Author's Note: Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! For those who find Zack's journal entries boring, hopefully this will one be slightly more interesting!

On another note, FF(dot)Net has an pretty neat feature that breaks down my visitors by country. Of course, I can't tell who is from what country, but it is really the coolest thing to see that people from all over the world are reading (or at least clicking on!) the stories. If nothing else, it just goes to show that Final Fantasy VII is truly an international fandom. I have visitors from Australia, Singapore, Germany, Austria, Russia, Qatar, Latvia ... just to name a few! So, thank you to all my local and international visitors. It is really awesome to see you all here. :)

Chapter Eight

Zack's Journal, Day 6

You know, ever since Harley came back with that freaky report, I've been kinda feeling uneasy about this whole place.

I know it doesn't make sense. I mean, a monster's a monster, right? Even the ones hyped up on Mako and Lifestream aren't anything to be especially afraid of – they're just stronger, faster, and meaner. But that's why we've got Firsts. That's why I'm here. And two Thirds to back me up aren't anything to sneeze at, either.

But … Oh, I dunno. Maybe I'm starting to get restless. Cabin fever setting in, or something.

The guys seem to feel it too, though. Everyone glancing over their shoulders, looking twice into shadows we're already familiar with … There's some kinda tension here, but no one knows why.

I've been trying to dismiss the whole thing, lighten up the mood. Everyone plays along, but they all know what I'm doing. Just trying to make each other feel better, I guess. We can see it in each other's eyes, though, that … wary look. Like something's out there. Something's going on that we can sense but not see.

Angeal spoke to me once about a SOLDIER's senses. Said they were important, to trust your feelings. I always thought I had, but now I'm wondering, how do I know what it is I'm really feeling? How do I know it isn't just me? And if it is something, what the heck do I do about it? I dunno what they're trying to tell me.

… Leave this place.

Maybe that's it.

But I can't. I've got a mission to do.

Anyway, about Harley's report … We'd gone scouting again, trying to locate the monsters, any sign of the people who have vanished, evidence of their remains … heck, even a Lifestream spring that might be the source of any mutations. Again we'd split up into groups. And again, we didn't do much more than struggle through the forest and knock off the occasional monster.

Thankfully, we didn't have any more swarm problems!

Well, about … mid-afternoon, I guess, I had everyone take a break back at the temple complex. We were all getting irritable at the lack of progress, and Allen was starting to develop blisters that needed to be treated, anyway. It's too easy to do that here, with all the humidity! We've taken to drying our socks out over the fire at night, otherwise they'd still be wet the next morning.

Harley had stepped away from the group to get some fresh air. … If I'd been thinking, I would have sent someone with him, but I figured he could use some space after bickering with Stover about something stupid, which I can't remember at the moment, so I let him go.

I think it was probably about ten minutes later that he came running back, as white as a ghost.

He said he hadn't gone too far from the clearing, just a few minutes out, when he'd stumbled onto what he thought was the freshly-killed carcass of a wild boar, and something else standing over it.

The "something else" was almost as large as the boar, he said, but thinner, with thick, tan fur, a long, furry tail, and large, alert ears. It had relatively long arms and legs, but it was crouched down, with its front claws buried in the animal. The thing that really spooked Harley, though, was that when he first saw it, he thought it had the head of a boar. But when it whipped around to stare at him, the head was clearly much shorter and more catlike, with a little muzzle and nose, and large eyes in a black face.

And the eyes … they were solid black too.

When it saw him, Harley said it scrunched up its face in fury, narrowed its eyes, and opened its mouth wide, baring needle-sharp teeth in a piercing hiss. It scuttled rapidly toward him, and Harley was afraid it was going to attack. He hadn't had his weapon ready, so he fumbled with it, trying to bring it up to aim at the thing … when it suddenly quickened its pace, galloped forward … and leapt past him into the trees.

I asked him why he used "scuttled" as the word to describe the way it moved, if it was some kind of large cat. That's when he said that it wasn't a cat at all – the long legs had been splayed out to the side in a very unnatural manner. They'd only properly drawn under it when it broke into a run. He'd never seen an animal move like that before, and had no idea what it was.

He called it unnatural. Said that the thing's face reminded him of something, but couldn't quite place what it was.

In going over to examine the boar, he described the wretched thing as having been carelessly ripped apart. Obviously, the kill was recent, otherwise it might have been difficult to identify. The head was still intact, as was the general form of the body … but it was easy to tell that, given a few more minutes, the other creature would have obliterated even that. Harley had never seen an animal kill like that. It was so … wasteful.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of that story. Cleary, the thing that had unnerved him the most was the strange creature's face, especially the "soulless, black eyes."

Was this the monster we were looking for? I supposed it could be possible. Rounding the guys up, I had Harley lead us in the direction of that small clearing. Upon reaching it, we found were the boar was supposed to be … only it wasn't there anymore.

Strange, it had only been a few minutes since he'd told us …

There was certainly plenty of blood from the kill. And a clear trail, looking like something large and heavy had been dragged through the underbrush. So we followed it … right to where it abruptly ended, maybe twenty yards away. We looked for where it had to have gone, but, somehow, the trail just ended.

I'm no tracking expert, but that seemed a little … impossible.

N'kim thought it was strange too, and he seemed a little spooked himself.

We branched out from that point, splitting up into our respective groups to attempt to hunt the monster down. But two hours later, we still hadn't found it. Heard some strange, laughing calls bouncing back and forth in the trees, but didn't see much of anything.

When we returned, we found that our campsite was a mess – food packages scattered about and torn into, bedding shredded and packs ripped, our fire pit demolished. And dang … even our emergency radio equipment was destroyed! There was no telling what did it, but clearly the critters around here were getting too comfortable with our presence in the area.

I had the thought that the creature we'd been tracking had intentionally led us away, but that was ridiculous. It was just a coincidence, though a very inconvenient one. The guys were furious.

Took us a good hour to locate everything and straighten things out. After taking stock of things, we discovered a good third of our remaining food stores ruined or missing. Thankfully, they hadn't gotten everything. The sleeping bags and packs could be repaired, but it would take some time. And we were missing a small cooking pot. Hammerson was particularly ticked off about that – it had been part of his camping supplies.

From then on I decided that there'd be no more feeding of any of the animals, including the little furry things that had been running around. Didn't know if they were at fault, and I was a bit sad to see them go, but I didn't want to take any more chances. I told everyone to chase them away if they came too close.

All that took up the rest of the evening. We rebuilt the fire pit and scrounged enough together to cook up a halfway decent meal, and called it a night. Our usual audience of mini furries appeared again, hoping for handouts, but we threw rocks at them to chase them away. They chittered angrily at us and ran off. Poor guys. I could see them peering back at us from their perches out there in the dark, little violet eyes glittering in the firelight.

I took first watch again, N'kim joining me. The forest is more vocal tonight. For the first time since we left the village, there's something out there mimicking a man's scream again. I wonder if it's just another kree'ak. Gaia, it's the spookiest thing. If I hadn't known any better, I'd think it was …

Nah, there's nobody else out there. Shouldn't be, anyway, since we've yet to see evidence of anyone. And that's strange too. I mean, where did everybody go? Sure, the jungle is thick enough to swallow up anything that runs into it, but we've been searching for four days now. N'kim's a good tracker and even he hasn't led us to much.

I don't …

Huh. Just now got back from investigating some odd sounds. Thought I heard a couple people whispering out there, so me and N'kim stole out to check. We burst through a few bushes out near one of the other temple structures, only to find a pair of those furries. They stared at us in startlement for a second, then scampered off in silence.

Guess I must be hearing things.

Can't remember what it was I was going to say before, so I guess I'll just wake Hammerson and turn in.

I'll be glad when this mission is over. Things are starting to get to me.

to be continued …