Chapter 68 - Journey down South

The journey through the thick forest was surprisingly a calm one. Along the way, we did encounter some small tribes, but we didn't bother with them and thankfully neither did they. All four of us tried to keep a brave and uncaring face as we walked toward the unknown. Even Gustus, who was older than us had that anxious look on his face the closer we got to where he said, we could find someone to help us.

As for why we are going towards another place rather than going south? Well, let's just say that from what the grounders have experienced, nothing is waiting for us in that place other than death. The further we walked into uncharted territory the more I had to use my ears, than my eyes to "see" if there was a Grounder or even worse than that, a group of them hiding behind the flora waiting to ambush us.

Suddenly something loud rips through the bushes, before stopping in the middle of the path, creating something akin to a dust wall. When the dust cleared up a little bit and we managed to see what happened in front of us, I immediately aimed my rifle at it.

As soon as the dust cleared the rest of my group saw what monstrosity appeared in front of us, they too froze for a second before Sergey and Monroe raised their rifles, while Gustus prepared his axe.

The creature let out a defying roar before it launched its huge body toward us. You don't have to be a genius to understand that if a creature that's at least eight meters tall reaches you, you are dead. So before that could happen, we all fired into its head, hoping that its skull won't be that thick to stop all of our bullets.

The living fossil ate through our ammo as if the bullets were made of paper, but the more injured its head became the more frenzied its movement became, and by the time the creature reached us, its huge head had already become a mutilated mess. Because of that, the dinosaur wasn't aware of Gustus's disappearance, instead, his whole focus was on us, especially on Sergey and me, most likely because we were the bigger ones among the three of us.

I was about to reload my rifle when I felt the putrid and hot smell coming from the open mouth that was just a meter away from me. The smell of death was somehow making me accept that I may die in the next few seconds, despite the desperate attempts of my friends to shoot the thing down.

Just as the creature was about to bite me, someone jumped on its head, plunging a sword into its head, before swinging an axe at its neck. The hungry dinosaur let out another roar, this time though one of pain before it staggered on its feathery feet. Maybe it was the pain or maybe it was the sword that was plunged deep into its head, but a few seconds later, the creature slammed its body into a tree, taking it down alongside its own body.

If living until now taught me something, that was to always assume that your enemy is still alive and that's waiting for an opportunity to strike and gain the upper hand, at least in most cases, but despite what our eyes see, neither one of us wanted to see if the dinosaur was truly dead.

For the next half an hour, nothing happened and while we waited, I managed to make a spear, which I was going to check if the T-Rex was still alive or if Gustus's surprise attack took it out for good.

I aimed and threw the spear right into the rear of the downed dinosaur. Thankfully, the creature didn't react when the spear pierced its body, impaling itself into it. We waited for another couple of minutes just in case the creature may woke up and rampage again, but fortunately, that didn't happen. Gustus's last blow as well as the wounds that our three rifles put into it had definitely killed the creature for good.

"We just down a mountain of meat and muscle right?"

"We did it! We took it down!"

Even I was excited now that the T-Rex was dead, after all, it's the first time we took down something so massive like this dinosaur, it would definitely be a good story to brag about when we return to Camp Jaha.

As I was watching Sergey and Monroe cutting some pieces of meat to prepare for our journey, Gustus walked beside me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Osleya, you and your friends need to learn how to fight like a Trikru. No matter how good your guns are, other than you, none of your friends would resist a trained warrior more than a few seconds before they are killed. Even you would succumb if the enemy knows your weakness."

"And I take it you are more than happy to help us learn how to fight and survive like a Trikru?"

"It would be my honor to train you and your friends, Osleya."

"Thank you, Gustus, for training us and for saving my life back when the dinosaur was about to bite."

"Don't mention it, Osleya. I was just doing my duty as of your companions."

"You know that you don't have to call me Champion every time you talk with me, right? You can simply call me Leon like everyone else."

"Osleya, for us, it's not easy to forget our culture besides, you won fair and square against tens of warriors. Everyone, even if they don't want to admit it, had recognized you as the strongest warrior, the sky people have or had amongst their ranks. You have earned the title of a champion and your deeds prove it."

I could only sigh in defeat and since there was nothing I could do to make Gustus stop calling me like that, I decided to just roll with it.

We spent the rest of the day preparing the meat and cutting some of the skin so that we could sell it at our destination: The Damned Dam

From what Gustus told us, the Dam was the last settlement where a tribe lived before we reached the wasteland as the grounders call it. As for the Wasteland…from what little Gustus knew, it's a place where most of the tribes sent a fixed amount of warriors every year to protect their homes from the ever-growing threat.

This threat started a few years after the first commander took the mantle and led the grounders. Apparently, the nuclear bombs didn't kill all of the people, instead, some of them were transformed into some kind of mindless monsters that had only one purpose in life: to reproduce and kill the humans.

Whether we like it or not, I am pretty sure that when we reach the Dam, by some dumb misfortune we will have to face these things one way or another.

When we decided to head out, the sun had already set, and with came back the feeling that we weren't truly alone in the forest. And since I didn't want to think about it the whole way, I decided to distract my thoughts from whatever or whoever was in the forest with answers regarding the Damn.

"So what exactly is the Damn like exactly?"

It took Gustus' a few seconds to think about it before he spoke again.

"How should I describe it? It's different from Polis, yet at the same time similar to it. Allow me to think about it for a second, Osleya."

He was silent for a few seconds as he tried to remember the stories he heard back in Polis.

"I don't think it's like anywhere else I've been, and since I have not been to many places outside of the territory Heda visited, I don't really know how to describe it to you. However, I've heard stories from various merchants and warriors that returned from there. From what I remember hearing, the place is like a fortress, because there's only one way to the other side. Otherwise, you will have to climb the mountains or take a detour through the far wastelands and believe me. No one has ever come back from there."

That wasn't what I expected. Truth be told, I thought that the place would be just a bigger village where the grounders gather for the night or something like that, but from what Gustus said, The Damn was something similar yet different from Polis, the headquarters where their commander lives.

Before I could ask Gustus another question, Sergey quickly asked something that neither Monroe nor I had thought to ask right now.

"You mentioned the wasteland and those monsters. What are those monsters exactly and how hard is it to kill them?"

"The warriors that fight them on the border with the wasteland call them Hefbis or in your language, feral men. Although they look like humans from a distance, hefbis are dangerous and aggressive creatures that attack both humans and sometimes animals or dinosaurs on sight. Most of them are bipedal with pale, dirty skin and strangely enough, they have no hair. Whatever made them into those monsters, also gave them claws and teeth. At the same time, many of those creatures don't have noses, but maybe because of that, they were born with teeth similar to that of the wolves. They also like to hunt in big packs and some of them have been seen using weapons, albeit primitive ones."

No matter how you look at it, these humanoid creatures are the worst nightmare of any outpost that's anywhere close to the border. And while facing one of them alone may not seem that hard, you have to remember that they hunt in packs, meaning that you'll probably have to face at least two of them.

After we heard Gustus's description of what may become our enemies, neither one of us for the rest of the journey, not even Sergey, who was usually the chatterbox of our group. Along the way, our only flashlight beam caught a few footprints, similar to that of a human foot on the dirt.

"Well, that looks interesting. Maybe we could meet a female hefbis to send to Bellamy back home."

Sergey being himself once again decided to ease up the tense atmosphere with his usual strange sense of humor, as well as his annoying smirking. Yet for some reason, his words put Gustus on alert, which also made me, and Monroe ready our rifles in case something jump on us.

"Those don't seem to be made by shoes or boots."

"Dude! Don't jinx it. Neither one of us wants to fight those abominations."

Gustus glanced at Monroe, before shaking his head in response, yet it was more of a failed attempt of diverting everyone's attention from a possible ambush than responding to Monroe's words. If being ambushed once forced me to learn, something was that the night always helps the attackers in some way.

Just as we were about to continue a rusty knife missed my head by just a little, impaling itself into the ground. As soon as the person who threw the knife made its way into the moonlight, all four of us gulped down when we saw the ugly creature that seemed to be ecstatic to see us.

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