"Are you okay?" the feminine voice echoed in my ears for the second time, snapping me out of my daze.

"Where are you?" I reflexively said back, lamenting my poor choice of words.

"I'm standing outside, is my voice clear?" My head snapped at the cave entrance revealing a green glowing humanoid outline, in the same breath the words 'ally' popped up above her head.

I was immediately put on my guard as I shifted further into the cave, my gut telling me something was off. She stood there, staring in my direction through the thick walls of the cave. My mind raced to make sense of the situation.

Can she see through walls too? Why didn't my suit warn me about her sooner, was I followed? Who is she?

"Is everything okay? I wanted to alert you about the creature, but the storm masked its movements." she took a small step forward according to the outline.

I scanned the cave for a potential stone I could use, preparing myself mentally for a fight. I tried to appear as relaxed as possible, as I reached down to pick one up a stray thought entered my mind. I'm overreacting, she's the first human I've heard in days. Humans don't hit other humans with rocks.

"Ahh, sorry before you come in just wait a moment I need to think." I said putting my hand up, and gesturing for her to stop walking. She stopped right before the bend and backed up a few steps.

"Sure, I may have acted prematurely as well. You are the first person I've met since landing here and after seeing the words 'ally' pop above your head I felt so relieved."

I take a deep sigh and gathered all semblance of my sanity I had left. "I'll be honest with you, I'm not in the best type of mind. I have an untreated concussion and several days' worth of stress piled on top of that."

I search her outline for any movements or acknowledgment, and after a moment she silently nods. I continued, "Can I ask a few questions, just to make sure you are real?"

"Sure."

"Uh... who are you?"

"Aslai Ingram, a civilian that recently moved to Ittner..." her voice was both monotone and tired. I flinched slightly from her quick and monotone response. "...19 years old studying game design"

She sounded immensely annoyed with me not even 5 minutes in. My first impressions are getting better year by year, yet I stay the course.

"How did you find me?"

"An objective marker labeled you as 'squad leader.' I was following the marker until I found you, but I kept out of sight because I was scared and not ready."

Yet you sound like you already are regretting meeting me. "How long?"

"Maybe 3 hours? I can't remember anything before that, I had to dig myself out of the ground, not much else I could do besides follow the marker."

"Am I not up to your standards?" Regret flowed through my blood as my mouth spoke faster than my mind could stop it.

"Pardon?" she responded, with confusion rather than apathy.

"No, uh forget about that. It was me thinking out loud." I said hoping she couldn't hear my embarrassment through my voice.

"Do I pass your inspection?"

"Yes..." I dragged out, not knowing what I was looking for in my impromptu interrogation.

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"May I enter?"

"Yes."

Soon after her footsteps echoed through the cave, drowning out the pouring storm from outside. Rounding the corner she stopped as soon as I came into view. The green outline faded but the words 'ally' shined with further radiance than before. We froze and stared at each other.

At least I assumed she was staring me down, with the helmet hiding her face she could be sleeping or making faces at me for all I knew.

She was about shoulder height and seemed slightly nervous as she rubbed her shoulder and eventually glanced away at my staring.

"I'm sorry."

Her head snapped back in my direction, looking confused. "huh?"

I sat down on a rock facing toward the deeper end of the cave. "I made you wait out in the storm and interrogated you."

"Was that a problem?" she said in a bewildered tone.

"I also stared you down just now." To make sure you were not a figment of my imagination.

"To assure I'm not a threat and memorize my profile. All reasonable, to apologize implies you did something wrong."

She's weird. "You're weird."

She stared at me for a bit longer before picking another corner at the other side of the room, facing the entrance. I snuck glances at her from the corner of my eye as I stretched and prepared to get some rest. She was almost entirely stationary, laser-focused on the entrance but sneaking a few glances in my direction.

"Is that everything?..." I said, trying to break the silence.

"what do you mean?"

"come in here, ask a few questions then plop yourself down in the corner like a sentry?"

"Oh, I can go outside." she jumped to her feet and I mirrored her movement raising a hand to stop her.

"wait, where are you going? There's a storm outside."

"Then what's the problem, I'll keep an eye on the entrance and allow you to rest presuming that's why you entered such a secluded and dingy area in the first place. When you have had enough rest we can swap and then figure out our next move."

"....uh. Should we figure out our next move now, or something, I don't know."

"Trying to make detailed plans while tired is foolish. Appears that you needed more sleep than I first thought. If you don't trust me I'll wait outside, if you do trust me then I'll keep watch here. There isn't much else to talk about."

She took my silence as acceptance and sat back in her corner facing the entrance. Her logic was sound, but I kept feeling off about the entire situation. Maybe I was just too exhausted and overthinking things.

I now had an 'ally'. Aslai Ingram, I repeated the name a few times so I wouldn't forget it. My subconscious formed a face to the name, brown hair, sharp brown eyes on a cute oval face with a perpetually unsympathetic gaze. Like the face of a midlevel manager of a crappy business. Or an annoyed mailwoman that has to deal with pranks and annoying people.

I positioned myself to see both the deepness of the cave and the woman in my eyes. As soon as I laid down I felt the crushing weight of exhaustion overwhelming me. I was able to push it back for three days, but today was my limit as I fell asleep.

---

I woke up with a start, bashing my head on an odd rock protruding from the wall. After a few awkward moments of clutching my head out of reflex before noticing my head didn't feel the impact.

I started my morning stretches to shake off the grogginess. The short nap felt more relaxing than the last three days of rest combined. In the middle of a yawn, she caught my eye.

"Good morning." She bowed slightly as I remained frozen in place. Aslai turned back towards the entrance as if my reaction didn't matter.

"Good Morning." I managed to say as Aslai turned back in my direction, bowed, and returned to the entrance. "What are your plans?"

Without turning to me Aslai replied without emotion similar in tone to the day before. "The best course of action is for me to follow my only ally. What will you do?"

I make a mental note to figure out what flips her switch so I can avoid it before replying. "I'm going towards the objective marker in the distance. It wasn't here until yesterday and I hope it'll be a way to get back to society."

"I see, I don't have that objective marker so if you'll have me I would like to return home as well." Her tone bordered on the line before sarcasm.

Wait, she doesn't have that marker? Maybe our suits are somewhat different. Or was this a social test? Are we supposed to move to the waypoint? My brain flooded with more questions with no answers. Before I could start she opened her mouth first.

"Important question, how do you go to the bathroom in these suits?" she said noticeably leisurely as if it wasn't time-sensitive in the first place.

"You... just go," I said shyly, turning away not wanting to see Aslai's reaction. Wait, I can't even see her face anyway.

"Is it not possible to take the suit off? How about consuming food and drink?"

"Tell your suit and it pops out a straw for you to suck on, the food absolutely sucks though and the water tastes like dry air."

I dust myself off and resume my light exercises preparing for the jog. Wait, I slept in this cave yet the monster didn't attack? I guess maybe days of cohabitation formed a soft spot for me.

Aslai joins me in my exercises, the face I formed yesterday appeared over the helmet focusing me to stifle my laugh. If she heard she didn't care to point it out, further cementing the face on her.

Finishing the stretches I hesitated for a moment. "Are you annoyed with me?"

"What makes you say that." her delivery was so flat that I waited a few seconds for the heavy sigh to come after it.

"You sound like you are fed up with my existence whenever I ask you questions. I have no problem with you following me..." I pause and rub the back of my neck, trying to find the right words. "nevermind."

Her sharp eyes stared through me, forcing me to look away.

"I swear that I'm not hostile, when I'm stressed and focused you can hear it in my voice. I promise when we get out of here you'll see how relaxed I can be."

After that, she surprisingly leads a small conversation asking about me and my life. I didn't realize how much I missed small talk until now. We were both awkward but we were warming up to each other, at least I hoped. She triple-checked throughout the conversation about my rest nearly demanding me to lie down to see if I needed to sleep longer.

I was thoroughly recharged and in a much better place now, I thanked her softly in my head and was fully ready to hike the 15 kilometers, physically and mentally.

I turned the corner exiting the cave into complete darkness. My hud flickered for a few seconds before illuminating the area in a night vision-like sight.

"How long did I sleep?" I asked while looking for the sun through the forest's canopy.

"12 hours and 22 minutes." Aslai answered without missing a beat, returning to her 'focused' tone.

I turn towards Aslai and shake my head. "Can't be, then it would be at least the afternoon. Also, that's way too long."

"Are you sure? Our suits keep track of time." she turned toward the direction of a very faint red outline. I noted the distance and dismissed the threat in my mind.

"If that's accurate then it should still be mid-day with the sun directly over us. Wait a second, you timed my sleeping?"

"The days aren't 24 hours here. Also, I timed our exercise to calculate, lost calories is that weird?" she asked with natural bewilderment.

What?