Chapter 11
Third POV
Emma was still shivering, looking at the creature's dead body as Matt came down from the tree, he was in and placed the gun back in the holster strapped to his left thigh. He took out a small pocketknife and cut the beast open, carefully removing the fur from its body and decapitating it. As its blood poured onto the ground, he used it to pour around them, as the monsters had a sort of agreement about not attacking another's hunting ground marked with their blood. Matt ignored the scared Emma, until he was done, spilling all the blood left in it.
It took two minutes in total, but their position was completely covered in blood, so he didn't have to worry about the smoke attracting more beasts to their location. No sight of demons yet, which made him feel relieved as yet. He looked at Emma, moving his hand to ruffle her hair, but she moved backwards. He felt like it was a normal reaction and continued to cut the beast into equal sizes as best as he could with the knife in his hands. Emma looked surprised at him, placing the pieces of meat on sticks, and placing them near the fire, as the heat would slowly cook them.
"Why are you eating it?" Emma asked him, she was pretty sure they weren't meant to be eating them. "There isn't any food to eat." Matt shrugged, turning the sticks around to make sure that all the meat was prepared well. "Seeds, nuts? Don't they count as food?" She asked him, pointing towards the bushes that had strawberries growing on them, which Matt found strange, as plants had stopped producing food after a while.
"Weird." He mumbled, picking one of the food sticks, blowing the meat and started eating it, as he used its blood to bring out the taste of the food, due to not having any spices on him, so he had to improvise. He went near the strawberry bushes and gently poked them, making sure it wasn't any sort of illusion. He picked up one and squashed it and watched its watery form stain his hands, smelling sweet. He waited for a while, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. He proceeded to walk away from the bush and continue eating it, offering some meat to Emma, who refused.
Matt could tell that Emma wasn't aware of people eating the monsters after they were killed, since they were the only source of food. In this world, the role of prey and predator are changeable depending on the environment and both species' overall strength, as a smart person can easily be overpowered or could break down from trying to face a monster on their own. The eating of monsters helps increase one's physical abilities, but not all the time. It was a huge gamble on one's life when they decide to eat a monster, as they could end up acting like one and go as far as eating their comrades after their digestive system had fully dissolved it with the hydrochloric acid in their stomach, which would take an hour or two for the effects to happen, either good or bad, it makes every cautious of monster eaters. "How-" He paused, not knowing how to phrase it to Emma, who walked over to the strawberry bushes with her bare feet touching the blood around them, which hadn't dried up yet.
He didn't feel too worried, as the scent would help her stay safe, but he wasn't sure why she wanted to try the strawberries, everything about it seemed off, which was a great way of describing his world. Emma grabbed one of the strawberries from the bushes, she looked at it, ready to put it in her mouth. As she was about to put it in, Matt noticed the strawberry was glowing black, which made him stand up quickly and slapped it out of her hand. "What was that for?" Emma asked him in a surprised voice, "Also, ouch. That hurts a lot." She added.
"I was saving you, and you sound more like an angsty tween than a toddler." He looked at her skeptically, he wanted to continue the conversation, but they had other things to worry about. Especially since the glowing strawberry started to grow rapidly, roots spread out through the ground and were heading for their direction. Matt grabbed Emma and leaped onto the nearest tree, which surprised the little girl as humans weren't meant to jump that high without a person or object boosting them in the process.
"You could have allowed me to eat her, and you would have been spared from being eaten."
An old eerie voice spoke, belonging to the dark strawberry, the roots started to twist around one another, like it was a sweater being stitched by a loving grandma. Although a sweater won't want to squeeze you dry and use your blood to make it more powerful. Its overall appearance was practically a plank of wood with two huge holes at the top, which were clearly its eyes as pitch black eyes stared right back at them, which scared Emma a lot, as she held onto Matt tightly for her dear life. Its mouth was sealed, but it opened, revealing a cruel smile and sharp teeth that made even Matt shiver a bit, and he had seen a lot of monsters, which speaks a lot to what they are facing currently.
"Little one, come here." It said in a hypnotic voice, which was starting to have an effect on Emma, as her eyes weren't blank, and she tried coming down from the tree, but Matt managed to stop her and smacked her on the head. "Ouch." Emma said, glaring back at him. Matt didn't care, as he was just relieved that she was able to control herself again. He was very sure that the wood creature thought otherwise, as its cruel smile turned into pure rage.