After a few days of rough running and scattered short rests, the group encountered more signs of civilization as they approached Blackhearth. Groups of buildings, fields, pastures. All unattended. More and more, looks of realizations crept up onto their faces. Realizations of the worst.
"James, I-, I don't know about this…"
"I know, Cyra. But we don't know for sure, yet, what happened to all these people."
"Maybe they're all taking refuge in Blackhearth." Krax proposed his theory.
"...Let's stop here." The group stopped after James' command, assembling into a rough circle. Angie fell to her creaking and shaking arms and knees, trying to suppress herself as she dry retched at the ground. Suna felt bad for her. She crouched down, and gently rubbed her back.
"There's two, no, three possibilities. One, Blackhearth has somehow fallen and is now a Geth base. The more empty buildings we pass by, the more I feel that's a real possibility. Two, as Krax said, all the people in the surrounding area have evacuated and are taking refuge in Blackhearth, likely as a measure against a Geth outpost that's cropped up. The third, is anything that isn't one of those two scenarios. Some unknown factor that we're not accounting for at play." Suna's stomach lurched as James spoke those words.
Krax spoke up. "We should get closer to Blackhearth. We've come across neither human nor Geth; if Blackhearth was one of their outposts, we'd probably at least come across one of their patrols."
James responded to his suggestion. "We shouldn't make assumptions. Placing everyone's lives here on a coinflip doesn't seem right. Approaching any closer to a Geth outpost could result in us surrounded. That would be the end of us."
"Sh." The standing party members all looked at Suna, who had interrupted their conversation. "I hear something."
The elf's ears perked, twitching as they tried to make out any hint of sound that could be hiding among the soft wind. Krax and James looked to her, placing her judgement above theirs. They all stood still – even Angie, forcefully suppressing her upheavals, knowing better than to obfuscate their hearing during such a critical moment.
Suna closed her eyes. It was a calculated sacrifice she was willing to make, she was relying on the other party members to keep an eye out for any surprises. Focusing intently, she could almost make something out. It wasn't an animal cry.
"Humans. I hear voices." She plainly stated her judgement.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
James looked at Cyra for a moment, before looking back at Suna. "Towards the west?"
"Yes."
He stood still in thought.
"If she's right, we need to check on them. They could need help." Cyra boldly gave her input.
James looked at Krax, who looked back at James, before nodding his head.
"Let's move."
It didn't take long for the sounds to reach the ears of all the party members. It was a faint howling, almost unhuman-like. Suna glanced at Angie, checking on her. Her face was tense, she was scared.
"What is that…?" Krax let out his question, softly.
"Suna's right. Humans." Cyra responded.
"Human's make those noises?" A look of suspicion creeping onto Krax's face.
"Yes. They do." James answered. "We're turning back."
He stopped his quiet run. None of the party members were ready for those words. Cyra didn't hesitate, transitioning her run into a strut, right up to James, her face a morphing mixture of shock and fury, mere inches away from him.
"James-!"
"No."
"James, they could be in danger-"
"I said, no."
Cyra wore a flabbergasted look, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. After a brief pause, as if time had stopped momentarily, she started walking away.
"Then I'll go by myself." Her walk quickened into a run.
"Cyra! Get back here! Ugh!" He let out a heavy sigh of frustration as he ran to catch up with her. Krax and the other two exchanged startled looks as they processed the situation in real time, before shortly after also running to catch up with the other two. Suna held her hand out to the anxious, fearful, worried Angie. Angie gave her a grateful look and took the outstretched hand, allowing Suna to pull her along.
As the group, which naturally reformed closer, approached the distant howls, their true nature became more apparent. Howls of pain, hollow screams, groaning, incoherent sentences, unintelligible noises, they filled the air, a hollow chorus that shook the party's hearts.
"Cyra-"
"No."
"It's a trap, Cyra."
"We can help them!"
Cyra's voice was frantic, her run had at some point turned into a hasty sprint, and the others were failing to keep up. Suna was not going to leave Angie, who was already lagging further and further behind, on her own. She gripped the hand that was in her grasp stronger, strengthening her resolve, preparing herself for anything.
James, who let out strings of curses under his breath; Krax, who had a deep worried look and disposition that Suna hadn't seen from him before; Angie, out of breath, her steps becoming more and more uncoordinated, dragging along the ground; And Suna, with a steady breath and a plain, serious look that she never had the chance to see for herself. The group made their way at varying speeds through the thinning grove.
A field. When Suna and Angie had come up to the edge of the treeline, they saw Krax standing there, watching. When they reached his side, Suna pulled on Angie's hand to stop her, causing her to almost stumble. Angie stooped down, her free hand on her knee, catching her breath. Suna didn't let her hand free, not even giving her the chance to wipe off the wall of sweat that pooled in the gaps between the pairs' palms and fingers. Angie looked up, seeing what Suna and Krax were looking at.
A field. Of crosses. People nailed, by their hands and ankles, to each one. They looked makeshift, poorly made. Some had fallen, some missed a horizontal beam, others were bent at weird angles and made unorthodox shapes. But they all bore a person on each one.
Angie vomited, little more than spittle coming out. She had already vomited most of her last meal.
She looked up again, she had to know how Cyra and James were doing, if they were safe. Her eyes sifted through what should have been a green plain, that was blanketed in massive splotches of red and white, pools of blood and guts and innards and limbs, scattered all about, as far as she could see. She vomited, again. She couldn't resist.
Suna's eyes had already long spotted the two. Fools. Their voices reached her ears amidst the rising choir of coarse pleas and hollow screams.
"Cyra, get back here!"
"It's okay, stay right there, I'm going to get you guys down!"
Suna was already stepping back, away from the uncertain area, but Angie was rooted in place. Her whole body shook, her head looked as if it had loosened from her neck, as she struggled to even process what her eyes were showing her. Suna could hear faint muttering escape her lips, too incoherent to make a word out of. Krax wasn't panicking, but it was clear he was more than uncomfortable with the situation. She noticed his back foot, too, starting to retreat the way they had come from.
"Fuck, Cyra, what are you doing!?"
Before Suna could make out any more words from her acquaintances, it was all drowned out by a sonorous, horn-like sound.
Everyone's instincts kicked in. Suna pulled with great difficulty the frozen-in-place Angie. Krax began chanting, his staff emitting a faint glow. James turned around and dashed, not even looking behind him for a moment. Cyra only hesitated for an instant, before she too dashed at full speed, following behind James.
"I-I-I-I-I have-I have to start- A-A"
"Angie, come on! Move!"
Suna, not achieving any results by trying to pull Angie… Slap! A crisp, loud sound rang out. Angie's panicked muttering stopped, she looked at where the slap had come from.
"What are you waiting for!? Move!" Nearly stumbling forward, she let herself be pulled forward by Suna, her legs somehow finding their way under her.
Suna heard sounds. Clanking metal, movement… Too many. She started to consider ditching Angie and making a break for it. Something in her, though… her heart… it stopped her from doing such a thing. It rebuked her for even considering it. Yet the thought remained still and heavy, however, over her consciousness.
Suddenly, the bumbling and meandering Angie started to speed up. No, not speed up, glide. She shot a quick look at Krax, who quickly turned his attention to the others remaining out in the plain. There was no time to convey gratitude, but in her heart, she did, nonetheless.
Suna, holding Angie's hand, had broken into a semi-run. After several seconds that seemed like eternities had passed, Angie seemed to start coming to her senses. The muttering lessened, and she heard her name, Suna, pop up a few times amidst the other unintelligible sounds she was making. She gripped her hand harder, pulling her forward with all of her strength.
The others weren't far behind. They assembled, dashing, around Angie. They exchanged frantic looks, but they saw Suna, continuing to hold Angie's hand, dashing for her life. They didn't leave the pair behind.
It was harder to make out sounds with the heavy breathing and footsteps of the group not far from her ears, but she successfully was able to identify sounds that weren't natural. "We're being chased." She stated the obvious.
"The mountains. That way!" James fit the words between his heavy, yet paced breathing.
"James, I'm so-"
"Not right now. We're going to get out of this."
James and Cyra exchanged a meaningful look.
Surprisingly, it was Angie who spoke up next.
"Tho-... Those bodies, why? Why?"
Krax remedied Angie's unfortunate curiosity, which seemed more like rhetorical pleas to a God rather than actual questions. "We don't know exactly why. But they have rituals. Bloody ones. And they sure like the way humans bleed." He spat on the ground, in disgust.
"Angie, I'm sorry you had to see that-"
"No! NO! Noooo…" Angie had broke out into crying, the word 'no' filling her throat, as if saying it was somehow enough to reject the entirety of the horrors she had just witnessed.
"Just keep running, Angie. We're making it out of this." James tried to reassure her.
Suna couldn't tighten her grip on Angie's hand anymore. She actually loosened it, worried that she was hurting her, but the hand gripped back. Hard.
But she had to release it. She knew what was coming.
She dashed, like a blur, away from the group and Angie. Angie outstretched her hand, as if a precious thing was leaving her, as if her sole light in the darkness was fading. Cyra picked up the slack, pulling on Angie much harder than Suna was, almost dragging her along the ground as her feet tried their best to keep up with the sudden increased speed. James and Krax were startled by Suna's sudden departure from the group, their eyes tracking her, trying to figure out what she was doing. She soon was covered by the veil of leaves and trees between them.
Clang! The sound of reverberating metal entered their ears. …! The group reacted immediately, readying themselves for combat, still sprinting in their same direction. After a short period of time, they saw a figure approaching them. Tension at its height, it lowered, and they gave a sigh of relief.
Suna returned to the group. Blood spray on her face and robe. The group, witnessing this feat, felt… assurance. They spoke no words, but their steps became more ordered and less frantic. Their expressions remained serious and uncertain, yet lacking despair.
Suna returned to Angie, and stretched her hand out. Angie was ensnared in Suna's plain look of seriousness, a warm feeling spreading into her heart, which had just been shaken to its core. She tried to release her hand and reach out, but its constraint and the pull on it remained.
"When we're safe, okay?" Cyra spoke gently, and gave a grateful, kind look towards Suna. Suna understood, yet remained close to Angie's side.
The nice moment couldn't last forever, though. She spoke out.
"Multiple from the front and the left. I'll take the left." Her voice was calm, devoid of emotion. All there was in it was will. The will to survive, to overcome the adversaries. She left the group once again, no further information needing to be conveyed.