Unfound

glimpses

Zack walked for hours, but it could've been days for all he knew. He wasn't entirely sure that time existed on this dense plain of nothingness.

He felt so unbelievably lonely and afraid. Although he had known both extreme loneliness and fear in life, here it was something else. Ten times more raw than the feelings that had catalysed his addictions and self-harm.

Locked in a stark wilderness and knowing nothing about why he was here, where he was or even if he was here, the elder McArthur sibling quite simply didn't know what else to do but walk.

Was it a survival instinct? Maybe. Grimly, he considered the fact that he wasn't fully alone. There was a friendly chap a few hours back the way he had come that really knew how to make a good first impression.

Zack chuckled to himself softly, well aware that the creature that had assaulted him had appeared out of nothing and that he would do well to have his wits about him.

If it matters. The Stranger's first question to him was still vexing him. Why do I even care? It wasn't a thought that was born out of feelings of anger of futility. He had just committed suicide (Zack assumed he had woken up here straight afterwards but couldn't be entirely sure), which sealed his fate in that life. But here he had acted with an impulse to survive when confronted with death.

On Earth he had sought out death and here he ran from it. But he didn't know why. The only idea Zack could formulate was that he had some kind of task to perform here. A duty. In his head this thought felt similar to his identification of The Stranger's duality in a messenger and hunter form.

He didn't know how he knew it or if it was even true. But it felt sort of, right to him.

For now, the only thing to do was walk, so he walked until his legs started to ache and his feet developed blisters from the unforgiving floor.

Could be worse, could be digesting in pieces inside that thing's stomach right now. If it has a stomach. He shivered and scratched at his left elbow. I'd be dead (again) if not for that magic yellow line. He started to hum 'New Divide' by Linkin Park in honour of it.

Zack didn't bother trying to decipher the origins of the mysterious yellow line which had saved him. This whole situation was ridiculous, but that was just a step too far. How a line of paint could halt a creature as formidable as that was beyond him. Instead, Zack sent his own little prayer of thanks to it and let it be for the sake of his own, already fraying, sanity.

Over the last half hour, Zack began to sense a change. He felt it to be precise. A growing closeness of the air, like a storm was due. It put him on edge, but he couldn't see anything different about his surroundings.

Zack's senses were on high alert.

"Hello? Is someone there?" He called out into the whiteness.

No reply. He figured that if another monster was coming, he'd try and speak to it first instead of fighting, as seen as The Stranger had been capable of communication. Although, Zack hadn't been able to sense anything then. Now, it was different.

Something caught his eye off to the right as he continued to walk, so he slowed his pace. He squinted, not at first seeing anything out of the ordinary.

Is that? What is that? It looks- it looks different.

His eyes struggled to adjust to what he saw, but Zack thought that the air was becoming opaque somehow. Due to the lack of colour, it was hard to tell. But it looked like a wall of some kind and it was moving closer to him.