Lu hurriedly got up when she heard the turmoil from a distance. The sound of a deafening roar. The girl ran to the origin of the sound and found a mess there. Marth and Koch seemed to be chuckling toward her.
"Where have you been?" asked Marth exclaiming slightly. Her face was terrified.
"What's the matter? What happened?" replied Lu back asking.
Koch jumped up and immediately pulled the two girls away from there. "Damn it!" he cursed. "How come wild creatures like them can break in?"
"What? Who?" Lu was still wondering.
In the end, a huge shadow passed over them. That's Naag, a winged reptile with a burst of blue lightning. Quite a contrast for creatures resulting from genetic mutations like them.
Lu took a sip of saliva. "Let's hurry up!"
The three teenagers ran out of the base they called the nest. It seems the Etheria region is not safe to live in anymore. They need to get out of there soon.
"You're stupid? If we go out, where are we going?" said Koch. The young man looked pretentiously brave even though a look of fear was engraved on his face.
"Anywhere!" said Marth. "I want to run away from the two monsters!"
Lu sighed. The chocolate eyes looked at Naag who was in the air and the chaos caused by Uma. Oddly enough, she thought the transparent nest here would protect them from the creatures, but it wasn't. What, then, was the dome made for? It's so weird!
"We're going to E2!" exclaimed the black-haired girl. Her two friends seemed to glare at her. "Come on!"
"You're serious?" chided Koch. The young man seemed to never be able to trust any woman.
"Do I look kidding?" retorted Lu not to be outdone. She was quite upset that Koch had seen her as a weak woman since they met.
The blond young man took a sip of saliva. "All right," he said. "Come on, Marth."
Marth just sighed. Her breathing was gone and for the sake of her safety, anything she would do this time, including obeying her friends' ideas.
The three teenagers came out of the nest just now and walked through the dense forest in the E1 region. The plants there are very tall and most of them include spikes, lichens, and mushrooms of super large size due to the results of mutations. Lu clucked a little irritably considering how much humans are blinded by technology. Little by little, she understands that Eos is the dystopian version of Earth in the future.
That means, she and Nel, including Marth and Koch, are time-passers and lost in the future.
Lu's eyes looked at the night sky. Naag's silhouette was still visible in the distance when she and her two friends were already out of the E1 region. Uma's roar was heard and this time it crossed as if not only one tail was attacking the dome.
"I'm betting that we won't be able to survive outside of Etheria," Koch muttered.
Marth squeaked. Her energy was filled enough now that her fears had vanished. "You're the only one who's dead. I don't want to!" she said.
Lu turned her head and looked at the two companions. "Do you think Etheria only has 3 regions?" she asked.
Koch and Marth are in staring at each other.
"As far as we know, Etheria only has 3 regions, E1 to E3," Koch replied. "Besides, we haven't heard of it."
"No one dares to go out of the dome after they have been thrown into this world, Lu," Marth said. "Maybe it's because...."
"Scared," Koch continued. That one word adequately describes the psychic state of those who entered the portal and got lost in Eos.
Lu sighed. Her eyes stared into the distance. "If you want to, we might be able to get through E1 and head to the border," she said. "I'm pretty sure, there's a lot of new territories out there that's never been touched."
"You want to?"
The girl whose black hair swayed in wind turned her head towards Koch. She trailed off.
"But I can't guarantee your safety out there," the blond young man continued.
Lu took a sip of saliva. Koch was right. Perhaps, she seems to be too ambitious to go outside of Etheria. However, a pat on the shoulder unraveled her reverie. Marth looked at her with an expectant look on her face.
"I thought, we can get through it together," said the red-haired girl. "You said, you want to find your friend, right? In that case, why don't we just look for it together?"
Koch patted the forehead. "Don't start," he complained. "You girls and me—"
"I'm not asking you to protect us," Marth interrupted. "We can take care of each other and I promise I won't trouble you later."
A faint smile was engraved on the corner of Lu's lips. "I won't trouble you later either," she said to Koch, who was then met with the young man's heavy sigh.
Koch scratched the nape of his neck that didn't itch. "Alright, I'm just going to move according to my instincts," he said.
Naag's roar started patronizing back there. The shouts of the very sad people were heard. It seems they have also begun to leave the dome. Koch looked back for a moment, then looked at the two girls in front of him back.
"We'd better hurry," he said, then walked ahead of Lu and Marth. The two girls just fiddled with each other's shoulders before finally catching up with him.
Not having time for them to get away from there, suddenly an Uma penetrated the bush and appeared not far behind the three teenagers. They glared as the black tiger with shiny fangs stared violently at them. Lu frowned when she saw Uma's claws which turned out to be shiny iron sheaths when the moonlight hit her.
"Is it a robot?" the girl murmured.
"Don't ask me! Let's run!" squealed Koch as he pulled the two girls beside him away from there.
The black tiger roared to the deafening. It ran and further cut the distance between itself and the three teenagers. In the meantime, Lu occasionally looked back, making sure that her conjecture was correct. However, it is like an optical illusion. Uma's body looked real and unlike the AI she often saw before being thrown at Eos.
"The paws...." The girl was still muttering and subconsciously tripped over a lump of garbage until her body slumped.
"Lu!" cried Koch. After all, his man's soul was still struggling this second. Between wanting to save the girl or running away.
Marth, who was standing next to him, was about to go to Lu but was held back by Koch. The young man's eyes stared at Uma who was getting closer to Lu. While Lu, the girl was staring at Uma's movements that were now only a few meters left. The tiger roared with both front legs raised, but something blocked its sight along with Lu closed her eyes.
A flash of light that came out of nowhere dazzled the view. Lu, who realized this, suddenly got up and caught up with Marth and Koch. However, it was unlucky when Uma, who ambushed her just now, immediately threw a sharp scratch and injured her right leg.
"Fuck a bitch!"
Koch snatched the rusty iron origin around him. He ran towards Uma who attacked Lu and directly swung the iron toward the black tiger. Uma roared before Lu finally threw her with rusty cans that she could reach to repel the wild monsters.
"Die there!" cried Koch pretentiously. He grabbed the origin of iron and threw it on Uma's body until the tiger ran back into the woods. Koch's breathing hit, but then it was held back when he saw Lu who was approached by Marth.
"Are you okay?" asked Marth. She almost closed her mouth when she saw the wound on Lu's gaping limbs.
"Why didn't you run away quickly?" continued Koch. He knelt after tearing off a little of the fabric of his shirt to close the black-haired girl's wound.
Lu didn't chime in. Her attention was drawn to an aircraft flying up there. Koch and Marth looked in the same direction.
"What's that?" asked Koch. "Plane?"
"While here, it's only this time that there is such a vehicle here," Marth muttered.
The white-and-blue futuristic design aircraft fired at high speed leaving the site. Lu looked at the vehicle she had seen for the first time during her time in Eos. Her brown eyes, which was highlighted by the moon, seemed to flash, attracting the attention of a young man who was on the plane.
The young man glanced. His blue eyes hinted at many meanings. He trailed off, then refocused on the rudder of his plane. However, a noisy voice caught his attention.
"Have you surveyed the location?" the interlocutor asked through the earphones attached to the ears.
The young man was beaten. "It's messy," he replied.
"Go back to headquarters now," the voice said.
The young man turned off the communication channel. His attention was again drawn to the figure of the girl down there whom he failed to save. If only he had succeeded in dispelling the black tiger just now, the girl would not have been injured.
However, a flash of memory that came out of nowhere suddenly shocked his head. He cried and shook his head for a moment. A gasp escaped his nose before he finally resumed the flight.
***