The Bizarre Adventures of Doctor Who

Rainbow In the Dark Pt. 9

Fleeing through the marked pathway, the group's collective footsteps echoed as they ran, only when they came to the end of the pathway, finding themselves at a fork with large debris cluttering in front of them, did they stop running.

Lungs on fire, they exhaled sharply while Cyrus frantically looked at the map, trying to find the next path, going over it numerous times, he found that the path they're on should've continued straight out near a formerly large fountain.

His distress caught Boris' attention and Cyrus showed him the map, there's no fork on the map, only a straight path.

"They made this map last week, the path should've continued straight," Cyrus winces as he stared at the map, baffled as to why it's incorrect.

The other camp leaders promised him!

Trying to deduce another way around, Cyrus wearily looked around as he followed his compass, while he did, the others watched for any signs of danger.

His icy blue eyes moving slowly, Theodore kept looking for what he saw earlier, trying to imagine what it might've been, too crafty to set a trap, but couldn't possibly have the strength to set up a blockade, not like this.

Almost like it's intentionally trying to break them apart, get them to go separate ways, pick them off that way.

While Theodore internally theorized their threat, he heard a whoosh noise going past him, felt something lightly graze the side of his shoulder. Turning his head, Theodore sees something lodged into the debris across from him that wasn't there before.

Upon closer inspection, he found it's an arrow, and as he grabbed it from the debris, the arrow tip's broken by the force of colliding into the debris, but it's made of bone, too. Jaw bone, precisely, there's a bit of ridge where the teeth used to be.

The size of the arrow, it's much smaller than he expected, only when Cyrus and the others caught sight of him holding it, did Boris have an idea what they're dealing with, and he ordered them to stick together, their backs against each other, stay away from any holes.

"What's going on?" Theodore wearily asks Boris as he wielded his MP5 tightly in his grip.

Looking around, Boris tells Theodore that there's only one creature capable of setting traps and it's the rats from the stories they told during the first time they met.

"Up here?" Theodore's baffled as he reminded them, they never said anything about rats coming up from the underground tunnels.

Vodka admitted that he's known some coming out when there isn't any food in an attempt at stealing from the bigger creatures' nests and working with their hive mind to grab as many eggs, newborns, whatever they can carry back to their holes.

Even the topside creatures detested them, the more intelligent ones, they sit by the holes with a fresh scent, waiting for the little bastards to come out, before snatching them up and simply tearing them apart.

"Who knows how many came up," Vodka shrugs as he's unsure how many came out of the holes in search for food, since they tend to vary depending on the timing.

Artyom pointed his gun towards an abandoned vehicle, his eyes narrowed on it as he focused his attention on it.

Catching on, the other men looked towards the vehicle, and Theodore's eyes widened as he sees in the reflection of the broken window near the driver's side.

It's a rat.

Big.

Rat.

Tall, about tall as Boris, hunchback, afflicted with mange that made its bruised pink arms bare and the snout completely marred by scars from previous conflicts, the pink tail silently swaying in the cold breeze.