All the newcomers slept, Amphelise along with Alice, Ismael next to Melisa,Theigon on the poolboard behind them and June in her bed upstairs. Genova sitting, backed to the wooden wall facing the way out to the jungle. Fully awake.
"Aah, to sleep profoundly. Without caring about what's to come. How long has it been? How many decades without a full minute of sleep? I'm excited to see how they respond."
A faint thud on the glass woke her up from her partial slumber, turning around the only thing she can see is the plants and the dirt in the darkness.
"You're still taunting me, after all this time?"
Anaïs stared at the glasses for hours, came up six in the morning and the sun burned the shadows clear.
Ismael slowly woke up in the arms of Melisa, grabbing him tighter. Upon the embrace, he let himself rest, her breathing on his face. She kept moaning slightly while sleeping.
"Didn't know she was so needy."
The sun forced all residents to wake up and take breakfast together. After the meal, Anaïs seemed low on energy, Theigon asked if she was still alive, to which she responded "I'm fine, thank you." Nothing more, nothing much.
"We'll start the debrief now. We are here to kill Helios, Ismael's father. Because you will fail, I will proceed into a forbidden ritual to give all of you ten lives, don't throw them away, don't use them to gather intel, hurt him, wound him, kill him, by any means necessary. Give it your body, your mind, your soul into this green hell."
"How good can he be at what he does that a witch like you couldn't kill him?"
"Good question, Melisa. We're not sure what he is, but he's been living for more than a century now. This place has become my own personal hell, where I dwell in silence, waiting for a sign, a help. Something. To deliver me and the others. Helios is a different breed of fighter. He doesn't use dark rites, he takes bullets like nothing and mocks us every day."
"I have to weigh in. I am not responsible for this. This might feel above my pay grade but I'll try my best. I'll start today, whatever I can learn from my past, I'll take it."
"Thank you, Ismael. Furthermore, we will proceed by groups. I have to reward those who help and punish those who stay behind. Don't take this the wrong way but we're not friends, after Helios dies, I won't be liable for what happens to you. You'll have to leave and if I kill you, then you deserved it."
"How is that fair? I could eradicate you with my decaying Sin, and I should go kill Ismael's father?"
"I'll ignore that and move on. Today, I want Ismael, June and Theigon to go. Amphelise, no need to look at me that way."
"What about the ten lives?"
"Viscountess, you will receive your ten lives when you volunteer for the war. Dodge the draft, dodge the lives."
"When this is over I'll have you caged and drenched, vixen."
"I'll ignore that too. The three of you, advance. Take the weapons you need and proceed into the circle.
They wait a monute while Anaïs recites the formula, prepares everything and they receive the brand, an "A" in three strokes combined in one irregular shape.
Ismael took June apart for a second. "See this? You press it, you can look how many bullets you have. You reload it like this. Me and the sniper guy will be checking the surroundings, all you have to do is be on the lookout for anything that happens, if you see anything you tell us, okay?"
"I will!"
Ismael pats her head and they enter the jungle.
A black painted jungle with barely enough light to see the main track. June grabbed Ismael's clothes by the back out of instinct to feel reassured, safe, protected.
A gust of wind set them all straight, parasytic almost, giving them the selfish will to give up. Seeing Ismael walk forward with conviction made Theigon and June agree on following through with the mission.
The first steps enhanced the fear, the harrowing sensation that everything would come to an end, were they to push a few inches further into the black jungle.
No form of life, everything had been eliminated long ago, not a single bird singing or predator ready to surge out of nearby bushes. No ants or lizard. Not a cricket to mark silent moments. A place of pure death, already killed by man.
Their footsteps were almost echoing, and at the same time it felt disturbing, like walking on a carpet inside of a house, but outside. This horrendeous place did feel like his very own residency.
"June, don't forget to look around. Theigon, shoot the first thing that creeps out. If the first area seems safe, let's just keep going."
The bushes and palm trees ended on a narrow escape, which they took, and to their utmost misery, the rest of the jungle was even darker. Theigon shines his torch lamp fixed to his weapon to the far end of it, seeing moving bodies, he shoots them instantly, startling them both.
"They're hanging from the trees. I didn't see it at first, sorry."
June grabs Ismael's clothes without speaking. He turns around and sees nothing.
"It was right there."
"June, what did you see?"
"I'm not sure, a man, maybe a monster."
Ismael put his weapons down for a moment and had June climbing on his back beneath his large white sweater so she could feel safer and exchange guns quicker.
A laugh from the deep end sent them in a frenzy, shaking them to the core. Ismael shot a few bullets into the darkness upfront in an attempt to scare off the origin of the laughter but soon realized.
"It's him. There is nothing else by these woods, now, is there? If you hear something, it's bound to be him."
"I know. I cling on this idea. He gives me the feeling that he could walk around this place eyes closed without us knowing where he is and I hate that."
Ismael united the three of them into a whispering session, telling them to just force their way through. June grabbed a gun from Ismael's inventory with the right hand and held on to his shit with the left one. Breathing deeply they both ran for their life, sprinting in extremis through threacherous lands.
Theigon stopped and turned around, sensing a threat behind them.
"Theigon, what are you doing?"
"He's behind us. Run."
"We're here to kill him, let's fight then."
"I don't think you understand. This is not a normal. I've been getting really good at catching on on sightings, and this is no explainable signature. This is beyond what we can engage with. Take June and leave. Don't look back."
"Tss...it's whatever. Don't die, brother."
Theigon used every bit and ounce of bravery he had deep inside of his soul and moved in the manners of a qualified soldier, leading the troups.
The weapon directed at the signature he was getting. One leg after the other.
"A jacket? That's it? It was a distraction. No way. I picked up on such a strong signal from meters away and all it was was his military jacket? So he's just a normal guy who overworked himself? I don't get it."
Theigon turned around and lost his life before he could see anything. Ismael kept on running as June did her best to perceive any anomaly around them. A sensation. A feeling. Seeing contrast. At the end of the path, a cave.
Ismael jumped in and June finally let go.
"You're going to look behind us again. With the weapon. I told you how to shoot. We'll keep going down the cave, okay?"
"When this is over, I want to stay with Anaïs and Melisa."
"Me too, don't worry."
After battling with the cave's maze for long enough, they established a temporary camp in an isolated hole in a wall. Ismael was going outside, lighting up torches and staring at the inscriptions engraved on the wall.
"Are you sure this is safe?"
"I've been hiding in such places before and I was blind. Granted, an angel was watching over me, but still."
"Who's your angel now?"
"Genova."
"Genova isn't here. So it's me!"
"Haha, you're right."
Ismael, with June in his arms, fell asleep against the wall facing the entrance of the den after fighting sleep for as long as he could, waking up at the Structure next to Theigon, sitting on the ground. He rises up, shivering.
"Where is she? Where is June?"
"You came back, Ismael. That means you died."
"Where is she?!"
"Mael", Theigon called him softly. "He killed us. We have nine more attempts."
"Later. You two can go to sleep and rest, you'll go back in two days. Amphelise, Alice and Melisa, go."