Chapter15: The Stone Egg: A Descent into the Unknown

The group drove for miles, eventually arriving at a remote mountain lodge. Strangely, there were no signs of disturbance anywhere; the area was eerily calm and peaceful, as though untouched by the outside world. When the car finally came to a stop, it suddenly jolted upwards, as if someone had just jumped out.

"Did you feel that?" May held her breath, her eyes darting around the car as the others exchanged uneasy glances.

They all nodded silently.

Jack frowned. "Do you think something from the crash site followed us?"

Bob responded quietly, "You felt it too? At first, the car sank down, and now that it's stopped, it's bounced back a little."

"Should we get out?" May's voice quivered with fear.

"Let's wait until it's brighter," Tom suggested, his tone calmer. "It's better to stay in the car for now. Besides, you don't think it's the green four-eyed monster you saw, do you?" He jokingly addressed Jack.

Lily chimed in, "Is this some kind of horror movie? I thought zombies were bad enough. Now we've got ghost monsters? Zombies are at least human, but if it's a ghost, we're pretty much screwed. We might as well just kill ourselves now."

"If it's a spirit, why not just kill us all at once?" Jack asked, confused.

"Maybe it's watching us first, waiting until we're no longer of use before it strikes," Tom theorized. "You should be fine, Jack. After all, you saved them."

Jack wasn't sure what to say. While there was definitely rivalry between different types of creatures, he wondered if doing good could backfire, potentially endangering him.

They waited until dawn before daring to leave the car. Bob walked to the back to check for any clues and found two deep grooves in the dirt, like marks left by sharp claws.

"Let's go inside and see if anyone's there, we could use a rest," Tom said, moving toward the door. He knocked but got no response, though the door was slightly ajar. Pushing it open, they found the interior cozy but empty.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed in the distance, coming from the direction of Peach Blossom Town. The sky lit up with bright flames—another explosion. It was slightly delayed, but unmistakable.

"Maybe the world's end will be explosions or death, but right now, the time we're spending together, the bond we're forming, feels so real. It's like a dream, but it's worth remembering," one of them mused.

The group spent the night there, scouring the area for food, then locking the doors and drawing the curtains for safety.

Jack hooked up the video recorder. The screen flickered to life. This might be the key to understanding everything—or perhaps the origin of the unknown horrors that awaited them.

The video was shot in first-person: "I'm the recorder for this transport mission. We've found a stone egg. We don't know what's inside, but the surface is like black crystal. Take a look." The creator of the video turned the camera toward the stone egg.

"That's the one we saw. It's huge!" Jack exclaimed in surprise.

"This stone egg fell from space into the Amazon basin. It's radioactive. Direct contact causes mutations, but the effects are unknown, so under orders from higher-ups, we're transporting it to a lab for analysis," the voice in the video continued calmly.

Suddenly, the camera jolted. Everyone in the car tensed, recognizing the shake from when they were filming on the plane.

The video continued: "The plane's been shaking like something is pressing on it. We're thinking it's just the weather, though it's unsettling."

The camera shook again, and a sharp claw slashed through the plane's ceiling. A scream rang out from the video, and the footage abruptly cut off, replaced by horrifying, panicked screams and blood splattering. A clawed hand passed in front of the camera.

"That looks like some kind of alien creature. The bloodbath... If something like that really landed on Earth, it would be like a tiger getting wings!" they whispered in horror.

"Are there more videos?" Jack asked, adjusting the footage. "Wait, here's another one!"

The timestamp showed this video was earlier: "About the stone egg, anyone who came into contact with it started vomiting green blood. The cause seems to be a virus we've never seen on Earth. One worker, Tony Sparrow, who was among the first to transport it, has mysteriously disappeared. No one's heard from him since the military took over. There's no record of his death either—he just vanished. He could be immune, but we don't know how many others might be like him."

"Immune?" The group gasped in unison.

"Those who touched the egg have split into two groups: one that's showing symptoms of mutation—probably turning into zombies—and the other that's showing no symptoms at all." The video continued.

Lily stared at the screen. "Does this egg… does it mean something will hatch from it?"

"Maybe those flying creatures we saw earlier are the parents of the stone egg. Since the egg was cracked open, it's likely the parents are here to reclaim it. They must have killed everyone on the plane when they saw it was taken," Jack said, piecing the details together.

"So, there are four types of beings on Earth now," Bob summarized. "Aliens, aliens in captivity, regular mutants, and advanced mutants."

"Don't forget us regular humans," Tom added with a grin.

Bob sighed, "Honestly, among all of us, my fighting skills would rank about fourth."

"Thanks, we'd be fifth," the others chorused.

May sat on the couch, her voice low and troubled. "I'm starting to doubt we'll make it out of here alive. This is a survival battle, and we can't predict if humanity will return to a primitive state under this pressure—people eating people. Civilization might be gone."

"So, what's our next move?" Bob asked, his expression tense.