29th Tick: The First Town 2
1003 Words
“Wake up.” Thomas said.
“Five more minutes...” Rose yawned.
“Humanity is at stake and you’re just too lazy to get up from the floor.” He sighed. “Seriously, what goes through your mind?”
“Normal stuff.” She replied, getting up slowly.
“Hurry up, let’s start finding that town already.”
Rose stretched and got on her feet. Thomas checked his pocket watch and they both walked through the portal. It was morning, the sun shining softly on them. They both looked around, confused. Around them, instead of there being a desert where they had left, was a forest. The tree trunks grew thick, their diameter was the same length as an average male with his arms extended. Thomas looked up, the trees growing so tall that just seeing the canopy was tough, yet some light managed to get through. Birds, at least, creatures that sounded like birds chirped, flying over head. Fern grew on the trees, some dangling down to where Thomas and Rose were. Beneath their feet, was grass, flowers nearby. The flowers grew to Rose’s height, blooming with brilliance.
“What the...” Rose started.
Rose stopped talking when they heard a rustling not too far away. In a bush nearby, both of them looked at what emerged. A rabbit popped its head out and hopped towards Rose. Thomas took a step back, Rose, with her sixth sense, instantly hid behind Thomas. He asked her, “Not going to pet it?”
“Something’s off about that bunny.” She told him.
The rabbit got about two meters away from them. It’s eyes turned red and it’s teeth became sharp and thin, like needles. It jumped at Thomas with a snarl. Both of them swayed to the side and started running again.
“Why do we run so much?” Rose shouted.
“I don’t know, why are you asking me?” Thomas shouted back.
“Who else am I supposed to ask?”
“Yourself?”
The rabbit bit into Thomas’ leg, making him fall. He shook his leg, the rabbit being thrown aside, taking a large chunk of Thomas’ calf with it. Rose tried to help Thomas up, the rabbit at the side, chewing his flesh. Thomas got up, cursing.
“Hurry up.” Rose pestered him. “More might come.”
Not too far away, more pairs of glowing red eyes appeared, a herd of rabbits appearing. Thomas saw them and cursed. “I swear to Go-“
He was pulled along by Rose, both of them trying to get away from the rabbits. Rose shouted, “Stop time!”
“You want me to drag you?” He asked, shouting. “You’re not that light you know.”
“You want me to drop you?”
“As a matter of fact, no.”
“Then stop time already! You’re the one with the powers!”
“Zeroth Hour.”
He fell on the ground, Rose stopped in her tracks. Thomas cracked his neck and checked his calf. The flesh in the process of reversing time, and in no time at all, it healed. He stood up and hopped slightly just to check out the limits of his leg. He nodded and walked past Rose and observed the rabbits. He held one and turned it around. He continued to do the same for several of them, hoping that they would mistakenly attack each other.
Thomas then piggybacked Rose, walking along the forest. The place was weird, and who knows what kind of creatures could exist. He saw a long, black tree. It was thin and smooth, there were several of them not too far away from each other. He brought Rose to the shaded area and looked around, wondering how exactly he was going to navigate the forest without Rose. He sighed and resumed time.
Rose blinked.
“Where are we now?” She asked him.
“I don’t know, but I think we’re far away from the rabbits at least.” He replied.
Thomas walked over and leaned on a tree, saying, “I can navigate this forest without your sixth sense, so I can’t stop time and make progress.”
“Can’t you just not stop time on me, but on everything else?”
“I can’t.”
“But why?”
“If the air is frozen in time, how are you going to breath?”
“That makes sense.”
The tree Thomas was leaning on shifted. He moved aside, the tree being uprooted. He looked up and his shoulders slumped. Rose followed his view, her jaw dropping. She shouted, “Why did you have to stop here?”
“I didn’t know!”
Above them, was a giant body of a spider, it’s eyes locked in Thomas. Rose was directly under its body, so it was unable to see her. The tree Thomas had been leaning on was in fact one of its legs. It stabbed down, Thomas running to the side, the impact spraying dirt in his direction.
“Zeroth Hour!”
He kicked the spider leg out of spite and stomped his way towards Rose. He picked her up again and started walking aimlessly through the forest. At some point, after checking the one hundred meter radius around them, he resumed time. She looked around and asked him, “Are we safe now?”
“Who knows? There might still be some carnivorous bears around.” Thomas said.
“Wait, aren’t bears technically already carnivorous, how do they become carnivorous bears?”
Thomas gave Rose a look. “Are you really going to criticise my English? In this situation?”
“Who are you to say.” Rose said to him. “When I was taken away by the demons, you also got yourself taken away. In that situation, you started joking anyways.”
“So?” He retorted. “It was part of the plan.”
They both gave up on trying to argue, looking at the scenery around them. Thomas caught something in the corner of his eyes and sighed. The forest had hidden many things, creatures that were never before seen. The jungles of Hell were not a place for the faint of hearts. He turned around, saying, “Well, if you would, please lead the way to the first town.”
He looked at where Rose was supposed to be seated, then at the surrounding areas. He turned around to see if anything was off, then above him. He scratched his head and cursed. Around him, glowing red eyes peeled at him, much bigger than those of the rabbits. He held his breath before saying to himself, “Things couldn’t get any worse, can it?”
It got a lot worse.
- Writer
