The Pond, 1 PT, Day 2, 10:02 AM

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“Fucking… leaves…” Caitlin cursed aloud as she jerked her arm towards her chest as a leaf grazed against her arm.

After the group finished lying on the ground, they finally realized the pain that they were in after brutally cutting up their arms. While the cuts had stopped bleeding, nothing stopped anything and everything from becoming an irritation if they came even close to the group’s arms. Even the wind seemed to be acting against them as small breezes would cause the group to flinch in pain.

If someone were looking at them, they would think that the group had attempted a satanic ritual where the cult leader kept on demanding more and more blood from them until their arms were littered with cuts. But, the ritual didn’t work and now all they are left with is cuts all over their arms and no demon of any sort.

The happiness of finding food had long since passed and all that was left was a self-loathing over how stupid they were in rushing to grab the berries without being careful of the thorns in the bush. Sure, they were hungry as hell, but were all the cuts worth it? …probably. Their bellies were full, close to bursting in their minds, and the cuts were a worthy cost to pay.

“We found food and now aren’t starving to death anymore…” Devin thought, “So what now?”

Devin did not know what to do. They had completed the task that they were aiming to do and still had some time, given that the sun was only about halfway to being directly above them.

“So, does anyone else know what to do now?” Arunas spoke up, answering the question of, ‘Is there anyone else thinking the same thing as I am?’ coming up in Devin’s mind. Arunas then proceeded to swat at a bush that he walked a little too close to that caused his cuts to act up. “Other than cursing nature itself that is.”

“Well,” Caitlin spoke up, empathizing with Arunas, “maybe we head back to the pond then? We really don’t have a way to gather any fruit that we find.”

Devin understood what Caitlin was saying. Sure, they could probably gather some more berries and carry them using their shirts as pseudo-baskets, but what good would that do? They would be getting a somewhat sizable amount of berries, depending on the person, but was the price of getting even more cuts even worth it? On the other hand, carrying them back would be a pain as it would be very easy for the berries to get squished or fall out of their ‘basket’ if anything happened.

Arunas thought for a moment, debating on what Caitlin said, before nodding, “That is probably a good idea, there is not much more that we can do here anyways.”

“Just one more thing though… do any of you actually know the way back to the pond?”

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Devin had to admit, the group got lost while heading back to the pond. They didn’t leave any markers to tell them which way they came from, causing them to walk around for a while, not knowing where they were going. It didn’t help that, to the group, everything in the whole damn forest looked the same with no visible taint from humans or animals alike, just bushes, trees, and grasses that looked all the same to him.

That was another thing that irked Devin about this place, not just that everything looked the same and that no one had survivalist skills that could help them survive past two weeks, it was the fact that they hadn’t seen, or heard for that matter, a single animal. Other than the wolves that had nearly killed him and the group he was now with when they arrived, there had been no other sign, visible or audible, of other life. Devin would’ve felt more comfortable if he had heard the tweeting of a bird or the chittering of a ground animal, but there had been nothing since they arrived. It was as if the world had been devoid of life before they had arrived.

‘Is that it?’ Devin thought. ‘Did those… beings create this damned planet just to fuck with us? No way it's that simple…’

In the end though, after who knows how long of aimlessly wandering through the forest, the only reason they got back to the pond was that they heard human voices near them and followed the voices until they reached the lake. 

There, Devin’s group found that the rest of the group had returned, sitting by the lake and seemingly waiting for them to return. 

For a moment, Devin thought that his group was late, since they were the last to arrive, but one look at the sky told him otherwise, as the sun was around its highest point with no clear indication whether it was still rising or just starting to set.

At first glance, it seemed like the group didn’t fare much better than Devin’s group. Everyone in the group had scratches that were similar to Devin’s group as they also had many scratches on their arms. This led Devin to believe that all of the other groups had found the same type of berry bush and rushed to eat as well, not caring whether they got cuts on their arms or not. However, those that were wearing long-sleeved shirts or suits were faring better as their clothing protected them from the hidden claws of the bushes that they had found. That didn’t mean they were exempt from getting cut however, as their clothing had some rips along their arms.

The group that seemed to fare the best in their scavenging trip seemed to be the group that consisted of people that, in Devin’s eyes, seemed to be from India. While they did have some cuts on their arms, they had significantly less cuts than those who were wearing equivalent layers of clothing. In fact, there were two people in the group of four that had almost no cuts on their arms, to the envy of the other two in their group and everyone else in the group.

The businessman was the first one to notice that Devin’s group had returned as he was facing them as the group broke through the tree line. “Ah, the ghost men have returned.” The people who hadn’t noticed Devin’s group return now had their heads turned towards them as they walked toward the rest of them.

“Ghost men? The hell is that supposed to mean?” Caitlin shot back at the man, irritation in her voice and a scowl on her face, seeing the comment as a slight towards them.

Ignoring Caitlin’s snap back at his remark, the businessman turned to the rest of the group, “Well, now that everyone is here, what will we do now?” 

Devin quickly looked at Caitlin to see what she would do. She was *very* pissed as she had a scowl on her face and looked like she was going to storm over to the man at any moment, grab him by the collarbone and demand some answers out of him. However, by some miracle, she was holding herself back.

“I think our best bet is to stay here for a while, since we know that there is a stable source of water and food around.” The rest of the group was ignoring Caitlin’s internal struggle however, and was more focused on what the group would do next with the construction worker proposing his idea to the group.

“That is a terrible idea! Do you not remember the… body… that we found yesterday?! It was… fucking… desecrated! I don’t want to be anywhere near something that might kill us!” Ms. Mascara Massacre spoke against the construction worker, clearly nervous.

‘I really need to find out that woman’s name,’ Devin thought, ‘mascara is probably non-existent now. And should I really be demeaning her when I know nothing about her?’ 

‘On the other hand, they both make sense.’ Devin could see reason in both of their arguments. ‘There is food and water here, which speaks much more to surviving easily here rather than leaving and hoping we find another body of water. But, I also don’t want to randomly get stabbed in the back or in my sleep and have my body get destroyed after I die.’

The construction worker continued, “I understand that there may still be danger around, but will our chances of getting attacked lower even if we move to someplace else? There will be danger no matter where we go.”

“Of course, there is going to be danger no matter where we go, I am not that stupid. What I am saying is that there has to be a place with a lower chance of getting attacked. Besides, this forest will probably kill us through all the scratches that we got from trying to grab those damned berries!” The woman gave some ground, as to make more ground for her to try and stand on.

“And where would that safer place be?” The construction worker simply stated the obvious, not needing to say any more to prove his point.

“Well, somewhere! There has to be somewhere that is safer than… this, we are way too exposed here and besides, what will we do if it rains? Do we just sit here and get wet?”

The man sighed. “I understand that we don’t have a place where we can sleep without getting wet here, but there is no better place around here. Did you see a shelter nearby like a cave or an overhang? I did not see one.”

While the conversation continued to go back and forth between the two as they argued about what to do when it came to what to do, Devin’s attention was slowly pulled to something else.

‘What the hell is that smell?’

The smell was faint and it was something that he couldn’t put a name to, yet it irked him. His higher intellect was confused and curious as to what the smell was, but his instincts were telling him to just walk away. Walk away, maybe even run, from it and do not look back as that smell would do more damage than good.

It didn’t seem like anyone else had noticed the smell, they were too focused on the argument that was still occuring. ‘It doesn’t really matter what the decision is going to be, we’re going to be living like shit either way.’ Devin’s cynicism started to show in his thoughts as he continued to worry about what the smell was.

‘Should I try and find out by myself, or should I bring someone with me?’ He wasn’t sure what to do, his mind split between curiosity, fear, and shyness.

He stayed still for a moment, debating on what to do, indecision taking control yet again.

“...not to mention that this place would be an actual pain to defend! There could be anything that could attack us from practically every direction!” The woman argued back at something that Devin did not hear about, not that he really cared about that at the moment.

‘Fuck it… I’ll ask Verena.’ Devin finally decided what to do and moved a little closer to Verena.

“Hey, Verena.” Devin caught Verena’s attention as she looked at him. “Is it just me or do you smell something… off, I guess?”

Verena raised her eyebrow, confused as to what Devin was trying to allude to, before looking around the area they were in with her head and sniffing. It took a few moments before she caught on to it as her face turned from one of confusion to one of concern. 

“So, do you want to check out what it is or what?” He sure as hell did not want to go on his own, ‘Going alone would probably be a death sentence.’

Verena’s eyes wavered for a moment, unsure of what to do. She looked around the group, seeing that they were still arguing about what the group should do. Her eyes stayed on the two arguing for a bit longer, before turning to look at Devin and nodded her head apprehensively.

‘She seems as nervous as I am.’ Devin thought.

Their decision made, they turned away from the group and the pond to try and find the smell.

Their departure did not go unnoticed however as some of the people in the group looked at them, wondering what they were doing. Most just gave them a curious, cursory glance before turning their attention back to the argument. Caitlin, however, wanted nothing to do with the debate as she headed over to Devin and Verena.

“So, the hell are you two doing?” Caitlin caught up to the two as they approached the treeline, positioning herself so Verena was in the middle of the trio.

“Well, um, do you smell something… off?” Devin didn’t really know how to talk to Caitlin yet. He found it much easier to get along with Verena, probably because she couldn’t talk at all.

Caitlin tilted her head up a little before sniffing the air. Her eyes furrowing, she looked at Devin. “Is that what you're trying ta look for? That smell? Cause it’s… wrong… that smells just wrong.”

The three were in agreement that there was something off nearby and that they needed to find out what it was so that they wouldn’t be caught off-guard by something horrendous.

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Finding the source of the smell was as hard as Devin expected, as they didn’t have a general direction on where to go. He only knew that they were close because the smell was stronger now, and it smelled much worse than when he first started looking.

To say it was rancid was probably an understatement, as Devin could not give enough bad words to describe it. Rancid, putrid, stale, tainted, all the words Devin could come up with. And yet, he continued on with Verena and Caitlin to find the source, lagging a bit behind.

“God almighty, that smell. What the hell is causing that?” Caitlin shared similar thoughts to Devin as she started to pinch her nose in order to try and block out the smell, following Verena’s lead as she already had her nose pinched.

“I’m starting to think we should turn back and tell the others.” Devin was having second thoughts. If something smelled this bad, there was nothing good at the source.

“We are already this close, no point in turning back now, moran.” Caitlin, as usual, did not take to pussyfootying around very kindly. Despite hating the smell, she pushed forward to see what the source was. Reluctantly, and not wanting to be left alone, Devin continued to follow her.

What none of them mentioned though, was the new coloration of the trees’ leaves. Where they had been white when the first started to search for the smell, they were now a dark shade of crimson red. The red was hardly noticeable at first, with the leaves having their rims tinted with a very light red. But as they got closer to the smell, the tint of the leaves got darker and darker, with the leaves becoming a diluted red, and getting darker and darker from there.

No one really wanted to talk about it however, as they were more concerned with the smell. It was easy enough to blow off the color of the leaves as just a change in the trees in this part of the forest.

“Hey, I think I see a small clearing up ahead.” Caitlin pointed in front of them, showing Devin that the treeline broke away about 200 feet (61 meters) in front of them.

‘That clearing has to be the source of the smell. There is no way that clearing and how strong the smell is is just a coincidence,’ Devin thought.

With renewed vigor, they continued on, although with much more caution than before. They weren’t sure if there was anything around that could hurt them. Carefully, they approached the treeline.

Before they broke through the treeline however, Caitlin, who was still in the lead, froze still, causing Verena and Devin to stop and look at her.

“You okay Caitlin?” Devin looked to Caitlin only to see pure shock and fear in her eyes. Taking a step back, she stumbled and fell on her butt, still staring in front of her.

Curious as to what had Caitlin so scared, Devin turned his head to the clearing to see swathes of destroyed bodies, all of them decaying and starting to decay.

Even at first glance it was obvious that whatever had found the body in the forest, had probably found this group of people first. The bodies had been toyed with and there were human innards everywhere. The bodies were laid in all manner of positions, as some seemed to face the forest as if they were trying to run away from something while others were spread out in the middle of the clearing, seemingly unaware of what killed them.

The grass and the ground were stained red and the trees practically mocked the scene, with its ironic crimson red colored leaves. Violence emanated from the scene, it seemed like the forest wanted to remember the scene in its own twisted kind of way.

No picture would have brought this scene justice and no amount of words could describe the horror that Devin was currently witnessing. He was frozen in place just like Caitlin when she first saw it.

It wasn’t long after before he emptied his stomach of the berries he had gorged on not even a few hours earlier.