All eyes snapped to Mark, whose expression mirrored their own stunned disbelief. "What the hell does that mean? Am I saved or what?" he demanded, but his words were swallowed by the receding growl of a car engine. Henry's voice, laced with uncertainty, finally broke the silence. "I... I think this 'chair lady' is part of this whole 'table figure' business too. And I guess she favors you."
A beat of stunned silence followed, then Dan's voice cut through it, firm and resolute. "We need to reach the other side by dawn. Let's just focus on that and keep moving." The eleven figures resumed their trek. After a stretch of quiet, Malik's voice broke the rhythm. "You know, I think if we'd just tailed that creepy guy, discreetly, we could've found our way out. Simple." Mark scoffed in response. "And you think people who could hijack a whole train wouldn't have considered that?" Henry's calm voice then interjected, "And I'm quite certain they're watching us."
They pressed onward, their feet sloshing through shallow water and battling through dense thickets. Time became meaningless in the dim forest, where the towering trees stole most of the daylight.
It had only been five minutes since they'd left the shallow stuff and the marsh behind, but Henry was already on high alert. He saw them everywhere: bee hives. He counted about fifteen, and his gut clenched. Then Calvin piped up, his voice low and firm, "Seriously, don't mess with these hives. Don't touch them, hell, don't even think about breathing too close, or else none of us will leave this place."
Everyone took his word seriously. He'd already proved his biology know-how, saving their necks earlier when he'd spotted those swimming snakes in the swamp—he'd pointed out the half-eaten frogs, birds, and even their droppings as proof.
Then, bump! Clyde, the most muscular of them, had clipped one of the beehives trying to dodge a patch of mashed land. Calvin, who was bringing up the rear, whipped around. "Run!" he yelled at Clyde, "Run in a straight line and cover your face and eyes!" Henry didn't hesitate; he fell in beside the biologist, knowing his best shot at survival was to stick with the expert. The others noticed, but Henry couldn't care less. All the men sprinted forward, desperate to outpace the furious swarm.
They continued their frantic flight, Calvin's sharp commands cutting through the chaos: "Avoid the bushes! And whatever you do, don't kill them; it'll only enrage the bees further!" Perhaps it was the sheer desperation of their situation, but at what appeared to be a critical junction, they fractured. "Damn it," Liam muttered, his voice tight with alarm. "They're going to get themselves killed." Henry found himself grouped with Calvin, Josh, Liam and Theo. It was Josh who had then pointed, a flicker of hope in his eyes, toward a cleverly concealed cave.
Calvin immediately protested, gasping, "We don't know what's waiting inside!" Henry quickly added, "And we don't know how deep it goes. We'd be trapped, between a rock and a hard place, if they followed us in." "He's right," Calvin agreed, forcing the words out."Just keep running through the bushes; it'll break their line of sight. Don't stop for anything." Henry noted Calvin's visible distress; they were all suffering,Henry could see Calvin was clearly struggling; they all were, but it was worse for him. He just wasn't built for this kind of relentless pace.
They finally reached a dense thicket of short bushes beneath towering trees. The bees had lost their pursuit some time ago, but no one dared to stop, driven by an overwhelming desire to put as much distance between themselves and the swarm as possible. Henry could have sworn they'd covered at least seven hundred meters. His legs finally gave out, and he collapsed, gasping for air. The biologist was in even worse shape, looking utterly drained of life. "I know I'm no expert," Josh wheezed, "but should bees be chasing us this far from their hives?!"
"Those were Africanized bees," Calvin explained, his voice still ragged but regaining a touch of authority. "A mixed breed. They're incredibly violent and defensive, and they're known to chase for anywhere from 400 to 800 meters. We're actually pretty lucky." Henry was impressed by Calvin's knowledge, but what he found even more remarkable was that Calvin, despite his utterly deplorable physical state, could still manage such a coherent explanation.
They settled down, catching their breath and eating wild berries. "I suggest we retrace our steps to meet the others, you know," Josh offered after a short rest.
"No. Time is pressing, and they are likely already lost," Theo interjected, his voice surprisingly firm. "We barely escaped with our own lives." It was the first complete sentence the man had uttered, and it served to decisively shut down Josh's proposition. "Alright, we're off," Calvin announced, interjecting before an argument could start and draw more attention.Henry's muscles protested with every strained movement, but he knew he had no choice but to follow the expert. The four men set off in the direction from which they had come. They had barely taken five paces when the fifth man, clearly begrudging, fell into step behind them.
They trekked back towards the marshy areas, meticulously avoiding the vicinity of the beehives.
There, tragically, they discovered Malik. He lay lifeless, grotesquely impaled between two large boulders.Henry estimated at least two hundred stingers dotted his body. His head was smashed from behind, indicating he'd fallen backward into the crevice."Those insects are truly merciless," Liam murmured, his voice barely a whisper. Henry quickly averted his eyes, battling the surge of nausea.Then, Liam began to pray, The others stood in somber silence, waiting respectfully, before resuming their grim search for their remaining comrades.
Opting for the alternate path, they had barely ventured when a figure emerged: Dan. "Dan, you're alone?" Josh's question was laced with a desperate hope. "Thank goodness," Dan breathed, his voice mirroring Josh's own relief, "I thought you were all... gone."A sheen of unshed tears glistened in Dan's eyes as he replied,"No, Mark's with me. Samuel... he twisted his ankle or something, so Mark's tending to him."Following Dan, it was evident his group had endured a far rougher passage; he was caked in mud, a testament to their struggles.The short trek ended at a small cave where Mark knelt beside Samuel. Samuel's injury was clear, but so was Mark's, a makeshift bandage of torn shirt wrapped around his hand , a testament to his struggles.