Before long, they found themselves sitting in sombre silence. They had started as fifteen, but now only eight remained—eight hungry, exhausted, and haggard men barely holding themselves together.
"I should have just stayed at home..." Dan muttered repeatedly, his voice filled with regret. "Fuck." He looked like he was slowly losing himself under the weight of everything they had endured.
But Henry noticed something that the others seemed to overlook. Everyone looked lifeless, if not completely lost, their spirits crushed by the horrors they had witnessed.
Everyone except Mark.
It wasn't obvious at first, but Henry noticed the small changes. The way Mark occasionally closed his eyes, as if reassuring himself of something only he knew. The man who sat before them was different from the Mark they had separated from earlier.
Henry didn't need much time to understand what could have caused such a change.
The mysterious Fifth Chair.
"Aagh! Let's keep it together, guys!" Theo suddenly shouted.
"Unless we want to end up like those half-rotten corpses, we need to keep moving. The sun is probably going down, but we can't even be sure anymore. We have to hurry and get out of here!"
He didn't look any better than the rest of them. His face was drained, his body exhausted. The source of his sudden determination remained unknown.
Henry would have supported the idea of moving if something hadn't caught his attention.
The walls.
There were markings carved into them. Some were faded and worn, while others looked disturbingly fresh—as if they had been written only recently with some kind of sharp object.
Henry slowly stood and approached the wall, drawing the attention of the others.
"What are those?" Calvin asked.
"A message? Like something out of a movie?" Theo added, the only one seemingly capable of making a joke in their current situation.
Henry ignored him, his eyes scanning the markings carefully.
"I can read—"
He stopped.
"This one... this one doesn't even look a week old."
Liam's expression darkened as he stepped closer.
"Then prepare to die..." he whispered.
Everyone turned toward him.
"Only death awaits."
Another heavy silence settled over the group.
It was Josh who finally broke it.
"Am I the only one who wants to find out where that leads?" he asked, pointing toward the narrow passage that disappeared deeper into the cave.
Dan immediately turned toward him, his expression hardening.
"Have you learned nothing since we got here?" he snapped. "Be grateful for what we have right now. Leave the unknown alone."
His voice lowered as his eyes drifted away.
"That bastard Clyde already took enough from us... and dragged Malik into it."
Henry watched the exchange quietly.
What surprised him wasn't Dan's anger, but the familiarity behind it. They had known each other for less than a day, yet after being thrown into a forest designed to kill them, those strangers had begun to feel like something closer to companions.
A terrifying place had a strange way of forcing people together.
I am also against going in there."
Mark finally spoke.
"It's not like we don't have a choice. We just want to make sure Samuel survives with us."
Henry studied him carefully.
He still couldn't understand when Mark had taken on the role of their leader. More importantly, he couldn't understand why the others seemed to accept it without question.
Or perhaps they didn't.
"You know something... don't you?"
Samuel's voice was dry. It wasn't really a question. It was a statement.
Mark remained silent.
"If you don't want to tell us, then don't. But don't throw out hints and expect us to ignore them."
Theo scoffed.
"So much for companionship."
Henry watched him closely.
Theo was changing.
The man who once barely spoke now questioned everything. His patience had worn thin, replaced by suspicion, frustration and a strange sense of humour.
It was unsettling.
But strangely enough, it was also fascinating.
"Okay. Let's go."
Calvin finally spoke, turning toward the narrow passageway.
He took a step forward when Dan suddenly breathed in sharply.
"I know you know your stuff, but that doesn't make you invincible—"
"Let's go."
Henry cut him off.
Calvin looked back briefly, then simply nodded and continued into the darkness.
"Move sideways slowly and cautiously," Henry instructed. "Watch for slippery surfaces or sharp edges. If at any point you think you can't continue, tell me. We turn back."
Calvin gave him a nod of approval, almost amused that the student had begun giving instructions to the teacher.
They moved carefully through the passage, their bodies pressed close to the cold stone walls.
They had barely gone any distance when Henry noticed another set of footsteps beside them.
Liam.
The two exchanged a brief glance. They both understood what it meant.
Liam had made his choice.
Neither of them commented.
They simply continued forward, slower and more cautiously than before.
Before long, they saw the end of the narrow passageway.
The cramped walls slowly widened until the passage opened into a vast chamber.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
"A cave chamber," Liam whispered.
"No," Calvin corrected, his eyes scanning the walls carefully.
"A cavern."Henry barely paid attention to their brief exchange. His eyes had already begun scanning the cavern.
He had learned the hard way that observation was one of his greatest tools for survival, and he intended to use it whenever possible.
It didn't take long before he found something.
The walls.
There were markings carved into them again. Unlike the faded ones they had discovered earlier, these were fresh—almost painfully so. Whoever had left them behind had been here recently.
Then Henry noticed something else.
A path.
Not one made by animals. Not a natural formation in the stone.
A trail worn into the cavern floor by human footsteps."Shit... the markings are here again."
Liam's voice echoed through the cavern.
Henry ignored the fear in his voice and pointed toward the worn path on the ground.
"Look here. People were here too."
He traced the trail with his eyes, following the evidence left behind by countless footsteps.
Then something else caught his attention.
Calvin.
The biologist stood beside a raised section of rock near the cavern wall. At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than a natural formation.
But the longer Henry looked, the less natural it seemed.
It resembled a seat.
Calvin slowly ran his hand across its surface, feeling the stone beneath his fingers.
"That's where you're wrong," he said quietly.
The others turned toward him.
"People werent here..."
His eyes moved around the cavern.
"They're still here."A strange silence settled over them.
The realization that they were not alone in that vast underground expanse sent an uneasy feeling through the group. The cavern, which had already felt oppressive, suddenly seemed much smaller.
Then—
Footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Every man turned toward the sound.
A woman emerged from one of the passages, her presence strangely calm compared to the fear gripping the group.
She looked them over for a moment before letting out a quiet laugh.
"Hah..."
A mocking smile formed on her face.
"Look what the train dragged in."
Her voice carried a strange mixture of sarcasm and pity.