The ground was colder, the air was chillier, the shivering pack of humanity slowly meandered their way over the hobble of mountainous hills.

Uzimati was leading the way, striding hard forward with his spear as a walking stick. Behind, Lofi marched on, very close to Uzimati. He did not seem to be out of breath. The rolling undulations were not a worthy adversary for the swift-thinking and energetic Lofi. 

Further down the rugged slope, Dante lumbered upon. He could feel the watchful, calculating eyes of the mysterious Jacob a few paces behind him. Dante couldn't summon the warmth to embrace him as a friendly companion. There was a sense of... uneasy rattling energy around him. The disturbed teenager seemed to retain everything he experienced, and never ever let anything go. He was one great ocean of emotion and experience, in which the gates were barred and the water practically poisonous. 

Even further behind, at the very bottom of yet another undulating valley they had crossed trudged Rachie and the massive and powerfully-built Zongu. Dante wasn't sure why they were going so slow, and even why Rachie had changed her mind so swiftly, leaving Yula alone. But that was surely the case, and he accepted it, sadly. 

Stopping, turning, and gazing downward, he ignored Jacob's razor-sharp stares as Zongu and Rachie slowly filed onward. The pair had been performing oddly ever since they set off, Rachie with a withdrawn blank expression and Zongu emanating a fixed boulder-like tension which looked as if it would crash and crumble at any moment. "What do you think of that pair?" Dante asked Jacob quietly and suddenly. 

Jacob just humphed a reply, and then continued marching upward. He didn't care. Rachie and Zongu may as well have transformed into polar bears and were charging up the mountain towards, and he still wouldn't have replied any differently. 

But there were bigger problems standing ahead. Dante - with Jacob standing unnecessarily close - found Uzimati and Lofi. 

"Wha-" he was about to say, but stopped. He knew what it was. He knew exactly what it was. The words "Turn around" in large bold letters hadn't been visible for a distance, but they were as starkly visible as possible now, popping into existence in front of the four stranded souls. 

Lofi reached out his arm, trying to touch the words, but his hand melted straight through. "It's not a wall, only a demand. A demand we do not necessarily have to listen to" Lofi said simply, for everyone to hear. 

There was no threat, but the severity of the lettering suggested something bad regardless. Uzimati didn't like it one bit, but did not speak. He would take heed of Lofi. 

"Maybe if we walk in a more north-easterly direction..." Dante said, trailing into silence as the suggestion hung over them. 

"This command will still follow us, I'm sure"

Jacob spat on the ground and laughed with the sound of a creaky wardrobe being pulled back and forth. 

"Speak your mind, my dear Jacob" Lofi told him softly. 

"No matter if we enter... we're going to die all the same" Jacob exclaimed, spitting on the ground again in front of the sign. He began to walk forward when Lofi held out a hand. 

"I tire of your artificial nihilistic views Jacob. Tell me what you really think". 

Dante looked back from Jacob's suddenly surprised expression to Lofi's calm sincerity. He could hear the rough footsteps of Zongu, but they were still quite far away. 

Jacob stared Lofi straight in the eye. "We walk on" he pointed in the direction of more and more valleys. The undulations seemed to last forever. "We go to Canada. We take risk". 

"We're already taking enough risk" Dante added. "Let's be sensible about this". 

"Sense is far too over-rated" Lofi yawned, arms stretching and mouth opening wide to reveal white shining teeth.

Immediately Zongu appeared, his boots slamming the ground. He looked up at the gigantic and intimidating sign. "We go on" he said bluntly, and then stepped through the demand, ignoring its implications entirely. 

Rachie arrived a few moments later. Uncaring of the sign completely, she just followed Zongu. 

Jacob followed. Lofi, shrugging at Uzimati and Dante went behind, immediately matched by Uzimati. Finally it was Dante on his own. Was he the final sane mind in a land of madness? 

Perhaps not. Because... well, he did not want to be on his own. Not here, in this practically desolate wasteland of an area with only bushes and rocks to keep him company. So, he followed the weary band into fresh depths. 

Quickly, he caught up with Rachie, who was trailing her feet so much. He didn't understand. She was the hunter of the group, sometimes even surpassing Uzimati's skill. But now, she was empty of everything. It was as if all the lights in her life had been taken away and only the bare clinging essentials had remained. 

"Rachie" Dante said as he began to walk alongside her. 

"What do you want?" She said dully. 

The expression on his face creased further into concern. "Are you... fine?"

"Yes" she said quickly. And that was all. Her pace grew even slower, as if she was carrying a massive weight on her back. Her head was facing the ground, her green glowing hair lankly draped forward in tangled weary tendrils. 

"Why'd you leave Yula?" He asked her suddenly. He had been pricked by her abandonment. He hadn't stopped imagining Yula all alone since he left. Perhaps he should find her, or was he just a coward?

Though, she stiffened. "I did not leave" she said quietly. 

"Well, you had to. Otherwise..."

"No" she cut him off, brutally and immediately. She wouldn't say another word to him after that. 

Looking up, he saw the hard glare of Zongu piercing him from over a foot above him, 50 metres ahead. It was hard not to be intimidated by the man. 

Dante took a step away from Rachie. Zongu's glare softened slightly, and continue to relax further as Dante moved further and further away, and away. 

Rachie just stood there, hanging like a dead leaf on a tree. The man was evil. Pure evil. The strong woman with a battered heart tried to shake her mind into action. But it wouldn't budge. One great big boulder had locked her into place, enslaving her into silence. Evil, her brain spat at the boulder. But the boulder didn't care. The boulder just spat back, with rock hard composure. Grrr! she thought to herself. 

Her legs started moving again. She was a puppet. A simple puppet dancing in front of the jaws of a monster. 

Ahead, Uzimati had taken the lead once more. Lofi was right by his side, a hand wrapped around his shoulder. Dante caught up with them, only gradually though. There were so many hawk eyes in this group, he felt like he was locked in a cast of them. 

"Lofi" Dante breathed, as he finally approached the leading pair.

"Tell me everything, Dante" the young boy said. He already knew that the elder had a lot to talk about. 

"Have you, um... noticed odd behaviour recently? Especially from Rachie?"

Lofi chuckles ever so slightly. "Oh, every day reaps the odd behaviour" he said, staring at Dante with those moon-deep eyes of his. "The world fizzles with madness one step higher every day". 

"Okay okay, so is that a yes?"

"I'm saying yes, but I am not saying it should be unexpected". 

Dante wasn't sure why the boy was using double negatives, but still. How was he the most observant in the group? Or was he just paranoid? "It's just..." he began. Ugh, why couldn't he finish a sentence?

Lofi placed a hand on Dante's shoulder. "Life is fine. You have nothing to fear. Speak with your mind's voice, and not with my ear". 

For a moment, Dante felt the crackle of obedience. He wanted to suddenly open up to Lofi about everything, everything in the world and his entire life. But his head shook away this instinct and denied it, except for what he knew he should say. "Zongu and Rachie" Dante said quietly. 

"What of them?" 

"I think Zongu may... may be controlling Rachie, somehow".

"That's quite a perception" Lofi admitted, staring at the sky ahead, it was beginning to pack itself with dull grey clouds. "It wouldn't surprise me if Zongu did have an exploitation power. They weren't invented yet, but I don't think it would be impossible for the future to create such a device..." he sighs. "It is not our place to meddle in the actions of other people".

"But what if they hurt the people we care about?"

"Do you care significantly about Rachie?"

"Well..." Dante thought hard about this. "Yes, I think I do... as a friend" he said hurriedly. 

"Friendship" the boy laughed. "Yes, okay. Well, I do not see what I can do. I don't care about Rachie as an individual". He said this so simply and so bluntly, Dante practically could believe it. Except that the statement made no sense whatsoever. 

"But she's part of the team, one of our best scavengers..." 

"Uzimati can scavenge for me just as well" Lofi countered smoothly.

"Ummm, okay okay" he responded shiftily, until descending into complete silence. He thought he had hidden his alarm. Lofi hadn't just said that Uzimati was a good hunter for the group. He had said 'for me', instead of 'for us'. 

He tried to attract Uzimati's attention, but the man was too focused on the ground ahead to notice. Eventually Dante tried tapping the shoulder of Uzimati, but that didn't work either. Nothing did. It was as if he were a machine, unfeeling to the interruptions and sensors that regular humans adopted. 

Dante dropped back, wrapping himself up and tightly in a curtain of thought, and worry. With the relationships all around him turning into a toxic frenzy, he felt thoroughly isolated. He couldn't help wish with an ever more powerful fervour that Yula was still here. Maybe she would have followed him had he been nicer to her, had he been understanding and friendly. But no, he had to be an idiot. 

He pushed his clenching fist suddenly hard against his side, frustrated with himself. He would never find her now. She was lost.  And here he was stuck in a place no one had any right to be, especially the particular type of people that were him, Lofi, Uzimati and the others.

The crunch of footsteps drew slowly next to him. Jacob. That skinny face and dark shrewd eyes were watching everything. Then there was Zongu and Rachie. Zongu was walking stridently, directly behind Rachie, who had picked up the pace to avoid the flying kicks of Zongu's eccentric march. She was still blank faced, staring at the ground. 

Rachie simply was searching for a hole in the ground, in which she could burrow into and tunnel down to the other side of the world. That would show the Australian bastard. But there was only stone, gravel and dirt; no inviting portals to escape lay in this ground. Nature was a sea of opportunity, but her opportunities were as absolute as a grey stone. Zongu... she had never met such a malicious gargoyle.  

Sharp boots kicked at her calfs. She felt the rip of flesh, and a trickle of blood down to the sole of her feet. But she didn't complain, only walked quicker, and quicker, and quicker, and quickly. She felt the warm heavy hands on her shoulders. Those awful, awful hands that had robbed her from the great vision she had imagined for herself. Finally, she had held a  purpose from regular mundane survival antics, but no. He had to drag her on this useless quest to somewhere that was just really cold and boring. No hope could be found, only uselessness. Had he not taken enough from her already?

She felt him push her forward, forcing her to quicken her pace ever more. Pretty much jogging now,  the figures of the two dark-skinned boyfriends were right ahead of her, and despite their fast striding footsteps, the image of them sprung larger and larger. 

From the side she could hear a shout of alarm, but what did it matter? Zongu just took what he wanted without a second's thought. They were all just either servants or soldiers. It didn't matter, as long as Zongu was in control. And now, she supposed, he was frustrated at their slow progress. He was forcing her to run, to pick up the pace, to get to the North quicker. Of course this was the sustainable pace that they could last on for the next couple of days. Naturally they were all super machines, Rachie thought mega sarcastically. She really didn't care. There was no point to feel. She had left all feelings behind in that clearing... 

"Why are you doing this Zongu?" she hazily heard Lofi ask casually. None had the slightest direct care for her. Just Zongu...

"We're too slow!" Zongu boomed, causing even Lofi to take a step back. Except Rachie. 

"We are as quick and as slow as need be" Lofi told him sincerely, holding a hand out to Zongu, eyes concerned. "Regardless, Zongu you have walked at the back. If you want to help set the pace, walk at the front"

"I've been monitoring this!" He pointed at Rachie, before shoving the body so viciously she crashed to the ground and rolled over the hard rocks for about five metres. A hard grunt later, and Rachie lay unmoving. When he needed her next, he would lift her up and place him where he liked. 

"Stop that!" Dante at shouted, he was so shocked at the way Zongu had pushed Rachie away as if she were just a toy to have a tantrum with, he had forgotten to feel scared. In a fierce bubble of rage, Zongu pounded toward Dante. He was in charge. Any threats would be disposed of. 

Lofi was watching calmly. "Is this really necessary...?" He sighed, in a way that made him seem like a parent who had just given up trying to discipline his child. Rachie still lay at the ground, eyes closed. Uzimati went to help lift her up, but Lofi stopped him with a quick click of the tongue. 

Dante watched the giant steaming fitfully towards him. He wished he could be the type of person who stood up for himself, one who could slay the giant and win. But as he watched the writhing tangle of anger and rippling muscle stride towards him at over a foot above his eyes, all the visions of Brave Warrior Dante drained away like water slipping down a sink. 

Turning to run, he looked around desperately. There had to be something he could use to either hide or defend himself. But there was nothing. The heavier footsteps of the giant made him realize that Zongu had begun to run too. 

Lofi and Uzimati continued to watch on passively. They may as well have been eating popcorn and discussing the new economic downturn. 

Sprinting down a slope now, the cold air biting viciously at his face - or perhaps it was laughing. Maybe one of the rocks... he could throw it at Zongu? No, the giant would just throw a boulder back. He urged his body to just surge, faster and faster, but he was at breaking point, full throttle. With dread, he glanced back and saw the giant only a few paces behind. The image of his hulking mass was practically blocking out the sun. 

He was in open air, no protection, nothing. He was doomed. All he could do was... suddenly he dropped into a ball shape, cradling his body and tucking his head in. Instantly he felt the heavy foot of Zongu crash into his back, and then a large thud onto the ground. There was a weird sound, the sense of lots and lots of rocks falling and falling and falling downward. His back hurt as if having been punched by the fist of an elephant, but his body was moving just about okay. 

Grunts, wheezing grunts were heard. Now he was just a tiny bit more relaxed, he could see the razor-cut head of Zongu looking at him, a pure mixture of concentration and effort illuminating his hard face. 

He couldn't do it. Zongu couldn't pull up. His body was just too heavy, and his strength had abandoned him. Through all the physical muscle extensions and the body enhancers, he hadn't been able to charge up any of it since his arrival here. It didn't matter, they still worked, he had told the harsh concerns. However, all that powerful force and drive that wrapped around his body had now completed the process of turning into excess weight that clung to him like a virus. It was the making and breaking of him. He tried with all of his remaining might to lift himself out of the hole - the hole that had been invisible to both he and Dante until that very moment. 

Dante could hear lighter footsteps crunching behind him, before a few steady gasps. 

"Zongu, you seem to be in a bit of bother there" Lofi said helpfully.

"Pull me out!" Zongu said shrilly. He sounded more and more like the impulsive, heartless 17 year old he truly was. Now, he was just begging for his life. Standing right at the edge and just out of reach, Lofi leaned down to stare at Zongu, who glared back angrily. Shuffling about, trying to firmly haul himself out; it was no point. The hole was deep, Lofi could see; perhaps 50 metres. Enough to kill him or destroy him. 

"Such a shame Zongu..." Lofi said, looking around at Dante and Uzimati. "I just do not think we are strong enough to pull you out" he shrugged, feigning sincerity.

 The ache in Dante's back was searing throughout his body now, and he could only just about sit up to observe this exchange. 

"You've got to-" Zongu puffed, attempting to hoist himself up again, as if he were a toy. "Try!" he yelled into the empty air. 

"Too dangerous" Lofi said simply. "What if one of us fell in while trying to lift you to safety? That would make two deaths and not one".

"Death! Noo" growled Zongu. 

"Sorry Zongu... I think-" but before he could say another word, Jacob arrived and stabbed. 

The swift grinning blade went smoothly through the skull of the monster: one swift powerful movement. All the life instantly drained away; all the anger, all the insecurity, all the fear. His eyes boggled, his mouth hung open and his body slid into the hole, smoothly, never to be seen again. 

Lofi's mouth was similarly aghast, as he looked up at the dripping blade held by a chuckling Jacob. His eyes were alive with malice, happy to make fresh kill. After that, all he did was shrug gleefully, walk away, and dip the shining blade back into place.