The eerie silence of the night filled with the cracking of skulls and short breaths.
.....
Walking for over an hour, the energy they'd accumulated during the two hour break, was almost exhausted resulting in the silent walking.
"What now?"
That question seemed to penetrate the silence more so than the cracking of skulls.
"We were never really meant to survive, were we?"
"Hahaha, so much for trying."
Alpha and his group had been walking behind, when the parade suddenly stopped and the question echoed. They couldn't tell what was happening, looking at Ciru's watch, the two hours were yet to tick by.
A second later more murmurs, miserable laughs and scared voices filled the night.
Alpha wasn't that tall, atleast compared to most of his classmates, so he couldn't really tell the cause of the commotion. Judging by his teacher's face that always seemed calm and collected but now showed a bit of terror and hopelessness, he guessed that it couldn't have been something good.
In order not to step off the path, Alpha calmly shoved some of his classmates aside walking towards what appeared to be the cause.
Immediately after afront the group, a miserable smile appeared on his face as he turned his head around to see if his group was seeing what he was. Tony just stood there dumbfounded, Ciru's eyes were filled with terror and fear, but Dan's expression was one that no one would've expected or would display in this kind of situation, calm.
Alpha didn't linger on their expressions and gazed back at what everyone was looking at.
By this time everyone had gone silent and only their breathing could be heard.
The seemingly safe haven, or rather the path they believed to have been safe on, was no more. It was a now a dead end, with only the red forest laying beyond
...
Why is everything in this place so much against us, What did we do wrong? Is this really our fate? Mrs Taiyo whispered, she couldn't find a reason why everything was happening the way it did. Just hours ago they'd supposedly found that string of hope they could hold onto, now everything seemed to crumble. The smiles that'd crept on the kids faces were now disappearing. I wish I knew how she had activated that ability, even if they wouldn't really have helped us that much, they could've at least give them some hope.
Mercy had tried her best to explain how her ability activated, inspite that, everyone who tried it ended up failing. Mrs Taiyo had also tried a couple of times but to now avail.
"Atleast we can say we tried, and can now wait patiently for death to claim us" Margret, still trying to put on a facade, said.
No one bothered with her remark, this time she was kinda right, the only reason they were still alive was simply because of the path, but now it was gone. They couldn't dare go forward nor could they turn back.
"Let's rest here, I'll figure it out come morning" With a calm expression, Mrs Taiyo said.
"Figure what out exactly? We're stranded in this hell and at this point there's only one of two things we can do, and everyone knows it already." Margret retorted.
This time, not even Ciru could back her. It was evident that there was nothing else to be done.
Staring at the dead end before them, she continued.
"It's either we stay here and wait for a slow death by starvation or we go through the forest in the morning and hope that night doesn't fall before we make it out, if there's an end that is."
Mrs Taiyo was speechless, she couldn't watch them sterve, but watching them die like how Lucy did, left a bitter taste in her mouth.
"I don't plan on starving, I'd rather be judged for trying than die like a coward and plus this was already an inevitability, we would've stepped in that forest for food one way or another" With brown dreads and a body slightly larger than the other kids, Mac said.
"Us too" Alpha backed, surprising everyone. He had his hand wrapped around Ciru's neck, who didn't seem to have a problem with it, even after Alpha declared going through the forest with her.
"I also choose the forest."
Margret saying that didn't come as a surprise to anyone as everyone knew how much she liked challenges and mysteries.
"Count us in, right man?" Tony said looking at his close friend.
"Yeah."
....
This went on for about ten minutes, and soon everyone had decided to risk it in the forest. They were all scared, but that wasn't really gonna help them find a way back.
Mrs Taiyo didn't say anything about it, she also knew even if going through the forest was the riskiest, it was the only way, after all they couldn't stay on the path for the rest of their lives.
"We rest for the rest of the night and risk it come morning."
As those words from Margret echoed around the forest, everyone started forming into groups and finding places that were a little less uncomfortable.
Alpha, sitting together with Ciru, Tony and Dan, gazed at the sky. There wasn't anything anyone could talk about and so the earie silence engulfed the night.
Everyone sat quietly seemingly lost in their own world.
What was there to be done, soon as they arrived in this hell, their fates were sealed. And now only by luck were some of them gonna make it. But not trying was easy as committing suicide.
....
Mrs Taiyo sat alone on a small hill of compiled skulls, her face grim and her thoughts on the day she was handed this class.
Smiles from both the parents and kids after the selection had filled the hall.
Teaching them about life and all the wonderful things the world had to offer since they were toddlers was supposedly the best time in her life.
"You know this isn't your fault, right?
This could have startled her before, but now, the best it could do was draw her out of her trip back to memory lane.
She turned her head around with a miserable smile and stared at Billie who stood there still holding onto the chunk of meat from before that was now almost gone.
"Yeah." with a modulated voice Mrs Taiyo answered. Of course it wasn't her fault, she couldn't have known about this trip. The reason she blamed herself was only because of how powerless she was. She was going to lead them and mach them to their deaths, still staying here was a definite no.
The problem that really faced them was the cowboy and the obvious predictors that lurked in the forest.
What could she really do if they stumbled upon a lion, a bear, a tiger and all the other predictors that would tear any prey on sight.
Why was nature this crue? Thrusting them in an ocean full of sharks and the only thing it gave them for protection was hypothetical abilities that only one person could activate, and to make it worse, it seemed like even if Mercy tried to hide it Mrs Taiyo could see her experiencing some kind of draw backs.
Before she could finish her trail of thoughts though she was abruptly engulfed in a blinding light that appeared the same as the one that had brought them here, but this time it wasn't crimson but white.
...
"Did you see that?"
"Are we back home?"
"I don't think we were relocated again." After the light dissipated, the first thing Alpha looked at was the sorroundings, but was rather disappointed. Their location was still the same, the skulls were still uncomfortable and the red forest still stood.
"Did anyone else see that woman's shadow?" Margret asked, still trying to seem as calm as possible.
'Come to think of it, I saw a shadow in that room, but I don't think it was a woman. What or who was that?' Alpha pondered before asking Ciru who sat there absent mindedly.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, you saw her too right?"
"Her? Nope I think it was man's shadow" Alpha answered looking for validation from the guys that sat before him who nodded simultaneously.
"Nope it was a man"
"That was a woman"
The kids argued for a bit before understanding the situation. For the girls they saw a woman's shadow and for the boys a man's.
...
After the light flushed, this time, no one lost consciousness but instead they all seemed to have been trapped in separate, endless white rooms where they saw a shadow before being pulled back a second later.
"I think I know how to activate my ability" extending her hand, Ciru touched one of the skulls, which in turn generated a meter high fountain.
This time her fingers didn't requidify but she could feel her warm blood rushing throughout her entire bloodstream.
"It seems like you're not the only one."
"I think I now have one too."