Territorial Dispute

It's been an hour since we left camp. The forest was quiet. I could only hear the humming of birds and water crashing in a nearby river. While we were walking, I could see Catherine struggling to walk on the wet and slippery terrain, resulting in her sneakers being slightly damaged.

"We should rest for a while." I suggested.

Both of them agreed. So we went to the river and refilled the empty bottles that we got from camp. We'll not exactly drink this without decontaminating it. That would lead to diarrhea and later on dehydration.

Catherine sat beside me after she's done filling up the bottles that she's carrying.

"So... Where are you going exactly?" She asked in a soft way.

"I'm looking for someone and also investigating something."

My voice was kind of raspy and sounded more serious when I said it.

Her expression quickly shifted from joy to guilt. She might have thought that I was upset, so I apologized right away.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to sound rude or anything. Its just my throat is kind of hurts. Maybe its from the lack of sleep these past days." I tried my best to express my thoughts in a friendly manner.

She nodded.

"Its okay. I totally understand. You've probably been travelling for so long already. But if you want to rest more we can just set up camp here for today. Night time is also near so-" Before she could even finish the sentence, I warned her to be quiet and to signal her brother to come towards our direction.

I can sense that something is lurking behind the trees. So I observed the area and tried to listen, but the river was too loud for me to hear anything else. I tried to reach for my dagger along with my backpack, which was at least 3 meters away from me, but then it showed up.

The same Gammu that I met yesterday, but something changed.

There was a person caught between the fangs of its torso. It also grew larger; its body became more muscular than before, its arms had spikes, and it seems to have noticed us. Even though the river was too loud for us to be detected. It seems that the victim in its torso serves as the substitute for its lack of vision.

The victim was still alive; he was aware of his surroundings. He was crying, desperately screaming for help. The creature was directly looking at Catherine and El. I threw a rock at the Gammu and tried to get its attention; after several attempts I was successful.

I shouted instructions to Catherine.

"Follow this river until you see a bridge and seek shelter in the city! I'll catch up after I'm done dealing with this thing!"

Catherine nodded, grabbed El's arm, and took off.

It was just me and the Gammu now. This was the best decision. I didn't want both of them to be caught in this situation. The Gammu ran towards me; its movement was slower than before, but I should still be cautious. It swung its massive arms but I did a forward roll towards my backpack, grabbed it, and sprinted into the forest.

I knew that I had the disadvantage when it came to speed, so the trees' forest would be able to help me gain some distance. I need to consider my size and agility to successfully lose this bitch. It was having trouble catching up with me because of the slippery terrain. Considering its weight, it was impossible for it to maintain its balance. I was lucky that this happened in this kind of terrain, if this was an open space in the city, I would be dead by now.

I kept running deeper into the forest but there seemed to be a dead end ahead. So I changed my direction to my right. I continued to run, hoping that it would lose track of me. I found a broken empty trunk on a slightly steep slope; it was large enough for me to hide in. I looked around to see if it was just behind me, but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Its better that I'm out of it's line of sight." I muttered to myself.

So I hid in the trunk and waited for the time when it was safe to come out. A couple of minutes have passed and I heard some trees collapsing near me. Then I felt the footsteps just above where I was; it stood there for a while.

I can still hear the man screaming for help, then a small shriek came from the creature, the man suddenly fell silent as if it was dead. It seems that it's scanning the surroundings with its ability. I kept myself from making a sound, it would be dangerous if it caught me, especially when its just right above me.

When it seemed that the creature could not detect where I was, it let out a loud shriek, and slowly walked away. Just when I thought that it was already safe, a white creature appeared from the distance.

"Fuck."