"Nonetheless, we should continue our search. You can never be too sure if there's anyone left out there."
"There isn't! There really isn't!"
"But-"
"Brandon." Liam cuts off Brandon's words after he's made sure the coast is clear outside the cave, "We should at least get these two back to the shore, only those who wants to fight stays in this team."
"Uh..."
"What? Just sending them back when all we got is two?" Chris said frustratedly.
"Better than nothing, the longer we're out here, the longer we're at risk." Liam retorts.
"Only those who wants to fight stays right?" Chris pushes the male survivor's shoulder heavily and aggresively then asks, "You wanna fight don't you?"
Facing Chris's threatening glare, the man shakingly nodded.
"See? He wants to fight, now man up, don't pussy out of this."
"She doesn't want to fight."
"We've come this far, you telling me you want to make the journey all the way back just to get her to the shore? We can protect her."
"Guys, no time to argue right now." Brandon breaks Chris and Liam apart, "If you want to fight, we'll create a circle of men, and she will be at the centre where it's safe, then we'll continue our search."
"There's no one left!" The male survivor repeats yet again desperately.
"We still have to try. Come on, form the circle around her." Brandon instructed, and everyone followed.
"You just want to save your own ass, don't you?" Chris leaned close to the male survivor and whispered into his ear, "Man up, coward, I'll kill you before the snakes do."
"He noticed." Liam thought to himself after eavesdropping on Chris, "He was trying to call off the mission when he said there's no one else alive in the forest, he wants to get to the shore safely, it was a terrible excuse though. I tried making a better excuse for us to fall back, but he's in the way." Liam thought to himself while staring at Chris.
The male survivor after receiving that threat from Chris was even more terrified, walking properly took his entire body's strength and yet he's still trembling terribly. His pupils were constricted and he was bathe in his own sweat, with his fists clenching the tree branch Chris gave him tightly.
Liam sighed, knowing the mission will go on longer.
"Chris is an asshole." Tyler said to Liam, "I totally agree with you, these two doesn't want to fight, they should be at the shore."
"I'm the one that wants to be at the shore." Liam thought to himself.
"Wait!" Brandon who's at the front of the circle formation halted their footsteps, "There's cries in that direction. Let's go!"
"He screamed again." Liam commented softly, and Tyler voiced it out louder so everyone can hear, "Snakes will ambush us at any time again! They can hear you scream Brandon!"
"Shit!" Brandom exclaimed.
Hissssssssss hisssssssss
Hisses comes from all directions, first one striked from the front, "HARH!" and was promptly taken care of by a precise hit from Brandon.
"Your side James!"
"I got it."
"Liam look out!" A snake pounced on Liam from his blindspot and nearly gotten a bite in, but Liam ducked down last second with Tyler swinging his tree branch at the snake.
"I got it!" Tyler said after successfully eliminating that snake, "Shit that was close, you okay?"
"I'm good." Liam replied.
coughs coughs
"The ashes and smoke of the fire will kill you, cover your nose and mouth." Brandon told the two rescued survivors.
"I have...coughs...nothing to cover my nose..."
"Tear it off your shirt, dipshit." Chris insulted then swung his branch furiously killing two snakes with one hit.
The two survivors didn't comply with Chris's instructions, they simply followed along their steps, enduring the suffocating smoke on the way.
"We're here to help! Yell out again!"
"Here!"
After a few more twists and turns, they found a man originally hiding within bushes behind a big tree, "Oh my god..." The man stood up and broke down in tears of joy.
"He's fucked." Liam thought, "He yelled too many times while being in the open."
And he is, a snake dropped from above the tree and landed a clean bite on the back of his neck.
"NOOOOO!" Brandon charges forward, grabs the snakes tail, pulls it and slams it onto the tree, bursting it like a balloon filled with blood.
Thump
The bitten man collapsed, and Brandon quickly kneeled down, placing the man's head in his palm, "You're okay, come on, stay with us."
It was futile efforts, black veins starts spreading from the back of his neck, onto his cheeks and his arms.
"Tell...tell him I...I'm sorry..." were his last words before the veins reaches his eyes, darkening it.
"Shit..." Brandon exclaimed in disappointment.
Suddenly, the rescued male survivor felt a hand squeezing his shoulder, it gets stronger and stronger and it hurts more and more over time, "See? There was someone still alive." It was Chris.
"What was that about? Saying there's no one left?" James sided with Chris.
"They just wanted to live, they're not prepared for this, we should get them back to shore." Tyler retorted.
"Get them back to shore? And then make the trip back all the way here, that's asking us to die."
"You're asking them to die if we don't send them back."
"I'm not asking anyone to die, I'm asking them to fight and not be a goddamn puss-"
"Stop! Stop! Both of you." Brandon got up and stopped the argument, then he turned to the rescused male survivor, "If you don't want to join us that badly, let me convince you. There are people just like you out there right now begging for their lives, we can't waste time sending you back to shore first, it's way too long of a trip. Think about these people, and put yourselves in their shoes, they want to live just as much as you do, they wish to see us just as much as you do."
Brandon then ripped off two pieces of cloth from his long pants and hands it to the two survivors, "Here, cover your faces."
"Now you better fight." Chris said condescendingly to the male survivor, it was a warning for him to not attempt to chicken out again.
He couldn't say a word, in front of him, Brandon's eyes were firm and filled with anticipating, behind him, Chris was ready to put him to the ground if he doesn't fight. He didn't have a lot of choice. In the end, he reluctantly nodded.
"Thank you." Brandon said while patting the man on his back.