“So you’re telling me there is nothing around us?” Sophia asked, panic clear in every word.

“Nothing. No mountains, no town, nothing to guide us. We have light, but there isn’t even a fucking sun,” Gen explained as he landed from the pine tree branch.

“I’m going to die in the forest. I was joking before, but I’m not doing it now.” Sophia’s eyes scanned the area, looking for anything that could help, but fear had its grip on her.

“We need to keep fuckin’ calm and carry the fuck on.” The young brawler attempted to calm her, even placing his calloused hand on her shoulder.

Sophia flinched at the contact and slapped Gen’s hand away as she staggered back, falling onto the cushy, pine-needle-covered ground.

“Don’t touch me!” she snapped, freaking out.

“What the fuck is wrong with ya?” Gen asked, offering his hand to help her up, but she began dragging herself backward.

“This is about the office, isn’t it? I saw something I shouldn’t have, and you brought me to the forest to kill me.” She pointed an accusatory finger at him. “That’s what’s happening here, isn’t it?”

“What are you goin’ on about?” he asked, confused by her reaction. “This ain’t the first time a Gainen’s pulled us into a weird dimension. Don’t ya remember the fuckin’ spider?”

Gen mentioned the first Gainen they fought—the one who killed Sophia’s friends at school and terrorized the town for a month. The press had dubbed it “The Bone Breaker” because it left its victims cocooned in cobwebs, their bodies mangled into collections of broken bones, torn muscle, and ripped skin.

Sophia’s eyes darted around, prey to fear of the unknown, fear of dying… fear of… well, everything.

“Get away. You’re trying to kill me, don’t you?” she screamed, crawling away as fast as she could, slipping on the dry pine needles.

Then Gen saw it, even as she kept moving away.

Painted on her back was an archery target.

“Stop! Fuckin’ stop!” he shouted, his voice carrying so much weight that she couldn’t help but freeze.

“Don’t hurt me!” she yelped, covering her face with her arms, her back pressed against the trunk of a pine.

Gen didn’t know what to do, so he took a deep breath and tried to think. So, what Sophia usually did for him.

He crouched to her eye level and spoke as softly as he could.

“Sophia, ya’re bein’ attacked by a Gainen,” he said carefully, as if his very voice could shatter her.

“Ya can’t see it, but ya’ve got a target on your back. A literal fuckin’ target. Painted.”

His words slowly began to reach her.

“So I’m not going to die?” she asked in a weak voice, unbecoming of her usual confident demeanor.

“No, ya won’t,” he assured her. “Because I’m gonna deck that fuckin’ Gainen…”

Gen stood, scanning the endless expanse of forest.

“Wherever he’s hidin’.”