ark [woosan]

two: white noise

everything was passing by me in slow motion. the raptor leaving the ground, claws extended towards me. the claws meeting my neck and pushing me down onto the floor, knocking all the air out of me. yet all I could think was, man this is one kinky mothertrucker.

that's a joke of course, I thought I was actually gonna pee myself for the first time since 5th grade. but moments before my dramatic death scene: pee, tears, and all, something amazing happened. some short ugly ass man came up with a really lame looking rock and hit the raptor in the eye with it.

which resulted in it letting me go and my small savior lifting me up from the ground and taking my hand and bolting. I couldn't process anything in those moments, I couldn't feel myself running and I couldn't feel myself slowing down either.

everything was just white noise. before I knew it I had turned to look behind me just to see the other two raptors looking at the third one with question marks above their heads before they turned and started gaining speed on us. I've never seen such angry looking animals before.

they were coming so close, but I wasn't doing anything. why aren't  I doing anything? I should be running, I want to run, but my feet are stuck in place. I can't hear anything, it's still all jumbled, but I feel a sharp pain on my face.

it must've clicked something in me because the sounds start to return after it and I can hear the other person with me yelling, "what the hell are you doing? we're gonna die at this rate! you have to trust me and run!"

it takes me a moment to realize that he slapped me, but I'm thankful he did, because if he hadn't I would've died standing there. I ran with my life after that. I didn't know where I was going or who I was with, but he was my only option of surviving this so I had to give it my all.

we twisted and turned through the vegetation of the jungle. branches sliced at my face and giant bugs were following us from everywhere. I've never felt so stressed in my life, and the raptors were only getting closer.

"are we almost there? they're gaining on us!"

the other just kept running, and the scenery around us went into a canyon type dip with stone on all sides, the only way to go being forward. at this point, I could almost feel the raptors breathing down my back. just a few more moments and we were surely done for. but my savior seems confident as he's running and he brightens up just that second.

"have you fo-", I was midway asking him what he found or saw to make him look so relieved, but he grabs my arm and pushes me to the side of the stone wall aggressively. I thought he was trying to sacrifice me to them to save his own life, but I found myself engulfed by a cold darkness instead. everything oddly quieted down and the other entered into the cavern seconds later.

"won't the raptors find us here?"
he smiles warmly and points outside.
"they can't reach us once we're in here, we'll just have to wait a moment until they leave. we're safe I promise"
"but how does that even work, I mea-"

he presses a finger on my lips to silence me, and whispers, "just watch"

sure enough, I see the raptors running towards the cave. my breath hitches, but I continue to watch as they run straight past it. it was as if they forgot we existed.

"I told you we were safe", he smiles reassuringly.
"you did, thank you for that. and for saving my ass back there"
he lets out a lovely laugh, it's almost a shriek, but it's pretty all the same to hear it after all the roars of dinosaurs.

"hey, now that I'm processing things again. who are you? what is this?", I speak out, gesturing towards, well, everything.

the other nods and begins his reply, "well, I'm wooyoung first of all. I'm not entirely sure how or why we're here right now, or why this is even possible, but I'm certain that we were both sucked into the video game ark"

I breath in a shallow breath, "oh hell"
wooyoung shudders a giggle out, "oh hell indeed. I mean I've always wanted to have a jumanji experience, but I didn't realize I signed up for this"
I laugh and the mood around us is immediately brighter than before after he broke the ice.

"well, now you know my name, so what's yours?"
"my names san, like a mountain"
"ah, that's pretty cool, I don't hear that name often"
"well, my dad gave it to me since he wanted me to be a mountain to other people, so I could protect them and be there for them in impacting ways. it's also his way of telling me that I'm strong..."
I fade out into the silence when I see wooyoung's smushy face staring intently at me.
"I'm over sharing, aren't I? I mean we just me-"
he raises a hand and shakes it aggressively, "no no no, not at all. I mean we're probably the only people that are even existing here, we'd have to get to know each other sooner or later"

I smile at that, "I'm glad that's the case"
he nods. a new question forms in my mind.

"by any chance is this what you normally look like?", I say waving my hand up and down to indicate his body. "I mean, not to be rude or anything, it's just we're in a vide-"

I'm cut off by his laughing this time. his face turns red a little but he wheezes in and calms down, "I'm sorry, I don't know why that was so funny to me, but no I don't look like this in real life. I'm not sure if you noticed what you look like, but I'm pretty sure these forms aren't physically possible. they're probably the characters we designed in the game."

"ohh, alright. that's a relief , not gonna lie I thought I was gonna be stuck with some scary wrinkley man for the duration of whatever this-"
silence dawns upon me as what he said settles in.
"wait, what do I look like?"