Striking Out

A game? A game! Why do I get the feeling it’s not the type of game I’m good at?

. . . . .

The woman, the Seeker, slowly looked at each of them, put her hands on her hips, and smirked. “You will all address me as Seraphim.”

Graham watched as the others took in their surroundings. He slowly moved to the side, positioning himself next to the barrier and placing a hand on it. People began talking and shouting at each other:

“Where am I?” a woman said.

“What the fuck is going on?!” a portly man said.

A man with a shaved head and baggy clothes looked at Seraphim. “Who’s this bitch?”

Graham blanched. “Fuck, why’d he have to do that?”

Seraphim smiled, slowly raised a hand, and waved it. It was a light wave, almost negligent, but the result spoke for its power. The man was thrown bodily through the air and hit the barrier with crushing force. He let out a wet gasp as blood spilled from his mouth and a loud crunch echoed through the clearing. He fell to the ground, limp and twitching.

Graham’s breath hitched, his heart pumping, and he leaned against the barrier so he wouldn’t collapse. Cries of shock rang out from the others. A brown-haired girl fell to her knees, weeping. A man with platinum blonde hair rushed to the injured man’s side, checking his pulse.

“Still alive!” He looked around frantically. “Is anyone here a doctor?” No one came forth.

A few were trying to comfort the crying girl, who seemed inconsolable. Others, braver, eyed Seraphim warily. No one tried to do anything to her, but they seemed prepared to protect themselves.

“Not that it’d help,” Graham thought. “You can’t stand up to a fucking Seeker. Not unless you’re a Seeker, too.”

Seraphim laughed. “Do you all understand why I just did that?” No one answered. She held up two fingers. “Two reasons. One, He didn’t address me as Seraphim, and I’d just told you all to do so. Two, to help you understand your place here. I am in control. I make the rules. You do as I say. Understood?”

She looked around, but no one met her gaze. “Nod!” They all nodded, except for the platinum-haired man. He was too busy fussing over the dying man.

“Come on, buddy,” he said, slapping the man’s cheeks. “Keep breathing. Don’t close your eyes, okay?” It was questionable whether the man heard what he was saying, or if he’d understand if he did.

Seraphim narrowed her eyes, sauntering towards them. The crowd parted for her and she stopped just next to where the platinum-haired man knelt. She crouched and crossed her arms on her knees, making the cuffs she wore on each wrist shine. “There’s no hope for him, you know? Crushed ribs, concussion, internal bleeding… the only way he’ll live is if he gets to a hospital, right now.”

The man grit his teeth. “Then take him to the hospital! You can do it, can’t you? I know you can fly so, please! Please, save him.”

Seraphim stood and looked down at him. “What’s your name?”

“William. William Salle.”

“William, is it? Well, I’ve got some advice for you. That compassion of yours? Get rid of it. It’ll get you killed.” She turned on her heel and went back to her spot next to Nautilus. Once again, the crowd parted for her.

Graham sighed. “Thank god. I thought she was gonna kill him, too.”

She said something to Nautilus, then took to the air and flew off. Nautilus stepped forward, clasping his hands behind him. “I will now explain why you’re here.” He chuckled. “You will all take part in a survival game that we’ve set up. The only way to win, and leave this place, is to become a Seeker and escape.”

He waved a hand and several weapons flew out of the woods behind him and settled on the ground before the group. “You may use these to defend yourselves. Of course, few of the things that live here can be defeated with simple weapons,” he said, his grin not covered by his hood. “We’ve placed valuable resources at certain locations that will help you become stronger. It’s up to you to acquire them.”

He stepped back into the shadows. “Good luck.” He vanished.

Graham fell down, grunting from the sudden impact. “What? The barrier is gone.” He sat up and swished his hands through the air. “Yep. Gone.” He looked at the group. William seemed to have given up on saving the other man and had moved to rejoin the group. A young-looking guy with black hair had picked up one of the weapons, a sword. Others were arguing with each other about what to do and the crying girl had stopped crying, instead covering her mouth with a hand and staring at what would soon be a corpse.

Graham frowned. “Fifte—Fourteen people, but only five weapons?” Including the sword the young man was holding, there was a spear, a dagger, a mace and—of all things—a shield! “A shield? That’s not a weapon. How are you supposed to defend yourself with a shield?”

He blinked and furrowed his brow. “Well, the whole point of a shield is defense…” He shook his head. “I still don’t think it’d be very useful.”

Others began picking up the weapons and arguments broke out. Nobody wanted to go without a weapon, but they couldn’t all have one. William was trying to calm everyone down, but they weren’t listening. “I can’t stay here,” Graham thought, “Not with these people. I’d probably have better chances on my own.” He eyed the weapons. “Besides, I think Nautilus was telling the truth when he said the weapons wouldn’t be that useful. I’d rather get a headstart on whatever those resources are.”

Course decided, he snuck off into the trees, heading toward the sun.

He moved through the trees carefully, head swiveling constantly in search of threats. Sunlight streamed down through the canopy, dappling the brush and the forest floor with light. It certainly didn’t give the impression of a dangerous forest. But Graham wouldn’t be fooled. Every once in a while, he could hear things moving; large things.

“If this were a game, the ‘resources’ would probably be in special locations. Or maybe guarded by a mini-boss. I probably can’t deal with any of the monsters living here… I should find somewhere higher so I can get an idea of the area.”

He’d just begun heading toward a hill he could see in the distance when something grabbed his ankle, tripping him. He propped himself up on his elbows, looking back at his ankle. “What the fuck!?” It was a vine or tentacle or something. He frantically pulled his leg away, trying to free himself. “Leggo, you son of a—whoa!” It suddenly started pulling him along, dragging him through the brush.

Graham grabbed onto a tree root, holding for dear life. The vine pulled harder and Graham shouted in pain. “It’s gonna pull my fucking leg off! I gotta do something!” But what could he do? The only free limb was his other leg; his arms were tied up with holding onto the root and he didn’t dare let go, even with just one. He grit his teeth and started kicking off the shoe of the captured leg. “If I can get the shoe off, the vine should slip off with my sock!”

The shoe was coming loose and the vine was slipping. Graham smiled, relief spreading through him. “Just a bit more, come on!” A second vine appeared! It tried to wrap around his free leg. “No! No, no, fuck no!” He flailed his leg so it wouldn’t be caught and pulled harder on the root he was holding. Finally, his foot came free and he scrambled away on hands and knees.

The vine reached out for him again but he found a rock and smashed it down, cutting the thrice-damned thing. There was a screech in the distance and the vines withdrew. Graham didn’t waste time and started running. “The fuck if I’m stayin’ around here!”

He hobbled through the woods in his one shoe, wincing when he stepped on rocks or gnarled roots. A babbling brook came into sight and Graham slowed down. He hunched over, hands on his knees to catch his breath. “Well, that was awful.” He went to the water and splashed his face. “What the hell was that thing?”

He’d nearly died and he hadn’t even seen what was trying to kill him. Was it some kind of plant? This place had killer plants, too?! He stared at his wavering reflection, his blue eyes bloodshot, blond hair mussed, and cheeks smeared with dirt. “Should I have stayed with the group? If there were someone else with me, they could cut the vine pretty quick.” He frowned, splashing more water on his face and scrubbing the dirt away. “Plus, they had weapons. Maybe I underestimated how useful they’d be?”

But it was already too late to do anything about that. He’d fled in some random direction from the vine thing and now he didn’t know where he was. He’d never find his way back. Well, maybe he could retrace his steps, but that would just take him back to the vine thing. No thanks.

“Ah, well. What’s done is done. I’ll just have to deal with it,” he thought, standing. He winced, pulling up his shoeless right foot. There were a few spots where the skin was punctured and bleeding slowly. “God damn it! I have to do something about a shoe, too!”

He sat down and started washing it off in the brook. After that was done, he found a long stick to lean on and limped upstream to look for something to throw together a new shoe. Hell, he’d be fine if it ended up even vaguely shoe-like.

He was in luck. Just minutes later, he found a tree with large leathery leaves. He grinned. “I can layer these up and strap them to my foot with some grass or something.” With his stick, he knocked down a dozen of the low-hanging leaves and fashioned his makeshift shoe.

Stamping the ground, he smiled. “This’ll work.”

Next course of action was to get to a hill. There was one on the other side of the brook, though he didn’t know if it was the same one he’d been heading to earlier or if it was a different one. It didn’t really matter to him; he just wanted to get a lay of the land.

He stared at the water, leaning on his stick. “I need to find a place to cross. Don’t want my new shoe to fall apart in the water.” Also, he wasn’t willing to wade in when there might be something like the vine monster living there. Drowning to death wasn’t high on his to-do list. It wasn’t on the list at all.

He continued walking upstream, looking for a fallen tree or some rocks he could hop across. He heard a rhythmic thumping in the distance and stopped, hunching down near a tree. “Alright, just stay calm. Whatever it is doesn’t know you’re here, Graham. Calm.” He took deep breaths, slow and silent, and worked to bring his beating heart back to its normal rate.

The sound was coming from further into the trees on the same side of the brook as him. That was bad, cause it limited his options in running away. If he could just get across the water, he’d be much safer, having it between him and whatever was out there. He peeked around the trunk, curious if he could see what had made the noise.

It was large with off-white spikes all over its back. It looked like an oversized bear, and bears were big enough to begin with! The spiny bear paused and sniffed at the air. Graham’s eyes widened and he pulled his head back out of its sight. “Holy shit, that thing could probably bite me in half!” he thought.

The thumping continued and it was getting closer. Sweat began to bead on Graham’s forehead. He shut his eyes tight as he heard its hoarse breaths. “I have to do something. I can’t stay here.” The only useful thing he had at the moment was his pepper spray. But there was no telling if he’d actually be able to hit its eyes before it killed him. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out anyway. If it really came down to a confrontation, he’d like to have the option at least.

His eyes flicked to the water. “Maybe I can sneak in and let the brook carry me away? Anything that’s in there can’t be worse than that thing.” He flattened himself against the ground, ensuring he was hidden by the tall grass and started crawling to the brook. He’d nearly made it to the edge when his arm landed on a stick. It snapped, making a small cracking sound. Graham tensed and held his breath. “Surely the water drowned out the sound?”

A second passed, then another. “Am I safe?” he thought. The bear roared. Graham shivered in fright and jumped up, launching himself into the Brook and wading across as fast as he could. The bear roared again, obviously noticing him, and began its chase.

Graham made it out of the brook and sprinted for the hill. “Bears have stubby legs, so they can’t run downhill. If I can get the bear up there, it won’t be able to follow me back down!” he thought. The bear splashed through the water, catching up quick. Graham glanced over his shoulder, blanched, and ran even faster, making sure to run through areas with dense trees. The bear was too big to fit and had to go around, giving Graham precious time to get ahead.

He reached the hill and began his climb. It was a relatively steep incline and slowed him down quite a bit. He’d made it up halfway, using the trees that grew on the hill to pull himself up faster, when the bear reached the foot of the hill. It roared horribly and began its own ascent. Graham could see little animals flitting away in fear of drawing the bear’s attention on themselves. “You bastards! You guys should be the ones getting chased!”

The bear was getting closer, so he started throwing rocks down as he climbed or purposely stepping on loose dirt too hard to send it tumbling down. Of course, this just made the bear angrier. Graham came to an incline too steep to scale; an overhang that jutted out above him by a couple meters. He’d have to go around. To the right, there was a path that looked like it might lead him to the top. The ground on the path was much more level, so he could go faster.

Looking down, the bear struggled with loose dirt crumbling beneath its weight. It roared furiously, fixing Graham with a glare that promised death. Seeing a chance to catch his breath, he stopped and leaned against a tree. “Hah! Can’t get up here, can you, fatass?!”

His foot hurt and his hands stung. The leaf shoe was in tatters and barely hanging on and his hands were covered in scrapes from roughly gripping bark. His muscles were starting to ache as well, and it was getting harder to catch his breath. He sighed. “This is way more intense than my evening runs. I really need to rest soon. And have some food.” The granola bar he’d eaten a few hours earlier wasn’t going to cut it.

The sound of wood cracking and leaves rustling brought him back to reality. Graham’s eyes widened as the bear began using the trees to pull itself up. Some of the trees couldn’t handle the burden and snapped or fell down, but it was starting to make progress and it had a hungry glimmer in its eyes.

Graham took off down the path, cursing himself for letting his guard down when he could’ve used that time to get further away. Just as he was rounding a bend, he caught the bear pulling itself up onto the path out of the corner of his eye. “Nononono! C’mon, where’s the way up!?”

He considered just going back down the hill now, instead of trying to make it to the top, but decided against it. “It’s too steep here. If it tries to follow me, it’ll probably end up rolling down on top of me! Not a good idea.”

He could easily picture the bear tumbling down the hill and landing on him spikes first. He’d be pierced by dozens at the same time and shredded to bits.

Further down the path, the ledge lowered until it was as tall as Graham. If he had more time, he’d be able to pull himself up here. A tree in front of him caught his eye. “It’s forked! I could probably use that as a stepping stone to get up on the ledge!” He laughed and sped toward it.

Before he reached it, something tremendously heavy slammed into his back, knocking him down. The fall knocked the wind out of him, his breath coming in gasps. He struggled to prop himself up on his elbows. A giant paw slammed down next to him, sinking into the soil, and he heard a low growl in his ear.

Graham froze, still facing the ground. The only thing he could think of was how afraid he was. The bear’s presence was palpable, hovering over him. It brought its snout down next to his shoulder and nudged him, rolling him over.

Graham stared into the face of the beast. Its sharp yellowed teeth, bloodshot eyes, the horrid breath, they all came together to paint a horrid picture of death. Tears welled in Graham’s eyes as he thought back on his life and how he’d wasted it. “Shit, why does it have to end here? I haven’t done anything with myself. The last time I had a girlfriend was in highschool and she dumped me. My parents wanted me to start my own business and even gave me starting capital, but somehow I fucked it up. Now I just get by selling items in video games and living in a shit apartment! It’s pathetic!” He choked out a sob. “I don’t want to die here. Not like this.”

The bear roared and reared back its head, maw opened wide, dripping saliva on Graham’s face. He flinched as a drop fell in his eye. It was then that Graham remembered the pepper spray. It was still in his hand. As fast as he could, he brought his hand up and sprayed the beast. Much of it went into its mouth, but a fine mist built up around its face and got in its eyes.

It howled and backed up, rubbing its face on the ground. Graham rolled out from under it and stepped on its head, intending to use it to scale the ledge. Surprisingly, the bear’s head shot up and launched Graham into the air, where he landed safely atop the ledge.

The bear flailed and its body pushed into the ledge, crushing through the dirt with its weight. One of the spikes got close enough and managed to scratch Graham’s thigh. He hissed through his teeth and used the rest of his stamina to roll away from the edge.

Dirt crumbled and rolled down the hill as the bear flailed again and fell off the path. Graham couldn’t see what was happening, but he heard trees breaking and falling to the ground. “Serves him right!” he thought. He smiled and began to giggle uncontrollably. “I really survived that,” he whispered to the ground. There was a loud crash and the bear howled. Graham laughed harder. After he regained his breath, he pushed himself up. “I’ve gotta see it. I wanna see the look of defeat on that bastard’s face!”

He took a step and winced, placing a hand over the cut on his thigh. “Damn, not even a day out here and I’m already in this state!” Regardless, he pressed on, carefully peering over the edge. The bear was on its back struggling. “Hahaha! Its spikes are stuck!”

He picked up a rock and tossed it at the helpless beast. “Hey, fuck you, bear! Why don’t you come get me, now?!” He tossed a few more—rocks and insults—before he became tired. “I really should…” He coughed and spit on the ground. “Should, uh, get some rest.”

Suddenly, an icy feeling ran down his spine. He looked down warily. The bear had managed to right itself and was acting strangely. It glared at him and the spikes on its back pointed forward. It lowered its front to the ground, like a lion about to pounce.

Graham paled. “No. No, it can’t do that! That’s just not—”

The spikes on the bear’s back launched upward like a wall of arrows. No matter how fast he ran, he wouldn’t be able to escape. Still, he tried. He ran, even as the spikes whistled down upon him. One struck him in the shoulder, another in the small of his back. The impacts pushed him the ground. He wheezed as the pain hit him and curled up into a ball. For a few seconds, thumps rang out in staccato and the ground was littered with sharp white stakes.

Graham opened his eyes and spit out the blood gathering in his mouth. His vision was blurry and it was hard to think. Ahead of him, a large tree stood, blue leaves and black bark. He reached out for it, his hand trembling. “If I’m gonna die… at least let it be under that tree. I’d be okay with that…”

His fingers dug into the dirt and pulled him forward. Despite the pain at every movement, every breath, he crawled forward. It was only a little further and he’d be in the shade. Perhaps his body would provide nutrients for that tree to keep living. Somehow that appealed to him. It was poetic, or something.

His fingers touched a black root. His eyes closed.