Chapter 4 - Ejected

Writhing in immense pain, I knew we only had one option and were quickly squandering it by lingering around.

( Sh-shit! )

Having thrown my avatar’s body face first onto the trash pile, I attempted to roll sideways to get us off of it. Our various bruises and broken innards all flashed in pain as they came into contact with the random jagged edges of trash that made up the pile.

“Ke-ugh”

My virtual body landed sideways after a short abrupt fall, stabbing the side my ribs with more dull and thick pieces of nameless garbage and forcing me to emit another painful wheeze.

( Come on… we can do it… it can’t be far now… )

Trying to exert control over my virtual body, I managed to get Usika to steady herself on one hand and slowly raise herself up while clutching the side we just fell on with the other hand.

“GROOOARGH!!!”

Hobbling as quickly as Usika’s body would allowed, we made our way closer to the scent of the ocean while avoiding the rattling earth and bellowing monster behind us. Moments later, the spot we were momentarily resting on erupted in a BOOM, and random pieces of garbage flew in every direction.

“ZOOMPH”

“WHAMF”

“PSHTNGG”

As I frantically hobbled away from the eruption site with my virtual body, a giant refrigerator landed a few feet in front of us. I suddenly stopped and while Usika’s body jerked to a painful halt.

“What - KEUGH - are you doing? We can’t - KEUGH - afford to be wasting time!”

Despite the constant pain and overwhelming exhaustion, Usika managed to hack out a warning. Still in shock over what could have unexpectedly been our demise, I hesitated in responding.

“Please. I don’t - KEUGH - want to die here.”

The sudden steel in Usika’s voice took took me by surprise. I quickly shook my head to refocus, and once again began shuffling my virtual body towards the ocean. Trying to ignore the pain stabbing into every surface of my virtual body, I thought of something to ask Usika.

( Usika, how do you think that monster is able to find us? I’m not really sure about the rules of this world yet, but it doesn’t seem like it has an exact read on where to find us, just a general idea… )

Usika’s body began breathing even more rapidly as we were reaching the limit of her endurance, as she shook her head in resignation.

“Not… sure… but we…- KEUGH - are different… from everything else in this area - KEUGH - maybe… “

Uttering short sentences between between her gasps for air and hacking coughs, I finished what I believed to be her sentiment.

(Do you think… it’s tracking us because we were disrupting whatever environment was here before us? )

Usika nodded as her fast limp began to slow down to a walking pace. At the same time, we felt the ground rumbling from behind us, and knew that we were running out of time.

But it didn’t matter, because we got to where I had hoped we would end up. The seemingly never ending hills of garbage finally seemed to break into a murky green but uniform stretch of land. Land wasn’t quite the right word, because we were at the-

“Ocean…”, Usika quietly muttered to herself.

As we collected our view from the top of the edge of the landfill, I synced my movements to my virtual body and slid from the top of our hill to the edge of the cliff. I then peered over the edge, and a slight smile formed in my mind.

( Alright, I have a plan, but it’s all or nothing, and the key element I needed just arrived now. )

Usika stayed silent as she awaited the unraveling of my plan.

( Alright, so here goes… We stand at the edge of the cliff and wait for the monster to arrive. It seems to attack on sight, so my plan is… we dodge out of the way at the last second with all the energy we have left, and the monster will overextend its attack and fall into the ocean. )

Stillness filled the air for what seemed like an eternity, until Usika finally processed what I said in full and replied curtly.

“…What?”

A few more moments drew by as the rumbling behind us grew louder and more fierce.

“What? Are you kidding me? This is your - KEUGH - entire plan? What if we weren’t on a cliff? What - KEUGH - what then, huh?”

To be fair, I hadn’t really had a plan from the get-go. There was too little information from the start, so I was just planning to adapt with whatever circumstances we ended up in.

( Listen… we didn’t have a lot of options to begin with, and I doubt we could’ve taken this monster head-on even if we weren’t injured. But sometimes immense strength can be the downfall of strong foes. I’m not sure if this is going to work, but you’re just going to have to trust me on this. Trust that the monster isn’t smart enough to see through this dumb plan, and trust that we are going to make it past this encounter. I have the upmost faith that you can make it through, but do you trust me? )

I surprised even myself with this bold declaration - I don’t think I have ever uttered so many claims in my whole life, much less at the same time.

Usika paused again, and in between her her flashes of pain, exhausted, and wheezes, shook her head in disbelief and resignation.

“Yeah… KEUGH - it looks like we never had had that many options anyway. Well, if this is the end, so be it…”

Usika then begin to control her virtual body to look at the sky at something distant, and said quietly under her breath,

“Sorry, Dad… it looks like I won’t be seeing you again like I promised.”

Just as Usika finished her sentiment, both our attentions quickly snapped to the top of the hill we came from as the final moment approached. The giant monster composed of junk had finally reached our location, and slowly turned its amorphous body toward us to confirm what it had been searching for.

“ROAAAAAAR”

The monster began shrieking to announce its entrance and and began raising both its giant arms into fists above its head. Without another second of delay, it began dropping its balled-up fists towards us for double ground slam, and I uttered one word to Usika.

( Now! )

With our intent synchronized, we kicked off the ground with the good foot we were favoring from the painful trek over here, and leapt with all our strength to the side. As the giant fists rapidly approached us, I began to wonder if this was really the right choice, if we had jumped too late, if we even had enough strength to get out of the way, when suddenly-

“CRASH”

The two giant fits slammed into the ground right next to us, and the monster was still standing at the top of the cliff.

(No! Damn it! )

In that same moment, something unexpected happened.

The ground next to us began to crack as the impact of the two giant fists began to dislodge the edge of the cliff.

The monster began to try and bring its fists back to its body, but it was too late. The section of the cliff that had been impacted by the glow quickly fell away, and the monster’s entire body began to tumble forward over the cliff. Usika and I watched in disbelief as the ocean devoured the monster below its surface.

The once rumbling air now sat completely still, until my virtual body began to sit upright and speak.

“We did it… we did it, Pablo. We won!”

A feeling of immense relief flowed over my body, and a small feeling of triumph began to well inside of me as well. I did it, I finally did something right in my life, I was finally able to help someone else…

“Tin-tin-tin-tin”

The afterglow of the victory only lasted for a moment, however, as some unearthly noise began to spawn above us. Looking at the hill above us where the monster originally was, what was once its lower half became to reform, and the junk monster appeared once again, albeit a quarter of its size.

“No way…”, Usika said aloud as we both look upwards in disbelief.

The monster then began create a giant balled fist, but only one as it wasn’t big enough to conjure both. Instead of sending the fist towards us, it slammed the edge of the hill it was standing on, and the piles of junk that were nearby began to dislodge and fall apart.

( Is this… really happening? )

It was a trash avalanche.

( Usika, we have to move, now! )

I tried to move my virtual body, but jumping out of the way of the first attack drained all the energy Usika had left, and a sharp pain rolled over my entire virtual body as we barely moved from the spot from landed in.

“I guess… this is far as we go, huh?”

These were the last words Usika was able to utter as the wave of trash finally slammed into us and sent us sailing over the cliff into murky green water below.

(( YOUR AVATAR IS IN CRITICAL DANGER ))

(( PLEASE STABILIZE YOUR AVATAR BEFORE LOSING CONNECTION ))

As mysterious messages flashed red across my vision, I found myself welling up with anger.

This can’t be it, this can’t be the end. We were so close to succeeding when all the odds were stacked against us.

For what felt like the first time in my life, I felt like I had been cheated by the system.

Something like this should never be allowed to happen, and something inside me began to rebel against the conclusion that awaited us.

As my frustration and defiance began to surge, something changed in my virtual body.

For just a brief second, a wave of green washed over my vision, and it felt like our descent slowed down just a tad.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep us from the inevitable, and Usika’s body crashed into the ocean’s surface as cold water as my vision sudden blackened.

(( YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR AVATAR ))