2:57
2:58
2:59
3:00

Three o'clock. Two days after the crash. And still no Sophie. Zack had looked everywhere. His ribs hurt, he was burned, bruised, and gashed. He felt dead already. At least he had his bag...which had long since run out of medical supplies. Every breath taken rattled in Zack's chest and caused him intense pain.

But still he looked. He didn't come this far to lose Sophie now. They were still friends, but becoming slightly more the longer they spent together. And now...the chance of being more was very small.

Zack stumbled despondently up the hill. He wanted to just lie down and give up. But his heart wanted otherwise. And he felt like he knew when he was getting closer to Sophie, though he didn't know why.

The moss squished under Zack's demolished sneakers. He sighed and kicked them off, leaving them there to rot. His sweatshirt was as good as gone too, and he threw the bloodstained thing into the mud. Then he stopped. His heart fell into his stomach. Not twenty feet away, Sophie lie unconscious. Twisted shards of metal were scattered about her ((somehow her gun was intact and lying a few feet away from her)). Her clothes were burned and ripped, her arms scraped. Metal was impaled in parts of her legs. A large gash was scratched across her forehead and a smaller one across her cheek.

Zack ran up to her. She was barely breathing. He gasped as her injuries came into detail. They were surely critical. Zack picked her up despite his complaining ribs. He knew he needed help for her. Carrying her delicately and realizing how beautiful she looked even when half dead (which Zack never prided himself on noticing), he started to limp dejectedly wherever his instincts would take him.

His instincts took him promptly into the side of a tree.

But not just any tree. Zack winced and rubbed his forehead, looking up at the tree. He remembered this one. Hope rising in his chest, he began to grin. This was an old dimension jump portal. Maybe it still worked. Still holding Sophie, he traced his fingers along the old blackened indentations on the trunk and prayed for a miracle. The trunk began to glow blue on the indentations, and suddenly the tree came to life. A gaping portal swirled in the tree's center. Zack took a breath and stepped in.

----

Sophie's eyes fluttered open. She was laying on a bed made of plant fibers and wooden planks. She tried to sit up and gasped in pain. Her sides hurt like heck, and a throbbing sensation pounded at the front of her skull. Sophie held a hand to her forehead and looked out the window. She appeared to be in a tree that looked down onto rolling hills and a setting sun. Strange creatures roamed through the grasses and flew overhead.

Sophie laid back down, dizziness overcoming her. Her eyelids felt heavy, and she fell asleep.

Zack came in a while later to check on Sophie. His own wounds bandaged and taken care of by the healer, he sat next to the bed. Zack brushed Sophie's bloodstained blonde bangs out of her closed eyes and bit his lip. It hurt to see her like this. Her breathing was somewhat shallow and shaky. Zack sighed. "Why do you have to worry me?" He leaned forward and hesitated for a second. Then he tentatively kissed Sophie on the forehead, which sent a strange rush buzzing through his veins.

Zack sat back. The healer hopped up the smooth, rounded wood steps, his dogs' legs prancing. He was a strange creature that Zack knew well, by the name of Kyhr. He had a scaly upper body with furry dog legs and hands like that of a chameleon. His face was long and rectangular with eyes that opened sideways. His farmers' hat sat crooked upon his tuft of fur.

Kyhr made a series of clicks and whistles. Zack nodded. "Yeah, she doesn't sound too good."

Kyhr frowned and dug through a bag. He pulled out a vile of glowing green liquid. Zack's eyes widened. "Uh," he stammered, "I don't think--"

The alien shushed him and filled a syringe with the liquid before injecting it into Sophie's arm. She gasped and sat straight up, her veins glowing faintly for a second before she began to cough.

Zack calmed her and she took a heaving, gasping breath. Kyhr smiled proudly and brushed off his hands before hopping back downstairs. Sophie coughed again. "Wow," she gagged. "I feel like I have an intense case of heartburn."

Zack gestured to where Kyhr had disappeared. "That's what that kind of medicine does," he said.

Sophie looked at him. "You know that thing?"

"He's an old friend from my travels. This was one of the first dimensions I came through when I started this job."

Sophie cocked her head. "What job?" she inquired. "You've mentioned it, but never elaborated on what it was."

Zack shifted. "Well, you see--"

A piercing screech filled the air, accompanied by a pained yowl. Sophie stiffened. "That sounded like a cat."

"There are no--"

"IT WAS A CAT!" She grabbed her gun and vaulted out the window, landing on the moss and running deeper into the forest. "COME ON, ZACK! NOTHING HURTS ANY INNOCENT ANIMAL AS LONG AS I'M CONCERNED!"

Zack sighed but jumped out the tree and followed her. He wasn't going to let her fight on her own. Besides, he loved cats. If there was actually a cat, he wanted it.

Zack found Sophie cocking her gun and bracing herself behind two huge grayish monsters. Between them was in fact a cat, yowling and laying pathetically in a pool of its own blood. The monsters had...removed its front legs and were eating them as the cat screamed in pain. Sophie trembled with rage. She charged her gun and fired at one of the monsters, killing it instantly in a large explosion.

"NO ONE TREATS PRECIOUS ANIMALS LIKE THAT, YOU WRETCHED SLIME BALLS!!" Her gun needed more power for a deadly blast, but she fired at the remaining monster over and over again until it lumbered away, moaning and bleeding.

Sophie watched it leave, panting and covered in monster blood. Zack picked up the pained cat and tried to stop the bleeding from its little stumps. He came up next to Sophie, his hands turning red. "Are you done being angry?" he asked her.

"Yes!" she barked, very angrily. "Let's get this cat fixed up!"

When Kyhr saw the cat, he gaped. He took it in his arms and hopped into the room to get it bandaged and stitched up.

Sophie slumped into one of the chairs that sat around the room. "That poor cat...oh, gosh, that poor cat...."

Zack put a hand on her shoulder. "He'll be okay," he reassured. "Kyhr will fix him up. We'll have to keep him though."

Sophie leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. A small shadow demon popped up in the window and Sophie fired at it without even looking at it, hitting it in the head and killing it. Zack stared at her and her sudden hardcore butt-kickery. She'd really toughened up in the few weeks they'd been on the run. More so than he imagined he ever would. She was a seasoned warrior and escapee, blowing up dragons and murdering gray blobby henchmen of the Author...

Zack blinked. Dread built up inside him. "S-Sophie..." he started, his voice wavering. "You realize what you killed back there...right?"

"I killed a disgusting evil monster who was eating a cat alive," she remarked, void of emotion. "Why?"

"You killed one of the Author's henchmen, her spies. You let the other one go. Sophie, she's gonna find us even easier now."

Sophie went rigid. "I....I what?"

Zack looked at her. "You heard--"

Sophie snapped, "No, I heard what you said!" She buried her face in her hands again and she started shaking. "No, nonononono! Oh my gosh, no! What did I do?! I'm so stupid and irrational and--"

"Sophie--"

"No! I've put us all in danger! We're all gonna die faster now and it's all my fault!" She jumped out of her chair and ran upstairs. Zack watched her, feeling guilty for putting her in that position.

He sat down heavily and sighed, staring at the ceiling. It was intricate and beautiful in its living, growing design. So many vibrant, earthy shades, ranging from mud brown to amber red. The colors swirled around each other in a fiery mosaic of growing wood like a campfire at sunset in the desert.

Kyhr came down the stairs and gestured for Zack to go talk to Sophie. Zack didn't really want to go up there, but he sensed Sophie needed consoling. So he headed up the stairs and tentatively, quietly tiptoed into the room.

Sophie was curled up on a bed in the corner, her back to Zack. She was sobbing, and the cat they'd rescued was curled around her head protectively, his front legs--or what was left of them--bandaged.

Zack sat down gently on the side of the bed, and Sophie didn't make any effort to acknowledge his presence.

He sighed. "It wasn't your fault, you know." She didn't respond. Zack stared at his shoes. "If anyone had any fault in anything that happened in the past hour," he confessed, "it's me."

Sophie's sobs got quieter. Zack glanced at her.

"I panicked and...and I made it seem like this was your fault. I made it sound like you should've known better. And you didn't. You didn't know that those were spies. I should have warned you, but I didn't...I couldn't really comprehend that they were what they were."

Sophie punched him lightly in the back, sniffling. "Y-you're an i-idiot," she muttered.

"I am. And I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for making you feel bad about this. Again, it wasn't your fault."

Zack turned to her and she looked him in the eye. He smiled weakly. "We good?"

Sophie's cheeks were tearstained and red, but she managed a smile and hugged him quickly. "We're good."

Suddenly an explosion ripped apart the base of the tree and it crashed to the ground in a cloud of black smoke.