When Jude and Iris left the hollow trunk and walked outside, they saw an endless amount of trees. It had been dark at night, with only streaks of light coming down from above the canopy, so now, they were able to see that a lot of the trees around that forest were rotting. The light coming down from the treetops was stronger now because it was day, but the whole forest had a reddish hue to it.

When they looked up, they saw that the illuminated canopy above them was entirely red. The leaves of every tree in that forest were red, and because the trees were so tall, they were stuck almost perpetually in sepia. Still, there was the sound of rushing water, and that’s where they were headed.

On the way, which seemed to be the same direction the group of people from the previous night had gone, they found blood sprayed all over the trunks of the trees and pooled on the ground. There were no bodies, but the quantity of blood everywhere betrayed a massacre, and they hadn’t even walked long.

Finally, they took a turn away from the trail of blood in the direction of water. The noise had picked up considerably. It seemed to them that they were almost near a large waterfall, and sure enough, after pulling away some leaves that were blocking the path, they saw rushing water.

They were at the bottom of a cliff. A large, red waterfall crushed the earth not too far from them.

“RED?! Everything in this god-forsaken place is red!” Iris broke the silence in frustration.

“You think it’s contaminated?”

“Who can say?! I don’t even know where we are, so red could be normal.”

“That’s true, but it could also be mixed with the blood of all those people from yesterday.”

Iris’ body lurched back from the water, recoiling at the idea. In her frustration of seeing only shades of one color everywhere, she hadn’t thought about the gruesome possibility. In an attempt to change the subject, she asked, “Have you seen any birds?”

“I haven’t, but I can hear them all the time.”

“I know… Isn’t that weird?”

She had a point. They had woken up to the sound of birds, but so far, there had only been sound.

“What do you think that means?” Jude asked.

“Maybe… Not birds.”

“Not birds…”

Again they were deep in thought. However, knowing that no conclusion would come from thinking at that moment, and realizing that their bodies needed sustenance, they both shook their heads at the thought and started working.

Iris grabbed wood for a fire, and Jude started dredging the water to see if any fish moved, or any other animals, so that they could find something to eat.

“You seem to know what you are doing there,” Iris said.

“I’ve been camping a fair amount. Climbing spots are usually far, far away from civilization, so you end up learning how to rough it.”

“Find anything?”

“It’s tough to see because of the red, but there are fish here. I just don’t know how we’ll catch them. We have no tools.”

“Spear?”

“Hmm… We’d have to find a rock to sharpen the wood or something. Would be great if we got some kind of ability for this.”

“You haven’t gotten any other notices?”

“No, you?”

“When I woke up this morning, there was something, but we were still taking turns on the watch, so I haven’t checked. It slipped my mind completely.”

“Well, check it out! What did the notice tell you?”

“It said I should call out ‘Status.’”

“Go ahead.”

Iris said the word, and something akin to a character sheet floated in front of her. Jude couldn’t see it.

“Woah!” she exclaimed.

“Anything?”

“You don’t see it?”

“Everything looks the same to me.”

Iris looked around her status window, and suddenly, the same window appeared visible to Jude.

“Aha! I can share my view of it.”

“Woah, indeed!”

They were both staring at Iris status window now, taking all of the information being provided.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[Name: Iris Lee

Occupation: Healer

Sub-Occupation: Unknown

Lvl. 1

Health: 100

Mana: 50

Dexterity: 15

Strength: 5

Agility: 15

Notice: Other status options will open on level up.

First-Aid lvl. 10 (Max)

Heal lvl. 1

Purify lvl. 1]

“That’s… I guess we really are in some sort of game,” Jude said. “That said, Purify might come in handy. What does it say about it?”

“Hmm… At that level, it allows me to clean water, food and open wounds. At least I know I won’t get sick from that water.”

“Status,” Jude said suddenly, but nothing happened. “Ugh!”

“Nothing yet?”

“I wonder why yours is available and mine is not. Does it explain how you can level up?”

“Yes. It says I can do it through combat or usage of abilities. Time to purify the hell out of our food! But, any ideas on how to actually catch it?”

“We’ll just go with your spear idea. Let’s find a rock and a decently lengthy branch.”

Iris and Jude did just that. They found a long branch that they could grip near a dead tree, and a rough-looking rock to grind the branch down to a point. After a while working the wood, Jude was finally satisfied with it, so he took the spear to the water and started stabbing down at the fish.

At first, he missed them completely, spending a lot of energy with each stab down at the water. Then, he decided to make things slightly easier on him. Going back to the same dead tree, he grabbed larger planks of flatter wood and started making a fence in the water, some five feet from the shore, by sinking the planks of wood down in a half moon shape with the edge of the water.

He kept one part open, and when a fish would swim through it, he would close that part and isolate the fish in the shallows, which made it much easier to catch.They caught six fish in about half an hour that way.

While Jude had been doing that, Iris had finished building a fire. The dead leaves of the trees around them served as great kindling, and there was dry wood everywhere. She smashed two rocks at an angle to create a spark, and so they had fire.

“Where did you learn that?” Jude asked, surprised by her resourcefulness.

“Discovery Channel,” she replied with a smile. “Survivalist show.”

“Ah! Well, am I glad to be here with you Ms. Grills.”

“Ha-ha! So funny!”

“What?! You did set up the grill.”

“Shut up.”

And they laughed together. Morning had been peaceful. They were alone in a foreign land, and as far as they knew a lot of people had died the night before, but if they dwelt on that their minds wouldn’t withstand the pressure.

They had learned something about statuses and abilities, and now, they were focused on eating.

“OK, Healer Lady, do your thing,” Jude said and handed Iris the fish.

She laid her hand over them and said, “Purify.”

As soon as she did, a dim white light dropped from her fingertips onto the fish, who shone bright before appearing completely dry and clean.

“Well, how do you feel?”

“I only used up one mana, so fine? Next fish!”

She repeated the process with every fish, and once she was done, Jude skewered them with sticks and hung them over the fire. The food was on the way, but Jude had yet to find something that would serve as a container for liquid.

“Oh!” Alice exclaimed. “I had something for you, for Christmas.”

“What? But, I didn’t get you anything…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s from my dad too. He gave me the idea when I was over there on the 25th. It’s in my coat.”

Iris still had her coat with her, but it was slung over a large rock since the morning was relatively warm. She pulled out a book-sized box wrapped in red Christmas gift wrap and gave it to him.

“Open it,” she said, and Jude did so.

The irony of the red gift wrap wasn’t lost on them, everything was red after all, but what was inside was most important. It was a metal hip flask, usually for holding liquor, but this time, it would be the perfect container for the water.

“HA!” Jude exclaimed. “This is perfect! Thank you!”

“Dad said you enjoyed his alcohol, and he was worried after that night.”

“I’ll thank him when we get out of him,” he said, and they both went silent for a while. “Let’s fill this up.”

Jude dunked the flask into the water and filled it to the brim, handing it over to Iris. She cast Purify on the liquid this time, and even inside the flask, they noticed that the water went from red to clear. Whatever all that red was, it was rotting everything.

They took their time eating and drinking, replenishing their energies. The fish didn’t have any salt, pepper or any other sauce, but even though it had been cleaned and purified, the meat still had a twinge of the test of iron.

The sound of chirping continued, but still they didn’t find any birds. Maybe the birds knew what was happening on the ground, so they kept themselves above the canopy. On top of that, the stream of water had to come from somewhere, and it was possible that that water was clean, untainted by whatever was polluting the water by the time it got to Jude and Iris.

There were many things they didn’t know.

“Nobody else showed up,” Iris said.

“That’s true… There were many tunnels in that cave, so maybe the other tunnels went elsewhere. We picked one at random anyway.”

“Yes, but what about those people from last night? Do you think they made it back to the cave?”

“Honestly, I don’t think so. I get the feeling that once you pick a path, the way back gets blocked. I can’t say for certain, but we could go back to check. It just wouldn’t make sense to be able to survive thirty days by just staying in the cave.”

“I’m sure you are right, but we should check. It would be stupid if we suffered when we could make things easier.”

“That’s fine by me. Let’s finish eating and we’ll head back there.” Jude looked at his watch at that moment and added, “If we go by a 6:30 p.m. sunset, we have around seven hours. I don’t think we should venture out at night yet.”

“Yet?”

“Something tells me we’ll have to do it eventually.”

“I really hope you are wrong there.”

They finished up, cleaned the area so as to mask their presence as much as possible, knowing full well that some kind of predator roamed at night, and went back in the direction of the cave.