Rick’s stomach growled in complaint as he walked uphill, following the stream. His brow furrowed, his gaze kept shifting between Tomas and Kat for a moment to confirm they hadn’t noticed. He’d been fortunate, the duo were leading the way and keeping their eyes peeled for threats… and for Monica. The feline had vanished into the trees some time ago, again. Tightening his jaw, Rick drank some more water to help him forget the hunger. “How much further do you figure?”

Kat turned around, glancing at him with a slight frown. A question lingered on her lips as she looked at him, but dismissed it after a moment. “Shouldn’t be much longer,” she stated, looking skyward. “I think I can see over the top of some trees a bit.”

Their new route had been a change in their desired destination. They’d initially wanted to follow the stream downwards, but had opted to go up hill, hoping to get a better look at the surrounding terrain. It had been a question Tomas had brought up regarding the others, the bus, and the people. If they saw that there were signs of civilization, they’d rush there to ask for help. And if there wasn’t, then they’d have to adjust their plans again.

Because it would mean help would not come. So everyone would likely need to be moved towards Monica’s territory, for the water if nothing else.

For the time being, Rick had found a firm stick that made walking easier. That helped, at least. His thoughts kept bouncing between his empty stomach and the plan ahead, his mind trying to figure out what might be up ahead.

“How much higher up do you figure this whole thing goes?”

“The mountain? It’s hard to tell.” Tomas rubbed his chin. Of the three, he was the least winded. He almost looked just about ready to start jogging his way up.

“We’ll, like, find out when we get further up.”

A shudder ran down Rick’s spine. He whipped around on the spot, peering into the trees. Squinting, he stopped. Nothing moved, and nothing twitched- a light breeze blew through the forest, and wood creaked. Everything looked as it should, yet it didn’t feel that way. It was as if he were being watched, a piercing sensation that punctured through his concentration, a little trickle of cold running down the back of his neck.

“Something wrong?”

“No, nothing.” His grip tightened on the walking stick ever so slightly.

The young teacher suspected he’d just sensed Monica, but he couldn’t be sure of it. The only certainty in his mind was that he could feel he was being watched right now, and it could very well be anything other than her. But he hoped it was her, the last thing he wanted or needed was to stumble into another monster.

That could get messy fast, better get moving.

The next step made Rick wince, reminding him of the light scratches on his back.

Would she push for more when she felt like it? Had it been some weird one-off? The whole context and questions kept nagging at him. But it was just another topic he’d rather not delve.

Holding back a sigh, Rick followed the others as they continued their upward trek. It would be another minute before the strange feeling was gone, two more before he trusted it was in fact the case. It made him scowl either way.

As they kept walking, the stream meandered through the forest for a while, twisting and turning its way as other smaller streams joined in. A few times they’d been unable to properly follow it since the terrain had gotten too tricky to maneuver. So they ended up needing to take multiple detours on their way up.

With every handful of meters up they went, the trees became thinner and smaller. They’d long since escaped the giant behemoths of wood and walked along plant-life that was far closer to the kind they were more familiar with from back in their world. Pines weren’t meant to be as high as skyscrapers, after all.

Twice they had breaks to freshen up and recover their breaths. The hours ticking by and Rick’s stomach reminding him of his hunger several times despite all the water he drank.

And as the day was well past noon, they’d spotted a small crest on the climb. The trio rushed forward.

From it, they got a far better view of the surrounding terrain than they had until now. The world around them stretched far into the horizon- an actual true horizon. Above them the blue sky hung with a little cloud here and there. Behind them, a sea of verdant trees waved and drifted with the breeze. The titanic plant-life looked small, like a field of green wheat before summer came rolling through. To their right they saw the point where the mountains touched the woods, the trees covering barely the first third of the rocky surface before the stone shot upwards into the sky. The very peaks hidden behind angry black clouds.

“Smoke.” Kat pointed at the thin line of black that rose from a spot in the forest.

“It must be where the bus is.” Tomas frowned.

Rick couldn’t quite hear them as he focused on what lay in front of him.

It was a mountain range, a colossus of jagged stone that protruded from the earth in a serrated irregular edge of snow-capped peaks. It extended and covered the entirety of his field of vision, from left to right. Dark rock and brown dirt mixed with glimmering snow in a splatter of massive proportions. The very top was so high up the snow had a bluish color to it, the clouds attempting to hide them in roiling swirls of gray and white.

The whole thing was so large, and yet so far away he was sure it would take them at least a week or two to reach the base. He frowned as he focused on the thunderclouds covering a considerable part of the ridge nearer to the south. Lightning flashed across the black clouds- angry bolts that danced in an uncontrolled, erratic, rapid blink.

“Shit, that’s one nasty storm.”

“Well, that’s one direction we’re not heading in,” Tomas chuckled nervously. “I hope it doesn’t come our way.”

“Don’t jinx it.”

“There.” Rick pointed to the left, northward.

It was hard to see, but he’d managed to spot them. There were several thin pillars of smoke.

“Wait, do you…?” Kat focused on the white that rose in several steady columns. “Shit, do you think that’s…!?”

“Maybe.” The young teacher rubbed his chin in thought. “It’s not exactly close, though. Look at how far the bus is. Considering it took us two days… I think it’d take us about the same amount of time to get there. Maybe a bit more.”

“Tomorrow’s the last day our food will be able to last us.” Tomas looked at the other two. “Can we afford to take the risk?”

Rick’s expression soured. “Can we afford not to?” It was easy to consider the potential route to take to reach the white smoke. It was a three-day walk following the edge of the forest. It shouldn’t be too hard. The issue was that they were getting well outside Monica’s territory, or pretty close to completely leaving it. How many monsters might catch their trail? How many could decide to hunt them down?

Rick turned to the two students. “Maybe you should head back to warn the others.”

“Haha.” She let out a dry laugh, glaring at him. “Fuck you. If you’re going, then I’m going. Gramps needs help.”

“That was my point.” He frowned back at her. “The people at the bus don’t have water, they’re running out. People can only survive three days without it.”

“No.” This time it came from Tomas, the young man taking a long look at the teacher. “We’re coming with you.”

“And that settles that.” Kat pointed at the white smoke that rose in the distance. “Time to get going, we don’t have any to waste.”

She had a point.

The teacher relented, though his gut felt queasy about the idea.

The feeling of being watched came back, and Rick held back from sighing.