Drake and the Black Jaguar
~ Somewhere in the simulation ~
"Help---"
Drake knew he was trying to shout on top of his voice, but he couldn't even hear himself. At first he thought he was sent back into the BLUE TRENCH. That was the only explanation that was relevant to that situation, but unlike when he was in the BLUE TRENCH, whenever he opened his mouth to shout, he felt some great force of liquid coursing through his nostrils and mouth. He opened his eyes. Hell. He was submerged, drowning inside a large body of water.
The question at that moment wasn't how he got there. What mattered was getting himself out of the shithole. He started fighting, pushing his body violently against the body of water.
Wouldn't it had been fair if he knew how to swim? But growing up, he didn't have such luxury. His young years were spent learning and trying to figure out what the hell was happening in the world he had been born into.
Too quick to dismiss those odd thoughts timed wrongly, he kept on pushing his way up till he got a grip of the trick. He began to flap his legs like a gigantic vulture would do, in attempt to threaten a rival.
Even though he wasn't sure whether or not he could die for real in this strange new world he had found himself, the terrifying thought of a crocodile racing desperately and passionately towards him in the water made his heart crash heavily against his chest.
"Oh, goodness!"
He gasped for breath as he dropped on the bank of the body of water. His face was buried in the dirt of greens and wet stones for a while. He could feel his sticky boots been lashed upon by the retreating and idle lips of the water.
He rolled over and sat up. He looked. He took a deep breath,
"A Brook."
He muttered softly. Twas just a tiny body of stream. He coughed.
"But where the heck am I? For how long would I fooled by these unfortunate beings?"
He cussed tirelessly as his weary eyes browsed the thick forest. Twas the prime of a new dawn in the forest, and the whistles and chittering of nearby birds on zeniths of average trees caught up with him.
"How do I get myself out of this place?"
He tried to stand up. He did. He looked down at his faded dark blue t-shirt. Twas damp, waters dripping in consecutive pats. His black baggy pants was even worse.
It seemed to him like he added some weight, and his chest broader. 6"1, quite tall for his age. 15.
"Maybe there's an exit somewhere in this forest. An exit that leads to the main city. It's reasonable to think that every big city has such huge forests like this."
He tried to console himself and make himself see sense. And it worked.
He sighed, then looked down at this boots. He wasn't satisfied with sticky earth on the shoes. Since twas a small body of water, he wasn't scared. He squatted and leaned forward towards the brook and began to scoop water in his hand to wash his shoes.
After he was done, he washed dirt off his face. The edges of his nose had lined dirt that took a little work but not forever. And when he was done, he stood uprightly and tossed his head up, savoring both the scent of the forest contaminated by his own doubts and fear.
"I'll crack their noses if I find them!"
He promised. He observed the space beyond the brook closely.
"Up ahead seems to promise life."
He agreed within himself then prepared himself for the jump. He turned and walked back a little bit. Then he stopped, gathered all the momentum he could, then charged. His wet and heavy pants made it quite difficult to achieve the force he wanted. He stopped and groaned.
"There's nobody around here."
He looked around and decided to remove his pant. He was left with an oversized boxer-short with ill-structured cringes decking it. Well, since it's light, it would dry in a short while. He took a sharp breath and walked back to the momentum spot.
And when he made to run again, he heard a deep and fierce growl behind him.
"What was that?"
His pupils twirled in his sockets. The growl came again and he had no choice but to turn his head slowly. His heartbeat increasing its pace.
"Oh, shit."
He sighed in relief.
"You almost ran me out of breath."
He turned to the Impala standing not far from him. He began to walk slowly towards it, but as he did, he figured that the creature was impatient and the corner of its red eyes picked the fancy of a large oak tree in sight.
"Hey, lady. You crept me out. Searching for your boyfr--"
His jaw dropped as a black Jaguar walked out of the back of the large oak tree.
"Holy shit!"
Drake dropped on his back and dug his fingers in the sticky soil, aiding a quick butt-drag crawl to the back, as the fierce and creepy wild cat gained thoughtful advances towards him.
"Hey, bro. I didn't mean to intrude. Sissy is right behind you, take her please."
You would think he had lost his mind for trying such lame humor at the face of death. Well, probably he'd lost it.
Seeing that the cat would prefer a loaf of bread over a bottle of chin chin, Drake tumbled to his feet, gathered the momentum he could and like a crazed panther, he started running away from the Jaguar.
The brook which seemed like an obstacle few moments ago, was like crossing a thin line at that moment. He kept on running without looking at his back, but he could feel the heavy breathing and silhouette of the hopping cat behind him.
"Turn!"
He urged himself and took a cut in an undergrowth. He kept on a running, but did he really think he could outrun a HUNGRY cat which had mastered the jungle?!
"Left."
He took another turn behind a large boabab lifeless trunk, and evaded the aim of the cat. But he felt the hasty claws of the Jaguar tearing into his wet shirt. He could feel pain tugging at the left shoulderblade, but that couldn't be compared to the thought of being ripped apart.
He kept running till he got to a point he couldn't turn neither to right nor left. And the cat with its yellow deep eyes growled nonstop, giving him creepy chills as he panted.
"Go away please. I don't want to hurt you."
He took a fighting stance, but the pain reminded him of how fragile he was compared to his gibberish.
The cat kept advancing and he kept trying to threaten it?
"I learnt karate. I'll kill you if you take another step."
Drake tossed, but the cat was now crouching and would leap at anytime. Drake wanted to pass through the tiny space between the two large trees creating the barrier; there was a rock to his right, an UNSPEAKABLE to the left.
As he made another attempt to aid his escape, he fell down.
"Shit."
He cussed. If he had made the escape, 'twould had been hard for the cat to get to him. He would had found a way before 'twould get to him.
He tried to crawl his way through the tiny space without cutting an eye contact with the cat. But 'twas too late, the crouching Jaguar had leapt and dropped on him, its claws digging into his chest, canine sorting the soft of the depth of his neck.
Drake had his hands all over his face screaming. His palms roughening his face to fight the bite, legs kicking the cat to get rid of it but non was fruitful.
Suddenly, he felt a snap in his neck, bone crunching in the Jaguar's jaws. He felt himself dispersing. Then...
Gloom!
___________________________|
"I'm alive?"
Drake looked down at himself. He was in the sitting room of his duplex. In the position he'd assumed before clipping the chip in and finding himself in the video game. Nope! In that shitty forest.
He sat up,
"I'm alive. Really?"
He jumped off the single couch after removing the chip in his temple.
"Hold on."
He looked at himself, his clothes were dried and neat. His palms neat. He ran his hands all over his face but there was no pain. He ran to stand at the front of the tampered glass walling a side of his luxurious sitting room. There was no scar too. He dug his hand into his cloth to feel the shoulderblade. But not only was there no pain, there was no trace of scar.
"Shit! That felt so real!"
"Was it all a sham? An illusion?"
He closed his eyes, breathing in and out momentarily. It felt like he just found a safe haven.
But then, he tossed the exhilarating feeling aside and edged towards the box given to him by the judgement bots. He opened the glass cover and picked out the tablet in it.
He stood up and switched the bot on.
WELCOME, PLAYER, BE MY FIRST AND ONLY USER, BY PUTTING IN THE NAME OF YOUR CHOICE.
"Name of my choice."
He muttered, then typed in, DREYA.
"Who knows what these retarded government officials are up to again."
The tab loaded in just a millisecond and opened to the home. Out of the numerous options on the tab, his eyes hovered over the...
STARTER PACK RULES: FIRST TIMER? WE GOT YOU.
"This should be it."
He tapped the circular arrow open and then the audio version came on. Since he couldn't listen to a five hours stuff straight, he figured out that he could switch to text. Then he began to read the basic things he needed to know about the video game system.
AS A FIRST TIMER, IT'S IMPORTANT YOU CHOOSE YOUR FIRST DESTINATION. ELSE YOU WOULD BE FEATURED IN DARK THEMES. BUT GOODNEWS, NO MATTER HOW TERRIFYING AND DEADLY YOUR EXPERIENCE SEEM, IT'S A PHANTOM, AN ILLUSION. HEHE.
"Assholes. So it was true."
He cussed, recalling what the leader of the judgment bots told in seven years ago.
He dismissed and kept scanning through, till he was satisfied with the basic informations he had gathered. He took a deep breath and was going to lock the tab when a sudden information teased his eyes,
PS. KNOW FOR SURE, NOT EVERYONE OR EVERYTHING ARE WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE IN THE NEW WORLD. IMAGINE YOUR EVIL GRANDMA AS A CUTE BUNNY IN THE NEW WORLD. HEHE.
"Dumb."
He ughed then locked the tab.
"Let's do this again."
He walked to the couch and settled in. He clipped in the chip then leaned back. He quoted,
"Take DREYA to a BUSY PLACE in the NEW WORLD."
And then he felt pain tingling and tinging in his head. Then... gloom.