Even though he couldn't remember his childhood, he had never believed him to be one of those people that believed in urban legends.

He was pretty sure that about half of the urban legends in the region were simply the result of people being high and/or drunk, or it was folktales parents would tell a disobedient child to make them listen. It made sense, and it made even more sense when you heard the stories people would cook up around the campfires.

He thought they were just simply legends, that they had no truth or substance to them.

Until he experienced it for himself.

After years of working on missions and all types of sketchy people, in sketchy areas. They had long learned that their gut feeling was one of the most reliable instincts they had.

If they didn't consciously realize that something was off, then it was their gut instinct that would set off the alarms in their head. Sure, they didn't know what was making them feel wary, but at the same time, it had to be something that their subconscious had recognized as worrisome.

More than once, it was their gut instinct that had helped them notice a stalking animal or an upcoming ambush.

So it was an understatement to say that they trusted their gut instinct.

And they didn't know what it was.

But it was like their gut instinct was practically clanging pots and pans in their head as the alarm bells went off. Practically screaming that everything about the town was just wrong.

He pursed his lips as he stared at the empty town," Hey…"032 said slowly, resisting the urge to shuffle on his feet," Is it me, or is there something off about the town?" that was an understatement.

There was something about the town that made him want to just turn around and go back to the camp. But it was relieving to hear that he wasn't the only one that was getting an odd feeling from the town. At the same time, it was even more concerning to know that they collectively agreed that something was wrong.

"Its…"032 trailed off as he looked at the surroundings, his confusion increasing as he did so,"…I can't hear the trees…"

That caught their attention, and much to their horror, they realized that 032 was right.

Collectively, they were staring at the nearby forest. It was less than twenty feet away from them, and it was a windy day so the branches and leaves were moving wildly.

But yet.

It was completely silent.

They could see the leaves rustling, the branches moving with the wind, but it was completely silent as if someone had pressed mute on the world. If it wasn't for the fact that they had heard each other speaking mere moments before, they would have thought that they had collectively gone deaf.

"10 minutes," 001 said quietly, looking as unsettled as the others felt," 10 minutes and we're leaving."

Yeah, they had no problems with that.

They would have preferred that they didn't enter the town at all, but they had been sent to the town to pick up some supplies, and apparently, they were the only ones that could be trusted to pick them up. (Aka, everyone else was busy.)

It got worse when they walked into town.

There were baskets and woven trays left all over the place, placed as if they were put down for a quick errand or task, only to be never picked up again. It was even weirder when they realized that even the baskets on the ground were pristine, there was not a single speck of dust on the surface. It was like its owner had just cleaned it before placing it down.

006 peaked into one of the few open windows and was completely ready to leave when he saw hot steaming plates on the table, smoke still emanating from the adjacent kitchen.

001 looked down at the ground, fully expecting to find footprints as he was starting to think that somehow, the village had caught wind of their upcoming arrival, and promptly evacuated.

He blinked once, and then twice.

The ground was bare.

It didn't have any footprints, nor did it show any sign of footprints being covered up. The ground was as smooth as the ground that was far out in the desert, miles away from any human interaction.

It was windy, but it wasn't windy enough for the sand to be blown over any possible footsteps.

They noticed the way 001 was staring at the ground, and it didn't take long before they were also staring down at the ground, completely and utterly confused.

"What the fuck?"

032 summed it up wonderfully.

001 glanced behind them, and nothing was cleared up when he saw their footprints in the sand. Looking forward, he scuffed his boot into the dirt, and that only confirmed the fact that the dirt was impressionable.

Meaning that even if it had been a windy day, there still should have been footprints remaining from the villagers. The closer he looked at the ground, the more he realized that it looked like someone had covered up their tracks inhumanly perfect, to the point where it looked like it had been untouched for weeks on end.

"Oh," He turned towards 032, who was looking in another direction," There's someone there." He looked in the same direction and noticed a man, maybe in his early twenties, standing about ten meters from them.

As soon as he set his eyes on him, there was something that was off.

006 grabbed 032's arm before he approached the man, and just as the younger boy was going to protest the contact, it wasn't long until he stopped as well.

The man…

There was something off about him.

Off enough where it made everything about the town seem trivial.

The longer they looked, the more the man seemed off.

His limbs were too long and thin for his height. He had the legs of an awkward teenager, long and thin with his legs looking like they didn't match his upper body. It was like he was wearing a pair of legs that were too big for him, the waist-to-leg ratio being severely unbalanced. His arms were the same, long and thin with his upper arms being too thin for his shoulders.

His face was the worst.

It was like his eyes were the wrong shade of brown, the wrong shape even, with them being too far apart. His jaw looked like it was too big, not as if he had a pronounced jaw, but as if he had taken it from someone bigger than himself.

It was like their brains were telling them that they were looking at a human, while simultaneously saying that the human looked inhuman.

For the first time since he had become 001.

He took a step back out of pure fear, anything to get away from the thing that was looking at them.

The man took a step forward, and without any hesitation, 001 rose his gun and let a few bullets rip through the man's body. His shoulders jerked back when the bullets hit him, but he paid no mind to the way he had been shot, it was like they had thrown pebbles at him instead of bullets.

Upon seeing that the man was still standing, 032 and 006 shot at him as well, but somehow, despite the dozen rounds ripping through him, the man was still standing. 001 shot at him one more time, and his head flung back.

They knew that something was definitely wrong when the man's head flung back. They had shot enough people in the head to know that when someone was shot in the head, no matter the angle, their skull would explode on the opposite side. A headshot was always accompanied by blood spray, bone fragments, and grey matter flinging all over the place.

There was nothing.

His head flung back, but he remained on his feet.

Slowly, it brought its head back up and looked at them. The very distinctive hole in its head was not leaking blood as it should have, and now that they noticed, none of the other wounds were leaking blood as well.

Its face twisted in rage, and 001 found himself almost wincing in pain after he barely dodged the blade that had been thrown at him. The wet sensation on his cheek told him that he had escaped by the skin of his teeth.

It bared its teeth, teeth that looked too long for its mouth before it crouched down an-

He woke up.

And with absolutely no explanation of how, he, along with 006 and 032 were left lying in a cave entrance. The three of them woke up at the same time, and if it wasn't for the fresh cut on his cheek, along with the claw marks on 006's neck, and a missing chunk of hair from 032.

They would have thought it was a dream.

For a few minutes, all they could do was sit in silence, exchanging looks and eyeing each other as they tried to process just what the hell happened. The marks on 006's were a bright red, it was as if it had dragged its claws over his skin before pulling away. 032's scalp was bleeding from where the chunk of hair had been ripped out, but that, like 001 and 006's wounds was easily concealable.

Without exchanging a single word between the three of them, they returned to Camp and faced the consequences of leaving without orders.

They never spoke about the incident again.

Nor did they ever see that town again, not in person, and not on the maps.