“So… what’s your name?” Sam asked.
The three of them sat together where the campfire had been, the fire now reduced to a bed of cold, grey ash.
“Mira,” the angel murmured softly.
“Nice to meet you, Mira. My name is Sam, and this is Alice.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Mira said, giving a polite, slight bow of her head.
“How did you find us anyway?” Alice asked, her arms crossed as she maintained a lingering air of suspicion.
“I actually noticed you a while back,” Mira responded, pointing a timid finger at Alice.
“Right after the game began, I panicked and started flying around the island. That’s when I saw you in the forest… burning the whole place down.”
“That was an accident!” Alice barked, her face flushing red as she immediately defended her honor.
“So, you can fly?” Sam asked, leaning forward with sudden interest.
“Why not just fly off this island entirely?”
Mira slumped her shoulders, her wings drooping slightly.
“I tried. But the moment I flew too high or too far from the island, something dragged me back down. It felt like an invisible force slammed into me and pulled me right back down.”
Sam frowned.
Nexis had clearly anticipated abilities like flight.
Every possible shortcut seemed to have been accounted for.
Escaping the island was not an option.
“Did you manage to come across anything else useful while you were up there?” Sam asked.
“No…” Mira murmured, her shoulders slumping in disappointment.
“Alright. Well, we still have six more days to survive on this island,” Sam said, a small, calculating smile forming on his face.
“But thanks to you, things might have just gotten a little bit easier.”
“Me?” Mira blinked, pointing a confused finger at her own chest.
“You have the ability to fly,” Sam explained.
“Which means you can easily scout out new terrain, map the island, or look for food sources from a safe distance.”
“That… that sounds kind of dangerous,” Mira stammered, her wings giving a nervous, involuntary flutter.
“Don’t worry!” Sam offered a reassuring grin, gesturing toward his partner.
“If you find something dangerous, fly straight back to us. Alice can handle the rest.”
Remembering the devastation Alice had unleashed in the forest, Mira realised Sam wasn’t exaggerating.
If anyone could protect her, it was the human furnace sitting beside him.
“I’ll try my best.”
“We’re counting on you,” Sam said with a reassuring smile.
With a powerful flap of her wings, she slowly lifted off the grass and caught the morning breeze.
She soared gracefully into the sky and headed out to scout, leaving a few stray, glowing feathers drifting gently down onto the two below.
“I still don’t know if we can trust her,” Alice said, her arms tightly crossed as she watched the angel disappear into the clouds.
“You trusted me when we first met,” Sam pointed out.
“That was different. I saw you get pathetically chased by a single wolf.”
Sam raised a finger, opening his mouth to deliver a sharp retort—but his mind went entirely blank.
He slowly lowered his hand.
Unfortunately, she had a point.
“Anyway,” Sam said, clearing his throat to change the subject.
“Maybe we should head back to the river and see if we can catch a few more fish.”
“Excellent idea!” Alice cheered, instantly brightening as she flashed him a thumbs-up.
They followed the riverbank they had walked the day before.
Both kept their eyes peeled for any unusual movement beneath the surface, listening closely for the distinct sound of splashing.
Unfortunately, the river remained entirely quiet.
“By the way,” Alice said, glancing over at him as they strolled along the riverbank.
“Back in the cave, you were using some sort of handheld tool that created light. What was that?”
“This?” Sam asked, pulling his device out of his pocket.
“It’s a smartphone. You don’t have these back in your world?”
“We do have phones, but they look nothing like that,” Alice said, peering curiously at the sleek piece of glass.
“And they certainly can’t create light. They’re only used for communication, and they fold in on themselves.”
What Alice described reminded Sam of the flip phones that had once been popular on Earth.
It seemed the technology in her world was lagging a bit behind his own—or perhaps, in her dimension, no one had ever thought to combine a telephone with a pocket-sized computer.
“Well, it can also do this,” Sam said with a smirk.
He raised the device and pointed the lens right at her.
Click.
“Check this out,” he said, turning the screen around so she could see it.
“Woah!” Alice gasped, her eyes going wide.
On the screen was a perfectly crisp photograph of Alice staring back in confusion.
“The quality is so sharp and clear,” she murmured, leaning in so close her nose almost touched the glass as she admired the screen.
“Wait! Let me pose properly this time!”
She scrambled back a few steps, puffed out her chest, flashed a huge grin, and threw up double peace signs.
Sam chuckled at her enthusiasm, raised the phone, and snapped another photo.
“Let me see it!” she squealed, quickly snatching the phone right out of his hand.
“Oh wow, that is so cool!”
While Alice stood there completely entranced, Sam turned his attention back to the rushing river.
His smile slowly faded as he watched the churning current.
Their biggest problem still remained: finding a sustainable food source.
But right then, it happened.
Splash.
There was that familiar sound.
“Over there!” Sam yelled, thrusting his finger toward a heavy distortion in the current.
Violent ripples churned across the river’s surface.
“I’m on it!” Alice announced.
She shoved the phone back into his hands and dove straight into the rushing water without a single second of hesitation.
She managed to clamp her hands firmly onto the sides of the thrashing shadow.
The creature’s movements were incredibly erratic, jerking violently and causing her to lose her footing, sending her splashing face-first into the rushing current.
But Alice refused to break her grip.
Tensing every muscle in her body, she heaved the massive creature completely out of the river.
THUD!
The creature slammed onto the grass right in front of Sam’s feet, violently flopping around.
It was the exact same species of fish they had eaten yesterday—except this one was slightly larger.
The massive fish tried its absolute best to flop back toward the safety of the water, but Alice scrambled out of the river and instantly shut that down, planting her boot firmly onto its belly to pin it to the earth.
“This one looks really tasty,” she murmured, her eyes glazed over as a thin string of drool dripped from the corner of her mouth.
“It sure does!”
An unfamiliar, booming voice called out from right behind them.
They spun around, the light-hearted mood instantly evaporating.
Standing on the riverbank was a mountain of a man—easily two meters tall, with a terrifyingly muscular build that practically blocked out the sun.
In his right hand, he casually hefted a massive wooden club, while his left gripped a heavy, metal-rimmed shield.
“How about you hand that over to me?” the giant rumbled, a cocky smirk spreading across his face as he pointed the club toward the fish.