The smell of pine and spruce filled Lev’s lungs. It reminded him of something he had smelled long ago. When his mom still lived in Mexico and when as a kid he had gone just a little too far over the rocks overlooking their home and saw the jungle

And now the same jungle that he had seen as a kid stood right in front of him. From behind him, Lev heard a grasp, he turned around and looked. Jameson appeared in thin air looking queasy like he had just gone through a washer at a little too high of a setting. He stood for a second, then his stomach seemed to turn around and spilled right in front of him.

Chunks of last night's meal of protein bars and moldy bananas splattered right in front of Lev, a chunk of banana landing on his shoes. Lev looked down at it, he swatted away into some nearby bush.

“Where are we? I thought we were still in New York, this looks like, a jungle?” Jameson said.

“I know this place, Mexico, I’ve been here before,” Lev said.

“To this exact spot? Or like general location, just wondering.”

“Not to this exact spot dumbass, like general location, or at least someplace with a jungle-like this.

Jameson got up, his previous sickness had long left his eyes. Lev looked at the trees, they revealed nothing. Just darkness stared at him. A bush rustled, Lev stared at it, it stopped, they were in a clearing filled with wild grass, each of them on top of a rock. The clearing ended and the rest was the jungle.

“Should we go in?”

“I mean it seems like the only way to get back to like society, and I don’t know about you but I kinda want a warm bath right now,” Jameson said. He was right, they both needed a bath those long hours traveling through New York City hadn’t treated well. Lev brushed off some soot from his jacket.

“Let’s go then.”

Lev jumped down from his rock and Jameson went with him. And they started to walk towards the forest. Not two steps in a roar sounded from deep in the jungle. An inhuman roar from the depths of some forests beasts lungs or at least Lev hoped because at least he knew forest beasts.

Lev and Jameson both stopped, Lev looked at Jameson, Jameson looked at Lev, it was going to be a long day. Lev stepped into the forest and everything went dark. The forest canopy overhead blocking out all light. On the ground, a set of tangled root systems knobbed and ebbed along. Lev started to walk, every couple of steps almost tripping on another root. James didn’t last much better.

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“What do you think that was Lev, I mean like that whole Embodiment thing, I mean I get the videogame screens I’ve seen anime but like Embodiments? And car skills?”

“I wish I knew, they are probably some sort of monitoring force, I mean this system can’t like look at everyone everywhere so they probably just hired some really strong guys and told them to watch.”

“What’s even the point in this whole stupid system. Like if I was an ultra-powerful nigh-omnipotent computer program or alien civilization I wouldn’t spend my resources on powering people up.” Jameson said. Lev wondered about the same thing. The system didn’t even seem to want them to defend the world from like some horrible corruption, there wasn’t even any monsters for them to kill so what was the point in it all.

“I’m just fucking tired of all this walking, why couldn’t we have a normal apocalypse where everyone dies and no technology works,” Jameson said.

“Hey, you don’t know everyone could still be dead,” Lev said upbeat, but the words just echoed around in the forest trees. It felt like night in there and the gradual little pieces of light let in by the tree canopies were the stars. Lev’s arms started to hurt so they dug into the food they brang. Lev only took some of the protein bars that he had for the days he spent writing all day and all night. The taste of chalky chocolate filled his mouth normally he’d gag but right now it tasted like heaven.

They stopped on the bark of an overturned tree. They were silent while they ate, nobody seemed to like talking.

“Maybe we should use the skills we got from the Embodiment, I mean like more strength seems like a good idea right now considering.” They both knew what was being considered. They started to walk again, jumping over roots, and clambering over the roots. It was hard work, the trees formed a night. Time just seemed to stop in the night sky. However, beyond the sea of roots, Lev saw a clearing. Shrouded in golden light, it called to him. In the center of the clearing surrounded by a sea of long grass it sat. The light hitting its eyes in such a particular way.

Lev walked towards it. The grass brushing against his thighs as he got closer, leaving little marks on his knees. The statue itself was a woman. Its eyes looked at Lev pleading for something, a shiver ran down Lev’s back. She looked young, her eyes were round and she had big round eyelashes. Whoever she was sculpted from was really a beauty, she was running from something, probably some sort of monster imagined by the sculptor.

Lev looked for markings of movement to see how it was moved there. The grass revealed no secrets.

“What the hell,” Jameson said.

“Who the hell would place a statue in the middle of nowhere especially one as good as this.” Lev walked closer to the statue. Its stone skin shone in the sun. It glistened like actual skin, the sculptor even included pores and pumps. She was a person, a full entire, person in a statue. What kind of genius had created this statue? Lev would like to meet him. Lev put his hand out to touch the statue. When another hand grabbed his.

A stone hand.