"This was enough to prove there was a water source ahead. There was water in this forest—other than the direction we'd landed from, where else could it be?!"
Alex did not argue back forcefully. Instead, she used botanical principles to support her judgment.
This immediately left Nate speechless. The other five criminals also believed her, though they exchanged meaningful looks. Clearly, while they wanted to avoid the cannibals' attacks—
They also had no desire to return to prison, especially Floyd, the Black Boss. If he were sent back, he could face more than twenty years behind bars, without any possibility of a reduced sentence.
So they had to make arrangements in advance.
Andrei and Ivan quietly followed behind them. Andrei watched the seven people ahead, while Ivan relied on his superhuman hearing and a hunter's sharp instincts to monitor the rear, preventing the mutants from suddenly catching up.
They had already determined that the mutants would definitely pursue them. To that end, they had even detoured toward the slope, making their route a third longer than that of the group ahead.
They needed to be even more careful because of that.
"Stop!" Andrei crouched and signaled to Ivan behind him.
Ivan looked ahead. The seven people had stopped and surrounded a figure less than four and a half feet tall.
It was the mutant child they had seen from the tree earlier, pinned beneath the wooden frame of a trap and nearly getting itself killed.
When the adult mutants had begun hunting, the child had sneaked out on its own, intending to set up more traps.
Maybe it could catch one of these people and show its beloved father what it was capable of.
Children always loved to show off!
But it lacked the hunting experience and strength of an