heavenward | n.scatorccio

The mountainous terrain stretched out in all directions, the rough peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains silhouetted against a bruised blue sky. The air was cool but thick, carrying a sense of soggy deterioration that stuck to their skin like a warning. The group walked single file along a rocky trail, the ground uneven with loose stones and tangled roots.

Natalie led the way, moving with a controlled grace, her crossbow slung over her shoulder. Behind her, Julianna followed, her machete in hand, its serrated edge glinting faintly in the fading light. Misty came next, her fire axe resting awkwardly across her arms like a child carrying a favorite toy. Javi trudged along, silent and tired, while Shauna kept a watchful eye on the younger boy. Jeff walked near the back, his baseball bat propped against his shoulder, while Jackie and Lottie lingered, whispering occasionally, though their voices carried an edge of unease.

The air shifted as they descended further, growing heavier with each step.

It wasn't just the natural density of the mountain air-it was condensed, like wading through unseen tar. Julianna inhaled sharply and coughed, her throat raw as if she'd swallowed sandpaper.

The others began to slow behind her.

"Does anyone else feel.. off?" Jackie asked, her voice strained as she rubbed her arms.

"Yeah," Natalie muttered, her jaw tightening. "Feels like we're walking into a swamp or something."

"It's the altitude," Misty chimed in, though her words lacked conviction. "You know, thinner air, oxygen depletion."

"Uh, this isn't altitude," Shauna said, scowling. "It feels...unnatural."

They pressed on, their unease growing with each step. Then, Natalie saw it—or at least, she thought she did. A lump of something in the middle of the trail, hunched and crumpled like discarded trash. She stopped, holding up a hand to stop the others. The thing shifted, and her breath hitched.

"What is it?" Julianna whispered, moving beside her.

"I can't tell," Natalie shook her head.

The thing unfurled slowly, like some grotesque flower blooming in reverse. A skeletal figure dragged itself upright, its limbs thin and brittle-looking, its skin barely clinging to its frame. The faint light revealed its mummified flesh-patches of exposed muscle and bone, gray and green with decay. Its face was a horror: hollow, sunken eyes clouded with milky film, its mouth hanging open in a silent scream. Skin flaked from its body like ash with each shambling movement, and as it shifted, a faint mist began to rise from its form.

The smell hit them first-a gut-punch of rot and sickness that made the group recoil. Julianna fought the urge to gag, covering her nose with her sleeve. The others weren't so lucky. Misty stumbled back, coughing violently, while Jeff let out a sharp curse.

"What the fuck is that?" Shauna hissed, clutching her shotgun.

The creature turned toward them, its movements slow but deliberate. With each step, the toxic cloud around it thickened, swirling in eerie patterns.

The air felt suffocating now, dense and stifling, like breathing through wool soaked in bile.

Natalie raised her crossbow, her hands steady despite her pale face. "I'll take it out," she muttered, aiming for the head.

"Wait," Julianna said, grabbing her arm. "We don't know what it'll do."

"We don't know what it'll do if we don't try kill it," Natalie raised her eyebrows, yanking her arm free.

Before anyone could stop her, she fired.

The bolt struck the creature square in the skull with a wet crunch, but it barely flinched. Instead, it released a low, guttural sound-a rasping groan that made their skin crawl-and another wave of mist erupted from its body, spreading rapidly.

"Shit!" Natalie cursed, reloading.

"Move back!" Julianna shouted, her voice cracking as she pushed Misty and Javi away from the cloud, the mist enveloping her.

The creature advanced, slow but relentless, its bare feet dragging across the rocky ground. Jackie's scream tore through the air as the mist swathed her arm, and instantly, her skin boiled.

It bubbled up in thick, swollen blisters, the flesh turning pale and slick with searing, oozing fluid. Her arm quivered, the blisters popping one by one, releasing a sickening, sharp stench as if the very air was rotting her from the inside out. She stumbled back, clutching her arm as the disgusting, charred skin dripped in grotesque rivulets, her stomach lurching at the revolting sight of it.

"It burns!" Jackie wailed, her voice raw with the sharp, frantic edge of panic. Her breath came in shallow gasps, her eyes wide with horror as the pain radiated up her arm like fire lapping at her skin.

"Jackie!" Shauna shouted, her heart hammering as she tore her away from the mist's swaddle, the heat still searing in the air around them. Julianna ran over to them, her face a grim mask as she tried to examine the grotesque damage on Jackie's arm, her fingers trembling as they hovered over the blistered, pulsing skin that oozed and crackled with sickening heat.

"Don't let it touch you!" Julianna yelled, panic surging through her.

Natalie fired again, this time hitting the creature's shoulder. Another sickening moan escaped its throat, but it didn't stop. Jeff swung his bat, the impact knocking it back a step but doing little else.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Misty shrieked, clutching her axe but for once, too scared to swing.

The mist was everywhere now, clinging to their skin, filling their lungs. Julianna coughed violently, the texture of the gas thick and gritty, but it didn't blister her like it had Jackie. She didn't have time to think about why.

"Get back! Just get back!" she screamed, grabbing Javi and pulling him away from the advancing creature.

Shauna raised her shotgun and fired, the blast echoing through the mountains. The creature's head snapped back, bits of its skull flying off, but it still didn't fall. Another step, another cloud of spores.

Natalie aimed again, her hands shaking now. "How the fuck is it still moving?!"

"Go for the head!" Julianna shouted, though her voice trembled with uncertainty.

Natalie's next arrow hit the creature in the torso, and it staggered, the impact finally seeming to slow it. Shauna fired again, this time hitting it in the side, and the creature collapsed to the ground with a grotesque squelch.

But even then, it twitched, its hands clawing at the dirt as if trying to pull itself forward. Misty finally found her nerve, rushing forward and bringing her axe down hard on its head. The swollen skull split open with a crack, and the creature fell still.

The group stood in stunned silence, their breathing ragged. The mist hung in the air like a suffocating shroud, thick and tyrannous, curling around their limbs as if unwilling to release its grip. But as the creature's body lay still, crumpled and lifeless, the haze began to dissipate, sluggishly unraveling into the air like a dying breath. The odorous scent of death muffled the clean air, seeping into every pore, leaving the taste of mould on their tongues.

"Oh my god—what was that!?" Lottie whispered, her voice barely audible.

"I don't know," Julianna said, wiping sweat from her brow. Her hands were trembling, her mind racing. "But we need to stay away from them."

Jackie whimpered, cradling her burned arm as Jeff tried to soothe her. Misty leaned on her axe, her face pale and drawn.

Natalie glanced at Julianna, her expression unreadable. "I'm guessing it's a third type," she said simply. "Another mutant."

"Great," Jeff muttered. "As if the first two weren't bad enough."

The group started to move again, Julianna taking one last glance at the ruined corpse before following.

The mountains stood like dying titans, their jagged silhouettes barely cutting through the thickening gloom. A biting frost clawed at the air, sharp and relentless, each breath like inhaling shards of ice. The cold wasn't just a temperature, it was an ancient ache, a hollow emptiness that crept under the skin, making the blood freeze in your veins. The earth itself seemed to shiver, the wind scraping against their faces like cold fingers, each gust carrying the promise of something even more dreadful.

The path ahead was steep, tangled with roots and loose stones that made their every step feel like a gamble. The forest loomed close on either side, the trees clawing upward toward the fading light. Julianna walked near the back, her machete gripped tightly in one hand, her other intertwined with Javi's smaller fingers. He stayed close, his head low, as though the shadow of the recent encounter still clung to him.

Natalie was beside her, quiet, but her presence was consoling. Julianna could feel the occasional brush of Natalie's arm against her own as they walked, the now familiar contact settling the frayed edges of her nerves.

Up ahead, Jeff was talking loudly, his voice carrying over the crunch of boots against dirt. He was walking backward, addressing everyone as though trying to distract them from the things they had witnessed the past few weeks.

"Look, we've got to name that thing," Jeff said, gesturing animatedly with his bat. "I mean, we've got runners and mimics, right? We can't just call it 'that gross-ass thing.'"

"Can we call it the 'gross-ass thing'?" Jackie snapped from where she was walking, clutching her blistered arm. "Because my arm feels like it got dipped in acid."

"Jackie, stop whining," Shauna said, her voice sharp but not unkind. She was walking beside Jackie, her shotgun slung across her back, her eyes flicking over Jackie's face like she was cataloging every flicker of discomfort.

Julianna caught the way Shauna looked at Jackie—a mixture of exasperation, care, and something quieter, something deeper. Shauna's gaze lingered, her lips pressed into a tight line, and Julianna felt like she was intruding on something unspoken. She averted her eyes, her stomach twisting with secondhand guilt.

"It was acid," Misty chimed in from a few steps ahead, shuffling through her medical kit with single-minded determination. She stopped suddenly, holding up a tiny, half-used tube of burn cream like it was a prize. "Aha! Found it. Jackie, sit down. Let Nurse Misty work her magic."

So she felt better.

"Oh, great," Jackie muttered, rolling her eyes but lowering herself onto a nearby rock. "If I die of an infection, it's on you."

"You're not going to die," Lottie said softly, crouching next to Jackie. Her voice was calm, lilting, the way you'd talk to a spooked animal. "Just breathe, okay? You're fine."

Julianna watched Lottie gently place a hand on Jackie's uninjured shoulder, whispering something Julianna couldn't hear. Jackie's shoulders relaxed, her scowl softening slightly, though she kept her arm protectively close. Julianna couldn't help but admire how effortlessly Lottie seemed to diffuse tension, how her presence could smooth over even the sharpest edges.

Meanwhile, Jeff was still talking, oblivious to the dynamics unfolding behind him. "So, what about 'gasbags'? Huh? Not bad, right? It's descriptive."

"Too boring," Natalie said, her voice low but firm. She shifted the crossbow on her shoulder, her eyes scanning the trees like she expected something else to come crawling out of the mountains. "It needs to be... I don't know. More disgusting. Like what it actually is."

"What it actually is," Misty said, smearing the burn cream over Jackie's arm with clinical efficiency, "is a marvel of evolutionary biology. Did you see the spore dispersion? It's brilliant. Like a walking mycelial network. Fascinating."

"Misty," Shauna said flatly, "nobody cares."

"I care," Misty shot back, glaring up from her task. "If we don't understand these things, how are we supposed to survive them?"

"We're not surviving them by admiring them and giving them pet names," Shauna muttered, crossing her arms.

"It's not a pet name!" Jeff said, exasperated. "It's branding. Think about it: if we ever find another group, they'll know exactly what we're talking about when we say, 'Hey, watch out for the—'"

"Bloomers," Javi said suddenly, his voice small but clear.

Everyone turned to look at him. Julianna squeezed his hand gently, glancing down at him. "Bloomers?" she asked softly.

He nodded, staring at the ground. "Because of the... the way they bloom. With the mist."

There was a brief silence before Natalie nodded. "Bloomers," she said, testing the word. "Yeah. That fits."

"It does sound better than 'gross-ass thing,'" Lottie added with a faint smile.

"Fine," Jeff said, throwing his hands up. "Bloomers it is."

Jackie groaned as Misty applied more cream to her arm. "Can we just agree that whatever it's called, it's the worst thing we've come across so far?"

"Oh, definitely," Shauna said, her voice dry. "By far."

"Agreed," Natalie muttered, rubbing at her throat like she could still feel the gas clawing its way through her lungs.

They started walking again, the group falling into a loose line. Jackie was quieter now, though she still grumbled under her breath, occasionally shooting Misty a glare for no reason. Lottie stayed close to her, her presence a quiet reassurance. Shauna hovered nearby, her gaze flicking to Jackie every few steps.

Julianna walked in silence, her thoughts tangled and heavy. Javi held her hand tightly, his fingers wrapped around hers like he was afraid to let go. Natalie was beside her, her pace matching Julianna's. Every so often, their shoulders brushed, and Julianna felt a strange, fleeting warmth in the contact, like the brief flicker of a match in the dark.

Jeff, still at the front, turned around again. "You know," he said, grinning despite the tension in his voice, "if we survive this, we're gonna have some great stories to tell."

"Yeah," Natalie said, her voice dry. "If we survive."