New World Order (TNE) [Original]

Chapter 12 - Rehabilitation Collaboration

Black darkness consumed the tunnel. A soft humming of a slimy blood hissed as it bounced to the shaky discarded ground. Martin had been wandering for hours and it didn't seem like he was getting any closer to the end of the tunnel, throughout the walk the stinging sounds of the slimy liquid seemed to get louder. This seemed odd to Martin as he wasn't even sure if he was causing the sound anymore at this point. It could've been from another cavern entirely or from some other thought in his mind. In fact his mind itself was clouded with a row of scorpions and claws. It was as if his thoughts were clear but had created a barrier for what he was truly thinking, or at least trying to think. His eyes were a dull grey and he had returned to his human form, although this was of little concern to him at this point. He had to reach the end of this tunnel.

His legs began to give in, he had been walking for hours carrying what felt like thousands of pounds on his back. Up until now the adrenaline rush and focus on reaching the end of the tunnel had distracted him but it could only last so long. He was mad now. Mad at himself, mad at the tunnel for being so long and mad at the light for looking so close. He sent out a hand onto the dirty mucky tunnel walls. He brushed some dirt from the walls that seemed to fly into his face as if it had a mind of its own. Martin kept trying to walk ignoring the slimy substance crawling up his left leg through the back of his heel. The shoes he had once thought of as part of his feet were becoming molasses around his meaty feet and he could feel every tone crawling through the cavern.

"Anyone, is anyone out there?" he called out into the light. He hoped for a response but the silence was stronger than anything he would have received and he felt himself fall onto the ground into the black darkness. Suddenly the tunnel began to cave in under his weight and his whole being cracked endlessly into the void. Trying to pinpoint the feeling was impossible in the clouded mind of Martin but he tried his best. That's when Martin awoke with a shudder.

"Another nightmare Marty," Ms. Yamaha called to him with teeth clattering through each painful breath, she wasn't in pain but when she got into a game like she had today it sure felt like it. The game she was playing today on her phone was about dragons flying through rings to get high scores, of course the game would always crash before getting that far since as far as the internet was now concerned nobody else had ever played the game. That was the compromise that had to be reached down in Forestville, a strange distorted version of the internet was provided that still housed official history but no names or faces. It was like looking through a crowd of people and knowing all their interests but none of their names.

"Yes, another one. They always feel so vivid and real," Martin responded angrily that he had fallen for the dream again, believing it to be reality.

"Yeah, well that was what you said about that last project you tried to submit to me," Ms. Yamaha commented unemotionally. It was clear from the words alone that it was a backhanded joke but if you heard the stone cold delivery you would've sworn that somebody had died. She held out her phone in front of her face as to express intensity. Martin went over to the smallest room in the small clay hut and grabbed out a pair out clothes from the water basin. Life had become a strange mix of technology down here over the past week.

"The project itself was real, it was just the words that weren't," Martin concluded, cracking a smile for the first time in days. Ms. Yamaha gave him the eye that only a lazy retired teacher could. Their conversation was intercepted by the loud ringing of bells, flutes and other musical instruments in the town square. It was time for the weekly town square meeting. Martin and Ms. Yamaha sleepily trudged to the square with Ms. Yamaha still holding her cup of coffee and a phone displaying "GAME OVER" in bright flashing colours before crashing.

"Welcome to the 2nd town meeting. Now, I know that there has been a lot of recent developments but I ask that everyone talk one at a ti-" the blue imp began before getting stampeded by the louder voices of the town. This was the first meeting that the blue imp had to organize and facilitate individually without the druid's help. Needless to say the blue imp was missing the druid right about now as people shouted right into their face everything that the town members wanted to change. The blue imp just wanted to crouch into a ball until a deep breath was taken; the air became more still and dreamy, then the blue imp rubbed their hands together and shot a stream of fire into the sky. It wasn't necessary louder than the crowd but it distracted them at the very least.

"Foremost importance, my welcoming return society has begun," an elegant and beautiful voice from the back of the crowd rung loud and clear. She was one of the worms who attacked Forestville just last week and now had relearned english and become a helpful member of the town, it really made Geoffrey feel bad for nearly crushing her earlier. Luckily she was was quick to forgive and forget. Hearing the worm's words from the back of the crowd made the blue imp start to blush an awkward orange colour that made them only look smaller and less intimidating, but they were happy to have done such a service to the community.

"As much as I am happy at your societal restoration, I want to establish a speaking order so things don't get so out of hand again," the blue imp replied giving a tiny but still noticeable wink to the female wink. It was clear that their relationship had grown fruitfully over the past week. People put up their hands and the blue imp established a short speaking order along with appointing some translators for some of the less understandable.

"So, let's get the metaphorical elephant out of room first off. Last week; even with the casualties we suffered in Marissa and York, the government didn't actually accomplish their goal," Plum shouted, trying to speak over the children of the crowd still talking amongst themselves. Geoffrey and Martin had found themselves in a game of chopsticks and Ms. Yamaha was not much better, returning to the dragon game once again.

"What do you mean! People got captured, is that not enough for them?" An angry old man yelled from the center of the crowd. Even in his old age he had one of the loudest voices of the entire town. This booming voice combined with his short stature and nearly constant hunched back resulted in most of what he says going straight into the dirt.

"On the announcements, the government specifically talked about trying to capture the people who had not developed mutations. Yet, me and Timothy are still here!" Plum settled with an air of finality. Timothy looked over after hearing his name, he had been distracted by the snack table to the side of the town since it had some of the best trail fix he had tasted in months. You couldn't truly blame him, even with the importance of this meeting.

"York was still non-mutated wasn't he, maybe they decided one was enough."

"I heard the briefing before paw and chief told us that journey capture all non-mutate but fail we did. Even had backup worm," the female worm creature in the back of the crowd responded angrily. Nobody was quite sure what she meant but the anger in the voice made people try harder than usual to decipher it.

"The government had reinforcements that they didn't bring out? That's odd," the blue imp responded clearly bored by the conversation but trying the best they could to sound interested. The female worm tried the best she could to communicate sass but it just came off as creepy and offensive.

"Exactly, chief told pull back and replace arm," the female worm nodded her head more than she realized and made the crowd disperse around her.

The meeting continued with the blue imp going from person to person but nobody really had quite the same groundbreaking information, that is until it came to the lone dragon that had stayed with them in the village. Martin also gathered up some members and regrettably Ms. Yamaha for a search party to go aboveground and look for York and Marissa. Now that, we have that established it's time to tell the story of this lone dragon who stayed. He had aquamarine scales and bumps on his head from injury that almost looked like horns by this point. That story begins with a...