“Is everything going alright in here?” asked the thing that was not Tao.

Chen, realizing that he had been gone for the better part of 15 minutes, answered quickly while trying to smoothe over his shaking voice.

“Yep; we’re all fine,” he said to Tao. “I already told you two, though, I didn’t do anything and I don’t know what happened,” he transitioned seamlessly into a fake argument.

“I know that, Jongdae,” said Xiumin sympathetically, picking up the ruse. “It’s just that you were the only one here with him. How could you not have noticed anything out of the ordinary?”

“I’ve told you: I didn’t hear, feel, or see anything. I just woke up and found him like this,” Chen motioned toward Lay, who had not moved from lying on his back. “I don’t know who did this,” he concluded. “Maybe it was a raccoon or something.

“Alright, fine,” sighed Xiumin. “Why don’t you and Tao head back out? Luhan and I need a little space to finish up here.”

Luhan waited for them to leave before he leaned in close to whisper to Xiumin. “We need to get rid of ‘Tao,’ and get the hell out of here,” he said. “And I have a plan.”

Xiumin nodded, getting up to follow Luhan out of the tent. He sat by Chen, who had resumed his discussion with Tao, and watched as Luhan came out from behind one of the tents with a large plastic bucket.

“Hey, Tao,” Luhan said, setting the bucket down next to the younger man. “Would you mind fetching some water for us to do the dishes with? There should be a stream that’s not too far from here.” He pointed to his left, where there was a path that led into a patch of thick forest beyond the bushes surrounding the clearing.

“Do I have to?” Tao protested, clinging theatrically to Chen. Chen flinched.

“Aw, come on. Do it for me?” Luhan asked cutely as he pouted and rubbed his cheek with a closed fist.

“Oh, alright,” laughed the imposter as he stood up. “But only because you never do aegyo, you manly man. I’ll be back soon.”

«««

Luhan waited until he couldn’t hear the soft thumps of Tao’s retreating footsteps before springing into action. He started packing everything he could find into whatever bag was in front of him, and Xiumin and Chen did the same until they had most of the campsite packed up. They were just finishing breaking down the second tent when Tao came back. He set the full bucket down next to the extinguished fire with a loud thunk that made the three men turn to see him as he stood by the firepit, arms crossed.

“What are you all up to?” he asked with squinted eyes, as though he were studying the humans in front of him.

“Oh, well… Kris said he should be back before sunset, so we were just cleaning up so that we could be ready to go when he gets here,” covered Luhan smoothly. “We all kind of… don’t want to stay here another night, you know?”

“That makes sense,” accepted Tao. “Especially since whatever hurt Yixing could still be out there. But why did you put out the fire already?”

“Oh! Whoops!” said Xiumin in a mock surprise that was a little too loud. “Stupid fire died on us! I’ll handle it; thanks, Tao.”

He ran over to tend the fire, leaving Luhan and Chen with the partially deconstructed tent. Chen threw one of the tent poles on the ground as he stood up and brushed off his pants.

“Evidently it knew where that stream was,” he muttered under his breath to Luhan. “Of course. That was a good idea, but we need to find another way to trick that thing.”

As Chen was trying to formulate a plan, Xiumin pushed past him on his way to the edge of the woods.

“I’m on my way to use the bathroom,” he called behind him. “Anyone else need to go? Chen?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Chen. “Yeah; I’m coming, Hyung.”

“I’ll stay here,” Luhan said as he patted Chen’s shoulder, sending him off in Xiumin’s direction.

The two men walked a ways into the trees in silence.

«««

“I got a text from Suho,” Xiumin explained finally as he handed Chen the phone.

“Tao told me you’re in trouble. Please call!!!” it read. The timestamp was from about twenty minutes ago.

“He’s worried,” said Xiumin, “but I haven’t had a chance to respond to him.” He took back the phone that Chen offered to him. “What can I even say to them? Suho’s not going to believe that some evil shape-shifting-demon-thing fell out of the sky and attacked Yixing.”

“I don’t know what we can tell him that would make sense,” concurred Chen, “but at least now we know for sure that that thing isn’t Tao. The real Tao is back at the hotel with everyone else, and they at least know that we’ve got a situation on our hands. That’s a good start. It doesn’t help us much right now, but at least they’re aware that there is a problem.”

“I guess,” agreed Xiumin reluctantly. “But still… what are we gonna do?”

They heard footsteps behind them, and turned to see Tao running at them with a smile on his face and Luhan in close pursuit.

“Damn. It’s getting suspicious,” grumbled Chen. He perked up. “Don’t worry, though, Hyung; I have an idea.”

“Sorry,” Luhan apologized as he and Tao reached the other two men. “Tao here decided that he wanted to come, too.”

“That’s fine,” Chen said with a wide grin. “Say, Tao, how would you like to play a game?”

“A game?” Tao’s face lit up.

“Yes,” said Chen. “A game of Hide and Seek.”

«««

Xiumin, Luhan, and Tao stepped over fallen logs and cracked rocks as Chen led the way while he explained the rules of the game they were about to play.

“There should be a meadow up ahead,” he informed them. “I found it yesterday while we were exploring before Tao got here. That’s where we’ll start playing. Whoever is It has to stand in the middle of the field and count to one hundred before they can start seeking. The other three people can hide anywhere except the campsite, but they should try to stay within about a kilometer or so of the meadow so it’s not too hard to find them. Whoever gets caught becomes a seeker, and the last hider to be found is the winner.” The other three nodded in agreement to the rules.

“Does anyone want to start as It?” asked Xiumin.

No one volunteered.

“Why don’t you start, Tao?” offered Chen. “Then we can go in order of age from youngest to oldest. I’ll be It next round.”

“Sounds fair,” concurred Luhan before Tao could answer one way or the other.

“Then it’s decided,” said Chen as they came upon the meadow. “Tao will be It, and the rest of us will all hide in the woods.”

Tao stood in the center of the meadow and covered his eyes. “I’m going to get you, Chen Chen,” he teased.

“We’ll just see about that.” Chen tried to speak cockily, but his voice cracked out of nervousness. He couldn’t pretend that this was just a game.

Tao giggled before he began counting. “One… two… three…” he announced to the forest.

At once, Chen grabbed his fellow hiders by their arms and sprinted off into the forest with them. The ground beneath their feet erupted into a series of snapping branches and crunching leaves.

“Split up,” Chen ordered once they were far away enough away that he thought they were probably out of Tao’s earshot. “Just in case it comes after us. We’ll look too suspicious if we’re together.”

Hurriedly, Chen revealed his plan as he and his two friends ran and leaped over the logs they had passed on their way to get to the meadow.

“We’ll meet back at camp as soon as possible. Hopefully that thing thinks we’re really playing a game. If it does, then it should stay away from the campgrounds long enough for us to grab Yixing and get the hell out of here. See you soon.”

Without giving anyone else time to say anything, Chen took a sudden right turn and raced off deeper into the trees. Surprised, Xiumin and Luhan stopped in their tracks and watched their friend disappear. They turned to each other as if to say something, but before either of them could, Luhan gave one of Xiumin’s hands a quick squeeze, and then he, too, was off - rushing into the forest in the direction opposite Chen. With nothing else to do, Xiumin hastened to continue on the path that the three had originally been heading down before their split.

«««

Chen was the first to arrive back at the campsite. By his count, Tao should have been searching for them for four or five minutes at this point, although he couldn’t be sure since it had been hard to keep track of time and explain his plan at the same time. He burst through the trees and immediately started stuffing the last of the food into a backpack. He was starting to pack up one of the tents when out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luhan weaving through the trees.

“Forget it,” panted Luhan as he came up to Chen, out of breath. “We don’t know how much time we have.”

The next minute was a blur of items being thrown and shoved into bags as both men hurried to prepare for their departure. They had just finished dragging Lay out of his tent when Xiumin came up, wheezing and frantic.

“I thought you said we couldn’t move him?” he pointed at Lay, confused.

“Well, how else do you expect us to get out of here?” exclaimed Luhan with wild eyes. “We can’t just leave him, so we have to carry him out.”

“Couldn’t we make some sort of a stretcher or something to put him on?” Chen looked to his companions. “It will be easier than just lugging him around.”

“Fine, but hurry,” warned Luhan. He scanned the woods for any sign of movement, but as far as he could tell, they were alone.

Chen and Xiumin fashioned a simple stretcher out of a blanket and a couple of thick branches. The game had now been going on for almost fifteen minutes, and Chen was worried that the creature they were playing with - whatever it really was - would be starting to get suspicious, seeing as there were no hiders in the woods for it to actually find.

“That is, if it hasn’t figured out our ruse already,” he thought.

“Alright,” Chen said aloud. “It’s not pretty, but it will do.” Xiumin had rolled Lay onto their makeshift cot and was now gathering the last of their supplies.

“Jongdae and I will carry him first, and you can take a turn later, Xiumin,” Luhan said as he positioned himself at one end of Lay’s stretcher.

“What about Kris?” asked Xiumin.

“He’ll figure it out,” said Chen. They were already moving toward the exit. “I mean, he won’t know that we got chased away by a shape shifting monster, but if he’s smart, then he’ll know that something went wrong, and he’ll get out of here. We can’t wait for him; we don’t know when he’s coming back.”

“And, more importantly, we don’t know when that thing is going to catch on,” Luhan added gravely. He gazed into the thick, enveloping woods in front of him.