Sounds of fluttering leaves, the fresh smell of nature, and at the same time, the softness and roughness of dried foliage on the ground were heard as Felix stirred from where he lay. He slowly regained his consciousness, opening his eyes to search for surroundings to find out where he was. It was a totally different place from the bus stop he was at mere seconds ago. Modern buildings were replaced with tall and thick trees, and the carpet of fallen leaves had taken place of asphalt roads. The sky was clear except for a handful of clouds drifting by.

In spite of the uncanny sensation he went through from the blackness that swallowed him up moments ago, Felix felt like being awake for hours. He sat up and noticed the two people he was together with at the bus stop. They were coming around, too.

One of them was a girl with long blonde hair. Her beady eyes and small frame were suggesting she had reached adolescence not too long ago. The other person was a man in around his forties, strong built, had short brown hair. From the light blue tracksuit he was wearing, Felix could guess he must be a PT teacher or something.

They still had bewilderment on their faces as they stood up to better investigate where they were, aside from the girl who was still in daze. While the men were brushing off their clothes from leaves, the teen suddenly stood up frantically and looked around with panic on her face.

"What happened? Where are we?" The girl shouted questions at the other two as well as at herself.

The guys briefly took a glance at their surroundings before coming to a conclusion. They were clearly in a forest. The real question had to be how they were brought here.

"I don’t know. May be in the Mersey Forest, it is north of the city," replied the supposed teacher as he tried to pierce through the dense cluster of trees to find the horizons.

"I saw a flash of light when we were standing," Felix answered the girl's first question. "It came from the sky. I didn't see the source, though."

The girl seemed to have recalled the fresh event in her mind as her brows knitted together. "That strange light," she muttered.

"Did you see the symbols on the ground? What do you think they were?" Felix asked, looking at the other two people. Before blacking out, he had a little time to have a glimpse under his feet, and he had seen a circle full of strange and unfamiliar symbols.

The older man pondered a bit Felix's question, but shook his head before answering. "No, I looked around the moment the light was cast, but saw nothing. I was going to look up when everything went black."

"No, I was talking on the phone," the girl answered, seemingly calmed down after seeing they were all in the same boat. Then, immediately, all three of them started searching for their pockets to dig out their phones. They checked, but not unexpectedly, there was no signal.

"I don't think we were kidnapped. It must be just some sort of stupid show." Felix could only agree with the man's guess. After all, there was no way he was abducted for some kind of heavy prize. He did not consider himself one of the bigwigs, and from the looks of it, the others either.

"If it is a show, I will sue them after this," the girl promised while looking around, seemingly trying to find a target to direct her anger.

"Then let's hope it's just a show. We must find our way back to the city, though," the teacher suggested. "By the way, my name is Michael".

"I'm Felix"

"I’m Maria"

The trio began further introducing themselves to each other; who they were and their jobs, in order to verify they were not really kidnapped because of a mistake or for their acquaintances.

Felix found out the man was really a PT teacher. He was coming back from work and waiting for the bus when that light descended. The girl was a college student, and at that time she was on her way to meet her boyfriend. Felix revealed he had moved to Liverpool from the US for a study purpose just two years prior. He was going to visit a fellow student on a project before he was mysteriously brought here.

After getting to know each other better, they started observing their surroundings, just in case to search for any indication that could imply this was all some sort of prank.

There were only trees, big and small, many different kinds. Besides some huge firs and a few ash trees, others were from unknown varieties. They appeared to be larger and thicker than the ones the trio used to see.

There weren’t any clues that indicated it was all organized. So eventually, they gave up and chose a direction where the city might be and headed there, hoping the forest was where they think it was. They didn’t encounter any single soul on the trip, not a hut or a human made construction. Even the ground was clear from any types of litter that you could find while being in a nature trip.

Even after walking for more than an hour, there was still no sign of the city or any human residence. Suddenly, the girl’s footsteps stopped echoing, prompting the two men halt in their tracks and turn back.

"I feel strange,” the girl said, a frown painted on her face. “Like there is some kind of coldness inside me. I sensed it a while ago, and thought I was getting colder. But now the coldness got stronger… Do you think I caught a disease?" The girl asked the two in a worried tone.

"Not sure, but I feel the same." Felix attempted to soothe the girl.

He had actually noticed the coldness when they started their journey, but had been ignoring it. The current late summer weather had its lukewarm and cool air, and the wood’s shades gave it even colder aspect. However, the growing chilling sensation inside of his body and around his abdomen felt entirely different and odd. It didn’t urge him to wrap his body with warm clothes. It just lingered there, becoming stronger, making him feel uncomfortable.

"Yeah, come to think it. But we didn't contact any suspicious plant or animals so far, right? It can't be possible. Maybe from the atmosphere...?" Michael expressed his assumption, looking up to the sky.

He then faced the others and spoke, "Anyway, I don't feel anything wrong with my body, so it's okay. But what I do know is we must find a place to spend the night soon, or it'll get dark in a few hours".

It was true. If Felix had to guess, he assumed the time must be around seven in the evening. In case they weren't able to find a place to spend the night in, they would have to sleep in the wilderness under the open sky.

They agreed and continued their walk with a quicker pace toward their previously chosen direction. However, as soon as they turned and started moving, something burst out of a nearby bush and lunged onto Maria. Soon, more of those creatures emerged from the surroundings to join the first one.

They were like huge dogs or smaller wolves, though their bodies were longer. It was as if a combination of a wolf and a panther; their color was dark grey, possessing no fur. A particular dog-like creature came to Felix’s mind from their appearance the moment his eyes landed on them. They were like abominable creatures he had once seen in a horror movie.

Maria screamed in terror and pain, covering her face to protect it from the future scars and from the terror that had abruptly popped up from nowhere. The monster was trying to tear apart her body parts and bite her from the throat.

Felix stood in place, shocked from the actions and the scene taking place in front of his very eyes. His feet felt like frozen, as if unmoving icy objects. He had never seen such violence before in real life. Watching it in a screen was completely different matter, now he understood it well.

“HEY, GET AWAY FROM HER! KICK THEM AWAY!” A shout brought Felix to reality. Unlike him, Michael didn’t hesitate to charge towards them and tried to scare away the creatures with shouts and kicks. Soon after, Felix fully regained his composure and started copying what Michael was doing. However, there were now around six or seven of them in total.

While a few of them were dealing with Maria, others were blocking the two men, baring their fangs, preventing them from helping the poor girl. The monsters didn’t seem slightly bit afraid of them. They began attacking them as well.

No longer as scared as he was at the first moments, Felix started fighting the monsters. He tried to clear his mind and suppress the panic that making his limbs move slower and sluggishly. After putting himself together a bit, he was able to think of a plan to safely get away from the horrible creatures.

He knew what to do first in these kinds of situations, not from his fighting experience, of course, but from the overall knowledge and the whole life experience he had collected so far.

Although he wouldn’t usually find himself in circumstances he had to fight, Felix had experienced similar challenging situations. He was smart enough and was rather good at planning things ahead. But the nervousness and panic could always ruin anyone's self-control. Therefore, in order to survive, or win, he had to neutralize his feelings, not think of any distressing consequences, and focus on to the current matter.

Felix tried to restrain his emotions responsible for fear as much as possible. He looked around for potential weapons, not forgetting to keep an eye for the monsters.

He swiftly found two broken pieces of branches and circled the creatures in order to separate one or two of them, so it would be easier to take down these abominations. However, no sooner had he taken several steps, than Michael fell to the ground, the beasts leaping onto him.

He was too late. He had spent too damn long time thinking.

But Felix didn't panic. Gritting his teeth, he immediately ran toward Michael to push away the monsters with his supposedly weapons. However, two monsters blocked his path, not intending to let him rescue his new companion. He considered going forward anyway, but stopped himself, suddenly realizing his situation.

There were seven monsters. Two were on the girl, who was barely alive, or already dead by the bloody scenery at her direction, and three were on Michael, who was shouting angrily and struggling to get up. He had now multiple gashes on his skin, his clothes were ripped, deep red color was spreading over them. And the last two were in front of Felix.

Even if he managed to take down the two, having done with Maria, the others would join, and it would be the end.

The situation was hopeless.

Felix quickly started adjusting his get-away plan. The other two could be considered already dead. Therefore, the problem was how to save his own life. But could he leave these two people to survive on their own, to the claws of death that was now clutching them?

There was no other choice.

Felix made a stance as if trying to attack. He swung the branches. When monsters backed away a few steps, he turned around and began fleeing.

The monsters tried to give a chase after Felix, but he threw the branches back toward them. They ran a bit, but stopped eventually, maybe deciding to go to the prey they had already gained. He didn't slow down though.

Maybe it was cowardice, but he was well aware about the difference between bravery and idiocy. There was no one around to call for help. They had sent messages to whomever they knew, which hadn't gotten anywhere due to the lack of signal, so there was no point in prolonging the time. No help would come.

He tried his best not to think about the deaths of his new acquaintances. Clearly, most people would take a similar course of action when there was a high possibility of death. Still, the self-accusation afterwards would be immense. Felix forced himself to focus to the task at hand: to get away from the creatures quickly as far as possible.

The monsters seemed somehow more intelligent than ordinary animals, their sneak attack was a simple proof for it. They might have been trailing them for a while and waited for an appropriate time to start their ambush. Taking all of this into account, in order to satiate the hunger of the whole pack, they might want not to be satisfied with just two preys.

Just as he thought this probability, when he ran for more than fifty meters from the bloody site, he heard the monsters' roars, indicating they were coming for him.

"Shit"

Felix sped up, keeping his dash to the direction right opposite of the beasts chasing after him. Though he was trying his best to be calm, his heart was pounding as if it was trying to get out of his chest.

Wherever he looked, there were trees. No one was on sight to help him from this nightmarish situation. He didn’t spot any animals or even other monsters, to distract the creatures that were speedily trailing him from behind, so he could take a short breather to lengthen his life. Nevertheless, he didn’t slow down.

After half a minute, his legs began feeling as if they were on fire, heating from inside that could get ignited at any moment. They were actually moving by themselves automatically by now. He was just focusing not to mingle them in order to not trip and later become mincemeat by those horrible-looking fangs and claws.

It was like a forest with no end. It was evident there was no any human habitat nearby by the looks of it. The monsters were some distance away and were not very fast to catch him up instantly. Maybe they thought he was an easy prey. Speculating the whole woods were their territory, and there was no way for him to escape, they might be just entertaining themselves before the meal.

Felix's lungs began to ache from the overuse. He didn't like physical training, and was lately overly busy with his study project. Now he regretted for at least not running in the mornings.

The thoughts were racing through his mind in the speed far faster than his legs. The jeans he was wearing were impeded his movements, though it started expanding in size to aid him run faster, resulting the cloth emanating ripped sounds from time to time.

Nevertheless, he was now clearly nearing his limit.

Helplessness and frustration started growing in his chest. He was too weak to even run away from the danger chasing him from behind. He was so unlucky that an unexplainable phenomenon occurred to him of all the people around the city, maybe around the whole world, and now his life was being threatened because of it. Unfortunate events used to happen to him before, but this time was now overkill.

In spite of using all his advantages, he was still running out of time and options for survival. He started losing hope of getting out of this dire situation.

So this is it, then? Getting eaten by monsters in the middle of nowhere? ... I wasn't that lucky in the first place... But still...

His feet were now so sore and numb; he almost didn’t feel his lower body part anymore. But a tiny hope still inspired him to not stop, to keep moving until he blacked out again from exhaustion.

Finally, he saw a piece of ground that was higher in comparison.

Maybe a dome? he thought, contemplating to jump using this earthly protrusion like a trampling so he could climb onto a tree's higher part. It was located next to the dome. Although the monsters appeared to be able to climb to trees due to their long sizes, it was still a chance that could grant him a sliver of hope to survive.

He increased his speed and sprinted up to the small hill, getting closer to the tip in less than two seconds. But suddenly—

"Ah—"

He couldn't make it. Because the ground wasn't stable enough to assist him for jumping.

He fell down and rolled around clumsily, intending to continue his mad dash. But out of habit, he took a glance back in order to know the cause of his falling. What he saw was a bunch of thick roots, and behind the roots...

Cave!

Perhaps, and hopefully, a former home of a bear. Still, there was a tiny spark of hope in his heavily pounding heart. He immediately rushed through the roots and entered his newly found shelter, hoping to get rid of his pursuers, or at least to have a chance to defend himself.

Felix had to crawl in to reach the safer part of the place. Thankfully, the tiny cave was deserted. Its earthen walls were damp, but hard enough to act as a small sanctuary.

The monsters caught up to him moments later, some ran around the dome, others stopped at the top and stood there, most likely waiting for their prey to come out. Maybe they were not that hungry and just toying with him, but he did not want to waste any time and wait for them to come in while he was catching his breath. His life depended on these very moments. Thus, he intended to use every second of it.

He looked for a sturdy piece of root or a stone that might be lying around, anything that could help him uphold himself against these unfamiliar creatures.

Felix didn't know them. He had never seen creatures like them in life before. They nearly tore apart the people walking with him minutes ago. From their looks, they seemed as strong as wolves despite the smaller size. Although they didn't have any fur, Felix was somehow sure their skins weren't easy to penetrate.

There weren’t any rocks nearby, but he found a few short branches lying around, and two more longer and thicker ones he separated from the roots.

Then he started thinking of a plan to survive.

There were four of them to his estimation. Felix could taunt one of them to come near him, stick the branch to its eye, and kill it. But that was easier said than done. Mucheasier.

He had to keep the monster in place. How could he do that? He could grab its mouth while trying to accomplish his plan. But it was, of course, impossible. However, if itwere grabbing something, that would be easier. Therefore, he took off his jacket and shirt and rolled them around his right leg, with some small twigs.

The monsters were glaring at Felix from the outside, or simply looking. He neared to the entrance of the so-called cave and started shaking his right leg as if attempting to kick the creature on the mouth.

It worked. It got irritated after a few tries and bit him on the shin right away, where he covered with the clothing, to pull him out with a strong jolt. But he was prepared for this.

Despite its sharp teeth that went through the clothing, and its pain, he held on a thick root attached to the ceiling with both hands and pulled the creature in instead. Fortunately, the ground was consisted of soft soil. The monster slipped. A surprised look appeared on the creature’s eyes, but it was too late. Immediately, Felix put his other leg on the monster's neck to pin it down and started attacking savagely.

The monster desperately flailed its paws to claw him, to cut him wherever it could to hurt or kill its foe. But seconds later, realizing its attempts were futile, it let loose its jaws and tried to get out. However, another one of its fellows was enraged and dove in for its kin’s aid.

Felix pushed the pinned monster away, toward its comrade, not stopping his assault. A stab after stab fell upon the creature; squishy satisfying sounds were heard throughout tiny the cave. Finally, he managed to hit its head from a right angle and forced the stick into one of its eyes. The stick reached the brain.

The monster convulsed a few times, but eventually stayed still. However, the one behind it was persistent. It kept trying to get into the cave to shred him to pieces for tricking its companion and killing it. Felix had a plan for this one, too. He put the corpse of the dead monster forward to make a living wall, but left a hole in the size of a head. When the monster tried to come in, he pinned it down and repeated his previous action.

Felix’s heart was pounding stronger than ever, his hands were shaking. He had never killed even a chicken before, but he had known he could do it if he put his morale aside, while trying not to think about the process too much. And now that he recalled the things he had done in the last half an hour... He didn't let himself think about it too much. It wouldn't do him any good, anyway. He just took deep breaths.

Two were down. Another two left. He didn't have a plan to the rest. Coming out and fighting was not a good idea. The remaining of the pack could be coming. The sense of smell in these creatures must be quite strong. Even if he somehow managed to kill these two and ran away, others would easily track him down. Running to a long distance was impossible; he would just exhaust himself. So he just waited. Fortunately, the other two didn't attempt to enter.

They are waiting for the rest of the pack, Felix assumed. Maybe they were slightly weaker than wolves, but definitely smarter.

If the others arrived, he was certain it meant for him to be a meal for these creatures, even if he was still in the cave. They didn't seem stupid enough to repeat one action again and again. Therefore, he had to find another method for survival.

There wasn't anything better that could be used as a weapon in the small cave. Though there was something else. Not around him. But inside of him.

He recalled the coldness in his abdomen when he talked about it with Maria and Michael. It couldn’t be an ordinary sensation. It sounded like a fool’s gamble. But it was a hope, a dream that a drowning man would never let slip in this kind of dire time.

The entrance of the cave was blocked with the two corpses, so Felix didn't worry too much about safety. He directed his focus inside.

It was some sort of strange energy, he theorized. Felix focused on this energy and tried to move it. And it did. Next, he wanted it to go toward his right arm, but only a few wisps stirred. He concentrated harder, imagined it being water, and directed it to his arm again. The mysterious energy didn't seem too hard to control. It slowly streamed into his arm. But when it got there, he felt his limb got a little stronger, and harder.

There was hope, the hope for him to survive.

Felix concentrated on his inside again, and tried to master the power as much as possible.