Wayang Kulit

We hurriedly left, trying to catch up to Kurnawan.

But he was fast; we had lost sight of him.

I tried looking at the leaves and soil on the ground for his track.

Nothing.

Kurnawan's years of jungle experience were evident.

We then came upon a Y junction in the trail.

"Bobby, check over there," I whispered, pointing to a small trail on the left.

Bobby nodded and went on his way.

I carried on, taking the trail to the right.

After a few meters, I heard rustling of bushes ahead.

I hastened my pace, trying to keep up.

When I got close to the bushes, they swayed vigorously.

Crouching down, I slowly got nearer and nearer to the bush.

Suddenly, a monkey jumped out right at me.

I stumbled back, nearly cursing out loud with the jump scare.

My heart was pumping fast, so forceful that I could feel every throb all over my body.

After that, the adrenaline rush kicked in; I could faintly hear some voices further ahead.

I composed myself by taking a few deep breaths.

When I felt better, I crouched and got near the voices.

Seeing that there was a huge tree trunk, I took cover behind it and peered ahead.

To my surprise, it was Clement and his party.

The bastard was able to somehow track us.

It didn't take me long to know the answer; standing right there was Kurnawan.

I felt tingles on my skin; hair on my arms stood up.

Chills went down my spine.

It was my first taste of betrayal.

All the stories I'd read and heard still didn't prepare me for this.

Crystal Siti, sitting down with her legs crossed, had one of her crystals tied to a string.

She was letting it twirl around freely while holding the string.

Initially, it twirled around in a circular motion.

Slowly, it began to swing in a particular direction.

Finally, it settled on the direction, which was pointing at me.

Crystal Siti stared in my direction, pointed at the tree trunk, and shouted: "There's someone there!"

All of them stood up and came at me.

I wasted no time, turned around and ran.

Shouting at the top of my lungs, "Everybody run. Clement is behind me! They are here!"

There were twigs coming at my face; I didn't waste any time swiping them away.

"Bang! Bang!"

Shots rang out, and I could hear the bullets whizzing by.

As I got close to our resting area, I tripped on a tree root.

With the force of my velocity, I tumbled forward.

When I came to a stop, I opened my eyes and saw the canopy of the forest.

Then Amy Lee's head popped into the picture, followed by the rest of the team.

They pulled me back up.

We quickly took cover behind the tree trunks.

Amy Lee and Sea Snake Fang fired back in Clement's team's direction.

After a while, the gunfire faded; we scanned intensely at the trees and bushes.

It was quiet; no one approached.

They didn't want a showdown, choosing to disappear into the forest instead.

They wanted to slowly grind us down.

"Let's move; we can't stay put. Best to put distance between us," I said as I picked up my backpack.

Everyone agreed; we wasted no time and moved on.

…

"Susurrus"

Sounds of rustling emerged in front of us.

Amy Lee raised her hand, signaling us to stop.

We searched for cover and hid behind it.

I lost count of how many times we did this.

It physically and mentally exhausted us.

The hot and humid air made every breath a chore.

And now, we were drenched with sweat and feeling uncomfortable.

Bobby, who was beside me, clenched his fist, grumbled and said, "Damn it. I can't take this anymore; I'd rather fight them than go through this torture."

I motioned for him to calm down.

Took out my water bottle and drank a mouthful.

He took my cue, did the same thing, gave out a huge sigh after relinquishing his thirst, and dousing out his anger.

Firecracker Tan shook his head, took out his phone, I presumed to look at his family photo, to keep himself sane and calm.

Sea Snake Fang scanned the trees carefully for any sight of them.

Finally, the coast was clear.

Amy Lee waved for us to carry on.

Their strategy worked.

Any little movement or noises encountered, we stopped to check if it was them.

In the first hour or so, we could still take the mental pressure.

However, as we moved on, we slowly felt the fatigue and tensing up of our muscles.

Mentally we felt like we had screws slowly tightening in our heads, making us short-tempered and hyper-anxious.

There was no way we could stay sane until we reached our destination.

We had to do something because when nighttime comes it's going to get worse.

As I trudged on, I thought to myself, what would Shifu do in this situation.

His voice then echoed in my mind, "Stay calm, think of the chessboard, who are the chess pieces on the board. What are the possible moves you can take?"

I let my mind wander off, going through all the different scenarios of how to get rid of Clement and his party.

Betrayal and backstabbing—how could someone who had been working with me suddenly decide to kill everyone for the sake of more money?

The thought kept repeating in my mind.

It then struck me; I too could play the same game.

The most cunning predator often disguises itself as prey.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

I went up to all the others, briefed them on my plan in a whisper.

Everyone was in on the plan.

Soon, it was nightfall.

The fatigue together with the low visibility forced us to stop and set up camp.

I collected twigs and leaves lying all over the ground, gathered them into a pile, then lit them on fire.

"Crack."

Crackling sounds came out of the campfire as we huddled around it.

Our shadows swayed in the backdrop of trees like a Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppetry) show.

Amy Lee turned in my direction, stared at me, and asked: "Sam, you were close to Kurnawan?"