Sand Dunes (2)

"A-are those hands?"

Rose was not sure if it was curiosity, nervousness, or excitement that led her to take a peek, but as soon as she heard Mark's question, she did. She immediately went behind the front seats where she could see from several houses away, where the road just started going downwards, that there were hands rising from the ground.

Err, no. Rose couldn't see it clearly because of dust and sand flying in the air, but those hands didn't look like people. It is something else, something with hands is rising up on the road.

"Are those people?"

"I don't think so, something seems wrong."

Mark was right about something. Those were indeed people, and they were very much alive just a month ago. Although the same couldn't be said today.

Something very wrong happened between last month and today, and that something could be somewhat horrible.

Lieutenant Mickey's good eyesight immediately noticed what Mark hadn't. There were seven hands, so if one was a cripple, then there should be four people raising their hands. Yet the hands rising didn't look right.

Yeah, for some reason the hands were all the left arms of a person, none of them were right arms. An arm's hands will always point its thumb either to the left or to the right. And knowing whether it is a left arm or a right arm comes from knowing which direction the thumb is pointing at.

Having worked in the military for a long time, you start getting used to death. And the more dead bodies you carry, the more things you notice about them. Knowing whether it's a left hand or a right one was one of the things Lieutenant Mickey noticed.

And as soon as Lieutenant Mickey saw the hands from afar, he immediately stopped the multicab truck. The tires running along the sandy road immediately slowed down before it completely stopped.

He had seen this sight in front of him before. In fact, it was just a little while ago when he had to immediately turn the truck he was driving around to escape.

It was an existence. Another existence.

And soon, all of them saw it.

It was unlike the red blob of blood that they saw before. This one was a mix of red and brown. Blood and…

"Sand?"

It was Rose this time, but she was quickly followed by a loud shout.

A mixture of blood and sand with arms sticking out of it. This existence is a Collector, born from all the blood that the Herders didn't drink and collected the body parts that the Herders didn't eat.

Unlike the one Rando encountered, this particular Collector was wasn't made with sewer water, but with sand. It didn't look like a blob of slime, but a small hill sand. A hill of red sand with arms sticking out of it.

"What the fuck is this supernatural shit!?"

Lieutenant Mickey screamed in frustration as soon as he saw the Collector before immediately turning the truck around and driving away immediately.

They already got quite far inside Malagamot Road, and if that Existence's speed was even close to the other Existence they just encountered, they probably wouldn't survive.

They didn't have enough grenades. Even after five direct grenade explosions, the Slime Collector still tried to stand up. If this one is even remotely the same, then they're doomed.

Lieutenant Mickey's group is already panicking, but unlike before, the Collector this time is still quite far away and not directly in their face.

Even Mark was still able to think.

"G-grenades!"

But Rose had a much scary thought.

"That's not the same monster, is it?"

"What the fuck, don't jinx us!"

Mark immediately retorted.

If it was the same Collector, then its speed alone is already bad news for Lieutenant Mickey's group. And if it was the same Existence, then there was a big chance that their door would be ripped out, considering it tore apart Rando's leather jacket easily.

Of course, Lieutenant Mickey's group didn't know that last point, but that isn't the problem right now.

Anthony suddenly spoke.

"No, it isn't."

This Collector is not the same Existence they just encountered. He sounded very sure in his words that you would believe in him if you didn't know him. The way he sounded was as if he knew the Existence completely and was very sure that there was no way this Collector was the same as the last one.

But the thing is, Lieutenant Mickey's group all know him. They also know what Anthony should also know about the Existences as they were together the whole time. He was a new recruit, just like Mark and Rose, and this is their second encounter with an existence just like them.

'How does he know?'

How he is sure about that existence not being the same as the one before is something to be doubted upon, but that's not the issue at the moment.

"Let's hope you're right."

Lieutenant Mickey said before increasing the speed of the truck. He glanced at the rear facing car seat mirror to look at the collector they just saw.

And he saw that it was standing still, as if to await their arrival. It didn't seem to want move at all. In fact, it was even waving at them.

Why was it waving at Lieutenant Mickey's group?

Rose and Anthony who were inside the back of the truck saw this, too. Rose was especially bewildered at the sight of the Existence waiving its hands at them.

Anthony then started to talk.

"I… I think we can pass through that existence."

After hearing that, Mark hurriedly shouted back.

"What are you talking about!? Did you forget how scary the last one looked and acted? If that one was any faster, you wouldn't have been able to throw the grenades fast enough!"

He doesn't want to experience the horror of his first encounter against an Existence ever again. And it looks like Rose doesn't want to, too.

Rose looked at Anthony with a confused expression, while Lieutenant Mickey just continued to drive, seemingly having no thoughts of going back to pass through that monster.

Anthony expected this and continued to explain.

"I mean, it's not moving after all."

That was a good reason, but it sounded like naive thinking.

At this point, Lieutenant Mickey could just choose to drive back to their base using another road and explain to Captain Soles that they were attacked by a monster different from what they encountered last time. He could also just use another, safer path to get to Rando than to pass through the Collector they just encountered.

'There was no need to risk it and pass through that monster, it might suddenly attack us.'

And by then it would probably be too late.

Mark, who didn't know about the Collector standing and waving yet, tried to peek outside the window. But before he could even open the window, Anthony suddenly warned him.

"Don't! Don't open the windows!"

Mark grew nervous as he heard that and his hands immediately stopped.

This was the second time Anthony warned everybody to not open the windows.

They were already quite far from the collector, and Mark didn't understand why Anthony was saying this and now suddenly had the balls to complain.

"It's just a little bit of dust, man, I can hold my breath for a few seconds."

Mark sounded as if he really just wanted to see the collector.

Lieutenant Mickey heard this and stopped Mark from doing anything stupid.

"Just look at the damn mirror."

Lieutenant Mickey said as he took his right hand off the steering wheel and pulled Mark's arm with it. He was skilled enough to drive with just one hand and use the other hand for something else. In this case, it's holding down his junior's arm. But that was when he noticed something wrong.

Mark's uniform is wet, really really wet. He looked at Mark's face and saw that he was also sweating beads. He looked at the rear view mirror and saw that his other junior's were also sweating.

And he also realized that he was sweating.

Something was wrong.

Lieutenant Mickey looked at the sky outside the truck as he drove.

It was the same as before.

Grey clouds shaded the roads, the leaves and the tree tops were dancing in the air, and the cool breeze could be heard from outside.

But,

"Why is it so hot?"