"Are we in danger?"
The long seconds of awkward, silent panic were broken by Aline's shaky whisper. No one noticed when she came closer, but they all saw her teary blue eyes looking straight at them.
Nobody stepped up to answer. Oliver could see the panic forming on her face, and if he didn't act, everything would fall apart.
"We've already got three catatonic girls. I can't let one of them spiral into a breakdown. If I do nothing, we're gonna fall apart just like Samuel and Nikki's groups, but this time out of pure fear."
"You know, Lume, fear is just your hypothalamus releasing norepinephrine into your bloodstream. So grab that damn snake and stop making me look weak in front of my superiors. There's a saying in the army: If you're scared, fight scared!"
His father's voice hit him hard, the memory too vivid to ignore.
"I was just a kid... Why are these memories coming back now? First Mr. Antônio, now Dad... why haunt me like this?"
He shoved the thoughts deep down and took a deep breath. There was no more time. These abominations could strike at any second, and everyone was unprepared.
Oliver took a deeper breath and dug for courage he didn't know he had. His hands were still trembling.someone had literally died in front of him minutes ago,but he had to do this.
"Yes. We're in danger." He spoke in the calmest voice he could muster, though it still came out raspy and shaky. But it had to be enough.
Oliver scanned the group, expecting to see fear on her face. Instead, he found tears rolling slowly from her wide, tense eyes. Her curly brown hair rested on her shoulders, and her round face was locked on him with full attention.
"That look... no way... is that hope?" The thought hit him hard, but he forced it back down.
"We're unarmed and down at least two people until sunset or until someone from the other teams returns. These abominations are sneaky and malicious,too dangerous to deal with bare hands. We need weapons!" He started piecing things together aloud.
"And how exactly are we gonna forge them, Oliver? We don't have tools or enough people to forge, extract, and process bronze," Lucas shot back. Maybe it was confusion, maybe defiance. Considering how kind he'd been just moments ago, it was probably confusion.
"You're skipping about three million years of human evolution, Lucas. We only started using metals around forty thousand years ago. Don't tell me you forgot what Ms. Monica taught us in history class?" Oliver gave the most dramatic and sarcastic performance of his life.
"In all honesty, I'm totally blaming the teacher. I barely went to her class. I learned that in a primitive survival RPG, but hey, it had to be true, right?"
"I remember a lesson about that... You were in that class?" David jumped in to back him up. The short guy had a knack for knowing the perfect time to change the mood,everyone had to admit that.
"I was always the quiet type," Oliver cut in fast, before they started digging too deep and figured out his 'source' was basically a video game. And worse... an RPG!
"The nearby forest has plenty of branches we can turn into spears. If we can find some tough roots, we could tie sharp stones to sturdy sticks and make a primitive pickaxe."
"Honestly, it's crazy to think these weapons will do much against those monsters' scales. Even the bronze weapons barely worked. Only Nikki's clean strike did anything real. But it'll have to do."
"Alright, I'll go find stones that could work for a pickaxe, or at least ones we can sharpen," Lucas said as he dashed off down the hill, way too excited for someone in this situation.
"I'll go gather branches for spears and a possible pickaxe handle," Gael followed, just as motivated.
"I guess their failed plan earlier hit them harder than they let on."
That left Oliver, David, and Aline. And the two catatonic girls in the corner.
"Uh..." Oliver started to speak but noticed Aline was still trembling.
"Say it! Tell me what I have to do, Oliver!" Aline wiped her tear-streaked face with her dirty jacket sleeves and somehow pulled herself together with impressive courage. Her big blue eyes locked onto his, and something in that look sent shivers all the way down his spine.
"Those damn eyes again... not this... breathe, Oliver!"
"First, you need to figure out what your Scanner actually does. It detects energy, but that's way too vague. We need to know what kind of energy to make any use of it."
"Got it! I'll handle it!" she replied instantly and took off running.
"Just be careful. Those scaly bastards are sneaky!" He caught a glimpse of a smile as she turned,probably because of the way he referred to the monsters. But how could he not? Just look at what happened to poor Nicolas.
"Where's Nicolas' body?" he asked David.
"I moved it earlier, down the hill while I was scouting. I figured a corpse might attract predators... and it wasn't helping the girls either."
"You're a clever medic, David."
"I'm doing my best, Capitán."
His blood ran cold. A jolt of pure panic shot through him like electricity, making his whole body tremble. He only calmed down once David had already left to move the girls to the angel's rock, the highest point on the hill. Clearly, the safest spot for a base.
"I've gotta get moving too..." Oliver finally started scanning the area properly, his eyes sharp for any snake dens.
They were positioned on an elevated rocky outcrop in the middle of a forest. The trees were tall. Tall enough that the highest point of the hill barely reached the bottom of the canopy. And yet, it was like the forest refused to close overhead, leaving a clearing where sunlight shone through and reflected off greenish stones.
Now that things were a bit calmer, he could admit, the place was beautiful. Birds chirped in the distance, and he could see rodents scurrying along branches far away.
"Well... I've got a Scanner to test too."
[Herbalism Scanner – Rank 1]