JINSEN

I can't shake off the feeling that had suddenly overwhelmed me moments before. Walking away from the wall somehow felt...wrong. Like I shouldn't have left it, like it was trying to tell me something. Which was weird. I've touched it before, the first time we came across it and I never got the feeling I just did in that moment.

My heart was pounding, my breathing a bit off and it was slightly messing with my head. I didn't want to admit it, didn't want to acknowledge what the feeling felt like. But it came, nonetheless. It almost felt like Zared was right there with me. As if I could hear his voice on the other side telling me he loved me, whispering something that I couldn't quite catch.

And I know that was stupid and impossible. And maybe it was my desperation and delusion that I wanted him to still be here, to still be alive. Maybe I was finally starting to lose my damn mind. I was thinking about him more than usual and it was finally affecting me big time.

"Everything alright?" Ezekeil asks as we walk back into the forest.

I just shrug, not sure what I had been feeling. We walk for another hour before we make a stop. The younger children start complaining as we create a circle around them as the other adults start pulling things out of their bags to feed them what we have. Tanya walks over to hand me a water bottle. Gladly taking it, I look up into the sky to judge how much daylight we have left before we needed to bunk down.

Opening my own bag, apart from the rest of the group, I start going through of what I had left of my devices. Three arrowheads and one flash bomb. Dumping out my contents on the ground I shift through the materials I was able to find to create what I needed and sigh deeply.

"Something wrong?" Daniel suddenly comes up next to me, leaning his hands on his knees as he peers down at my mess.

I don't say anything as I start stuffing the stuff back into my bag, avoiding all eye contact and completely ignoring him. Slinging my bag over my shoulder I go to walk away. He snatches my shoulder and tries to pull me back around as he states,

"Hey, I'm just trying to talk to yo-"

I don't let him finish his sentence as I quickly take his wrist and forearm, twist it off me, then swirl his arm around his back while kicking the back of his knee to bring him down. "Ah! What the fuck?!" He cries out getting everyone's attention.

Ezekeil and Tanya immediately come to my side with panic on their faces. My teeth were clenched tightly as my anger simmered underneath my skin. This fucker had no right to touch me in any way. Ezekeil read my eyes as I look up at him and he nods.

"It's alright Jinsen, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it. Just let him go." He says carefully.

I do just that and quickly. I didn't even bother to stand there and wait to see if he was alright. I secure my bag more firmly against me and walk off hearing Daniel spit out,

"What the fuck man?! I was just trying to be nice to you, asshole!"

Yeah fucking right. I knew what he's been trying to do. I wasn't fucking blind. But if this was the only way to get him off my back once and for all then I'll gladly keep doing it. I don't care what any of them think of me. They weren't important. I was better off alone anyways.

"Jinsen, don't walk off to far! We'll be leaving soon!" Tanya calls out as if she didn't care what I just did to that dipshit.

"I don't understand why you two keep calling him back. Let him walk away if wants too, all he does is give a bad attitude and treats the rest of us like we don't exist anyways." A woman lamely spats.

Well she was right about that. But fun fact, none of them could survive without my help and they all knew it too. Which is why there was hardly any heat in her words and why the rest of them didn't agree and kept their mouths shut.

Once I was well away from everyone, I find a boulder to sit on and start unpacking my pack again. Separating what I have I take out the blueprints along with a notebook and pen. I start listing all the things I'll need to find. I was either out or running low on supplies. I look up and scan the forest judging the sun of its location.

If I was correct there was a city not too far off from here. I don't think I'll make it back by nightfall however and there was no way I was making the entire group follow me. The city was the worst place to be. Filled with monsters and unsavory people, they would just end up dying or getting separated if we had to run.

A snap sounds to my left causing me to swing my head in that direction, clutching a waiting arrow. I relax when I see it was just Ezekeil. He holds his hands up like I was going to attack him or something. But once he sees my shoulders sag in relief he starts walking over to me.

"I was just checking up on you. See you didn't go as far off as the last time so you're learning." He cracks a smile making me shake my head at him.

I show him my list. Taking it from me he scans what I wrote and frowns looking around just as I had done. "There's a city in that direction. We should be able to find everything we need there."

I shake my head. "It's too dangerous to take the group." I state matter of fact.

He slowly nods his head staring at me in a way that was making me uncomfortable. He always gives me that look when I start talking and it was unnerving to say the least.

"I agree. But this trip won't get us back by nightfall."

Looking over to him I knew there was no point asking him to stay this time. Every run we had to make into a city or town he never allowed me to go on my own. And while I say I don't care about any of them, I actually do care about him and Tanya.

"You're not going alone, Jinsen." He presses as if he knew what I was thinking.

"I wasn't going to ask." I mumble making his smile bigger.

Giving me back the list he turns to head back to the others. "See? Learning."

And for the first time in a long time I give the tiniest of smiles. He stops momentarily, clearing his throat his voice wavers like he was on the verge of tears or some shit. "Let's go tell the others and start heading out."

Packing the rest of my things back up I jump off the rock and start walking back until a noise makes me stop. I stand still, listening intently. It wasn't a noise I've heard of before, but I knew it wasn't part of the forest. Snapping my head in the direction it was coming from I try to listen harder. It was a weird low rasping.

Ezekeil stops when he notices I wasn't moving anymore. Seeing the look on my face he stiffens and slowly walks back to me. I point to my ear indicating I heard something. He looks around listening too and I knew he hears it when his eyes slightly widen. We both stand there for a moment until he finally points in the direction I thought I heard it come from.

Together we slowly, carefully walk towards the sound and as we did it was getting a bit louder. After about five minutes walking away from where everyone was at, a small incline approaches, dipped into a ravine. My heart pounds wildly in my chest as panic spreads through me. My eyes widen at what I see. Looking to Ezekeil his reaction was similar to my own.

In the ravine was about a dozen manlike creatures neither of us has ever seen before. They all just stood there with their heads down, breathing in that raspy sound as if they were sleeping or something. But the worst part is none of them were hiding and the only thing on their faces was a mouth.

Taking a hold of his arm I slowly back us away from the edge never taking my eyes off any of them in case one of them notices we were there. One twitches making my heart race and my blood turn cold, but it doesn't move and stays where it was at. Staying as quiet as we can I make sure we were quite a few distance away before finally turning to Ezekeil who's face has turn deathly pale.

"They were out in the daylight." He whispers so lowly I nearly didn't catch it. "Why are they in the daylight, Jinsen?"

I don't know and I didn't want to know. It was best to get back to the camp to everyone and get them all the hell away from here before it was too late.