- So what are you shadows doing down there?
- our shadows?
And began to melt
Forest of Shadows, Eastern Sector
The mist swallowed everything.
Even the light seemed to dissolve into it, our torches nothing more than accessories now.
Asmara was leaping forward and back, weapon in hand, lamp pointed at the ground, she had cut the rope that connected her to "Roum". Her fingers were trembling in spite of herself.
They were surrounded by about ten people, all looking the same, more than 20 groups of 5, always the same people, Roum and the 4 recruits, joy, disgust, sadness, surprise. They were surrounded on all sides.
Behind her, Sadness held the motion detector. With each pulse of the radar, a group appeared, then moved forward. The other three members brought up their rear, one carrying a holographic map and his weapon, the other a beacon they had recovered from an old point.
- Boss… murmured Sadness. What do we do, it keeps multiplying.
- I'm thinking, replied Asmara, without turning around. We'll cut a path and escape, we have no other choice, I have to survive to win.
Her voice cracked like an order to herself.
Because she knew: stopping here was offering her body to the forest.
Everything around them seemed to breathe.
The trunks undulated, the roots palpitated gently beneath the earth. And the groups approached slightly, one after the other, just enough to make us doubt our survival.
The radar suddenly crackled.
A dot flashed on the screen.
- Move left! cried Sadness.
Asmara fit volte-face, levant son arme.
A whistle pierced the mist
slug
something hit his leg.
She looked down.
A rope.
Taut, grated, still warm, black, which began to cover his leg
- A rope?, disgusting, GET OUT, GET OUT, she screamed.
Wiggle his leg to get rid of the sticky, viscous liquid that covered his boot
-take it off, take it off, TAKE OFF THE BOOT, HAAAAA, Sadness screamed.
- AAAAAH HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
She carefully grabbed her boot and pulled it off with a flick before throwing it towards these sort of duplicates or photocopies, the rope followed and returned to where it came from.
Asmara is cool.
"It's horrible," Sadness murmured. "I don't want to get hit by that stuff."
- Stop. No one had time to take care of a baby. Asmara breathed.
- So... let's go, let's get out, murmured angrily
Asmara did not answer.
His instincts were screaming.
Something impossible was happening, and yet she couldn't explain it, let alone take it, this opportunity, this great chance that could restore her status but could also kill her before she even thought of approaching it.
Then she saw them.
Silhouettes, blurred in the mist, slowly approaching.
Five human forms, connected by a rope.
Exhausted faces, eyes reddened by fatigue.
Same team again
And in front of them…
Rome.
His heart sank.
- the radar to move? she breathed.
Sadness raised her head
- I don't know, maybe
She immediately raised her weapon.
- Stop! Don't move! Don't come any closer, no one else, or I'll kill everyone.
Sadness stared at her in disbelief.
- Chief…? We have to run! There are too many of them!
- Silence. We don't know what we're looking at, we have to wait a little.
Silence fell again.
Only the wind, no, not the wind, a breath, passed between the trunks.
Asmara shone the light on their faces.
"Give me the mission code," Asmara ordered.
Joy blinked.
- The what?
-Forget it, just give me the time
A silence.
Roum shook his head.
- We don't have a watch, we don't have anything, what are all these silhouettes?
Asmara serra la gachette.
- Wrong answer, the real one would have said "sorry" he apologizes for everything and anything
The gun went off. BANG!
The shard struck a tree trunk a few inches from Roum's face.
The forest fell silent.
The other groups stop
- Asmara, t'es folle ?! cria Joie.
"You're not my team," she said. "The original Roum is a real loser."
- We should have eaten them, he replied gravely. Roles change, eating them, new food
She frowned.
- EVERYONE RUN AWAY, RUN FOR YOURSELF, she screamed, cold.
Sadness placed a hand on his shoulder.
- Boss… we're going together.
- No. GET OUT, IT'S MY FIGHT
At that precise moment, the radar exploded into red signals.
Dozens of dots appeared around them.
Asmara fit volte-face.
Between the trunks, silhouettes identical to those of Joy and Roum advanced.
Pale, translucent reflections, repeating their gestures with a slight shift.
A distorted laugh, like an echo that wouldn't die, began to resonate.
- GET OUT! Asmara shouted.
The shadows suddenly appeared, all rushing towards the center, others springing from the ground.
Asmara fired a short burst. The bullets passed through the copies without resistance, but also without injuring or even killing them.
- Fall back! NOW! RUN AWAY, she screamed.
"Roum" grabbed her by the arm.
- This is not the time to play smart! We have to eat!
She froze.
The forest howled around them.
Shadows leap upon his teammates, latching on angrily, crawling over him like worms and tearing at his skin.
Sadness seizes Asmara, and frees her from the grip of "Roum".
Asmara shot again and again. Her hands were shaking, not realizing the massacre that was happening.
The shadows did not retreat, now in their true form he pursued them.
The escape lasted a long time.
Too long.
When they finally stopped, silence returned abruptly.
No more screams, no more moving mist.
Only their ragged breaths.
Asmara looked up.
Sadness, panting.
- We're not finished.
She held his gaze, icy.
- not yet, he will pay with his life.
She turned to the group.
- who have we lost.
Sadness turned around, her face frozen.
- Boss… there is no… where is anger.
Silence
- I don't know
Asmara felt her heart slow down.
Around them, the forest had changed.
She was hot, cold, in pain, the roots hanging like veins above the ground made her want to vomit.
And the air, heavy, sticky, vibrated with a dull energy.
- We have crossed a threshold, she murmurs.
- What threshold? asked disgust.
- I don't know anymore.
Squatting with your head in your hands.
A shudder ran through the group.
Asmara looked around
There were 4 of them now.
She counted them again.
5 .
One more?
- Who is it? she breathed.
Everyone turned around, confused.
The fifth slowly raised his head. His face was Roum's.
The same smile. The same posture.
And yet, he remained silent, smiling.
Asmara took a step back, weapon raised.
- It's impossible.
The fake Roum gave a calm smile.
- Nothing is impossible here. We're just... ahead of you.
Then his body cracked into several black threads
Asmara got up, ran, stumbled, but did not stop, even forgetting her teammates, she fled like a child on all fours.
She finally cried out, in tears:
-RUN AWAY HAAAAA AHHHHHHH