INTERLUDE (V)

  Girl’s Trip!

  Hours Earlier (Minutes After They First Entered the Forest)

  Sunlight shone through the sparse canopy overhead, scattering the quivering umbra of innumerable leaves across the uncannily flat forest floor. The cool shade excitable, like a carpet of jumping shadows chased by sun dappled rays. Sparse undergrowth was punctuated by knotted roots and the occasional thicket. Obstacles easily navigated with how loosely populated the forest actually was.

  Robin, Denise, Eva, Maya and Marlene stepped lightly as they ventured deeper and deeper. Pushing their luck with every step they took. Intimidated, not so much by the forest itself, but instead by the many unknowns that surely lurked within. They moved in a deliberate, if somewhat clumsy, formation. With Denise at their head, while Robin covered their rear. Eva and Maya flanking to either side of Marlene unconsciously. The four of them maintaining an oblong diamond formation.

  One which just so happened to prioritize the safety of one member of their party in particular.

  Her Royal highness. The mild mannered wallflower currently fitted with a luxurious blue mantle. A shimmering wonder of thick fur which flowed over her lanky frame like water—entirely obscuring her drab hoodie and jeans. They moved silently, unsure of when an attack might come, or from which direction, yet sure one was inbound regardless. Again, the negligible underbrush aided them in this, though most couldn’t help the occasional snap of a twig or crunch of a leaf.

  They continued for nearly half an hour like this, until finally, one of them broke the silence.

  “You think they’re all out to brunch or something?” asked Maya, not caring to keep her voice down. “I mean seriously, there’s nothing here! I was scared at first, but now I think I’m just bored.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?!” Eva hissed, though she was prevented from slapping some sense into the girl by the person standing between them.

  She still lunged regardless, though Marlene, in a poor attempt to move out of the way, wound up entangling herself with the irate young woman instead. The two tumbled to the soft, mossy earth with an ooph—lying there for a time in a groaning heap. Maya, in the meantime, snickered and chortled from somewhere in the background. Leaning out from behind the stalwart bulwark that was Denise, she continued to chuckle, even as Eva glared daggers.

  Robin, for her part, briefly locked eyes with Denise. They shared a look that spoke volumes, and Robin nodded.

  “No,” Denise spoke up. “The kid’s right-”

  Maya jerked away from Denise, her smug expression turning to one of genuine offense, though you really never could know with Maya.

  “Hey, yo, I’m no kid! I’m nineteen years old! That’s when like, you’re officially legally an adult and stuff. Like if I killed somebody? I could go to jail for life.”

  “Or you could, like, rent an apartment, buy a car, you know, vote. Seriously, why is murder the first thing your mind, like, goes to? Actually, on second thought, why do I even bother asking…?”

  “Because I’m crazy, yo! My mind is sick and twisted! Besides, I don’t believe in democracy. That shirt’s busted.”

  “That’s, umm, but ain’t that real irresponsible?” Marlene asked.

  “You bet your booty it is, sweet cheeks! I’m a maverick, yo. I live on society’s outskirts!”

  “Uh- okay,” Marlene said hesitantly. “You probably still shouldn’t say stuff like that out loud though.”

  “Which part baby cakes?”

  “Umm. W-well. All of it, I guess.”

  “And would you please, like, stop saying ‘yo?’” Eva butt in. “It’s, like, gone from bash your head into a brick wall levels of cringe, to, like, dig your brain stem out with a soup spoon levels of agony.”

  “You can’t control me, yo! I do what I want.”

  “Ahem!”

  The three teens jumped, spinning around to face a clearly irate Denise.

  “Are you three finished?” she ground out through clenched teeth.

  All three of them nodded along meekly.

  “Good. Now, as I was saying, we’re getting nowhere like this. We need to pick up the pace.”

  “But,” Marlene blanched. “The monsters-?”

  “Are exactly what we’re after, if you’ll recall? What? Don’t tell me you aren’t dying to see what that cloak of yours can do?” she said, unconsciously swishing her elaborate swept hilt rapier through the air—a gleeful, far away look on her face as it made the air sing.

  The same far away look Marlene sometimes got, when ever she lost her self in the silken embrace and liquid folds of her mantle.

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  This time it was Robin’s turn to clear her throat. Denise started from her trance, turning back to face them with a challenging expression, as if daring them to comment. Looking fierce, despite, the red darkening her cheeks.

  “Ahem. Yes well, like I was saying, we need to shake things up. Robin, you were a girls scout. You should know all about tracking and hunting, that sort of thing,” she said it more like a statement than a question.

  “Oh! Uhh… yes! In a way. Well, in a sense. Actually, maybe this isn’t the best idea. You have to understand, this was many years ago now, and-!”

  “Perfect, so you’ll take the lead. I’ll follow up at the rear. Maya and Eva-”

  Denise turned, only to find Maya—her stance a perfect imitation of Denise’s own, hand resting atop the hilt of a nonexistent rapier, and lips miming her every word with a silly bob of her head—paying her very little attention. Eva elbowed Maya in the ribs. The girl grunted, shot an annoyed glance at her friend, before looking up and blanching at the murderous gaze being levied upon her.

  “You know what? Suddenly, I find myself in the mood to cut something. Times ticking. Because if we don’t find something big, mean, and ugly, and soon, I might just be forced to practice on the next best thing.”

  As she said this, her gaze never left Maya’s.

  “Big, mean, and somewhere far far away from here?” Maya suggested, an audible quiver in her voice.

  “More like close, belligerent, and getting on my last lamb nerve!” Maya flinched back with every syllable—an expression like that of a trapped animal flitting across her face.

  “C-c’mon guys! What are we just sitting around here for!? We’ve got monsters to hunt! Lead the way Mrs. R!”

  +++

  It was fifteen minutes before Robin managed to find even the faintest traces that this twice lambed forest was even inhabited. And of course, much to her chagrin, when she did eventually find them, they were so obvious even a child could’ve picked them out. What had she even been worried about all this time, she berated herself.

  Robin crouched down to better inspect the indents. Though this was more for show, really. To make her feel like she was in some semblance of control. It also gave her hands something to do. Measuring the depth and width of each depression, all with a suitably strained look on her face, like she was really sifting through some things. Even though she’d known at first glance what she was looking at. There was only one kind of beast that left footprints like that.

  “People. Several by the looks of it. Maybe… seven or eight?”

  She was just making up numbers at this point, but they didn’t need to know that. Besides, as far as ballpark estimates went, she thought she was pretty spot on.

  “They’re all men,” Denise chimed in.

  Robin looked up at her sharply.

  “How can you tell?”

  Denise looked at her like she’d just asked the stupidest question on planet earth.

  “Are you blind? I mean, just look at their shoe sizes. It’s a dead giveaway.”

  Robin did as she was told, ears burning when she made the rather obvious connection.

  “Unless their like, Amazonian’s,” butt in Maya. “You know, like crazy huge six foot nine ladies with big old grape stompers. I mean it’s possible right?”

  Everyone ignored Maya, eventually causing her to pout.

  “Do you think they’re, you know, like, from earth?” Eva said. “Like they got taken to the super easy tutorial too?”

  She looked hopeful, likely praying her boo was one of these miraculous tutorial hoppers, no matter how unlikely that might be. Robin grimaced.

  “I… don’t think so.”

  “But we don’t know, do we?” the girl snapped, instantly making Robin regret opening her fat mouth.

  “No, we don’t,” she said tactfully. “And I suppose…” she once more let her eyes run across the series of footprints leading north, or east, or wherever the swell they were currently facing. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  There was silence. Denise looking distracted, Eva looking impatient, Maya looking bored, and Marlene looking pensive.

  “What should we do?” Marlene finally asked, somehow managing to keep the tremor from her voice.

  “What do you mean? Obviously we keep going!” scoffed Denise, snapping back to attention. “I didn’t tramp all this way for the company, that’s for lambed sure.”

  Marlene grumbled a bit at this, but Robin knew Denise was right.

  If what they’d seen in those introductory videos wasn’t over-sensationalized propaganda, and there really were beings out there that could decimate armies and eat planets—just running around under the purview of the system—they needed to become stronger to protect what they held dear. Much stronger.

  Robin rubbed her belly, somehow convinced it’d swelled a bit in the hour since she’d last checked. Briefly, her thoughts strayed to who she suspected the father was, before she yanked them back with an effort of will. Not now. There would be time for that later. Once she was alone in her tent.

  “So that settles it then, we keep going?” Robin asked, her voice a little hoarse.

  Once more the others grumbled, and Marlene looked like she was going to be sick, but eventually they agreed that this was the only way.

  For the children. Besides, no one says these men have to be our enemies.

  And so, almost in unison, they stepped over the first of the footprints, and were immediately bombarded with a system prompt

  ***WARNING!***

  You have entered a higher level zone!

  |-|—Lower F Grade—|-|

  (Lvls 15 - 30)

  Please consider relocating to a zone more appropriate for your grade and level.

  And then.

  ***WARNING!***

  You have trespassed on claimed territory!

  |-|—T. ARMY BOOT CAMP—|-|

  ***WARNING!***

  Your trespass has been noticed.

  Your options are now to fight, flee, or hide.

  (Bonus points and special items will be awarded based on performance)

  Enemies Remaining:

  Privates: 100/100

  Sargents: 20/20

  Lieutenants: 4/4

  Captain: 1/1

  Be aware that, no matter which path you choose, the owner of this claimed territory has already been notified of your existence.

  They will not rest until you have been caught, drawn, and quartered.

  In fact, so distracted we’re they by this sudden, well, distraction, they were caught completely unawares when the teeth of the ambush abruptly snapped shut. Suddenly—in what could have been a strategically planned operation, though was more likely a script they’d been programmed to follow—there was a rustle. Figures rising from camouflage or from around the trunks of trees. Nearly a dozen all told, weapons raised and aimed directly at them. Before they could even react, all twelve of the guns went off simultaneously.

  Maya was the first to fall. Popped smack dab in the center of her forehead.