Elise sighed. “Come on, Riley. We haven’t gotten forever.”

“Alright,” Riley said, his green silihouette appearing around the corner - that was how it tended to be with night vision headgear. Green. Riley and Elise’s faces were fully covered with goggles, respirators and earpieces, giving them a fearful, insect-like appearance. In a way, not too far from the faces of the Chimeras they hunted.

The two of them made their way through the cave system slowly, occasionally pausing to listen to input from Elise’s team - Damien, Augustine, - and Finley, for some reason.

“Alright,” Augustine buzzed in theirs and Riley’s ears. “You’re approaching the last seen location of the Chimera.”

Elise nodded silently, before remembering that neither Augustine or Riley could see. “Yeah, over.”

They descended farther silently. Riley’s voice buzzed into their ear.

“Fuck. Elise, come here.”

Riley was farther in front of them - they quickly jogged up, and immediately saw what was the matter.

The half-eaten carcass of a moose. It was eaten extremely messily - parts were left untouched, while other limbs devoured, its slick, red flesh exposed, clinging to pale bone. Dark red blood, halfway through oxidation, splattered several meters away from the original corpse. Elise could’ve sworn they saw an eye exposed, slowly dripping out of the skull.

“This only means one thing,” Elise said tersely. “It’s close.”

“Yup,” Riley said, kneeling down and inspecting the body. “This is still new. Only a few hours old at most.”