"Oh, by the way," said Mono, "I don't think I caught your name."
The girl glanced away.
"It's alright, you don't have to worry," he replied. "I'm Mono."
She gave him a side-glance with her eyes, though Mono couldn't see it since her bangs were covering them.
"Do you have a name?" he asked.
She nodded. "Six."
Mono blinked in surprise. "You have six names?"
The girl gave a single chuckle. "No, that's my name. Six."
"Really?" he asked, his brow furrowing a bit in confusion. "That's just a number, though."
"Yeah?" she replied matter-of-factly. "And 'mono' means 'one', so what does that say about your name?"
"Okay, okay, point taken."
The two had just descended down the ladder again. In the room that they were in, the very one with the handle hanging from the ceiling that unlocked the ladder to the attic, they had immediately climbed up it when they heard noises from somewhere close by in the attic. There was nowhere else to go, as the room that they were in had a locked door. However, after entering the attic and exploring a bit, Mono had found a key and took it with him. Now that they were back at the locked door, he fitted the key into its padlock and turned it. The padlock opened with a click and dropped to the floor, the door swinging open and revealing the outdoors.
"We're... outside," said Six, as if she couldn't believe it.
"We are," said Mono. He couldn't help smiling. "We're finally leaving this horrible place."
The backyard was almost completely covered with dead leaves, a large outhouse sitting off to the left with a few boxes and a shovel propped against it, and more boxes lying by the wall of a large storage shed. A clothesline stretched from the cabin to the outhouse, with several garments hanging from it. The door to the storage shed was open, and as the two kids headed towards it, Mono saw something that made him stop.
There were footprints leading from the open door to the shed, each one easily as big as he was.
"Wait, wait, wait..." Mono pointed at the tracks. "Did he make these?"
Six only then noticed the tracks, gasping a bit. "H-he did, yeah..." She glanced up at the storage shed's open door, quivering a bit. "I don't wanna go in there."
"Well, we have to to get out of this forest," said Mono. "Don't worry, I'll be there with you. I'll protect you."
She gave him a nervous look, but nodded. "... Okay."
The two of them stepped into the shed. The room they had entered had various boxes, cages, and other traps and equipment all bundled alongside the left wall, and the wall opposite the door had a window high up, too high for them to reach. A huge crate was sitting in the middle of the floor, though, something that could definitely help with reaching the window.
Mono walked over to the crate and tried to push it towards the window, but it wouldn't budge. It was too heavy. He looked over his shoulder and called out to Six, "hey, can you help me push this, please?"
Six joined him and pushed against the crate as well. Their combined strength was enough to send it slowly sliding along the floor. Before it could reach the wall, however, it stopped in its tracks.
"Hm?" Mono pushed against it harder, but it still refused to move. "Why isn't it moving anymore?"
"I'm not sure," said Six. She walked around to the other side of the crate, then returned after several seconds. "Okay, there's a board jutting up a bit that it snagged on. It can't go any further."
"Dang," Mono muttered. He looked up at the window, then jumped and climbed onto the crate. "We're just gonna have to jump for it."
"Can you make the jump?" Six asked.
"One way to find out." Mono ran to the edge of the crate and leaped off it, his hands reaching for the window and grasping its sill. He hurriedly pulled himself up and through the window, falling through onto the other side and landing in a large pile of towels. After getting up and looking around, though, he realized that it wasn't a pile of towels he had fallen on, but a pile of skins, all torn up and thrown together in a heap. There were more skins hanging from the walls as well, each one seeming different in color and texture.
"Is it safe?" Six called.
"Y-yeah, I think so..." Mono responded, turning back to look up at the window.
A few seconds later, Six crawled through the window and dropped down, landing on top of Mono and knocking him to the floor.
"Hey!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Sorry, sorry!" she said. "I-"
Six's words trailed off. She was lying on top of him, her face inches from his mask. Through the eyeholes in the mask, Mono got the first clear glimpse of what she looked like under her hair. She had a rounded face, a small mouth, a little upturned nose, and wide amber eyes that seemed to bore right through his own. She was cute, stunningly cute at that. He wondered how she didn't look even a little malnourished, since she had been trapped in that cabin for who knows how long.
She hastily got off of him, looking away. "I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine," he said uneasily, getting to his feet. "Let's... continue on."
Then, in the adjacent room of the shed ahead of them, they heard something that made them stiffen up. There was a scraping sound, muffled and wet, as if it was a creature tearing through the flesh of something else. A large shadow could be seen through the open doorway of something humanoid and huge. Mono cautiously crawled over to the doorway and peeked around it.
Standing at a large table near the window was a giant, wearing a trenchcoat, pants, boots, gloves, and a hunter's cap, all looking dirty and worn. His head was vertically oblong, and seemed completely pale and smoother, though Mono then noticed that there was some thick string tied around his neck, where the paleness of his head stopped. He was wearing what seemed like a burlap sack over his head. Something dead was strewn out across the table, and he was ripping through its flesh with a gloved hand, over and over.
Mono looked back at Six, who was clutching the back of his trenchcoat and looking genuinely freaked out. She was trembling, her knees almost knocking together, her face an expression of pure worry and dread.
"Shh..." He held his finger up to his mask, where his mouth would be, in a signal to be quiet.
Seeing this, Six gave a little whimper and covered her mouth with both hands.
Mono then turned back to the doorway and peeked out at the giant again. He didn't seem to notice them, and was still busy with his work at the table. Beckoning for Six to follow him, Mono then crept out from the doorway and stuck to the far edge of the wall, away from the giant, and walked in a crouching stance towards the opposite end of the room. Six went with him, her hands still covering her mouth. When they made it to the end of the room, there was a shut door with a dog door next to it, more than big enough for them to fit through.
"Here," Mono whispered, placing his hands against the dog door. "Push."
Six pushed against the dog door with him, and after some resistance, it swung open with a loud creaking of its hinges. The large creature at the table suddenly turned towards them as they fell through the opening into the outdoors again, stumbling and falling against a pile of garbage by the side of the wall.
As they got to their feet, the bigger door suddenly swung open and the giant stepped outside. From here, Mono could see that the giant was, indeed, wearing a burlap sack over his head, and there was a singular dark hole in the side of it. What was more terrifying was that the giant was now wielding a large double-barrel shotgun and a lantern. He raised the shotgun up and fired it, blasting off a chunk of the nearby fence. The sound was loud and sudden enough to make the two teens flinch hard.
"Okay, time to go!" Mono yelled.
"Run, quick!" Six cried.
The two of them bolted away from the Hunter, who was busy reloading his shotgun. As Mono saw him taking aim at them again, he grabbed Six and pulled her behind a nearby crate. Not two seconds later, the shotgun fired and blew half of the crate right off, though Mono and Six remained unharmed.
They ran ahead some more, spying a couple more crates, and they ducked behind one. The Hunter fired his shotgun once more, this time blasting the whole crate to pieces. When it was destroyed, they progressed to the next crate, which again shielded them from the shotgun's blast. However, up ahead, there was no more cover to be seen.
Mono and Six quickly hopped down from a small cliff. Before Mono could continue running, Six suddenly grabbed him and pulled him back.
"Hey, wh-" he started, then got cut off as she clamped her hand over his bag, across his mouth, holding him against the wall. The cliff they had dropped down from had a small alcove underneath it, and she had pulled them into hiding there. The Hunter's thumping footsteps came closer and closer, then stopped right above them, on the cliff. Mono could see the beam from the Hunter's lantern slowly washing over the surroundings, its yellow light searching for them. He could hear their pursuer's breathing under the burlap sack, muffled and ragged.
Six slowly removed her hand from Mono's mouth, her voice lowered to be barely audible. "Not. A. Word."
Mono just nodded in reply.
Soon, the Hunter's footsteps continued, and they could see him walking away from the cliff this time, heading towards some tall grass and still searching around with his lantern. Six headed away from the alcove and slowly crept to the edge of the opening, watching the Hunter. Without looking back, she reached her hand back towards Mono, as if asking him to take it.
Mono looked at her hand and remembered when he offered his hand to her back in the cabin, only for her to run away. Slowly, he took hold of her hand, feeling her fingers close around his. He couldn't help but smile, despite the situation they were in.
He headed out from the alcove and she started walking, carefully and quietly. They needed to sneak past the Hunter, who was standing in the tall grass, gazing around with his lantern. Six only took a few steps forward before she stopped. Mono could imagine how frightened she must feel towards this giant, the very one who kidnapped her and locked her in his cabin, likely for weeks or even months.
He stepped ahead of her, keeping a firm but gentle hold on her hand. She carefully followed his lead, the two of them stepping through the tall grass. Up ahead of them, a crow was rummaging through the grass, and as they approached, it suddenly took off with a loud fluttering of its wings.
The Hunter immediately turned and washed his lantern light over the area, right where the crow was. Mono and Six ducked down, hidden by the grass, as the Hunter's light slowly washed over them briefly as it panned around. After looking around for a little bit, the Hunter turned and walked ahead a little more, stopping to look around with his lantern some more. Mono and Six crawled slowly through the tall grass, still making their way around him.
"Okay," Mono whispered. He pointed ahead to a large tree, a gap in its roots on the ground that led into a small tunnel. "When this guy moves his light away, we're going to head towards that hole and make a break for it."
"Will we make it?" Six asked worriedly.
"I think so," he replied. "Remember how clumsy this guy is with his shotgun? We'll have time to duck into it before he even takes aim."
"All right," said Six, nodding. "Then let's do it."
"Okay, here we go," said Mono carefully.
The two of them waited until the Hunter's light moved away from them and focused at some trees in the distance, then they began to move. Still crawling carefully, then slowly standing up and walking, then picking up speed until they were in a sprint. Mono could hear the Hunter give a grunt of surprise as they made it to the hole.
"Quick, get in!" he said.
He pushed through the roots and jumped into the hole, Six following a second later and landing beside him. The Hunter's light shone through the hole for a few seconds, then his shotgun fired at the hole, spraying a volley of dirt into the tunnel.
"Ahh!" Six cried, shielding her face.
"C'mon, let's move!" said Mono, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the hole. They crawled through the tunnel in the earth, roots and rocks surrounding them as the tunnel sloped upwards, then downwards, then back upwards again as the moonlight began filtering through the roots that covered the tunnel's exit.
He pulled the roots aside and pushed his way through, stepping back onto the grass. Six followed him seconds later, looking around.
"I don't see him anywhere," she said.
"Neither do I," said Mono. "He might've not known where we went to... or maybe he's still by the hole, waiting for us to come out of it."
"Yeah," Six agreed. She hurried on ahead, Mono keeping pace with her, and it wasn't long before they came across a broken bridge. Were it intact, it would've provided a path across a deep crevice in the ground that was too wide for them to jump.
Mono peered into the crevice. "How deep does it go?"
Six looked as well, then shook her head. "It looks bottomless."
"Hmm... then how are we gonna get across it?"
Mono studied the bridge. It was comprised of wood planks, with wooden posts standing upright beside it and rope strung through them, like a fence or a handrail. At the end of it, on their side of the crevice, the rope was tied around a stick that was braced against one of the wooden posts. Mono walked over to the stick, and gave it a pull. Slowly, a broken piece of the bridge on their side began rising up, the rope that Mono pulled being the force that lifted it.
"Hey, this part's lifting up!" Six exclaimed.
"Y-yeah, I'm pulling the rope," Mono said in a strained voice. "It sticks out a little now, maybe you can jump across now?"
"Oh, sure," she said, taking another look into the crevice before stepping away from it. Heading to the bridge, she took a running start across it and, once she made it to the broken piece that Mono was lifting, she jumped across the crevice, landing safely on the other side.
Mono let go of the stick, causing the broken piece of the bridge to fall down again, the stick yanking forward and bracing against the wooden post again. The force of it sent him stumbling forward and falling on the ground.
"Phew," he panted, getting back to his feet and dusting himself off. He looked across the crevice and saw Six standing there, watching him.
"Hey!" he called out. "I'm gonna jump across now, can you catch me?"
"Sure!" she said. She walked over to the edge of the crevice, took hold of one of the wooden supports on the bridge, and leaned forward, stretching her free hand out, ready to catch him. Mono took a running leap across the crevice and grabbed her hand, dangling for a moment before she pulled him back up.
"Thanks," he said.
"No problem," she replied. "Let's keep going."
They continued walking through the forest. Six had a close hold on Mono's hand, looking around as if the Hunter may pop out at any moment. In a way, it made Mono feel good. Not only did he have company with him now, but she was putting her trust in him as well, and he was sure he was making a good impression so far. He hoped that she wouldn't abandon him after they managed to get away from the Hunter.
They didn't walk very far before the heard the familiar muffled groaning, the yellow light shining through the trees.
"Uh-oh," Mono muttered. "He's back again."
They walked over to a crate that was a ways ahead of them and hid behind it, peeking out. Just ahead of the crate was a small cliff, then a grassy field that led to a wooden barn. A deactivated television hung from a cord from the top of the barn, resting against the wall. There were a couple more crates lying in the field, a crow standing on top of one, and in the distance, the Hunter was standing and searching around with his lantern.
"Okay, Six, here's the plan," Mono started, turning to her, but he stopped speaking when he realized she was gone. He looked around. "S-Six?"
He then noticed that she had hopped off the small cliff and was making her way across the field.
"Six, wait up!" Mono called out gently, trying not to be loud enough to be heard by the Hunter. He jumped off the cliff as well and started following her. As he approached the crow on top of the crate, it took off, the noise alerting the Hunter and turning his lantern light on him.
"Look out!" Six yelled from behind the other crate on the field.
Mono ducked behind his crate just in time for the Hunter to take aim with his shotgun and blast the crate apart with one shot. Mono ran towards the other crate, seeing now that some of the barn's wooden wall had fallen away and revealed a series of horizontal wooden boards, some of them broken. Six began climbing up them as if they were the rungs of a ladder, but Mono didn't have time to climb up as when he got behind the crate, only two seconds passed before it was shot to pieces by another shotgun blast. He then began hastily climbing up the wooden boards as the Hunter began reloading his shotgun. As he climbed up beside the hanging television, he flinched as half of it got blown off from the next shotgun blast, the cord snapping off and dropping the rest of the television to the ground with a crash.
Mono climbed up the rest of the way into the barn's roof, seeing that most of its wooden flooring had fallen away, but still provided enough of a passage to get across. Six was standing across a gap in the floor, a solitary slightly-cracked board serving as the only bridge.
"Hurry, hurry!" Six said urgently.
Mono sprinted across the cracked board, only for it to break under his feet. He let out a cry of shock as he started to fall, but Six quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him up. The Hunter burst through the wall and aimed his shotgun up at the two teens, firing a shot through the floor they were on just mere inches beside them. They wasted no time getting to their feet and dashing across the top of the barn, heading for a window on the other side as the Hunter fired off a few more shots at them, each one missing them.
When they crawled through the window, then immediately landed on a metal, sloped overhang and slid down it, a large pond of murky water below them. Six splashed down into it, and Mono grabbed onto the edge of the overhang for a couple seconds before losing his grip and falling down with her. There were some docks that ran along the water, with a door to the barn facing them, and they quickly pushed through the water to get under the dock, below the door.
The Hunter burst open the door and stomped out, panting hard as he aimed his lantern around. Mono and Six both stayed silent, watching the Hunter through the wooden slits in the dock. He gazed around some more, then turned and started walking along the dock, still sweeping his lantern light around the water as he searched for them.
"Iiick," Six grimaced. "This water's disgusting."
"Yeah, I don't know if you can even call it water," Mono agreed. He felt some of it with his hand, its consistency like that of sludge. "No way I'll be taking a bath in this stuff ever."
She giggled a bit at that, which once more made Mono smile under his mask.
They waded their way through the muck, their route unfortunately being the same as the Hunter's. They ducked behind fallen trees and mounds of dirt to escape that bright lantern light of his, a couple times even needing to hold their breath and duck under the surface when there wasn't enough cover for them. No matter how far they went, the Hunter kept pace with them, despite not seeing them, and it reached the point where they were able to climb back onto dry land again. The dirty water's residue slid off their clothes after they got out of it.
Soon, Mono and Six came across another clearing, this one with a couple more crates and a small storage shed about a dozen yards away. The Hunter, once again, was off to the side, looking around with his lantern. Two crows were pecking at a small clump of dead flesh on the ground, flies milling about it.
Mono looked back at Six, taking her hand. "C'mon, we're almost there."
"How much longer will we have to avoid him?" Six asked. "I feel like we're never gonna get away from him."
"We will, don't worry," he replied. He gave her hand a tender squeeze, which made her pull her hand away from his, frowning like she didn't expect him to do it.
The two of them started carefully across the clearing, their eyes constantly checking on the Hunter to make sure he was none the wiser. Mono eyed the crows warily as they drew closer to them.
All right, he thought to himself. Now please, don't fly away... you've done it twice before and it gave us away, just stay where you are and w-
The two crows fluttered off.
-darn it!
The Hunter gave an angry grunt, and Mono heard the clicks of his shotgun as he readied it.
"Run!" he yelled to Six, and the two of them began sprinting towards the shed. The Hunter fired at them, his shot blocked by one of the crates, and he lumbered closer, hastily reloading the shotgun. He took another shot at them right as they ducked behind the second crate, which saved them again. By then, they were close enough to the shed to slip through its door and get inside.
Mono got in first, pushing the door open with such haste that he stumbled to the floor once it swung open. Six was next, hurriedly pushing the door closed and locking it, just in time for the Hunter to begin banging on it from outside.
"Mono!" Six cried, bracing her hands against the door. "What do we do?!"
Frantically, Mono looked around the room, his mind racing. They only had half a minute, maybe less, before that thing broke the door down. He tried to come up with a plan.
Then, he saw it.
Hanging up on the wall, over a small crate and under a window, was a shotgun.
Mono quickly climbed onto the crate, jumped up, and grabbed onto the shotgun, trying to pull it off the wall. It was way too big for him to use, he knew that, but maybe he and Six could use it together. He planted his feet against the wall and pushed, his hands tugging on the gun, and it fell off the wall and clunked to the floor alongside him.
"S-Six, lift up the front of it!" said Mono, getting to his feet.
Six looked back at him, confused, but instantly understood when she saw the gun on the floor. She ran from the door and wrapped her arms around the nozzle of the shotgun, aiming it up with a grunt. Mono grappled the handle of the gun and picked it up as well, their combined strength being enough to lift it off the floor.
The door shook harder, then the Hunter's fist punched a hole in it, retreating only for his head to poke in next. His face, covered by the burlap sack with the hole in it, looked menacingly at them, trying to fit its other arm in.
"Get ready!" Mono yelled.
His hand grasped the trigger firmly, then tugged it.
The sound of the gun was deafening, seemingly cutting off all other noise in the world. The shot had blasted a large hole in the bottom of the door, hitting the Hunter and knocking him back, hard. The force of the gun firing caused the two kids to fall to the floor, dropping the gun. Their ears were ringing painfully from the sound as they lay there.
Six stirred, slowly lifting her head and looking at Mono.
"H-hey..." she murmured, clutching his leg and shaking it a little. The ringing was starting to fade from her ears. "Are you okay...?"
"Mnnhh..." Mono tried to push himself up with his hands, eventually doing it and standing unsteadily for a moment. He shook his head, rubbing the side of his head. "Yeah, I'm good... man, that was loud."
"Yeah," Six nodded, getting to her feet as well and looking back at the door, at the hole their gun had made. "Is he dead?"
"I think so," said Mono. "I don't know if he could survive something like that... the gun was just like his, and his gun is pretty powerful."
Six nodded again. "Then we should get out of here, quickly."
"Alright, c'mon." Mono climbed up onto the small crate and jumped up to grab the windowsill, climbing out of the shed.
Once he hopped down to the ground, he noticed that the grass and dirt quickly transitioned into sand. A heavy pale mist hung in the air, and water stretched out as far as could be seen through the mist. Among several broken planks of wood strewn about, half-resting on the shore, was an old door, the very kind that were in the Hunter's house. This one looked less aged and withered and was more sodden instead, though a chunk of one of its corners was missing.
"Whoa..." Six stepped beside Mono, looking at the water. "What is that?"
"You don't know?" Mono inquired. "That's the ocean. A lot of the world is made up of it."
"Why?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I dunno. I don't see anywhere else to go from here, though."
Six looked behind her, then forward again, this time at the door that was propped up against the shore. She pointed at it. "Could we use that?"
"The door?" said Mono. "Actually, yeah, it's definitely wide enough... I don't know if it'll hold us, but it's worth a shot."
They walked to the edge of the water and pushed the door into it. It slowly slid onto the water, and they quickly climbed onto it as it broke away from the shore and began drifting. Thankfully, the door was capable of sustaining their weight, though it did sink about half an inch into the water at a bit of an angle before steadying itself. The two of them drifted into the mist, the land behind them gradually getting more and more obscured, until it wasn't able to be seen. Several large pieces of wood, likely from boats, were poking out of the water near the shoreline, though luckily none of them were directly in their path.
Mono looked down at the water, dipping his hand into it and feeling it. Clean and clear, not at all like the murky water that they had waded through before at the Hunter's cabin. He sat back up, his arm resting on his knee as he looked around at the mist that obscured their view.
"Nice weather today," he said jokingly.
Six was silent, hugging her knees to her chest.
Mono looked at her. "Are you okay?"
She didn't answer at first. After a minute, she shrugged.
"I hated him," she spoke. Her voice was soft and calm, yet tentative. "He kept me locked up in that room for so long after he caught me. I didn't get much water, and the only food he gave me was whatever was left of his meals. There was nothing to do, I felt like I was going to go crazy before you showed up. I wanted to kill him, but now that I did... I don't know how to feel." She lowered her head until her mouth was hidden behind her knees. "It's the first time I ever killed someone."
"Hey, it's alright..." Mono scooted his seat a little closer to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched at the touch, but didn't object. "You didn't really kill him; I did, you just helped. And if he really treated you that way, then you should be glad that you're away from him now. With the way the world is, sometimes we've gotta do bad things to get by, but if the thing we kill is evil, then I think it's justified."
Six turned her head towards him a little, looking at him. Her eyes were still covered by her bangs, so Mono couldn't detect much emotion from her face.
"Thank you," she said after a moment.
Mono blinked. "For what?"
She frowned, her lips tightened. "Don't make me repeat myself. I'm not used to showing gratitude."
"Okay... sorry." He hesitantly looked away.
She sighed and looked away. "I just didn't get the chance to say it the whole time we were out there."
"Well, you don't have to if you don't want to," said Mono. "I'm just happy to help. And frankly..." He paused. "... I just don't want to be alone."
"Why not?" Six asked.
"The world is dangerous and scary," he said. "Before I met you, I was all by myself, and it felt like my whole surroundings were out to kill me. Facing them all by yourself is different than if you're facing them while someone else is with you."
"I wouldn't know," she said. "Before I got caught, I was so used to just getting by on my own."
"Do you, uhh..." He nervously looked at her. "Did you still want to go off on your own?"
"Why?"
"Because... maybe, if you wanted... you could... come with me...?"
Six was silent. She looked at though she was thinking it over. Mono watched her, slowly feeling more and more anxious as he awaited her answer.
Finally, she shrugged. "I mean, honestly, you've treated me much better than anyone else ever has. I think it would be nice." She had a hint of a smile on her face. "So sure."
Mono felt himself relax, smiling as well. "Thank you. I won't make things hard for you, I promise."
She looked at him, giving him a playful punch on the arm. "You better not."
"H-hey, that kinda hurt," he said, wincing and rubbing his arm.
She snickered. "Oh, no it didn't. I barely tapped you."
Mono couldn't help chuckling. Six seemed to be kind of unpredictable, being distant and closed-off in one moment, then being calmer and even a little playful in the next. He figured it was likely because she had spent so much time by herself, and wasn't used to interacting with another regular person. At the moment, though, he could tell that she only saw him as an acquaintance, not quite being a friend yet. If he showed her care and patience, then eventually she would warm up to him, right? He hoped so.
The two of them sat in silence for the rest of the ride across the sea. It wasn't long before more objects could be seen in the water ahead of them. First an empty bottle, then, oddly enough, a couple of televisions. The door drifted slowly between the televisions, as if they were a gateway. A buoy slowly wavered on the water off to the side, barely visible by the fog, and another television floated beside it.
What's with all the TVs in the water? Mono thought.
As they drifted past the objects, he began to hear something in the air. It was hard to place, exactly... it sounded like some kind of sound frequency, brimming with a pitching static and a wavering hum. It sounded like it was coming from all around him.
"Do you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear what?" Six responded.
"That weird sound..." Mono looked around. "You don't hear it?"
"No."
That made Mono start to panic a bit. Why could he hear it, but she couldn't?
Then, the fog began to part and disperse, clearing up the path ahead. Mono's worry was replaced with wonder, slowly standing up as he saw the land that approached them.
The door was heading towards a sandy beach, but towering above it like a wall was a huge city. The buildings were packed close together, spanning in a wide range, and they all seemed old and worn away by time. The odd thing about them was the fact that they were bent forward, like a hunched back, yet none of them were falling over, and Mono flinched in surprise when a couple of the buildings, one by one, began to shudder and bend towards them a little more, even sinking lower into the ground a bit. It was like some unearthly force was moving them, but nothing could be seen doing it.
Mono heard Six gasp beside him, and he turned to look at her, seeing that she too was standing up and looking at the city in front of them.
"It's... huge..." she said in amazement.
"Yeah," Mono managed.
The door drifted closer until it pushed up against the sandy beach, part of it getting wedged into the sand and stopping altogether. Mono stepped off of the door and onto the sand, looking up at the city. It was certainly intimidating.
He looked back at Six, who hadn't moved from the door.
"Are we really going to go there?" she asked. "It doesn't look safe."
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," said Mono, "but it's better than being in that forest with that ruthless Hunter. Here, at least we've got more hiding places, and there's likely more supplies we can get from here – food, water, and better shelter. We don't have to stay here forever, if you don't want; we're only just passing through."
She bit her lip in worry, then nodded.
"Okay, then."
Mono walked over to her, holding out his hand.
"You ready?" he asked with gentle encouragement.
After several moments, she softly smiled and took his hand in her own.
"Yes," she said.