Kittu walked ahead like he was leading a jungle tour.
Everyone else followed behind him—some limping, some still catching their breath, all too tired to question how this biscuit-eating six-year-old had become their unofficial GPS.
"So... this is the way?" Rix asked, eyeing the path of dense greenery.
Kittu nodded and waved his juice box like a royal scepter. "Mhm. The people went this way. They were like, 'Whoa! What is that?' and just walked."
Bhavna whispered to Arjun, "Is it weird that I don't know if I want to find what they saw?"
Arjun exhaled. "At this point, I'll take any lead. Even if it's led by a snack-powered gremlin."
They followed the boy deeper into the forest. The jungle here was denser—quieter too. Trees arched high overhead, vines hanging like ropes. The sound of insects faded. Even the birds had stopped singing.
That silence?
It wasn't natural.
The air grew colder.
After a while, the trail became less obvious, but they kept going, pushing aside low branches and stepping over thick roots.
Rana, ever impatient, grumbled, "If this turns into a wild goose chase, I'm turning him into a football."
Kittu, totally unbothered, answered, "Goose chase sounds fun."
They passed a tree with deep scratches in its trunk—long, sharp marks, too big to be from any normal animal.
No one mentioned it.
But everyone saw.
Then they found something.
Tarun pointed, "Look."
Footprints. Dozens.
Human.
Leading deeper.
Then Rix spotted something half-buried in a bush. He pulled it free.
"Someone's water bottle," he said.
Nearby, Bhavna found a torn piece of cloth caught on a branch.
Arjun crouched near the prints. "Same size. Same direction. Same people."
But what disturbed them most—some of the footprints just... ended. Like someone had taken a step and disappeared mid-stride.
That's when they realized.
Kittu was gone.
"Kittu?" Bhavna called. "Kittu!"
No answer.
Rana cursed. "Great. Now we've lost the kid."
They scanned around, moving in a rough circle—and then Rix called out:
"Uh... guys? Over here."
They found Kittu perched casually on a rock, chewing the corner of a biscuit, sitting just a few meters away from something hidden behind a wall of overgrown ferns.
A gap in the rock.
Not a cave exactly—but a narrow stone opening in the side of a hill, almost disguised by moss and roots. If Kittu hadn't been sitting in front of it, they would've walked right past it.
The air around it was cold.
Wrong.
Bhavna squinted. "Is that... natural?"
Arjun stepped forward, brushing vines aside, and revealed something carved into the stone.
A symbol.
It wasn't a language. It looked more like a spiral made of claws. Or teeth. Something ancient and angry.
The moment Arjun touched the rock, a sharp jolt ran through his head.
For just a second—he heard a whisper.
Low. Deep. Like it had traveled from beneath the ground.
"Return."
He yanked his hand back.
"Don't touch that," Rana barked, knife drawn again.
"I'm fine," Arjun muttered, even though he wasn't sure if that was true.
Kittu stood and brushed biscuit crumbs from his shirt. "They went in there."
Tarun took a shaky step back. "That's where the survivors went?"
Kittu nodded.
Bhavna looked around the forest. "But why would they go into a place like this?"
Kittu shrugged. "They were curious."
Rix rubbed the back of his neck. "I hate curious people."
Rana stepped forward, scanning the dark tunnel. "It's narrow. No telling how deep it goes."
Bhavna squinted. "We should wait. Gather more. Make a plan."
"No time," Arjun said. "They could be inside. Trapped. Hurt."
Then—they heard it.
A scream.
From deep inside the cave.
Maya.
"MAYA!" Arjun lurched forward, almost stumbling.
Bhavna grabbed his arm.
Rana raised his gun out of reflex.
Tarun froze, breath catching in his throat.
There was no mistaking it.
That voice. That terror.
Maya was inside.
And whatever she had seen?
Was worth screaming for.
Arjun stepped toward the cave.
The darkness swallowed the entrance like a mouth waiting to close.
Rix muttered, "Well. That's our sign."
They didn't hesitate.
One by one, they entered the stone mouth of the forest.
Behind them, the light of day stayed silent.
And the jungle held its breath.