text: First parts can be read here, Part 5, Please Enjoy, feel free to critique. The more input the better. I had to late post, work has taken up a lot of my time. Thank you to whatever loyal readers I have, I promise I'm always trying to improve. \ I stood in the woods watching the wildlife around me. Stark was behind me with the rifle I had assembled for her, slung over her shoulder. Fenrir was at my left side, off maybe fifteen or twenty feet keeping pace with me. I could hear Stark huffing and puffing behind me as we paused to listen and watch. We had been out all yesterday and today, finding that we were near the top of the hill. I had seen what was east, so I went West yesterday and now I was going north. I had decided we could snag that second cache today and bring it back as well knocking two birds out with one stone. We continued on our course for another hour, keeping quiet. We had not spoken much and I wasn’t sure if this was my doing because I was quiet. Or if there just wasn’t a topic between the two of us that could be brought up. I had the shotgun cradled in my arms as I walked and I could hear Stark’s heavy feet behind me. Deep inside I was growing annoyed with her clumsy movements out here. “Could we take a break please?” she asked me out of breath. I turned back facing her as I stopped. “Now?” I asked. “Please?” she nodded. “Are you fucking kidding?” I grumbled. I took a knee and sighed as she sat on a large rock. She set the rifle aside and I could hear her noisily undoing the hook on her camelback. She drank loudly and every single noise was like crashing glass to my ears. “Is something bothering you?” she asked me bluntly. I turned my head looking at her out of the corner of my eye and I really thought about what I should say. “You are the noisiest person on patrol,” I said to her just as bluntly. “We aren't in combat, the enemy isn’t lurking around the next tree,” she said to me returning the annoyed tone. I stayed quiet not wanting to argue over the matter. She was right, but I belonged to a much different profession despite our military link. “You’re struggling to keep up at a normal pace, should I leave you behind next time?” I snapped. *That came out much more rude than I meant*. I thought to myself. “Look buddy, I’m not some grunt. I’m not attached to a groundside unit. My only postings have been aboard ships as a receiving triage technician. I have literally never set foot groundside in a combat role. Dick,” she said to me. I cringed as I had now realized just how rude I was being. I had not really thought about that, I was used to rucking with a hundred pounds of junk on my back, 20 miles or more a day, patrolling long hours into night and morning. Sleeping for only a few hours and sustaining off of minimal food. I was expecting a person whose job was to dwell on a ship, to keep up with me. I tried to give my attitude a one eighty and I turned to face her better. “I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I will slow my pace,” “Mmm,” she replied but I could see the annoyance in her face. “Ready,” she said, ignoring my apology and standing up. I rose to my feet and continued on my course but making an effort to take smaller and slower steps. We walked in silence again but I could tell she was struggling less to keep up and she wasn’t gasping for air anymore. I felt something in my throat as I was exerting myself. This whole trip I had been clearing my throat and finally I had enough and was able to cough. It was wet and thick like the end of a bad cold. I hacked up a thick bitter mucus and spat it out. It hit the ground and I looked down to see a wet chunk of thick black. I cringed. “Did you just spit that up?” Stark asked me. “Uh... yeah,” I said to her as we both stared at it. “You said you inhaled those spores?” she asked. I nodded, “did that hurt?” “No,” I admitted. Before she could say anything I shrugged, “let’s just keep moving, I’ll let you know if it gets worse,” I said burying my fear. The deep inner fear that there was a mushroom farm growing in my lungs. She didn’t protest only following me. As we traveled through the woods, I looked up and in the near distance I could make out what almost looked like a mountain. It stretched high above to tree tops and I could clearly see it rose almost at a right angle at its face. I stopped and tried to get a better look in the dim light. I could tell that the top of this formation was a ridge and probably a relatively flat surface. “What is that?” Stark asked. “It looks like a monadnock,” I said back to her absent-mindedly. “A what?” she asked. “It’s like a...” I thought about it. “Like a small mountain where mountains don’t normally form. This one is huge though,” I said to her trying to explain. “Oh,” she said as she took a deep breath. I could tell she was winded. “We should go look at it,” I said. “Like climb it?” she asked. I shook my head in reply. “No, it would be too windy on top and too much exposure to weather, I don’t see any tree cover or anything up there,” I said. We continued our slow pace until the ground began to slope. As we approached the base of the mountain the sloping would get too steep to comfortably continue, I noticed a large dark alcove about the size of a large grown man. I approached the dark hole and pulled out a small flashlight. I shined the bright LED light into the entrance seeing that this was a cave. It looked like the rocks over the top of the cave jutted out and created a sort of rooftop. The water drained directly down and pooled at the mouth of the entrance. I stepped into the entrance about half a foot and checked the inside. It consisted of a large chamber and I could feel a draft coming into the opening. The ceiling looked like it gently arched overhead, and the footing looked to be solid rock. The back of the chamber veered off the the right and I could see that I could fit probably ten people comfortably inside of this chamber. I could hear the soft click of Fenrir’s paws as he stepped into the cave and I eased slightly seeing that he was comfortable with this setting. I stepped in further and headed to the back of the cave. I could see that it opened into a smaller chamber. This smaller room led off to the right more, and as I followed this around I could see that it led to a third even smaller chamber that was the size of a large closet or bathroom. I realized that there was light in this room, and I could see a hole about the size of a basketball in the ceiling. I looked back and realized we had walked on a downslope and we were under ground level here. “Corporal?” I heard Stark called to me. The echo spooked me slightly, surprising me. “HM3!” I called back sarcastically. I pat my leg for Fenrir and I walked back up the slope to the main chamber. I could see Stark had set her pack down and she was sitting with her back to the wall. She had her head back and her eyes closed. She looked to me without moving her head and closed them again. “Why did we come in here?” she asked. I thought about it, looked back and forth at the walls and the entryway. I looked back to her and could see Stark was staring at me now waiting for an answer. “We should move,” I said. She scoffed for a moment before realizing I was being serious. “What? When?” she asked. “Now?” I replied. “Why wait? We are already here. This place is more defensible, it has solid walls, we can close the entrance, and I can rest easy knowing that the hyenabear can’t sneak up on me in my sleep,” I said. “Hyenabear?” she asked sarcastically before realizing what I meant. “Damn, that's a good one,” “Yeah, wish you woulda’ thought that one up first, don’t you?” I chuckled at my lonely joke. “Just upack what you have, I will go back and grab the other stuff I can, I will be quicker and I have the map,” I said waving my arm left and right with the PDA on it. I was lucky that we had only been walking a few hours, I was able to half that time alone. I made Fenrir stay at the cave and I went back to camp. I packed my main pack, my assault pack and a jump bag with the contents of my drop pod that I could take. It was heavy but I knew that I was capable of carrying it. I stacked the med box and the cache I had and I began my trek back to our little cave. It was an uneventful trip to and from the pod, aside from hacking up more black gunk. I had decided to not scuttle the pod with a grenade to the interior. I decided it could serve as a small last bastion now that I knew even something as big as a bear can’t get into those. I locked the door with my key pad and shut down any power to save the battery. I made my way back to the cave after packing our stuff up. When I came back in I found Fenrir seated outside the cave on a large rock, with Stark standing at the entrance. I set the stuff down on a dry spot of stone and I looked at the two in confusion. Stark was leaning on another rock with her head tilted back. She looked at me and sighed. “I don't want to sound like a girl, but I saw something in there and I don’t want to go back in until its dead,” she said simply. “Really? I left you with a fuckin’ rifle and I have to be to the one to go smash the spider?” I growled in annoyance. She chuckled sarcastically as I stormed into the cave in frustration. My anger immediately dissipated when before me I saw the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. It was a dark gray and looked like it was a rock at first. It was the size of a softball, with twelve large thick legs, six at each side. It resembled a scorpion in body type, with a small short tail but it didn’t wrap over the top like a typical scorpion. The front also lacked the large pincers, instead bearing two large needle looking arms. It sat still and I seriously debated how to kill this thing. I shined my light on it and the large creature skittered backwards. I realized that the light had scared it. I thought about stepping on it, but the small fear of it brushing off a boot stomp only to stab me or retaliate kept me from doing that. I made a small but important decision, I would shoot it. I withdrew my sidearm and stepped back to the mouth of the cave. Putting aside all safety knowing that shooting a firearm at a rock face was probably on the top ten stupidest things to do with a gun, the risk was worth the reward to destroy this monster. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The round shot true and I observed the small critter jerk suddenly as the bullet passed through it. The oversized bug took a few steps and then laid in place twitching. The pop made my ears ring and I could hear Fenrir barking at me from outside. I stepped in further and knelt down looking at the bug. The bullet had made a clean neat little hole with minor fracturing around the entry point, but the bottom of the bug had burst apart and there was catastrophic damage to the internal organs. I had seen that I had made a good choice as I could tell now, the carapace on this bug was thick enough it probably would have survived the initial boot stomp. I holstered my weapon and heard Stark enter the Cave now. “Seriously?” she said sounding irritated. “I got scared,” I said looking back at her. I could see a smirk crack at the corner of her mouth and she struggled to tell if I was joking or not. I kept a serious blank stare before turning back to the bug and debating how to remove the carcass. I decided I would just build a fire and burn it. In a matter of thirty minutes I had a neat little semi circle of large stones against the flattest part of the wall with the highest portion of ceiling to vent to smoke. I had a pile of wood that was beginning to really catch flame and next to this was a semi large pile of wood that was going to dry as the fire burned. I then searched every nook and cranny I could with my light to root out anymore of those massive bugs, but I found none. I scooped the body into the fire as it burned away and I heard the fatty tissue inside the chitinous mass sizzle and crackle. It smelled like burning fat, and it was not a pleasant smell, but nothing strong enough to clear out the cave by any means. I watched as the shell began to blacken but as the fire burned, it never truly was destroyed. As I sat with my back against my pack I took in this cave. Smoke rolled across the ceiling and out of the entrance, barely visible as the fire burned hotter. I could see that the cave entrance did have a small pool of water formed that we stepped through to get in. It was ankle deep and I debated a way to redirect that runoff into a container. As my mind wandered I withdrew a small pouch of electrolyte powder, flavored orange, and I dumped it into a cup of steaming water, I used a foldable knife in my pocket to stir the mixture and set it on a flatter rock by the fire to keep it warm. *Mmmm orange,* I told myself sarcastically. I sat back again and began to let my head wander once more. I had stashed the two crates near the second chamber and I began to debate my next move. I would need to start recovering equipment to find some comms gear to rig up and send out a message. I could get a message far, and it would hit life boat computers, drop pods, and PDA’s. I could get people to come here and although we may struggle a bit for food or water, and maybe space, we would be safe in numbers. I placed my head in my hands and leaned forwards feeling tired from all of this stress. I coughed again and didn’t have to work hard at getting the mucus out of my throat, I spat it off into the flames. I sighed and rest my head back into my hands. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see that Stark had noticed my mild distress. She gave a gentle squeeze and let go with a smirk. “Glad I’m here Corporal,” she said. I nodded and gave a half hearted smile back. “Im happy you found me,” I replied. There was a brief silence before I looked back at the fire. “Ivan, by the way,” I said to her softly. I watched the dancing flames, taking a small log the size of my wrist and tossing it on the fire. A shower of sparks soared towards the ceiling and quickly died as they hit the stone. “Natasha” she replied. I heard Fenrir sigh heavily and looked over to see him staring at me from the doorway, lying on his stomach, head resting between his front paws. I held out a hand and he wagged his tail briefly before approaching me. I pet him on his head and scratched his ears. “Where did he come from?” she asked. “I don’t know, he found me. Like you,” I said to her. “He was in the woods when I got here. It took a couple days, but he warmed up to me, and I him,” I said as I scratched him under the chin. I stopped and Fenrir laid next to me sighing again. “That’s fast for a wild animal,” she said. I nodded absentmindedly. She was right, domestication not being an overnight thing. I took note of it but pressed the thought to the back of my mind. As I thought the day was winding down and we should be getting settled for the evening I heard the sound of a large animal outside. A breathy growl followed by the sputtering I would recognize from a horse. Natasha and I looked at each other. I snatched up the shotgun and flicked the safety off. She had drawn the rifle from the leaning position against the wall. Fenrir stood and went to the doorway standing just out of the last of the daylight cast inside. I edged to the door as the growl came again. I feared another visit from Hyneabear and friends, but as I came around the corner I could start to see that this was not that. I could see from around the wall, a large four legged animal. It was clearly a beast of burden, on it, was a very plain looking dark brown contraption that was strapped around it. *Is that a saddle?* I asked myself as I stared at it. There was no rider that I could see and I began to feel the gears turn in overtime as I tried to process this info. I could see that there were very vibrant blue marks on the animal’s hindquarters. I observed how the animal had a similar build to an earth horse. It’s snout was elongated but it’s eyes were more forward and it’s mouth was flatter and wider. The muscles were larger, and it’s whole frame was wider, almost build like a gigantic pitbull dog without the bark, teeth and claws. “What is it?” Natasha asked. I looked back at her dumbfounded. “Uh...” I responded. “Well?” she asked again. “A horse,” I said without a better word for the animal outside.