had my focus back on the road ahead of us again, I realized that the ground was getting steeper again. If I were to measure the angle of the ground against a flat surface, it must have been no less than thirty five degrees of angle. It was also by that time when I suggested to both Billy and Jessica that we had better use the exposed roots as some sort of stair steps, especially since the distance from one root to another was pretty close.
"You know, I am starting to think if we ought to use these roots as a stepping surface in order for us to keep hiking this ground in a quick pace." I said to both Billy and Jessica as I was still stepping over countless roots.
"Yeah, well…" Billy replied to me as he finally began to step on to the roots instead. "Then what are waiting for?"
Even though not in a significant effect, the method indeed enabled us to move through the uneven surfaces faster. There were none of us experiencing tripping and falling for the rest of our journey, made me thinking that I should have thought and told them about it sooner. Another good thing about exposed roots was that it could serve as an indication that the soil ground had a good strength, which would mean that there was a very small to no chance of sudden landslide.
I did not know how long we had been going until I noticed that the sky had started to get brighter, indicating that it would be sunrise very soon. I looked at the time and realized that the time was 05.31 a.m. If I was to take a guess on how far we had gone, then I would say probably close to two miles or a little more than three kilometers, especially since we had not taken a single break since we had started. Also, we could yet turned off our flashlights as our surroundings were still dark despite the brighter sky.
We kept on proceeding by using the roots as our stepping surfaces as the sky above us slowly getting brighter with each passing minutes. By the time the sky was bright enough for me to see my watch without flashlight the time was then already 05.45 a.m. It was also then when I suggested Billy to turn off his, since it was already bright enough for us to see our surroundings as well as the roots on the ground we were stepping on.
"It is already bright enough. You want to turn off your flashlight?" I asked Billy.
Billy did not respond anything, but he did turned off his flashlight and put it back inside his body armor. Apparently he was still too focused on reaching the cliff as fast as possible to the point that he rushed himself a little too much. Personally for me, I did not really mind his actions as long as he would not end up injuring himself as the consequence.
We then spent the next twenty minutes in deep silence, not saying anything to anybody. For Jessica, it was probably because she was still a little sleepy as she had yet to say anything ever since we had departed from the house in the last village. If that was the case, I had to say that it was remarkable for her to not lose her balance when she tripped an exposed tree root earlier and fell down like Billy did.
As for Billy, I would like to assume that he was not in the right mood to converse with anyone until we had reached the cliff. I even began to think if he blamed himself on not considering the possibilities in changes of the weather forecast for that day, and that he wanted to redeem it by leading a swift journey to the cliff so that we could pass it before it rained.
However, several moments later I noticed that Billy and Jessica stopped moving all of a sudden, and looked as if they had their attention locked on towards something in the distance. I could not see what it was, and so I approached them and I was left in a complete shock to realize what was right in front of their eyes.
It was the sight of scattered dead bodies of wild monkeys, all with their furs wet and with a clean piercing wound straight off their chests or bodies. It was not just dozens or tens, but it might even reach nearing hundreds of them. What made me disheartened was not the numbers of the dead bodies however it was instead the facial expressions of the monkeys.
As far as my eyes could see, all of them had their eyes bugged out, as if they were defending themselves desperately or attacking something with everything they had but ended up in getting massacred instead, leaving themselves fully terrorized and horrified as they met their demise. In an instant, the thoughts of them being massacred by the aliens filled my mind, yet I could not just support the thought based on just seeing countless wild animals had been killed in an inhabited area.
"Stay alert!" I said to both Billy and Jessica, as I readied my submachine gun.
We spent the next ten minutes with our firearms on our hands and our eyes wide open towards our surroundings. The sun had then completely risen, and therefore there were no more hindrance in our sights. With every step that we took, I felt like the numbers of the dead bodies just kept on rising, and few even left hanging on the branches of the pine trees with their hands and legs dangling down not moving.
Suddenly, I heard a faint sound of leaves rustling from up of one of the pine trees. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but as I wanted to move away from where I was standing, I heard the very same sound more clearly. It turned out that Billy also heard it, and asked me where the sound could originate from.
"You heard that?" Billy asked to me, as he slowly aimed his submachine gun upwards.
"Very clearly just now." I responded to him with a low voice, aiming my submachine gun to our surroundings.
In almost an instant, the same noise was suddenly heard again, much louder and just when I looked up, it turned out that something was falling down from the nearest tree, just right above Billy. It nearly hit Billy in the head, but I managed to shove him out of the way as it fell down very hard to the soil ground.
'kreghhhk'
"Bill, look out!" I shouted to him as I shoved him away with my left hand just before the thing hit him right on his head.
'Ga-BooG'
I spent my first short breaths stoned at the thing that had suddenly fallen from the pine tree top and rushed away from it with my submachine gun aimed against it. It made me having my heart pounded very fast and completely stoned at the thing that had just fallen from the tree top. I tried to slowly regain my breath as I approached it with both my hands shaking a little from the shock that I just had, and was even more shocked when I realized what it turned out to be.
It was another dead body of a wild monkey all along, but only with a little more built and larger body size compared to rest of the other bodies. As gruesome as it was seen, the injuries sustained by the particular dead body was more severe than the others. There was not only one piercing wounds, but three – one on its chest, another on its lower body, and the last on its neck.
"Jesus Christ…" I muttered to myself as I covered my mouth with my left arm.
Both Billy and Jessica looked away from the horrifying sights as well, particularly Jessica as she walked and faced it away in a rush. Billy just closed his eyes and looked on the other direction, definitely because he had seen enough of the bloodied dead body of the wild animal. For me personally, it briefly reminded me of what had happened three years prior in Chicago together with one other survivor back then.
However, as if Billy suddenly came across something, he then turned back to the dead body and bent down before he looked at its head closer. He did not say anything regarding what was on his mind, but he apparently was focusing on its teeth, since its mouth was left wide open.
It was at that moment when I noticed that there was a trace of black viscous liquid there. Apparently that particular monkey had indeed defended itself, or rather gave a fight against the aliens by biting them. The monkey might be one of the strongest in its group since it apparently took the aliens three stabs before it succumbed to its death.
"Those black liquid again…" I muttered to myself.
"Yeah. So these monkeys apparently did encounter the aliens, and the result is what we are seeing now…" Billy sighed as he stood up.
"Heh, dan elu bosnya, ya…" he continued, suggesting that the dead body right in front of us belonged to the alpha monkey.
"Guys, if you both have finished, do you mind?" Jessica said to us, with a louder tone in the distance.
I responded by lifting and waving my left hand as a signal. Immediately after that, both Billy and I continued our journey to the narrow cliff. We grouped up with Jessica again, and Billy went back on leading the line as we headed on with the same pace. Thankfully, after what had just happened moments earlier, there were much fewer dead bodies scattered around. For my part, I was just relieved to know that the numbers of wildlife casualties did not reach thousands.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, Billy began to see rocky walls, suggesting that we were getting closer to the narrow cliff. He immediately increased his pace, but not as reckless as he was earlier and as we slowly had our surroundings replaced from trees to rocky walls, I could also begin to feel a cold breeze blowing from the direction ahead of us, indicating that we were already very close to a high clearing. It did not take us really long before we finally reached the end of the forest, separated by a rocky wall, leading to a narrow cliff.
"Well, we are finally here…" Billy said as he let out a sigh.
Our rushed journey of six kilometers along the uneven ground had finally come to its end, and contrary to what I had predicted when we started, we managed to arrive a little earlier. I was about to suggest if we should take a short break before proceeding again, when suddenly a faint sound of thunder was heard in the distance, accompanied by a large, dark and thick cloud in the sky.
"That does not look good…" I said as I gulped.