Smolder

Chapter 27

Russell went exactly twenty steps before his panic induced heroics ran out of his veins, leaving him with a sudden wave of crippling fear, exhaustion and a bad case of indigestion. He dropped to the ground and vomited out an alarming amount of blood. Okay, a very bad case of indigestion. And he probably would've died in that situation if not for the person in underwear.

Warm hands closed around his shoulder as he vomited his intestines out. He looked up to face the person but his vision was too blurry from tears. Something, possibly a drink, was offered to his mouth. He involuntarily excepted it.

As the sweet tasting liquid flowed into his throat, his vision cleared. The burning in his stomach vanished and he started to feel something other than a dying sack of flesh.

Russell looked up to find the person peering down on him. His blonde hair orangish in the red glow of the cloaked sun. His skin was fair, his muscles toned like a marble statue. He was only wearing a loin cloth around his waist. His face looked vaguely familiar.

Then Russell recognized him.

"Oh," William said, "You're that boy with Arron."

"Yeah," Russell replied, " "That bot with Arron", that's definitely my name."

Russell didn't mean to be rude, but he clearly remembered telling uncle butthead and this guy his name.

To his utter surprise, the guy snickered, then broke out laughing.

A laugh is very a contagious thing. Soon, Russell was laughing too, even though he had no idea why. Two lonely laughs echoing through the empty field as the mist rolled over them. God help whoever else was out there keep their sanity.

"I'm sorry," William said through his laugh, "Just, it feels so long since I last heard a joke."

"Wanna hear another one?" Russell said, still getting spasms from laughter, "Your fly's open."

Williams hand instinctively went to his crotch. But then he remembered he was wearing a loin cloth and he burst out laughing.

"William!" William mimicked what Russell felt sure was Cadwell, "Polish my shoes. Now! I don't want to die looking like a peasant!"

Russell laughed harder than a frog.

Then he put his hands on his waist and mimicked Orpheus, "Oh, hey Russell! Go gather everyone around as I waste some more valuable time chatting with Len the Elf!"

"I don't who that is but haha!"

"Haha! How did you end up here anyway?"

"Haha, I sort of turned into this giant crab thing. The next thing I know, I'm waking up here!"

Their laughter slowly died down in nervousness. Russell coughed twice and regained his composure.

"How bad?" He asked.

"It's everywhere," William seemed to intuitively understand what he was talking about, "It's Carnage out there."

Russell kept looking at the ground.

"It's messed up. It's like you're there but you're not and you can't control anything you do," William continued.

"I know man, I've been there," Russell said sympathetically.

"It's just... Argh!" Will kicked the ground.

Russell just nodded.

After a few moments, Russell asked, "So, what did you kill?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Your cloth. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, this?" Will pointed at the loincloth, "I just found a poor skeleton wearing this near where I woke up."

"You just found a loincloth where you woke up."

Russell's emotions must've shown in his expression. Will seemed to shrink away.

"Well, I found two. I used the other to cover the other guy."

"Other guy?"

"Yeah, he hasn't woken up since I've come here."

"Oh."

Silence.

"And what was that thing you made me drink earlier? It was good."

"Oh, this?" Will picked up a shell from the ground. It's mouth was blocked with a round white pebble. It's body was blue, irregular with spikes. Will removed the pebble. The inside shone with multicolored light, rippling like water.

"So, I woke up just over this hill. There was this river beside me. It was glowing."

"Oh."

"So I drank it. It was really good."

"You wake up in a strange place, find suspicious glowing liquid and decide you should drink it?"

"Yes, I do."

"And it should be common sense?"

"No, it's not."

"Fair," this guy reminded Russell too much of Vivi.

"And there's also this plant thing growing around there. You can eat them."

Russell narrowed his eyes at him.

"Don't you have any sense of caution?"

"Why should I? I mean, we're already dead."

Oh

He should probably know.

"I don't think we're dead, man."

"What makes you think that?"

"Um, first of all, if we were dead, why would there be a skeleton near the river. Secondly, I kinda killed a demon a while back. And if demons can die, I think we can die too."

Will looked at him with fish eyes, unblinking and dull.

"You mean to say, that I could've died this whole time?"

"I think so."

Will sat on the ground, cradling his head in his palms, "Please erase the last few hours of my life."

"Hey man," Russell patted his back, "Look on the bright side. At least you made it alive through thinking you are immortal."

Will lifted his head, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"And look. You found food and drinking stuff. Assuming you don't puke to death tonight, that's a great discovery."

"Assuming I don't puke to death tonight."

"Stay positive."

"Assuming I don't positively puke to death tonight."

"Oh come on, let's go check out that place of yours."

Will, lifting himself up, said, "Yeah, let's go." And walked towards the hill.

The hill was filled with pebbles and was fairly sloppy, but neither Russell nor will was a wobbly walker. They climbed to the top on less then two minutes.

As Russell peered down from the top to the valley beyond, his heart did a double take.

The river was not too big, only a wide Creek. It glistened like snakeskin in sunlight. The bottom could be seen and identified as rocky. The plantation around it was nothing like Russell had ever seen. It was as if a mushroom grew cactus-like branches and was set on fire, multicolored fire. The ground, instead of red, looked a healthy green covered in moss.

But that was not what made Russell's heart jump.

Sprawled on the bank, with only a loincloth around him(probably courtesy of Will), wet and sleeping, was Arlo.