311 The Odd One

"We've been trying to find it for the longest time. But of all the places we've searched so far, we still haven't found any sign of it," El explained with a sigh. 

She took out a folded piece of paper she had kept in a pocket on her pants and handed it over to Vy. The image, crudely drawn, was of the silhouette of a rabbit with curved cut off lines all around it. 

There was nothing unique about the rabbit, it seemed like nothing more than a random sketch on a piece of paper. El went on to explain that one of the survivors from before told them to look out for this image in the Jungle. 

"It is said to exit out of the Jungle."

"But we've all been searching for it. But we've either never seen it, or whoever has is long dead," the bearded man added. 

Vy pondered for a bit before she asked more questions. Was there not any form of written record about this mysterious symbol? Even if the current survivors had no knowledge of this, surely the people who lived and died before them could have left some form of clues. 

"Funny you should bring that up," El said as she tapped on her chin, "We do have some belongings left from those who passed before us. But most of them are illegible. Well, at least none of us can read them."

She pointed at Vy before continuing, "Maybe you can."

Despite a lack of any memory of the past, survivors have been known to exhibit abilities they had mastered. Such as Vy's ability to wield the dagger. El and the bearded man led her to a tent where most of their non-perishable supplies were kept. 

While there, the bearded man introduced himself to Vy. His name was Fendrif, and he had been in the Jungle longer than El had. As they continued to chat, El found what she was looking for. 

It was a crude box made out of sticks tied together with vines. In it, were a collection of notebooks left behind by various survivors who have all perished. 

"Some of these were written in a language we could identify, but most of the handwriting was illegible. We don't seem to have good penmanship around here," El joked. 

Vy picked one up at random and flipped through it. The leather-bound notebook's writing started out readable despite crude penmanship. As she read through the contents, she soon realised that it was the owner's declining mental state that resulted in crudely written lines. 

Most of the journal catalogued the emotions the owner of the notebook was feeling with each passing day. A slow descent into madness that was tipped off the edge with the death of fellow survivors while out hunting. 

Vy picked up another to examine its contents. Much to her surprise, while the symbols and writings were vastly different from the previous one, she was still able to decipher it. 

El lit up as she rummaged through the other notebooks while Fendrif kept his silence. He continued to observe Vy, wondering if she was lying or did she truly understand the words written. 

Unfortunately, there was no way to confirm the truth either, since everyone else was not able to read any of them. El found a worn red leather-bound journal and handed it over to Vy excitedly.

"I've always wondered what this one was about! It has the better penmanship overall compared to the rest," she explained. 

Vy received the journal from El and began to decipher its contents. Vy traced her hand under each line as she read, deciphering the information written in it. It was written by a survivor named Estelle, who spent most of her time exploring the Jungle during the day. 

She too had heard of the Rabbit and was doing her best to find but found no traces of it. This led Estelle to theories that the location of the Rabbit might be ever-changing. She also talked about long-range weapons and explosives. 

"Wait, did you say long-range weapons… and explosives?!" El exclaimed as she caught on to what Vy was saying. 

Vy nodded as she continued to read and explain, "Yes, it says here that there are such weapons."

"That's impossible, we've only ever seen and found melee weapons. Like swords and daggers," Fendrif protested, this raised his suspicion on Vy. 

El thought for a while. She tried to recall any clues she might have gathered during her travels through the Jungle. 

"Fendrif, do you remember that expedition we did three days ago?"

"The one where we explored the far north?" 

"Yeah, that one! Remember we found those weird looking marks on the tree stumps? They looked like dents made by a sharp arrow that pierced through it! Maybe there really are long-range weapons out in the Jungle!"

He vaguely remembered what El was alluding to. But they had no way of telling when those dents were made. Furthermore, even if this journal was to be believed, they had no idea when it was being written. 

When Fendrif voiced out his concerns, Vy suggested that they could ask those who had been here the longest if they recalled anyone by the name of Estelle. Fendrif shot down her idea without giving it a chance. 

"Impossible. No one here knows anyone by that name. If they did, we would have known about it by now."

"But…" El rebutted, "There's technically one person whom we don't know anything about…"

Vy wondered who they were talking about. Judging from the expression on Fendrif's face, it did not look good. Fendrif crossed his arms and shook his head. 

"That man is broken. He might have been here longer than any of us, but he's never spoken to anyone else. Not to mention, he's hostile,"

-Hostile?- Vy wondered to herself. 

This person they were talking about sounded intriguing. Usually survivors in a situation Iike this would want nothing more than to communicate and work with the people around them. Yet this man chose to isolate himself. 

"Does this man have a name?" She asked out of curiosity. 

"I'm sure he does. Although-"

"He's never mentioned it to anyone," Fendrif quickly added. 

"Is he mute?" Vy asked. 

If the man seemingly never spoke to anyone, maybe he was mute. That would easily explain his lack of communication. 

El shook her head, "He definitely can talk."

Vy was confused. If the man could talk and the rest knew that, surely he must have spoken to someone once before. Seeing Vy's confused expression, El realised she needed to explain. 

"We've all heard him talk. Well, it was more like screams of terror to be honest."

Fendrif agreed with El, "There's no telling when it would happen either. His nightmares plague him endlessly. You never know when you're going to get a good night's sleep."

The more she finds out about this person, the more she wanted to meet him. Furthermore, he could potentially have some key information that can help them figure a way out of the Jungle.