Author's Note: You totally knew this chapter was coming, so don't look at me like that. :P Don't worry, we'll get back to our regularly scheduled program next time...

This chapter is short. But that's just the way it wanted to be. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Zack's Journal, Day 8, Evening

Final Entry

I just got back to camp.

Stover's body is missing.

N'kim and Walker don't know what happened; they left to get some supplies from our stash in another part of the temple, and he was gone when they got back.

We think one of the forest critters dragged him off. … What am I saying, I know it had to have been one of them! He couldn't just get up and walk off on his own! He was dead; I should know, I was the one that killed him …!

Gaia …

… Pull it together, Zack.

There's nothing you can do.

… I wonder if it's the same creature that Harley saw. If it is, maybe this'll finally give us a lead. But the thing is …

There's no trail.

If something dragged Stover away, there'd have to be some sign of it, right? But there's nothing! No footprints besides ours, no sign of anything heavy pulled through the dirt … Even N'kim, the expert tracker, can't find anything.

Just our footprints, and the footprints of those furries.

The furries … They still run through here, even after everything we've done to keep them away! They're always watching us! There's one on the ledge right now … Why can't they just leave me alone!

… That got rid of it.

Gaia, I'm losing it.

Need to focus …

We searched all over for Stover. But he's nowhere among the ruins. There's nothing in the forest around us either, but we're quickly losing the light and it's hard to tell. There's no tracks, though.

No tracks …

It's like he just floated away …

The bushmen – they've been with us, holding down the fort, though I haven't mentioned them much – they say the forest is cursed. They say it's watching us. They say we've angered the spirits, and that they're going to make us disappear.

I ask them why they wait until now to complain, why they even bothered to come with us.

They just cower in fear at my voice and shrink away. I tell them to leave, go home if they're so afraid. I don't care.

But it's dark. They won't go. Not yet. I can see them considering it, though.

… The guys are watching me now, keeping their distance. I think they're wondering if I'm going to snap at them too. I …

I don't know what's wrong with me. They don't deserve this. They're just as upset as I am, if not more! Hammerson was Stover's friend. It must've been a nightmare for him to have to face him like that. I know, because I …

And then for me to come along and just kill him …

At least … At least Hammerson wasn't the one who had to do it. I don't care if he blames me, at least he'll be spared that. No one should have to kill a friend. I'd do it a thousand times over to keep someone else from going through that.

Let me be the bad guy.

… I should talk to the guys now. They need some encouragement, something to make them feel better, someone to tell them it'll be okay. That nothing's their fault. It's too soon to really talk about Stover like he's gone – we don't know what made him go berserk, we don't know what happened to his body … There might be something out there.

But they need to know that we're all here for each other, and that I'm not gonna leave them hanging.

Maybe tomorrow we'll be able to talk about Stover.

Tonight … we just need to know that we can still trust each other.

This is it.

One of the bushmen just came running back from the forest. He was yelling something about the "Ghosts in the Trees." I guess he saw something.

Me and the guys are grabbing the gear to head out. Both bushmen just took off in terror – I don't think they're coming back. They left most of their stuff. I'd go after them, but there's no time.

… I just told N'kim to beat it, too. I knew he couldn't stick around, not if we found something, not with his tribe's crazy beliefs. He didn't want to leave … but he doesn't have much of a choice. I know he regrets it, and so do I, but … there's no help for it. I told him I understood.

Damn it. I need him with me. I need Stover with me too, but …

Heading out now. There's a small valley to the North we somehow overlooked, full of trees and flowering vines. That's where we're going. I'm leaving everything here for when we get back. Guess we didn't have to wait another day after all.

Sun's almost down. I expect we'll be back by dawn.

(Journal end.)

(Note: The following recording was discovered on a Shinra-issue backup radio; audio has been cleaned up for the purposes of this investigation. The voice was identified as belonging to one SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair.)

"Gaia, help us! It's the Ba'keel, the Forest Watchers – they're not a myth! They're real, they've been right under our noses this whole time!

"And the Ghosts in the Trees, they're-"

(Recording end.)

to be continued …