While Sam and Suely were resting, a group of hunters entered the building. All this time they followed the trail of Suely.

  “They are somewhere here in the ruins.” Said one of the hunters.

  “There are a lot of moves here, she must have set traps.” Warned another.

  “We will not look for them. They themselves will come to us. There are only two exits, upstairs through a waterfall and downstairs by the river. We'll split up into groups and set up an ambush. Stranger to take alive.”

Several hunters returned to the waterfall, others descended the stairs to the river.

Sam and Suely slept for several hours, the fireplace went out, and the room grew cold. Suely woke up first, lit the torch and woke Sam up.

  “Let's go Sam need to collect the fruit of the ocha tree, they are very satisfying.  The tree has sharp thorns, so take a big shield with which we will bend the branches to get to the fruit.”

Sam silently followed her into the corridor and picked up a large, scratched round shield. Then they came to a hole in the wall behind which there was a hall. They did not know that an ambush awaited them in the hall. Noticing the light from the torch, the hunters prepared their guns.

  “They're coming!”

Sam was a few steps ahead of Suely. The shield was heavy, Sam grabbed the shield with his other hand when suddenly a shot rang out. Suely was saved from a direct hit in the head by a shield.

  “Shoot, don't let them hide in the ruins!”

Suely tried to jump back into the corridor, but it was too late, one of the hunters stood against the corridor. Then she jumped off the ladder into the water. Meanwhile, Sam covered himself with a shield and could not move, as bright flashes from the shots flashed in front and behind.

  “It's floating away, out of reach!”

Hunters shot from above into the water trying to get into Suely.

  “Leave her. She won't last long there.”

The shots stopped, and Sam looked out from behind the shield and from a blow to the back of the head immediately collapsed to the floor.

Meanwhile, Suely swam under water to the opposite wall, emerged under the stairs, it was her hiding place. In the dark, she fumbled for the prepared gun and was about to climb out through the narrow passage in the wall, but the passage was destroyed. Suely had no choice but to wait for the hunters to leave.

  “I shouldn't have come here. I had to go straight to the dome. Sam was very unlucky. Nothing good awaits him in the city.” She muttered as she climbed out of the water onto the stairs.

When she reached her dwelling, she lit the fireplace and sat down to warm herself.

  “Sam, Sam, why did I save you? I would take a weapon and pass by!” She began to cry.

She sat there for a few minutes, then got up and put on a ghost costume.

  “I can try to intercept Sam! Why am I doing this? No, I won’t leave him to them!” She took up her sword and strode resolutely towards the exit.

Sam woke up feeling pain from the endless blows to the body. He was dragged along the ground by two hunters.

  “Enough to drag him, he can walk” Said one of them, noticing that Sam is tossing and turning.  “Get up!”

They were in some kind of cave. A light appeared in the distance. Those who captivated Sam were dressed in some kind of strange armor. In a few minutes they left the cave into a spacious grotto with dense vegetation. Finally, Sam made out the people who were leading him. On the head of each was wearing a horned skull of monsters with which he fought at the obelisk, the bodies of people were protected by the shells of a strange animal with tentacles, which killed Gak. They had old rifles in their hands, a weapon that seemed familiar to Sam. Now it was clear to him that they were hunters.

  “She was pretty.” One of the hunters noticed.

  “You should shoot more accurately, and not look at her.”  Another answered.

Sam walked with his hands tied behind his back, accompanied by three hunters. They came to the end of a field overgrown with tall grass, there was a large lizard, on whose neck a driver was sitting. Round transport capsules with spikes were fixed on the sides of the lizard. Sam was put in a compartment where he was kept with food for the lizard. It was a small, dark room with a low ceiling, half filled with dry grass. The transport capsules were welded from sheets of metal, and in some places large cracks were visible through them, dust fell through them, and insects flew in and bit painfully. Gradually Sam got used to the bites and practically did not notice them, plunged into thought.

  “I hope Suely managed to escape.” Sam thought ” I have time to think. So Cap knew the planet was inhabited. He deliberately guided us through predators to create problems for the locals. Cap was clearly not going to die here! So he knew how to get out of here. Oh, Suely, why did it end like this?”

 The lizard stopped, the door opened and a driver with a sack entered the room where Sam was sitting. He untied Sam's hands and ordered to fill the bag with grass. Sam posed no threat to the hunters. Although he was a prisoner, they did not hate him and did not get angry. This distinguished these people from those living in the big world, but Sam still saw in them savages who lagged behind the modern world. Under the supervision of the driver, Sam filled the bag several times and helped the driver feed the lizard. Sam noticed that the hunters, despite their menacing appearance, were ordinary people with the same everyday problems as in other parts of the galaxy.

  “Havr, i greet you! Did you catch a stranger?” The driver from the other lizard shouted.

  “Yes, he's in our cage.”

  “The doctor is with us. He wants to talk to a stranger.”

  “Let the doctor come with us. I will not let the stranger out of the cage!”

 Sam saw the capsule open and a man walked in their direction.  The lizard began to move again. A man came up to the door.

  “Hello, I'm Dr. Heng. I sutured your wounds. I don't have much time, so listen carefully. Your prospects are gloomy, but I can intercede for you with the ruler of the city. If you agree to work for me.”  Heng began the conversation through a small window in the door.

  “What if I do not agree?” Sam asked.

  “The only reason you are still alive is that you destroyed the nest of darkness in some incredible way!”

  “This is not a problem when you have a weapon.” Sam answered.

  “There are two problems on this planet. The first problem is the guardians of the planet, they do not often bother us. The second problem is that darkness is a dangerous predator. These creatures appear unexpectedly from dark corners and caves. Here, rarely anyone dies of old age or disease. If you forgot to drink a decoction of the fruit of the ocha tree. Darkness will find you even in the city.”

  “And I thought that this drink tones and invigorates. If I agree, what are the conditions?”

  “Believe me, on this planet you can live quite comfortably if you follow the rules.”

  “Judging by the way Suely lived, you can't say so.”

  “I don't know how she managed to survive. She didn't follow the rules and became a problem for everyone. Those who tried to imitate her died.”

Their conversation was interrupted by one of the hunters, the doctor had to go back to his capsule.

  “It is interesting. The hunters don't trust the doctor”.  Concluded Sam.

Sam looked through the crack in the wall again. Two lizards were crawling along a plateau dotted with deep and wide cracks going deep to the bottom of the grotto. The lizards approached the cliff and stood against the high rusty city wall that divided the grotto in half. There was a noise behind the wall, and a large crane deployed the boom and bridge. The lizards walked across the bridge and found themselves on the opposite side of the wall in a large iron city.

  Through the gap, Sam saw ordinary people no different from the same people living in the big world, only two details caught the eye - a modest gray and monotonous clothes and weapons. In this city, everyone was armed, even the children carried cut-off hunting rifles behind their backs. Life in the city was like in all other cities: shops, cafes, parks, street vendors, everyone went about their business, not paying attention to the caravan of lizards. During his time in the team of Kir Lak, Sam flew around a third of the galaxy and visited many planets and saw places where people lived much worse than here. Sam changed his mind about these people, now they did not seem savages to him, it was just that this world developed in its own way.

Meanwhile, Suely went in pursuit of the hunters. She could well cope with the driver and hunters, but noticing the second lizard, she decided not to attack. Descending to the bottom of the grotto, Suely reached the base of the rusty wall. Noticing in one place a sheet of metal that began to fall off, she indicated to the lizard that it was necessary to tear off this piece.

  “Lagarchik a little more and I can get inside!”  She encouraged the lizard.

The sheet of metal bent under the onslaught of the lizard's strong paws, and Suely was able to crawl through the narrow gap between the frame beams.

After wandering in the labyrinth of metal structures for several minutes, Suely went into a technical mine. Above, through a web of steel beams, light could be seen. The only way up was a narrow, rusty vertical staircase.

  “Perhaps here I can go upstairs.”

The climb up the stairs took a long time.Suely found herself on the lower tier of the city. There were few people here and no one noticed how she made her way to the base of the water tower. She did not climb the stairs, but used the elevator to get to the roof of the tower. Once on the roof of the tower, she saw two lizards crawling along the city road to the residence of the ruler in the distance.

“I will definitely find you, Sam!”