Ah, yea… I passed out, didn’t I?

A pair of heavy eyelids opened slowly. Night Vision activated the moment he opened his eyes. The greenish hue ceiling greeted him. It would have been better if it was the sun, but at least he felt grateful for still being alive.

Should I just play dead at the moment? I still don’t have a clue on how to get out of this mess. I wonder whether those bastards had left already. Jason kept his body motionless while staring at the ceiling. A passing thought came by.

Ah! I’ve got shot, no wonder I felt a pulsing ache at my flank. A subtle pain reminded him of his bullet wound. He thought of taking his time resting, but he had a reality to deal with.

“Ugh,” Jason groaned, propping his body up. He stopped for a bit as the subtle ache started to worsen upon moving. Shit, that hurts.

Jason dragged his body close to the cavern wall. His high strength made it easier to drag himself. But in doing so, he accidentally saw the situation in the cave. Hakeem was leaning at the opposite cavern wall. Judging by those closed eyes, Hakeem was definitely sleeping. Arrluk was tending to his grandchildren. Tapeesa was still in her ice figure with Arrluk’s bare hand gently caressing Tapeesa’s head. On his other lap rested Nuniq’s head. He too was being tended by his grandfather. Jason felt bad seeing the family as he knew they wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for him. But he didn’t have a choice. If not for their help, Muzgonk and its horde would have found a way in reaching to Toronto.

But where’s Esther?

He didn’t see his sister. But the moment he reached the cavern wall and leaned over, he felt the right side of his body touching something. He turned and saw what it was.

Esther?

A woman slept over the wall. She was restless in her sleep, tossing and turning every now and then. Jason stared at her and couldn’t help but notice her smudged mascara. Did she cry? Well, thinking back, our situation isn’t where I can say off the radar.

Jason turned his sight to his flank. He was wrapped in some sort of clothes, and he could see the dark stains on the cloth. Blood was probably still seeping out, judging by the stain.

Ah, shit. No wonder I feel weak. Why can’t stamina be like turning my skin into iron or something? Does it not make my body stronger? Jason unwrapped the bandage, unraveling the gruesome bullet wound.

That looks disgusting. Blood seeped out as the bandage barely did a thing. He opened up his status and saw his energy was still empty. It seemed fainting wasn’t recognized as being asleep. He took his finger and poked through the hole. He felt a hard object at the end of his fingertip.

Like I thought, the fucking bullet is still in there. I was hoping they would take it out, but I guess they wouldn’t dare do it. Should I take it out? He didn’t know much about medic stuff but seeing House every now and then, at least let him know that having the bullet still inside would be bad. He doubted whether the things he saw were real or not, but he had to make do with what he knew.

Out of nowhere, a first aid kit appeared. He forgot to bring an extra set of clothes, but he didn’t forget the essentials. He brought in case something like this happened, and it did, much to his dislike.

He took out a dagger and bit at the hilt. He expected that it would hurt like hell, and he wasn’t wrong. He jabbed two fingers into that hole as he groaned. “Ugh…” he bit the hilt hard and pulled out the bullet with his two fingers. He didn’t stop groaning with blood spurting out like a broken fountain.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Jason couldn’t stop cursing from the inside. He hated pain and more so when he was the one who inflicted it. He groaned as the long bullet escaped the bullet hole. The metal casing of the bullet clanged on the ground. Jason gritted his teeth and poured out the alcohol on the gaping wound.

“Ugh,” another groan escaped through his lips as another bout of pain coursed through his whole body. As if he could hear his muscles sizzled by the alcohol. Tears came rolling down his cheeks as the pain was spiking.

Jason threw the empty alcohol bottle away and grabbed a bunch of cotton balls. He filled up the hole and closed the wound with gauze. He finished it up with a criss-cross bandage.

Jason stared at it with his chest heaving. Enough said Jason thought this was much worse than fighting against that Orc Chieftain.

That’s done. Let’s just hope the wound won’t fester. Jason turned back to Esther and the rest. All of them went through hard times, and miraculously all of them were still alive. But a person worried him. His gaze landed on Tapeesa. She was still in her ice figure state, and he wasn’t sure whether she was still alive or not. It was hard without his Scan ability.

I feel bad about Arrluk and her, but I can’t do a thing in my current state. He felt useless, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Should I just sleep and hope my energy comes back? Hmm? His train of thought stopped as a voice entered his ears.

“Jason…” Esther uttered his name. Judging by the wince on her face, the poor girl must have a nightmare.

I hope I didn’t die in her nightmare. Jason felt bad, but waking her up won’t be a solution to their current predicament. He looked outside, and there was nothing but a deep fall. He stared at it for a while before turning his head. Yet the corner of his eyes caught something passing by. He quickly turned back at the ravine.

Jason doubted himself. That slight shadow he saw might be due to blood loss, but his eyes couldn’t stop wandering around, searching for that glimpse of a shadow. Then, his whole body froze. His eyes tracked the sight of something.

From the deep ravine, something waved from the bottom. It was big, and it reminded him of something bad. Bad like a huge dinosaur reigning supreme in New York City.

A tail? Or is it a neck? His eyes kept on following the thick elongated part of a creature. The width of it couldn’t be compared easily to any known things. No doubt in Jason’s mind, this creature was incomparable to Muzgonk. The only thing that came to mind was only one.

Scarlet Rex, that’s the only fucker that I can compare it to. His gut feeling was screaming at him, telling him to run. But he couldn’t, not at this state and not without these people. He kept his silence as he watched the thing moved side to side. Not knowing what it was only further his anxiety.

Luck wasn’t being good to him and his crew. Rather than turning for the better, it only got worse. The tail-like thing waved side to side as Jason could hear the sound of air being split apart, and he wasn’t the only one who heard it.

Arrluk gazed outside. He couldn’t see a thing, but he heard the same thing as Jason. He kept his lips tight. He knew better what and what not to do. Arrluk’s hands scrambled on the ground, searching for his metal rod. But the expression on his face was a sign that he remembered something. His weapon was left behind, and being weaponless wasn’t doing any good to him.

Both men kept their attention at bay. Jason watched it until the supposed tail went back into the deep ravine. Then, he saw it, the end of it. It wasn’t a head as he saw what it was.

A stinger? A scorpion? The shape of a stinger stood at the end of the huge pillar. It disappeared into the depth of the ravine, and Jason had no intention of jutting his head out to see what was down there.

How can a UC as big as that lived down there? That doesn’t make any sense, the ravine had just been created by the military, and this thing shouldn’t have existed. Jason’s mind scrambled for an explanation about the existence of the scorpion-like creature.

Did it live underground? Or did it appeared from a new crack at the bottom of the ravine? Or it might come from Ontario Lake as the ravine probably reached the edge of the lake. It was plausible that the creature from the lake swam into the ravine. But it was all speculations and no concrete facts.

“Hmm? What’s that noise?” out of sudden, Hakeem broke the silence of the cave.

Jason and Arrluk stared at Hakeem with bulging eyes. Sweat ran down Jason’s back, and compared to Arrluk, he was still in the blind about what was out there.

The injured man got up, ignoring the pain, and ran to Hakeem. He burst with his speed as the thought of opening up his wound was less important than fearing an attack from a scorpion-like creature.

Jason covered Hakeem’s mouth and whispered in his ears. “It’s me, and don’t you dare make a noise. Something is out there.”

Hakeem, who was surprised, kept his calm, but the words mentioned by Jason made him more nervous than being grabbed at the mouth.

Jason kept his sight to the outside. The tension never left his side as it would always be there. He prayed in his heart, hoping that thing didn’t hear Hakeem’s voice.

Fuck…

But he wasn’t lucky as usual. The stinger tail came back, waving from the depth of the ravine.