After running like maniacs—harder than he had ever run before—with his heart in his throat and his lungs burning, Bruno stopped.
—Wait… wait… I can't go on.
The woman stopped reluctantly. She looked back, keeping watch over the ruins they had just escaped, then turned her attention to him.
—Recover quickly. We have to keep moving.
Bruno gathered what strength he had left and sucked in all the air his lungs could hold. His legs were trembling, but he managed to stand.
—Where are we headed?
The woman studied the path anxiously. Her rifle was still at the ready, and her fingers never left the trigger.
—The fortress.
—A fortress?
—Ask later. Move now. Something might be following us.
Seeing the fear and anguish on her face, Bruno forced himself onward and began walking behind her. They climbed over collapsed walls and leaped across holes so large they looked like the tracks of some colossal beast. They crossed rivers of dark water; in one of them, Bruno nearly drowned and only managed to get out because the woman grabbed him by the shirt.
Then they had to cross an area covered in fleshy plants. The stalks twisted around them, and several leaves tried to clamp down on his arms like jaws. Bruno struck the roots with a rock while the woman kept moving without stopping.
—Help me! —he shouted.
She fired a single shot at the plant. The blast made the leaves contract.
—Don't fall behind.
Bruno followed her, gasping.
Sometimes he felt that the woman was about to abandon him so something could devour him and stop him from slowing her down. Other times, when he stumbled or struggled to escape some lesser creature, he even thought she was enjoying watching him try.
He didn't know whether to trust her.
But she was the only person he knew in that world.
After a while, they reached a bridge covered in vegetation. The structure stretched over a dry riverbed and was so deteriorated that every step kicked up dust and tiny fragments of concrete.
The woman stopped suddenly.
—Bruno, come look at this.
He approached cautiously. Among the vines was a small clearing where sunlight streamed through. The rays blinded him, and Bruno had to shield his eyes with one hand.
—Look —she said—. This is the world we're in.
When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, Bruno looked toward the horizon.
And was left speechless.
The entire world seemed to have been abandoned to destruction. There were ruins everywhere: buildings split in half, avenues hidden beneath roots, and trees that had grown inside houses, stores, and stations. Some cars rested trapped among the treetops. Farther away, several bridges sank into the earth like broken bones.
It wasn't the world he had come from.
It couldn't be his home.
—How long has it been like this? —he asked at last.
—We don't know.
The woman stood beside him. For an instant, she stopped looking like a warrior prepared to survive and became nothing more than a tired person.
—We're still investigating how to get out of here —she whispered—. We all want to return home. No one wants to stay in this land.
Bruno closed his eyes. Until then, he had held on to a small hope: waking up in his bed, discovering that everything was a nightmare, or finding a way back. But faced with that vast expanse of ruins, he realized that he might never leave that place.
When he opened his eyes, he looked at the woman. Her face was covered in dust, and several tears had carved tracks down her cheeks.
Bruno raised a hand and rested it on her shoulder.
—Let's keep going —he said, trying to sound braver than he felt—. First, we have to see if I can survive long enough to reach the fortress.
She watched him for several seconds. Then she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and looked away.
—Don't make promises you can't keep.
—It wasn't a promise.
—Then what was it?
Bruno looked at the devastated landscape.
—A way of asking you not to leave me behind.
The woman clenched her jaw. Then she adjusted the strap of her backpack and started walking.
—If you want to stay alive, don't make me do it.
Bruno followed her across the bridge.
Halfway across, something slammed into the depths of the dry riverbed.
The bridge trembled beneath their feet.
The woman raised her rifle and looked down. Bruno peered through the plants, but all he could see was a huge shadow moving beneath a layer of dust.
—What was that? —he asked.
—Don't look.
—Why?
She took a step back.
—Because some things can see you when you see them.
The shadow moved again.
This time, something opened its eyes at the bottom of the riverbed.
The woman grabbed Bruno by the arm.
—Run.
And the fortress, still invisible beyond the ruins, suddenly seemed much farther away.