They were running together.
Five shadows crashing through vines and branches, their breath loud, feet slapping earth, chased by something they couldn't see—but felt.
Spiders.
Hundreds of them.
Arjun limped, barely keeping pace, his leg wound tearing with every step. Bhavna stayed close, hand gripping his arm, steadying him without a word.
"Faster!" Rana shouted from up ahead. "Don't stop!"
Rix turned back once, his voice cracking. "They're gaining!"
Then—it happened.
Tarun tripped over a root and nearly fell. Rana grabbed him and pulled him up. In the chaos, Arjun and Bhavna vanished behind them, ducking under a low-hanging branch that the others missed.
Rana didn't notice.
Neither did Rix or Tarun.
They just ran.
🌿 Meanwhile — Arjun and Bhavna
Arjun stumbled, falling against a large moss-covered rock, dragging Bhavna down with him. They collapsed behind it, gasping, hidden from view.
Bhavna peeked around the edge. Nothing.
No spiders.
Just leaves trembling.
Breaths slowing.
She whispered, "We lost them."
Arjun nodded. "Good. Let them go ahead. I can't outrun anything with this leg."
They sat still. Listening.
Only jungle wind.
No footsteps.
But far in the distance—they heard them.
Gunshots.
🕷️ With Rana, Rix, and Tarun
The trees ended abruptly.
They burst into the open crash site, skidding across the sand. The beach opened wide around them—soft gray sand, distant waves, sun glaring overhead.
But the survivors?
Gone.
No one.
No Maya. No screams. No campfire. No voices. Just... emptiness.
"Where the hell is everyone?!" Rix yelled.
Rana raised his gun. "They were here. They should be here!"
Tarun turned in circles. "Did something... take them?"
A sound behind them made them all spin.
Skittering.
Dozens.
No—hundreds.
From the trees, black, glossy legs poured out like floodwater. The spiders came fast—some the size of dogs, some man-sized, and a few even taller than them. Their fangs gleamed. Their eyes shimmered like beads of oil.
Tarun's voice broke. "We're going to die—"
"SHUT UP," Rana barked.
He pulled the gun and fired.
BLAM! One spider burst open, green fluid spraying the sand.
BLAM! Another flipped, legs curling.
Rana kept firing—three, four, five shots—each one echoing like cannon fire.
"RIX!" he shouted. "DEFEND THE SIDES!"
Rix unsheathed the knife. "Oh, NOW you trust me?"
He slashed the nearest spider, nicking a leg. It screamed.
Tarun picked up a broken piece of metal and started swinging wildly.
The spiders hesitated.
But only for a second.
Then they surged again.
Rana fired the last bullet.
CLICK.
Empty.
"Damn it—!"
They backed toward the edge, heels at the line where sand met ocean. Nowhere left to run.
🩸 Back to Arjun
Arjun's ears rang with the sound of distant gunfire.
He turned to Bhavna. "They're in the open. They're being attacked."
"We can't help," she said. "You're injured."
"I can still walk," he growled. "They can't handle that many alone."
He stood. Winced. But pushed forward.
Bhavna didn't argue.
They began moving, slower than before, but deliberate. Arjun's shirt was soaked in sweat. His leg ached with every step.
As they broke through the final wall of trees toward the open beach—
A sound tore through the air.
Not a scream.
Not an animal.
Not human.
A low, vibrating echo, like metal tearing in the sky, layered with dozens of voices shrieking at once.
Every spider froze.
In the middle of charging, in the middle of striking—they stopped.
One by one, without a sound, they turned around.
And walked back into the trees.
Like they had been called.
Like soldiers obeying a signal.
Arjun and Bhavna stepped into the clearing just in time to see them vanish into the jungle.
The silence that followed was worse than the chaos.
Rana stood with the empty gun in his hand.
Rix looked like he'd forgotten how to breathe.
Tarun whispered, "What… what just happened?"
Arjun muttered, "Something in there… controls them."
Rana stared at the forest, eyes narrowed.
"No."
He shook his head slowly.
"Something woke up."
Everyone stood in the sand, sweat-drenched and tense, staring at the spot where dozens of spiders had vanished moments earlier.
No one spoke.
They were alive—but where the hell was everyone else?
Arjun looked at the scattered remnants of the crash. Half of the fuselage was still there—burnt, broken, empty.
Rix scratched his head. "They were literally here. The whole camp. Gone."
Tarun muttered, "No signs of struggle. No blood. No bags. Just… gone."
Rana grumbled, "This is a trick. Someone's playing games."
That's when they heard it.
A small sound.
From inside the burned-out front section of the plane.
A soft... clank.
Then the unmistakable sound of someone sipping something through a straw.
Everyone turned.
Rana instantly stepped forward, holding the knife. "Stay behind me."
He crept toward the open metal shell of the wreckage, boots crunching glass, blade tight in his grip.
Another slurp.
Then a hiccup.
He turned the corner—and froze.
"…What the—"
They rushed to catch up.
And there, inside the dim wreckage, surrounded by wrecked seats and ash—
Sat a little boy.
About six years old.
Skinny. Shirt too big. Legs swinging off a crate. His hair stuck up in the back, and he was sipping juice from a cartoon-themed juice box with the same intensity of a man enjoying a vacation in the Maldives.
He looked up.
"Oh. Hi."
Rix blinked. "What the hell is that?"
The boy smiled, unbothered. "I'm Kittu."
Tarun looked around. "Where are the others? The survivors? Where's everyone?!"
Kittu blinked, kept sipping.
Rana stepped forward. "Listen, kid. This is important. Did you see where the other people went?"
Kittu shrugged. "Maybe."
Rana knelt in front of him. "Maybe?"
Kittu took another long sip. Slrrrppp.
Bhavna stepped in, crouched beside him. "Sweetie, we're not here to scare you. We just want to know what happened. Did something take them? Were there more spiders?"
Kittu tilted his head. "I was hiding. In the plane. Then it got quiet. So I came out. Everyone was gone."
Rix leaned in. "You expect us to believe that? Just gone?"
Kittu nodded.
Arjun groaned from the doorway, leaning against a wall. "Okay, okay, let me try."
He limped over, face pained, and sat on a chunk of metal.
"Alright, Kittu. I'm Arjun. You and me, we're gonna talk man-to-man."
Kittu squinted. "You smell like waterfall blood."
Arjun pointed. "I like this kid."
"Thanks," Kittu replied. "You look like Hulk with a bad haircut."
Everyone burst out laughing—except Rana, who was clearly losing patience.
Rana stepped forward again. "This is serious. Stop joking."
Kittu looked dead into his eyes and whispered: "Then stop being scary."
Tarun turned around to hide his snort.
Bhavna tried the soft approach again. "Kittu… if you help us figure this out, we'll let you pick any snack from the supplies. Even the chocolate one."
Kittu tapped his chin. "Hmm. Can I pick two?"
"Yes."
"Then I choose secrets and fruit biscuits."
Rix threw up his hands. "What does that even mean?!"
Now it turned into a full-blown operation.
Tarun tried drawing on the sand to show Kittu the layout of the area."Show us where they went."Kittu drew a cat. And named it "Priya."
Bhavna tried to bribe him with her last toffee. He licked it, said it tasted like "sad soap," and gave it back.
Rix offered him his sunglasses. Kittu wore them and said, "Now I'm Inspector Cool Dude." That lasted 30 seconds before he dropped them in the sand.
Arjun finally sat back, holding his head. "We're trying to solve a survival mystery using a kindergarten consultant."
Then, without warning, Kittu perked up.
"Oh! I remember now."
Everyone froze.
"You do?" Rana asked.
Kittu nodded. "The people... they all went to the other side."
Arjun squinted. "What other side?"
Kittu pointed. "The side with the rocks. Over there."He waved toward the far end of the beach—an area no one had checked yet.
"Why?" Bhavna asked. "Why would they go?"
Kittu blinked. "I think... the uncle with the hat said they saw something weird. And everyone followed."
"Uncle with the hat?" Arjun repeated.
Kittu nodded again. "Yup. And then they were all like 'Oooh! What is that?!' And then they walked away."
Arjun leaned back. "That's it? That's the whole answer?"
Kittu gave a thumbs up. "Yup."
Everyone stared.
Arjun looked at Rana. "We just spent twenty minutes negotiating like diplomats to get that out of him."
Rix clapped once. "Ladies and gentlemen, the hero of the day: a six-year-old with a juice box and trauma immunity."
Kittu pulled out a second juice box from his cargo pocket.
"I got backups."