…

In the damp night a girl was outside her tent screaming.

“There’s no way he’s OK. No way!” Steph yelled while hitting a tree trunk.

“Jonathan is probably fine, don’t worry.” Julien tried to appease her.

“Fine? FINE??? He disappeared for hours picking up plants and he’s PROBABLY FINE???” She became even more ignited at Julien’s comments.

“We all know how strong Jonathan is, even a wolf wouldn’t be able to kill him.

“I don’t care, I don’t care, I DO NOT CARE!” Stephanie suddenly started walking away.

“Where are you going?”

“Where the f*ck would I go? Of course I’m going to find him.”

“Find him? In the middle of the night? Are you crazy? You’ll get killed if you go alone.” Julien walked in front of her, blocking her way.

Her expression turned ugly.

“Julien if you don’t move in under three seconds, things will get ugly.”

“Steph, I’m also worried about Jonathan, but he’s the strongest amongst us. Even if he got in trouble, he most likely ran away somewhere. We’ll have to search for him forever without any guarantee of finding him. Furthermore, it’s the middle of the —“

Julien’s speech got cut short and he was sent flying by a kick from Stephanie.

“I told you to move.” She didn’t bother seeing if he was still alive and started running. However, another figure arrived in front of her.

“Stephanie, calm down.” Rana faced her with a calm voice.

“Julien isn’t entirely wrong. Jonathan is one of the least likely people to get into deep trouble amongst us.” Guillaume also walked behind her.

“So you’re saying that you give up on him?” Stephanie was angry.

“If that’s the case, then I’m going to find him alone.”

“We’re not giving up on him. He is a core member of our group. We’ll search him for what we can, but beyond that, it is impossible to ask for more. We don’t have the manpower nor the resources to look for a single person throughout this huge forest.”

Although Steph wasn’t satisfied by this answer, it was still much better than doing nothing.

As they were discussing, someone else appeared.

“Our people didn’t return either. Yassin is an important member of our group, so it’s entirely worth it to go look for him. I say we form a search party.” Yves proposed.

“Sure, numbers only help.” Guillaume answered

“Then let’s go! Why are we wasting time?” Stephanie was still in a hurry and urged everyone to leave.

In under five minutes, a fifteen-man search party was formed. A few people stayed at camp in case something happened.

Since it was night, they couldn’t carelessly run, so they walked using torches to light the way. Everyone’s phone was already dead.

Stephanie was walking with her fist tight and her teeth clenched. She was extremely anxious about what would happen.

‘Please be okay Jonathan … don’t leave me.’

…

At the same time, another group of humans were adventuring through the forest. They were four-man team had arrived at the bushes that contained multiple type of berries. These bushes formed a circle around the tree, so they weren’t coming from the same angle as Jonathan.

“Team leader, should we return to camp to report this?” A young man asked. He was wearing a short-sleeved black t shirt, gloves and a bulletproof jacket.

“No. Let’s first find the source of all of this then we can return.” The middle-aged man, who seemed like the leader, answered.

“Yes, team leader.” The other tree approved.

The group continued to move in a very organized way towards their objectives.

“I have something sir.” A woman spoke out loud.

“Speak.” The team leader answered.

“My senses give me a hint that there was or is a presence of humans ahead. I can’t confirm if they are still there from this far.”

“Good, we will move forward. Move in the second formation.”

When the team leader said this, the others quickly moved. They formed a V with the women being behind it. A burly man was at the point of the formation. He was very tall and had a long black beard. On one side was team leader and the other was the young man.

“Ready your weapons.”

“Yes, sir.” Everyone in the team pulled out their weapons.

The woman carried a submachine gun that fitted her size perfectly. Although she looked fragile, her grip was firm and looked like her I had a lot of experience in weapons handling.

The burly man had a long shotgun in his hands. He looked like a moving tank, especially with his long beard that gave him an imposing aura.

The team leader carried a carbine rifle. Although he readied himself loosely compared to his team members, he seemed in complete confidence in himself, as if it was impossible for him to miss a shot.

As for the young man, he had the most unusual setup. He carried a semi-automatic pistol in his left hand and a long, black machete in his right. He was the most care-free person of the group, whistling as he walked.

“Stop making noise now. They might also have a perception person.”

The young man didn’t answer but he stopped whistling.

After walking a few more minutes…

“This smell, there is something ahead team leader. It’s most likely something related to the fruits. As for the humans they aren’t present anymore, since I do not sense any movement.” The women said.

“Very well, let's go check it out.”

Soon, the group arrived at the same tree Jonathan’s foraging team.

“Wait.” The perception women said.

“What?”

“There are bodies ahead. The blood and the aftermath of a small fight is what I sensed.”

“Bodies?” The burly man asked out as he approached the unconscious Jonathan.

Suddenly, a strong smell entered his nostrils, and when he saw the fruits, he immediately started walking towards them.

“Stop.” Seeing that something was amiss, the young man came in front of him.

“Get out of my way, those are mine.” The burly man eyes couldn’t even focus as he moved like a zombie.

“Idiot.” Without any warning, the young man moved like a blur, jumping up and slapping the burly man across the face with his pistol grip.

“What the hell?” The man came back to his senses after that good slap.

“Don’t you see how all those corps have a fruit with them when they died? I hope you don’t want to end up as them.”

He looked around confused but soon understood.

“Ah. Yeah, thanks.” The burly man had no choice but to thank the young man even though the latter hit him across the face.

“Eh? Some are still alive … particularly this one.” The women suddenly pointed out something and stared at Jonathan who was still unconscious.

“If they are still alive, let’s bring them back to camp … we have used for them.”

“This one has the most vitality while the two others are on the verge of death. Still, if they are kept at stable conditions, they will live.” The women pointed at Yassin and Yamina.

“If they are alive, they are of use to us. Furthermore, they are strong enough to survive the onslaught their comrades could not. We just need to keep them in check and they’ll become excellent pawns.” The leader seemed very satisfied at his findings.

He turned to the other members of his group and said.

“Make sure to remove all their weapons. As for the others, strip them of their clothing. Do not touch the fruits and don’t think about the smell too much if you don’t want to have the same fate as them.” As he said that the whole group moved to their specific tasks.

…

“Wait!” Julien spoke out.

Their group had been moving for a long time now. They had seen the berries but didn’t bother picking any up because of the urgency of the situation.

Till now, they hadn’t encountered anything strange, but Julien suddenly warned the group.

“What?”

“I sense multiple presences ahead. For sure there are 4 that are active. There might be more though.”

“It’s Jonathan!” Steph screamed out.

“Stop screaming! I can’t confirm it’s Jonathan, but if isn’t they might hear us. Who knows if they have malicious intents.”

“I agree.” Yves also spoke out.

Keeping this in mind, the group continued their advance towards the tree.

Soon, they arrived at the great tree, but before they could do any further actions, they heard someone screaming at them.

“Hands up.”

The voice was without any worries, and it came from the leader of the armed group.

The search group quickly analyzed the situation, wanted to reply, but they noticed something.

‘Guns?’ Stephanie was surprised when she saw the group. She knew that Guillaume had one but other than him, she thought that it would be extremely rare for others to have guns. However, she just discovered four individuals fully armed.

Without a second thought Stephanie put her hands up, along with the other people in the search party.

Stephanie looked around and saw a member of the other group near a body. She quickly recognized the person.

“Jonathan!” She couldn’t help but scream out loud. “You motherfuck*rs killed him!!!”

The leader of the group looked at Stephanie calmly before opening his mouth.

“This a misunderstanding. This ‘Jonathan’ person was already like this when we arrived. In fact, he’s just unconscious.”

Stephanie simply started at the leader before once again opening her mouth.

“Let him go.” Her tone was harsh.

The leader didn’t seem surprised, and he simply answered.

“Why would I?”

Without a hint of hesitation, she replied “Because he’s an important person in our group!”

Hearing this, something ticked in the leader’s head.

“Important? So he’s not like every scrub … unfortunately, I can’t give him back to you. As we found him, he’s now our possession.”

“Your possession? You think that because you find someone you own them? F*ck off. A life isn’t yours to own.” Stephanie screamed at the leader when she heard this claim.

“Little girl, you would be right in our previous world, but here, there are no rules. We have the guns, so naturally we decide how things go.” The young man with the machete in the other group entered the conversation.

However, the moment he said that, Guillaume pulled out his revolver, he didn’t shoot, but he aimed it at the young man.

“Sure, you have four guns, but we are three times as many as you. I guarantee you that my shoot will land on at least one of you, so even if I go down, one of you will too. Then, it’ll be a three vs fifteen. You may be able to shoot down half of us, but I doubt that half of you will survive. So … consider wisely your further actions.” Guillaume spit out these vicious words, making the other group freeze slightly.

Still, the leader wasn’t fazed for too long.

“Most of the kids are dead except these. Three of your people are alive, so we can shoot those three and another one of you down. We may all get wiped, but at least 5 of you will die. I say this … I give you back that boy and we go on our separate ways.” The leader said that while pointing to Yassin.

“…”

Stephanie’s group had to also consider this well. It was true that all three hostages could be killed without the group being able to react quickly enough. After all, Guillaume was the only one with a gun.

“Give us two people. Jonathan and Yassin will do.” Yves spoke out.

He would’ve liked to also help Yamina, but she was the most useless of the bunch.

“That won’t do. We decide the terms. You get the boy, or you get nothing.”

Everyone froze for a few seconds, before Yves attempted to speak to Guillaume.

“Nope, no discussions.” The leader said. “You have five seconds to decide and I shoot everyone. It won’t be the first or last person I shoot out here. Five.”

“…”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“W-wait at lea—“

“I said no discussions, the bald head there will give the final answer.” The leader said as he pointed to Guillaume.”

“Two.”

“Fine.” Guillaume answered. “Leave Yassin and take the rest.”

“Good, you finally came to your senses. As we established. The boy will stay. No talking or movement before 5 minutes from now. Since, I’m a bit friendly, I’ll advise you to not touch any of the fruits, except if you want to end up like these kids.” The young man smirked as he pointed at the dead children.

“We will move out. If something happens in those 5 minutes, we’ll shoot your friends down. I also advise you to not attack us after, since we have a camp of at least fifty people fully armed.” The leader said

this shocked everyone in the group. Fifty armed people? How the hell did that happen?

Without waiting for a response, the burly man and the young man picked up Jonathan and Yamina.

They then quickly disappeared in the night.

Stephanie stood there for the whole five minutes, clenching her teeth so hard they almost broke.