Incipient Mortality- A Knock Off Course

Chapter Seven- Travels in Florida

Ikorts, now alone, was unsure of his next course of action. Does he go cross-country to catch up with the weirdly shaped being with the Narutō ripoff cosplay like he did last time? Albeit, unintentionally. He could only think silently in the quiet hotel room before he left to the cruel clutches of the outside world. Or something. He looked down at his jean shoes and Hallo Katty Rolax with a bit of shame.. he wasn't strong enough, even with a sword it's no better than the stick Gima gave him.. but to be fair he lost his sword to the CMG, who he may never see again, and that were most likely only relevant for 2% of the actual plot.., I mean, that's way it's shortened. sigh.

Ikorts got his stick and walked out of the room. He went down the stairs and out of the building entirely. This could have happened off screen, but for the sake of 'because I said so', you, the reader, will have witnessed every movement this ant makes. Ikorts breathes the free air of freedom, that's as free as freedom gets. I can't help but be.. redundant for my reasonably broken humor. Pensive emoji.

Let's get together and stay true to the story. Peace.

Iko was going for a walk. Maybe he'd even find a box on the side of the road to live in, taking Gima's advice like any good friend. He walked, and walked, and guess what.. my boy walked. His eyes gazed over the buildings, honestly a lot of it was flashy, neon signs, bars, and the Red Robin that wasn't originally supposed to be there til now, a horse.. parked next to a monster truck.. really says 'yippie kayay' if I ever saw it. He rose a brow at the sight before simply walking away, pretending not to notice how cool it was. Next, he came across another bar. 21+ only. Can't drink till 21, but can get sent to war at 17? What a goofy goober this country can be! Ikorts frolicked along, at least one alligator coming for his toes, the sun giving him a tan that's.. more like sunburn than a tan. Ahh, the American Dream. He could taste his excitement. I mean, he never traveled like this before.

Once again, he took time to pay attention to his surroundings. The cookie cutter houses, apartments, a company building where he could see death note playing through the window on the TV in a business meeting, and the glory of it all, Walmart. Ikorts frolicked in past a group of girls. "Oh my gosh, that guy looks like a Walmart Yanqing... What, is he accompanied by Jingyuan too? so last 700.47945 centuries..", Damnit, I see the resemblance. I know you can't since I haven't told you what Gima looks like. I'm too mysterious for that, I mean after all, I could tell you what they sell at Walmart, but I've never been there.. never shopped at Walmart. Never shopped at Walmart.. but these girls seem like.. Walmart experts, they probably shop there, don't they? Ikorts didn't know what they were talking about, mostly because he didn't speak the language, but he guessed it was about how nice he looked. He kept frolicking around the store, finding obese people on scooters, someone with their cheeks out, another person with 10 kids right behind a single person buying 10 cartons of milk. What a find! In his mind, this was great, a whole new world. Oh, wonderful, a crusty white dog and another alligator walked by some girl with a tan that clashed with her hair color. The people were just as great as the country. Little did he know, he's only witnessing at most 3% of the wonders this country has to offer.

After loitering in the store for too long, he left. By now it was late in the night. The crickets were cricketing, the cars, horses, monster trucks and crocodiles were gone, leaving a somewhat liminal space of what was the Walmart parking lot. No matter, he still had his stick with him. He walked through the depths of the night, under the stone-lit lamps. The shadows cast over any crevasses. While walking through the night, he heard the occasional weird noise, making him shudder at the thought of something dangerous being nearby. Which was, honestly, a high possibility.

Ikorts kept on traveling, gripping the stick in his hand, baiting himself into believing it was his sword. The place, suddenly so silent, even the crickets fled. Once again, he could hear his heart beating in his ears.. til his ears picked up on something else. Running? Near him. But it stopped? He looked around for a second while his hair prickled with unease. Ikorts walked down to the closest shortcut, an alleyway. The lack of open space almost felt suffocating. He couldn't help but speed up, feeling like prey to an unknown predator. Now he had no protection. What's this stick going to do? At most, he could poke the beast, or it'll just break. He thought about his situation, what to do, what could he do? Could he do anything? Running might be his best bet..

After he exited the other side of the alleyway, he just found himself in a neighborhood. It was still dark and luminal, it just felt wrong to be there. Once again, he heard movement but didn't go to look. Would it be best to ignore it? Should I just pretend it's not there and let it leave me alone? No, it's right after me. That wouldn't work, right? He got overwhelmed, but he kept walking towards the hotel without looking back. Surely he would have lost his room by now, but it's better than nothing right now.

Eventually, he saw the hotel and rushed to it. However, when he approached it, he heard the running again, right after him hurriedly; nearly grabbing him before he just barely got into the building and closed the door. Unfortunately, he didn't have a key, so he couldn't lock it. Thankfully, though, the creature seemed to stop chasing him.. though when he looked, he could see its gleaming eyes watching his every move. The light reflecting from its eyes resembles an animal, but what he could make out from its vague silhouette was not at all of an animal.. or at least of any animal he was familiar with.

Ikorts took a second to calm down and catch his breath before going to sit on the couch of the hotel. The receptionist was busy on her phone, so she didn't care enough to tell him to not loiter. Despite her not being present, he found it comforting to be around someone else that posed no harm to him..

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After he could calm himself, at least mostly, Ikorts got up and walked to his room. Previously, he didn't return his key, so he got in. Regardless of if his room was still his or not, he entered and flopped on the bed. As he tried to get himself to sleep, he had the time to look at the room. The moon left a dim light, leaving the room flushed from color, even so it was warm and smelled like warm fabric. Finding it peaceful, Ikorts fell asleep.

This sleep didn't last as long as it should have, though. He woke up later in the night, with another strange feeling of unease. The room felt colder, even a soft breeze blowing on his skin, causing him to look at the sliding glass door leading to the balcony. Only to see that it was wide open. Surely he closed it last time, or at least when he came in it was closed.. but he never thought to lock it. Did something get it? Or maybe it was always open, and he's just miss remembering. He got up and closed the door, this time locking them. After doing so, he heard a noise from the closet, rustling, and something knocking over. Does he go check? He's never watched a horror movie so he wouldn't know the consequences...