CLANG- CLANG- “ARGH!” Agony ripped through my body as they forced me into a narrow capsule barely large enough to contain a person.
Heavy alloy shackles snapped around my wrists, ankles, and waist one after another, each metallic clang echoing through the confined chamber until it drowned out my own scream.
The man standing outside didn’t spare me so much as a glance.
He simply reached up.
Then…
Something heavy descended over my head.
Thud- The hatch sealed shut.
Darkness.
Complete and absolute darkness swallowed me whole.
I drew a ragged breath, trying to calm my pounding heart.
The air inside the capsule was stale, cold, and suffocatingly cramped.
Every breath bounced back at me.
Then I heard it.
Another capsule.
Only a short distance away.
Stephanie…
A few shaky breaths later, a frightened voice broke the silence.
“…Big brother?” Her voice trembled.
“W-Where are you…?” I closed my eyes.
“I’m here.” The words came out far steadier than I felt.
“Don’t worry.” “…Everything’s going to be okay.” I hesitated.
Then forced myself to finish.
“I promise.” The promise hadn’t even finished leaving my lips before another violent clang rang through the chamber.
Steph let out a startled yelp.
Her hatch…
…had closed too.
Now she was trapped in darkness just like me.
Neither of us spoke after that.
There was nothing left to say.
Only our uneven breathing lingered inside the metallic prison until, a few moments later, another heavy thud reverberated through the structure.
The outer hatches had sealed.
Silence followed.
Then a cold, emotionless voice echoed through every inch of the chamber, “Protocol: Crime and Punishment…
initiated.” For a heartbeat…
Nothing happened.
Then I felt it.
A low vibration spread beneath me.
Soft at first.
Barely noticeable.
It steadily grew stronger.
The hum of Ability Fuel engines reverberated through the capsule, climbing higher and higher until the entire chamber shook around us.
The sound became deafening, forcing me to grit my teeth as the vibrations rattled every broken bone and bruised muscle in my body.
Then…
The pressure shifted beneath my feet.
All of a sudden, It felt as though I were moving.
No…
not just moving.
I was…
falling.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Until…
“…Huh?” As I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by nothing but pure darkness.
I shook my head, trying to clear my mind, then attempted to move my arms.
But…
No matter how much I tried, my body simply wouldn’t budge.
It felt as though I was trapped inside something solid, something that prevented even the slightest movement.
What…
the hell?
I scowled tiredly.
Well…
if I couldn’t break free normally, then I guess…
I would just have to use force.
That…
Was easier said than done.
“Argh!” Groaning in terrible agony, I forced my battered muscles to pull with all their remaining strength.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
After several attempts, I finally managed to make some progress.
Though…
It had absolutely nothing to do with freeing myself.
“AGH!” A…
A splinter.
A sharp piece of bark pierced into my arm, digging straight through one of my open wounds and drowning me in a world of pain.
F*ck!
Damned sharp objects…
I hated them so much.
Though…
it did help me realise where the hell I was.
I wasn’t trapped inside some sort of prison.
Nor was I strapped to a chair, surrounded by endless darkness.
No.
I was inside a tree.
I WAS INSIDE A GODDAMNED TREE!
As the realisation settled into my mind, my attempts at breaking free became far more aggressive.
I started pulling with even more force.
Another splinter tore into my shoulder.
“Argh!” I screamed in pain.
“F*CK YOU!” I said calmly as though the tree could respond.
After more futile attempts, I finally managed to pull my right arm free, sending a cloud of decayed dust directly into my face.
Splinters dug into my body once again.
Cursing under my breath, I continued pulling with every bit of strength I had left.
I was determined to escape the grasp of this evil tree.
Back in the Ruins, I had always wondered how my death would eventually come.
I had even created countless of such scenarios inside my head.
Falling into a deep rocky pit.
Succumbing to some kind of disease.
Getting myself shot and killed by a patrol officer.
Scenarios like that.
Dying inside a tree…
That was definitely not one of them.
I refuse…
I REFUSE TO BE KILLED BY A BLOODY DAMNED TREE!
The silent roar echoed inside my mind as I continued struggling until every muscle in my body screamed.
Eventually, I was forced to stop and catch my breath.
Just then…
A faint voice reached my ears.
“Big…
brother?” Steph.
“YEAH!
I’M HERE!
I’M IN HERE!” A low gasp came from the other side.
A few seconds passed in silence.
Then…
BASH- The tree shook violently.
My entire body was thrown against the decayed bark again and again.
“Argh!” I groaned.
Then, as shards of splintered wood flew through the air, a thin stream of pale light entered through a crack that was slowly forming.
My eyes widened.
Now I understood what those sounds were.
Stephanie was trying to break me out by smashing the tree with a piece of rock.
With that realisation, I couldn’t help but smile proudly.
“Smart girl,” I whispered.
As another impact shook the tree, the force rattled my entire body along with it.
The crack continued to expand.
BASH- BASH- …
CRACK!
With a deafening crackle of splintering wood, a large opening was finally torn into the tree.
A stream of pale light flooded inside, forcing me to shut my eyes for a moment as it blinded me.
Then…
I saw her.
A girl no older than thirteen stood outside the broken tree, her face filled with a mixture of worry and slight annoyance as she stared at me.
She immediately reached out her hand.
“Are…
are you okay?” Her voice was filled with concern.
I smiled.
“Fine…” I paused as another wave of pain shot through my body.
“Ow.” I corrected myself.
“I’m just fine.” As my wounds scraped against the remaining splinters, I reached out and grabbed her extended hand.
The moment our hands connected…
She pulled.
And in the next second, my entire body was launched out of the tree and sent crashing onto the rocky ground.
“AH!” That…
Yeah…
Steph really was a Superhuman now.
I sighed and quickly tried to spring back onto my feet, only to immediately stumble.
Thankfully, Steph reacted quickly and grabbed a part of my arm, steadying my body before I could hit the ground again.
“Don’t just start jumping around.
You can barely even walk.” I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment.
“Sorry…
and thank you.” I chuckled slightly before turning my gaze back toward the tree I had been trapped inside.
The tree was as close to complete decay as a tree could possibly get.
Its bark was blackened and discoloured, its branches withered and lifeless, with some of them having already fallen away.
A massive hole, large enough for a human body, had been torn into its trunk.
The exact place where I had been trapped.
I stared at the tree for a few moments before narrowing my eyes.
Then…
I grinned.
“Serves you right, asshole,” I muttered under my breath.
…
Wait.
Why the hell was I insulting a decayed tree?
I smacked my own forehead.
Maybe I really was going insane.
Shaking my head, I finally looked away from the tree and began observing our surroundings.
Only then did I truly realise where we were.
Me and Steph…
We were actually here.
This was the place the Elders feared even mentioning.
The nightmare within the world of nightmares beyond the Rifts.
Zone 0.
My expression slowly turned serious as I inspected our surroundings.
A thick sea of mist surrounded us, swallowing everything beyond a few metres away.
The pale fog crawled across the land like a living being, wrapping around every decayed tree and stone in an endless grey veil.
No matter how hard I focused, my vision couldn’t pierce through it.
I couldn’t see more than a few steps ahead.
Stephanie trembled slightly beside me before speaking in a quiet voice.
“Um…
where are we?” I looked at her.
“What do you mean?
We’re in Zone 0.” She shook her head.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Her eyes wandered through the endless mist.
“I meant…
can you see through the mist…
at all?” Her voice grew smaller.
“I can’t see anything.” I froze.
Stephanie was a Superhuman.
Her physical abilities had surpassed those of mundane humans.
Her strength, speed, and even her senses should have been on an entirely different level.
But even she couldn’t see through this damned mist.
My expression hardened.
Damnation.
This wasn’t just ordinary fog.
This was something else entirely.
I looked around once more.
The endless white haze swallowed the unfamiliar land completely as the total absence of direction sent chills down my spine.
A cold realisation slowly settled inside me.
We…
We were…
lost.
Lost in the mist.