Escaping Hell

The two continued to talk deep into the night as Terran had many questions about the city, and the next day, they both set out. Terran was thankful that his hunger was driving him down the same path. The unfortunate truth was that he would have ended up following his urge even if it took him in the opposite direction.

Sophie occasionally veered off the unbeaten path to check her traps as they walked. Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, they were almost all empty. Terran noticed a wide array of traps, making it clear Sophie was after everything, or more accurately, anything.

Hours of walking ensued, and the sun was beginning to dwindle. Terran had learned that it would take two days of walking to return to the city, and they were roughly halfway there.

As they approached what had to have been the sixtieth trap, a sharp, high pitch yowl broke the silence. Terran turned to Sophie, but she had already dashed up ahead. Curious, he followed. Approaching, he noticed a small sand cat lifelessly hanging from her grip.

Seeing the lifeless cat, Terran once again felt a tinge of sadness. Although he was no stranger to the cycle of life, it still panged him every time he saw an animal's death. He had always shared a close bond with the small animals scattered throughout the wasteland. Even so, that bond had never stopped him from taking their lives to quell his stomach; so, at the end of the day, who was he to judge?

Sophie's happiness after securing the cat could not be suppressed. If treated with care, a sand cat's fur could go for a very high price. Enough in fact that she would not have to worry about food for at least two weeks.

Just like that, another day passed. The only other animals caught were a handful of tiny mice, but something else had occurred. As the sun began setting for the second day of their journey, Terran felt the hunger that had been driving him being satiated at a much higher pace. However, just as the need was filled, a stronger urge would just as quickly replace it.

Despite Terran's short legs and skinny body, he started jogging.

Helpless and confused, the only thing Sophie could do was follow as Terran was moving slightly faster than her.

The constant mysterious cycle occurring inside of Terran was causing him to act like a moth to a lamp. As time passed, he only sped up.

Sophie's expression soon became frantic, "Slow down!" but it was as if he could not even hear her cry.

Anyone who saw this scene would have thought the pair were suicidal. Running through the wasteland was a Deathwish. If you tripped and injured your leg, there was no way your provisions would last with your decreased travel speed. The number of calories you would burn could not be made up, and your perspiration would exponentially increase.

Sophie only had less than half a pouch of water left, and Terran was already managing to run at a speed she could not compete with. She could only watch as his tiny body got smaller and smaller on the horizon.

As Terran continued to sprint, he began to feel a strange sensation throughout his body. It felt as if his muscles were contracting and then folding into one another. The feeling was anything but pleasant. However, the gratification from running faster came hand and hand with the pain.

In his current predicament, Terran was trapped in a positive feedback loop. His hunger drove him forward while being instantly rewarded by a blissful satisfaction of relief. But, unfortunately, with the pleasure came an increase in his speed, which caused the process to perpetually quicken.

Terran was far out of Sophies sight by this point, but if someone were to observe him, they would be amazed by his speed. He was currently running at a rate only seen by Olympic athletes doing a hundred-meter sprint. While it was undoubtedly an achievable speed for humans, it was anything but possible for a malnourished kid who looked to be the age of fourteen. Shockingly, if they looked even closer, they would also notice the kid was somehow growing skinnier at a visible rate.

Ever since Terran could remember, his situation was as if someone was dangling a carrot from a stick a few meters out of his grasp. At the same time, another person was lashing his back with a whip screaming at him to grab the carrot. But all of that had changed; the carrot that had always eluded his grasp was actually within his reach.

After about thirty minutes of running through the rugged terrain, Terran ran into a steep slope that looked as if it went hundreds of meters into the air. Despite the sharp angle of this slope, Terran noticed a surprising number of shrubs growing on it. Even a few scattered trees somehow survived, hanging off of varying ledges that jutted out of the slope. But that was not all, as further up the mountain floated a thick layer of fluffy white cloud, concealing the mountain's actual height. Up until this point, Terran had never even seen a tree or a cloud. Because of this, it was no exaggeration to say that this unimpressive sight was simply breathtaking from his point of view.

Carved into the slope, which was at its lowest forty-five degrees, was a set of stairs. Next to the stairs, etched into the red rocks of the slope, was a short sentence, Welcome to the Oasis, the last city of humanity.

Terran paused for a second, looking back and scanning the path he had taken. Sophie was nowhere in sight. With his mind finally slowing down to understand his surroundings, he felt terrible for running off without even explaining himself. Sophie had been nothing but a saint, sharing her precious resources. Yet, he had not even given her a thank you or good by before disappearing.

For better or worse, the guilt did not last long. It was quickly pushed to the back of his mind, replaced by the feeling that the thing that had been calling him with an iron fist was just past the mountainous slope.

Without wasting any more time, Terran began to ascend the arduous stairs in front of him. Time seemed to crawl to a stop as the anticipation from his grueling two-year journey began to climax. It felt as if he had been climbing for an entire day when in reality, it had only been roughly an hour. This travel time was actually rather impressive, considering each step ranged from a half afoot to up to two feet in height. Two feet might not sound like a challenge, but for someone of Terran's size, a few of the singular steps neared his waste. Ignoring his size, these steps would have anyone puking their guts out by the time they reached the top.

Once Terran reached the wonderous clouds, his situation only worsened. The visibility was terrible, and one misstep could send him falling hundreds of feet. Yet, despite knowing this, Terran had not once looked back and only continued to climb.

While being impressive, the mountain was not infinitely tall. So, after another thirty minutes of climbing, Terran's hand grasped the top on one of the smaller peaks. Thankfully the stairs did not continue up another peak and instead formed a path going forward.

Following the path with deep concentration, Terran managed to contain his body's wailing desire as he kept a steady pace. He was careful not to rush ahead as the visibility was still next to none. Soon, however, his path was blocked by what could only be described as a glowing blue translucent barrier. Briefly shocked, he paused, unsure of what he was looking at, but as his body only continued screaming at him to step forward, he could not help but oblige the calling.

Reaching out his finger, Terran cautiously touched the barrier. Immediately he felt a cool and refreshing sensation run through his body, and without any resistance, his finger passed through. Then, assured that the blue translucent wall would not bring him any harm, he quickly stepped through without another thought.

The change happened instantly. For Terran, it felt as if he was a fish that had been living on land his entire life, having to breathe by sucking water out of a baby bottle. Only now, he had just been thrown into the ocean. The driving hunger that had been controlling his life was nearly wholly suppressed, only a tiny fragment of it lingering. Still, it was no longer strong enough to control Terran's actions.

At that moment, he could not help but lay on the ground and sigh in relief, taking many deep breaths of the air that felt one hundred times purer. He then closed his eyes and started to relax. It felt as if a thousand suffocating blankets had been taken off him.

At the moment, the air washing around him almost felt alive, filling him with utter bliss.

A few seconds later, though, his beloved bliss was interrupted by a loud ding followed by an odd female mechanical voice.

<Sufficient mana detected, activating The Gaia System.>