Sligs Oddysee 2nd Edition, Chapter 2
Chapter 2, end needs some work. Enjoy.
Chapter 2: Shock
-5 minutes after the activation of Well 23425A-
-The Slig Hall (still under construction)-
Echoed screams reverberated from the open mouth of well 23425B, which had recently been activated at the opposite end, end A that is. The screams grew louder and louder as each second past, and often changed in pitch as the one producing the noise was swung round corners, in pitch black, at breakneck speed.
There was a sound like a huge underwater bubble bursting as it reached the surface, and Eba hurtled straight down out of the tube and landed on the floor with a loud crunching sound. He was too disorientated to notice he hadn’t landed softly, and simply got up in a daze.
His vision was blurred, and he couldn’t stay still, but he did notice one thing;
This room was almost identical his.
The walls were the same rusted cream coloured metal plates, the door was opposite him, big, rusty, and armoured. But the ground, the ground was different.
It was solid metal, not a grating. It was then Eba realised he had been shot down from above, rather than fired up from below. No wonder the throbbing pain that he suddenly felt was so bad. He had been fired from a pipe, at high speeds, into a solid iron floor. He rubbed his arm gingerly, and then began to crawl forward slowly.
Being in another place was an entirely new experience for Eba, and he was cautious even though he knew he was in a Cartel facility. Little did he know, he would be seeing a lot of new places very soon.
He jumped in fright as the Well lid behind him swung shut with a creak and a clang. He turned around to look at the well properly, and saw he had been fired downwards almost vertically. He felt slightly more afraid now that his first experiences of a new place, and of real pain, had come at a time when instead of receiving special treatment as he had anticipated, he had been almost killed and left alone in another cell.
He paused in his confusion, and then decided to call for help.
“Hello?” he yelled, his voice wavering a little. “Is anyone there?” he stopped for breath. “I think I’m locked in…I mighta got…turned around in that tube somewhere…” as he was giving up, he heard another creaking sound, this time from the direction of the door.
The Cell door gave a hissing sound, and jets of steam shot from its sides. Instead of opening outwards on hinges, it simply slid upwards into the frame. ‘Perhaps’ thought Eba ‘this is not the same as my cell after all’
As the steam cleared a figure came into view. It seemed to have a small body, several arms and legs, and a very big head.
‘Perhaps they are feeding me to some creature!’ was one of the many ridiculous thoughts that flashed into Eba’s mind, but he stayed still nonetheless.
The figure waved an arm, dispersing the haze of steam, and stepped forward into full view.
It indeed was a small-bodied creature, purple in colour, with four stumpy little legs and four spindly clawed arms. It was a little fat around the belly, and had an enormously tall head. Its beady green eyes stared coldly at Eba though green tinted spectacles and it grinned around its sagging cheeks, revealing a row of crooked yellow teeth.
“My dear boy, there’s no need to shout” it murmured, in an accent so unlike a Sligs that Eba was taken aback. “I’m so sorry about the landing” it said again, in its drawling manner which inherently made it seem astoundingly wealthy “There was supposed to be a soft receptacle to facilitate your arrival. I shall have a word with the slaves…” Eba had no idea what it had just said, and continued to stare blankly. “Dear dear, the fear in your eyes…” observed the creature, pulling down some kind of device made of multiple circular visors from its forehead, and staring hard at Eba. “Ah good. Not too much damage done” it smiled again.
“Who…?” Eba began to stammer, but the creature interrupted him.
“I am Doctor Rapidement Mort, I am a Vykker, and I specialise in Genetic Manipulation. But more about that later.”
A bit of light was shed on the situation by this statement. A Vykker was another word for Dok-Tur, or so Door Guard’s explanations suggested.
“Ah, you’re a Dok-Tur…”
“No nonono, a Doctor. A doctor, say it with me now: Doc-tour”
“Dok-Tour…” repeated Eba somewhat clumsily.
“Very good my lad, we’ll have you speaking properly in no time”
Eba took a short moment to look at what this ‘Dr Mort’ was wearing.
He had, wrapped around his waist, a sort of apron, black in colour, and a very dark grey surgical gown over his torso. Slung over his shoulders was a black cloak, and on his head were his green-tinted spectacles and his large optical instrument, strapped to his forehead with another black strap.
‘He likes black’ Eba concluded.
Eba had been taught some colours by door guard attempting to explain from outside. The walls were cream, the lights were kind of white, the floor was brown, his fingernails were black, the Well lid was grey, his pre-trip jelly was purple, and his skin was yellow-green. Apparently, his eyes were red as well, but obviously he couldn’t see them.
“Explanations, and proper pronunciation, will have to wait till later. Come with me, and we’ll rally the troops and so on.” He turned and scuttled out of the room. Eba saw no other option than to follow him.
The door led to a long corridor, with large grey double doors at the opposite end. The corridor itself though was very different. Although it had the same rusty cream-plate walls, and a dark brown metal floor, it was decorated in a very elegant way. A long red carpet stretched from one end to the other, and large portrait paintings of Vykkers and Glukkons hung from the walls, accompanied with white marble busts underneath.
“So this is what outside-my-room looks like…” gawped Eba, amazed.
“Not quite” replied the Vykker “We merely recreated your previous accommodation at this end of the Well, so that you would grow accustomed to your new surroundings at a faster rate, so you would feel psychologically secure” Eba stared straight ahead, in silence, thinking that the Doctors accent fit in very well with these surroundings. Seeing that Eba didn’t understand, Dr Mort tried to explain another way. “ We made a copy of your room, to make you feel more at home. Understand?” he said, in a calmingly patient way. Eba nodded quickly.
“Don’t say much, do you?” Eba shook his head, and Doctor Mort laughed. Eba didn’t know what to say, so decided to remain quiet until asked a direct question.
“I have been told you have been given a proper name by 3354336DG? Soon to become 034ATF1?”
‘Was that a question? I dunno…’ Eba continued to stare blankly.
“Your door guard? He gave you a name?” repeated the Doctor, smiling.
“Ohh, you mean Eba. My name is Eba.” He paused for a moment, and then realised he had forgotten something very important. ”…Sir!” He barked, and attempted to salute. Taking the weight off both of his hands caused him to fall flat on his face and Dr Mort’s smile spread into yet another laugh.
“There’s no need for those formalities here, Eba.” He sighed, and wiped one of his eyes “I can see it is going to be very entertaining raising you. Come along now, the new recruits wish to meet you…”
Eba got up off the ground, and resumed crawling alongside the doctor. For a fat stumpy legged purple thing, he was incredibly fast.
Eba panted as they reached the double doors, and resolved to make himself more athletic, so he could keep up in future.
“Here we go…” muttered doctor Mort, pulling a bronze lever with a green handle. The doors, like the cell door, slid. But these ones slid sideways instead of up, and emitted no steam as they did so. A flood of bright light poured through, and it took Eba’s eyes a few second to adjust, but when they did he was amazed beyond words.
The door lead onto a metal balcony, which was lit somewhat too much, but beyond the balcony was a vast underground cavern. The cavern roof was many metres above them, and the ground seemed many miles below. The rest of the cavern was lit by flaming torches, dotted all around the walls, stuck in nooks and crannies, and being held by what Eba found the most amazing thing there.
On the ground, staring up, crammed into the cave from every possible point were thousands upon thousands of crawling Sligs. The were all milling around, shouting, and talking to each other, and looked to Eba like a writhing mass of yellow, a wriggling sea of his brothers.
As Dr Mort and Eba stepped out onto the balcony, and into the light, a humungous roaring cheer broke out among the Sligs. It was, in fact, so loud that Eba was almost deafened by their indistinguishable screams. Doctor Mort gently led Eba forward, closer to the edge, and then slowly raised his hands to indicate he required silence. On the edge of the balcony were rows of microphones, and Magog On the March cameras stared at him from all angles that did not block him from the crowd. Dr Mort cleared his throat quietly.
“SLIGS OF THE NEW GENERATION!” He boomed into the microphone, taking Eba completely off guard to such an extent that he had to clutch his chest and catch his breath.
“YOU ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY, NOT ONLY TO BE TRAINED AS THE NEW PROTECTERS OF THE MAGOG CARTEL…” He paused again dramatically and the crowd burst into throngs of ear splitting jubilation again.
“…BUT ALSO, TO TRAIN ALONGSIDE OUR NEW, NOW FULLY MATURED, SUPER SOLDIER!” The crowd became even louder, and Eba began to feel a little bit dizzy, but tried to concentrate on Dr Mort’s seemingly important news.
“HE HAS BEEN KEPT OUT OF CIRCULATION FOR MANY YEARS, SO THAT HE MAY FULLY GROW. THEREFORE HE IS MUCH OLDER THAN ANY OF YOU HERE TODAY…”
‘Heh’ though Eba, swaying slightly now ‘Too bad for him…’
“BUT HE DOES NOT APPEAR LIKE ANY BIG BRO. OH NO. NOR LIKE ANY OTHER SPECIAL SLIG AMONG YOU…” Dr Mort paused for breath, and the crowd cheered even louder. He seemed to know how to work a crowd very well.
“HE HAS A DIFFERENCE WHICH YOU WILL ALL RECOGNIZE IMMEDIATELY. HIS SPECIAL DNA HAS CAUSED HIS SKIN TO BE…” There was a gasp of silence, and Dr Mort held up Eba’s arm for all to see.
“…A STRONG GREEN COLOUR!” The crowd screamed and applauded and Eba teetered as Dr Mort let go of his arm. His arm…why had the doctor held up his arm? His mind pulsed with dizziness again.
His eyes wandered lazily to one of the cameras too his left, and he waved stupidly. He looked directly into the lens, and was mildly confused to see two bright yellow eyes staring back at him.
He looked down at the crowd again, which was slightly blurred, and saw the yellow sprinkled with red, waving down below. He looked back into the camera, then down at the crowd, then into the camera, then down at the crowd, then at his arm. The words ‘A strong green colour’ echoed in his head.
‘This doesn’t make any sense…’ he thought, and giggled to himself ‘I’m green, like the super soldier guy man…’ He was beginning to sway quite violent now, everything spinning around him ‘He was kept in a cell…just like me’ he laughed again. ‘And he…’ His drunken thoughts cut short as the disorientation left him for a split second, and a feeling like a block of ice had been put in his stomach formed. The dizziness returned.
‘Oh.’ He thought. ‘Shit.’ His head span, everything became blurred, and the sound of the crowd became a loud piercing screech.
Eba clutched his head as he collapsed. Everything, for the third time that day, went completely black.
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