"Why?"

He mumbled as he was forced to wake up by the constant rumbling around him.

"Why aren't I dead already? But if I am, then maybe..."

His train of thought was interrupted by a reflexive movement of his own body when it felt something reaching it, a spontaneous motion that left him time to check the identity of the assailant.

"Oh..."

It was beyond what he could have possibly imagined. He found a humongous creature with endless patterns running across its skin. The entity halted momentarily, rotating the giant crystal ball that served as an eye until he could see his reflection on it.

"What now?"

He was halfway through giving up but carried on with the familiar motions nonetheless; he ran as fast as he could on all fours, then two after regaining his composure, but it wasn't good enough; the enormous creature was steadily closing the distance; causing him to throw away his shoes with everything else that slowed him down in the slightest, only keeping his pants and weapons that he couldn't remove; he'd already lost track of how much time passed before the rumbling started to diminish bit by bit, and now with what remained of his dwindling consciousness slightly relieved, his body had reached its limits.

"Move!"

He screamed at his non-functioning body, he knew that he was still in mortal danger, but his body wouldn't comply with his demands, what could he do to force his body to function, his thots were interrupted by a hand shaking him violently, and since it didn't attack he presumed it was human, not having much choice in the mater he forced out what few words he could.

"Help! Heeelp!"

He repeated single-mindedly until he felt something approaching his mouth, then his ear.

"Can you hear me? If you want to live, open your mouth as wide as you can."

Opening his mouth as instructed, he felt something being shoved between his molars, which caused his body to generate an insane amount of heat upon swallowing it, that heat then transformed into pure energy, which he let lift his body, though his brain didn't catch up yet, causing him to stumble where he stood.

"Careful there, it takes some time to get used to the delay"

Jack accepted the warning and spoke while trying to stay on his feet.

"So, who are you?"

Now that his view was clear, he looked over to see his savior, a tall woman with short black hair and dark red eyes. She was wearing a dark tactical suit and a serious expression that reflected the seriousness of their situation.

"I'm a soldier, do you see that tree over there?"

"The giant one? It's kind of hard to miss"

"We are going to climb it"

"Sure.... but why?"

"Because I said so, now run before we die"

He ran after her, adjusting to the delay in his actions.

"So are you going to tell me now?" he said while panting, still struggling with his predicament.

"Even a catastrophe can't knock down a god tree, and it can't sense us from that high, so we'll be safe until it goes back to its habitat"

The tree they were climbing looked to be around 5 kilometers high.

"So why isn't it following us?"

He wasn't confident in his ability to hold on if that thing tried to bring them down.

"A lot of mutant blood, alongside almost all the sedatives I had on me, it'll dull its senses a bit if we're lucky"

The two of them kept climbing for a few minutes before Jack broke the silence.

"This might be a bit basic, but what is a catastrophe?"

His question caused May to freeze for a moment

"What's your name?"

"Jack"

He answered compulsively, but one look at her proved his naivete. She had a determined expression while putting a hand on her gun, but once he answered, a piece of paper started shining in her chest pocket, after her expression changed with quickness that made him doubt his eyes.

"I'm May"

She screamed, which made him realize that he was lagging behind, so he increased his pace to catch up to her as fast as he could...

It took the two of them multiple hours of non-stop climbing to reach the top, and it wasn't like he could take a minute to catch his breath since she had told him that he mustn't let his body relax if possible, his mind assumed the worst intention from her statement, but since he couldn't find a logical reason for her to try and kill him after going through all this effort so he dismissed his distrust as paranoia.

"Finally!"

He cried while relishing the soft touch of a stable floor, a platform growing out of the so-called god tree, he didn't have the presence of mind to question its existence, he just wanted this day to be over with already, it seemed his body was in full agreement, dropping face first into the floor in front of him.

"Sorry I didn't tell you before"

She spoke while taking deep breaths.

"The drug you took has some side effects, since this is probably your first time, you won't be able to move for some time",

His mind was racing at full speed to find a way out of this, he knew it was irrational, but rationality would do nothing to quell his growing terror.

"Shit! You have some sedatives?"

"Yeah, got it"

She sighed as she spoke, then got up with some difficulty before injecting him.

"We have a few hours at most, so make the most of it"

He wondered if he'd heard that before, well, it was minutes last time, so it didn't instantly come to mind, why was he so afraid? he couldn't remember...

"Jack"

He mumbled while the girl next to his unconscious body was still thinking of a way to escape this situation, she took some energizers from her pocket and swallowed them in one go, then knelt down to wake up Jack, it was regrettable that she couldn't let him rest for more than a couple hours, but if they wait longer they're situation's going to become downright hopeless.

"How long?"

His eyes opened the second she touched him, and that was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"2 hours."

"Thanks."

"Pay me back later."

"So, can we still get away from here?"

"Yes, but I'll need your help."

"Sure, so what should I do?"

"Let's start by climbing down first, we can talk on the way."

"Alright, so why are you kneeling?"

"Get up here"

"I can see you're not joking, but why?"

"To survive?"

"..."

"Look, it's a pretty pathetic birth contract, but as long as you agree to it, you can stick to my shoulders"

She talked abnormally fast as if to get the explanation over with as quickly as possible.

"Well, it is what it is"

Recognizing her frustration, he decides to jump in without asking any more questions. After planting himself on her shoulders, he decides to swing back and forth to ascertain the strength of what's binding them.

"Damn! It's tight"

"Even if it's a worthless contract, it should still work"

"So what's the plan?"

"You'll see"

She said as she approached the gap they came in through, looking down at the ground 5 kilometers away... Before jumping off.