Darklight 8: Darkwilds by Forrest Bella

Author:Forrest, Bella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nightlight Press
Published: 2020-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

20

Lyra

“Is it an animal?” Sike asked as he tilted his head to the side. “I’m guessing an animal.”

At sundown, we gathered around our makeshift camp for a second night out in the Leftovers. Sike was playing a drawing guessing game with Cam in the dirt while I rolled out the tarps for the tents. I spotted the outline Cam had drawn in the soil and recognized the shape immediately, stifling a snort.

“Time’s up,” Cam told him with a grin. “It was Uncle Nick’s beard.” It took me a moment to remember that Bryce’s first name was Nicholas, but when I did, I couldn’t hide my laugh again.

“Almost an animal, at this point,” Arlonne pointed out. Poor Bryce was on the other side of our fire circle with Chandry next to him, just to make sure he was okay. I shook my head at the game and gestured for Cam to help me with the tents for the night. He stood immediately, all business. The clouds above us looked angry, and I doubted rainfall in the Leftovers was going to be as kind as mortal rain. With our luck it might contain an acid or contact poison. Dorian and Cam had shared their experiences with the trees earlier, and their words were fresh in the back of my mind as we carefully pinned up the tarps in their tent positions. A sentient forest that created traps made my stomach twist with worry.

For the moment, we didn’t plan on leaving the vicinity of the gate. It was too dangerous. Sike’s scanners had a map of it now, but we had the civilians to worry about. We couldn’t take them to the Immortal Plane.

We were low on food, although Dorian thankfully had thought to grab the rations he’d found at the abandoned city, and we needed to figure out how to get more. I didn’t want to abandon the mission just to take the civilians back. We’d nearly killed ourselves getting out here successfully, and we had no plane to fly us out.

I mentally counted the rations we had. If we ate wisely, we had enough emergency food to stretch for a few more days. During that time, I wanted to continue our search of the area. There was no point in staying put if the trees just wanted to kill us. A surge of frustration tore through me. The airplane crash had happened so fast. One day, we were setting out on our first mission for the company, and the next—boom. I’d failed everyone in that moment. I should’ve kept a closer eye on Cam. We should’ve confronted the monster outside our plane. A million “should’ves” waged war in my mind.

Cam glanced at me, likely noticing how tightly I was glaring at the makeshift tent pole.

“I’m sorry about before,” he muttered. Nobody else was paying attention to us. My anger abated in the face of his apologetic look. His new friend, Finn, peeked his head out over Cam’s shoulder, as if to help guilt me.

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