When morning comes, and KP awakes, she goes to awake Rosaline, and is impressed to find her already conscious. After waking Sweetie and Mikey, Rosaline joins KP in getting the others up. Fifteen minutes are allotted for repacking, then their journey resumes.
They make it back to the river swiftly, after which KP and Rosaline are able to gather the materials needed to fasten together three crude fishing poles. The Guide continues to be impressed at nearly every turn by how resourceful this young warrior is, and with how quickly she finishes tasks.
She has been almost equally as impressed with Mikey. In all her years as a Guide she’s never met such a well mannered and attentive child. She’s come across many, many kids older than Mikey that behaved far worse.
KP, Rosaline, and the ever capable Rad fish for a couple hours, wading deep out into the river. They are able to catch four fish among them. Just one fish is of substantial size, the other three barely enough for one meal, and only for one person.
KP and Rosaline suggest that they will eat the least, but that is dismissed. The group agrees that the two of them need to be nourished since they're the most experienced. The two women oppose, but realize an argument wouldn’t be beneficial.
KP, Rosaline, and Mikey are given the three small fish, and the rest split up the biggest one. Rosaline still sneaks part of her fish to Sweetie, who refuses, but after Rosaline threatens to throw it back into the water, the Latina relents. She secretly gives half to her brother then eats the rest.
With breakfast finished the travel continues. Hours pass by, filled with hushed conversations, until brush too thick to pass through alters their course. They move away from the river, taking a route around the brush, then back to the river on the other side.
The eight of them remain alert and cautious on their voyage, but that does not prevent the awaiting ambush. They couldn’t have known that death was hiding inside the thick brush. It appeared too dense to pass through, and KP is well aware of the dangers presented by such drastically limited visibility in areas like that one. In her experience it’s always better to go around, rather than through.
Three Adapted appear from the brush. The monsters do not speak, or wait, they simply attack the moment the group passes by their lurking spot, on their way back to the river bank. KP is tackled immediately, her shirt ripped, her face clawed, and her arm bitten. The Adapted is large, and taller than Rad. It pins her to the wet dirt, thrashing down upon her in a furious rage.
The other two separate the rest of the group and advance upon them. The survivors retreat, attempting to create space. Rosaline reacts with vigor and haste, equipping her goggles and hammer, and dropping her backpack off her, before she is reached by one of the murderous trio. An arm stretches out her to, only to be met with the cold steel of the hammer. A swift strike that fractures the morose appendage.
Not allowing time for deliberation, Rad plows through one of the oncoming beasts. He ignores its tumble, clicks the safety off on his rifle, and aims at the monster relentlessly swinging down upon KP. Rad steadies himself, looking for an opportunity to take a clear headshot, but before he can pull the trigger a loud crack jolts the air. The Adapted jerks, its head flings up, then it slumps down on top of KP--the monster becoming a motionless mass of tainted flesh.
The tall rifle toting man lowers his weapon, his brow raised in disbelief. Despite being pinned to the ground, despite heavy hands clubbing her face, and despite the disorienting and sudden nature of the attack, KP was able to withdraw the handgun from her belt, force her arm from under the lumbering leg holding it down, and shoot the wildly thrashing beast dead center in the head. Using only one of their precious bullets.
Sweetie shields Mikey, keeping him behind her, and quickly moves them away. Hawaii gives his handgun to Zee, unsheathes his machete, ushers Sweetie and Mikey to Zee, then runs for Outlaw. The teen is caught in a mad struggle to unloose his backpack--a pack that the previously bowled over Adapted has a firm hold on and is using to pull the frantic teen into its vile atmosphere.
Rosaline’s hammer cracks loudly against the arm of the beast. The creature howls, then reaches out again, but this prey is quicker than it could have known. The small woman follows up her initial attack with one fluid motion of removing her hunting knife from its sheath, lunging forward, and plunging it under the jaw of the monster. It falls limp less than ten seconds after its attention was turned on her.
A loud shriek, a ghastly screech of pain and fear, echoes over the rushing water. A machete slashes at a downward angle, hastily and nervously. The weapon digs into bone on the shoulder, clipping off it, and sinking into neck. The Adapted falls to the side, but is not finished. It scrambles to its feet. Another scream of pain and horror, the frightened words “It bit me! It bit me!” boom off the dirt, off the water, to the sun, to the sky, and ricochet back to the ears of frazzled survivors.
The young, optimistic, Puerto Rican teen writhes on the dirt, his hand clutched against his neck, pressing firmly, but not able to stop the blood gushing from him. Loud cracks and whizzes fill the air. The tall brutish man screams, his voice breaking and gurgling, his finger repeatedly squeezing down on the trigger of the rifle. The Adapted shakes and convulses, the bullets tearing through its body. Its attempt at standing again is cut short by a mad
