Obsidian

Chapter Nine

"Everyone, okay?" I asked after we emptied the van and ran out from the open terrain until reaching the forest-clad trail.

"Good," Tori said.

"Good," Carl echoed.

"All good," X mimicked.

"Bueno," Sebastian softly answered.

Sebastian, unfortunate for him, had become a part of our pack and would now have to join our mission. He was rather peppy for a man who no doubt had gingivitis and just had his primary source of income totaled. Nonetheless, he nodded and smiled and trailed X. I watched as each member of my group passed me, Sebastian keeping up with his open-toed, tattered flip-flops. Jesus fuck, I thought. I stood at the start of the trail, looking outward at the scenery. I saw the van, still smoking at the engine, and in front of that, the limp meat suit of a once beautiful jaguar. I scanned the perimeter, looking to see if I could notice any other moving creatures or people; I did not.

"Listen, the uni-host knows we are here to kill it. It probably anticipated this was our endgame after I declined its offer back in Oakridge."

"How far is this stretch before we are topside?" Tori asked from the front of the line.

"About a mile," I replied.

"Got to limber up and try to stretch along the way," Carl said while squatting briefly with his small machete in hand.

"Keep your eyes peeled, everyone. If they are not already in place, the uni-host will surely be sending some of its extensions to try and stop us from getting to the cavern," I advised.

We briskly walked the first half mile, trying to get to the cavern with minimal obstacles. We may have gotten to the midpoint even faster if we didn't have an eighty-year-old taxi driver trying to hike in beach footwear. Tori stopped abruptly, causing the chain to sharply stop from continuing.

"What is it?" I called from the back in a slightly whispered tone.

"Something ruffled the leaves from over there," She replied, pointing to the right side, twenty feet ahead of her.

I moved past Sebastian, then X, "X, give Sebastian something to protect himself with from the bag." I kept moving, passing Carl until I was side-by-side with Tori. "Did it seem big? The thing that caused the leaves to move?"

"I didn't see it, Davis. I only heard it and saw a few branches sway."

"I know but was it more of a brushing, or a violent shove of the bushes?"

She looked at me with slight annoyance. Just then, another shuffle of leaves and crackling of branches from the ground began but this time was only ten feet away.

"I can hear it, it's almost right on top of us, but I don't see a thing," Tori whispered in my direction.

The verbiage of her statement gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I looked in the direction of the sounds and then traced my sightline up the massive branches of the systematic rows of trees called Yellow Elders. The soft-wood trees are malleable to their surroundings in nature and can curve or bend to thrive in their location. These Yellow Elders looked to almost intertwine with each other, creating a wooden, organic barricade along the forest side of the trail. The higher I looked up at the trees, the longer the branches of yellow leaves extended and wove between each other's arms. About twenty-five feet above, I saw a furry and quick little mammal shoot across a branch located three trees in front of us.

"Guys, I think we are about to have an aerial attack."

Everyone else was behind me but to my side, I saw Tori, gun drawn, start to look up and a look of awe and fear lined her expression.