"Hey Rei, do you still have water in your bottle?" I ask as I lay the girl's head on the ground.

Reinier opens his fanny pack, takes the bottle with his uninjured arm and hands me the bottle.

I open the girl's mouth and give her some water.

"It's not much, but she needs to hydrate." The water runs out quickly.

I stand up. It looks like we can relax a bit now.

Rei and I sighed almost at the same time; this battle was very difficult.

Blood trickles from my head to my chin.

"Can you help me wrap my head?" I ask for Reinier.

"Sure." He takes the bandages and wraps them around the back, tying the band across his forehead.

"It cost."

"And now, what are we going to do with her?" Reinier speaks looking at the girl on the ground.

In this situation, the only way we could receive help would be...

"Hmm... We can try calling for help at Astrid's checkpoint." The chances are slim, but we can try.

"Didn't you say they don't let anyone outside their House?" He asks.

"Yes, I did. But there might be a chance they'll let us in. Especially if we find a member who has a good heart." I answer.

"Well, let's try then. If we can't, we'll head back to the surface to drop you off at a hospital." Rei complements.

As I pick up the girl and place her on my back, Reinier pulls the level map out of his bag.

"The Checkpoint is in the Southwest." He looks at the map carefully. "Can you hold the map for a moment?" Rei asks looking at the map.

"The situation is a little complicated here." I say with a nervous smile on my face as I try to get the girl into a fixed position on my back.

"Bizarre." Reinier says and throws the map on the ground.

He reaches into his bag and pulls out a compass!

"This time you exceeded my expectations." I say with a smile on my face.

"Hmph."

Finally, I manage to carry the girl so that she doesn't fall backwards, leaning my body forward a little and putting her arms around my neck.

"We're facing west." Reinier says as he turns his body to the left, that must be Southwest. "Let's go." He turns to pick up the map and starts walking.

We go around through the cave leading to the ruins and head towards the Checkpoint.

"We need to go fast. Kaiser, can you keep up with me?" Reinier asks walking quickly through the forest.

"Of course." The moment I say this, I feel short of breath and immediately have to stop...

With intense exhalations and inspirations, I catch my breath.

"Are you well?" Reinier asks me.

It hurts like hell...

"Yeah... I've been better..." I reply looking down.

We go through the woods, and at times we need to go down some ravines.

At those times, my ribs hurt, and I need to stop for a break, I need to get some treatment quickly, and so does the girl.

No matter how much pain I'm in, I need to keep going...

After a few moments of intense walking, with my ribs hurting like hell, in the distance I can already see some houses made in the trunks of trees, far from the ground.

I hope they are compassionate enough to let us in.

The trees are very reminiscent of Sequoias, the largest tree species in the world. They can measure over a hundred meters high, by the way.

Getting closer to the place, the entrance is on my right, a little far from where Rei and I are.

The houses are made of wood, and they are built around the trunk at a considerable height from the ground.

Wooden bridges connect each building to the other.

There is a wooden fence in front of us, roughly measuring our height. The ends of these fences are like spears; they are so sharp. They are here to not let anyone invade.

Well, we planned on asking for clearance to go in, so it's not like we were planning on jumping.