Two days. Forty-eight hours. To spend all that time awake would be equal to three days of waking time if you compare it to an eight-hour sleep schedule.
John had been awake for three days based on that approximation.
Why? Well, I'm sure you already know the answer to that question.
He was engaged in battle.
Things had fallen into a cycle. The dragon would descend. Which John knew took around ten and a half seconds.
He had counted.
Then, it would send its fire toward John.
John would raise his car. The fire would warm it. Then, the dragon would leave. It would be gone for about a minute. Again….
John had counted.
It took about four rotations for the dragon to heat up a car until it was unusable.
However, there was one time when a car lasted for ten rotations. And another where it lasted for only two.
John shook his head at the memory of when the car had lasted for two rotations.
That had gotten him quite horribly burned. That was yesterday, though. John had since gained enough burns that there was nowhere on his body that could be marred worse than it already had been.
His skin had a red hue, and his body was dotted with welts and peeling skin.
He looked barely human at the moment.
John looked up at the dragon.
There were a few holes in its wings and one large swollen bruise that covered half its torso.
Needless to say, its flight was faltering.
John bent down to pick up a rock from the ground.
"Just a few more strikes. And you're dead."
John was not much farther from death, either.
Any ordinary person would have fallen unconscious just from the shocks to the nervous system that constant burns caused.
But John's world was too red to allow that to happen.
~I'll kill it. I'll kill it.~
That was the mantra that repeatedly spun through John's mind. The mantra gained mass in John's mind the same way a snowball would gain mass while rolling down a ski hill.
That is. Exponentially
John looked up at the dragon. It was descending towards John.
~NOW!~
John sent his rock hurtling towards the dragon.
He narrowly missed it.
John crouched down and raised his car over his head.
As he did so a word spun through his mind.
"I'll kill it."
Travel log: Day five
Above me, I see a rat. It skitters upon the surface of this land's sun. It glows with a blue light that trumps even the sun itself.
I can't help but think to myself that...
It's a good rat.
Below me, I see a trillion quivering rocks. They squirm and swim and dance around each other. Seemingly just for the purpose of existence.
Standing above all those rocks is a monster. This monster carries an evil shield that exists only to deny my healing fire.
[For a moment. Everything flickers.]
Realtiy! Reality! Reality! IS THIS EVEN REAL?!?! WAS THAT REAL!?!? AM I REAL!?!?!
Are my eggs okay? What's happening?
OH. A human. A bad human.
My honour. It's for my——
[And in the next moment, everything flickers back.]
I will punish the MONSTER! I WILL PUNISH IT! HOW COULD IT DENY MY HEALING FLAMES!
End of log
...
[Three days.]
The cycle repeated. Fire. Rise. Peace. Fall. Fire.
The cycle was endless. The cycle was all there was. The cycle is what begins and the cycle is what ends. The cycle [Is] the.
John had dark circles under his eyes that were so thick that they were a different skin tone.
His eyes were wide like they had been struck a thousand times. And his skin had fully peeled off in places. Leaving nothing but exposed flesh.
Needless to say. John was in constant agony.
He was immersed in a pain that was so great that most people would go into shock.
Yet despite this, he persisted.
John did not know why he persisted at this point. Only that it would be noisy if he didn't.
And John did not want to relive the shape that he had dubbed.
'The noise'
"What determination you have."
John's head snapped in the direction of the voice.
Floating in the air in front of John was a small humanoid made from pure shadow.
The shadows constructing its body were static. They were not subject to any flickering or flowing.
It had shadowy hair tied into short twin tails and wore what looked like a sun dress.
It had what looked like a smile on its face. But if one were to look closer they would see that a chuck of its flesh near its head had been removed to make that smile.
It was leaning forward. Its hands were behind its back.
Fire. Rise. Peace. Fall. Fire. SHADOW?!?!?!
This broke the cycle.
"What….. Are you?"
Asked John. He could scarcely comprehend what he was saying himself.
"I'll answer that question in a bit. Right now, you need to protect yourself."
John glanced above himself.
Above him was the perpetrator of the cycle. The grand lizard.
John raised his shield.
The sound of a rushing river filled John's ears and the car grew hotter.
"It's scary, isn't it?" Asked the shadow.
John simply smiled.
"I'm too red to be afraid…"
"Clearly."
"Why? Why here?" Asked John
"Existence is a funny thing. One moment, you're alive. And in the next, you're dead."
"That's not an answer."
The shadow looked up into the land of the cycle.
"You might want to protect yourself." Said the shadow.
John raised his car above his head.
The car grew hotter.
Too hot in fact.
As the dragon began to rise John threw the car to the side and speed shufled to the nearest car.
The shadow followed after him.
"Why are you here?" John asked the shadow
"Because I live."
John bent down and got a grip on the bottom of the car.
"That's not an answer.
End of chap.
Hard start. Flow at the end.
Pizza
Tomate
Toes.
Gay monkeys in a book club.