Chapter 128 - A Threat
After traveling peacefully nonstop through the path in the forest for a few hours, the three buses suddenly stopped for the students to take a breather for a few minutes.
Right away, some students got off the buses, especially most of the girls who were dying to go out before the boys.
And after they got out, they immediately headed toward the forest accompanied by their friends and female instructor to take care of their needs.
Some of the guys who also could not hold themselves back also went to the opposite side of the forest with their friends. They also had their instructors with them.
Randy also came outside along with the other students from his class, but he did not go anywhere and simply stood next to the school bus and proceeded to wait until the other students were done with whatever they were doing.
Of course, there were other students who remained behind just like him, but they form their own cliques and were engaged in their own conversations far away from him.
Only Randy stood alone without anyone next to him, he was already used to this treatment after all this time and so, he did not pay these students any mind.
Not to mention, he also did not want to get along with them anyway.
Besides that, considering the possibility of danger, he was not about to venture into the forest when it was now getting dark outside.
At this point, all of a sudden, one of the girls that went into the forest suddenly screamed so loud that everyone immediately became alert.
"W-What was that? Did something happen?
" One of the students who was standing not far from Randy said in a panicked voice.
The people who went out were not far from the school buses since they did not want to risk running into a mutated creature in the forest and so, their screamed felt closer to the others who were still next to their buses.
Randy instantly frowned when he heard the screaming voice just now and immediately felt a sense of apprehension as the hairs on his skin raised in response to this sudden feeling.
'Just what is inside that forest?' He wondered.
At the location where the scream came from, the female instructor who went with the female students was standing not far away from them but when she heard the screaming voice, she immediately rushed towards the location of the female students at her fastest speed.
A few seconds later, she reached the destination of the female students and immediately questioned them.
"What happened here? And why were you girls this deep in the forest? Didn't I warn not to stray away too much from me? What were you three thinking? Are you not afraid of death?
" She sternly asked and then rebuked the three female students.
"T-Teacher Ava, we're sorry. We thought that we…
" One of the girls tried speaking.
"Cut the nonsense and tell me why you were screaming just now! Don't you know that screaming in the beast forest could lead the nearby mutated beasts to us?
" Instructor Ava sternly asked.
"W-We're sorry… It's just that we…
"
Noticing that the students were panicked as they had their heads down with fearful expressions, she decided to take a deep breath to calm down.
"Haah…
"
She then breathed out a moment later, and then spoke in a slightly warm tone:
"One of you just tell me what happened slowly, okay?
"
Hearing the change in the tone of their instructor's voice, one of the girls raised her head a moment later and then spoke up:
"Teacher Ava, I'll speak... The thing is... when we went a bit further into the forest, we saw a huge tree, so we decided to take care of ourselves there but then suddenly a corpse of a mutated beast fell from the tree and when we checked it, we found out that it belonged to a mutated ape that had its head bitten off. So we were frightened and quickly run back to this place. And also, on our way...
"
Another girl then continued:
"Yes, there was also a blurry figure in the forest.
"
"A blurry figure?
" Instructor Ava inquired.
"That's right, we saw a blurry figure swiftly move past us when we were running back, and Xiao Ling thought it looked like a monster with sharp teeth and a long tongue but we didn't see anything like that.
"
The female student said as she pointed at a frightened girl who appeared to be the one that screamed a while ago when they saw the corpse fall from the tree.
"What?!
" Instructor Ava exclaimed when she heard this, and she then quickly instructed:
"We need to move right away! Hurry—
"
Whoosh!
The next moment, she immediately shut her mouth and assumed her battle position when something just moved past them as she was talking.
She then gestured for the girls to keep quiet for a moment. But when nothing happened after a few moments, she sighed in relief.
But then out of nowhere, something landed on the three female students seeping into their body through their pores, and a moment later, they all stood still, not moving one step as if they had been frozen or petrified by something.
The eerie part was that their bodies still looked the same without any visible changes, and even their expressions of panic remained on their face but despite that, they were still rooted on the same spot.
When the instructor noticed that something was wrong as she was gesturing for the female students to follow her but none of them responded, she suddenly recalled something unpleasant and terrifying.
"This… Don't tell me… It's happening again… Is it that unknown creature that attacked and brutally killed my students from before… Why is it happening here too…?
At this moment, she was genuinely shocked and frightened by the thought of that event happening again in this place.
Her body was trembling on the spot in shock and fear when she recalled the events from last time.
Instructor Ava, whose full name was Ava Miller was originally from the western district, thus she was a foreign instructor that came to the eastern district due to certain reasons.
She was also somewhat familiar with the situation that was currently unfolding in front of her eyes after observing how her current students suddenly froze from some bizarre power.
And if it was the same as before, then that entity would kill all her students without them being able to retaliate at all, leading to another tragedy.
This has happened to her other students in the western district multiple times. But it seems like they always conclude after investigations that it was the work of a monster that just happened to make it to her previous schools and thus, attacking her unfortunate students.
But she was certain that something felt strange about those creatures and every event that transpired at the time but no believed her when she gave her testimony as if they do not want to hear it.