It took a few minutes of laying down for the group to settle their nerves, after the sounds had stopped, finally. They were lucky there weren't any opportunistic creatures nearby, or perhaps the wildlife were just as fearful of that… thing… as they were. Hinata, Lev, and Yachi took a moment to regroup themselves before they finally spoke, Lev's words ringing in their head still.
"What was that?" Lev asked, still tinged with fear.
"I don't know. I don't know." Yachi mumbled.
"I don't want to know." Hinata stuttered.
Lev gulped.
"Do you…" he struggled to articulate. "Do you think it killed them?"
Hinata thought back to the waiver. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves.
"I mean I had heard the rumors," Lev continued, panicked. "But I never thought they were actually true."
A moment passed between them, each breathing heavily, trying to reclaim their nerves. Finally, Hinata stood up.
"We need to keep moving." Hinata said, with a look of previously unseen focus in his eyes.
I cannot fail , he thought to himself. Whatever that was, we can avoid it if we stay cool .
"We can take another route and avoid the area where the sounds came from." Hinata continued.
The two nodded nervously and got back up on their feet. After a brief moment of scanning which direction to go, they took off. As they bolted through the woods, there were still occasional sounds that spooked them, similar to the one before, but they steeled themselves to continue going, to not get lost in the fear. Hinata was grateful there weren't any further encounters with the fearsome wildlife. There was a moment where Yachi appeared to be getting too far ahead.
"Yachi, wait!" Hinata said, trying to run a little faster to catch up to her. He had almost caught up to her when he felt himself falling, having tripped over a particularly tough mushroom that he hadn't noticed. Yachi turned around and stopped, concern on her face as she bent down to examine Hinata. Lev caught up not long after. Pain emanated from Hinata's knee.
"Oh god are you okay?" she asked, rolling up his shorts slightly. "Let me take a look."
"What happened?" Lev asked, concerned.
"He tripped over something trying to get to me." Yachi said. She looked at his knee, covered in a pretty bad scrape. "He scraped his knee pretty bad." She pulled out her bag, and produced a small bottle of clear liquid, spraying it on the scrape. Hinata winced a bit at the sting. She then pulled out some bandages and wrapped them around his knee. "I sprayed it with some disinfectant." she continued wrapping the bandages around. "Do you want some painkillers?" She asked.
Hinata shook his head, to which she briefly touched her hand on his knee. He cringed with pain.
"That's a yes then." she slightly unwrapped the bandages, before taking out a container with some sort of cream. She applied it generously to the scrape before reapplying the bandages. After a few seconds the pain in his knee went away.
"Wow, that worked really well." Hinata marvelled.
"Are you able to keep going?" she asked.
"Yeah, we can go." Hinata said. Lev pulled Hinata from the ground. "Let's go." Hinata declared.
The group resumed their speedy run through the forest. They passed by more mushrooms, but something was changing about the forest. They noticed more and more flowers, and the shade of the leaves on the trees were darkening, now more a royal blue. As they ran, they also began noticing dead animals. There were those isopod-like creatures strewn about, but there were also birds strewn about as well. Eventually they stumbled across a horrifically mutilated body, stopping them in their tracks.
"What the hell happened here?" Lev said, his disgust evident.
"What even was that?" Yachi said, tinged ever so slightly with horror. "I can't even make out what it is."
It wasn't long after that that they heard the sounds of slow footsteps. They turned around to see a boy slowly creeping out from a hiding space. He had horror on his face. As he got up, he raised his hands to the air to indicate surrender. His expression was a mixture of terror and relief. He slowly stepped closer to them, his green hair and clothes tinged red from blood. Otherwise he appeared to be free of injuries.
"Please help me!" he cried. He pointed to the mangled corpse in front of them. "He was one of my teammates."
The group's faces twisted with horror upon realizing the mass of entrails in front of them was once a human teenager, just like them.
"What happened to him?" Hinata asked, gulping down fear.
"There's another applicant… a kid… he's going around…" The kid choked on his words.
Lev's eyes went wide.
"You mean-" he was cut off.
"You probably heard the sounds he made." the kid said.
"You mean that was an applicant?" Hinata asked.
"Yes." the kid stuttered.
The group went silent for a moment, contemplating the horrific news given to them.
"What's your name?" Hinata asked the kid.
"Yamaguchi. Tadashi Yamaguchi." he stuttered. "Can you please help me?" Yamaguchi begged.
"What do you need?" Hinata asked, trying to comfort him.
"There's a station halfway through the forest where you can go if you want to withdraw." Yamaguchi said.
"There is? I didn't know that." Hinata said.
"Can you please help me get there? It's on the way to the finish so it won't slow you down. I don't have a map anymore, but it's marked as a clearing on the map, halfway between where we started and the research facility." He reasoned.
It sounded reasonable enough.
Hinata briefly pulled out the map. It's there , he thought.
"Alright, guys, we're gonna help this kid out!" Hinata declared, taking control of the situation. Lev and Yachi nodded their heads, agreeing.
"You think you can keep up with our pace?" Hinata asked the boy.
"I'll try." Yamaguchi said.
The group took a moment again to look at the corpse before deciding to head off. They sprinted in the direction of the clearing and began their journey there. The forest was eerily quiet as they made their way there. The once faint sound from that rogue participant was no longer there, much to the group's relief. Yamaguchi managed to keep up with their pace, albeit trailing slightly behind Lev. They passed by many small ponds and such, at one point stopping to have some water. The pond water was remarkably clean, cleaner than any freshwater body Hinata had ever seen. He supposed there was some sort of spring or something like that nearby. After the short break they continued their trek, eventually reaching the clearing. They immediately noticed something odd.
"Where's the station?" Hinata asked Yamaguchi.
"I-" the boy was cut off.
"Excellent work Yamaguchi." they heard a voice call out.
In front of them, in the clearing, emerged a tall and lanky boy, with blonde hair, and a frightening smirk on his face. He looked at them like prey.
"You brought me some toys." The blonde boy said.
Horror dawned on the group as they helplessly watched the boy transform. His limbs elongated several times their length, becoming spider-like appendages that lifted his body several meters above the ground. The boy's ribs elongated as well, protruding through his skin until they became a mass that resembled a jaw of spiny teeth located on his chest. His skull began to elongate as well, becoming a long, thin spike, with the eyes only barely resembling what they use to be. His teeth became needles protruding from his jaw. The mass of bones and jaws lurched towards them, letting out a blood-curdling chime, worse than the one they had heard before. One thing echoed in their minds.
We're going to die.