Ethan and Sarah moved in single file, their footsteps soft against the damp, narrow cave wall. Loose gravel underfoot crunched quietly with each step.
After a moment, Sarah couldn't hold back and whispered, "Why are we heading this way?"
Ethan didn't look back — he kept his gaze low, placing each foot deliberately. His voice was steady and low. "Because the killer ants come from this direction."
Sarah froze, then hurried to Ethan's side, her voice tight with suppressed panic. "Are you out of your mind? That's suicide."
Ethan glanced at her, a faint half-smile at the corner of his mouth. "You're half right."
Sarah frowned. "What about the other half?"
"The clue to an exit is this way," Ethan replied, his tone calm but resolute. "These caves are labyrinthine — anyone who enters at random will get lost easily. But the ants use the same tunnel repeatedly. Their paths are the most likely routes to the outside."
Sarah fell silent for a moment, uneasy but unable to argue.
"And what if we run into them?" she lowered her voice, her eyes sweeping the dark walls.
Ethan was about to answer when a flicker of movement caught his peripheral vision. He snapped his hand up, pressing a finger to his lips, eyes fixed toward the right front.
There was an egg, trembling faintly in the dim light.
Sarah halted instantly, sinking into a crouch, muscles coiled, eyes locked on the egg.
The shell trembled violently, hairline cracks fanning out across its surface. A dull thud sounded from within. Then with a crack, a skull suddenly emerged from inside.
It was a human skull.
Ethan's eyes narrowed, his pupils contracting — that reddish-brown hair was familiar. "Lucas."
Lucas's face twisted in pain as he fought to pull himself free, his leg seemingly trapped. He looked up at Ethan and Sarah and lashed out in a quiet shout: "Watch out! There's something inside the egg!"
Before he even finished, Sarah lunged forward, her fist smashing into the shell. Shell fragments sprayed outward, and a white mass tumbled free. It was a newly hatched killer ant.
Its body was pure white; its forelimbs clamped down onto Lucas's calf like iron pincers. Jagged mandibles opened, ready to gnaw.
Sarah barely hesitated. Her second punch struck the ant's head with a sharp crack. Bone shattered. The creature's head caved inward and went limp.
Lucas went pale, inhaled deeply, then twisted his leg free from the pincers. He collapsed to the ground, gasping, and inspected his calf — only bruised, no broken skin — and exhaled in relief.
"Thank you for saving me… I'm Lucas." He struggled to his feet and offered a bow to Sarah.
Sarah, one foot pressed against the fallen ant's corpse, casually poked at its head and said without looking up, "You're welcome. Just call me Sarah."
Ethan approached, a hint of relief lighting his eyes. "Lucas. Fancy meeting you here."
Lucas's eyes brightened. "Ethan? What are you doing here?"
"This isn't coincidence," Ethan replied with a wry smile, gesturing at the corpse on the ground. "We're all part of the same mission. First, check your bracelet."
Lucas glanced at his wrist, reading the display. After a moment, he noticed the countdown in the top right corner: 21:26:37. He froze, whispering, "So that's… killer ants? And we have to escape this hellhole in such a short time?"
Ethan nodded, his expression calm.
"Do you have a plan?"
"We intend to explore that tunnel," Ethan said, pointing toward a dark passage not far away. "Want to come with us?"
Lucas stole a glance at the unremarkable forked path, swallowed hard, then nodded, "Okay."
The three of them resumed their march, Sarah in the middle, constantly scanning their surroundings. She asked sideways, "Did you know Ethan before this?"
Lucas nodded and said, "He saved my life during a train derailment."
Sarah looked at Ethan and thought, He's not as cold as he seems.
They stepped into the cave entrance. The passage soared nearly three meters overhead and spanned about two meters across. The air was frigid enough to chill bones. Bioluminescent fungi dotted the walls, casting a faint green glow — like countless alien eyes watching them.
Ethan crept along the wall, his footsteps nearly silent. Soon, they reached a fork in the tunnel—one passage veering left, the other right, each vanishing into darkness.
He halted and turned to them. "Which way do you think we should go?"
Lucas glanced down the left tunnel and then the right, looking puzzled. "They both look the same."
Sarah pointed firmly at the left. "This way."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Instinct," she replied crisply. "It's always been accurate."
Ethan gave a small smile. "Alright then. We'll trust your gut this time."
They stepped into the left tunnel. Deeper inside, the fungi grew denser, the glow intensifying. On the walls, furrowed gouges carved deep into the stone — as if clawed out by massive, unseen talons.
Suddenly, Ethan stopped and bent to inspect the floor — a human tibia lay there, shriveled and yellowed.
Lucas knelt down and asked softly, "Human bone?"
Ethan nodded gravely. "Yeah."
They pressed on, passing several more skeletal fragments. After about twenty minutes, they finally spotted a faint light ahead — the exit.
Ethan quickened his pace and stepped out—but within a heartbeat, he froze, slumping back against the wall, and motioned both to stay silent with a raised hand.
Lucas followed his lead, confused, and mimed, What's wrong?
Ethan slid aside to give him a view.
Lucas edged forward, gasping softly at the sight before him. He froze mid-breath, pressing fingers to his lips to hold back the instinctive scream.
Spread out before him was a macabre mountain of bones. Hundreds—perhaps thousands—of killer ants crawled over and through the skeletal mound. Luminous fungi clung to the bones, glowing an eerie green. The entire scene felt like the interior of a living corpse, more horrifying than any nightmare.
Lucas's eyes bulged; his breath hitched so violently he barely kept silent.
Sarah sensed something was off, stepped forward and peered in. Her jaw dropped.
With a quiet curse, she muttered, "…My instincts were right about how terrifying this would be."
Lucas lowered his voice and asked, "So what do we do now?"
Ethan didn't answer immediately. He fixed his eyes on the horrific queen before them, but also noticed something else — scattered weapons lying near the bone pile, including a gun.
They might have been left by others who came before. Now, those weapons could be their only hope.
Ethan furrowed his brow, weighing risks and advantages in a heartbeat.
A few seconds later, he made his decision: they had to get the weapons.
Traversing this nest empty handed was suicide. Yet the queen and her horde were on high alert, swarming the area. Any noise could trigger a catastrophic attack.
"How do we get there?" he wondered, mentally mapping possible paths: "We have to avoid detection—avoid their sight, their sense of smell, even the sound we make." Almost impossible.
But he knew they had no choice.
He turned slowly, voice barely audible but hard as steel: "The queen's area has the weapons. We can't walk out empty handed. So… we take them—quietly."