We cleared the trees, and Theo got his first look of the house in the daylight. He tried hard not to react.

“You can stay out here. I need to put the sand in the storage unit inside,” I said.

Theo started stacking the sand by the greenhouse with little ceremony before he turned and left to gather more. Once I was inside, placing my sand on one of the shelves, I started to feel how much time was gone. I never thought of talking with Theo as a waste of time. Quite the opposite. This was a great opportunity to figure out more about how our two sides differ. Every time I talked with him it was like gathering more pieces of the puzzle. The puzzle that I still didn’t have a picture of.

But the deadline was there. The fence needed to be built again. The house needed to be cleaned. The barn needed to be done. I had foraging to do. There was no way I could waste a day finding and getting killed by the wolf.

The tool was done, so I placed the rest of the bricks in the main fence.

0/10 stone blocks

I gave a grim nod before gathering more of the sand. I came against a dilemma. Did I place ten broken stones in there? Or did I place bags of sand so that I could wake up with glass? In case I died?

No. I was going to the river to get stones. I had too many things to get done. I was going to spend a good few hours scrubbing the floors. Four and a half days. I needed every single one of those to clean the floor. I was not going to let them enter the house again.

I placed the rest of the sand by the greenhouse into the storage unit. Losing half of the contents was hard, but I appreciated it now. I passed Theo on the way to the river.

“I have to get some stones, then I’ll be back,” I told him.

He nodded. It was kind of nice having extra help. I made it to the river. I put ten stones in my inventory and gathered three bags of sand in my arms. Theo passed me again and we nodded in acknowledgement. I got back to the house, dropping the sand in the storage unit before breaking the ten stones and placing it in the tool to get the blocks made. I then gathered the bags of sand Theo left by the greenhouse and placed them in the storage unit by the time Theo returned.

“That should be the last of them.” He straightened. “So have you thought of my idea?”

“I already made my decision,” I said, pointing over my shoulder at the tool. “Those ten stone blocks will be done by tonight, and then I have to get five bags of sand in the tool tonight so I can have five glass panes by tomorrow.”

“Okay.” He paused, then glanced at the greenhouses. “What about tomorrow night, then?”

“I’ve got to clean the house. They got all over in there, and it’s got to be cleaned before they attack again.”

I really didn’t want to die. It was ridiculous. Preposterous, even. And yet even as I gave excuses, it was almost like I was convincing myself. For some obnoxious reason, Theo picked up on this, too. He was trying not to smile. “How about I help you out here with your chores, then, and we’ll see how much the two of us can get done together.”

I let out a breath. “Theo.”

He shrugged. “I’ve got nothing to do. It’ll be fun.”

“You have… leveling up. Yourself. Your weapons.”

“And the wolf to track down. This’ll be part of it. Just…” his gaze flickered toward the house, the smile he was trying desperately to hide disappeared from his face. “Just not in there.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Okay. I doubt you can help me clean. You don’t have the clothes for it.”

“The… clothes?” Theo asked.

I pointed to my current outfit, which was a combination of my building and logging outfits. “You think I wear these just because? Just do me a favor and don’t laugh at my foraging outfit. Because that’s where we’re headed next.”

“Okay. I am totally prepared not to laugh,” Theo said.

He must have assumed I was going somewhere to change. He was not expecting the clothes to magically appear as they always did. And he definitely did not expect a chef’s jacket, black slacks, and a chef’s cap to appear on my head. He blinked, as though struggling between the need to laugh or to be awed by it all.

“All this, and yet you’re still afraid to use death as a means for information?” he asked.

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I rolled my eyes. “Just try not to alert the wolf while we’re out there, please. I do not want to lose today. I don’t have any sand going, and I really need those glass panes tomorrow. I am so close to finishing the second green house, and I will have my lettuce,” I said.

Theo frowned at me like I was speaking a different language. I smiled at him, because I did lay it on a little thick, hoping to confuse him. But I was serious about the whole thing. Those salads were valuable, and I needed food.

He stared at the greenhouse as I passed by him.

“Something tells me you’re intentionally messing with me,” Theo said as he hurried to catch up with me.

“They hit me hard a few days ago. I need to restock my food.” I made a stop at the garage to make sure I had an extra set of charged batteries before heading out. Theo remained by the fence, no doubt distracting himself by putting his foot through the fence with no ill effects to himself. It was pretty weird, but I had gotten used to it.

We entered the forest, and it wasn’t long before I pulled out my flashlight. Theo glanced around before bringing out his flashlight and sticking it to a contraption on his head.

“That’s so cool,” I whispered, eyeing that contraption.

He grinned. “Thanks. Need my hands free for my weapons.”

I was rather jealous of that contraption, actually, but I focused on what he said. “No weapons here. We’re not dying today.”

“Right,” Theo said as we kept walking. “Just tomorrow.”

I pursed my lips. “I’ll think about it.”

It wasn’t long before the prompt came.

Entering Wolf territory

Still wish to enter?

Y/N

I mentally chose yes, and the two of us kept going. We were silent. I got the feeling Theo sensed it. The unease of the forest. The silence. Whatever creature he drew as a child, it was in this forest. I followed my instincts, coming up to the chicken trap. There were two raw drumsticks and a chicken breast floating a few inches above the trap. I carefully grabbed it before placing the three raw pieces of meat in my inventory. I was happy to see the three chicken meat in one slot. I felt more than noticed Theo’s gaze on me. He lifted the light just to shoot me a curious look. I shrugged, then quickly made my animal care clothes appear. I then scanned the surrounding area but saw no medicine. My cooking outfit jumped back. We crept forward to the other trap I set. An alive chicken was in the box trap, and I was not expecting it to start clucking at me and beating her wings against the trap.

“Shh, shh,” I said, trying not to be scared. To not panic. But I was absolutely panicking. I opened the box and grabbed the chicken, but that undoubtably made things worse. The trees were so thick it stifled the sound, but that didn’t comfort me in any way. The chicken was getting louder, and Theo pulled out a sword in preparation. That in no way comforted the chicken. In an attempt that was more desperation than logical, I stuffed the chicken in my inventory. An icon showed up, the chicken taking up an inventory slot. The silence smothered over us again, and Theo and I remained, trying to steady our breaths, listening to any sound.

Despite the thick trees, I heard that wet snarl. It was muted, so I couldn’t tell if it was near or far. Every instinct in my body told me it was always closer than I expected. It was safer to think that way.

Theo pulled out a sword, a gleam in his eyes he was clearly trying to stifle.

“Theo,” I whispered. I hated how terrified I sounded.

He just smirked. “Fine, fine. We’ll try and get out of here alive.”

“Thank you,” I muttered.

We returned to silence as I led us in the direction of home. My animal care clothes appeared, because despite the fear I had and the chicken currently in my pocket dimension inventory, I wanted Daisy to get her medicine.

The silence returned, a more urgency in there. As much as I wanted to break out in a run, there were way too many trees. Instead, we went as fast as a power walk pace.

I saw the glowing words a bit to the side, and I made the detour. Theo didn’t question it, most likely because he didn’t see it. He didn’t have questions until I approached the glowing words and dropped to one knee. With a yank, I pulled up the flowery plant.

“Uh…” Theo said.

“Medicine for Daisy, my other chicken. I’ll explain later,” I said.

Theo shrugged in a “fair enough,” kind of way. We kept going as I read the information that appeared in my vision. I just had to tear it up and place it in her food bowl, and in another day she’d get better.

My head jerked around as I heard the sound of something very big crashing through the forest.

“Oh, here it comes,” Theo said, pulling out his chainsaw. “Shit, I love this stuff.”

“Stop, Theo. We’ve got to go!” I said.

“You go ahead, Quinn. I will see you tomorrow,” Theo said.

“Theo!” I hissed, wanting to scream his name but I was too scared to make my voice any louder than a peep.

“Think of it this way. I’m buying you some time.” Theo gestured toward the direction that was sort of the house. “Go on. Go feed your chickens and tend to your garden. I’ll fight the monster, and when I undoubtably die, I will come back tomorrow morning to help you with your chores.”

There was logic to what he said. A game logic that I still didn’t trust. Despite him assuring me that he only lost a day, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that if I turned around and kept going, I was leaving my brother to die.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Theo said one last time before he ran toward the crashing branches.

There were tears on my cheeks as I navigated through the dense forest. I felt them fall and continue to fall. It did not help when, mentally requesting to be out of the wolf’s territory, I heard a muted yet manic laugh coupled with a dangerous snarl of a predator. I flinched as the manic laugh was quickly cut off.

I stumbled into the clearing of the house, trying to dry my tears. Theo would be back. He would. He promised. He’d be here tomorrow morning. The alien overlords wouldn’t be so cruel as to let me spend half a day with Theo, then take him from me forever. I could have gone through years of isolation in this strange place, but with this half day with Theo, with the easy way in which we talked, his absence hurt. Hurt in a way that reminded me how alone I really was here.

I dried my tears again. Despite an entire season living in a place dictated by game logic, there was a deeply instinctual part of me that believed I would never see Theo again. I took a deep breath, then blew it out as I stifled that instinctual part of my mind. I would not give another thought toward whether or not Theo was actually dead until tomorrow morning.

“You better be here before I wake up, Theo,” I whispered. For once my talking was not directed toward the alien overlords.