We walked through the forest trail again, moving faster than before. Our shoes were covered in mud, branches scratched our arms, and every sound around us made us more alert. None of us talked. The only thing in our minds was the cave and the key that Palash held tightly.
We were halfway down the path when suddenly someone stepped out from behind a tree.
A girl — about our age — with messy hair tied back, clothes torn like she had been running for days. But the thing that froze us was the gun she was holding. She pointed it straight at us with both hands shaking slightly.
"Don't move," she said. Her voice was sharp but scared at the same time.
All four of us stopped instantly. I felt my heartbeat jump into my throat. Chakshu slowly raised his hands. "Okay, okay… relax, no need to shoot."
Palash narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
She didn't answer. Her eyes moved from one of us to the next, watching carefully like we might attack at any second. "Drop your bags," she said. "All of them."
Living stepped forward a little, calm as always. "We don't want to fight. We're just trying to survive like everyone else."
The girl's hands shook slightly but she kept the gun pointed at us. "You're part of a team, right? One of the treasure hunting groups?"
"No," I said slowly. "We're not with them. They destroyed our town. We're not here to hurt anyone."
For a second, she hesitated — like she wasn't expecting that answer.
Chakshu swallowed hard. "Look, we don't even have weapons. Just let us explain."
She stepped closer, the gun still aimed right at my chest. Her eyes were red like she had been crying. "Everyone says that until they steal from you. Give me your bags."
Palash clenched his jaw but nodded. He placed his backpack on the ground slowly. I did the same. Chakshu followed. Living only had a small bag, which he put down gently.
She kicked one of the bags toward herself without lowering the gun. "Did you find any keys?" she asked suddenly. "Tell me the truth."
My breath stopped. She knew about the keys.
Palash hid his hand behind his back where the key was, trying not to let her see it.
"We don't know what you're talking about," he said.
The girl stepped closer, anger building in her face. "Don't lie to me. My brother died because of those keys. So don't play dumb."
Her voice cracked on the last word, and tears filled her eyes.
We all looked at each other. This wasn't just a fight for treasure anymore. People were dying.
I took a slow breath. "We're not lying. We found something on accident, but we don't even understand it yet. Please… put the gun down. We're not your enemy."
For a moment, she shook her head, trying to hold back tears. Her finger tightened on the trigger just a little.
One wrong move and someone would die.
Then suddenly — a loud rustling sound came from the bushes behind her. Not small — something big. Many people.
She turned her head slightly, afraid.
And I realized we were not alone.
Another group burst out from the trees—at least ten people, armed with swords, axes, bows, shields, and even more guns. Their clothing was darker, faces covered with cloth masks, moving like trained fighters.
The moment they saw the girl holding us at gunpoint, one of them shouted:
"Kill that girl!"
Everything exploded into chaos. I threw my hands into the air, stepping forward instinctively.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Chill out!" I yelled, voice shaking.
But they weren't listening. They charged forward, raising their weapons. The girl spun around, eyes wide in terror. She aimed her gun at them now, backing away, but her hands were trembling badly.
Palash grabbed my arm and whispered sharply, "We need to move!"
Before we could, an arrow whistled past my ear and slammed into the tree behind us. The girl fired a shot blindly, hitting nothing. The attackers kept running.
Chakshu grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her toward us. "If they want to kill you, stay with us!" he shouted.
"I—I don't even know you!" she yelled back, panicking.
"Trust us or die!" Palash snapped.
The attackers were almost on us now. I saw their leader — a tall muscular man with a scar across his left eye, holding a heavy axe — pointing at us.
"They're with her! Take them all!"
That was enough motivation. We ran.
Branches whipped our faces as we sprinted through the forest. Arrows kept flying past, thudding into trees. Someone behind us roared and swung a sword, barely missing Chakshu's back.
Living grabbed a broken branch as a weapon, turning mid-run to block a strike.The girl stumbled, nearly falling, and I caught her arm.
"Keep running! Don't stop!" I shouted.
We reached a small drop where the ground sloped sharply downhill. Without thinking, we slid down the dirt slope, rolling and tumbling until we hit the bottom hard.
I gasped for air, covered in leaves and mud. Above us, the attackers were climbing down after us.
Chakshu looked back up the hill, breathing heavily. "They're not stopping. Who the hell are these people?"
"They're Hunters," she said shakily. "They track anyone who knows about the keys. They won't stop until we're dead."
Palash tightened his grip on the mysterious key in his pocket.
I stared at her. "So what does this key open?"
She swallowed hard, voice a whisper:
"The door you found… it's not just a door."
She looked into the trees where the hunters were still approaching.
"It's a gateway. And everyone who wants it… is ready to kill for it."
We froze, Chakshu slipped on the mud and fell hard, his foot twisting painfully and getting stuck between two thick roots. He tried to pull it free, but his face twisted in agony.
"Ah—! Guys, wait—!" he gasped.
We skidded to a stop and rushed back to help him. Palash and I tried to lift the root while Living pulled Chakshu's leg, but it wouldn't budge.
The sound of footsteps surrounded us—slow, heavy, confident.
Too late.
A circle of weapons closed in around us: swords pointed at our chests, bowstrings pulled tight, guns aimed directly at our heads. There was nowhere left to run.
Living raised both hands shakily. "Hold on! We surrender! Just—stop, please! Tell us what you want!"
The leader stepped forward—the tall man with the scar across his eye—grinning with a cruel calmness. His voice was deep and cold.
"What do we want?"
He tilted his head, looking each of us up and down.
Then he chuckled.
"Your life."
He lifted his axe and rested it casually on his shoulder.
"Can you give it peacefully…"he paused, leaning closer, "…or should we make you feel worse?"
My heart pounded so loud I could barely hear anything else. Chakshu's breath was sharp and uneven. The girl beside us was trembling uncontrollably.
Palash stepped forward, voice cracking but brave.
"If you kill us, what do you gain? We don't even have anything left!"
The scarred man smirked.
"Oh, but you do. "He pointed at Palash's pocket. "The key."
Palash instinctively covered it with his hand.
For a moment, everything was still—silent except for the distant rustle of leaves.
The man lifted his axe higher, ready to swing.
"Hand it over. Or watch your friends die first."
We stood there, frozen, helpless, surrounded by enemies, death inches away.
Palash took a slow breath and raised his hands, stepping forward carefully.
"Fine," he said, voice steady but tense. "I'll give you the key. Just don't hurt them."
The scarred man smiled with satisfaction and reached out his hand to snatch it. But just as his fingers brushed Palash's palm, Palash suddenly grabbed the man's wrist, twisted it sharply backward, and snatched the gun from his belt in one swift motion.
At the same time, all three of us jumped forward. I grabbed the neck of the person closest to me and pushed him against a tree. Living did the same, and Chakshu tackled another one to the ground, taking his weapon. In seconds, we had control.
The attackers' faces changed from confident to terrified.
"Please—don't kill us," one of them begged, shaking. "We didn't want to fight! We were forced—please!"
We stayed quiet. Our hands were shaking, breaths fast, but none of us wanted to cross the line of killing someone. We let go of them and stepped back slowly. They crawled away, scared and desperate to escape.
The scarred man, still on the ground from Palash's twist, looked up at us with rage in his eyes. He opened his mouth to shout something, but before he could—
Bang.
A gunshot cracked the air. We all turned at once.
The girl stood there, holding her gun pointed straight at the scarred man. Smoke rose from the barrel. Her hands were tight on the grip, her face blank but broken inside.
Blood pooled beneath the man's head. He was gone instantly.
We stared at her in shock. No words came out.
She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and said in a low voice that almost broke:
"He killed my brother. I'm just returning what he did."
Silence fell again. The forest felt heavier, darker.
None of us blamed her. We only watched as she walked past us, picking the key out of the dirt with trembling fingers.
"From now on," she said quietly, "I am with you guys."
We exchanged looks—exhausted, unsure of anything anymore but we nodded.
We took everything useful from the ground—water bottles, some dry food packets, two knives, and a small first-aid box. Chakshu found a working flashlight, and Living picked up a folded map that looked different from ours. The girl kept the gun close to her chest, checking around every few seconds.
We left the area fast, not even looking back. None of us wanted to stay there after what happened. The forest felt colder than before, and every sound made us jump a little. We walked off the normal route, deeper into the woods where no one would expect us to go.
Hours passed. Our legs started to hurt, and the sky turned orange as the sun went down. We finally stopped to rest near a fallen tree. Everyone was tired, breathing heavily.
After a long silence, I looked at the girl and asked quietly, "Where are you from?"
She stared at the ground for a moment before answering.
"Avlan Town," she said. "It's about a day's walk from here. I used to live with my brother… He was the only family I had."
Her voice shook a little, but she didn't cry. She just looked straight ahead, trying to stay strong.
Chakshu lowered his eyes and said softly, "I'm sorry… we didn't know."
She nodded slowly. "You don't have to be sorry. The people who should be sorry are already dead."
We didn't know what tomorrow would bring, or who else was out there hunting for the same treasure. All we knew was that the world we lived in was gone… and the only way left was forward.
After a few quiet minutes, I looked up at the girl again and asked, "What's your name?"
She took a small breath and answered, "Clementine. But you can call me Clem."
We nodded. It felt right to know her name after everything that happened. Somehow, it made us feel a little less like strangers thrown together by chaos.
As the sky grew darker, we decided to stop for the night. We found a small open space surrounded by thick bushes—hidden enough that no one would spot us easily. We set up a simple camp using fallen branches and a large cloth we found in the supplies. There was no fire; it was too risky to show smoke or light.
We sat close together on the cold ground and checked through everything we had collected. The food was basic—two packets of dried meat, three energy bars, a handful of fruit, and a bottle of water. Palash shared the food evenly, and we all ate quietly, tired and hungry.
Living sat a little distance away, holding the strange map we took from the attackers. He stared at it, turning it around several times, then placed it on the ground and studied it carefully.
After a long moment, he spoke in his usual calm and quiet voice,"None of this matches the real geography."
We all looked up.
"What do you mean?" Chakshu asked, frowning.
Living pointed at different parts of the map. "This mountain range doesn't exist. The rivers are wrong. Even the shape of the land looks different."
I leaned closer. He was right—the map didn't fit anything we knew.
Clem looked at it too and whispered, "Then where does it lead?"
None of us had an answer. The map almost looked like it was from another place entirely.
The wind howled outside the bushes, and for a moment everything was silent except for the rustling leaves.
We didn't know what the map truly was.We didn't know what the treasure really meant.But we were already too deep to turn back.
And tomorrow, we would find out more… whether we liked it or not.