Chereads / Arcade Maze / Chapter 2 - Travel

Chapter 2 - Travel

|Location #1 - Day|

[Aerial view] In broad daylight, a town appears full of houses but seems lifeless and abandoned. Many buildings and apartments here can be seen unfinished, especially on the outskirts. Also, there is an unfinished tower at the center of the town. Despite being partially constructed, the tower alone stands out to be the tallest building here. And the opposite section is hardly visible with just a smoggy climate there. But still, if looked carefully, it strangely resembles nothing, no surface or something on the horizon.

Now, diving a little left into it, we saw a vehicle driving out from the town through a street road. It is a passenger car plus a compact pickup truck; front - a two-seater, and back – a full-size pickup truck.

"So, you were watching that. How many times have I told you not to do that, but you never listen." The man sounds scolding Z. While the vehicle reaches out of the town and continues driving down the road.

"Say, whatever you say, I don't care." Z replies with a tantrum.

"You little piece of ..." The man sighs with the vehicle now driving off the road and continues offroad toward a dense forest seen in the distance.

Location #2 - Dusk|

[Aerial view] On a warm evening, the dense forest appears dominated by the mighty redwood trees, standing tall over the ground. There is a river flowing fast with fresh-clean water. Also far away, there is a mountain merely visible, probably the source of the river. Now with the sunset, the tall trees shine yellowish-orange, and the river water glitter blue-white.

Now moving into it, the vehicle arrives at the riverbank.

"You know how much time you spend staring at that stupid thing." The man continues, "You should prioritize other things..." The vehicle continues going aside with the riverbank.

"Ah... I find everything boring except that. Like where is the fun." Z replies in a carefree mood.

"Nothing is boring; nothing is fun." The man replies immediately, "One should try everything." While the vehicle now reaches close to a bridge here. It is an S-shaped wooden build bridge meant to cross the river. But it's dangerous just because it's a long narrow bridge with no protective fences on its sides.

"Like what...?" Z continues. While the vehicle is now cautious slowly climbs the bridge. To this, he excites, "O driving. I CAN DO THE DRIVING. DRIVING IS FUN."

"Wait, WHAT?" The man gets surprised, "No, no, no, no, no Z. This is not fun, aH..., I mean you are not at the right age for this."

"Huh! NOH, YOU, YOU WILL TEACH ME DRIVING."

"SHUT UP, LET ME CONCENTRATE, WILL YA." The man yells to calm down Z. While the slow-moving vehicle reaches the middle of the bridge and continues.

After a little while, the vehicle now finally climbs itself down from the bridge on the other side, and successfully crosses the river.

"WOW! YOU DID IT..., AGAIN" Z speaks excitedly, "Next time, it will be me who's doing this."

"NO WAY, NOT THE LEAST." The man denies it right away. While the vehicle now speeds up, drives into the forest, and leaves the scene.

Once the vehicle leaves, the scene flows with the rivers past the bridge. The river descends with a sloppy cliff, reaches an end, and steeps down vertically just to form a beautiful eye-catchy waterfall here. The waterfall is a multi-step staircase type that here flows down three cascade steps.

[Aerial View] But just after the third and last step, the fast-flowing river now descends vertically to completely lose contact with the cliff surface and surprisingly long falls into an open sky. It seems like it just fades away into a cloudy atmosphere far down there. It's like there is no surface, not a bit.

Location #3 - Night|

Now, with a starry night, the vehicle drives out away from the forest and continues ahead on a grassy plain. Here the mountain appears again, closer this time, and is snow-capped and shining bright because of the full-moon light.

"I understand that you love watching it, playing it, but...," The man speaks emotionally, "You can't continue like this. I mean, try other things like waking up early in the morning, and jogging. A maybe painting, ah drawing, you used to do it, love it."

[Aerial view] The mountain is average-sized with a snowy-icy tip shining. Geographically, the mountain helps divide the forest and the grassy plain by situating in between these, serving as a border. It also generates the headwater source stream that streams down the forest and confluences into the river. From here, the vehicle seen continues going through the grassy plains after the mountain region.

"Yeah, try cooking it's fun and interesting, right." The man continues, "I will teach you that, I'll love to, what you say. Z..., Z..., Z, you listening?"

"---" Z snores.

"What, you asleep? You little…, piece of…. Huff! Only god knows how I handle this kid." Meanwhile, the vehicle continues going on with the grassy plain with no pathway or else.

Location #4 - Dawn|

Now with the crack of dawn, the vehicle continues on the dry grassy plain. With this, it makes a very first close-up appearance of itself, to its rear consists of a rear truck bed (empty), a rear tailgate, and circular tail lamps. The tailgate shows "S L A B" written on it and a number plate "IX~1002". About time, the night sky dims down and shreds the first light of daybreak.

Soon, the vehicle continues and passes through a point where the grassy plain starts to steep down a little. From here, a village could be seen unclear with the sun's upper limb starts breaking the horizon. As the sun continues, its yellowish-orange sunlight slowly outlines the horizon and glows all over the village, resulting in a beautiful scene.

The vehicle continues on the grassy plain, which is now steeper like a sloop. And within a few seconds, it gains an increase in speed that feels uncontrollable to handle. As soon as the vehicle passes through the sloop, it quickly gets a hold of it and starts descending its speed.

At last, the vehicle manages to slow itself down and finally stops right in front of the village entrance with a signboard. And the signboard speaks, "Welcome to the Whistle Village"

"Oh! come on, he missed that, how could he still be..." The man exclaims, "Well anyway. WAKE UP, Z, WE ARE HERE"

"Where?" Z speaks in a sleepy voice.

The man replies, "To the village that whistles."