Manhunt the Evader // Evade Fanfiction

Chapter 18 // Midnight Drinking

It was the fourth day without stepping into another dimension and it is already driving me insane. I was mostly used to getting up from my apartment, walk down the street and expected to travel to another unique would. The only place I am travelling to now was rooms in Galf's shop. My bed was replaced with Galf's bed himself; he told me that it was unsafe for me to walk back to my apartment as he was concerned for the shopkeeper a few blocks down. Maybe everywhere was a dimension, just wasn't as interesting as the ones I formerly travel to. I sat at the edge of the bed, resting my head upon the head of the furniture. A few moments of reflection were all I needed.

"Sorry, to interrupt you for a moment," Galf's voice suddenly appeared, making me jump a little, "but I needed you to drink this,"

He passes me a plastic bottle of slightly opaque water. I sighed and grunted with deep disappointment to find out it wasn't cola.

"What is this?" I grunted, grabbing the bottle and lightly squeezing it.

"That's just salty water," Galf replied, "I added a lot of salt in it to get rid of the parasite. I did research on some of the vines you collected the data during the Catacombs expedition,"

He just chucked many salt crystals into the solvent and mixed it with clean water. I wasn't really keening to drinking that stuff.

"Galf, are you sure you had done your research properly?" I asked, lifting one of my eyebrows.

"I am sure that I am accurate on this one," Galf answered confidently, "Depicting on the environment, layout and forestry, I am assuming that most creatures in that dimension have similar structures to slugs. You know what happens if slugs come into contact with salt, don't you?"

I slowly unscrewed the cap of the bottle; the smell of salt rose into the air. I had not taken one sip from it yet and I already could taste the salt in my mouth. It was like an indoor beach, but without the sand or the fun. I gagged.

"I know it would probably taste bad, but it's a faster method to get that thing out of you," Galf added, preparing to leave the room, "do you have any questions before I monitor my shop?"

"No not at all," I meekly replied, putting the cap back onto the bottle.

"Alright! Call me when you need me!"

He closed the door, leaving me alone in this small rectangular room. It was like prison, limited by the places I could go. I stared at the salty water bottle again. 

Whatever the case may be, I hope Bobo and Defect the best of their trips. As I remembered from yesterday, they are off to the indoor courtyard. A very tight dimension, but it was easier to navigate around and avoid nextbots. Easy for me. It looks like they are going to recover an artifact from that dimension. I unscrewed the bottle cap again, maybe if I drink this fast enough, that stupid glow worm would be dead, and I am able to get back into my expeditions again. I pulled the bottle closer to my face, gently placing the lip of the drink to my mouth. I closed my mouth... and furiously tipped the bottle, letting the solvent slide down my throat.

"ACK- FUCK!"

I coughed up small amounts of that revolting saltiness. It was like jumping into the beach and slurping up the sea water. Disgusting! Galf owes me 10 colas after I drink all of this shit. Once again, I looked at the bottle. The liquid was not even halfway nor three quarters. Great, about one eighth of sea water to go.

There was a sudden movement of noises from outside the bedroom. The sound of supernatural teleportation effects. Are Defect and Bobo back? Then it was an unexpected movement of the door hinges as Bobo appeared from the entrance. He seemed to be smiling, happy to see me again.

"Guess what, Jard?" He exclaimed excitedly, "we found an artifact! And it looks really cool!"

He pulls out a pair of interesting goggles. The artifact had four yellow eyes in a similar shape to the night vision goggles. It looks like they brought back an item artifact. Bobo looked at me again, removing the goggles away from my face before looking deeply into my eyes.

"Isn't it pretty?" he asked in a baby like voice.

"Uh, yeah. It looks cool," I responded as tiredness weight my tone of voice.

Defect walked into the room.

"How are you feeling, Jard?" he asked.

"I feel fine," I shrugged.

Galf came in to see if I was okay too. He smiled and waved in the background. I began to notice Bobo locked his eyes on the plastic salt bottle next to me. He was up to no good.

"Oooh! Is that a soft drink? Let me have a taste,"

"WAIT! BOBO, THAT ISN'T-"

It was too late; Bobo snatched the bottle of the salt concentrated water before taking a huge sip. 

"-soda..."

It wasn't long before he started gagging. The salt in that bottle probably got the best of him. Realizing his mistake, he grabs the bottle cap before tightly screwing on the bottle then carefully putting it on the table to where it is, pretending that he didn't pick it up in the first place. Galf laughed in the background. Typical Bobo. 

"What was that?!" he coughed, trying to clear off the saltiness from his tongue.

"Salt..." I replied in a light tone.

"Alright everyone! Bedtime! I will see you all tomorrow!" Galf yawned before leaving the door.

I laid down in bed with my eyes wide open. I wasn't going to sleep without that sweet taste of cola in the fridge, especially when I haven't tasted it for four full days.

It was around midnight, Galf should be asleep by now. Sneaking out of his room, I crept towards the kitchen. Thankfully, Galf planted his sleeping mattress at security, which was far away from where I am. Everything was pitch black, I had to scurry around like a blind mouse, touching anything until I find that cubical fridge. I should have brought my torch or my red energy sword.

Suddenly a glow of green appeared in front of me, someone must have put a green lantern next to me.

"Oh, thank you!"

The fridge was in front of me the entire time. I quickly opened it up before achieving the treasure I was looking for. This was a lot similar to my expedition, expect that the colas are the artifact I am trying to find. I snuck some in my pocket before leaving the kitchen. Whoever put that lantern there is extremely helpful. When I walked past the mirror, my eyes locked onto my reflection. Normal hoodie clothing, yellow skin, black cap and brightly glowing green eyes-

...

wait.

I immediately dashed back in front of the mirror of which I saw the anomaly feature. But when I examined my eyes again, they were back to normal. Now everywhere is pitch black, no light anymore. God fucking dammit.

I sighed as I crawled back into Galf's bedroom before opening the can and taking a sip from the well deserved reward.