The sun was just beginning to peek over the jagged horizon, casting long, distorted shadows, marking the second day of our hellish journey. I was dragged from sleep not by birdsong, but by the grunts and thuds of Joey and Jack doing their daily morning workout.
"(Yawn) Good morning, Jack. Good morning, Joey… Where's Carl?" I asked, still half-asleep.
Oh, good morning, Mr. Darcy!" Joey replied cheerfully, upside down in a handstand push-up, his muscles rippling. "Mr. Carl is on patrol near the corpse of the creature we killed yesterday, just checking if anything's remaining of its body."
"He went alone?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been?"
"He went just after waking us up, which was like forty, maybe fifty minutes ago," Jack added, holding a perfect plank while Joey, somehow, was now doing handstand push-ups on his back.
"And he didn't even bother waking me up?"I asked, feeling a prickle of annoyance.
"Oh, he tried, actually," Jack chuckled, a faint strain in his voice from the plank. "But you kept muttering 'five more minutes, Grandma' in your sleep. He was kind of pissed, wanted to throw you out of the tree. We stopped him."
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"…Thank you."
"Oh," Joey piped up, flipping back onto his feet with unnatural grace. "He also said that after you wake up, we're to meet him at the creature's corpse."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I announced, stretching dramatically towards Carl's presumed direction.
"By your enthusiasm, we can really tell you're motivated to save the town," Joey said with a smile. "Again, thank you so much, Mr. Darcy, for helping the helpless."
"No need to thank me. I'd have done it even if I were alone," I replied with the most saintly expression I could manage.
Like hell. I just don't want to be separated from the strongest member of the team — it makes me anxious.
We scrambled down the tree, the chill morning air biting, and then rushed through the uneven terrain towards where we'd brought that thing down.
"By the way, Mr. Darcy," Jack called out from behind me, "what kind of creature was that, anyway?"
"It was…"
i don't even know. That was my first time seeing something like that. Hell, this world isn't even mine — I probably know less about it than they do.
...well, I only know its local name from where I come from. it's called a Crolion," I said, inventing the name with a straight face. "For its official name, let's ask Carl when we meet him."
"So this Crolion exists where you're from too?" Joey asked.
"Oh, how many questions are you both going to ask?" I snapped, a little more sharply than intended. "Remember our priority right now is surviving here. Focus ahead, we're close to the location of the crolion's corpse."
As we moved closer, we saw the corpse, now mostly bones, and Carl sitting casually on one of its thoracic vertebrae. "Look who finally decided to wake up," he greeted, without turning.
"What happened here? Why is it mostly bone?" I asked, curiosity overriding my irritation.
"Scavengers. They must have eaten most of it in the night. Sleeping in the tree was a good call," Carl replied. "Don't worry, there's still a little bit of meat left that you can use. Now get it out and pack it so we can move forward. It's already eight in the morning; I'm not going to make my hands dirty."
So, me, Joey, and Jack got to work, cutting and packing what was left. Joey, being Joey, couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Mr. Carl, what is this creature called?"
It's called a Nighridh. They're only found in the Yellow Zone of the Forest of Broken Vows."
"But Mr. Darcy said that it's also found from where he is?" Jack blurted out.
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"WHEN DID I SAY IT IS ALSO FOUND FROM WHERE I AM—?!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. "I just said that it's the local name it's known for in my hometown, that I read from a book in the library there!"
"Oh, yes, we are sorry if we offended you in any way, Mr. Darcy," Joey and Jack apologized in unison.
"Apology accepted," I said, catching Carl's smirk. He was clearly enjoying this.
After cutting and packing a portion of the meat, we started to move again in the same formation: Carl in the lead, Joey and Jack in the back, and me in the center. The forest was now getting darker and denser. The trees were so enormous I could barely see their tops, their hanging roots descending from such heights they looked like they were coming from outer space.
I whispered to Carl, "Where are we now? I can hear sounds of various creatures, but I see none."
"We are finally inside the Red Zone. Here, most of the creatures live on trees, as those enormous trees have everything for them. Only a handful of them walk on land… and you don't want to encounter what preys on those handful."
"Why?" I asked, a shiver of fear running down my spine.
"What do you mean 'why'?" Carl retorted. "Why do you think creatures like Nighridh don't live here?"
"Why?" I pressed again.
"Because they would be easily eaten and killed by what preys on others here." He paused, letting the implication sink in.
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Alright, alright, how about we take a sharp U-turn and forget everything about saving the people of the town? I mean, I don't think we can make it out alive—the way we struggled against a single Nighridh in the Yellow Zone, whatever lives here would be way beyond our capabilities."
"No. If you really want to run away, then do it alone," Carl replied, his face devoid of hesitation.
That motherfucker! Why is he so fixed on saving those people?! What about us? What if we died? Nobody knows me here; if I died here, nobody would remember me! I can't even run; being alone for someone like me would be a death sentence.
We kept walking for hours until it was finally 4 PM. So far, we'd encountered nothing on the way except some small, shrew-like creatures, thanks to Carl's navigation for choosing the safest path. Last time, in the Yellow Zone, he'd just walked in; maybe he was more confident in himself then, but now he was trying his best not to run into anything. But wait... suddenly, we started seeing light… up ahead… the trees… they ended. I exclaimed, "Great! Now we're out of danger!"
"Quite the opposite. Now we're in danger," Carl replied flatly.
"What?" Jack, Joey, and I spoke in unison.
"The ones I told you about that prey on the handful of creatures living in the Red Zone—when they're not preying, they spend their time here. They're also solitary, which is good for us, as there's a high probability we wouldn't encounter multiple of them at a time. I could safely navigate you through most of the Red Zone as I've studied their foraging patterns, but here, they could be unpredictable, and we have nowhere to hide if they encounter us."
I could feel my soul leaving my body as he said those words, but there was nothing I could do except pray for the best. "So what is the plan?" I asked, somehow composing myself.
"There is no plan. We will go straight in. You see that barrier far ahead?Once we cross it, we'll be in the White Zone. It's empty — no creatures, no sound, no life.
"Why?" Jack asked.
"Because it is THE WHITE ZONE. And be prepared mentally, because your body will scream not to go in, but we must."
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You know what? suddenly, I think being eaten by whatever the hell is roaming here sounds better than going into the White Zone.
Carl looked at me with an oddly empathetic expression.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"No, say it. What?"
"Nothing. If I tell you, you'll get scared."
"You already did that by saying that!"
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Carl sighed. "All I can say is… I'm really sorry for you."
Joey and Jack looked confused.
Me? I was scared shitless.