"What happened?" Was such a simple sounding question, yet Peter couldn't find enough words to construct and fill cohesive sentences.
Only a few frames popped clearly back in his mind, the rest of the scene was just a blur, so he started with the first thing he remembered from that night,
Earlier that evening:
"We're taking the east side, they are taking the west side and we'll meet in the middle, not that complicated when you think about it," said Peter in a calm but visibly irritated tone.
Theo stood in place behind him, put his arms halfway up and muttered, " Right... Sorry I asked,"
" Well, now that we've got the stupid questions out of the way, we can finally be on our way," retorted Peter in the same voice as Before.
His attitude and choice of words clearly annoyed Theo who, seemed to be acting like it was a casual conversation between them two nonetheless. They walked through the dark forest with a nonchalant air, unbotherd by the blackness surrounding them, their glowing eyes being the only flicker to brave the shadows.
"For how long do you think we'll keep doing this?" Theo's voice broke the silence once more.
"Just keep your head focused on the present," replied Peter, this time definitely more weary than before.
" Yes, I figured that out on my own thank you... But you know what I mean!"
"Shhh !" Peter cut him off and stopped dead in his tracks, Theo followed shortly after, looking down in an attempt to focalise his hearing.
But nothing further could be heard.
Instead, it was a smell that reached their nostrils, more of a stench, their facial expressions gradually twisted, they turned to look at each other, but neither one of them had any answers.
"It smells like..." started Peter.
"Death ?..." finished Theo.
"I don't think I have a better word for it, so we'll stick with that,"
" It's coming from this way," said Theo while slowly heading in the direction he had just pointed at.
Peter put a hand on Theo's chest as he was about to pass him, "Did you hear that?" he whispered.
It was Theo's turn to prick his ears up.
What followed was, a few seconds of silence, then and almost on cue, all hell broke loose.
First, a gut wrenching mix of a hiss and a growl, relatively distant but the two men still had to cover their ears.
Second came the cascade of gunshot sounds, all of that topped by a woman's high pitched scream.
It made every hair on their bodies stand, they looked at each other again for a split second before Theo launched him self forward, running towards the potential massacre.
"No wait!" screamed Peter in an attempt to catch his attention, but in vain, "Oh Hell!..." he explaimed before following his companion's tracks.
All he could see was Theo running ahead of him, he froze in place when he heard the sound of leaves violently shaking and branches breaking to his left, a scream of pain errupted just then and all he had time to see was his friend falling to his knees, then crashing face first onto the ground.
Peter ran up and crowched down near him, all the while frantically scanning everything around them in apprenhension, hoping that whatever had done that... Was gone.