"That seems like a bad idea. You took an oath, in which you will die if you don't honor, even if the chances of said oath being honored are extremely low?"
"Yes. William, what you have to learn is that sometimes sacrifice is worth it. Ultima represents Life and Death, one day I'll be in the afterlife. If that's quicker because I choose to help you? I don't mind, I'd be at peace."
"I can't ask you to do that. Can you take it back? You don't need an oath, I promise. I can do it myself! Just, don't get yourself killed."
"You can't take back oaths. It's fine, we will succeed. Worrying may make it worse."
"Okay…" I tried to steady my breathing. "Yeah, okay. Let's go to the X-Tunnel or whatever."
"Yep! Boy, I can't wait!"
"It's probably a bad sign that the person driving this thing is excited about it. I dislike that." I frowned. I'm too young to die.
"Come on, it will be fun." He smiled.
"You're all giddy, it's weird." Regardless, I followed him. I saw a large vast tunnel, the wind whipping my hair around. I saw two handles and two molds where you put your feet. It was the equivalent of a zipline. I could feel my heart sink into my chest slowly.
"You're telling me that it's not enclosed? We're riding on an 800 mile an hour device where we have to hold onto small handles? Please, tell me we are NOT doing this."
He laughed maniacally. I fear for my life, regardless, I had to practically run to beat the wind currents, my hair was pointing straight back in the wind, and my shirt was being pulled against my neck because of the wind currents. He pressed a button, and we went extremely fast. I think I'm going to die, tell my parents-- oh wait. Tell Thomas I love him (I don't, after this)
I practically fell out of the machine once we reached the exit, falling over and crawling out from the wind. "Is it over!?" I called out. It was indeed over.
Tom laughed. "That was so fun!" I'd never seen him smile so much, so that was nice. Though I did wish it was in different circumstances. He patted me on the shoulder. "Now now, my little chickpea. We still have a little farther to go until we reach the gates, then we can leave the boundaries of the Lab."
"Your little chickpea? I don't think so." I said, making a frowny face. We walked more and more and more. It was boring, tiring, and even more boring. Every so often I would see something cool but Thomas stopped when I saw what may have been the most harrowing thing ever.
Thousands upon thousands of skeletons in dead grass, the foundation of what may have used to be a house. "A feedlot." I said, swallowing. They had bombed this farm and feedlot because it was supplying the Americans with beef, so they killed the animals and people. It's been so long that their bodies have been reduced to nothing but bone. "Horrible." Is all I could say.
Thomas stared at it for a while, before climbing over a gate. "Thomas? What are you doing?" I said, slowly. He didn't respond. Walking over to one of the skeletons, he rested his hand on it. I didn't want to interrupt, but I didn't understand what the point of mourning a random cow was.
He muttered angrily. Afterwards, he got up. "Let's continue." He said. "No use remembering the dead." Which I found ironic, considering he hung out with a different skeleton in his free time. These two reactions are so different that I wonder if he's skeleton racist or something. After a couple of hours, we stopped to rest and catch our breath. Night was going to come soon, and Thomas looked wary. "They come out at night." He stared at me. "I hope you know who they are now, right?"
I nodded. "I do." Before thinking about what he said. "What do we do? We can't run, they're faster, and we can't fight them that easily. There's only two of us." He was working on kindling for a fire.
"It would depend on the creature. Some are small, similar to bugs. Others? Yeah, we couldn't even hope to beat them. We'd need a dragon or something."
"Are dragons real?" I asked. I felt stupid for asking, but hey, it's a weird life.
"Yes." He deadpanned. "Wow, you really don't know much huh?"
I could feel my face go red. "Hey! I've only been in this world for like, 24 hours!"
He snickered. "You're a day old? Interesting, William."
"You know that's not what I meant!"
"Sure, but it's what you said."
"Touche.." I said, laughing.
We just kind of waited around, chatting. While I was working on setting up the tent, I heard a low noise in a clump of trees to my right. "Thomas… we may have an issue here, I heard something." I held the nail and hammer in my hands defensively, backing up.
He glanced in my general direction and frowned. "I'm sure it's nothing, but just in case." He drew his lumberjack's axe. I chuckled.
"Just in case, huh?" He stared at me for a while, and then at the tree line.
"I don't see anything."
In an instant, I heard the faintest noise ever. An arrow. I couldn't even see the arrow, and my arms were like jello. It felt like time was slowing down… the next thing I remember? An arrow was in my hand, and a pointy eared archer had the most dumbfounded look I've ever seen. "How-?" The archer stammered. "How did you catch it?" He tilted his head, his eyes bulging.
"Sorry?" I squeaked.
"Nevermind that." He growled in a low tone. "Both of you need to be killed, are you seriously in the belief that you can escape and cross over the wall?" I wanted to reply, but he notched an arrow. Something told me that my one hit wonder couldn't be juiced anymore, and I would have to actually defend myself from the arrow. Fear struck me, not for myself but because I realized who it was pointed at.
Tom.
I may have not known him for long, but I couldn't bear another death. I unleashed a guttural scream, and I could feel a soft feeling pelted across my skin. My teeth grew in size, and my eyes became bloodshot with rage. It took me only a couple of seconds to register that I had shapeshifted… into a bear. "I'm the MAMA BEAR NOW!" I yelled out, but to them it probably sounded like a series of growls. The archer backed up, nervous.
"Look. I could fire this arrow and kill both of you, but I'm not looking for any trouble." He said calmly, but still on guard. "Tell me why you're here, and I'll be willing to let you go back to the Lab. I don't have any reason to kill mortals."
I could feel my chest pounding, the rage overcoming me. I wanted to attack, I knew it to be illogical, but I wanted to anyway. I tried to calm my breathing as I slowly shrunk down into a less hairy and more scrawny form. I was glad to be myself again, human and all, but a growing worry inside of me said that I would need to take on my bear form again sometime. "I.." I stammered, tripping on my words. "The Protectores, they've assigned us a task. A quest. We have to figure out why the monsters are mutating in an area with no radiation." Tom says for me.
He frowned, and stared at Tom. I guess he recognized that Tom was more in charge. "You." He pointed his index finger at Tom. "Show me proof that The Protectores gave you this order." Thomas shuffled around in his bag before handing him what resembled a passport, and the archer looked over it.
"Who are you?" I inquired, but judging by the look on the archer's face he seemed upset with me.
"I'm surprised you don't know." He muttered, angrily.
Tom inched a little closer, whispering in my ear. "His name is Spectra. God of Archery, Son of Ultima."
"That's your brother?!"
"Half brother." Tom corrected me
Spectra nodded in approval, handing the proof back. "It's valid. So it seems you both were telling the truth. Now, you'd like to get over the wall?" We both nodded yes, and he grabbed his bag. He opened it up and stared at us. "Get in." He deadpanned.
"You want us to get in your potato sack?" I asked.
"It's not just any potato sack, it's magic makes it so anything inside can't be damaged. Your brittle mortal bones will be fine. Now get in, pretty please."
I was horrified that a divine being, a GOD, had just said "pretty please" so I decided to oblige. It was cramped, and Tom kept kicking my shin as he got in. There were apples, bananas, and potatoes in the bag. I chose to grab an apple that probably wasn't washed to eat for later. And then Spectra tied up the bag. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and the gears started to turn. "He's going to throw us, isn't he?" I asked. Tom probably nodded, but considering that it was pitch black I couldn't see. I could feel movement, and a potato hit me with a killer right hook, and then we were airborne. I would tell you I remained calm, but my pants were drenched the whole time. I let out my best impression of a little girl scream as we flew through the air, horrified as Tom kicked and slapped me. "Stop hitting me!" We bickered but it was shortly cut off after I puked all over him from motion sickness. It went a little like, "I hate you- BLEUGH!" and I continued to scream as my lunch sloshed in our potato sack. Finally, we landed, and my butt felt inexplicable pain. I heard a large figure untying the sack to find a pathetic duo of two teenagers. He grunted, and grabbed me by the wrists.
"This one needs a shower." He said, but his accent was thick and I could barely make out the things he was saying. He practically threw me into a shower stall which was out in the open, and I took it upon myself to shower with clothes on. He was watching me the whole time, which could probably end up in some serious allegations, and I finally noticed the arena behind us and the large amount of people examining my build. He dragged me into a room where people fit me for clothes and combed my hair. I took notice of a girl with long and black wavy hair but I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her. A girl with pink hair and long excessive eyelashes was tying a belt on me when she said,
"So. What brings you to the Everglades Arena?"
I wasn't familiar with American Territory, but I remembered reading an article about the Everglades. "Are we in… Florida?" The lady giggled.
"That's what the Old State is called, yes, but we refer to it as the Everglades Territory. This arena is not for the faint of heart, and you do not look… the strongest. Hm, perhaps the higher-ups will put you to use in something not combat related."
"Speak of the devil." The large man said. "It is time for him to go into the arena, I choose to put tiny man in the cage with medium sized ugly man." He picked me up by the shirt, to the dismay of pink-hair lady, and threw me into an arena. Large dudes threw me into a cage and I was greeted by a brunette man with the least swagger ever. He waved to me and set down a board game.
"Let's play Candyland." He smiled. I was going to die of boredom.