CHAPTER 15: NIGHT BREACH

Night in the camp wasn’t the comfort it was supposed to be.

From the outside, the barricades looked solid; a jagged ring of steel, concrete, and wreckage, but Ethan knew better. In the apocalypse, walls were only ever an illusion of safety.

Days spent in the ruined city taught him that.

The forest beyond didn’t sleep.

Mist clung to the barricades in long, ghostly ribbons. Every so often, something shifted in the treeline; too far to make out, too deliberate to be the wind.

Ethan sat near the central fire, his rope harness looped loosely in his lap out of habit. Reid and Kara were on the nearest watch platform, the dim glow of their cigarette tips moving as they scanned the dark.

Jonas, the brute, paced along the wall like a caged animal, muttering to himself. Ethan wondered if he was fully sane.

The air was heavy with stillness.

And then, something broke the stillness.

It started with a sound, a low, rhythmic thumping. It was faint but getting closer.

Ethan’s head snapped up immediately. "You hear that?"

Reid froze mid-step on the platform. "Yeah".

The others gathered quickly; Mira, Holt, even the medic, forming a loose perimeter near the wall.

The thumping stopped.

Then came the scraping; long claws dragging across steel.

The noise went on longer than any of them liked, slow and deliberate, as if whatever was out there was savoring the sound. Ethan felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. The scrape paused, then started again... this time higher up the wall, testing for weak points.

DING!

~----~

[System Alert: Environmental Threat Detected!]

[Threat Level: Critical]

~----~

Holt’s eyes narrowed as he stared into the dark. "Something’s testing the wall".

Kara gripped her spear. "Then let’s show it why that’s a bad idea".

Reid shook his head. "Not yet. Wait".

Waiting felt wrong. Every instinct screamed at Ethan to move, to act, to get distance between himself and whatever was out there.

But Reid’s calm was almost unnerving, his gaze fixed like he was waiting for the forest to blink first.

A few moments of silence followed, then...

BANG!

The first impact hit like a truck.

A section of the barricade suddenly shuddered, dust and rust raining down as something slammed into it from the outside.

Another hit followed, harder, making the metal scream and buckle.

"Positions!" Reid barked.

Jonas vaulted up onto the wall with frightening speed. "Got visual, three of them. Big. Moving fast".

The next hit nearly tore a panel loose, and through the gap Ethan saw eyes... too many eyes... glowing pale green.

They didn’t blink. They just stared. Unblinking, calculating, like they were reading the camp as much as the camp was reading them.

The third impact punched through.

Steel warped inward in surrender to pressure, a jagged hole opening just wide enough for the first creature to wedge its head through; it was a nightmare cross between a boar and a crocodile, with skin like cracked stone, and tusks hooked forward like scythes.

It shrieked, a sound that rattled Ethan’s teeth.

The barricade wouldn’t hold. He could tell.

DING!

~----~

[Improvisation Draw Activated!

[Improvised Gear: Impact Flare Mine!]

Compact explosive flare triggered on contact. Blinds and disorients creatures within a 5-meter radius for 8 seconds.

~----~

Ethan snapped it into his palm, sparks already spitting from the fuse. "Clear the gap!"

Hearing his voice, Jonas didn’t hesitate, acting on instinct as he dropped from the wall, grabbed the metal panel, and ripped it wider to give Ethan a clean throw.

The mine sailed through the hole, striking the first beast square on the snout, then...

BZZZT!

It detonated in a violent burst of white light, the flare’s glare flooding the forest edge.

The creature screamed, thrashing wildly as the others behind it staggered and crashed into each other, temporarily blinded.

Ethan caught the flash of tusks snapping inches from Jonas’s leg before the brute yanked himself back behind cover. The air reeked of scorched hair and something sour... burnt ichor from the blinded beast.

There was an opening, and the counterattack came fast.

BAM! BAM!

Reid’s rifle cracked twice, each shot finding a blinded target in the skull. Mira threw her hands forward, a sudden burst of wind slamming into the third beast and knocking it off its feet.

"Jonas, hold that wall!" Reid barked.

The brute roared in answer, bracing his shoulders against the damaged panel as the stunned creature recovered and lunged again. It didn’t last long.

Ethan grapple-launched up to the platform, scanning for any flankers. "That’s all of them?" he asked.

Holt shook his head grimly. "No. Those were just the ones you can see".

Ethan’s gut sank. The forest wasn’t empty. Shapes shifted in the mist; low to the ground, and fast moving. They were watching and waiting.

And then, from the opposite side of the camp came another metallic crash, this one inside the perimeter.

Kara’s head snapped toward the noise. "We’ve got a jumper!"

"Move!" Reid barked, already moving.

They sprinted across the camp, weapons ready, just in time to see a lithe, four-legged shape slinking between tents. It was a predator that looked almost catlike, except for the two whip-like tails ending in hooked barbs.

It hissed, eyes locking on the medic.

For a second, time froze... until the wheel spun again in Ethan’s vision.

DING!

~----~

[Improvised Gear: Barbed Bola!]

Weighted bolas lined with hooked metal. Effective for entangling fast-moving targets. Single use.

~----~

Ethan reacted on instinct, swinging it overhead once and letting it fly.

WHOOSH!

The bola whipped through the air, tangling around the creature’s legs mid-leap. It crashed into the dirt with a furious screech, snapping at the cords.

But before it could Kara was on it instantly, her spear punching through its skull with brutal precision.

The medic scrambled back, swearing under his breath, his trembling hands still clutching a half-sealed wound dressing. "That thing got past the walls," he said shakily. "If it can, more can".

Nobody corrected him.

By the time the flare’s light faded, the forest had gone quiet again. The three larger beasts outside lay dead near the barricade, their bodies already beginning to dissolve into the strange black ichor common to many wilderness mutants.

Reid scanned the treeline one last time before lowering his rifle. "They were testing us. That wasn’t random".

Holt’s expression was grim. "Something out there’s learning how we defend ourselves".

Ethan’s gaze lingered on the torn section of wall. The barricade wasn’t invincible. And if tonight’s attackers were a scouting force, the real assault hadn’t even started.

The thought sank deep, cold as the night mist. If the wilderness was capable of strategy, of probing and learning... then every victory tonight was just data for tomorrow’s slaughter.

As the others began repairs, Ethan stepped back from the firelight, staring into the darkness beyond the camp.

Night was never safe.

But this one had proved something worse...

Safety itself was just a myth, and even the wolves’ den could be breached.