The moment they were deep enough inside the forest, away from the strange light the bald men used, Jasmine decided they could afford a moment of rest. She said it was for the children after the mad dash they had to make from the construction site to the forest. However, the truth was that she wanted to use the time to send a message to Isaac to check if everything was okay and to warn him that she was bringing company.

She didn't want him to mistake them for the bald men and get unnecessarily scared. Besides, she wanted to make sure he was still alright, that she didn't need to lose her mind over it.

Isaac, is everything okay? I found a few more humans. I am bringing them with me. They should be safe enough, but staying on alert can't hurt.

When she didn't receive an immediate reply, Jasmine didn't worry too much. After all, there was always the possibility that he hadn't felt the vibration of his phone or something. However, after a few more minutes passed, her heart started thumping loudly, and fear was back with full force.

What if something had happened to him? If he was gone like everyone else, and it was all her fault for leaving him alone?

Who could think leaving a child alone in the forest was a good idea?

With shaking hands and without paying any attention to Asher, who was starting to stare at her, noting her complete posture shift, Jasmine typed another message. She was hoping for the best but already expecting the worst.

Isaac? Please answer me.

Nothing. It felt like Jasmine was talking into an empty abyss, pointless.

"Arman, take care of your sister for a moment. I need to talk to Jasmine," Asher said quietly.

Although Jasmine heard what was being said, she ignored the stranger, too focused on her worry to understand why he would want to talk with her. She had already helped him as much as she could. She fought against her nature, against her worst fears. What more could he ask of her?

"Jasmine, what's wrong?" Asher asked with unexpected gentleness.

His hand hovered above her shoulder before Asher slowly retreated it as if he had just remembered how she had reacted to physical touch earlier. Instead, he stood awkwardly in front of her trying to catch her frantic gaze.

"He isn't answering my messages," Jasmine said automatically, without even realizing that she was doing it. "What if something horrible happened to him. All because I wasn't smart enough to think of a better solution than to send a little boy alone into the forest. I thought I was protecting him. But I am not so sure now."

Jasmine knew she was babbling, something Jasmine often did when she was nervous or scared, but she couldn't stop. It was one way to get all the emotions and fears out. She needed that cleansing more than anything else.

"Can I see?" Asher asked, looking pointedly at her phone. "Maybe there is something wrong with your phone."

That sounded so reasonable that it made Jasmine angry that she didn't check that before panicking. It annoyed her that she needed someone else's help to do so. Her emotions were even more out of control than usual. So, instead of arguing with the guy, she just gave him the phone, knowing she wasn't thinking straight. In that condition, she would surely miss something obvious.

Asher carefully looked at her phone, nodding his head as if he had discovered all the mysteries of life, annoying Jasmine even further. What was more irritating was that the elusive hint of a smile appeared on his face and quickly disappeared once he noticed that she was watching him.

"You don't have any cell reception. Your messages aren't going through, that's all," Asher said calmly, sounding sure enough to dispel some of her worries.

"That's strange," Jasmine said, starting to get some of her senses back. "It was working well earlier. Does yours work?"

Asher's eyes seemed to light up in realization as he pulled out his old battered-up phone. He quickly checked it and shook his head no.

"They took care of that as well," Jasmine mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Asher asked with unbridled curiosity.

"The Internet was working for a while. Then, suddenly it was out as if someone had cut the wires. It was so strange. In a way, it feels like they are slowly cutting us off from the rest of the civilization," Jasmine said as her hands became steadier. "They are removing our means of communication one by one."

Asher gave her what she could only describe as an appreciative look as if she had said something clever unexpectedly. Before Jasmine could get offended, she remembered why they were there. She couldn't fall into the abyss of her wild emotions, not now when they were so close to Isaac, who might need their help.

"We need to keep moving," Jasmine said, shaking off her terror and other constricting emotions. "We'll rest once we find Isaac. If he listened to me, his hiding place should be good enough for us to rest up on. Especially since the bald men seem to be focused on the city, not the surrounding area."

"Very well," Asher said, picking up his little girl while the boy still seemed to have a lot of energy left.

For Arman, the whole ordeal must have been like an adventure, and maybe it was better that way. It was bound to be easier for him if he didn't fully understand what was going on as Isaac did. She hoped that would protect him from all the horrors of their current situation, at least for the time being.

"Where are we headed?" Asher asked, looking around like he had never been to the area.

Jasmine thought he probably didn't because many people from the city failed to explore the forest or nature in general. They preferred the safety of what they called civilization and what Jasmine saw as barbarity. How else could one call the destruction of wildlife and animals' natural habitats?

"Follow me," Jasmine said with certainty that she rarely possessed.

The forest was very familiar to her. She always went there when she wanted to run away from the world and all of its expectations which was way too often in the last few years.

Her legs led her quickly and securely to the one tree, bigger than all the others, the grandfather of the forest, as she liked to call it. It was the oldest tree there as far as she knew and the one whose destruction, she had worried the most about.

If one positive thing came out of the whole weird situation, it was that at least the destruction of her forest was stopped. The tree that had existed for many years would continue to live on even if humans couldn't do the same. Maybe because of it.

"Who goes there?" A strangely distorted voice grumbled from somewhere in the dark. "I am the spirit of the trees. If you come any closer, you will be devoured by me."

"What does 'devoured' mean?" Ariyana asked.

"Eaten," her brother replied more eagerly than he should have since it made the little girl shiver in fear.

"Really, Isaac? That's the best you can come up with?" Jasmine asked, smiling at the boy's strange ideas while she scanned the top of the tree to see where he was.

"Hey, it could have worked if you didn't ruin the fun," Isaac said, sulking.

"Maybe. I am sorry," Jasmine said, seeing Isaac move from behind the branch he was hiding in. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine, but you look like a mess," Isaac said, pointing at Jasmine's messy hair with small branches sticking out of it and wrinkled clothes. "And who are those people with you?"

"Gee, thanks," Jasmine said sarcastically.

Still she smoothed out her hair, feeling uncomfortable that the unfamiliar guy had seen her in such disarray. Not that he looked any better.

Only later would Jasmine admit that he did look better than she did as he hadn't really gone through any ordeals, hiding as they were in their own apartment.

"These are some other humans I ran into, safety in numbers and all that," Jasmine said, not sounding sure even to herself.

"And we should be harmless enough, but she still wants you to stay alert, or at least that's what the message she tried to send you said," Asher chimed in, smirking at Jasmine's shocked expression.

"Haha, I think I'll like you," Isaac said, squinting down to see the new company he was about to get.

"Can we climb up there with you?" Jasmine asked.

"Sure thing, come along," Isaac said, sounding happy to have company.

As they all climbed on the tree, the children, with help from the adults, Jasmine started to think how odd their situation was.

Camping on a tree.

World crumbling apart beneath them.