He stood and turned to the others. "We go back to camp. Now. No one splits up. We stay together."
There were no arguments. They walked in silence, a tight group moving through the trees like a single living thing. Even the birds had gone quiet again. Not a single chirp, no rustling in the underbrush. Just the steady crunch of their footsteps on the forest floor and the low beat of something beneath it all.
Back in camp, Jude gathered them around the fire pit. The sun had risen fully now, but it felt muted, filtered through a sky that looked too pale. Like the color had been washed from it.
"I think we've been too quiet about this," he said. "We keep experiencing things we can't explain, and we're trying to treat them like they'll pass if we ignore them. But they're getting stronger. More coordinated. We need to face whatever's happening, together."
