The sun shined brightly over the forest, bleeding through between the branches, dotting the forest floor, birds chirped by the dozen as they awakened to begin feeding on the elderberries hanging by the bushels.
Putting out the fire, Paul carefully poured dirt over it, mindful of the sudden breezes, until there's enough dirt covered that the fire finally faltered for good, ensuring that it wouldn't relit without their intervention.
With the time they had, the trio worked to scavenge and search through the camp, wanting to find whatever they could on Samuel, but they didn't find much outside his tent.
Inside his tent, they found nothing except the bedding, whatever Samuel brought with him, he took them when he went on his last hunt for the face eater.
Seeing how they survived the night without an attack by the face eater, Paul believed it returned whence it came after its encounter with Samuel.
Having surveyed the surrounding campsite, there weren't any new footprints, nothing suggesting the face eater came to the came unbeknownst to the trio.
Samuel chose his camp well; Paul gave him credit as he noticed how Samuel carefully made the camp encircle the landmines underground but gave him exit points.
Hadn't the face eater taken the markers, it'd be more apparent, but then raises the question, if Samuel's markers had been taken by the face eater, the fact that it'd taken the ones by his camp, why hadn't it attacked him sooner?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Knew the meaning behind the markers Samuel laid out, knew where his camp was, but didn't attempt to strike at the most opportune time, when Samuel was his most vulnerable, most peculiar, and it bothered Paul, so.
"I don't understand, Doctor, why wouldn't it have attacked him when he was sleeping — or us for that matter!" Rebecca questioned the reasoning why the face eater didn't come after them at the camp, with them asleep, they should've been easy targets, but it didn't.
Crossing his arms as he pondered, Paul answered, "This face eater's much smarter than we thought — come along, we have to find Samuel, or what remained of him."
He doubted the face eater had a sense of honour not coming after them when they're asleep, something isn't right, they're not dealing with an atypical monster, something more.
Can't figure it out until they find Samuel, if they can find Samuel, can't promise much, without him having his metal detector, it's a shot in the dark.
Taylor asked Rebecca the possibility of Samuel having a radio on him, anything that he would've needed to stay alert for guards patrolling the area and Rebecca answers that it's possible, but unsure.
With the desolation of the area during the war, hardly any work was done around it, fearful of the landmines, that it was left to the wilds.
Having looked through Samuel's camp in the morning, they haven't come across anything suggesting what else he brought with him, so if he had one, it would be on his person.
Hopefully.
"Shall we try?" Paul raised his brow as he suggested to the women that he use his Sonic Screwdriver in an attempt at locating a radio, maybe Paul had one, but given the state of his metal detector, well, perhaps there's a chance if he had a radio, it'd be wherever he was last.
Fiddling with his Sonic Screwdriver, Paul set it to search for radio signals, handheld only, see what comes out of it.
A gentle push on the handle, Paul's angel eyes see the Sonic Screwdriver scanning the area, using the active landmines as markers, and beamed back that there's one active handheld radio somewhere northwest of them.
As Rebecca walked in front of them with the metal detector as she swayed it, Paul and Taylor walked behind her as the Sonic Screwdriver guided them towards the only active handheld radio in the entire forest.
Curious indeed, didn't think there'd be a strong radio signal for Samuel to use one in the forest, especially when guards wouldn't come this deep, not without reason.
The pinging rung out as the Sonic Screwdriver worked to pin the location of the radio.
Glimpsing around, the trio watched for any sudden movements, anything out of the ordinary, something to denote the appearance of the face eater.
However, unless the face eater has its own schedule, it hadn't made its appearance known, yet.
Assuming Samuel hadn't been already killed by the face eater, there's a possibility the face eater's occupied trying to catch him.
And if they're wrong about this, it's a matter of when the face eater makes its appearance.
Taylor counted the amount of landmines Rebecca's metal detector found during their canvas of the area, and it's already almost thirty, so far, it's nauseating to think how many landmines remained buried underneath the forest, how long it'd take to remove and disarm them.
No doubt, the removals would've done worst to the forest than if they left the landmines as is, upheaving trees, cutting back the local fauna to scope hidden landmines.
A sharp breeze blew past them, sending her ruby red hair shimmering, the few strands of blond hair glistening under the sunlight, as she struggled to yanked her long straightened hair back behind her back.
Tightening the scrunchies, Taylor's emerald eyes slowly moved towards the side, in the distance, there's darkness, the portion of forest completely devoid of sunlight of any kind, a stark contrast to the path they're taking.
Hard to see past the trees, it's that dark enough that she didn't think a torch could've penetrated the darkness, but as she looked, she saw the simple sway of the trees, dancing like phantoms as the breeze blew throughout the forest from the east.
Amid the darkness, Taylor swore she saw an outline, close to the bottom of one of the ancient trees, tall and slender, bent awkwardly, an involuntary blink, and it disappeared, leading her to warn Paul silently that they're not alone.
Acknowledging the threat instantly, Paul made sure her, and Rebecca were close to him, as he straddled, his angel eyes wary moving left and right.
Bzzzzt!
Bzzzt!
Hearing the feedback caused by his Sonic Screwdriver, Paul's focus broke as he followed it towards a rotted felled tree trunk overgrown with vibrant green moss.
His leather-bound boots sinking into the tall grass, Paul struggled going towards the rotted tree trunk while the women stayed back per his request.
The feedback grew louder until Paul reached into the hole of the tree trunk, filled with moss and debris, yanking out a handheld radio, covered in the morning dew, but still worked.
Odd how it wound up in the tree trunk, the hollowed sides not big enough for a grown man to crawl through, even in desperation.
Retracing his steps, Paul tried to deduce how the radio came to be inside the tree trunk.
Seeing how difficult it was getting close, even more how wild the sprawl was beyond the tree trunk, well, it'd be hard pressed to assume that Samuel intentionally flung his radio into the hole on the top of a rotting tree trunk.
Holding it in his free hand, Paul sees nothing on it outside the morning dew.
No blood, no type of slime, an interesting sight, and another question that needed answering.
"Why would he leave it?" Taylor looked up to him with confusion in her emerald eyes.
Rebecca gestures, "Could've it been a trap?"
A trap for the face eater, perhaps?
Turning her head to face Rebecca, Taylor wondered aloud, "What sort of trap?"
They're startled by a sharp yelp as Paul's sent into the air, catapulted by a hidden net that wrapped him with the bustles of grass, twigs, whatever laying around at the time.
Within seconds the net tied itself closed, leaving Paul at most five meters above ground, leaving him fumbling in piles of leaves and whatever ended up wrapped within the net while the women below struggled trying to help him.
Something his mother taught him's always to have a knife on him, even if it's small, something sharp and effective.
His grandfather gifted him a knife of his own when he turned thirteen, embedded on the blade's a latin phrase at the suggestion from Uncle Hammond.
Accipe et da.
Take and give.
It came from a story that Uncle Hammond, Aunt Odette, and his father grew up hearing from Uncle Hamon.
Something whimsical, had a good tale with a dash of morality, his father told him it when he was growing up.
With quick work, Paul began cutting his way through the thickened nylon netting, the loose debris falling to the ground below, the netting beginning to unwind and weaken.
Amid the raining debris, Paul fell feet first to the ground, though he managed to land without hurting himself or losing either his Sonic Screwdriver or Samuel's radio.
Swatting the debris as it faltered from above, Taylor goes, "Doctor, are you okay?"
A cheeky smile on his face, Paul assures her, "Not even my mother couldn't catch me, my dear."