"Clever, but not too clever. You see, that's not the reason it shut itself up—it's to prevent all of you from going back there. Since that's where all of you came from and the only way to get back to your world." The man, with a lamp on its hand, said. His voice sounded rough and raspy as he was getting closer to where the rest of the group was, revealing his face and figure more clearly.
He was an old man. With eyes that were deep blue like the gushing wave of the water beside them, he looked at the group of eighteen people and smiled.
"Who are you?!" Dylan yelled out as the other girl continue to hold him off. He looked like he was about to jump on the crippling old man, ready to pounce on whoever will attack them.
"Me?" The old man pointed to himself in a gentle manner. Shio gazed at him with his green eyes twinkling against the moonlight, the old man was wearing an old military uniform. Its fabric all tinted with brown, the sign of aging, and was filled with dried mud stains. Though having doubts about whether they should trust this old man, he seemed to be nice and not too distasteful, at least for Shio.
"My name is Jarvis Krause. I came from that small town over there." He said as he pointed his index finger to where there was light coming from earlier. It was across the body of water and it was brightly lit like there were people living there.
"Town? How is there a town here in the afterlife?!" Dylan questioned. His grey eyes were glaring down at the old man as he only chuckled in reply. "How silly. Just follow me and I'll show you."
The old man, Jarvis, walked out and off to the forest behind him, the forest he came out of. It was dark and deep, there were many high trees standing tall and several bushes here and there. Having a forest and a small town here in the afterlife was very unreal, it was like it wasn't even the afterlife since it was always depicted as only having heaven or hell.
"Aren't you gonna come follow this old man?" Jarvis turned around at the group and said. He was waiting for the rest of the crowd to follow him. "It isn't safe to stay too long around here."
"Tsk." Dylan scoffed as he came following at the old man. He was still dubious about it but decided to trust this old man since they don't have any other choice. As soon as the others saw Dylan lower his guard, they also followed the old man. Despite having doubts and hesitations. Shio, on the other hand, remained at where he was standing for a while as he debated whether to follow or not.
Everything seemed skeptical, of course. Besides, it's hard to trust someone you've just met—especially if it's some creepy old man wearing a crusty old uniform.
"Aren't you gonna come along, Shio?" Hyuna asked as she stopped on her tracks to check upon him. He remained still for a bit as he turned his gaze off from the old man and onto Hyuna's golden eyes.
"This is weird. Everything right now is weird." He said as he began to walk towards the forest they were heading on. Shio walked fast like he was sprinting to go to the front of the group, he couldn't help it. He was feeling too nervous about it.
"Hold on! Wait up, Shio!" Hyuna called out upon realizing she was behind Shio. She starts to race up to him, only to feel another wincing pain from the wound she had received from the previous monster. "Ow!"
Shio instantly turned around and stop on his tracks, as well as the others who were several steps away from the two of them. Hyuna's screeching made all of them worried again.
"Is she alright?" Jarvis asked, half-yelling. He looked worried at the young lady whose legs were injured. Her legs, which they thought had stopped bleeding, started to bleed again as Shio hurriedly rush to her.
"Are you okay?" He asked Hyuna, who was screeching in pain. She nodded stiffly, her eyes fixing onto her legs that were bleeding again. "I can't carry you anymore, Hyuna. But, try to hold onto me for a while."
Shio took one of her arms and put it around his shoulders as he supports her weight. "Let's go?" He asked and Hyuna responded with a slight nod again, she was feeling the intense pain from her leg and she could feel it trembling. Shio felt bad for Hyuna since half of the blame was on him, he did hesitate to try to rescue her. He looked away from her with a bite on his lips and turned his eye towards the old man.
They decided to go and follow the old man to the forest, who was waiting for them with the others.
"She alright?" Jarvis asked, cautiously looking at the two.
"Yes! I got it, don't worry!" Shio answered. He looked towards Hyuna, whose face was wincing in pain. She was limping beside him and it looked like her wound was deliberately affecting her stamina—she seemed to be more tired than Shio, who jogged hastily earlier.
They soon caught up with the group as all of them entered the forest. It felt eerie, with the silence that fell upon the group and all, the place was definitely scary. Especially with a vast array of tall trees surrounding them, there was no way one could tell whether what's gonna happen on them or who will be the next one to ambush them.
They might not even survive the next pitfall they'll fall in. With their tired and drained bodies, all eighteen of them were bound to die and be eaten alive, like how their deceased friends passed a few moments ago. Most of them were not even ready, both mentally and physically. Considering the trauma they had witnessed earlier, one couldn't forget and move on from that too easily.
"Mister Krause, are you certain that the 'small town' we're headed to, is safe? No monsters there at all?" The girl, who was comforting Dylan earlier, asked. Her name was Maia and she seemed nice, though often likes to act all cute. Shio didn't get a good look at her earlier, but he now noticed her similar grey, flowy, long hair.
She had hair that was identical to the color Dylan possesses, their only difference was the color of their eyes. Dylan's was grey as smoke while hers was different from each other, she had heterochromatic eyes. It was blue on her left and yellow for her right.
Shio silently gasped at the sight of her two different colored eyes, he had never seen anyone his whole life with that rare condition. It was amazing to see how marvelous it looked, it was like the eyes of a cat. Hyuna turn to look at him as she heard him become surprised, "Hmm?"
He looked at her and shook his head. "It's nothing." He said as he returns his look on the unusual girl and to the old man.
"No need to be worry, miss. I've been there for so long and I have none that had attacked me yet!" He exclaimed, bursting into sudden laughter. As he was laughing, his face suddenly turns all grim, his mouth forming a frown upon his face. Everyone fell silent as soon as he stopped his laughter and looked at the old man warily.
He forced a smile again, chuckling as he muttered the words lowly, "I've been there for so long..."
It left most of them silent, not knowing what to say about what the old man had said. It was brief, but they could somehow feel pity towards him. His raspy voice sounded so sad, it was he was really trapped in here for so long, yearning to escape free from this world. Perhaps he must've missed living on the earth, together with his loved ones.
"Ahem..." Jarvis cleared his throat, gathering the attention from the others again as he points his lamp towards the direction in front of them. "We'll have to go through here."
Everyone looked at the old man weirdly as they all looked at where he was pointing at, it was nothing but a large thick bush in front of a tree.
"Wouldn't that lead us nowhere?" Shio asked, eyeing the old man slowly. He was getting more and more suspicious at him, especially now with him telling them to go through 'that'—the thick green bush in front of him.
"Hahaha. It's up to you, young man, whether you'll follow me through here. It's your choice, isn't it?" Jarvis teasingly said, laughing at the confused male, his hat was almost about to fall off from laughing. He quickly caught it by his free hand as he ducked lowly and moved into the bush. The others looked at each other all weirdly, Dylan only shrugged as he followed the old man into the bush.
"Sigh... This is weird." Shio said as he helps Hyuna get down a little as they try to go inside, only to be stopped by Hyuna. "It's okay Shio. I think I can make it from here, thank you."
She went on all fours and crawled towards the bush as Shio followed soon. The rest did so, too—what else were they supposed to do?
All nineteen of them were now crawling at the sudden change of height of the bush's tunnel-like twigs formed around them, it became shorter, forcing them to crawl their way out. Soon, they had reached the end of the tunnel of branches and were seeing a beam of light coming from the other side.
They instantly went out of there, one by one slowly going out as they try to help each other out making it faster for all of them to be free from it. There, they saw a rural town all brightly lit with stalls at every turn. It was like they were in a local fish market.
"Huh?"