"Yeah... Let's get to a safer place first, in case other demons are coming back to deliver humans here." Kevin suggested.
"Ah, I forgot about that fact..." Tony said while walking away from the cave. "Anyways, how many bombs do you even have?"
"None, after the bag with our supplies got buried under the rubble." Kevin said in a dejected voice.
"... I forgot about that too. I guess we'll have to start finding our food and water in the wilderness from now on."
"Tony, it looks like you have an unpleasant cut on your back. It's bleeding a bit." I remarked.
"Ah, that. It's just a scratch. It will heal over a bit of time, and I've been through worse than this many times." Tony brushed it off, not making a big deal out of it. Afterward, he ripped off the bottom of his shirt and bandaged up his wound. "Alright, let's go now."
We left the ruined cave and continued the journey, climbing the next mountain on our path.
While we were scaling the large mountain, we found a band of mountain goats. After killing the goats, we carried them in our arms. Each of us carried a goat in one arm, totalling 12 goats. This gave us enough food for at least a week if we rationed our food.
After the sun had set below the horizon, we stopped running and started preparing dinner made from a dead goat. Alesha cut up one of the goats, while Leo gathered small branches and dried sticks from the ground.
After getting the sticks and branches, he placed a bigger branch on the ground and spun a stick in the center of it with incredible speed. A small bit of smoke quickly rose into the air, and Leo lightly blew on the source of the smoke, making a small fire.
He threw another few sticks on top of the growing fire, creating a small campfire.
Afterward, we stuck large sticks into the pieces of goat meat and held them slightly above the fire.
After cooking the meat, we ate the bland dinner in silence, hearing only the slight crackling of the fire and the occasional chirping of birds.
Although we haven't found any water yet, our bodies could survive for a long time without any water.
When we were done filling our stomachs, we extinguished the fire. One person stayed awake to look out for any dangers, while the rest went to sleep on the hard ground.
****
[The next morning]
"Bryaaaan! Get up!"
The loud voice that echoed in my ears woke me from my slumber.
That night was the first night that I had dreamed since the deaths of my parents. In the dream, my parents were still alive, and we spent a very peaceful, happy day with each other. It was just like how any typical family would spend their day, but it was a surreal experience for me.
'Too bad it was a dream...'
The dream showed an alternative reality where we were never attacked by the prince. I would have stayed expressional and emotional, just like any other human.
"Come, come. We have to continue climbing the mountain early in the morning." Kevin said while shaking my shoulder.
"Yes, I know. I'm ready to go now."
To properly ration our food, we decided to skip breakfast for the following days.
Although we didn't eat anything in the morning, everyone still looked in tip-top shape, except for Tony who had a cut on his back, and Leo who looked groggy because he was on the lookout yesterday.
When the sun reached its zenith, we had long overcome the mountain, and we were on our way down.
We made a quick stop near a big boulder and made lunch with another goat.
After eating the dull food, we continued going down the mountain.
We hadn't seen any enemies today and by the time the sun had set, we already started scaling the next mountain.
The bland dinner didn't make the uneventful day any more remarkable, and we didn't stop running till the moon was right above us.
After finding a good, flat spot on the mountain, we made our camp there. Five of us slept until the next morning, while one spent a sleepless night on the mountain.
****
[The next morning]
Nothing changed about our schedule, and the group didn't talk much while getting over the mountain.
It was already the fourth day in the Cascade Range, and we were nearing the end of the mountains. After climbing this mountain and then descending it, we would finally be out of the mountain range.
Just like the previous day, nothing happened in the morning. We ate our food in silence and continued going up the mountain.
After a few hours, we reached the peak of the mountain and started to descend from it.
Not long after descending from the mountain, we saw a lengthy river streaming down the mountain. The river was just a few hundred meters to the left of us, so we easily reached the river within a minute.
"Great, we've finally found some water. The thirst was really starting to bother me." Kevin said before scooping up the water with his hands and drinking it.
Although the water wasn't completely clean, our bodies wouldn't get sick from drinking a bit of dirty water.
Everyone quickly began drinking the river water and quenching their thirst.
"Bleh, you can really taste the dirt in the water." Leo complained, but he kept drinking more water.
Kevin smiled leisurely.
"We'll have to deal with it. It's way better than dehydrating somewhere in the wild."
Since we didn't have anything on us that could carry water, we couldn't bring the water with us. Instead, we just followed the river down the mountain.
"Hahaha..." The tranquil sound of flowing water suddenly got interrupted by tumultuous laughter in the distance.
The group of humans glanced at each other, and without needing to say a word, everyone slowed down and sneakily got closer to the source of the laughter.
The laughter came from the left side of the river, slightly down the mountain. It seemed as though it came from behind a small hillock perpendicular to the river.
We quietly went around the hillock and spotted the source of the sound.
"Haha ~burp~ great! We've gotten..."
"Stooop! That's my...!"
"Just ~hic~ watch out! He's..."
There, a bunch of ogres laughed around while drinking something out of a barrel. Countless more demons stood around the ogres, each eating and drinking happily while shouting.
"There are far too many... Why the hell did they come here...?" Leo asked in shock.
Tony squinted his eyes.
"I don't know, but we shouldn't get any closer. There are way too many enemies here to fight."
Not only were there at least a hundred demons partying behind the hillock, but there were also even more than a dozen ogres around as well.
"Yeah, there is nothing that we can do to them without heavily risking our lives. We should just quickly go back to the river and follow it down the mountain." Kevin said after looking at the fest.
"Yes, definitely." Tony said after taking another peek at the mass of demons and ogres.
Everyone else slowly nodded their heads, so we ran away from the hillock, back to the river.
We quickly made it back to the riverside, but the laughter could still be heard, albeit a lot softer and quieter than before.
"Let's just ignore that for now. We just have to make it down the mountain first." Kevin said with a wry smile on his face.
The next few minutes felt quite awkward, even to me. Nonetheless, we didn't stop or change the way we ran down the river.
"Wait a second! Look!" Leo shouted while he stopped running.
He pointed to the left of us, right at a colossal crater in the ground that was a couple of hundred meters away from the river.
"I totally saw something green move into that hole in the ground."
"Huh, I don't see anything moving from here." Alesha said before narrowing her eyes.
"Because they're under the ground now! It was definitely an ogre or something!" Leo shouted. "Come on, let's find out what's going on!"
Leo then ran off towards the crater.
"Alright, we have to go now." Tony said in displeasure. He quickly followed Leo, and we followed after the both of them.
Not long after we started running, we reached the large crater. The crater easily had a diameter of over 2 kilometers.
Leo and Tony were already on the edge of the crater and were peering into it.
Tony turned around and said with a soft sigh: "We have good news and bad news. The good news is that there aren't any demons and ogres in sight. Bad news is..."
Instead of completing his sentence, Tony simply pointed to the crater, as if asking us to look inside and find it out for ourselves.
We got to the edge and looked down inside the crater.
As Tony said, there weren't any enemies in the crater, but there were countless amounts of small entrances and gateways that dug deeper into the ground, most definitely hiding even more demons and ogres.
Kevin pinched his glabella and sighed.
"Ah, shit. Not again!"