Searing pain pulsed through my leg as I realized that I had been shot. I recognized the arrow that was poking out of my limb. The orange feathers and pitch black shaft reminded me of when I had been shot in the back with the same arrow. I had taken the hit by shielding Demi. I instantly knew what would happen if I left the arrow in and frantically pulled it out. More pain swept over me as I yanked the arrow out and threw it as far as I could before it exploded, cutting my shirt and my skin in several places. Black dots began to fill my vision and I was worried that I would pass out.

To my relief, the pain and the black dots didn't last long. Anne was using her powers to heal me and it only took a moment for the wound to close. I quickly summoned my sword and shield and used my power to extend the range of my shield and put it between the archer and us. He was standing out in the open, bow raised and aimed at us as he loaded another arrow. He didn't wear the hood, like he had last time. Instead, he wore a black and red polo with shorts. His short, blonde hair poked out of a navy blue ball cap as he calmly released the next arrow, detonating it as it hit my shield and pushing me back slightly.

Another figure approached from our left. Like the archer, he didn't have a cloak or hood anymore, but I recognized his weapons. Long claw-like blades stuck out from between his fingers, like Marvel's Wolverine from the X-men series. He was much shorter than the archer, probably around my height. He came at us quickly, raising his blades and for a moment, I thought this would be the end of us, but Anne summoned a rapier and met his charge.

Anne did not have the speed or agility to combat the fast man and he sliced through her sword arm easily, just above her elbow. But I saw just how strong her power was. As the blades passed through her arm, her skin reattached and healed almost instantly. She still cried out in pain but managed to thrust her sword at the stunned man, stabbing him in his forearm.

I gawked at Anne for a moment, but another arrow exploded into my shield and nearly knocked me off my feet. Remembering that we were in a fight for our lives, I turned towards the Wolverine and jabbed my sword at him. He dodged me but I followed him, swinging my sword downward. At the same time, Anne thrust her sword at the man again and we both connected. Anne's sword entered his chest, while mine caught his neck. The blood and his body disappeared as if they had never been there, erased from this game's cycle.

Arrow Guy saw this and started to run away. I ran after him and remembered the previous cycle, where he had chased me. I was faster than him and would catch up soon. After a few steps, the archer threw an arrow behind him. As I approached, it exploded. I still had my shield out but it sent me backward several steps. I cursed, got back up and continued to run. He had laid another arrow for me and it blew up before I got in range of it, but I had lost track of him.

Anne came up to me, breathing hard and I turned to her after letting my sword and shield vanish. "Lost him," I panted.

"Don't worry about it. We got one of them. Let's get inside in case the other one comes back." She took out a bobby pin, moving to one of the houses on the street. Apparently, she knew how to pick a lock and she had it opened quickly. "Those were the same jerks that hung me on that wall last time; minus the big guy."

"Hopefully, we won't run into him too." We ducked into the house, locking the door behind us. Once we were safe, I turned to her, "Your power is amazing!"

"Thanks. It's not that great though. There's lots of if's to it."

"Like what?" I asked curiously.

"Well, if a bone is broken, I can heal it, but it might not heal right. Sometimes bones need to be reset and my power doesn't do that. It also doesn't take out foreign objects, so if a shard of metal is in you, you'll heal around it but it won't take it out. And if you remember how you found me last time." She formed a circle with her hands around her stomach. "I can heal crazy wounds but your body is supposed to be organized a certain way. If it can't heal like it should like if something is in the way while I heal you, it'll heal wrong and it'll just be constantly painful."

"Huh. Still, it's useful. Not really something I would have thought to choose for an ability though."

Anne shrugged, "Well, the Traveller is sort of vague when he tells you what's going on, isn't he?"

The Traveller was the being that conducted the dream to initiate you into the game. He sort of shows, then tells you what's going on before having you make a choice for a weapon and a power. "I wouldn't know," I explained. "My first dream was interrupted by my alarm. He didn't come back until after I was exposed to all of this and when he finally did, he more or less told me to pick my stuff."

"That's weird," Anne put a hand to her chin. "I wonder if that's why your phone works. Like he forgot to do whatever it is that makes it not work."

"Hmm. If that's the case, I'm glad my dream was cut short."

We stayed in the house for several minutes. I wasn't ready to brave the world yet, worried that the archer had circled back to find us, but since it would be two on one, I didn't think that would happen. Still, the goosebumps that I had were unsettling. I had them because I hadn't adapted to Anne yet, but that left me vulnerable to anyone else since I couldn't sense them apart from Anne.

"I think we should get moving," Anne said.

"Would it be a bad idea to stay here until the chills are gone?"

"We shouldn't risk it. The game has ways of knowing if you're trying to hide. It usually doesn't turn out very well." She opened the door, "Besides, I want to find May."

I didn't argue and we left the house, heading in the direction Anne thought the stores would be. I was careful to check around for enemies. Saris had made it seem casual to check every intersection during the last cycle, but for me, I kept having to remind myself to look around before walking into the open. It felt strange. We were still in a residential area so there wasn't much to see, other than houses and lawns. Anne occasionally pointed things out if she liked them; the color choices of the house, a type of tree in a yard or some of the lawn ornaments. She seemed less worried about safety.

"I love garden gnomes," she gushed as we passed a house that had several of the little men scattered everywhere. Most of them were hiding and you had to look for them poking out of the stairway or peeking through the bushes. "They're so cute. Did you know that they used to be considered good luck? Yeah. People used to think of them as garden protectors and nighttime helpers."

"That's weird," I said, not really interested but trying to be polite.

"Boring topic?" Anne sensed my lack of interest.

"Uhh, well, it's just not my thing. Sorry."

"Well, I guess we're even then." I made a confused sound and she explained, "I had to listen to you talk about that game, Legend Of Zorro or whatever."

"Zelda," I corrected.

"Zelda, sorry. I really appreciate you helping me out and trying to get my mind off of that pole, but really? Video games?"

I shrugged, "It was either that or me talking about how I cut my head open in elementary school."

Anne's face scrunched into a disgusted look, "Yeah, okay. Video games was the lesser evil." Then she added, "Maybe you should work on your conversational skills." She put a finger up as if listing off suggestions, "First, know your audience."

"I was in a weird situation. I didn't know what to say."

"You were in a weird situation? Try being hung on a wall."

I mumbled an apology but she didn't continue the lesson. Maybe the memory of how we met was too fresh. She didn't seem mad, so I didn't press the issue.

After a long walk past houses, a few insurance agencies and four too many banks, we finally made it out of the residential area and into the business area where there seemed to be more interesting stores, like a pawn shop, a music store and several restaurants. It felt weird to not be in a downtown area. Everything was much more spacious and categorized. Not really organized, just split. Here's where people live, here's where people shop and the two rarely blend together. Downtown is much more organized in my opinion. People live near the stores. They weren't so far apart that you'd have to commit to travel somewhere, granted, people here used cars. Maybe it just made sense to my brain because I had lived downtown ever since I got out of high school. I spent four years in the same apartment and had organized my life around that area. I didn't own a car because I hadn't needed one. And, great; now I'm homesick.

"Hmm. You okay?" Anne asked. "Why the long face? I didn't mean to upset you about the conversational skills thing. It was just a joke."

"No. It's not that. I guess I'm just feeling a bit homesick."

"I could talk more about garden gnomes," Anne teased.

I laughed, "Why not."

Within minutes, I wished I hadn't said that. I was flooded with random facts about garden gnomes and what Anne's favorite types were. It definitely took my mind off of missing my home, but it got me so bored that time felt like it stood still. Anne was talking about Lampy, the world's oldest gnome and how he's worth over two million dollars. My stomach growled loudly and so did hers. We took a moment to search around for somewhere to eat and Anne pointed out an Arbys, right next to a Best Buy. We agreed to start at the electronic's store so I could charge my phone while we ate.

As we approached the store, we looked around, expecting to find someone lurking around the corner. To our relief, we didn't find anyone, so we entered the building. It was eerily empty, aside from several shades walking around. Honestly, I think their presence made it more creepy. Anne led the way, clearly familiar with the store's layout, and we found the chargers quickly.

I held up two of the plastic packages. "I don't know which one's right. This one looks slightly bigger than the other. I don't want to get it wrong just to have to come back for the other."

Anne looked at me as if I were stupid. "You can open it right here."

Realizing that she was right and that I was, in fact, stupid, I opened the one in my left hand and it fit my cell phone perfectly. I hung my head in shame as we left the store and headed towards the restaurant, just across the parking lot. Again, we inspected the area and found no one. When we were along the backside of the building I voiced my concern, "Is it me, or is it weirdly empty here? Shouldn't we be running into more people?"

"Could be a big map," Anne stated dully.

"How big can a map get?"

"Dunno. It's hard to really explore bigger maps on account of...you know...they're big. And it's kinda distracting with people trying to kill you. I guess we could just be lucky." We finished our patrol and headed inside. Anne breathed in deeply through her nose, "Mmm. Delicious. I'm starving."

We went around back where the fast-food was prepared and found some. There were some sandwiches already made up, so we took them. Nothing special, just classic roast beef sandwiches; Anne's had cheese on top. We both grabbed some curly fries and I took some mozzarella cheese sticks while Anne filled some of those paper cups with ketchup and Arby's sauce. Lastly, we grabbed cups and filled them with drinks. I took a coke, while Anne filled hers half with root beer and half with orange Fanta.

We ate greedily, both of us were hungry. I was feeling much better about the game now that I had an ally, was filling my belly, and had survived my first battle without Saris or Demi. I looked down at my charging phone as I considered the next step of the plan: zig-zag across the map looking for May. I didn't love this search method, but it's what Anna wanted to do and since I told her that I'd help her find May, I would go with the plan; it's not like I had a better one. Finding May, specifically, seemed like a stretch, but add in my hopes of finding Saris and Demi and I was hopeful that we might run into ONE of them in our search.

Anne seemed to be thinking something similar. She took a sip of her mixed pop as she scanned the surrounding street and parking lot,, "I wish there was a better way to see what's around us."

"I know what you mean. At this rate, it'll start snowing before we find May."

"Don't say that." Anne seemed to be looking for words to convince me that we wouldn't be searching too long. She settled on, "We'll find her."

"You're right, sorry. What does May look like? It'd be a bummer if I saw her and you didn't."

"Oh," Anne said, realizing she hadn't given me the information, "she's easy to spot. She's got blue hair."

I nodded and looked out the window. There was no way we could have avoided them, so we had chosen to be near one that didn't face the street. The door had a bell on it, so it wasn't likely that we'd be snuck up on. Something caught my eye, "What about that?" Just outside of the business area was a line of several apartments.

"I don't follow."

"We can get on the roof of that apartment complex and see a whole lot of this area. Plus, the gaps between the buildings look small, we might be able to jump across and see all around this area."

Anne considered my idea, "It could help. Maybe we'd see May and know where she's going."

"Exactly."

"Okay. It's worth a shot. Let's go!"

I whimpered slightly, "I'm not done with my food yet."

Anne huffed, "Well, scarf it down." She was excited and got out of the booth only to bounce up and down. "Come on, come on, come on, come on."

"That's not helping!"

"Neither is talking!"

It took us a while to get to the apartment complex that I had seen. We made a straight path to it and had to jump a couple of low fences to get there. We did our normal rounds of searching the area but didn't find anyone. When we went up to the apartment door, it was locked with a security scanner but the door was largely made of glass. I summoned my weapons and smashed the glass while shielding the two of us from any stray shards. The few shades around freaked out and ran and I quietly apologized, not meaning to have scared them. Then we went up. The building was six stories high and we were winded by the time Anne pulled out her bobby pins to gain roof access. Finally, we were on the top of the building and we approached the edge that overlooked the town.

"This was a great idea," Anne praised, then frowned, noting my shakiness. "What's wrong with you?"

I was unwilling to get any closer to the edge of the roof and my feet kept taking slow steps backward. "I just...I'm not a fan of heights, that's all. I'm fine."

"You know this was your idea, right?"

"I know," I said, nervously, then tried to change the subject. "Do you see anyone?"

Anne patted the ground next to her, "Sit." I hesitated. "Don't worry. You won't fall." Gingerly, I obeyed and sat down. She didn't tease me about my fear of heights. Instead, she said, "You can see the forest from here. Isn't that where you started?"

"Yeah," I managed to say.

"Can't really make anything out though. I think there's someone out there, but it's not May. You can spot her a mile away."

I tried to find the person she was talking about but something else caught my eye. A small group of people were gathered where the town met the trees of the forest. I pointed them out to Anne and we squinted to try and see more clearly. There were four of them and it looked like three of them were on the same side. Weapons were out and I recognized the sword from the fourth man. Even though we were far away, the large sword was easy to recognize. It was Saris.

"I know him!" I stood up and nearly fell over.

Anne had caught me, "Be careful! It's probably too late to help. He's a goner."

As I stared towards the fight, I saw a fifth man arrive, holding a huge sword, larger than Saris'. It was another blade I recognized. It was the same blade that belonged to the man who had betrayed Saris, Demi and I during the previous cycle; Zack. Saris was in huge trouble and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to help him.

"We have to go," I said.

"That's four to one. We would only make it four to three and that's only if we manage to make it before they kill him."

"If you want to stay, fine. I'll go. But I have to go."

Anne looked at me and shook her head, "Fine, let's go. But if you get me killed, you owe me."

"Deal," I said as we rushed down, back the way we came, and headed towards the fight in the distance. 'Saris,' I thought as I ran, 'just stay alive.'