Caroline walked quietly, the gravelly dirt muffling her footsteps. At her back, Elliot and Nila followed, arguing between themselves about something she couldn’t quite make out. Light filtered in from above, bathing Caroline in light and illuminating the rest of the group ahead. The lush growth of the caves surrounded them, fed by the sunlight pushed through a stone sieve. A hopper darted in front of her, rocketing off a crag with its powerful legs away from the looming dark mouth of the cave. She took an involuntary step back and felt Elliot run into her.

“Sorry.” Caroline looked towards the ground.

Elliot gave her a look of disgust while Nila’s eyes were only filled with pity. Caroline hated both the looks equally. Elliot shoved past her roughly, pushing deeper into the undergrowth with Nila following. She mouthed sorry before running after Elliot. Caroline watched as the other girl ran towards the group and sighed. She didn’t mind being alone, but she hated being hated.

Walking again, her thoughts wandered back to the two people she had been with before. She wouldn’t let it happen again.

Her back prickled as if she was being watched. A mossy shrub rustled, the bioluminescence drawing circles in the air. Caroline raised her hatchet, her heartbeat racing. Another hopper burst out of the bush, the lichen-like growth shattering with the force, and it continued hopping in the same direction the first hopper had been. She lowered her hatchet, taking in a deep breath.

Caroline finally caught up to the group and she could hear Elliot and Nila gossiping again. The two were inseparable and Caroline wasn’t sure why. Elliot was someone who she found deeply distasteful. He hadn’t trusted her since they had found her, and whenever Nila tried to talk to her, he would push her away.

Caroline stepped into the clearing and they all turned to stare at her. The group had apparently stopped to talk about matters beyond her. Elliot and Darik stared at her with blatant distrust and hatred, Mia was unreadable, and Nila looked apologetic. Layla was still talking, although she soon stopped after seeing Caroline.

“Why did y’all stop walking? Are y’all stupid or something?” Darik huffed dramatically while Layla nodded.

Mia rolled her eyes but started walking again. Elliot redirected his distaste to Darik by shooting him a glare that could kill. He opened his mouth but Nila put a hand on his arm and shook her head. Layla followed Darik like a dog. Caroline walked a few paces behind the group. She hated it, but she understood why they didn’t trust her.

It was getting darker the farther they walked, the cracked cave ceiling growing more whole with each step, a tapestry slowly being repaired by a seamstress of stone. Darik stopped them all as they reached the rough edge of the bushy growth of the cave before it became dark.

Mia spoke. “Let’s use the lanterns now.”

Elliot interjected. “I don’t know, if something’s out there like Caroline said wouldn’t that draw attention?”

“We’d draw more attention by tripping over each other in the dark.”

Darik snickered at Mia’s response, but his laughter stopped when she glared at him.

He put on a straight face. “Layla you get a lantern, Nila you get a lantern, Mia you get a lantern, and I get a lantern.”

Elliot’s face twitched with annoyance in the dim light. “What about me?”

“You didn’t want one, remember?” Darik smiled cruelly, his teeth shining in the dark.

“Are you trying to get them killed, Darik?” Mia’s voice shook with anger.

Darik’s face twisted to an ugly caricature. “SHUT UP! You’re the one who begged me to bring that waste of space!” He pulled out the only real authority he had, a wickedly sharp knife. For all his talk, Darik was a strong man. With a knife, he was only that much more dangerous.

Mia quieted, her face impassive. Her hands told another story, practically shaking with rage. Caroline sighed. In the end, none of it mattered as long as she got back to the base. It was just dumb luck Darik stumbled on her radio. Now she had to go along with them. Despite that, she couldn’t help but feel jealous when Nila quietly whispered something into Elliot’s ear. He looked back at her and she dropped her eyes quickly.

A rumble tore the air, and Caroline dropped to the ground, her hand fumbling with the hatchet. Please please please please. There was no way, not this quick. It couldn’t have found them this fast. She breathed slowly, calming herself. It was one of those damn hoppers. She could hear laughter, and there was Darik, howling at her.

“Look at her, she practically shit herself!” Darik’s sneer was full of malice.

No one else laughed with him, they only stared. He didn’t seem to notice and began distributing lanterns. Her lanterns. Charlie helped find those lanterns.

They all were dead. Charlie crawled over to her, his intestines dragging across the floor. “Run.” Tears ran down his cheek as a figure returned to float over him, grabbing him in its jaws, shaking him like a-

“Caroline? Carolinneee?” Elliot prodded her in the ribs.

“What?” Caroline said with more venom than intended. Her head was still reeling from the memories.

Elliot looked a little hurt for a moment, but his face hardened. “Nevermind. Just that you can stay next to me and Nila. She’s gonna be sharing her lantern with me and I thought…”

Caroline smiled slightly. “Thank you.”

Elliot flushed and waved away her thanks. The world seemed to brighten a little bit even as it darkened. She couldn’t help but feel that familiar seed of hope plant itself in her heart. Maybe they’d like her. Caroline followed him as he walked towards the four lights growing brighter as the dark deepened.

It pushed into the darkness, the glowing pattern on it fading to black. They were coming to it, but something more pressing was bothering it. It could feel that familiar sensation of lacking water, its skin cracking and its hovering a little less controlled. It would need water soon.

It wanted blood more. The hunter glided deeper into the darkness. Its fun was almost ready, it had learned what it needed. It was going to start soon. It opened its jaws, fantasizing about the feeling of flesh being ripped against its teeth, the wonderful screams they would cry out, the game of seeing how much it could take from them before they couldn’t scream.

Water could wait.

______________________________________________________

It was slow going in the cave, any discernible detail fading into black. Caroline walked next to Nila, the orange light of her lantern painting the stone floor. It was strangely quiet now, and no aliens seemed to be displaying any sort of bioluminescence. Layla walked ahead apparently unaware of the oddness of the situation. Darik was equally unaware, but had the sense to stay close to the group. Mia’s face of discomfort was tinted orange by the lantern she carried.

The air was filled with a musty scent, and it wasn’t long before the dry ground slowly became wetter. The sound of splashing footsteps obscured any other noise, dull monotony replacing the eerie randomness of the alien calls. The lantern light struggled against the growing darkness, the sphere of light growing smaller and smaller.

Layla’s light was still ahead, bobbing up and down.

“Layla!” Darik hissed. “Layla, get back here, I can’t see anything, I need your lantern.”

Layla’s lantern stopped bobbing. Then it began to shake, as if she was-

“She’s running. SHE’S RUNNING!” Mia screamed.

Caroline stood, frozen in fear. It was back already. How? There was no way. It wasn’t fair. It had taken so much from her already. Layla’s lantern stopped bobbing up and down. A scream cut through the air, and the lantern was thrown an impossible distance. Darik ran past her and in the moment that his lantern swung upwards, it illuminated his cowardice. Tears ran down Caroline’s face as she turned to run.

Mia managed to pull ahead of Caroline as the light began to grow in the distance. In her chest, Caroline felt hope grow, too. Once they reached the light, they’d have a chance. There was just enough that she could clearly see Mia, first running, and then suddenly not. A dark shape had hoisted her up to take her legs. She twisted and opened her mouth for a soundless scream before the hunter revealed itself in all its glory. It had the girl in its mouth, and it began to shake her back and forth like a bloody ragdoll.

Caroline staggered back, close enough to feel Mia’s blood splatter across her face. Her head hung loose on her neck, her arms already torn from her shoulders.

The hunter shook harder, but Mia refused to scream, so it dropped her to the ground like a broken toy. Caroline held back a sob and watched Mia, still conscious, raise a bloody stub, shattered bone protruding out of bloody flesh, while viscera spilled from her ruined ribcage and her mouth dribbled thick blood

Heaving, she mustered a single world. “Run.”

Walt, an older man, staggered into the camp clearing, part of his arm missing. His graying hair was dyed red and his stump was still spraying blood. Charlie jumped towards him and steadied the man.

Walt said something, the combination of his gasping breaths and her own diminishing grasp on reality making it hard to understand.

“GO! It’s coming… took my hatchet to the face… didn’t flinch…”

Charlie shook his head doggedly, his uniform soaked with the older man’s blood. “Won’t… Not afraid…”

She could feel herself running, someone’s hand dragging her arm. Elliot loosened his grip around her forearm as she finally started to run on her own. The hunter was gone, seemingly melted into the darkness. Caroline felt numb, that whisper of hope she had felt was crushed by its appearance.

They stopped running after Nila collapsed on the ground, panting for breath.

Elliot staggered over to Caroline, staring at her with fear in his eyes. “Was that the thing?”

Caroline nodded.

“We’re screwed. We’re screwed.” Elliot paced around the fallen lantern.

“The radio.” Nila gasped in between breaths.

New life seemed to enter Elliot’s body. “The radio. Yes, the radio. That bastard has the radio. We need to find him.”

Nila heaved for air, and Caroline bent over to throw up. The blood was drying on her skin, pulling at the fine hairs on her arm. When she closed her eyes, Mia stared back at her. The dead girl’s eyes were clouded and full of hate. Caroline vomited again. Elliot pulled Nila off the ground, gesturing for Caroline to follow, his hand backlit by the orange lantern light. Together they hobbled valiantly towards faint hope in the distance.

The silence pulled at Caroline’s mind, leaving time for her thoughts to rush like a flowing river. Layla was gone. Mia was gone. Her breath was shaky when she inhaled.

Nila rested a hand on her arm, a weak smile on her face. “We’ll be fine. We can find him.”

Caroline wasn’t sure whether Nila had said that for her or for herself. She seemed to be in bad shape, barely standing on unsteady legs. Despite that, Nila still smiled bravely. Elliot scoured the darkness, his furrowed brow lit by the light of the lantern.

“Elliot!” Layla called.

Elliot whipped his head around. “What the fuck?”

“Elliot. Help!” Layla said, panic tinging the last word.

Nila tugged at Elliot. “Come on, we’ve gotta help! She’s still there!”

“Help!” Layla called again, a panic growing in her voice.

Caroline could hear alarms going off in her head, but her mind was too addled to put things together.

Elliot seemed to be hearing the same alarms. “Nila, we can’t. We can’t go.”

Nila punched weakly at Elliot, righteous rage radiating off of her. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU!”

“Nila, please!” Elliot grabbed her arm.

“I’m going to help.” Nila pushed Elliot away and started walking towards Layla’s cries for help.

Caroline’s dulled mind connected the dots. “I heard it eating,” she said, almost to herself and too late for Nila to hear.

Elliot’s eyes bulged in surprise. He got up to run towards the lantern light just as another brighter blue light lit up the dark. It bobbed in the air, tracing a figure eight pattern. Nila stepped back, dropping her lantern. It cracked when it hit the ground, and for a moment, it went dark.

“Nila? NILA!” Elliot begged.

There was no response.

Caroline slowly stepped to where the other girl had dropped her light. It was too dark to make out anything but the slightly dimmed light of the cracked lantern. The electric brightness coughed and sputtered in the choking darkness, a losing battle against the sheer pressure of the black. Liquid reflected the dying light, ominous dark droplets.

“Elliot, I don’t think we’re going to find her…” Caroline turned to see his lantern light gone, inky darkness filling in the space it had held.

She stepped back quickly, her boots grinding against the stone floor as the lantern she held swung hard, the dying light feebly pushing away the darkness. Her breathing sped up and her heart pounded against her chest painfully fast. It was happening again. Caroline tried to slow her breathing, her hands clutching at her chest. They’re all dead aren’t they. All of them. It killed them all, because of me. If I wasn’t with them, none of this would’ve happened. Why’d I come with them? Why didn’t I just let myself die.

She gasped, her mind grasping for some sort of logical control over her body, but her breathing just kept getting faster and more ragged, even more so after she crumpled to the floor. Arms wrapped around her head, Caroline stifled sobs between deep gasping breaths. The world seemed to close in on her, and Caroline cried even harder, wishing for it all just to end. It was all her fault.

She felt raw on the inside, like every wall she had put up was getting torn down. Her fingernails dug into her skin as she held back a scream of something, anything to make what she was feeling go away. She just wanted to go away. The memories flooded back into her head.

A low rumble shook the clearing, cutting through Caroline’s wooziness. A large alien, almost the size of their emergency capsule, glided through their camp. Its body was torpedo shaped, with pulsing lights dancing across its sides. It swam through the air, a thick finned tail pushing it forward. It spread its fins out in front of the two colonists. Walt pushed Charlie away with his good arm just before the hunter struck.

Caroline had never seen a human become ground meat at such speed. What was once Walt coated the hunter’s teeth, and it circled around Charlie. The boy held up his hatchet as his arms shook in fear. It was almost comical, a foolish knight facing down a dragon. It lunged at him.

She cried for a long time. Tears flowed down her face, cutting through dust and leaving trails. Caroline squeezed her eyes closed, waiting for that deafening feeling of absolute panic to leave her body. Bit by bit, the tension left her. Her heartbeat slowed to a calm drumbeat. Her gasps grew deeper; her thoughts slowed down.

Caroline slowly unwrapped herself from her fetal position. Bit by bit, that overwhelming pressure lessened and the tightness in her chest loosened, she could breathe again. She laid flat on the ground for a moment, relaxing all her muscles. The cold from the stone floor leached its way into her back, and she just breathed.

That sprout of hope that had been trampled perked up once again. There was a chance. A tiny chance, but still a chance. Elliot could still be alive, she just needed to find him. She sat up, her muscles aching from exertion. The lantern lay beside her, stubbornly pushing out light despite being damaged. Like a puppet, the strings of hope pulled her back up again, pushing through the cold memories.

The cave was dark and silent, the absence of sound resonating through Caroline’s ears. Each footfall shattered that delicate silence and added to the growing sense of paranoia. In darkness, Caroline was alone. The oppressive lack of light battled to defeat the valiant lantern like a hundred atmospheres of water on top of a resilient submarine. And in those dark depths, she saw nothing. It was an odd feeling; her feet were the only things grounding her in reality.

It felt almost sacrilegious to make unnecessary noise, only the heretical droning of the shattered lantern breaking the silence. Caroline’s eyes strained against the darkness, hoping to see light. Her chest tightened again, not because of panic or fear, but rather a new sense of determination. She rested her hand on her hatchet, her palm rubbing against the rubber handle.

A light flashed in the distance. It was just fast enough to where the color was indiscernible. Caroline suddenly felt short of breath, nausea rising. She could die here. Alone. Forgotten. A withered husk in a damp and dingy corner. Her entire life ended by a set of massive jaws. That light could’ve marked her death. She breathed in slowly again, calming herself. Elliot might still be alive.

Her own light fizzled in the dark. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and Caroline felt something ancient and primitive within her stir. Something from when humans used to live in caves like these. Something that was beating its chest and screaming for her to run, to hide, to do something-

That something screeched and writhed within her as she was tackled to the floor by someone. Someone who smelled like sweat, fear and anger. Caroline bit and scratched and screamed, digging her fingernails into that shape she could only smell, hear, and feel. It breathed heavily, almost growling as it tried to wrap its calloused hands around her throat.

Caroline struggled to free herself, some sort of primitive screech ripping its way out her mouth. It wasn’t her anymore, it was that old thing that slept in a deep dark corner of her brain. It was awake now, and it was screaming. It didn’t want to die. The shape screamed as she finally got the chance to tighten her jaws around a fleshy wrist. Blood tingled in her mouth, metallic and thick. She didn’t let go until a fist blew its way into her jaw, making her see stars. For a split second she lay stunned, her own blood mingling with that of the shape’s.

Another punch landed on her face, deflected by her cheekbone. She covered her face with her arms, a futile attempt to make it stop. The man pried her arms off her face, pinned them painfully under his legs. He straddled her body, and he wrapped his hands around her throat.

“It’s your fault. You took her from me. Why didn’t you warn her?” Blood from Elliot’s arm dripped onto her chin.

In her peripheral vision, her lantern spluttered in the darkness. A futile attempt to fight back what was going to inevitably happen. Caroline tried to cough, a dull squeak squeezing its way through her constricted throat. It was almost funny. The lantern flickered, starting to dim. This was how she was going to die.

Something else dripped onto her face. It ran down to her mouth and she tasted salty tears. They were mixing with her own.

Elliot sobbed like a baby while snuffing out Caroline’s dying light. “You could’ve said something, anything!”

She watched as her stupid, broken, lonely lantern coughed out its last few breaths of life a few feet away. Elliot coughed too, coughed as the knife broke its way through his ribs. He took in a deep shaky breath, and never breathed out.

Darik stood over her, his hands bloody and shaking. His own lantern lay on the ground. Caroline breathed in, a deep shaky breath. She breathed out. Elliot’s blood and tears started to dry. Darik reached out a hand. Her own merely twitched. She felt like she was dead, but that was enough to know she wasn’t.

He pulled her up from the ground, and for the third time, Caroline was given another invitation to life. For the first time, she wished she could refuse. Elliot was really dead now. It wasn’t a hypothetical anymore. He was there, on the ground, gone.

Charlie was on the ground, gone. His eyes were faded, and whatever life he’d used to tell her to run had left his body. The hunter slipped through the air, gliding to a stop in front of her. Its fins flickered in and out, predator and prey staring each other down. There was no escape. Something was off however. Its hovering was abnormal and jumpy. It seemed slightly uncoordinated, the fins no longer gracefully guiding it around. It rumbled, the sound filling her chest. It turned away, zipping towards the distant darkness. Charlie stared up at her. Why? He seemed to ask.

Caroline didn’t know why. She didn’t understand why. She wished she knew why. Darik wrapped her arm around his shoulder, dragging her towards a faint pinprick of light. He held the radio in one arm, the lantern in the other. Everything seemed slightly out of focus as if it wasn’t real. Nothing felt solid.

Elliot’s blood was still in her mouth, and she grabbed for her canteen, wishing she could wash out her brains. The lukewarm and dusty water was a relief, swishing around in her mouth. She rinsed and spat a few times. Darik stared at her. His face was lit by the lantern light, the orange glow highlighting the peaks and valleys of his face.

It was quiet again, the sound of bestial humanity having been masked by the progress of time. It was like nothing had happened. She watched someone die, and it was like nothing had happened. Elliot was dead, gone, and the world continued around his cold corpse. Someone who had cared about her, showed her kindness, someone who saved her, was lying in a puddle of his own blood.

Darik’s lantern was much stronger than the broken lantern she’d been carrying. It held off the darkness with seemingly little effort, easily illuminating the stone floor they walked on and Darik himself. Caroline walked slightly behind the light.

Caroline was numb. She could feel everything, but she was numb. She could feel Elliot and Mia’s blood on her skin, darkening to an ugly brownish maroon. She could hear her own screams, Elliot’s sobs, Mia’s final words. It didn’t matter much anymore. Darik tapped her shoulder delicately, his eyes filled with worry. She hated that look.

“We’re close to the research station, we’ve just gotta get past this river.” He whispered.

Caroline didn’t care much. That something that wanted her to live seemed to have died back there. It had died with Elliot. A rumble in the distance caused Darik to flinch. Caroline didn’t. She knew what it was. An inviting light danced up and down in the dark. Darik stepped back, grabbing for a knife he didn’t have.

The rumbling growl of the hunter rattled Caroline’s body; the pure bass drone echoed in the deep dark caves. Darik’s paling face was tinted orange by the lantern he held. The look on his face was almost comical. A foolish knight staring down a dragon. It lunged at him.

Charlie screamed as the Hunter’s jaws ripped into his body. Caroline’s screams joined his, an unholy choir for a brutal death. It seemed to revel in his screams, flipping this way and that, tossing him around like a toy. Charlie didn’t stop screaming, not until it finally tired of him. His torso was gone from the ribcage down, intestines spread across the floor. One arm was intact, the other was a bloody stub.

Darik didn’t scream when it grabbed him. Even when it crunched through his back, he didn’t scream. Whether it was spite or fear or a combination of the two, Darik didn’t give the Hunter what it wanted. It grumbled in frustration, and turned towards her. It stared at her again, slitted eyes the size of her fist peering into hers.

She felt like a bug about to be torn apart by a sadistic child. Something was off with it once again, as it struggled to even float above the ground. It opened its toothy maw and gasped. Caroline stared back stone-faced. She wasn’t thinking at all, really. Darik’s radio crackled next to his intact arm. Her radio.

The hunter turned away, speeding drunkenly towards some unknown destination. Darik’s radio pinged once. It had caught a signal. Another radio. Caroline didn’t care much. She wrapped her arms around her legs and sat next to Darik’s body.

She looked up towards the dark ceiling, wishing she could hear a voice other than the ones in her head.