“Run fast!” Anna ordered while gasping from the exhaustion of the previous fight.
Everyone ran while Zak coughed blood from the new effort, aggravating his wound.
“We have to look for a place to take shelter!
This way we’ll get tired and end up devoured” Zak commented, coughing blood.
“Don’t talk, Zak!
I already know.
Just run and keep your mouth shut” Anna replied.
The four ran without stopping, since behind them, from the sky, a group of dragonflies followed them.
“It hurts a lot…!” Dave commented while running with the bloody arm.
“Keep running, guys!
I already know you’re wounded, but if we stop we’ll end up dead, for sure!” Anna answered.
“Shit, Dave.
If only you hadn’t screamed…” Mike scolded.
*** “You still hurt?” Anna asked while pressing Zak’s wound, who was already lying against a giant mushroom.
“Yes, still…” he answered.
“Okay, hold on a little longer.” Anna bandaged the cloth around Zak’s abdomen strongly to stop the hemorrhage.
“Even though you’re new to the subject of hemorrhages and about… all that, you already adapted very well” Zak commented.
Anna remained silent a moment while she finished bandaging him.
“A nurse must always be prepared for whatever” she answered.
Zak sighed slightly at Anna’s unmatched logic.
“Enough!” Dave raised his voice while looking at the three.
“I’m confused, really confused about all this!
I just want to go home… Why the hell aren’t you scared?
Don’t you realize the situation we’re in?” Anna remained silent along with Zak while they looked at the young man.
But Mike got up and confronted him, still wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“What do you think?
That I’m not scared?
That Anna or Zak aren’t?” Dave stood firm.
“Eh?” Mike approached with a serious and corrective tone: “You think Zak shouldn’t be traumatized?
Who the hell knows what he might have seen to be like this?
And you, because you saw how they split a person in two, you’re like that?” “You wouldn’t understand” Dave answered.
“Yes I understand.
But what do you want me to do?
That I stay paralyzed waiting for a miserable end?
Zak, despite having seen more things, is still standing, even if half paranoid.
But he’s here with us, without complaining.” “They’re them, Mike!
I’m Dave, I’m a damn teenager who’s entering adulthood.
What do you expect?” “You said it yourself!
You’re already stopping being a damn brat, mature like an adult!” “Don’t fuck with me!
I’m scared, Mike!
Don’t you realize?” “What thing?
That you’re still thinking like a damn teenager?” Dave remained silent, approached Mike and pushed him.
He got up clearly indignant, starting a fight.
“Wow, wow!
Calm down, guys!” Anna ordered while getting up and putting herself between the two, who were clearly angry.
“Guys, fighting won’t solve anything.
Calm down” Zak replied.
Despite the pain, he got up and held Dave on one side, while Anna held Mike.
“How to calm down?
Don’t you see where we are?
Lost in the middle of a whole damn multiverse, Zak!
A DAMN MULTIVERSE!” Dave shouted breaking free from Zak, who had him held with his only arm.
Before the situation escalated, a strong blow shook the floor.
Above them, a dragonfly had positioned itself on a mushroom and attacked with one of its fangs at Dave, who was closer.
Dave moved immediately, but didn’t get out unharmed: his arm was now bleeding from a large cut.
“Shit!” Dave shouted holding his arm while dragging himself, clearly scared.
They didn’t have time to react.
The sound of more flapping didn’t take long to arrive: more dragonflies were approaching.
“Run!” Anna ordered.
…
“Look, over there!” Anna pointed at an entrance to what seemed to be a cave.
“Let’s go quick!” Zak ordered while entering with Anna and the others.
The sound of ragged breathing and Dave’s groans was so loud it was uncomfortable.
“Hold on, Dave…” Mike commented.
Dave remained silent while holding his wounded arm tightly.
The dragonflies fell like meteors, sinking their fangs through the entrance and trying to reach the group.
“Shit, hold on, Dave!” Anna ordered.
From his own shirt she tore a piece of cloth and bandaged the arm tightly, repeating the process.
“Back!” Mike ordered while with his axe he tried to keep away the dragonflies that sank their fangs through the entrance.
Dave’s bleeding stopped, but the pain was still there.
The dragonflies seemed not to want to give up.
Without more, Zak sank the axe into the head of one of them.
The dragonfly pulled back from the pain, while the others, upon seeing her weak, began to devour her along with the rest and finally took her flying.
“Shit… there’s no honor among them” Mike commented.
“They’re bugs, what did you expect?” Anna answered.
Zak left the axe to the side and approached a tired and wounded Dave who was against a wall.
“How are you, Dave?” “Fine… I suppose…” Dave stood up while looking at the three.
“Sorry, guys.
It wasn’t my intention…” “I know.
Just that for next time try not to freak out, worse in dimensions like this” Mike answered.
“Shit… I hate caves” Zak commented looking at his environment, which seemed to expand more toward the back.
“You think there are still ants?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know, but we can’t go out either.
I’m sure now that they know we’re wounded they must be prowling the zone” Anna answered.
Dave simply sighed while observing the cave.
“Will it be safe to spend the night here?” Mike asked.
“I doubt it.
I’ll try to open another portal, okay?” Zak commented while coughing blood.
“In any case, this dimension is very dangerous.” “I swear if you fry your brain or die, I’ll chase you in the afterlife for having left us to die” Anna said.
Zak stopped and sat down again, resigned.
“The sunset has already started to fall” Mike commented observing the reddish sky.
“Yes… and the possibility that this place fills with some bug looking for shelter is bigger” Anna answered.
“We have to block the entrance, but fast” Zak ordered getting up once more.
“You and Dave sit down.
Both of you are wounded, besides you’re missing an arm” Anna commented while getting up and, along with Mike, began to move a group of nearby stones.
Mike, without waiting for a signal, got up to help Anna while the sun kept hiding more.
Finally they left only a small opening for air to come in.
“Good… Now my turn” Dave murmured.
He looked at a group of stones thrown on the floor and, after a while, took two in his hands.
With some destroyed wood that was in the cave, he made a campfire.
“Wow… And where did you end up knowing that from?” Mike asked.
“I just learned it as a kid when I was in those classic explorer groups called scouts and well… ” Dave answered.
“You thought it would ever be useful to you?” “No, but now I see that it is.” The four surrounded the campfire while they warmed themselves around it.
“You think the next dimension you manage to open will be safer?” Anna asked.
Zak, who was thinking, looked at Anna slightly before answering: “I don’t know… But I’ll try to see what I can do.” “I understand” she murmured.
Dave made his nose sound slightly while blinking, clearly exhausted.
“You cold?” Zak asked upon noticing a weak Dave.
“Yes… ” he said in a murmur.
Zak gave his robe to Dave, who lay down on the floor, wrapped himself in it and finally closed his eyes.
Mike unconsciously had also fallen asleep from exhaustion, leaving only Zak and Anna awake.
“Tomorrow… we don’t know what’s waiting for us and it’s worth being prepared” Zak commented.
“Yes… But try, if you can, to open a portal toward a safe dimension, okay?
“Yes, yes, I get it.
They’ve already told me many times.
I’ll do my best.” Anna didn’t answer, she just moved closer to the fire, clearly satisfied with the answer.
Zak slowly closed his eyes and finally fell asleep.
The next morning, while everyone was still sleeping, the sound of a small tremor shook the whole cave, waking everyone up at once.
“What the fuck is happening now?!” Mike asked angrily while getting up still with sleepy eyes.
“We’ll never have a moment of peace…” Dave murmured.
Anna got up immediately, held her sword and peeked through the small opening they had left the day before.
She only saw a bunch of ants and orcs mobilizing toward the north.
“Something is happening, guys… We have to leave now” Anna ordered turning to look at a Zak who had already woken up.
…
In a dimension full of rubble, with a sky full of auroras, while the sound of wind howled, a figure emerged from among the rubble.
A man dressed in black came out with two metal gloves, snow goggles and a scarf that covered half his head.
He lowered the scarf and activated a strange communicator he wore like a necklace.
“Mmmm, we arrived late, Ziro… The dimension was already destroyed” the man reported.
Static sounded for a moment before being heard again: “Shit… Okay, come back, Agent F.H.” the voice ordered.
“Understood” he answered, and cut the communication.
The man pulled the scarf back up while looking at the destroyed horizon.
Finally he took out a pistol, shot and a crack opened through which he disappeared.