Tom and Dasha finally reached the outskirts of the city.
Ahead of them...
Was the forest.
At first, Tom couldn't understand why nobody had ever mentioned it.
It wasn't just some ordinary forest sitting outside Chinatown.
It surrounded the entire city.
A huge circular perimeter...
Stretching for hundreds of kilometres.
It wasn't particularly wide...
But it was incredibly long.
And strangely enough...
The only proper way into Chinatown...
Was through this forest.
The entrance and exit gates were positioned on opposite sides of it.
Meaning...
Anyone who wanted to enter or leave the city had to pass through the forest.
Tom looked at Dasha.
"So..."
"This is it."
Dasha nodded.
"Yeah."
They slowly approached the forest entrance.
There was no visible wall.
No guards.
No warning signs.
Nothing.
Tom took another step forward.
Suddenly...
A strong gust of wind swept through the area.
Dust and tiny particles scattered across the ground.
Some of them flew directly toward the entrance.
And then...
ZAP.
The particles suddenly disappeared.
Almost as if they had been melted in mid-air.
Tom froze.
Dasha froze.
They stared at each other.
"What..."
"...was that?"
Tom slowly stepped backward.
"I don't know."
"Did you see that?"
Dasha nodded.
"Yeah."
"It looked like..."
"A laser."
Tom stared at the entrance.
"So there's an invisible laser barrier."
Dasha swallowed.
"That's..."
"Very dangerous."
Tom nodded.
He needed to test it.
But they couldn't exactly throw themselves into it.
Then...
He noticed Dasha's hair ribbon.
He carefully took it.
Dasha immediately looked at him.
"Tom..."
"What are you doing?"
Tom threw the ribbon toward the entrance.
ZAP.
The ribbon disappeared instantly.
Dasha stared in disbelief.
Then looked at Tom.
"You..."
"How dare you!"
"You took my ribbon without permission!"
"It's gone!"
Tom shrugged.
"Well..."
"We needed to know whether the laser was actually there."
Dasha crossed her arms.
"So you chose MY ribbon?"
Tom smiled.
"Do you care more about your ribbon..."
"...or our lives?"
Dasha opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
Tom looked at her for a moment.
"And..."
"You actually look better with your long hair anyway."
Silence.
Neither of them said anything.
Dasha simply looked away.
Tom did the same.
Neither wanted to admit how awkward that moment had become.
A few seconds later...
Dasha suddenly grabbed Tom's hand.
Tom's eyes widened.
"Wait..."
"Are we official now?"
Before he could say anything...
Dasha took his ring.
Then threw it over the barrier.
ZAP.
Gone.
Tom stared at the empty space.
"...Ouch."
"You hurt my feelings."
"And my ring is gone."
Dasha smiled.
"I guess we're even."
"And besides..."
"It was pink."
"It didn't suit you anyway."
Tom looked at the invisible barrier.
"So..."
"We can't jump over it."
"We can't crawl through it."
"We need another way."
He thought for a moment.
"What if we walk around the entire boundary?"
"Maybe there's a section without the lasers."
Dasha shook her head.
"No."
"They're smarter than that."
"If they protected the entire city..."
"They would've covered everything."
Tom sighed.
"Okay..."
"Then what do we do?"
Dasha looked at the ground.
"What about digging?"
Tom looked at her.
"A tunnel?"
"Exactly."
"We could dig underneath the barrier."
"And then find out whether the laser reaches underground."
Tom nodded.
"That could actually work."
"But..."
"We need an axe."
"And we don't have one."
"So..."
"We'll have to come back tomorrow."
Dasha nodded.
"Yeah."
"You're right."
She turned around.
"Let's go."
Tom suddenly stopped.
"Wait."
Dasha looked back.
"We're already losing time."
"We have twenty-nine days left."
"And digging a tunnel this big could take at least five days."
"That leaves us with twenty-four."
"Then we have to find wherever they're doing this agricultural work."
"This forest is around two hundred kilometres long."
"If we cover twenty kilometres a day..."
"That's another ten days."
"Then we'd only have around fourteen days left."
"And that's assuming nothing goes wrong."
Tom's expression became more serious.
"We could run into wild animals."
"We don't know what's inside."
"We don't know where the operation is."
"We don't know who we're dealing with."
"And we don't even know how we're supposed to defeat someone..."
"...on their own territory."
He looked at Dasha.
"How are we supposed to figure all of that out in fourteen days?"
Dasha stared at him.
Then sighed.
"Tom..."
"Do you know what's wrong with you?"
Tom blinked.
"What?"
"You think too far ahead."
"What do you mean?"
"You keep thinking about everything that's going to happen."
"Then you start calculating how much time we have..."
"Then you imagine everything that could go wrong..."
"And eventually..."
"You scare yourself before you've even started."
Tom stayed silent.
Dasha stepped closer.
"Sometimes..."
"It's good to know what we're up against."
"But right now?"
"We have one problem."
"Just one."
She pointed toward the invisible barrier.
"That."
"Forget everything else."
"Don't worry about what we'll face tomorrow."
"Don't worry about what happens ten days from now."
"Deal with what's directly in front of us."
"Once we solve that..."
"The road ahead becomes easier."
Tom stared at her.
For a moment...
He didn't say anything.
Then he smiled.
"She's beautiful..."
"And she actually has brains too."
He looked at the barrier again.
Maybe...
She was right.
For once...
He didn't need to figure out the entire journey.
He only needed to take...
the next step.