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Oddworld: Traveler’s Chronicle

Chapter 1; the unexpected journey

“Stupid teacher… I didn’t do anything… it was that other kid not me…” Grumbled the boy under his breath. Sitting in his desk by the window, his red shirt shown brightly in the dull room. According to him, his teacher didn’t notice that the other kid was making noise and he was wrongfully kept in during lunch. Angrily he kicked the empty air with his black shoe. He could’ve been playing outside with his friends, Kaitlin, Brett and Miles and Everyone else. But no. “ Larry you have to stay in for recess today nyah nyah nyahhh…” Said Larry in a mocking voice. He looked up at the clock and noticed that it was 12:20. Time to leave for lunch. Slam! Slam! Bang! Bang!
“Stupid 7th graders always slamming their lockers.” He said as he slowly gathered his things and headed for the door. When he got to the door though, something odd happened. Instead of him pulling the door open, the door seemed to open to him… with a very loud boom. He was sent flying to the corner of the class as the door landed only a few feet away from him. Startled and very confused, he looked up to see the figure that had blown the door off. The figure wasn’t very tall. It had metal legs and tentacles for a mouth. What the thing lacked in height, it made up with in ugliness and weaponry. The massive gun it was holding was almost half the size of itself.
“Hey! You, come with me!” the thing shouted in a very commanding and irritable voice. Larry hesitated for a moment, both out of shock and out of fear. The thing shouted again. “NOW!” Larry grabbed his yellow backpack, that was now missing a strap seeing as it had gotten ripped off of his arm, and walked out of the doorway. The thing jabbed him in the back with his gun to quicken the pace. He wanted to nail this *%$$#%@ into the ground but another thought made him choose other wise. Seeing the utter ruin and destruction that these things brought was enough to make anyone fear them. Doors lay on the ground, bricks were strewn all over the ceiling tile covered floor. All he could think about was what would happen to him. What would happen to the others in the school? Passing a destroyed classroom he saw what happened outside. Cars were overturned and houses were in two different places at once. Some of them were in three places. Another jab forced him to look forward. To look at a sort of ramp that led up into a large craft of some sort. Having no choice but to walk up it, seeing as he was at gunpoint, he walked into the single room that was in this section of the craft.
Looking back, he saw the door slam with only a small window to the outside. Lurch! The vehicle clumsily took off and sent Larry to the ground again. Regaining his balance he stood up to look through the window. It was awful. The whole town was destroyed. The aircraft slowly gained speed as it moved away from the wreckage that used to be the town of Eaton. Soon, the town was miles away with nothing to see but plains and burning farmhouses. What am I going to do? How am I going to get back? Larry thought about this and finally just gave up and sat down. As he sat down he noticed that the only light in this small room was coming from that window. Although that wasn’t much light, it was enough to see that he was not alone. As he looked around, he saw that some 6th graders were in there. He didn’t know them, but he knew enough to know that they were from his school. Also there were some 7th graders. No 8th graders other than him were in this room. It seemed as though they were grouping together by grade level. If only there were some 8th graders there, he might not have been so alone. Also he saw some things that looked human enough, but weren’t human at all. Their eyes were large and spread apart, and their skin was green. The only hair on them was the hair that was in a ponytail on top of their heads. All they wore was a loincloth. They had two fingers and one thumb, and only had three toes on each foot. Another interesting fact was that they had no nose. Larry wanted to know more about them but he did not want to be rude by walking up to them and saying “hey! You’re weird! Can I know more about you?” No, no that wouldn’t work at all. Instead he decided to keep to himself. Larry thought of all the things that would happen to him. Would he be shot? Or would he be kept as a pet for those squid looking things? The list ran on.
Slowly but surely, sleep crept up on him. Weird images of his family and of his wrecked town popped into play as he drifted off into a deep sleep. It seemed hours until finally… Thud!!! The ship’s landing was rocky to say the least. After this rude awakening, Larry stood up along with the other cellmates. The door opened and another of the squid-men poked his ugly head through. “Alright, all of you come with me!” He shouted. As Larry walked out of the room, he took in his surroundings. Smoke covered the sky. Huge gray pipes and buildings poked at the smoke and some of them were so tall as not to see the tops of them. As they walked out onto and across the platform they saw large signs that said “Fossil fuel, all natural fuel taken from only the best temples, shrines, and burial mounds for your wasting pleasure!” The signs each sported this motto as well as a picture of a can that had a huge toxic symbol on the side. What kind of twisted place is this? Larry thought as they were “guided” to a large barred door. After saying some things into a microphone, the green squid opened the doors with a control panel. As the door slowly opened itself, a dark mine started to come into view. The dark depths of the mine were very humid and smelled of dust and dirt. Far away, down in the mine, he heard clinking, like metal hitting hard rock. Again they were guided down into the dark tunnel. After passing several doors and work sites, they stopped. The little room they were in front of was smaller than the cabin that they rode in on. It only had two bunk beds and a broken toilet that was laying on its side with several bullet holes in it.
“This is where you will be staying for the rest of your time working here.” The thing said as he locked him and three of the green skinned people in the room.
“ Stupid slig, bossin’ us around.” One of them said. Larry turned around and saw one of the three making faces at the vacancy of where the slig once stood. Another looked towards Larry curiously and asked, “What are you? You can understand me, right?”
“Yeah, I can understand you, and I am a human. My name is Larry.” Replied Larry, feeling a little awkward saying this.
“Hey there Larry. We are mudokons and my name is Jack!”
“ I am Bob,”
“ I’m Joe.” Said the last one.
“ Ummm, where are we?” Larry asked.
“Well… I’m not sure but… I know that we are on Mudos.” Jack answered.
“Mudos?” Larry questioned.
“ Yeah! You know, the continent on our planet of Oddworld? Ummm… Larry?” Jack leaned over Larry hoping for a response, seeing as Larry just fainted due to the shock of being on another planet.

Chapter 2; Work!

Facts were rushing through Larry’s unconscious mind. Another planet!?! How am I going to get back now!?! What am I going to do?!? Although he had already asked himself these questions, they had a much different impact knowing that he was on another planet. Also, visions worked their way into his thoughts. Images of his family rushed by. They weren’t at home though. They seemed to be somewhere else. Somewhere near, but also so far away. Slowly, his mind regained consciousness.
“Ugghh…Whoa… am I alive?” Larry said, still not completely believing that he was, in fact, on a different planet.
“Well, if I told you that you weren’t, would you still be in the same room?” Answered Joe.
“No, I guess not. I’m just barely getting over being somewhere other than Earth.” Larry stated as he got up. Looking around him, Larry saw that there was another sign on the wall. This sign stated; all “personnel” report to work site after every hour. All violators will be beaten until it is clear that you will never violate this law again. Ever.
“What the…? Dude that’s unfair.” Bob said after noticing the same sign.
“Ummm… we got here about an hour ago right? So, shouldn’t we be getting to this work site?” Joe asked.
“ Yeah but the door’s locked so…” Jack began as he tried to open the door. But shortly after saying that, the door opened on it’s own.
“ I guess that means that we have to leave.” Larry inferred.
Very large signs pointed the way to the work site and the four quickly saw what they were supposed to do. Right after a pickaxe was “handed” to them they headed down to an empty spot and started picking away at the rock. All chunks of rock were to be thrown into the cart behind them. After the cart was filled, they needed to pull a lever to send the cart somewhere else to be dumped. They figured this out shortly after a third beating. Larry’s clothes were ripped and tattered after the day’s work. He would just switch to a different pair of clothes, but all he had was his backpack. But then he remembered that he had some thread and cloth from his old sewing class. After a while he had his clothes fixed (somewhat) and they felt stronger than they ever were. (Somewhat). Also it seemed that since it was after about midnight, they had an extra hour or two. This hour was filled with questions, answers and jokes. It seemed that the four were all getting along. As soon as the door unlocked again, they all knew more about each other and themselves. In addition to knowing more about each other, they also knew more about work ethic. If you don’t work when a slig is around, they will beat you until you do. Amazing what you can learn after being beaten with a rifle. Again they went back to their room and talked more. After 15 minutes, they fell asleep for a while out of exhaustion. After hearing the click of the door unlocking, they woke up. This went on for a couple of days…Until Larry had worked out the kinks in his plan.

Chapter 3; escape

“Alright, they’re gone. Let’s go.” Larry whispered to the three mudokons. After the nearby slig watch guard had left, they all hopped into the cart. He then pulled the lever and they were off. The cool damp air rushed by their tired faces as the cart sped away. Noticing that the cart would be dumped near the exit, Larry had timed it so that the cart would go there instead of somewhere else. Looking around them as their cart sped away, they saw the sad look of all of the slaves that had been there much longer than they had. No one noticed them because the silence of the cart, but that didn’t stop the looks from being as piercing. Many of the slaves that went by looked like they would fall over from exhaustion. The four wanted to stop to help them but wanted even more their own freedom. If they all escaped at the same time, who knows what could’ve happened. Now leaving the work area, there weren’t as many slaves around. Soon they were in reach of the door.
“Okay… the cart should stop now… wait what’s going on…?” The cart didn’t stop. As Larry said this, the cart sped away from their destination. All of the sudden, there was a faint light. The light got brighter and brighter. A sudden stop made the four realize that they were outside… and flying… then falling. Over the buildings and slig barracks they soared. They even flew over the electric fence, the one that was keeping them all inside. The barrier that separated the free from the slaves.
“AAAH!!!!!!!!!” They screamed and finally landed in a tree. The three mudokons were all right, but the same could not be said for Larry. Thud, smack, whack, slip, Conk! After this series of unfortunate landings, he hit the ground… On his face. Motionless he lay. Until a response from what seemed like a mudokon with a huge bird mask appeared. He told Larry that his family was not on his home planet of earth, but they were here on Oddworld. They too were separated from each other. They would only be able to be freed with help. Although unconscious again, Larry understood him and what he needed to do. Larry then got up and walked over to where the big face once stood. There was mud all over, but no footprints. Now he had even more questions that needed answered.
“So they are here. But where?” Larry asked himself. Jack, Bob and Joe soon climbed down from their posts.
“Are you all right? That fall should have killed you, but you don’t have a scratch!” Joe remarked. Should have killed me? Larry thought. Looking up, he noticed that at least 15 branches had a mark of Larry’s skull on them, and there was at least four feet between each branch. He was right. That fall should have killed him, but it didn’t.
“ Hey, did you see where that big face went?” Larry asked.
“Big face? What big face? You were down here by yourself. There was no one else down here.” Bob replied. Okay, now this is just creepy, Larry thought.
“Well, anyways, let’s get find somewhere to stay.” Larry suggested. And so they did. For hours they walked through the dense forest that had once broke their fall. Darkness flowed around them as they trudged forward. Only once had they walked into a clearing. Resting to get their strength back, Larry noticed something odd. The moon. It had a mudokon handprint on it. They thought that they were just tired, but they saw another moon. Larry put his hand up and was amazed. The moon’s face… it had an almost exact image of his outstretched hand! But no. They regarded this with no interest thinking again that is was exhaustion.
They kept walking forward. Onward their spirits pushed until finally one of the four fell. Then another one fell, and another. Larry looked back noticing the absence of footsteps hitting the soft ground and saw the three laying there. Ugghh… no… can’t…fall… thud. Larry hit the ground as well. Can’t give up… Larry uttered these final words as exhaustion and darkness took a hold of him. Larry could have sworn that he saw someone behind the trees… watching them. But that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he get his strength back…and his family.

Chapter 4; Destiny plays an odd hand

Larry had finally woken up. Not completely, seeing as he hadn’t moved or opened his eyes, but he was awake. Oi, what a night. I have got to stop falling asleep like that. Next time that happens I’m going to end up in a hut somewhere with people staring at me and poking me with sticks. Larry was thinking that to himself as he was slowly waking up. Wait, I am in a hut, he noticed with a blink. Another glance told him that people were staring at him. Well it wasn’t people. It was one person, and that one person wasn’t poking him with a stick. He jolted upright and ran out of the hut. Where am I now? He pondered. He was no longer in the woods, but out in an open plain with patches of trees and little mushroom things sticking out of the ground. Looking behind him he soon remembered that there was that person in the hut with him. This person had walked out of the hut when Larry raced outside in shock. And this person was a mudokon. The odd thing about him though was that he was a more bluish color than the others. Also he had tattoos all over. There was one large one on his chest, and two smaller ones on the backs of his hands. These tattoos were odd in themselves seeing as they weren’t made by ordinary tattoo making equipment. They almost looked branded onto him.
“What’s the rush about?” the mudokon asked.
“Well, these weird things have been happening to me, and so when I didn’t know where I was… yeah, I was a little freaked out. By the way, have you seen three other mudokons around here? They were with me when I fainted.”
“Them?” He replied, pointing to three other small huts, “We brought them here when we saw you out in the woods.”
“We…? As in, there were others with you?”
“Yeah. A couple of my buddies helped lug you over here. They aren’t here now ‘cause they live somewhere else, but…” The mudokon replied.
“Are they alright? I mean they just kinda fainted too and uhhh…” Larry asked.
“Of course they are okay.”
“Well that’s a relief. Hey, ummm, what’s your name?”
“My name is Abe.” Abe replied once more. (It seems that there’s a lot of Q and A goin’ on so far…)
“Nice to meet you Abe, my name is Larry.”
“Ummm, Larry? What were ya doin’ out in the woods like that? It’s dangerous at night. There are Scrabs and Paramites everywhere!”
“Well………” Larry started to explain his experiences over the past few days and about seven minutes later he was done. “And then I woke up and viola! I’m here.”
“Wow, that’s amazing.” Abe said.
“Now that we are in the middle of a Q and A session, what’s up with those tattoos on you? Are they all the rage here or…?” Larry asked.
“Not really, these tattoos are more than that. Well let me start off by saying that I was employee of the year once at rupture farms. They say it’s the biggest meat processing plant on Oddworld. Well actually I was a slave, just like the others…” And so Abe started his story on his life story. I would tell more about his story, but to do that I would need to start another three or four chapters, and quite frankly I don’t want to. Well the jist of it was that he escaped and the big face came to visit him and then he got the tattoos on his hands and went back to destroy rupture farms after saving the mudokons that were enslaved there. After he got back he fell on his head during a celebration and three mudokon ghosts came to visit him and they told him that glukkons were using mudokon bones to make brew and that upset the ghosts very much. So after rescuing mudokon slaves and blind mudokon workers, he got the tattoo on his chest and went back to destroy Soul storm brewery (the miners and manufacturers of the mudokon bones, tears and brew). Also, he rescued his unborn brothers (they were in eggs and being sold to people as slaves.) and saved the entire race of gabbits (a frog looking species with one leg and a large cranium and large eyes.) with the help of Munch, the sole surviving gabbit until now. In doing so they blew up Vykkers’ lab, a sick mad science research facility that tested their usually harmful products and experiments on fuzzles and other helpless animals so they could sell their products to paying customers. (Fuzzles by the way are a kind of Oddworld inhabitant that has been once described as a furry, rabid, chicken nugget.) Abe was done explaining all of this in about one or two hours to a speechless Larry who was now sitting in amazement. (He is sitting because nobody wants to be standing for one or two hours do they?)
“…And that’s about it.” Abe finished.
“……About it? What you have done is amazing!” Larry said. “Who else could’ve done that? I mean really, that is just flat out cool. You saved…” Larry paused for a moment. Although Abe had done some pretty amazing stuff, Larry had his own quest to finish.
“What’s up? You look worried all of the sudden.” Inquired Abe.
“I almost forgot my whole reason for walking through the woods! I need to leave as soon as I can and…and… find my family.” Larry stated. “ I’m sorry that I can’t stay and talk to you for much longer but…”
“Well that’s okay… ‘Cause I’m comin’ with you!” Abe said.
“Thanks but… No, I feel that I need to do this by myself.”
“And you will be doing it by yourself, just with a little help is all.”
“ I guess a little help wouldn’t hurt. Now all we need to do is find where they are at. Do you have any clues or hints?”
“We could start at the mines you were at.” Abe suggested.
“Yeah, that’s a good start.” Larry said. They had a long journey ahead of them. They knew this though, and understood that there was no turning back.

Chapter 5; Things get Stranger…

All of that day they gathered supplies. If they were going to rescue anybody, they would need provisions. One of the items included little green mushroom looking objects called spooce. These things were a kind of mudokon currency. Sometimes though, when they couldn’t find anymore spooce around, Larry would see Abe do a kind of simple chant to make them regrow. This wasn’t too strange, he thought. With everything else going on, anything could happen. It seemed like nothing could distract him from his job, his duty…His destiny. The sun was going down and they had enough spooce collected to serve an army…
“What do you do with these anyway?” Larry wondered.
Abe shrugged and said, “Well we use them for many things like opening gates and transforming other mudokons into mudarchers and tomahawkers. There’s lots of other stuff too, but I can’t remember the rest of them.”
“Wow. Alright, I guess these things are important.” Remarked Larry. Although he knew how important they were, how would you open doors with them or transform people? Oh well, I’ll find out later, He thought. The sun was setting on the Oddworld horizon leaving a darkening red sky. Slowly it turned to a blue, then a violet, then finally a black. All of the stars were out on that clear night, even the three moons. Were there really three moons? Or was that just part of his imagination? All the same, Larry looked up at the clean night sky and thought about how clear it was compared to the area around the mines. The soft ground around him was almost like a bed, tempting him to go to sleep. He wanted to, but he couldn’t. Everything that had made an impact on him was thrown back at Larry. Everything related to his destiny were being looked at in Larry’s mental window to the world. He was drawn to this planet for more than just his family, but what else could he possibly be capable of doing? It’s not like he has the ability to grow plants back like Abe. Or have the ability to shock anything at will with a device on his head, like Munch. All he had was himself, no special powers or abnormal skills. Larry was simply just there. The idea of it all was so odd. Still, the gentle breeze was calming and the grass was warm, stilling his thoughts. He did not worry anymore. All of his cares were so far away, although they were right there too. Larry knew he had things to do, but they weren’t important all of the sudden. It was almost as if he wasn’t even there. He felt so still, as if he were in a state of paralysis. A voice sounded from inside him. Listen… listen to the world around you…feel the vibrations of the ground…now shut your eyes… shut your eyes… and see…And he did all of these without hesitation. He listened to the world around him, it was shouting almost. The world itself was in pain. He felt the vibrations of the ground, the natural rumble… the mechanical stomps of industry… The soul of Oddworld. And finally, he shut his eyes. At first he didn’t see anything but the backs of his eyelids. Soon though he started to see colors… the colors soon made a shape… the shape started to form a figure… this figure was Abe. Abe looked as though he was carrying something very heavy, although he wasn’t carrying anything at all. He looked sad, but at the same time content, and somewhat happy although he was carrying the weight of a world on him. Soon though the image of Abe faded and a new one formed. This one though was harder to see at first, but after a while it became clearer. This image was of a boy. A boy that looked lost, everywhere the boy turned there was nothing familiar. The weird thing was though, that he was standing on a sign. Actually the sign pointed to three directions. One of the ways pointed to a forest that had lush plants and abundant wildlife. Everything there was so happy, almost perfect. Another path was a dark path that had many dead trees. No animal dared to come close to this area. Many roses were on this path though. Roses of all shapes and sizes. These roses weren’t limited to red and white either, they had multiple colors on each of them. And then there was the third path. This path was a confusing path. Fog covered the road and dense trees made it especially difficult to see where the road went.
“The road of false light…the road of tainted treasure…or the road of uncertain ending. Which shall be your destiny?” The voice said. Larry saw that the boy was a version of him, and he was to choose his path. He took a step toward the lush landscape and saw the road ahead of him start to grow. his instinct told him to follow the road, wherever it may wind to, to catch the light that he so desperately desired to have. But his heart told him not to. He backed up and the road got closer to him. He took another step back and the road seemed only a yard before he was at the end. Larry turned around to the darker part of the forest and saw everything remained the same as it did when he first saw it. he took a step closer. This road did not move. He took another step. It still did not move. One of the roses caught his attention. It seemed to have winked at him. Larry bent closer to the rose.
“What road are you going to take?” The flower asked.
“Well… I’m not sure.” Larry responded.
“If you pick me up, I will tell you which road is safest. I can tell you which road will be the best.” The flower said.
“Okay…” Larry moved his hand closer to the rose to pick it and all of the sudden something behind him started to talk to him.
“Don’t pick that rose.” It seemed to him that a gnarled dead rose bush was starting to speak.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Larry questioned.
“Oh, don’t mind her, she’s just jealous.” The rose abruptly said.
“If you pick her, you will not make it farther than this.” The bush said.
Slowly, the rose vines moved out of the way of the path. An outline of a man was lying there. Although the man himself was not there, his shadow was. Larry inferenced that the man had indeed listened to the rose and had fallen from his path. His sympathy went out to this poor soul who had lost everything…to a lying rose. he stood up immediately only to find that the rose was trying to pull him onto the path. Dark vines pulled at his ankles, and no matter how hard he fought, he could not break free. Suddenly, he fell backwards. Larry stood up as fast as he could so the rose wouldn’t take him. All he saw though were trees when he stood up. Trees were where the path once stood. He turned to see that the road to the light forest was blocked too.
“I guess that the rose really did point me to the right direction after all.” Larry told himself.
There he stood, staring at he last path that lay in front of him. He slowly took a step closer to the fog-covered path. Another followed, and then another, and another. All of the fog surrounded him as he walked. Soon he couldn’t see anything. He started to stumble. After nearly falling several times he saw something. A light was in front of him. He walked toward this light. His heart told him that it was all right. Soon the light completely covered him and the path.
“So… you choose the path of uncertain ending… it seems that your path leads to light…you were wondering whether you had an ability or not… you’ve always had abilities… they’ve just been…locked away…not capable of awakening… until now…open your eyes…” And the voice became silent. Larry thought that his eyes were always open, but he did as he was told anyway and saw himself staring out on the hill he was on earlier. He was still even staring at the stars. He sat up and looked down. Abe’s little hut was still there in the middle of this broad outstretching of land. He stood up and thought to himself as he walked down to the hut where Abe was sleeping. I know my ability now……… I can see…

Chapter 6; I’m no doctor, but…

The next day was about the same as the previous one. Abe and Larry both collected other things with the occasional spooce shrub. Once, Larry noticed Abe was chanting again. He didn’t see a place for a spooce shrub to be, so it must have been something else. Just a little ways ahead, he saw a creature. It had a red colored body and a tan underbelly. It had no arms or eyes but it had four legs that resembled a spider’s. He thought that he had heard Abe call it a Scrab once. He looked back at Abe and saw blue spark-like things float around him. The blue sparks started to float around the Scrab too. The Scrab Suddenly had a funny look on its face and ran off.
“ Hey Abe? How’d you do that?… Abe?” Abe did not respond to his question
“Abe?” Larry asked again, only to be ignored.
“……What? Did you ask me something?” Abe said.
“Ummm… yeah. How did you make that Scrab run off?”
“Oh, yeah, that. I took control of it. I made it run off so it wouldn’t attack us.” Abe explained.
“But how did you do that?”
“It’s hard to tell someone who doesn’t know how.”
“Do you think that you could try?”
“Alright… Well, you start out by doing this.” Abe said as he put his hands together like he was praying.
“Then you start thinking about what you want to do. After that you start to chant, you can’t forget what you want to do though or else everything just doesn’t work.” Abe then started to do the chant.
“You should try. You look like you could do it.” Abe suggested.
“Okay…” So Larry put his hands together and thought of something simple to do. He saw the spooce shrub next to them only a few feet away and started to chant. After a while, he decided to open his eyes to see if he did anything. Now instead of one spooce shrub there was two of them and they were both a bluish color.
“Wow! I never saw anything like that before!” Abe remarked.
“ I didn’t think that that would happen! Why do you think they did that?”
“ I’m not sure, but it seems like the kind of magic or whatever inside you is not like the usual kind you see in other things… or something like that. I’m no genius or anything. Well anyways, that was awesome!”
“Heh, heh…. thanks!”
“Hey… what happened to your eye?” Abe asked.
“What do you mean what happened?” Larry said.
“ Well, it looks like there is a tattoo on your eye, but that doesn’t really explain it.” Abe responded.
“Let me see it. Is there any water around?”
Abe pointed to a stream about ten yards away from them. Larry saw it and ran over to the water. Sure enough, there was a kind of tattoo on his eye. It looked like a lightning bolt went through his pupil and went down the opposite side of the iris.
“Wow, that’s odd. What did happen last night? Is this tattoo like the ones Abe has?” Larry said to himself. “They might be…” Larry trailed off.
“See? That is weird. So what happened?” Abe said as he walked over to Larry
“It might have something to do with the dream I had the other night. Well I was sitting on that hill over there and all of the sudden…” Larry explained the night before and all of the weird things that happened. This time, Abe sat in amazement as Larry concluded.
“Wow, that’s funky! Why do you think that it happened?” Abe asked.
“I really don’t know, but the sooner we can get going to save my family, the better.”

Chapter 7; I wouldn’t call it a shortcut.

The next day got off to a good start. Abe and Larry left for the mines at sunrise. The other three mudokons headed to the Monsaic lines. (This ancient temple is used by free mudokons to find themselves spiritually and get connected with nature.) Abe and Larry were lost a couple of times on the way through the woods. It didn’t seem like too much of a problem, but later on they discovered a tree stump that somewhat familiar to the last one they had come across.
“Ugh. We’ve been here before!” Larry shouted.
“Yeah, I think we have. That tree stump looks awful familiar.” Abe said.
“Let’s try going that way this time.” Larry suggested as he pointed to a clearing in the woods.
“Okay, I guess we could give it a try.” Abe responded. In a while, they were at another clearing.
“At least we aren’t going in circles like we were earlier. Hey, do you hear that?” Larry asked.
“Hear what?”
“Sshhh… It’s a low humming noise. It’s coming from over there.” Quickly they hurried over to where the noise was coming from. The noise got louder and louder until finally…
“It sounds like someone is cutting trees down!” Larry had to shout over all of the noise around him. It looked like Abe said something but he couldn’t hear him. Abe then grabbed Larry by the shoulders and turned him around.
“Oh! I didn’t see that!” Larry exclaimed again. There was a huge building surrounded by a graveyard of tree stumps. Huge pipes belched smoke out into the clear blue sky. A huge saw was sticking out of the middle of this giant factory for decoration. The huge building must have been at least 15 stories tall. From the sign on the front of the building, Larry had inferenced that the building’s name was Splinterz.
“Let’s check it out!” Abe shouted, “I shut down a plant like this once! I had no idea that there was another one like it!”
So they started to walk over to the factory. Mudokons were all over, cutting trees and loading them onto large platforms that took them into the factory. All of them were wearing bright orange uniforms that resembled prison outfits. There weren’t any slig guards around though. Larry and Abe walked up to a mudokon worker and asked what he was doing.
The mudokon slowly and hesitantly replied, “I’m, I’m, cutting w-wood for our boss, Mr. Planker. Well he’s not r-really our boss, m-more like our m-master.” The mudokon worker looked at something behind Larry and Abe and then turned around quickly. They turned behind them to see a large orb floating in the air. It had one large red lens on the front of it that made it look like a camera of some sort. The lens seemed to be focused on Larry at the moment. Abe whispered over to Larry and said,
“ Run… just run over to the door over there. Hurry!” With that they both dashed for the enormous gates that wood was being piled into. The orb was not chasing after them but staring at them with its lens.
“What was that?” Larry asked.
“It is a security probe. It finds things that shouldn’t belong there and alerts the guards. And if you try to chant, they shock you.” Abe stated
“Ouch.” Larry replied. “Now what do we do?”
“Well… we have to free these guys from this place and shut it down so it won’t destroy all of the trees here.” Abe said.
“Yeah, at the rate this thing is going it could munch up the entire forest in a couple of weeks.” So they slowly made their way into the sawdust filled factory of Splinterz.

Chapter 8; Splinterz workshop

It was incredible. The inside of the factory was much larger than the outside would lead you to believe. Abe and Larry quickly hurried to a ladder nearby and scuffled up it. From the point that they were, they could see much of the factory. Mudokon slaves were everywhere… And so were the security probes. With so many of them around, this makes it real hard to do anything! Larry thought to himself. The two slowly looked over the area for some way to help the slaves. Bingo! There was a slig guard. Normally this would be a bad thing, but the guard had a gun with him. They could use that to destroy the security probes.
“Abe, wait here. I've got an idea.” Larry whispered to Abe. He started to sneak over to the slig. He didn’t notice him yet. Just to be sure, he threw one of his shoes over to the opposite side of where the slig was standing.
“Huh? What was that?” The guard said as he slowly walked over to where the shoe had fell. Whack! He hit the slig as hard as he could in the back of the neck. It was enough to knock the slig to the ground but apparently not enough to knock him out.
“What the…?” The slig groaned as he slowly got up. Larry then picked up the gun that the slig had dropped and…Whack! …Whack! … Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!
“I think that will do.” He whispered to himself. Larry motioned to Abe to come over. Walking past the unconscious slig guard, they turned the corner just to come face to face with a security probe. Larry pulled the trigger and ratatatatatat! The gun shot red lasers and made the probe blow up.
“Geez this thing is powerful!” Larry whispered excitedly, “ What can I shoot next!”
“Don’t get carried away. That gun makes an awful lot of noise!” Abe said. Larry lowered the gun, a little ashamed of his behavior. They continued along the upper level until they came to another ladder. They climbed down the ladder and slowly made their way to a pile of wood. Looking over the pile they saw a probe, just a few yards away.
“May I?” Larry asked.
“Sure.”
“Alright!” Larry exclaimed as he aimed the gun at the machine. Ratatat! And the probe blew up. Another probe noticed the explosion. It quickly scanned over the wreckage. He pulled the trigger again, and another probe fell. Four other probes rushed over, this time though, they saw him behind the wood. One of the probes sent out a bolt of electricity and shocked him.
“OW!” He shouted as he fell backwards. He struggled to get back up. “Okay! That’s it! You are all goin’ down!” He jumped over the pile of wood and landed right in-between the four. He then pulled the trigger and shot all four of them, creating quite an explosion. Pretty soon all kinds of probe were coming at them.
“Abe! Find all of the slaves and get them out of here! This could get pretty nasty if any of them got cot in the crossfire!” Larry told Abe. Abe nodded in agreement and ran off. Larry started to fire at the on-coming probes. One down. Two down… Four down… eight down. Soon though, there was too many to handle. He turned around and ran. He could almost feel the probes getting closer. If they could breath, they would have been breathing down his back. There it was. That could definitely help. Three gigantic saws were slicing wood that was coming on a conveyer belt. Larry hopped up onto the moving belt and began to fire at the axel that held the saws on the machine. probes were all over the place now. One side of the axel broke down. Now all that was left was the other one. Ratatatatatatat! Boom the other side broke off. Larry dove off the belt as the wheel went flying through over thirty probes. The saws veered off and crashed into a wall.
“Oh yeah! That helped out a lot!” Larry exclaimed as he took down the remaining probes with ease.
“ I’d better find Abe now,” he stated as he ran through the graveyard of probes that now lay on the ground. Larry didn’t see any mudokon slaves anywhere so he expected that Abe got out of the factory okay. “Huh?” Larry stopped and looked up at where he knocked out the slig guard. He could have sworn that he saw him get up and run off. Oh well. At least everyone’s okay. Larry made his way out of the gate that he and Abe had gone through earlier.
“Hey Abe! I’m glad to see that you’re okay!” Larry shouted as he walked over to Abe. Abe was standing over by what looked like a circle of birds. “Whatcha doin’ Abe?”
“I was savin’ all of the others. I chant when I stand next to one of these circles and people can run through ‘em to a safer spot.”
“Cool. Alright so where are the mines from here?” Larry asked.
“Well… uhhh… I dunno.” Abe replied. “We might get there faster if we use that though.”
“Use what… Oh! That!”

Chapter 9; this is much easier

A motorcycle looking vehicle sat about fifty yards away. It had two smaller front wheels and two large wheels that rested on the back of it. It seemed that, conveniently, there was two seats. One of the seats faced forward and the other sat backward. Larry hopped into the front to see how the thing worked.
“This seems pretty simple… These two levers here seem to operate the turning, this one to ignite the engines. They do like simplicity, don’t they?” He stated.
“You know, I don’t feel to good about driving that thing. Do you want to? I mean if you don’t that’s fine but…” Abe said.
“Do I want to? OH yeah! Of course I do!” Larry excitingly stated as he turned the bike on. “Better hop in! Unless of course you would like to walk all the way there.”
Abe quickly hopped into the back of the motorcycle. All of the sudden, Larry’s vision zoomed out to a different place entirely. He could see about four or five heavily armored and gunned versions of his buggy moving in their direction very fast. Larry’s vision warped back to what was in front of him. “Hold on tight! We have to make some tracks, and fast!”
Larry turned the motorcycle on and raced forward through the forest. No sooner had they passed a few trees than they heard another set of engines. Avoiding trees, they sped up. One of the other cycles had pulled up beside them. A slig reared its ugly head out of the cockpit and began to fire at them. Narrowly dodging the bullets, they made a sharp turn around what appeared to be a redwood. The slig was still on their tail.
“Hey Abe! Steer for me!” Larry said as they switched seats. The slig was about seven feet away from them when… “Hiya!” Larry jumped from his seat and landed on the front of the slig’s motorcycle. Larry pulled the surprised slig out of his seat and threw him to the ground as he took his place. “Abe! Just keep driving forward!” Larry was answered by a nod as they sped ahead. Hearts pounding, they tried to escape their followers. Another slig appeared about one hundred and twenty yards ahead of them. Wielding a large chainsaw, the slig started to cut a large tree very quickly.
“Timber!” The slig mockingly shouted. The huge oak tree fell to the ground at tremendous speeds. Boom! Luckily, the tree just barely missed Abe and Larry. Roaring towards the slig, Abe swung his foot out and kicked him. He went flying out of his pants and skidded to a halt on the grass covered forest floor. The two continued through the dense forest. Larry looked behind him to see if there were any more of them. Sure enough, two more sligs were gaining on them.
“Oh S*%&!” Larry exclaimed as he saw an equally dangerous threat ahead of them. A steep hill loomed just ahead of them. It was too late to stop, so they braced themselves for one bumpy ride. They skidded down the dusty hill and regained their traction at the bottom. An open field lay before them as the race continued. What should I do know? Larry thought. He then had an idea. Larry briefly let go of the wheel and started to chant. Come on! Work! A bright flash of light made him open his eyes. A blast of lightning that had appeared out of nowhere had electrocuted the sligs on both sides of him. Abe skidded to a halt as well as a “shocked” Larry.
“Whoa! I’ve never seen that happen before! That was awesome!” Abe exclaimed.
“That was pretty cool! I didn’t think that I could do that! Whoa!” Larry said as he fell over off of his bike.
“Are ya’ alright?” Abe asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. That just took a lot out of me.” He said. Slowly he hopped back onto the motorcycle. “We should keep going. It’s almost dusk and we are way off track. Hey Abe? Does any of this look familiar?”
“Well… now that you mention it… this place kinda does! Isn’t this where we started?” And so after a hard day’s work of obtaining nothing except for a few motorcycles, they turned around and headed for the hut.

Chapter 10; Being part of the circus isn’t all it’s made out to be…

After going through a long day, the two decided to rest for the night. It made more sense to try and find their way the next day. Larry was plain exhausted from the events of the day and fell asleep almost immediately. The next morning got off to a good start. The sun was bright; there was hardly a cloud in the sky. They hopped onto their new motorcycles and rode off through the forest. This time they did not turn or stop for anything… except for something very peculiar. They saw many mudokons and humans being loaded up onto a big circus train looking thing. Both Larry and Abe stopped to see what was going on… at a reasonable distance that is. Once all of the people were loaded up onto the train, it took off.
“Come on, we have to follow it Larry!” Abe urged.
“Right, no time to loose!” Larry replied as they revved up their engines. Vroom! And they took off. The train was much too fast for them though. They were able to keep up with it, but not much else. The closest they ever got to the train was eighty-five yards. The train headed through the forest and out onto a desert looking area with little to no life. At sun down, the train slowed down and entered huge solid metal gates. Abe and Larry were forced to stop at the gates due to it being shut when they got there.
“Hey, over here!” Larry exclaimed as he pointed to a ladder that hung from the top of these huge gates. They quickly climbed up the ladder and saw what was on the other side of the gates. It was a carnival… but no ordinary or pleasant carnival, as they would soon find out…
“Wow… a carnival on Oddworld. I’ve seen about everything…” Larry said silently. Slowly they climbed down the other side of the wall and crept over to where the train had just recently stopped. Steam poured out of the smoke stacks on top of it. The sounds of opening cargo doors filled the otherwise silent station. Sure enough, sligs hopped out of the train first, followed by some Mudokons, and then…
Larry gasped. There were his classmates. Miles solemnly walked out of the train as well as his other friends Brett, Richard, Josh, David, Kaitlin, Travis, Kian and many others. They all seemed to be okay… that is if you were to take away all of the bruises and scrapes that they had gotten from the ride over here. They didn’t look as if this was their first stop either. They must have been to other sites as well. This brutality must be stopped at all costs… he had to free them…they had to be…
Abe tapped Larry on the shoulder. “Come on!” He said. It seemed that an overlooking slig had seen them. Slowly he had aimed his rifle at them. Ratatatatatat!!! They had just barely dodged the bullets that had been fired. Abe and Larry sprinted to the carnival site. The slig still fired on at them. A couple of bullets had grazed Larry’s right leg. He fell in shock and pain. “Come on!” Abe shouted from just a little ways ahead.
“Auugh…” Larry stood up and began to limp towards the nearest stand. He fell over the wooden fence in front of it. Looking at his wound, he noticed that they were not very deep, but were bleeding badly. Not knowing what to do, he ripped off one of his shirtsleeves and wrapped it around his leg and tied it. The red sleeve turned a crimson color, although the leg stopped bleeding soon. “Well that sucks. At least I will be able to tell people that I have a gun shot scar…” Larry whispered to himself. He clumsily stood up and looked over to where Abe had hid.
“Larry… Are you okay?” Abe asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. How are you?”
“Good I suppose.”
Larry leaned over the fence and tried to see where the others were. He spotted some of them, but could not see them clear enough to tell what they were doing. The silhouette of them moved off behind more tents and disappeared.
“Abe, I recognized those people. They are my friends. I have to help them!” Larry said.
“Well okay then, let’s go ‘n save ‘em then!” Abe replied. Larry walked over to the stand that Abe was hiding in and climbed on top of it.
“I’m goin’ this way. You can follow me if you want, but you don’t have to.” Larry said. A sharp pain in his right leg made him wince in pain.
“I’ll go with ya’, just not on top of those things.” Abe said, as he noticed the pain that coursed through Larry’s leg. Larry nodded and jumped off onto the roof of the next stand and from there he leaped to the next one and so on. Every time he hit the roof of one of the stands, a wave of pain engulfed his leg. Abe kept up, just on the outside of the stands. Larry leapt from one of the roofs and saw the group of mudokons and humans just one or two leaps away from him… when he landed on the roof, the pain in his leg caused him to slip, and fall off of the stand. Larry let out a cry of pain when he hit the ground.
“Augh!” Abe rushed over nearly out of breath.
“Larry…are you…alright…?” He said.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Help me over that fence… I think the sligs are coming… they must’ve heard me…” Abe hoisted Larry up over the fence and hid beside him. About three sligs ran around the corner just as they had gotten over the fence. Luckily, they didn’t see them.
“Here’s my chance…” Larry whispered. He put his hands together and began to chant. I need one of those sligs… I have to take control… I have to take…” Larry opened his eyes to see if it worked.
“Hey!” One of the sligs saw him. He rushed over to him. “Did you hear somethin’?” The slig asked him. Surprised that the slig didn’t shoot him on sight he answered,
“Nope, don’t see anything…” Whoa! Larry thought. My voice sounds so much different. Larry looked down. He was standing in mechanical pants! Finally, he looked at his hands. They were an ugly green color. But more importantly, he had a gun… It had worked. Larry looked over to where he should be and saw his own leg… the one with the sleeve around it. All of the sudden a slig walked over and said,
“Hey look over there! I think I see something!” The slig walked slowly over to where Larry was looking. The slig readied his gun and…Ratatatatatat!!!
Larry stood motionless. He didn’t know what to do. His body acted on it’s own. And now, a dead slig lay in front of him. When he saw the slig moving over and aiming at Abe and himself, the body he was controlling shot the other slig. Thankfully, Abe was safe.
“Hey what did you do?” The other slig shouted. Larry’s body aimed and shot at the slig and he fell to the ground as well. Oh no! What have I done! He thought. He began to release the control over the slig. Boom! Larry returned to his own body. He stood up and looked behind him at where the slig was… nothing but a pile of ashes lay where the possessed slig once stood.
“I didn’t mean to do that!” He shouted, as he looked over at the other two. “I didn’t mean to kill them!”
“Yeah, but they would’ve killed us if ya’ hadn’t!” Abe said to comfort Larry.
“Yeah but… it is still wrong…” Larry said.
“Well, come on Larry, we got to save your buddies!” Larry nodded and hopped slowly over the fence. He limped around the corner to see the faces of his friends. All of them were at different stands, all preparing for the “carnival.” He saw the signs of many of the attractions and winced. “Peg ball, now with spikes!” or “Gun emporium, always live targets!”
“This is just wrong…” Larry said as he walked up to one of his friends. “Hey! Get to work!!” Larry said, mimicking a slig’s voice.
“Okay!!! Just don’t hurt me!!!” Richard said as he shielded his head. He then turned around and realized that it was Larry.
“Hey! Don’t scare me like that! You better get to work or the squid guy’ll have your head!” Richard said in a trembling voice as he scratched his long, unruly hair.
“Don’t worry! I’m here to rescue you! The slig’s are gone.” Larry said in an awkwardly triumphant voice.
“Really? Are ya’ sure?” Richard asked.
“Tch…Yeah!” Larry said.
“Dude, we need to get all of the others!” Richard said.
“Yeah, you go get that side and I’ll get this side.”
They both split up and started to tell people to follow them. Abe and Larry on one side and Richard on the other. Many were uncertain about what was going to happen, but the three reassured them that is was safe. Using one of the bird rings, Abe sent all of the students to safety… all of them except Kaitlin, Miles and Brett.
Larry checked all of the rows and columns of the Carnival, but they were nowhere to be seen.
“Where are they? I saw them arrive here!” Larry shouted. He was so glad that they were still alive though, that he couldn’t have been upset for more than a few minutes. “We need to find them…”
Abe Interrupted Larry, “Well, what if we followed those tracks?” Abe pointed to the railroad tracks that the train arrived on.
“Yeah. That’s a good idea! Thanks Abe…” Larry gratefully said. They opened the main gates to the carnival and got back onto their motorcycles.

Chapter 11; Aye, the desert be a cruel mistress…

The cool night air felt good on their faces, while riding on this clear night, Larry looked up at the sky. There was no third moon out tonight. If there was, it was hiding behind the clouds. His sight drifted back to the desert plains and the only clue to where Larry’s family and friends were. The tracks seemed to go straight for miles and miles. It seemed like eternity before the tracks would ever turn, and when they did, they straightened them selves out again. The sun began to rise. Soon it was morning, and Abe and Larry were tired and thirsty. At about 9:00 our time, the desert sun was baking the two.
“Abe, how much longer do you think these bikes are going to take us? … Abe?” Larry turned around on his bike and saw Abe as he fell off of his bike. “Abe!!!” He sharply turned around and stopped where Abe lay. He knelt close to Abe and said, “Abe, speak to me! Are you alright?”
“We need to…get to some… water… quickly…” Abe mumbled. Soon he was completely unconscious. Larry picked Abe up and carried him to his motorcycle. He sat Abe down. After setting him on the bike, Larry sat in front of him.
“Abe…Abe, hold onto me as tightly as you can… don’t let go…” Larry said, hoping that Abe was still somewhat conscious. Surprisingly, Abe held onto Larry, with a good grip too. He started the engine and they were off. He gripped Abe’s hands that were around his waist with one hand, and steered the motorcycle with the other. Every few minutes, he looked back to see if Abe was still all right. He hardly called being unconscious all right, but he could still be worse. Soon, he saw the outline of some mountains on the horizon. There has to be water there… Larry thought to himself. He headed for the mountains. But soon the Railroad tracks turned off into a different direction. Caught between two choices, he decided to make it into the mountains. As the motorcycle raced forward, the tracks fell behind. Soon the tracks were nearly invisible. The desert heat fell upon them, draining all energy into staying awake. The thirst Larry felt was like none other. The only moisture of any kind was in those mountains. He drove on for hours when… Sput, sput, sputter… The motorcycle ran out of gas. Larry hopped off of the bike and hoisted Abe’s arm over his shoulder. Larry began to walk slowly across the desert, His thirst growing with every step. The sun made the desert an oven, and Larry and Abe were the one’s baking. The mountains were getting closer and closer. Soon, they were at the foot of them. A passage led up into the mountain range, and Larry trekked through it. Onward he walked, nearly tripping on loose rocks every now and then. After about an hour or so, the passage opened into a lush green valley. And at the bottom of the valley was a river. Larry cautiously walked down the slope to the riverbank, and laid Abe down next to it. He then washed his hands off in the water. The cool water eased his hands and rubbed away all of the sores that ached them. Larry scooped up some water and poured it over Abe’s unconscious face. His eye’s started to twitch, and finally they opened.
“Abe! You’re alright!” Larry exclaimed as Abe sat up.
“Where are we?” He groggily asked.
“We are in the mountains somewhere. I brought you here after you fainted.”
“… Well, at least we are out of the desert.” Abe replied.
“Yeah…” Larry said as he plunged his face into the water. It felt so nice. To feel the caressing flow of the river on his tired face. After drinking their fill, they laid down to get some much-needed sleep.
It was nighttime when Larry had awakened. He looked around to get a better look at the calm valley that they currently found shelter in. Steep ridges surrounded the valley, as if to protect it. The walls must have been at least three or four hundred yards from each other, and the river was about one hundred and fifty yards wide on average. There was tall grass all over the banks of the river. There were very few trees in the area if any.. And where there wasn’t grass or trees growing, you could see footprints of the natives that roam these parts. Out in the distance of this outstretching valley, Larry could have sworn that he saw a trailer house. It must have been very far away though, because he could hardly make it out. He then shifted his attention to the cliffs. From where he was, it looked like a small mudokon silhouette was watching him. This figure had a much larger head than a mudokon though, and its body structure was not that of a mud’s.
“Hey, you! Who are you?” Larry shouted across the river. The figure responded;
“Uhhh… ummm, there is nobody here! Do not look over here, because there is nobody here!” The figure shouted back.
“Well, then who am I talking to?” Larry asked. The figure seemed to hesitate on talking, and then he ran off.
“Hey! Wait! Get back here!” He shouted as he ran along the bank, pursuing this spy. He ran until the walls closed around the river. At the closing, there was a natural dam that stopped the river from flooding the area below. Larry, curious as to why the spy was, indeed spying on him, carefully walked across the logs and sticks that held the dam together. Snap! One of the sticks that he was standing on broke. Larry just barely held onto another branch with one hand. Struggling to get up, he noticed that he had lost track of the spy. On both hands and knees, he slowly inched across to the bank. He gave up the chase. The spy must have been some ways away by now. He trudged slowly back to where he had been asleep. Abe was just where he had left him.
“Well, you didn’t do much while I was gone did ya’? Wait…” There was a small dart in the side of Abe’s neck. It was no smaller than a very short pencil. He pulled out the dart and realized that it was identical to the one he had stuck in his neck. Uh-oh…

Chapter 12; The Mongo River

The chatter of people around him awakened Larry. Slowly he gained consciousness and stood up. He hit his head on the roof of the small hut. No one else was inside the hut other than him. They must be waiting outside of the hut, he thought. He slowly pulled away the small flaps that acted as a door and sure enough, there were people outside that were watching him. The rather small people had aimed spears at Larry. Instinctively, he put up his hands as if to say that he was not going to resist arrest. Slowly a more decorated person stepped forward from the little group of little people.
“Dude, what are you doing here in our territory man?” The person said.
“Well, sir. I was walking here to get my friend some water…” Larry responded.
“Sir? Dude, I am a woman! In fact, I am the chieftain of the Grubbs here!” The Grubb leader explained.
“…I am so sorry sir, I mean ma’am, it’s just that you all look alike, well you don’t but, you do and I didn’t know if you were a guy or a girl and uhhh… this isn’t helping me at all, is it?”
“Not really. But that’s alright ‘cause all of the newcomers always think that I am a guy.”
“By the way, where is my friend? The one that was there on the river with me…” Larry asked.
“Oh, the dude with stitches in his lips? Yeah, he’s over there.” The chieftain pointed over to another small hut. Larry walked over to the hut and peered inside. Abe was still asleep. (Knocked out more like it.) Larry crawled over to where Abe was and began to wake him up.
“…*Abe*…*Abe*…” Abe still wouldn’t wake up.
“Abe, wake up… Come on Abe…” Still, Abe lay motionless.
“Abe!!! WAKE UP!” Larry shouted. Almost immediately, He woke up.
“Hey, what was that for?” Abe groggily asked.
“You wouldn’t wake up. Now come on Abe we have to get up and get moving.”
“Well… alright, but… where are we?”
“You know? That is a good question…” Larry stepped back outside and walked over to where the chieftain stood. “Erm… Do you know where we are?” He asked her.
“Well, you are in the Grubb village of the Mongo River. There is a clacker town just south of here, and one just north of here.” She replied.
Larry thanked the chieftain and told Abe the news. “We are on the Mongo River? I heard that there were outlaws around here, and not the nice ones either.” Abe said as they walked out of the hut.
“I’m sure that we could take on any outlaws that tried to hurt us. I mean really, why would they want to start trouble with people like us?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Abe said doubtfully. One of the Grubbs had run over in front of where the two were walking.
“Hey, dudes, the chieftain wants you to take one of these boats so that you can travel better. She also says that she wishes you luck on your, like, journey or whatever.”
Surprised that the chieftain knew that they were on a quest, Larry said, “How does she know about that?”
“She said that you sleep talk too much.” The Grubb replied.
“…………” Larry was speechless. Somewhat. “Well, thanks for the boat. Where is it again?” The Grubb pointed one of his froglike fingers over at the river. “Thanks.” He replied. The boat that he pointed at was a very ornate canoe. It almost looked like a Viking’s boat except for the lack of shields on the side. The two of them slowly climbed into the boat. Larry grabbed one of the oars that were lying in the bottom of the boat and Abe grabbed the other. Larry kicked off shore and they were off down the Mongo River.
It took a while for the two of them to get steering down, but when they did, it was a wonderful ride down the lush valley. The river was very calm and hardly ever curved, so it was very easy to steer. At first you would think that a valley like this wouldn’t have much life in it, if any. But taking a closer look, you could see that the valley was teeming with it. There were fuzzles hopping everywhere, hoping to catch a meal. There were humongous bees flying around an equally large nest. Also, there were little chipunks taunting them as they went by. It was smooth sailing down the river. Sometimes, Larry would be sidetracked by the serenity of what surrounded him. The peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by the shouts of people.
“Oh no! The outlaw got free!” A chicken looking person said.
“Many more of the chicken people ran by.
“What do you think they are doing?” Larry asked.
“I dunno.” Abe replied. All of the sudden, a large man ran forward, waving a huge shotgun in the air. The outlaw had a big mouth, and a voice to match.
“Stupid Clackers! I’m gonna get ya’ for lockin’ me up!” He boomed. The outlaw aimed his gun and pulled the trigger. BOOM! A huge chunk of land was ripped apart only about five feet from one of the running Clackers. The outlaw noticed that he had missed the clacker, and his attention shifted to the boat that Larry and Abe were sailing. He aimed the gun then at the boat.
“JUMP!” Larry shouted. Right as their feet left the boat, the boat was ripped in half by the shot. They had landed in the water only about 10 feet from shore. Tumbling under the current, Larry opened his eyes and saw Abe who was also struggling with the water. He swam upwards to help his buddy. Grabbing Abe’s arm, he stroked towards shore. He only barely got to shore when he was he was taken farther down stream by a sudden wave in the river. Abe grabbed a hold of the bank while Larry was swept away.
“Larry!” Abe shouted. Out of nowhere another much larger hand reached down and grabbed Abe’s arm. The outlaw yanked Abe out of the water and flung him down onto the dirt.
“Give me your Moolah, or I’ll blow yer head off!” He shouted.
“B-b-but I don’t have any!” Abe stuttered.
“Don’t lie to me, boy!” The outlaw shouted again.
“But I don’t!” Abe said. The outlaw raised his gun aimed, and BOOM! Abe didn’t feel bullets hit him. He slowly opened his eyes (He shut them when the outlaw aimed at him…) to see Larry wrestling on the ground with the outlaw. Larry hit him in the face a couple of times, but then the outlaw retaliated with an uppercut. He was sent flying to the ground. They both stood up and squared off. Larry charged at him. The outlaw swung with his left only to miss him completely. Larry had slid and tripped the outlaw. He had then stood up, and ran towards the gun that lay on the ground, but the outlaw tripped him and grabbed a hold of his foot. He struggled to get free, but the outlaw had too good of a grip on him. He tried kicking him in the face, but that didn’t have any effect either. Larry looked over to see if he could grab the gun from where he was but….
Abe aimed the gun at the outlaw. Larry slowly pulled his foot away from the outlaw and stood up.
“Now me and my pal are going to leave, and we don’t want you to follow us. Got it?” Abe said. The outlaw nodded very quickly and the two backed up very slowly when they couldn’t see the guy, they turned around and walked in the direction of where all of the Clackers ran from. A town was only about half an hour from where their boat blew up. They walked into the town, noticing that almost all of the houses’ doors had been blown off, or mangled. The only one that wasn’t was the bounty store.
“Let’s go in there and see if they know where the Mines are.” Larry suggested. Inside of the store, there was a Clacker standing behind the counter. “Umm… Excuse me, but do you know where we can find The Fossil Fuel Mines?” Larry asked.
“Yeah, I think I know where that is. I think that it’s jus’ over them hills over there. Then you go a little ways that way and don’t turn this way, ‘cause it’ll lead ya’ over here and you don’t wanna go over there ‘cause thems is the Paramite caves…” The Clacker explained in great detail the path that they needed to take with various “Don’t go here”-s and “walk on this path”-s and many, many, hand gestures.
“… Okay. I think I gotcha. Thanks for the directions!” Abe said, as they walked out of the store.
Larry and Abe trekked the hills leading out of the valley for maybe an hour or two. After leaving the hills, they were in a forest. They turned right at a very large oak, and made a left at a clearing in the woods. Larry looked up at one point and saw that the clearing was the one that they had stopped at when they had escaped from the mines. He knew that this was the right way. It had to be. He ran on ahead, leaving Abe behind. This is the right way! I’m almost there! He thought to himself. He ran on and on… until a large, metal, gate blocked the path.
“This is it. I’m finally here.” I said to myself, as I looked behind me to see Abe racing forward, almost out of breath.
“Larry, don’t do that! I almost lost you there!” Abe said to me.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that it’s right here.” I told him. My family… my friends… were just beyond this gate…

To Be Continued…

Yes, I know that I used the name Larry too much, but I don't have the time to go through and edit it right now...

Tell me what you think!