When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Damn! How are we going to get out of here? It’s a sea of mountains!” One woman exclaimed in shock.

Nora looked at the hill range that seemed to go on forever. Holding onto her forehead, she was probably starting to feel restless, just like I was.

Nevertheless, she sighed, “Let’s move on. There’s no way we can’t find our way out.”

Easier said than done. We went around in circles for who knew how long, moving from one hill to another.

The sky got darker and darker while the women got worried. “I think we should find a place to rest. If we continue walking like this, I’m afraid we may bump into some wild animals that live here. That would be bad.”

That was not an unreasonable request. At first, everything seemed fine, as we were able to identify traces of human passage. But after walking for several hours, as we ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, I realized there were almost no traces of human beings left.

Nora turned to face us. She went silent for a while and eventually agreed. “Okay, let’s find a place to rest for the night.”

We had no means of making fire. We had made our impromptu escape without bringing along extra clothes or food.

Fortunately, after walking for a little while longer, we found a large and sturdy tree with a giant hole underneath its roots. Someone must have dug it out some time ago. The size of the entrance, however, was barely accommodating.

As women, we were relatively petite in size, so we had little issue crawling into the hole.

The sky had gone completely dark by the time we entered the hole. Night had fallen. Each of us reluctantly found a safe spot and sat down.

total. Besides Nora and I,

hole, we began to make introductions. The other three women came from different

of the thin, dark-skinned women was Tabitha. She came from Xenhall. The other one was called Laurel, who lived along the coast. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and was on the chubby side, which might be due to hormonal imbalance. Her cheeks had been visibly covered in acne for quite

plump with medium-length hair. Her eyebrows highlighted her forehead wrinkles, which made her seem at least ten years older than she

we talked, I got to learn about their

I thought the crooks were targeting young and beautiful women only, but it turned out not to be the case.

a short chat, we laid down in the hole to get some rest. I heard Tessa reciting some prayers close to me, but I could

largely empty. Her chanting was not exactly loud, but in the

stayed curled up in the hole, hugging themselves tightly and not saying

we all know that you believe in God, but can you please recite your prayers in your mind, and not say it out loud? You’re going to attract wildlife if you go on

by the interruption, produced a furious retort. “God will only protect us. He will not bring us

the chanting resumed, said, “Look, if it means

quiet after that. The

had anything to say. Shrouded in darkness, all

the night. We lived to

The next day.

By the

her knees when the noise