LOST — Hive

tree-nature-grass-person-mountain-woman-1134157-pxhere.jpg

"Goddamn ticks..." Mel exclaimed while spraying the bug repellent on her boots.

"Yeah, we gotta get out of this dense area, I see a clear path ahead," Oliver replied.

Oliver could feel the thick moisture in the air as he inhaled, the mist enveloping around them like a friendly cloud. As they followed this clear path, the mist gave way, revealing an Old building, a stone bridge led straight to its entrance.

"Wow... would you look at that" Mel said smiling at this new discovery.

"Um... Looks like an Old Vicarage" Oliver replied with hesitation.

Mel leaped towards the stone bridge with growing excitement, she was always the adventurous type, she even got Oliver interested in taking regular hikes, Oliver followed closely behind her with skepticism, he always felt like an anchor keeping her from straying away into the unknown waters. The only reason he agreed to take hikes with her was to keep her safe.

"Wow.. why haven't we seen this place before..." Mel said with a quizzical smile.

"Just hold on there a bit babe... we gotta be careful" Oliver replied.

Oliver caught up to her and held her hands, they both walked on the stone bridge, Mel kept turning around looking and soaking up the new sights, but her vision gradually became foggy as the mist seemed to grow thicker by the second, The friendly cloud of mist now turned to a strange shadow that lingered around the both of them.

"Woah..." Mel exclaimed as she squeezed Oliver's hands.

"What the hell is this..." said Oliver, instinctively trying to pull her back towards safety but at this point, he didn't know which was forward or backward as they had lost all bearing lost in this strange mist.

"Halt or I will shoot..." A loud voice spoke from within the mist, Oliver and Mel froze in their steps with wide eyes before starting a hasty sprint.

"BANG" Oliver heard the shot as Mel was climbing the side of the bridge below the vicarage... They both let out a scream and ran even faster towards whatever direction was away from this threatening voice.

They ran down the bridge with panic, Mel holding tightly to Oliver as he took the charge, They both spotted a ray of orange light that broke through the heavy mist and ran even faster towards it, all of a sudden they stumbled and hit something that broke their stride, they all tumbled and rolled down a fairly steep hill, followed by this strange object that hit them.

Some moments later, Oliver woke up to a heavy feeling of blood rushing to his head as he regained consciousness, his first instinct was to look around for Mel, He saw her laying down with an unfamiliar figure around her.

He rubbed his eyes to clear the blurry sight and looked again. This time around, he observed another lady laying there unconscious, she must have been the lady they bumped into earlier before taking a tumble.

He walked closer to the access the situation and saw this lady with an Old-fashioned gown laid on top of Mel, Mel was also starting to gain consciousness as she moved this lady away gently, revealing her face. Oliver looked puzzled at this lady who was bruised and worn, her brunette hair matted together like a wild woolly sheep.

"You would not understand why I had to steal the Eye..." this strange lady muttered in her unconscious state.

Oliver turned over his attention to Mel who was now on her feet

"W-what happened..." Mel stuttered.

Oliver drew closer to her swiftly and held her softly, he tried to find a rational explanation to what they had encountered earlier but couldn't. He took another look at his surroundings and observed for the first time that it was actually sunset. How long were they passed out he wondered...

He tried to take a wider scan of his immediate surroundings but his vision was limited, the only source of light was the stray orange light from street lamps.

Oliver suddenly realized that they were passed out on a pathway that must be quite far from the stone bridge. He took a closer look at the street lamps and observed that they were old-fashioned, the visible flames within the lamps showed that they were gas lamps.

img source [1]