Survival Instinct 1

One would think the blue light above would cause one to become alert, as science had already proven blue light to be the bane of sleep in countless studies. Yet within seconds of putting their heads down, they all began to drift asleep. 

Ace found this beyond odd, as normally, he wouldn't be able to get even a wink of sleep if even a sliver of light touched his eyelids. But the glow generated by the canopy above felt warm and relaxing. He saw some of the guys take off their shirts to bask under the millions of tiny blue bulbs high above them, smiling as if undergoing the most luxurious spa treatment. 

Before he could ask Norman about it, a tingling sensation welled up inside his mind, and he smiled. Suddenly, he didn't care anymore and just wanted to sleep. 

To Ace, it only seemed like moments, but in reality, it had been over three hours since he laid down. At this moment, his body began secreting a cocktail of stress hormones, and his heartbeat began to gallop like a runaway train. His metabolism blazed, and his brain, deep in sleep, was yanked awake. 

His consciousness returned, but he didn't bother to open his eyes. He just turned on his back and sighed. This was common for Ace, and it started in his early teens. Within weeks of living alone in the motel, his body had developed the habit of waking up like clockwork after three hours of sleep. Exerting his body to the limit had been the solution he had found to put him back to sleep, otherwise he would toss and turn until he went mad but still, he wouldn't fall asleep again. 

Ace lazily turned onto his stomach and began to press his hands, pushing his body as high as it could go with his hands alone. Under the blue bioluminescence, rhythmic huffs reverberated through the silent night air. Once, twice, ten, fifty. Only after surpassing a hundred pushups did he unwillingly open his eyes. 

Something is wrong, Ace thought. He had counted past one hundred and twenty-five reps, a number past which pushups became hellish for him. Yet this time, he got up feeling as if he'd done only a tenth of what he usually did. 

He scratched his head, looked around, and eventually shrugged. Maybe he'd been dreaming when he began the pushups, so he'd only done twelve instead of a hundred. Feeling no fatigue, he lowered himself again and began pressing once more. 

Once, twice, ten, and a hundred. The rhythmic exhales resounded through the forest. When he reached his previous record and realized his body was still not tired, he clicked his tongue and kept going. Each rep past his previous limit overturned Ace's entire understanding of his body's capabilities. Only when he surpassed two hundred did he feel some pressure on his arms and chest, but even then, it was minimal. 

He became convinced he was still dreaming. There was no way a human could do this many continuous pushups in a row and still maintain a clear mind. 

By the time he began losing control over his breathing, he had done a staggering five hundred pushups, continuous and controlled. These weren't half-hearted movements taking advantage of tendon elasticity. These were cold and controlled moves executed to place maximum tension on the muscles. 

Ace had a rule of thumb: one pushup needed to take a full second to execute properly. Otherwise, the load would be offset onto the structures surrounding the muscle, instead of the muscle itself. 

This meant he had placed his muscles under five hundred seconds of continuous lactate production. His muscles should have felt like they were doused in battery acid by now, yet it felt like a normal muscle burn. 

Ace got up, haggard but not feeling like he'd reached his absolute limit. It was obvious to him he had another hundred in him, but the shock and fear he felt pulled him out of the mindset to do them. 

Suddenly, his nose caught the scent of smoke, and all the hairs on his body bristled. He assumed one of the guys had foolishly started a fire, as the temperature had dropped precipitously over the night, even though this too he only became aware of now. Curiously, despite the freezing cold, he didn't shiver. 

He searched frantically around the camp, trying not to arouse the others, not wanting to cause panic and make the problem worse. He didn't dare imagine what would happen if they started a forest fire and alerted whatever monstrosities prowled around at night. 

But no matter where Ace searched, he could find no flame. The smoke seemed to grow stronger regardless of the direction that he searched. Just as he took another step, he heard a sound tear through the cold night air. 

Rip! 

He stopped in his tracks and looked down, noticing his t-shirt had become crusty and brittle, as if sunbaked for an entire year. He took it off and, under the blue glow of the canopy, examined the fabric. Large pieces fell off and peeled like old paint, and he noticed steam rising from it. 

Confused, Ace brought it to his nose and took a whiff. His mind went dizzy, and he pulled back as if electrocuted. He immediately realized where the smoke originated. He took a deep breath to maintain his composure and patted his pants, fearing they had suffered the same fate and he'd be left naked in an otherworldly forest. He heaved a sigh of relief when he felt them warm to the touch but not hot enough to boil water like the shirt. 

He threw away the T-shirt and went to wake Norman. This needed to be investigated fast, as it concerned his own safety. Maybe he'd unknowingly ingested some foreign substance that had done something to his body. 

Just as he was about to grab Norman's shoulder, his ears perked up when he detected a faint clicking sound, and he looked up at the tree trunk. He followed with his eyes higher and higher until he saw a mass of descending black dots swiftly making their way down the trunk. His mind instantly compared them to ants, and his agitation momentarily disappeared, but something didn't sit right. 

At first, he was confused how he could see something so small from such a distance, but then he realized they weren't small, just extremely far. Within ten breaths, the dots had enlarged, and he estimated their size to be about that of a cow. 

His pupils constricted into tiny slits, and he violently shook Norman. To further Ace's confusion, Norman required several attempts before he finally opened his eyes. 

"Get up and wake the others. We need to move, now!" he whispered urgently, trepidation clear in his voice. 

Before Norman could ask for more information, his ears picked up a noise akin to a thousand teachers in high heels walking down the hallway of their school. Following the sound, he saw a mass of black cow sized creatures quickly descending down the tree next to them. 

Without a second thought, Norman darted toward the closest sleeper, attempting to wake them. 

Everyone was slow to rise, with some even falling back asleep if Norman and Ace weren't committed to the effort. Suddenly, a scream cut through the chilly night like a hot knife. 

Ace turned to see who it was and found Norman stumbling away from Riley, who was mostly covered by a large shrub. Confused for a moment, Ace's mind filtered what he was seeing. 

Illuminated by the blue light, Riley lay with one eye open and countless green spikes sprouting from his other eye, mouth, nostrils, and one even from his forehead. The rest of his body was submerged by the shrub, which had grown five feet tall. 

Ace shivered, but before he could make sense of the situation, the noise from above intensified. "We need to leave now!" 

The ants, probably alerted by the scream, began racing down the tree. Just as they grouped up to make a run for it, loud bangs resounded around them. 

Bang! 

Bang! 

Bang! 

Big clouds of dust and uplifted vegetation exploded in every direction, accompanied by a revolting clicking sound from within that sent a shiver down the spines of everyone who heard it. 

Four ant-like creatures, the size of large cows, surrounded the group and began advancing slowly. Ace couldn't get a good look at them, but he knew an ant had the strength to lift a hundred times its weight. If these creatures were similar, fighting them was not an option.