Chapter 4 - Travels

"When will I see you agai_? OH MY FLIPPING HECK IT'S IN MY MOUTH."

Feeling the anomalous force rejecting him Alfred decided that he should not speak as he was being ejected from his entrapment.

As he felt the force weaken he saw light in front of him. It was the tell-tale harshness of the desert sun he'd ironically began to desire.

"Huh, I'm out… Time to save the world!"

Hearing another noise similar to the one he made emerging from the sand he turned around to see the glow bug rise up, stunned but alive.

"I dub thee… Pedro!"

*Sqctcch!*

Looking around Alfred saw nothing but towering walls. Knowing he had to get through the maze he planned out his route…

"Alright Pedro let's go! Hopefully we'll find some food! It gets deeper over in that section! It seems to be the direction leading away from the desert so we should hope it leads to me."

"(@!$+_/';!!!"

Alfred turns around, alarmed. Seeing his previous and inefficient captors staring at him from the entryway to the comb behind him.

"Alright Pedro, we run!"

*Sqctcch!*

Picking up his glow bug friend, Pedro Alfred launches himself away from whatever is chasing him.

Sprinting like a maniac Alfred kept at it.

When the sun was down and the night had set Alfred could no longer see his pursuers.

"Thank goodness we've come so deep that the planets heat is keeping us warm. It seems like nights around here are normally a tad chilly up on the surface."

As Alfred finished his sentence a previously living ice sculpture crashed into the ground nearby. Judging by the giblets that sprayed Alfred it used to be some form of aerial based animal.

Realizing that he and his buggy friend we're no longer safe even away from the cold and monsters Alfred grabbed Pedro. Pedro was notably shocked as its meal of "bird" had been interrupted.

With shaking legs Alfred pushed forward, holding Pedro, his only ally, close to his chest as he ran.

It was hours before Alfred lucked out and found a collapsed comb wall. Finding some semblance of a shelter he hunkered down.

With eyes filled to the brim with nothing but unrelenting paranoia towards the world and his immediate surroundings. He fell asleep shivering, sharing heat with his pet Pedro.

"It's going to be okay little guy. I'll get us out of here, I promise."

*Sqt Sqt Sqt Sqt Sqt Sqt*

Alfred woke, confused by his surroundings. He was no longer within his not-so-tidy bed and within the comfort of his home. He was instead: being buried alive, embracing a massive wood bug, and with a darn nasty crick in his neck.

"What the heck i-!!!"

Interrupted by the sudden sealing off of his hollow Alfred was immediately blocked off from the world.

He had no access to air. He couldn't see. He couldn't move. He couldn't protect his pet, the only thing in this world that mattered to him.

Straining every single muscle in his body Alfred performed an incredible feat of adrenaline-fueled badass-ary.

Kicking out the meter thick wall of natural material Alfred hops out of the ruined wall with Pedro under his left arm.

Looking from left to right Alfred quickly located the perpetrator of the deed. A mosquito-like 3 meter by 3 meter bug hovered in the air, looking rather shocked by the turn of events.

"Oh, you're the one who did that huh?"

*Sqt Sqt Sqt*

It started spitting/lobbing out the same material previously used to form the repairs to the wall.

Alfred couldn't be expected to care. He let that mucus like substance hit him in the face. It hardened almost instantly making as hard and tuff as cement.

With one hand Alfred tore the mess off his face. Looking at the mosquito with content he sized up the chunk of natural stone he had in his hand.

"Heh, you're dead."

Pitching the solid mucus at an audible speed Alfred squarely hit the mosquito.

*Sqtttttch!!!*

Stunned, the mosquito falls to the ground. Alfred casually walks up to the bug, remembering to set down Pedro in the process.

He proceeded to tear off the mosquito's left front leg. This caused the bug to immediately awake from its Haze and panic.

"Stay. Down."

Holding the bug down he tore off its secondary left leg, it was five centimeters thick. As he did so he cried.

"Everything I know is fake."

"Reality never had a point."

"Nothing I ever do will matter."

"I'm just wasting energy by doing this."

"You SUCK! EVERYTHING IS MISERABLE!!!"

For every outcry he tore off another limb, throwing them to the side.

By the nature of the insect it was still alive, panicking. This didn't go unnoticed by the unstable Alfred.

He proceeded to bend its proboscis, snapping it off. He raised the sharpened tube above the bugs head and chuckled.

"Yeah, you really do SUCK."

He turned whatever excuse of a brain the bug had into pulp by driving it inside the bugs exoskeleton. The bodily fluids of the bug then proceeded to flow freely out of the tube which had been inserted into its body. This created a rather odd looking fountain.

"Alright Pedro, we go!"

Pedro scuttled over to Alfred's feet after it lapped up some of the liquid brains the bug had produced.

Looking up in the now illuminated sky Alfred could finally see his goal, a tower.

The tower appeared rather suddenly. It jutted out from the comb system startlingly quickly. It may just have been a silhouette on the horizon but it still stretched up as far as one could fathom.

"Let's get going Pedro."

It was an uneventful four months.

"I think we kinda underestimated its distance, huh."

Alfred sighed to himself about how long he'd had to trudge through both hot and cold climates in never changing structures.

'But… how do we get in? This security seems a bit over-TOWERED.'

"We finally made it! We can complete the job and get the heck out of here!"

'But… how do we get in? This security seems a bit over-TOWERED.'