The CoDas: Reboot [By Hex]

Chapter 4 : Adrift

The beauty of nature is best experienced in the deep forests of Sweden. Something about hearing the chirping birds, brewing trees and the fresh smell of leaves seemed to make me relaxed. I don't have anything to fear as nature embraced me with its softness.

"Hey, Nathan! Stop daydreaming about having a date with nature. We still need to get one more station before coming back."

Zack dragged me back into reality, gesturing me to follow him up the slope.

Smirking a little then catching up to Zack, we ascended from the forest and up to the hilltop. In the distance, we could see a holographic triangular prism colored in orange and white. This hovering mechanism was located next to a tree trunk - showing a magnificent view of the sea behind it.

"Is that the last station?" I asked, panting a little from walking up the rigid slope.

Zack exhaled as he walked closer to the station hologram, pulling out the USB plug from the tablet and showing it towards the station. The USB was specifically crafted to record and store data of who has gone and found all the stations in Sweden. Zack spoke as he plugged it into a socket and the USB was downloading data.

"Yeah, it's the last one. As always, your map reading skills are accurate." Zack pulled out the USB from the station, then plugged it back into the tablet.

A female voice spoke through.

Congratulations! Team 11, You have found all the stations. please return to your starting point.

I smiled, raising my hand for a high five. "It's always like this, huh? You have your good eye to find stations while I am the map reader."

Zack gives me a high five as he continues back down the slope, replying,"sometimes it's the other way around. I guess you and I can swing both ways and still be good at this."

I chuckled. "Yeah, true."

Zack began to start running, I tried to catch up to him.

"Come on, Nathan. Let's see who gets to the starting point the fastest!" Zack ran even faster, he seemed to know every route in this forest. Sometimes it can be the other way around as well.

"Hey! No head starts!" I started sprinting after Zack, avoiding tree roots to trip on and vaulting over obstacles.

I mumble out, "after a hunched over tree shows up, I should turn left, jump over more fallen trees and eventually will reach the dirt road."

Seeing Zack take a turn to the left as well, I felt relaxed to know he knew the path well. Inhaling and exhaling heavily, I took a turn left and sprinted even faster to pass Zack. Seeing light at the edge of the forest. I took a final leap over a tree trunk as I reached outside.

For a while, everything seemed to fade into black and I almost lost my balance. But soon, I regain my vision and spoke out loudly, "hell yes! I win this time, Zack! You ain't got nothing on my sprinting skills!"

Smiling, I took a good look around my area. Dropping my jaw and canceling my celebratory dance, I realized I was in another part of a forest, this time the area was a little bigger with fewer trees. It seemed like the heart of the forest.

"That's...That's not possible," I mumbled to myself.

Out of confusion, I began running back towards the hunched tree. My lungs tighten as I ran out of breath, I used up all the energy back on that sprint with Zack. I couldn't find the hunched tree, all I saw were more trees, bushes, and roots. I felt like I was going in loops, completely lost and confused. Clouds slowly began to form around the forest, making my sense of direction even denser. I searched and searched for a way out, but it always lead me back to the heart of the forest, the part where I got lost in the first place.

Raindrops touch my skin with ease as it started to drizzle. I sat on the ground under a tree since it covered me from the rain. Feeling hopeless, I waited. I didn't know what I was waiting for but my gut told me that staying here was probably for the best. Booming sounds of thunder became louder and louder as I waited. Becoming drenched in the rain even though I was under a tree. Not that I hated it in any way as the rain rather made me feel relaxed.

An object landing on the grass echoed into my ear. I instantly got up from where I sat, looking at the direction where the sound came from. Slowly, I walked over, my awareness strengthened as I listened to every single shift of sound in the area. A blinking light caught my eye, I saw a trinket of some kind. It seemed to look like a bullet.

I raised my brow at the sight of what I had found, "what the..."

The bullet was the size of my hand and quite wide and thick, It took all of my fingers to get a firm grip on it. Placing the bullet in my pocket, I looked upward, wondering where it came from. The raindrops hit my eyes, obscuring my vision. Looking back down, I turned around to go back to the spot where I sat.

Hearing a strong thundering sound from the sky, a thick strike of lightning crashed down on the ground behind me. The impact of the lightning pushed me forward as I rolled away from the electrical explosion, the wet soil messed up my clothes as I stopped. In a state of utter shock, I lingered in my spot, processing what happened while panting heavily. In a slight struggle, I lifted up my torso to look up at the direction where the lightning hit.

My eyelids opened wide as I saw something inhuman, something that couldn't be possibly real. A menacing creature stood before me, huffing and puffing deeply as it looked down at me. I was fueled by fear, my body shivered upon its presence, it was hard to process its features at the time. The creature had huge jaws, rotten with black saliva dripping from its mouth. The form was that of a lycanthrope beast, I've never seen one like it.

The markings on its body seemed to be unreadable and also very tribal-like. The beast had hollow white eyes, steaming black aura rushing out of it, a strange combination that gave me a feeling of numbness, the only emotion that existed within those eyes was sorrow, hatred and the thirst to cause pain. I tried to speak but my voice became frail, all I could do was mumble.

"What the hell... is that thing?"

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To Be Continued!

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It's about to get real in the next chapter. Look forward to it! :3