Yunkef and Nenry's vehicle lurched forward with a burst of acceleration that had them clinging onto the handholds for dear life. Yunkef clutched his spear to his chest as the cold wind stung his face and whipped through his hair. "Are you sure this is safe?" he called out, tears streaming from his eyes from the wind. No wonder some of the hunters wore goggles.

"No hunt is safe, boy!" The veteran hunter shouted back. "But the green light is a good sign, so we must follow before it goes out!"

"Do you see it every hunt?"

"Hah! We've not seen the light for far too long! We've just been getting lucky every so often, but it's been ages since we've had a goal fall right into our laps! Now hold on!"

The vehicle roared mightily, and Yunkef thought it couldn’t possibly go any faster. They rumbled over rocks and were sent flying a foot or so above the ground from hitting bumps, but still, the convoy did not slow down. Barro and his crew raced towards the softly glowing emerald green light in the darkness like their lives depended on it.

All of Yunkef's energy was spent holding onto the vehicle and trying not to fall. It was almost too late by the time he heard the beasts. The sound of wet snarls and throaty howls sounded close to the hunter's vehicles, accompanied by the rapid thumps of the creature’s feet on the earth. The sound was close to being drowned out by the vehicles' roaring engines, but Yunkef went cold as he realized that the sounds were getting closer.

"Creatures!" Yunkef screamed. "Creatures are close to us!"

His cries snapped the other hunters out of their laser focus on the green light. The lanterns swiveled on their mounts as the hunters looked this way and that for the beasts, while the vehicles maintained a straight path towards the guiding green light.

Yunkef gasped and clutched his spear tightly. Nenry screamed. On another vehicle, someone else fell off their vehicle in fright. The thump of the recruit's body as it rolled across the ground was interrupted by the snarling howl of beasts and the recruit's bloodcurdling scream.

The creatures, illuminated in the lantern lights, were hideous. Covered in thick dark hide with some plates of scales, they had far too many eyes, milky white and clouded over, staring back at the hunters. Maws that opened much too wide, or split their skulls in half vertically, were lined with dozens upon dozens of jagged teeth. They loped along and ran after the vehicles with oddly jointed arms, some ending in claws the size of a man's head.

They weren't creatures, Yunkef realized with the horrible sinking feeling in his stomach. They were monsters.

"Arms at the ready!" Barro bellowed. "Don't stop the vehicles!"

The hunters clutched at their spears and kept the beasts within the range of their lanterns. Yunkef saw even the veteran's hands shake with fear.

"Attack! Don't let them too close to the vehicles!" came Barro's command. From the front vehicle, Yunkef saw the large hunter standing with one foot braced against the hood of the vehicle. Barro stabbed a beast straight through the skull just as the thing leaped to attack and drag him off the vehicle.

"Don't hold back now, cowards!" The large man roared. He pushed the creature off his spear, and it fell away with a wet squelch, only to be crushed under the vehicle's heavy wheels. "Fight and show me what you're made of!"

The hunters fought back however they could, but the new recruits were not nearly as hardened. Yunkef saw a man's face in the glow of the lanterns; white as a ghost and eyes wide with fear. He froze, and a creature leaped easily at the vehicle he was on, crawled its way closer to him, easily gouging the vehicle's armor with its inches-long claws, and snapped its pointed maw around his head. Screams of terror tore through the ranks as the man's lifeless body was pulled off the vehicle and accompanied by the crunch of bones. The new recruits swung and stabbed wildly at the creatures with their spears, jabbing at the air through the unsteady light. Another hunter lost her footing and fell from the vehicle. A vehicle on the far end of the formation skidded out of control and spun out onto the earth, colliding with a large boulder at speed. It caught fire quickly as the vehicle's fuel caught fire from the shattered and exposed lanterns, and Yunkef saw one of the creatures fully illuminated in the light of the fire.

It was massive.

"Barro!" A female hunter screamed over the cacophony. "These aren't normal beasts, they're bigger than anything we've hunted!"

Barro couldn’t answer. As he kicked another creature off his vehicle, he looked around at his team of hunters. Hunts had been so easy before, he had never even needed to train the recruits! And now, the feeling of dread settled in his stomach, turning his blood cold as ice as he realized. They won't make it back from this.

"Forward." His voice cracked. He cleared his throat and twirled his spear. Barro's voice was louder than usual, though his hunters heard no bravado in it. "Forward! Towards the light! If that damned thing can lead us to a nest, it owes us a stroke of luck!"

The vehicles sped on towards the light for dear life, all the while under attack by the horrid, loping creatures.

"Nenry, hold on! Hold onto me!" Yunkef screamed. His heart pounded in his chest as he scrambled to hold onto the vehicle against the acceleration. Holding his hand out, he reached for Nenry who lay flat against the vehicle, hands desperately searching for a hold.

"Yunkef! It's got my leg!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face. In the erratically swinging lights, Yunkef saw her bloodied fingertips, the nails torn from scratching against the metal armor of the vehicle. A flat, black face with no eyes in its head, only a mass of spinning teeth, came into view. It loomed over Nenry, its hot, rancid breath falling onto her. She shut her eyes and screamed again, and Yunkef hurled his spear at the creature's head in his terror. The spear hit true, the tip disappearing into the creature's terrible mouth and appearing out the other side. It fell away from Nenry and the vehicle and landed against the ground with a hard thump. Quickly, Yunkef grabbed and pulled Nenry across the vehicle's armor and towards him.

"We're gonna be okay! Nenry, hang onto me!" Yunkef shouted over the noise but knew his words were empty. All around them, the hunters were being pulled off their vehicles. Beasts snarled and howled all around them, gnashing teeth and claws slicing through human flesh and vehicle armor alike. Terror spread through the whole hunting party till not even the most seasoned of the hunters could hold back a scream. Clutching Nenry closer to him and holding on as best as he could to the vehicle, what he saw when the lantern light swung towards them again turned the blood in his veins cold. The dark splotches on Nenry's legs which he thought was dirt, was blood pooling onto the fabric. In a panic, Yunkef scrambled to do something, anything.

"You know...I realized this was a mistake." Nenry muttered. She was so pale and cold to the touch already. "Should have gone for the expedition. Or stayed on the farm."

Yunkef fumbled as he tried to rip off a strip of fabric from his shirt to staunch the bleeding. "Hey don't say that. We'll be back at the farm in no time, I promise."

Nenry chuckled weakly. "You don't have to lie to make me feel better, you know. Give me a spear, I want to at least take one down with me."

"Nenry-" Yunkef hesitated but took up a spare spear from inside the vehicle.

"You try to get out of this alive, okay? And tell Grass and Old Danger I said hi."

Nenry gripped the spear with both hands and struggled to sit up on the still-moving vehicle. She cried out as every movement sent a surge of pain through her useless, bloody legs. The vehicle's lantern swung towards their side of the vehicle again, illuminating a beast that was loping along near them. Screeching in pain from the light, the creature ran up to them on weirdly joined legs and lunged for the humans clinging to it.

Nenry yelled, held up the spear, and thrust it out towards the creature once it pounced on her. The lantern swung away again, and they were plunged again into darkness. Yunkef didn't see what happened but heard the harsh thump on the ground that followed.

There wasn't any time to grieve. Someone else close by screamed, and Yunkef was thrown onto the front of his vehicle as it swerved wildly. A smaller beast's hind legs were sticking out of the driver's side of the vehicle, and the driver inside tried and failed to fight it off. Her foot was stuck on the accelerator, sending Yunkef's vehicle on a wild run before hitting a large boulder headlong and flipping through the air.

Time seemed to slow down as Yunkef was thrown through the air. People and monsters were sent flying, along with a lot of blood. Too much blood. The hot red blood of the hunters mixed with the thick, acidic blood of the beasts and were indistinguishable in wildly swinging light.

Somewhere in the distance, Barro was overrun by beasts too, with his vehicle crashing and going up in flames. Yunkef, ever curious about the nature of animals, noted dumbly that the creatures fled from the light or were thrown into rages when caught in to.

He hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop some distance away from the wreck. His ears rung and his head felt like it was bogged down in syrup, but that was quickly buried by the cold feeling of terror lancing through his heart and setting his nerves on edge.

The dark was all-encompassing. The pitch blackness was like a weight that smothered Yunkef and threatened to stifle his breath. It was silent, save for the crackling of the fires from the vehicles, till the beasts took notice of him. They snarled and gnashed their teeth, their footfalls echoing in Yunkef's ears. He felt the hot exhale of a beast's breath on his face and, before he could think, he was on his feet and running.

Yunkef ran headlong into the darkness, his heart in his throat and breathing hard. In his panic, all caution was thrown to the cold winds as he ran blindly through the wasteland. Creatures hot on his heels, his every instinct told him to run, and to run fast. In a desperate attempt to go somewhere, anywhere but here, he dimly realized that he was running towards the emerald green light still shining softly in the distance. Something dashed across the sight of the guiding light and Yunkef balked, thinking it was a beast cutting off his path. He yelped in shock, skidded and scrambled, and fell onto the ground, tripping over himself to get back on his feet and run in a different direction.

The snarls were loud in his ears. Yunkef could feel the hot breath of the beasts on his nape, and felt their very presence as they ran behind him. He couldn't move as fast as the vehicles at their top speeds, and the beasts were able to catch up and attack those. The creatures were toying with him, Yunkef was sure of it. They were playing with him, wearing him down into exhaustion where they could pick at him slowly and painfully. With a fearful cry, Yunkef pushed his aching legs to run even faster, not daring to let up else he would be the next to feel the beasts' teeth and claws. He threw his arms out in front of him as he ran, hoping to feel something he could use as a shelter to hide from the creatures.

His prayers were answered as he collided with a solid stone wall with a loud, sickening crack. Stunned senseless and collapsed onto the ground, it took Yunkef a moment to collect himself and get back up. In the back of his mind, he knew that his wrists had broken on impact with the stone, but the desperation and fear kept any pain from the collision on the back burner for now. For now, he needed to hide.

The stone that Yunkef slammed into was a solid wall, taller than he was and wider than he could reach. Resting one arm awkwardly against the wall, he picked a direction and kept running. Following the wall in the thick darkness was difficult, but the constant sound of the beast's wet snarls and the scrape of their claws against stone was all the incentive Yunkef needed to keep going. Every nerve in his body screamed at him to get away. Get away no matter the cost. There had to be somewhere safe for him to hide.

The wall seemed to keep going on and on as he ran, eerily smooth and straight for stone. Just when he felt the dread creeping up and his lungs burning in his chest, his arm jolted into empty air and he nearly tripped in his surprise. A gap had opened upon the wall, and in his panic, Yunkef turned into it and followed the gap through. The beasts were behind him as they always were, but the farther Yunkef ran into the gap, the farther away the sounds of the beasts seemed to be. Their snarls were distant, and one of them howled in dismay. They didn't follow.

Realizing that the beasts had stopped following him, Yunkef spared a moment to collapse on the ground, shaking and coughing. Every breath was labored, his veins felt like they were on fire. His legs ached terribly. He gritted his teeth and breathed hard through them as the pain from his shattered wrists finally came through the panic.

There was no noise inside the cave, the narrow gap in the rock that Yunkef all but fell through. There were no sounds of prowling, stalking monsters, no ear-splitting rumbling of vehicle engines, no clanking metal armor and wheels crunching over dry earth. There was no laughter and banter of hunters. No Nenry laughing at his smallest mishap. No Barro booming over the din of his men. No sounds of life at all. There was only Yunkef's ragged breathing and the rapid beating of his heart.

Yunkef whimpered pitifully against the stone, sitting in the dark. He was alone, and they were all gone. In a blink, on his first hunt, they were all gone. It was only a matter of time before he would be next, crunched in the jaws of a beast or falling prey to any number of unseen dangers lurking in the darkness.

"Never should have left the Settlement." he sobbed to himself. His voice sounded too loud in the narrow cave, and it sounded harsh and broken to his own ears. "Nenry, I'm sorry."

The sight of Nenry, heavily bleeding and clutching to the rattling vehicle, pale as death in the erratic lantern light, flashed in Yunkef's memory.

Yunkef's cry was a sorrowful, despair-laden sound that echoed loudly through the cave.

"Why are you crying?" said a voice in the darkness.

Yunkef sniffed. He paid the voice no mind at first, thinking it was just his imagination. Maybe he was going mad from the stress, pain, and grief. He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

"Little boy, why are you crying?" the voice sounded again. There was a hint of a smile in its words, a little amused lilt.

"Who's there?" Yunkef yelped, his heart leaping into his throat again. He scrambled back till he was flushed against the wall. His eyes were open wide, rolling this way and that in his panic, but he could see nothing in the absolute darkness.

"I asked you a question first." the voice laughed. It was female, playful, and possibly young. Yunkef could have sworn the speaker was moving around him, but heard no footsteps in the cave. "Why are you crying?"

He swallowed dryly. "I left my home and all my friends were eaten by the creatures. I might be next," he said quietly.

"Is that all? Such a silly thing to worry about."

"What?"

"You're with me now. I can take care of you if you want."

"Who are you?"

The voice only laughed lightly in reply. The sound was soft, like a playful tinkling of bells. There was a sweet scent in the air, something Yunkef had never smelled before. It was enchanting, and in his curiosity, Yunkef's sobs eased.

"You can stay with me, here." the voice said again, and Yunkef pictured a smiling, female face quite clearly in his mind. One with strangely dark eyes.

Yunkef found himself smiling back, strangely at ease now in the darkness, with this kind voice and sweet scent. Maybe this cave wasn't so bad after all. Perhaps it was a hidden refuge and he was lucky to have stumbled upon it. He opened his mouth to speak with every intention of agreeing with the voice and staying in this safe cave when suddenly he fell backward onto hard ground.

The stone wall at his back disappeared from behind him, and his shocked yelp did not echo in an enclosed space. An emerald glow came into view, and he felt someone standing over him.

"What do you think you're doing?" a raspy voice demanded. The light moved, and Yunkef saw the outline of a hooded figure, its face completely hidden despite the light. The glow clearly came from a glass lantern that was worn and foggy from age. "I said, what did you think you were doing in there?"

"Huh?" Yunkef stammered, confused.

"Get up!" The hooded figure said, and bent down to grasp Yunkef's arm with a thin, bony hand. He was hauled upright with surprising strength and urgency. "Run, boy! Run and get out of here!"

"Wait, what is happening?" Yunkef said. "Who are you?"

"I am the one that saved your life." The hooded figure sounded terse and impatient. "You can call me Night, if it makes you feel better. The guiding light in the darkness."

"You saved my life? Where am I, I thought I was in a cave?"

"So many questions!" Night sighed, and Yunkef saw the hooded figure's shoulders slump in the green light. "I took you out of the cave before our Lady could claim you. Now is not the time, boy, you need to get to safety as I am sure she's angered by my whisking her prize away."

Yunkef heard the snarling of beasts and the scrape of their claws coming towards them from a distance, and the fear came to him again.

"You can hear them now, can't you? Look, can you see them?" Night raised their bony hand again and lightly turned Yunkef's face.

To his horror, he could see them.