225 Revealing the Truth

The group stood in silence in the dimly lit room. Zaksus stared at the raw human flesh that laid on the ground, coated in dust as well as what appeared to be the carcass of some dead insect. On his face was a look of disbelief, a look of shock almost as he seemed to still be recovering from earlier. Next to him, Irina and Loyd was comforting him, calming him down.

"What is it?" Mura whispered to me as she walked over.

I glanced over at the rusty metal door that I had closed just earlier to block out the smell and then back at her. "I'm sure you don't want to know."

I then walked past her and over to Zaksus. I glanced over at him, looking into his distraught eyes and then down at the slice of human flesh on the ground. Nearby, there were sounds of small footsteps, but those belonged to the rodents, so those aren't a threat. I then looked over at the counter-op where the meat was found on, and next to it, there were a few other thick slices of human flesh, possibly from the thigh looking at its diameter and the circular piece of bone in the very center of it.

"Cheer up," I whispered to Zaksus. "You'll be glad that you didn't eat this shit. Trust me."

"Alright," Zaksus sighed. "If you said it, then it must be important."

"What was it, Alevian?" Loyd asked me.

I once again glanced over at the closed metal door and then back at Loyd.

"The meat belongs to something that we wouldn't eat," I simply responded and walked away.

I returned to the center of the kitchen and stood underneath one of the two light bulbs. The light overhead was rather bright in nature, almost to a somewhat blinding nature as it washed out my surroundings, but it only covered a small area around me. Underneath this light, I looked around and surveyed my surroundings. The light made it so that anything not inside this ring of light became even more dark and difficult to see. However, I basically had the layout of this kitchen down and do not need to see everything in order to see it all.

There are two doors leading from the kitchen to the hallway, one near the front of the kitchen and one near the other end. Up against the wall parallel to the hallway was the rusty metal door that contained the slaughter room filled with human carcasses. From the looks of the carcass, the victims must've been dead for at least a few days, making them extremely likely to be the hikers that were lost on the mountain. So, that means whatever—whoever is out there has done this before. That thing must intentionally be hunting people for food, but why? That I believe we'll find out after resting here for a bit. Everyone is just too tired to continue on.

I walked over to the door that we had entered from and pressed my ear up against it, listening for sounds of footsteps outside in the hallway... There was nothing, but that is only for now. I am not sure if there will be anymore of those footsteps later on in the night, so I guess we will not be able to have everyone sleeping at the same time.

I took a step back from the door and looked around in search of anything that I could use to block the door. However, if I were to block the door, I wouldn't want to block both. The doors could allow the hunter to enter, but it can also allow the prey to escape. I do not want to trap us in here. So, whatever is used must be easily movable at our wish, and I don't think there's anything like that present in the room. But...there is something else that can accomplish that role, and that is us—the living in this room. But, is that a good choice? Would it be beneficial if they do not know about the situation? We are technically in that beast's nest right now, so the chances of us getting attacked is high. So...maybe telling them is the better choice.

I looked into the eyes of Alvelyn, who was standing in the light cast by the other light bulb in the room. Then, after making eye contact, we nodded to each other.

"Everyone," I said, gathering everyone over. "I need to tell you all something."

"What is it?" Irina asked as she walked over with the others.

"It's something important," Alvelyn explained for me. "Something related to our safety."

"I knew it," Erith sighed. "I knew that something felt off."

"Cause it is," I answered. "We all know that we aren't here alone, right?"

"Everyone nodded their heads.

"Well, us being stuck on this mountain...it wasn't an accident."

"The bridge breaking wan't an accident?" Zaksus asked.

"Yeah," Alvelyn nodded. "Alevian checked the ropes and the break was too clean to be a natural occurring. It looked more like someone used something sharp to cut it."

"And when we were hiding in that cave,' I continued. "I saw something staring at us."

"That's...creepy," Irina muttered as she gently tugged onto Muria's sleeve.

"And when we were walking here, I heard—"

"Footsteps." Loyd interrupted me. "Footsteps that didn't belong to our group."

"Right," I nodded.

"Then I suppose whatever is behind that door you looked at," Mura said as she glanced over at the closed metal door. "There must be something disturbing."

"Right," I nodded. "I saw a rather gruesome scene. A bunch of dismembered human corpses to be exact."

"..." Everyone else remained silent as I revealed to them the news.

"If you don't believe me," I started saying thinking that they do not believe in my words. "You can smell the air coming from the crevices of the door. If you still don't believe me after smelling that, you can open the door and see for yourself."

"I believe you," Muria closed her eyes and nodded. "You have no reason to lie."

Following Muria's words, the others slowly became more vocal and snapped out of their trance-like state. Their reaction to the news, was calmer than I had expected. However, I suspect that is either because it was so grim that they were too devastated to react or that they also sensed that something was amiss. I believe it is a combination of the two.

"We can't stay the night here then," Mura sighed. "That thing will find us if we stay in one place for too long."

"Right," I nodded. "I say we rest here for an hour and move again."

"We'll do that," Mura decided. "Everyone, I don't know if you are still able to fall asleep, but just try and relax for an hour. We'll have to get going once the hour is up."

"We need to reach the radio tower," Alvelyn said. "If we want to find help, we will need to use that."

"You know how to tune a radio?" Zaksus asked her.

"We'll figure it out," Loyd immediately stepped in in a protective manner.

"We just have to turn the dials," Alvelyn responded.

"But what frequency?" Irina asked.

"Frequency?" Erith's countenance tensed up before it lit up. "I remember seeing something about that."

"Where?" Noah asked.

"I remember it was on the travel brochure of the mountain. Wait a minute." She then took out her phone and began scrolling through the pre-loaded page. "Here it says the frequency for the rescue radio."

"Great," Alvelyn smiled. "Now we have a way to call for help. We just need to find the place that controls the radio."

"This will be rather difficult to do while having to avoid whomever is out there," Luna commented.

"We'll just have to do it," I sighed. "But it's do or die."

"We'll be able to do it," Irina smiled and said cheerfully.

"You seem awfully happy," Noah frowned as he looked over at her.

"That's because," Irina smiled and peeked over in my direction. "This is the first time Alevian is relying on us."

"Right," Luna smiled as well as she looked over at me.

I looked around, startled by all the smiles and glances that was cast in my direction. Mura crossed her arms and chuckled in a glad manner and Muria smiled with her eyes closed, nodding in an approving manner. Next to them, Erith looked over at me with a rather bland expression on her face as we had only known each other for not too long. But, I am certain that she sensed that something pleasant was occurring based on the mood swing of the group. Loyd also seemed quite satisfied.

"Lucky for us he told us that," Noah said in a joking manner. "Otherwise we might all die here."

"Everyone," Mura said with a smile. "Rest up. We still have a long way to go from here."

After that, the group dispersed but still stayed relatively close in proximity. Noah, Zaksus, and Loyd went over to the kitchen counters, talking among themselves in a enthusiastic manner, Mura, Muria, and Irina went over to the wall and sat down after clearing the floor of dust near that area. Luna and Erith also sat down next to them, leaning against the wall.

That left just Alvelyn and I standing. I looked over at Alvelyn with some confusion in my mind, and it would appear that she was somewhat confused as well. I could sense it in my mind as well as in her eyes. With a shrug, we shook our head. There's no use in dwelling on this issue and try to figure it out. Our main priority is getting out of here alive.