Soft sobs echoed through the disturbed forest as Adam tried, and failed, to fully shut his fears away. With every stumbling step forward he was reminded of the terrifying predicament he was in. Bodies littered his surroundings, reiterating just how many people had died in his vicinity.
Even worse than their numbers was the realization that he recognized a few of them.
Why are there so many students here? Adam had come across two separate… bodies while rushing through the forest. In one spot he came across a large piece of fabric with most of an image of the YCC Heron on it. It looked as if the previous wearer hadn’t survived the first wave though, as it was soaked in blood. About 200 meters past the first, he came across a ripped YCC Wrestling jacket as well.
Damn, he thought, that program is brand new and most of the team members were first or second year college students. They were just kids. Seeing so many dead around him, Adam gained a bit of perspective about the system.
The system didn’t care. There was no hand holding for those that were a part of the system. Based on the messages that he had read so far, the system only valued effort and possibly luck. Apparently, the “Premier Factions of the Multiverse”, whoever the fuck THEY were, had an interest in the people of a Newly Integrated World but the system itself seemed to be completely ambivalent towards those that used it.
As he wallowed in his situation, Adam continued onward. There was no other choice if he wanted to survive. While he traveled, he learned that he could check the system messages that he had seen previously by thinking about the system and willing for the screen to come back. Not the most intuitive process but as he had noticed already, it made sense.
Success and survival came only to those that tried to adapt. It was as if the universe was just saying “Figure it out. I’m not helping” like an annoyed older sibling left to deal with an elementary school kid.
He checked his messages again.
The Second Wave of the Trial will begin in 90 seconds.
Prepare yourself, Human.
Prove that you are worth what you have been offered.
Only a minute and a half left until he had to deal with more monsters again. I hope the Hippobulls don't come back. Unsure what the beasts were actually called, Adam just went with that. It’s not like their name is actually important, I just hope to never see them again.
Adam’s cracked, or possibly broken, ribs made it incredibly difficult for him to run but he did his best to rush out of the woods, thinking that if he found a high rock or something similar, he would be out of their reach, effectively bypassing any and all danger they presented.
The Second Wave begins in…
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
FIght, Flee or Hide.
The Choice is yours, Participants.
Sponsorship Opportunities Remaining: 33/50
Prove yourself.
For the second time, it sounded like space itself was shattered as a loud fracturing sound echoes through the canyon. Bugling sounds and rattling bones quickly followed, signifying the return of the Hippobulls and their terrible charge. However, this time, it sounded like the bugling was mixed with another almost distressed noise.
With no time to waste, Adam quickened his pace and looked for a hiding spot.
Surrounded by trees, he saw no elevated rock formations or logs and so decided to look for a tree to climb. His legs carried him up a small hill, allowing him to have a better view of his surroundings at least, even if it wasn’t going to allow him to be out of the monsters’ path. Behind him, Adam could both hear and feel the Hippobulls gaining on him.
“HEY! Over here!”
A voice whisper-yelled out towards Adam as he whipped his head around searching for shelter.
Glancing back, Adam saw two heads poking out of a tree hollow about 20 feet above the ground, roughly eye level with Adam's current position.
A young couple that looked to be in their early 20’s were waving at Adam, ushering him towards their tree.
“We don’t have any extra room but, there’s a hollow under that tree's roots!” the man pointed to one of the smaller of the trees to his left.
The sound of the stampeding beasts was getting louder and louder. Glancing towards the approaching monsters, he quickly checked the distance to the supposed hiding place.
He could make it.
Adam nodded his head in thanks and rushed towards the tree the young man pointed at. As he approached he noticed the small hole into the root system beneath the tree and dove for it.
This is going to be a tight fit, he thought as he forced his upper body through the opening. The pain was excruciating as his mangled arm and busted ribs screamed at the pressure as he squeezed into the hollow.
His dive into the hole saved his life as the Hippobulls swarmed past his hiding place seconds after he landed in the hole. Its small entrance hid a much larger interior than he had expected. Luckily for Adam, the space could hold more than one person because he quickly realized he was not alone.
Lying just to the side of the entrance was a middle aged woman with dark brown hair, wearing what looked like army fatigues. Unfortunately, she didn't look like she was going to make it very long as she had clearly been ravaged by the Hippobulls in the first wave.
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The woman glanced over at Adam with dull brown eyes. Bubbles were forming in the bloody spittle that leaked from the corner of her mouth. She tried to sit up a bit but wasn’t able to.
Adam quickly crawled towards her, “Don’t try to move! You're just going to make your injury worse.” She let out a small chuckle that quickly turned into a gasp as she addressed Adam.
“Kid, there is no way I’m making it out of here unless you're a doctor.” She sighed heavily and relaxed into Adam's supporting arm with a grimace. “While I don’t want to assume, I think the chances that you’re a doctor are incredibly low based on how you dressed your own injuries.”
“You're right, I am just a grad assistant at a community college,” Adam said. “And honestly, I don’t think I am going to make it out of here either.”
His voice shook a little as he said the words he had been thinking since he watched the first man die to the Hippobulls. Shit, thinking like that is off limits! I WILL make it out of here alive, positive thoughts, Adam. “Well, we’ve survived so far haven’t we? My name is Adam Abrams, what can I call you?”
Moving one of her hands away from her stomach wound, she gestured to the pocket of her uniform where the name GONZALES was printed in bold black letters. “Luisa Gonzales, US Army. If you make it back, I want you to promise me something” she weakly gripped the front of Adam's button up shirt and tried to pull him closer. “If California still exists…” as she gathered her breath, deep pain, and not the physical kind, was evident on her face. “In the far south of California, couple hours east of San Diego, I have two boys, Fernando and Saul, and a little angel, Bianca. You tell them that their mamá went out a fighter… and that she loves them very much, ok?”.
By moving her hand from her wounded stomach, Adam was able to really get a good look at her injury and even if he had been a doctor, there was no way he would have been able to save her. It was amazing that she had survived the five minute gap between the waves with her stomach completely eviscerated. Had she not been sitting still and holding pressure on herself like that, she would have bled out much sooner.
Before he could fully answer her, Luisa's weak grip started to release its hold on his shirt, falling back to her wound. Adam tried to lock eyes with her but saw that she was looking past his shoulder with a look of horror.
His short conversation with Luisa had only lasted for a little over a minute but it had distracted him enough that he had not noticed that the rumbling noise had almost completely stopped. The bugling had been replaced by a sound that was similar but seemed to be more like an imitation of the previous calls, almost mocking.
He followed her eyes and looked towards the entry hole and saw something that terrified him.
Half of an ape-like face was staring through the hole with saliva dripping from the edge of its lips. Its eyes were locked on Luisa as it moved its head to stick its short snout directly over the hole, making multiple sniffing noises before staring back into the hole with a hungry gaze. Large clawed fingers wrapped themselves around the edges of the hole and started to slowly pull the roots and earth apart, working to widen the entrance to get at its prey.
Faster than he could react, Luisa, in a surprising burst of strength, shoved Adam to the side and threw herself at the creature. As she removed her hands, her injury reopened, pouring blood onto the floor as she grabbed what looked like a knife from her hip. The beast roared through the opening and reached for the approaching figure with its massive clawed paw. More blood flew as the creature's claws sliced through her already torn stomach but Luisa knew she was making her last stand at this moment.
Feeling the blood leaving her body, Luisa poured her all into one last movement. Her free hand wrapped around the extended arm of the beast, pulling her closer to the creature's face so that her other hand would be able to reach the monster. As the life faded from her eyes, she plunged her right hand, which had latched onto a piece of broken leg bone, into the eye of the monstrous ape.
Caught off guard by the attacking woman, the creature threw itself away from the hole, shrieking in pain. So surprised, the beast leaped upwards, grabbing a tree branch and climbed high into the canopy of the trees.
Adam recovered from being shoved and made it to the edge of the hole just in time to see the ape-like beast jump away from the tree and spread its limbs wide, stretching a skin like membrane between them to glide into the distance. Following it with his gaze he watched as it joined a series of other shadowy beasts leaping and gliding through the treetops almost completely unseen.
Seeing as how Luisa’s body had been pulled out of the hiding hollow during her last stand, Adam knew that he couldn’t stay in this place for much longer. He couldn't trust that the wave would end soon so, after quickly checking to see if she was truly dead, Adam tucked himself into the back of the hollow, as far from the opening as he could get, and waited for the system message to confirm that the second wave had completed.
Minutes passed and Adam couldn’t help but feel like a coward. Luisa’s courage and warrior spirit was something that he just didn’t have. More than going out with a bang or trying to stick it to the attacker via mutual destruction, Adam could only focus on how he just needed to survive.
With how this trial had been going, he knew that he would likely need to find a way to fight against monsters but… how could someone like him beat a creature that seemed to be built for carnage? The Gorillaglider (self named) felt like it was added to this wave to be a sort of clean up crew for the Hippobulls. Based on what he had seen so far, the Hippobulls killed anything that got in their way but they didn’t actually eat anything they killed. The Gorillagliders on the other hand, seemed to revel in the carnage caused by the stampeding beasts and even seemed to be interested in hunting the humans that had been in their area. The screams of humans and beasts alike filled the air of the canyon, however they seemed to be diminishing as time passed.
Shortly after the flight of the Gorillaglider, there was a dull flash of light outside of the entrance to his hiding place. Unsure as to what caused it, Adam snuck a glance towards the tree where the young couple had been hiding and was instantly saddened by what he saw. A Gorillaglider was perched on the side of the hollow and was holding the young woman by the head and shoulder as it tore into her corpse.
Clearly, they hadn’t made it either.
Being sure to remain as inconspicuous as possible, he began to make his way back, deeper into the hollow to hide from potential creatures when he noticed something that stopped him in his tracks.
Up in the tree where the Gorillaglider was feasting on the young woman's body, the young man could be seen standing on a branch on the other side of the tree! He had his hands covering his mouth and seemed as if he was trying to blend in with the bark of the tree. Tears streamed down his face and a soft sob escaped from between his fingers. The Gorillagliders squirrel-like ears flickered and it tensed its body. Setting the woman down across a branch for later, the beast slowly climbed around the side of the tree and seemed to be looking straight at the young man; however, the young man froze and refused to move from his position. A couple seconds later, the monster seemed to pass over the man and returned to the other side of the tree and continued to eat.
Adam was shocked. How did the beast not sense the man there? Could it really not see him? For whatever reason, the man was safe and was ignored by the creature. As he pondered the situation, a light flared into existence around the young man and in a similar fashion to when this all began, he was wrapped in a light egg and disappeared from view.
Adam quickly checked the system message from before and noticed that the number of sponsored individuals had increased by one. That must be how a sponsored person is removed from this trial, Adam mused to himself.
The crunching noise that was coming from the gorillaglider eating the young woman stopped at the same time that a new system message appeared before Adam.
The Second Wave of the Beast Gauntlet (F) is complete.
Number of Participants remaining:
129/2500
Sponsorship Opportunities Remaining: 16/50
The Third Wave will begin in 10 minutes.
This second wave was different from the first in a variety of ways. The first and most important way that it was different was just how deadly the wave was. The first wave had killed a little more than 800 participants whereas the second wave had taken out almost 1600 participants. Clearly, with the addition of the Gorillagliders, monsters that actively hunted humans, the trial's death toll skyrocketed.
Adam had seen more people die, had been helped by strangers, was saved by a dying woman and gained insight into how to stand out enough to be sponsored in this trial. He needed to stand out somehow in the next wave in order to try and get a sponsorship. There were only 15 spots left and he was determined to snag one of them.
He grabbed his boar skull and climbed all the way out of his hiding place. He looked around for Luisa’s body that had been pulled from the hollow by the beast but he couldn’t seem to find it. All he could locate was the piece of bone she had used to stab the gorillaglider with before.
Adam tucked his new weapon into his belt loop. Luisa. I promise that if I survive this, I will find your kids and tell them about how you saved me, he vowed to himself. But first things first, I need to get the fuck out of this forest.