My legs folded like paper, and my fall was thankfully broken by a nearby bush that cradled me like a pinecone-filled pillow. I gazed up into the sky, noting the rise of the sun marked by the golden hue our surroundings were dyed in. The forest was waking up with sounds familiar enough to trick me into believing this was still Earth.
Aslai hovered at my side staring down at me and asking small questions about my health while slowly piling on leaves and branches to camouflage me. Soon she disappeared into the background to keep an eye on our surroundings. She voiced concerns about several smaller animals, which ceased after I told her to ignore anything shorter than my waist.
Some smaller animals came and did no more than sniff me before going about their business. The closest thing to a threat was an oversized scorpion that tapped me a few times with its stinger until I shooed it away.
"Thank you Aslai."
"Why?"
I sigh deeply, enjoying the sounds of nature and watching a few birds tending to their young in a beehive-like nest above me for a few seconds.
"I was not in the best state before you found me. I thought I would have to be long-term bunkmates with that monster in the cave." she returned to my side staring down at me.
"I ran away when you were facing the creature that almost ended your life," she said, matter of factly.
"Which one?" I said jokingly. She stared at me impassively. An awkward silence lingers for a moment before she reaches out her hand. I take it to pull myself up noting how fragile she was, forcing me to focus more on my legs than my arms.
"I don't deserve your praise," Aslai replied before facing the objective marker in the distance. Our conversation ended there, a gloomy mood contrasted with the stimuli of the forest around us. To distract myself I stopped avoiding some of the smaller red outlines. Aslai didn't care, wordlessly following behind me with her head on a swivel.
The surroundings were the same, but the effect the forest had on me was much different than the first four days. The less I focused on the various red outlines, the creepier the forest became. Foxes are more muscular than I remembered. Sparse mushrooms that rivaled the size of trees. Insects and worms the size of my palm. Lastly, this bright and beautiful fruit alienated by its bleak surroundings.
I pause, staring at the fruit for more detail. It had the shape of a pear and was embedded on the side of a tree. It shined a vivid gorgeous blue contrasting its dark green and brown environment. Aslai walked past the pear as if it didn't exist, breaking me out of my trance. I followed Aslai, up until the ground was pulled out from underneath me.
Something thick whacked against my legs, pushing me off balance, the ground below me opened up to show a scarlet red maul with a weird dense liquid at the bottom. I splattered against the syrup-like liquid before I had a chance to scream. The surface quickly closed up above me, shutting out any source of light.
"Huh?"
"Kit get out of there now!" Aslai yelled while an oxygen and durability warning popped in front of my eyes. Her words jolted me into action. My vision flickered for a second allowing me to see in the dark. The walls, ground, and ceiling were all alive. The walls and ceilings had veins pulsating with life, the sides were breathing. I was being digested right now.
A newfound strength kicked into me, I clawed and kicked as hard as possible towards the nearest wall. My weight was pulling me down, the substance slowing my movement and slowly covering me.
"Aslai it's eating me!" I shouted.
"Try attacking it somewhere!" she blurted in response.
The substance was slowly creeping up my body, currently knee-deep. The walls moved further away with each movement I did. Creeping disgust doubled each second I processed what happened. It took until I was thigh-deep that I calmed myself down and tried to assess the situation.
"Aslai, don't get closer can you see if you can poke the sides with a long stick or something?"
"Alright, but try to find a way out on your own" she replied. Her monotone voice returned, seemingly indifferent to my situation. Holding back some choice words about my situation, I gazed down at the base of the liquid. It was too thick and dark to make out anything. My eyes glanced over at my oxygen meter, 1 hour and 2 minutes left.
"Suit, list commands."
"Kit, what are you trying to do?" Aslai asked, her ally symbol pacing around on the surface.
"The suit listens to basic stuff, asking for drink and food it provides. There might be some hidden help function. Suit, command list." I continued.
"Action List, List Actions, Functions. Aslai help me out too, try to see if you can-" My words were interrupted by a menu popping into my vision.
'Functions unlocked' quickly flashed in sight alongside a long list of confusing words and symbols on an extending menu. I gloss over anything I didn't understand and was quickly able to narrow down the choices to things I understood.
'Retractable Hand Claws'
'Extended Sensor'
'Memory-Based Topographic Map'
'Environment Details'
'General Status'
'Overlay'
'Custom Commands'
"Retractable Hand Claws"
I stare at the back of my hands expecting long sharp blades to extend from my knuckles. Instead, three half-inch-long drills extruded from the base of my fingers. Using the drills, I started my second attempt at reaching the wall. My drill hands cut through the liquid with ease, but my distance to the wall didn't change.
"Custom commands." following my words a prompt flashed in my vision.
'Request:'
"Get me out of here."
'Too vague'
"Give me a list of weapons."
'Retractable Hand Claws: Active'
I shouted to Aslai, giving her details of what was happening but she was noticeably quiet, responding sparsely to let me know she was there and working on a solution. I tried several different phases of the command system to no success, only figuring out how to switch my vision to different sensor modes I didn't quite understand. The liquid now reached my lower chest, nearly immobilizing my lower body.
Out of options, I revisited commands I tried already for anything I could potentially use. "Environment Details" gave me a long list of useless details such as air pressure, humidity, oxygen content, light levels, and more. The right side of my vision held extended details that would give an environmental scientist goosebumps.
"General Status" gave me a plethora of information separated into two halves of my vision. My heartbeat, the amount of air I'm consuming, my blood pressure, my temperature, and a few other things I couldn't understand yet settled on my left side. Whereas the suit's information such as durability and self-repair time was all I could understand from an extended list.
"Aslai, figured out anything on your end?" I yelled
"No, I think you should focus on custom commands, what do you need your suit to do to remove you from that pit?" she hollered back.
"A flame thrower" I stated.
"Why would it include a flame thrower?" she questioned
"For situations like this," I answered
After numerous failed attempts with the various commands, I found myself neck-deep in the liquid. I was able to move my body with some effort. But every movement had little use besides speeding up my decent. My oxygen meter had around 30 minutes left, I disabled the persistent timer because of the dread feeling that came with it.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Aslai was silent, which I registered as her being lost in her thoughts trying to find a solution. Her marker hasn't moved from the same spot in the last few minutes, so she didn't run away at least. I inspected the settings for the 5th time, reviewing everything despite not understanding 80% of what I read. Some of them were because the units were foreign to both Eastern and Western units of measurement.
The suit measured its energy output in Kn, what the heck was a Kn? My internal rant almost distracted me from my head finally dipping below the liquid surface. A peek at my oxygen revealed less than 25 minutes left. Of all the things to kill me in this weird jungle. A stupid glowing blue pear trap got me.
"Hey Aslai, how much do you want to bet we are in some type of simulation?"
"Kit, we aren't." Aslai unpretentiously stated.
"How can you be so sure?" I hissed
"Kit, just focus on getting out." she stated, her monotone voice returning.
"Aslai, I can't." I sighed.
"Kit-"
"I CAN'T!" I snapped. I take a moment to calm myself before continuing. "I've been slowly trying to paddle myself toward the edges for nearly an hour now. I haven't made any progress, it's a toilet no matter where you crap it all ends up in the same place. I'm running out of oxygen and unless this is all an elaborate ruse, I'm going to die." I said, my voice ending in a whisper.
"You can't die. We'll figure out something, please don't give up." Aslai pleaded.
"I'm a criminal, they put me in this suit because I've murdered a few people in cold blood." I blurted out.
"What?"
"You shouldn't feel sad over someone you don't even know. I'm a stranger that you gave too much trust to, I was planning on stealing your suit for myself when I got the chance for a quick buck as well. Could have been rich."
"Kit, stop lying."
"Kit isn't even my real name, I never trusted you from the beginning. Read between the lines idiot, the lengthy interrogation at the beginning was to make sure you aren't a cop, the ease I handled the monster from earlier, the fact I'm so good at sneaking around. Stop giving me pity, it's disgusting. Go run off to your main objective, nothing's left for you here." I spat
"Kit, if you don't find a way out. I'll jump in after you myself. Either we both get out of here alive or we both cease to exist together." Aslai taunted
"How daft are you? You think you'll make your parents happy when they find out you helped a murderer live to take more lives?" I seethed, hoping she would back down.
"Kit keep talking nonsense and I'll walk towards the opening." Aslai claimed, but I called her bluff.
"If you help me out I'll end your life too, I can't let anyone know that I'm still alive afteral- okay okay stop it damn it!" I yelled, noticing her marker getting eerily close to the opening I just fell through.
"Kit, you have until 3 minutes left on your oxygen before I try something drastic. Our fates are shared whether you like it or not." she stated with no room to negotiate.
"Why are you going so far for a stranger? What's wrong with you?" I demanded, a mixture of confusing emotions flowing through me.
"Talk after we get out of this situation." she said, before walking away from the hole and returning to her pacing.
My mind rushed to make sense of Aslai, maybe she knew me from somewhere and is hiding it? But what would she gain out of this, plus she's too different from most people I know. I allowed my thoughts to wander for a bit before focusing back on the task at hand. My body can still move around, but it felt like swimming through jello and no matter the movement, I kept finding myself in the direct middle of the chamber.
"Suit, you have sensors all over right? Can I see what's behind me?"
'Custom command accepted, increasing field of view.'
My eyes felt like they somehow split into 5, allowing me to see a 360-degree view. A moment later, I started to get nauseous as my brain attempted to adjust and make sense of my vision.
"Wait, can you put that into a smaller screen or something?"
'Custom command accepted'
"Lower the field of view to a normal 90 degrees and can I control where it is pointed?"
I maneuvered the second view with words and a lot of patience, surveying my surroundings for anything I could use. The only thing noteworthy was the veins converging to a base with hundreds of hairlike protrusions underneath me. The floor was divided into several sections all tilted downwards at a steep angle.
My suit flashed a 20-minute warning, kicking me into action. I quickly move my arms trying to sink as much as possible. A minute later I make it to the floor, then using my claws I pulled my body across the floor.
I decide not to talk to Aslai, instead focusing all my attention on escaping. My arms were burning, but I ignored the pain and pushed forward. Ripping out the extremely fragile protrusions every inch I gained. I was sure my 20 minutes should have been up by now. I didn't want to check out for fear of seeing, 2 minutes left followed by an idiotic Aslai jumping in after me.
Idiot, idiot Aslai.
I finally made it to the base of the walls. The sides were bizarrely smooth, but my claws didn't care as they penetrated the sides with ease. The words 'automatic assist' flashed in the corner of my vision as I dragged myself up.
The first movements were easy, but as soon as it came to bringing my arms out of the liquid surface I struggled. After slipping and nearly falling back into the abyss twice. I readjusted myself and tore away a piece of the wall. Using the notably less smooth inners as hand holds I made better progress. As soon as I painstakingly pulled my waist free my suit flashed '10 minutes' in bright red text.
"Aslai, I'm almost out. Don't even think about coming." I glanced around not noticing her ally symbol anywhere above me and sighed in relief as I refocused on the task.
Pulling a piece of the wall away, dig my claws deep into it, wiggle the next section of my body free, swap hands, repeat. I get into a rhythm, ignoring everything and focusing on my task. My feet finally wiggle free, but the wall bends to my weight and I keep slipping towards the abyss. The roof is a length of a person and the walls curve slightly inwards towards the opening.
My mind rushes to find a solution, but instead, it remembers a movie scene. The main character gets buried underground and digs her way out of a grave. I start digging, but the process is too slow, and with only one hand keeping my weight the probability of slipping and starting over increases every second.
Soon I hit another dead end, tree bark. I dig around it to see the entire second layer of the wall is bark. It significantly lowered my digging time, the possibility to make a human-sized hole and still reach the surface in time was zero. I was ready to discourage Aslai from coming down, but I heard her tone in my head. She reminded me of the stubbornness my sister has, I can't convince her with words alone.
I dive back into my settings, searching for any options I may have. I need to increase the amount of time I had, I need oxygen. Wait, I have water!
"Suit, can you turn my water into oxygen?"
'In progress with reduced efficiency.'
Crap, what else can I use? If I can't increase my time what can I use to break this wall faster? My mind rushes through options until a five-minute warning flash in my vision.
My mind returns to the idea of creating a fire, flipping through several quickly as possible until I realized it. My suit has to be powered by batteries, batteries heat up when you pierce them.
"Custom command, eject one of the batteries." a long moment passes before the suit replies in a prompt.
'Capacitors are used for dedicated actions. Manuel manipulation not possible.'
"Suit, if you don't let me use it we'll both get buried down here. We need to burn our way out!"
A warning flash in the corner of my eye but I focus on digging, the progress is slow and tedious but I refuse to give up. A minute later the suit flashes instructions to me.
'Place right palm against the surface, secure yourself.'
I quickly follow directions hoping for a miracle. As soon as I settled in my position a dull red glow came from underneath my palm. The wood darkened but didn't burn. I multitasked and ripped away at the burnt parts at risk of falling while moving my hand to a less chared area.
The digging was still sluggish, but much easier than the first time around. Aslai remained in the corner of my mind, but I pushed that thought aside to immerse myself in excavating. Out of breath, I finally made a shaped hole through the wood. Thankfully there was only earth behind the wood, but sadly a minute warning flashed in my vision.
In a last-moment burst of energy, I dug away, tearing packed dirt behind me in clumps. I didn't have a lot of room to maneuver, making each action awkward, but out of desperation, my hands moved. I didn't realize I started yelling until a timer shouted over me. My minute was up, but I refused to stop digging.
Minus 1 minute. I think the dirt was getting less packed as I went.
Minus 2 minutes, my arms wanted to give out, and my stamina was failing me.
Minus 3 minutes, bile threatened to rush up my throat, I shove the feeling down.
Minus 5 minutes, I think Aslai was calling out to me but I couldn't hear her.
Minus 8, I could see my arms slowing down, I try to force them but they aren't moving as fast as I needed them.
Minus 9, I lose the strength to keep my eyes open but think I feel my arms moving at a steady pace I can't see the timer but I keep moving until I feel nothing anymore.