I searched far and wide in the forest for Cal, but he was nowhere to be seen. A Pathogen lurked past me and I stood still. It had seen me but didn't attack for some reason.
I could see a flicker in another direction and so I ran up to it as quick as possible. There were people, but they were dead, cut open horribly. I turned in disgust to see someone lurking nearby. They knew I had seen them and so they crept closer, revealing themself to be Byul.
Byul and I talked, I was happy he was alive, as Cal would be really happy. Well, Kayla too I guess. I caught him up on what had happened while he was gone and I learned that he was in Kioka City after a horde of Pathogens chased him there and he barely made it to the gate and let in. He had been too scared to go back outside, and so he just signed up for the Pathogen Hunter job in an attempt to get stronger.
I told him that I knew of Cal's... "secret" and he was relieved he didn't have to hide it from me. We began walking away from the location and he told me of how his group left him behind while he was asleep, taking his supplies with them and how he thought he'd die. He said he smelt the blood and tried getting away from where I found him, but he knew I looked familiar from school.
I was about to speak, but he interrupted me by pointing ahead, I looked and could see Cal sitting on a log with Pika and Jian. We both ran up and I announced as loud as possible that Byul was here.
Cal and Byul hugged happily and Cal was so thankful you could just hear it in his voice as he spoke to Byul, he told Byul of Kayla and his concerns, and Byul listened. Pika and Jian were talking about some kind of music and I just watched the flames of their fire move ever so slightly. I backed up a bit as to not get burned by a falling ember or something.
My mind wavered on why the Pathogen from earlier had killed those two people but left me alone... it was so strange to me...
Cal shook me back into the real world and I looked around. "Yeah... I'm back... just daydreaming." Cal laughed and replied with a small joke. "Sorry, but it"s night, so you were... nightdreaming?" I laughed to amuse him before returning to the shackles and prison of my mind.
***
Everyone was sleeping, and I chose to stay awake to guard the camp. It's not like I'd slept at all since we got here anyway. I wasn't able to, perhaps it was fear or excitement? No one knows, no one cares. I didn't want to die like those people at that damn camp not too far away. It had killed them so fast that they didn't have the chance to scream... how could that happen so fast?
I heard a loud scream, and not a human one either. It sounded like a mutated Pathogen. One of the worst things in the world. A Mutated Pathogen is either really huge and slow or a bit bigger than usual and faster than it should be. They mutate when exposed to immense radiation or eat enough of their own damn species.
Cal, Byul, and Pika woke up to that same sound I had heard and were all standing upright, as they had just jumped up. Jian was still sleeping peacefully cuddling her pillow and snoring quietly.
Pika ran over and shook her until Jian woke up. Her eyes were slightly still closed and I could just feel a groggy aura lingering from her.
The wind picked up and blew one of the tents away. Jian's pillow was also blown away despite her desperate screaming. We turned in the direction of the wind and scream and began to make our way toward the source of the sound. We hid behind huge trees whenever the wind picked up again, as to not be blown away.
Cal ran ahead of us. We all began charging after him as he rounded a corner and stopped.
We stopped in our tracks from what we had seen.
That damn Mutated Monster was Big and Slow, swallowing people it just found whole. It was dragging all of it's fat along the ground with it, making an audible scraping sound.
For some reason... this thing... felt familiar.