The Rainbow Friends: Chapter 1

Chapter 4: A Really Skinny Pokemon

I wake up once again in the bunk bed room and by then I’m used to it so I get straight up and go to my best friend.

“Oh good. Your awake. It’s odd. We’re all going unconscious after we finish the tasks.  Anyway, look at this,” Dan instantly says to me. He shows me a picture on his phone and it has a picture of the orange food dispenser and an orange blood stained claw scraping away at the food.

“Oh my. That looks like if you eat it you become more hungry,” I say in response.

“I know right. The person showed us that on the TV a few minutes ago. They haven’t said anything else since,” Dan says. Dan spoke too soon since the mysterious man started talking again.

“That’s a big surprise. Orange left his cave… Maybe he smelled the food you found,” the person says.

“Who are you fellow? Also, how are you talking to us?” Dan annoyedly says. 

The TV in our bed room flashes on once again and shows us a graph of all our faces. Out of the 15 that we had, there was now 5 of us that only left; Me, Dan, Noah, Josh and Jingu. I look closer when I notice Nat didn’t have a red cross over her face. The TV then starts to glitch and it shows 6 out of 15 for a split second and then it goes back to normal.

“Oh come on. There’s only five of us left! How do you get caught?” Dan says, “How dumb do you have to be to get caught by these coloured friends?”

“Did anyone see that it changed to 4 out of 15?” I question everyone but see someone new, “Who are you?”

“I’m Jingu,” a person called Jingu shyly says to Dan and then he doesn’t say a word after that.”

Dan runs over to the bottom bunk of the beds and says, “Bagsie this bed. I’m just gonna have a little sleep.”

“But I’m hungry,” I complain to Dan.

I look over to Noah who was sitting on the red sofa in front of the TV. He looked fine but I could tell he was upset by the death of Nat and we all were at this point.

Dan falls asleep eventually and I follow pursuit.

Like the last few days, the metal door in the room opens up and we make our way into the room where we all started inside of. The speakers turn automatically on.

“Also, after you fix my machine, I’ll show you… I’ll show you while you are really here,” the person mysteriously says and then disappears.

“Okay that’s good. So we do have some kind of ulterior motive and this may be just the warm up,” Dan says.

“Wait a minute. The vents started leaking. I wonder why,” the person says sounding guilty and I could clearly tell he knew why the vents were leaking.

“Curious,” Dan finally says.

The walls of the room again open up and we start our adventure again.

“How many of these fuse looking things and five people. This is going to be the biggest challenge we have had yet,” Dan says following Jingu, “You’re going to take fuse thing and deposit it to the Theatre. You’ve been useless all this time we’ve been stuck in this place.”

We split off from Jingu and we bump into a leaking vent but there was someone inside of the vent. It was another Rainbow Friend; Purple.

She possesses these wonderfully oversized, endearing eyes that resemble something straight out of a delightful cartoon. With a cat-like charm, her entire face nestles beneath cozy shadows, leaving only her captivating eyes visible. Those adorably cute eyes radiate an undeniable cuteness, playfully piercing straight into the depths of my soul through the narrow cracks in the vent. Peeking out from the heart of the metal vent bars, two slender and dainty arms emerge, each one ending with tiny clawed fingers. These arms adorably extend in and out of the vent, as if eagerly reaching out for a warm and friendly interaction.

“Whoa. Hello. That’s… Purple. That’s not Orange I saw on the screen,” Dan exclaims.

Purple didn’t look in anyway vicious. I put my hand out to signal that she can come out of the vent and the shadows to reveal her face but she stayed there. Purple then starts moving around in the vent.

“Purple doesn’t look very monstrous compared to Green and Blue. We haven’t even met Orange yet. Let’s hope he’s like Purple,” I speak to Dan.

“Yeah. Let’s split up. We’ll be more efficient to find stuff,” Dan says to me. I nod my head in agreement and Dan splits off of me.

I walk around the place sadly since I went back to remembering the death of Nat. She sacrificed herself to feed us. Such a hero, a very big hero in mine and everyone else’s eyes. Apart from Jingu, he’s not been seen helping the entire time we’ve been here.

I had to meet back up with Dan to get my mind off Nat’s death. We meet back up and Dan exclaims to me, “I’ve been carrying this team lots. I’ve found 5 of the fuses.”

Suddenly, an alarm goes of around the entire factory.

“Oh no. Looks like somebody forgot to feed Orange. It wasn’t me…” the mysterious person says, disappearing once again.

“What do you mean?!” Dan annoyedly says. We both spot Josh running around the place.

“Josh. Where’s Orange?” I ask him.

“I don’t know Dan. You could go and find that out,” Josh says back.

Me and Dan watch and wait to see Orange. In my mind, I tried to imagine what he could locked like.

Me and Dan had no idea where Noah was. He was using his phone the last time we saw him since someone called ‘Nox the elf’ was texting him. I had no clue who it was. It must be one of his online friends.

We crouch down in the hall. I could hear something in the distance so I hop inside of a box but Dan doesn’t know what to do.

Orange turns up and he has a very interesting design.
He boasts a head of a triangular, crocodilian creature, with enchanting spherical eyes perched atop. His snout, a mere bump at the forefront. Every inch of him was concealed beneath a shroud of thick, midnight-black scales, adding an air of mystery to his presence. His mouth shows a multitude of rows of pincers of teeth, came into view. His body is as thin as a metal pole.

He also sports two lengthy legs that culminated in long, clawed fingers. Additionally, he had two diminutive and stubby arms that extended in front of him, further adding to the terrifying aspect of his existence.

Dan screams and tries to runaway but Orange had double the speed of him.

“What the heck is that?! What is tha…” Dan says as his final words before Orange got him.

Dan’s full body goes into Orange’s small mouth. He rips my best friend to shreds. I generally really don’t want to go into detail of what happened but I remember seeing Dan, my best friend in the world, laying lifelessly on the floor. I sadly close my eyes and I start to cry. Tears run down my cheeks.

He wasn’t getting dragged anywhere, he wasn’t moving, he wasn’t here with me. I feel a wave of guilt and depression wash over me. I curl up in a ball next to him and I cry my eyes out.

“Sam? What happened?” A voice asks me. It was Noah.

“It was Orange and then… he ate Dan,” I reply still crying and stumbling.

I lean my head against Dan and carry on crying.

“I don’t think I can go on” I say depressed in a monotone voice.

“Come Sam. We have to go find the fuses,” Noah says trying to change me up.

Noah sits down next to me and has a heartfelt conversation.

“I feel like giving up,” I said to him.

“Damn. Don’t worry. Dan would want you to complete this,” Noah tells me, “plus I’m really happy.”

I looked at him as to say ‘Why?’ and he tells me.

“There was a chance for us to find 3 fuses in 1 room.. and there was. We’re going to escape soon hopefully,” he exclaims his happiness while I’m still sad.

I get up and leave Dan’s body behind me.

Me and Noah carry on looking for fuses but I just wanted to curl up and cry with Noah. I missed my favourite teacher and my best friend. I just to see those two just one last time…

We walk into a room full of lockers and a couple of showers in a joined room nearby. In a shower vent, I see Purple just waving her hands around, wanting to capture something but she probably wanted to catch someone.

Noah looks around for fuses while I stare at the door still sad.

We walk around and eventually find all 5. That's when we found Josh run into the room we’re in. He was alone and carrying a few fuses.

“What’s up with Sam, Noah?” Josh asks Noah noticing my sadness.

“He’s sad about losing Dan it’s just us four. Nat died to green and Dan has been killed by Orange,” Noah says with slight guilt and sadness in his voice.

“I’m fine Noah. Let’s just get to the theatre,” I say quite monotone.

“Josh can you try this? I really want to see what happens if Purple gets you,” Noah kindly ask Josh not knowing what happens.

“Sure. He looks really adorable and nice,” Josh replies surprisingly happy for what he’ll be doing.

Me and my friend watch as Josh willingly goes towards Purple. He reaches the vent and waves to Purple. The vent suddenly opens up and Purple’s hands instantly grabs  Josh’s ankles and kidnaps him into the vent. Me and Noah stand in shock, horrified at what we just saw. Noah is quite shaken by the sight and I just stand there at the verge of crying. I just lost 3 friends in maybe one day.

Me and Noah stood alone, just the two of us were left. Unless you count Jingu, though physically present, remained disengaged, offering no aid in our desperate quest for escape. In a rush of desperation, we sought refuge in the hay bale room, seeking solace amidst the chaos. Suddenly, the piercing alarm for Orange's hunger pierced through the air, its deafening sound amplifying the desolation surrounding us. Clinging to the fragile hope Josh had bestowed upon us, Noah and I huddled inside the wooden box, watching in sorrowful silence as Orange aimlessly roamed, driven by an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

Inside of the locker next to me, I swear I could have heard my best friend laughing in the wooden and plastic doored locker next to me saying, “I don’t know why that’s funny. He’s like a super skinny Charmander from Pokemon.” I was just about to get out of my box when Green walks past.

“I was just about to get out my box Green!” I say to Noah sounding annoyed.

“There goes Green with his chonky thighs. I think Blue is also coming so that means going to the right is not a very good option for us do…” I imagine Dan would be exclaiming, “yep. There’s Blue. There he is. I like Blue for sure. He’s my favourite Rainbow Friend.”

We leave the hay room as quick as possible. We didn’t want to get caught and killed by any of the Rainbow Friends. As we were running away, we find Jingu inside of a metal locker.

“Jingu please can you get out! Come on! Dan has died today. You’re lucky to have me and Noah here with you,” I shout at him, “We’re all hungry and dying!”

“Hmmm. No,” Jingu replies stubbornly. I just wanted to rip Jingu out of the locker but Noah resisted me from doing so.

We run around, trying to make it to the theatre when someone places the fuses inside of the machine we needed to power. Like every time someone completed the mysterious person’s tasks, I sadly became unconscious once again...