Tens, maybe even more than that of those flesh-eating creatures were now making their way inside the forest. One of their own was leading them, a hefbis wearing armor and holding a spear. I should have known that those cultists would have done something to prevent Sam and his soldiers from wiping out all of those mutants, and now, when all of the people that were defending the south were forced into a bunker, the hefbis took over the wasteland.
Suddenly, a branch snapped behind me, making me turn around only to find nothing. It was strange, I clearly heard a branch being snapped and yet there was no snapped branch on the ground anywhere near me as if everything was just in my head. Finding nothing, I turned back to watch the hefbis making their way deeper into the forest, letting my mind wander as I start to believe that I had imagined that sound. All sounds had ceased together with the relative calmness of the forest as soon as the horde made its way through the forest making me feel as if I was just a resident of a god-forgotten place and now, the evil had come to take away my peace.
The more I watched the hefbis, the stranger my body felt, as if I was slowly but surely losing control over it. A second later, I reached up and touched my own face, trying to convince myself that I wasn't having a nightmare, and unfortunately for all of us, I was right, this was indeed real.
A moment later, the same sound of a branch being walked on by something heavy was heard, this time though I didn't turn around, instead I decided to wait and see if something would happen, and most importantly to see if I indeed heard something.
Thankfully I didn't have to wait for more than a minute before something resembling a badly burned hand grabbed my should ring to drag me to the ground. Before whatever put its hand on me could get the upper hand and actually drag me to the ground, I grabbed the hand with both of my hands before throwing the creature forward.
I wasn't going to turn myself into dinner for those tens of hefbis and because of that, I threw my automatic back over my shoulder, before taking my trusting knife and slashing at the creature, cutting right through its thin flesh. Unknowingly to me, the hefbis wasn't alone, not even close to that, and while I was cleaning my knife, another strange-looking hefbis went down on one knee aiming a long tube towards me before a loud gunshot was heard alerting the entire horde.
By some dumb luck, the bullet missed me entirely, finding its way into one of the trees, but it was already too late, as the tens of hefbis that were once walking after their leader, were now charging towards me, ready to devour my body. Only a fool would stand his ground and fight against so many enemies, so before the hefbis could reach me, I start running as fast as my legs could go, putting some distance between us, when out of nowhere a loud, deep shout, made all of the creatures that were after my body to stop and turn around, leaving me be.
For some reason, I didn't calm down, not even a little. Mostly because it was way too strange considering just how animalistic these creatures were, and yet here they were abandoning their prey as if I wasn't worth the trouble. If my past year or so of fighting against the grounders taught me something, is that you should always prepare for another fight, even if your enemies run away.
Just as I was about to return to the village, I saw a blurred shadow moving across the tree line, and it wasn't human, though – the shape was wrong and the movements were too agile to be a hefbis either. I quickly grabbed my rifle and aimed in that direction trying to use my eyes and ears to see and hear whatever was there, alas to no result as whatever creature that was disappeared without a trace. I don't know how much time passed, but once I turned my body around I saw the same shadow closer, and before it could disappear again I pressed the trigger, firing in its direction.
The bullets seemed to have hit the creature, but whatever it was didn't seem all that bothered by the wounds, instead, it felt as if I was firing at a ghost. fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, so before my strange enemy could close the distance between us again, I blind fire behind me. At first, I thought that I hunch was a miss, but a few seconds later something hit the ground loudly.
Once I was sure that there was no one else besides me there, I approached the body and to my surprise, the creature look rather humane, other than its reptilian-like arms and legs. However, as soon as I was within grab reach, the creature's eyes opened before grabbing my leg.
He tried to get to his feet, but immediately collapsed on the ground, screaming in pain, shot through both knees. Not wanting to take another chance at being grabbed, I pressed the barrel of the rifle to his head and pulled the trigger, hopefully ending whatever this creature once and for all.
With the immediate threat killed, I dragged my tired body back to the village. Not even a second after I walked past the makeshift wall, I saw Madi aiming one of the rifles at me. She looks quite cute being all that serious, considering that the rifle was just slightly bigger than she was. Nevertheless, she could still injure an intruder if they are to stand in place just as I was right now. Like always, I wave at her before making my way toward our hut.
"Leon? You are late!"
"This just keeps getting worse..."
"Everything all right?"
"Sorry, Clarke, it's… remember that time after Mount Weather when you became Wanheda and I left Arkadia together with Zoe and Sergey?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I don't remember if I told anyone about what we had done there, but long story short, we fought against some pretty nasty creatures. Creatures that were once humans, but due to the radiations they mutated into something else. We fought against them for months before we decided to return back home. Unfortunately, for us, those very same creatures venture north and right now, they are inside this forest. Whether we like it or not, we would have to fight them sooner or later, and believe me, Clarke, it won't be easy, no matter how good we are."
"Another fight? Even now after the death wave, we will have to fight humans…"
"Monsters, Clarke. Well, I guess after my short meeting with them, there'll be a few less to worry about."
"What are we going to do?"
"What we have always done. We survive."