Day 11: The Serpent
The quiet after James and his group left was almost oppressive. Eli sat with his back against a crumbling wall, his legs still trembling from the run, his mind racing with everything that had just happened. The nest, the betrayal, James's cold indifference—it all felt like too much to process. Luke was still beside him, staring at the ground, lost in his own thoughts.
Cass hadn't spoken since James left. She was standing a few feet away, her back to the group, her body still tense and coiled like a spring ready to snap. Eli could feel the exhaustion radiating off her, the weight of whatever unspoken burden she was carrying pressing down harder with each passing day. It wasn't just physical exhaustion—something deeper was eating at her.
The air felt too still, like the city itself was holding its breath. The red sky hung low over them, casting everything in a sickly glow, and the ruins around them seemed more silent than ever. Even the distant screeches of the Wraithkin had faded, leaving only an eerie, unsettling calm.
Luke broke the silence first. "I should've seen it coming," he muttered, his voice thick with regret. "James always talked about survival, but I didn't think he'd actually—"
"It's not your fault," Eli cut in, his voice steady but tired. "He was always going to do what he needed to survive. You couldn't have known he'd take it that far."
Luke's jaw clenched, but he nodded slowly. "Still… I trusted him. I thought we were all in this together."
"People do whatever they need to do in this world," Cass said quietly, still facing away from them. "Don't expect loyalty. You'll only get disappointed."
Eli wanted to ask her more about what she meant—about why she seemed to know all of this so well—but before he could, the ground beneath them began to tremble.
It was subtle at first, a faint vibration that seemed to ripple through the cracked pavement beneath their feet. Eli froze, his heart skipping a beat as he glanced around, his muscles tensing. "What was that?"
Cass's head snapped up, her body going rigid. She looked around, eyes narrowed, her hand already on her knife. "Stay quiet," she hissed, her voice sharp. "Something's coming."
Luke and Eli exchanged a nervous glance, their hearts pounding in unison. The tremors grew stronger, the earth shaking beneath them as if something massive was moving just below the surface. Dust and debris fell from the ruins around them, and Eli could feel his pulse quickening. Whatever was coming wasn't small. It wasn't like anything they had encountered before.
Then, the rumble intensified. The sound was deep and resonant, like the groaning of the earth itself, followed by a strange, rhythmic thudding that seemed to pulse through the air. Eli pressed himself closer to the wall, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but where could they go?
Luke was crouched beside him, gripping his machete, his knuckles white. "What is that?" he whispered, his voice barely audible.
Cass didn't answer. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, her body still and focused like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike. Then, as the rumbling reached its peak, the ground in front of them began to crack. A massive fissure split the street, and from the darkness below, something began to rise.
It was a snake—but not like any snake Eli had ever seen. Its pale white skin was almost translucent, glowing faintly in the red light of the sky. The serpent was massive, easily the length of a building, its body winding through the rubble with a slow, deliberate grace. But what chilled Eli to his core were its eyes.
The creature had two sets of eyes, dull yet sharp, their gaze cold and unfeeling as if it could see straight through anything—straight through him. The eyes didn't glow like the Wraithkin's, but they were unsettling in a way that made Eli's skin crawl, like they knew things he couldn't possibly understand. Its mouth was grotesquely wide, filled with rows upon rows of sharp teeth, far more than should have been able to fit inside its jaws. And behind it, three thick tails lashed the ground, each one moving with a mind of its own.
Eli's heart stopped. The sheer size of the creature, the impossibility of its form, left him paralyzed with fear. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The serpent's body wound around the shattered buildings, its scales scraping against the rubble, sending more debris tumbling down.
But it didn't seem to notice them.
Cass didn't move a muscle, her breathing controlled and slow, her hand motioning for them to stay perfectly still. Eli followed her lead, pressing himself into the wall, trying to make himself as small and invisible as possible. The serpent's massive head slithered past them, its dull eyes scanning the ruins, but it didn't turn toward them.
Don't move, Eli told himself, his heart hammering in his chest. Don't even breathe.
The ground continued to shake as the creature moved through the city, its massive form coiling and uncoiling as it went. The three tails lashed out, striking a nearby building and reducing it to rubble with a single blow. The sound was deafening, but the creature didn't seem to care. It continued on, its mouth opening slightly, revealing more rows of those horrible teeth.
Minutes passed, though it felt like hours. The serpent eventually slithered deeper into the city, its body disappearing into the distance, the rumbling fading with it.
When the sound finally stopped, the silence was almost unbearable. Eli's heart still raced, his body trembling from the tension. He slowly turned to look at Cass, whose gaze was still fixed on the horizon, her jaw clenched tightly.
"What… was that?" Luke asked, his voice shaky, barely louder than a breath.
Cass exhaled slowly, finally lowering her knife. "We don't want to find out," she said coldly. "It didn't see us. That's the only thing that matters."
Eli's mind whirled with questions, his body still shaking with adrenaline. "It just… left," he said, his voice quiet. "It could've destroyed everything."
Cass turned to face him, her expression unreadable. "Not everything in this world hunts. Some things just exist." She paused, her eyes softening for the briefest moment. "But when they do notice you, it's already too late."
Eli swallowed hard, the weight of her words settling over him. This world—whatever it had become—was filled with horrors far worse than he had imagined. He had thought the Wraithkin were the worst of it, but now he knew there were things out here that could crush them without even trying.
"Let's keep moving," Cass said, already turning away. "Before something else shows up."
Eli and Luke exchanged a glance, but they didn't argue. There was no time for questions now. Whatever that creature was, they had been lucky. And luck in this world didn't last forever.