Fathom [On Hold]

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: Shift

I cannot find it in me to move. I watch in stunned silence as everything I thought I knew is ripped away, leaving me with a hollow sense of betrayal. As if the damned nex weren't enough, now I find that there is something even they cannot surpass.

Just goes to prove that everything is mortal, whether or not it seems that way.

It doesn't take long for the creature to wipe out the pack of about a dozen nex. It opens its mouth again to release something that resembles a yawn, displaying its now gore-covered teeth. It lifts its wide snout high in the air, green beady eyes darting back and forth. For a second I am terrified that it they will land on us. With one last sniff to the air, it turns back and is on its way.

Oddly enough, the scene it leaves in its wake reminds me of camp. Only instead of human body parts littering the ground, it is those of the nex.

None of us speak for a good ten minutes. I'm angry, I'm confused, I'm terrified, and part of me doesn't know what the hell to feel.

Jaycen is the first to shatter the silence that hangs over us like a storm cloud. He swears loudly and turns away from the abyss, violently yanking a hand through his hair.

"You've got to be kidding me," he says, his voice coated with venom. "You've got to be kidding me! What the hell is this?" By the time he is done his voice has risen to a yell.

Well, there are no questions as to about how Jaycen feels about this.

"Well this changes things," Saoirse says, who flanks me on the side opposite to where Jaycen was standing. I don't remember her joining us specifically, but I sensed her presence throughout the ordeal.

"You think?" he says, laughing bitterly. He shakes his head back and forth in disbelief.

"What now?" I ask, throwing my hands up slightly and letting them slap back against my thighs. Jaycen shrugs, his eyes fixated on something far, far off in the distance. Evening is just starting to make its presence known, the air temperature beginning to cool slightly and the world dimming.

The end of a day, the end of an era.

"Think there are more?" Saoirse asks.

"Maybe, I don't know. I don't know anything anymore," I say quietly. How are we supposed to deal with this? Why are we expected to deal with all of this crap? I mean Jesus, we're just kids.

"Here's what we'll do," Jaycen says, pulling himself together, "we're gonna go to sleep tonight. We're not going to stand guard. We're all sleeping through the night if it kills us. Tomorrow, we go back to the Lab. We're getting answers, damn it, and it's about the only place I can think of where we can find them." An icy chill shoots down my spine at the thought of the Lab. Vaguely I know I am using it as my own personal little scapegoat, but at the moment I cannot bring myself to care. I want to shove the blame on something, anything, and it will have to do for now.

Besides, today has aged me about ten years. I'm tired.

"We're preparing until the sun goes down. We'll throw knives at trees until they're stumps. If we die, so be it. I don't know about you two, but I'll be damned if I live the rest of my life running," he says. I couldn't have put it better. I am beyond done with this. Like he said, I can't - won't - live the rest of my life waiting for my death. I want answers, and if the Lab doesn't have them, then at least I know I'll have tried.

There is little talking for the rest of the day. I throw my knife until my shoulder aches, and even then I don't stop. I can see improvement, and I just hope that should a situation ever present itself adrenaline would kick in and allow me to hit my target.