The sun was blinding for the first few minutes when they left the dungeon. Because of that, they were able to catch up with the other groups, as they waited for their eyes to adjust too. Although, even after their eyes adjusted, they stuck around until everyone's eyes were used to being in the natural light again.
Kim couldn't help but glance back at the dungeon. While it looked like it had been constructed with worked stone bricks on the inside, outside it looked like it hadn't been touched by people at all. All she saw was a weather beaten mountainside or cliff side. They were too close for her to determine which it was. Regardless, she could see that it would have been very difficult work to have tried digging their way out of it.
As Kim turned her attention back to the other groups, she briefly noticed the mournful expression on Bart's face. However he had tried to play off Michelle's death as nothing that affected him, it was clear he was grieving. Although, some of the words he'd said stuck with her. If he had thought out his words, she was quite sure he wouldn't have phrased it the way he had.
It was clear that he felt that he was the reason Michelle had died. Not very logical, but she did hear about people feeling that way from time to time. This was her first time seeing it firsthand, although, she wondered if he really felt like he brought misfortune or whatever on those with him, why was he willing to travel with others? It would make more sense for him to decide to continue on his own.
Kim shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She really wasn't going to get invested in the lives of others. Besides, he wasn't in her party, so if he did bring misfortune to those around him, then since he wasn't part of her team, then it really didn't matter.
"Now that we're all here, should we all travel together until we know what it's like out here? Or should we each go our own way and see what out here holds for us separately?" Owen asked.
"Let's go our own ways," Kim said, shifting Sonya in her arms. While Sonya was a lot lighter than she'd expected, even carrying 25 pounds would get tiring after a while, and Sonya definitely weighed more then 25 pounds.
"Would be good to see what out here is like on our own," Patricia said, a glint in her eyes as she glanced at Patrick told Kim she really didn't want to know what the girl had in mind for the guy she was travelling with as soon as they were out of sight.
"I wouldn't mind traveling with everyone," Elin whispered to Kim.
"Maybe, but right now I think we should see what this next part of this whatever is like by ourselves," Kim whispered back. "It may be nice having so many people, but at the same time, we need to be able to travel by ourselves as well."
Elin sighed. "Okay…" she said dejectedly.
"Well, if that's all there is to say, who wants to pick their path first?" Owen asked.
"Patrick and I will take the one that heads to the left," Patricia said, squeaking as Patrick grabbed her bottom, making Kim roll her eyes and Particia glaring at Patrick before grinning. It was clear both were eager to be away from the others.
"My group can take the one going to our right, which I think might be to the east, if your group is find with the center one," Jonas said before Kim really had a chance to even look for the paths on the ground. All she could see was that ahead looked like a forest of some kind.
"Sounds good, then my team will go on the center path and we all know which path we're taking," Owen declared. "Keep in mind, no complaining if our paths converge ahead. None of use know if any of our paths will connect anywhere on the way."
"Let's go," Kim declared, not wanting to engage in discussion about Owen's statement. She wasn't sure she wanted to pend her energy on that. For one thing, she was more interested in getting somewhere that she could put Sonya down, yet she knew that she couldn't do that just anywhere. Since If Sonya was just left anywhere, then she could get killed by some monster that happened to walk by.
"Would you like us to carry Heather or Sonya later?" Elmo asked.
Even though she was in the lead of their group, she rolled her eyes at Elmo's question and didn't respond. He should know that they weren't going to let him or Elin carry either of the two women that seemed to be catatonic at the moment, with their eyes as unfocused as they were.
She heard Jonas explain to the two why they weren't going to be given a turn carrying Heather or Sonya. Kim hardly paid attention to any of them. She just kept her eyes and ears focused on the trees around them as they walked into the forest before them.
From the way the trees looked, Kim estimated that this was a temperate climate and not tropical. It could be sub-tropical, but she doubted it. The day was warm, but the leaves of the trees provided shade for them, keeping it cooler, but still warm enough that Kim could feel herself starting to sweat under her leather clothing. It didn't feel very pleasant to her.
"Why's it so hot out here?" Elin complained.
Kim smirked. She could imagine Elin wasn't used to the heat. She doubted it was spring in this area, but wouldn't be surprised if it was summer. Either that or there was something around them that would make it hotter than it would otherwise be.
Normally she'd ignore such suggestions, even from her own mind, but with what they'd encountered so far, she couldn't put it past whatever patriarchal loser running this thing to do something that shouldn't be possible in any reality. As such, she couldn't help but wonder if it would get more unpleasant. Especially since with the heat, it was already starting to go past mere 'uncomfortable.'
"Uh, Kim?" she heard Elmo say.
"What is it?" Kim asked, not wanting to deal with whatever he was going to say.
"I think those are from monsters," she heard Elmo say.
"That's good," Kim replied, her mind needing a moment to fully process what Elmo said. As soon as she had, she stopped cold and turned around. "What's from monsters?"
"Uh, that?" Elmo asked, pointing to their left.
Kim looked and saw what looked like threads hanging from the trees. Some were clustered together, others were spaced several feet apart. All of them looked like thy just hung down.
"Why would you think those were from monsters?" Kim asked, acknowledging that it looked weird.
"Well, it makes me think of the game Half Life. Where there are creatures that had a thread or something hanging down and if you walk into it, you start getting pulled up where the creature can try to eat you. With us being in a forest, I thought those might be from giant spiders or something," Elmo answered seriously. "I don't know what to expect here, so I thought I'd mention it."
Kim nodded. "Thanks for letting me know," Kim said, glad that he mentioned it. She hadn't thought to look to their sides, and wouldn't have noticed that. As it is, as she looked around them, she saw more of that on their right too. She wasn't sure what exactly it was there for, but had a feeling that it might be a countermeasure in case what it was meant to trap tried to get away. After all, it wasn't on the path, which was clearly well worn, indicating something traveled along here often enough that the path kept being maintained.
So, Kim was sure that whatever had created those were probably ahead of them and was waiting for whatever passed by next. Kim waited a few minutes while she tried to determine what to do. They couldn't afford to get into a fight with Sonya and Heather being carried with them, yet Kim couldn't be sure that she and Jonas would be able to take whatever might come at them if they had Elin and Elmo guard the two women.
She didn't want to leave it to a vote either. On the other hand, it was possible that whatever had created the trap was gone and its trap hadn't fallen apart on itself yet. Kim doubted that was the case, but couldn't deny the possibility.
"Let's process cautiously. I don't want to turn back, but we might have to if we're going to avoid getting into a fight," Kim told the rest of her team.
"Can we take a rest?" Elin asked, her breathing ragged. "It's too hot!"
"We'll take a break when we get past the hanging threads, okay?" Kim said, not really sure how far that would be.
"Ugh, okay," Elin replied, not sounding particularly happy, not that Kim could blame her.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Kim said. "I don't want this to be an ambush. I'm hoping it'll be a trap that we can go around if we can, but it's better to be safe about it."
"I understand," Elmo and Elin said together.
Kim didn't hear anything from Jonas, so she assumed that he was in agreement about it. She didn't want to look at him to confirm, since that meant she'd have to take her eyes off of the path ahead, and she had a feeling that would be a bad idea. It almost felt like the entire forest was alive and ready to swallow them whole.