The three of us, Abby, Funk and I started walking towards Funk’s village while I asked Funk, “What is your village called?”

Funk smiled at us, “It is called Sector 07, there used to be more Sectors, and this was a large village once, but things happened.”

Abby nodded, “I can see how bad things happen in this reality.” She looked at me when she said that.

I sighed, “What is going on in this reality? Alice, kind of needed our help with something.”

Funk sighed, “You know about the purple death, right?” We both shook our head.

Funk shook his head frustrated, “the thing that turns you into ashes? Eats whole villages? Ate the desert? Boluga?”

Abby and I just, stared at each other while Funk crossed his arms and continued talking, “Have you been living under a rock?”

I crossed my arms to get ready for a retort, “Yes, we have, we just came from our rock home, with our rock television, and our rock couch, and we ate a rock snack.”

Funk looked at me, “What is a television, do those come from the Bolugan's?”

Abby gasped, “Oh no, they don’t have video games here!”

Funk stared at her, “What is a video game?”

I sighed and waved Abby's comment away, “Never mind that, what's the purple death?”

Funk shrugged, “Just a purple wall of death that is going to destroy this reality.” Funk pointed somewhere, “look, we are getting close to my village. You can ask more things about the purple death there. The elder knows enough.”

Abby nodded, “Thank you, Funk, that is very helpful.”

I agreed, “Yes, we did not know there would be a village between the trees, is there also a main city nearby?”

Funk smiled and nodded, “It is called Brickton, it is farther to the north, they even have a magical train!”

Abby looked at me, “They don’t have televisions, but they do have trains?”

I sighed, “Trains existed before television, Abby, and if this threat took out some major races, it might have also destroyed the invention of televisions.”

Funk went silent as if he were hiding something, but it might also be my paranoia. Since we got here, it feels like I am seeing things, things I should not be seeing. Those souls in the water that dragged Abby down, were they real? My shadow looking at me, that cannot be real. As for the raven, no one even acknowledged it was there. “Abby?”

“Yes?”

“Did you see a raven when I walked out of the house?”

“Yes, I did, it did not seem like something to mention, I mean, it is just a bird.”

“Yeah, you must be right, just a bird, there is nothing special about the bird.”

Abby put a hand on my shoulder, “Are you alright, Steve? You seem a bit, what is the word?”

Funk spoke up, “Paranoid.”

Abby nodded, “That.”

I shook my head, “No, this cannot be in my head, we should just go on, forget I ever said anything.”

We kept following Funk through the swamp, we could already see his village in the distance. I think, we need to get used to walking a lot. After a few hours, we finally reached the entrance. Abby and Funk had gone silent after me asking about the bird, maybe I spooked them. But something did feel wrong here, my gut told me, we were about to get screwed over, It is best to just see what Funk is going to tell his Insectine friends, perhaps, I am going a bit paranoid.

As we entered the village, I checked it for any details. Rooted on the left side of the wetlands, the village of Sector 07 is home to Insectines led by the mysterious elder that Funk mentioned. This village wasn’t built by wetlands accidentally, as it has medicinal plants nearby. I might not know a lot about this world, but I am very confident, those are medicines. On the other side, I saw many farms with unknown vegetables. Both of these seem of great importance to the people of Sector 07 and its success.

The village itself looks hideous, to be honest. With its rusted rooftops made of broken down planks. Gloomy wooden walls and dusty windows made from materials I did not recognize. Sector 07 has a supernatural atmosphere. The main attraction might be those tombs that a lot of Insectines are working on. The design looks different from the other buildings. Perhaps, another race helped them build it?

Funk walked away and a bigger Insectine walked over, Abby glanced at me, “Let me do the talking.”

“What, why?”

“You might anger them.”

“I will not anger them.”

Abby sighed, “Please let me do this, my deary Steve”

I crossed my arms at her for calling me that, “Fine, go ahead. If you screw this up, I will be taking the lead for the rest of our adventure.”

She gasped, “That is not fair.”

I pointed, “The Insectine is here.”

Expressive brown eyes, set concealed within his sockets, he looked at us, he did not have much hair, all the Insectines I have seen in this village are humanoid, but they do have green exoskeletons.

Abby stepped forward, “Hello, my name is Abby, we come here in peace, we saved Funk, we are seeking help to find a friend in need.”

The Insectine crossed his arms, just like me, for some reason before speaking up, “My name is Hark, what are you humans doing here? You are not allowed in this village.”

Abby held up her left hand, “We don’t mean to cause trouble,” She looked at Funk, who was getting gold. “We can just leave, to Brickton, all we need is to pass through your village.”

Hark spoke up, very agitated, “We cannot let humans have our location guards, seize them at once.”

I looked at Abby, “You fucked this up, ho—” I got hit on the head and fell over as I blacked out.

When I woke up, I had been stripped to my underwear, my hands were tied to the ceiling with rope and my feet did not reach the ground. There were no windows, only a few lit candles, the floor was made of bricks. Dried blood was everywhere, Then I saw Abby, she had been stripped to her underwear as well.

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She looked at me, “I think this is bad.”

“Honey, you are only wearing your underpants, and we are in a torture room. This is bad, I should have just listened to my gut feeling, I knew Funk would stab us in the back.”

Abby sighed, “You could not have talked us out of this one.”

“Well, I guess we will never find out.”

A different Insectine walked inside, he had a whip, he chuckled, “Look at this leather snake, it is hungry, for flesh.”

Abby whimpered, “Please, don’t?”

He walked over to Abby, “You complain, so, I should teach you a lesson first.”

I sighed, not believing I was about to do this, “Hey asshole, leave that woman alone. She does not deserve to get beaten up. I do.”

The Insectine walked over to me, “And why is that?”

I grinned fiercely at him, “Because you smell like pigeon dung!”

“What the fuck is a pigeon?”

“The animal I am going to shove up your butt, so hard it comes out of your mouth.”

The Insectine came closer and whispered, “But what is it?”

“A living bird, you son of a beaver!” He punched me very hard. I spit blood on the floor. “Is that all you have? I can take more than that.” He started punching me over and over.

Abby screamed, “Stop it, or you are going to kill him.” The Insectine put a hand on me and superficially healed my wounds.

I laughed and spoke up as I felt some relief, “Oh, that is much better,” I felt another fist hit my face. “Oh, fuck you.”

The Insectine smiled, “So, you are protecting the lady? Do you love her?”

“No, she is just a friend.”

Abby looked at me, “Seriously?”

“What, do you want me to lie?”

Abby sighed, “You are like poison anyway.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Abby basically screamed at me, “It means, you cannot accept that people can love you after your wife died!”

The Insectine sighed, “I have had enough of this, it is clear, you care about her,” The Insectine walked over to Abby.

I started struggling, not that it did anything to help me get loose, “Come back here, you oversized ugly insect!”

He smiled at me, then he lashed Abby with his whip, it boomed in the air, blood splashed over me and pieces of flesh flew around, I could see blood hit the ceiling, and it dripped to the floor.

Abby cried in pain and I spoke up, “Come on, stop that, she does not know anything you want to know.”

The Insectine just chuckled, then he lashed her again, Abby cried out in pain when the whip hit her. This went on for ten more lashes, Abby let her herself hang defeated, blood dripped to the ground from all over the walls and some pieces of flesh, she was panting heavily. A few pieces of skin lay on the ground, she seemed to be trying to control her breathing by inhaling deeply, and exhaling.

The Insectine walked over to me, “Now tell me, why are the humans in Sector 07? What is your plan this time? Another biological attack? How many people are standing by to storm our village?”

While looking at Abby shedding tears and leaking blood, I spoke up, “Look, I do not know where you get your information from, but I do not know anything.”

The Insectine sighed, “Fine,” he walked around me, then I heard it, the booming sound. Abby looked at me with tears in her eyes, I closed my eyes as the whip hit me. I grunted, but I did not give him the satisfaction of crying out in pain, more lashes kept coming.

After the tenth lash, he started talking, “And?”

“Like I mentioned before, we know nothing, we are just two people who walked into the wrong city. We come in peace.”

The Insectine sighed, and I heard the booming sound, my back felt ripped open, but I just grunted in pain and took it. After the twentieth lash, the Insectine walked back and looked at me, “You are a tough nut. But it is clear, you guys know nothing.”

I started shaking violently, “I already told you that! Now let us go!”

He just smiled, “I am letting you go alright,” He walked over to Abby, “Do you love him?” She did not answer.

The Insectine punched her in her gut, the Insectine enjoyed her response, “And how about now?”

Abby slowly nodded, “yes, I love him, we have been together for a long time already,” Abby looked at me for a response.

I nodded, “I love you too, Abby Mercer, and if things were different, we could have been a true couple.”

She let out a weak grin and let herself hang on the ropes weakly.

The Insectine whistled, and two guards walked inside, the Insectine that tortured us spoke up, “Take them to the cell, put up the execution block for tomorrow morning.”

The guards nodded and brought us to a cell, they threw a robe made of leaves towards Abby, she grabbed it and put it on.

She looked at me with worry, “Are you alright, Steve?”

“I am fine, more importantly, how are you?”

Abby felt with her hand on her back and hissed in pain, maybe it was more an of wheezing sound, “It hurts a lot, what is our plan? And, I am sorry about what I said, the pain, it was too much. But, you seemed like you are used to pain.”

I sat down, but I leaned forward, the blood still trickled out of my wounds, and it tickled. “Yes, pain, it feels as if I have endured a lot of pain in my life, But, it just does not make sense, are you certain that you are fine, Abby?”

Abby took my hand and spoke up, “Yes, I am, but we are going to die tomorrow.”

I squeezed her hand, while I thought about what could have been, if this did not happen, if I had properly mourned Haley, if I had not, I shook my head and spoke up. Not wanting to dwell on these horrible thoughts, the whip lashes were horrible enough. “Look, give me some time to think, I am confident that I can come up with a plan.”

“Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for trying to take the blows for me.”

“No problem, I did it for you, and because I deserve it.”

Abby took my other hand as well, “For what you did to that bandit?”

I sighed, “Lets, keep it at that, and not the other horrible things I have done in my life”