Chapter 4: This Aint Kansas Anymore! (Sorry but I was waiting for three chapters to say it)
Mary:
I woke to the sound of a sharp ringing in my ears, the kind that only happens when your ear drums are blown to bits like Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games. Man, that's a great movie. There was a faint smell of something that was similar to pine trees. Or was it Maple? I couldn't really focus since I was sure my head was literally spinning and I didn't want to open my eyes.
A gentle nudging touched the side of my stomach making me flinch. Mom was trying to wake me up I was sure of it. I wanted to move onto my side and tell her that I was taking a sick day but I couldn't move my body. It was like it wasn't working. I tried my voice, and only a sharp pain came from it, making me cough.
Then all of a sudden the nerves in my body started to work again. It felt like the pins and needles you get from falling asleep on your hand except from my whole body, well everything below my neck. I wonder what position of sleep I was in, in order for that to happen.
The gentle nudging came again, but this time, just a tad rougher. My fingers started to twitch and I slowly moved onto my other side. Mom I'm trying to sleep! Cut it out!
"Hey, your Mary right? Oh I hope you're not dead! I don't know what I would do if you were dead! Please wake up!" A voice next to me said. It sounded like a very young boy's voice, maybe a five year old?
A shock came through me. What was a five year old doing in my bedroom? I knew mom was trying for another kid but she doesn't work that fast! I shot my eyes open to see I wasn't in my bedroom at all.
I was in something similar to a forest, with trees that smelled different than normal ones, and looked different as well. They seemed to have large palm tree like leaves, but with a smooth grey trunk. And others around them were similar but with vines hanging around through the branches.
The ground felt hard and cold, and there were small bushes and flowers growing all over the place. Definitely a forest of some kind.
Slowly I sat up and looked for the little boy who had nudged me. I saw staring at me was not a little boy, not even a boy at all but some sort of white animal.
It looked like a white dog with a short stubby tail. It had large brown eyes and a big black round nose and four short stubby legs. It was about the size of a cat, maybe a big cat. The dog like thing stared at me as I stared back at it, then suddenly it smiled and spoke,
"Oh good your alive! Thank the Digital Heavens!" it said with the same childlike boy voice. At this point, I thought I was so dumbfounded and astonished I did the most basic, cheesy thing that probably anyone would say.
"You're a talking dog?" I said. The dog looked offended and prideful as he stuck his chin up and stated,
"I am not a Dogmon! Those stupid digimon don't even know their face from their tail! Not to mention how many dirty tricks they do." I stared blankly at the dog.
"Digimon?" I asked. That seemed to do the trick because right when I said it, the dog brightened up again and smiled at me.
"That's what I am! Digimon. Digital Monsters!" He said. Digimon? Was that like Pokémon? They were like pocket monsters so maybe they're like the same thing or whatever. I don't know anything anymore. I don't even know where I am!
I could tell the shock wore off because I started to panic. I was alone, in a forest, with a talking dog. No wait Digimon. My breathing got quicker as I stared again at the forest around me. All I could see was more forest. Okay I know what to do since I watched Lost seasons one and two, (because I lost interest later on don't judge) Find water and food. The digimon seemed to know I was upset because he said,
"Hey it's alright Mary. Everything is going to be fine. We just need to find the others."
"How do you know my name?!" I said, staring in shock. "And wait, what do you mean others? There are more people trapped in this forest? And where exactly is this forest?" My mind raced back to the other names that were read on my phone in the egg app thing that was on my phone. Wait a minute. My phone!
I stood up quickly and searched around for where my phone could be, even in my pockets, but found nothing.
"What are you looking for?" said the digimon.
"My phone. Do you know where it is?" I asked. He looked confused.
"What's a phone?" He asked. I was about to tell him when I saw my phone lying in between a root of a tree and was hidden from sight unless you looked directly at it. It didn't even have a crack. Oh thank goodness.
As I touched my phone, it started buzzing like crazy and started to heat up again like before. It was like it was in a microwave or something. It burned my hands and I let it fall to the ground. There goes my no crack record…
Except it didn't fall to the ground, it floated about two inches above the ground. It started to glow with a bright white and yellow light and it looked like it was melting. It formed into something that was bigger and thicker. The strange object started to float upward and I, not wondering if it would burn me at all because I'm just that reckless, grasped it and the light stopped.
I looked at the strange object. It kind of looked like a mixture between a watch and a DS. It was shaped like a thick watch and when you pushed the top forward, a keyboard came out underneath, almost like a sliding flip phone. It was a blue like I had seen before on the egg that was on my phone. Rest in peace my loyal friend. There were strange tiny symbols throughout the top but the strangest was the giant symbol in the middle. It looked like an upside down Think Pink sign but it had a dot above it. What the heck does that mean? Don't support breast cancer treatment? Looking back at the keyboard, all the keys were English thank goodness, but there were six other symbols on it, including the upside down breast cancer symbol on my device. The other five symbols were completely foreign to me. There was an hourglass, a lightning bolt, the letter S with an infinity sign through it, three swirls that connected at the middle, and something that looked like a question mark without the dot at the bottom, and a circle under the curve. What the heck did they mean?
"Hey let me see! I wanna see!" said the digimon. Rolling my eyes while slightly smiling, I leaned down and showed him. His floppy ears wiggled as he tried to see.
"Oh I know what that is! It's a Digivice!" he said while his stubby round tail wiggled back and forth. I would have laughed but I was too confused on what a Digivice was at all.
"You seem to know a lot. So what does it do?" I asked. Then the digimon's cheeks (I'm assuming their cheeks…) turned red as a tomato.
"Uh… I don't know. I just know that it's a Digivice. Same type of thing as how I know your name is Mary. And how we have to find the others." He said. Others. My name being Mary. How did he know these things?
Something beeped on my digivice. It was a white dot on the black screen. Whoa was it even on? Then something white popped on my screen. It was a chat message. It read:
Hello? Is anyone else out there?
My heart raced. Others. The digimon mentioned others. That white dot just proved it. I quickly typed a reply saying:
Mary: Who are you? Are you one of the others?
I pressed the enter button but then something popped up on my screen saying:
Must turn on radar in order to contact others
I was confused and then I looked over the digivice to see if it had a button that would say: Turn On Here! I saw a switch on the side and the label said radar and I silently congratulated myself for figuring something out within this whole mess. I switched the radar on and immediately a blue dot the same color as my digivice appeared on screen. The sad part was that it was nowhere near the white dot. But I typed my message again and this time it sent to the chat. Almost immediately I got a reply.
Hannah: Others? Yes I think so! Which 1 R U? I'm Hannah.
Mary: Mary. U C my blue dot? Meet me half way.
I was about to talk to the digimon when another ping made me look at the screen again. It was a red dot and it was even farther than I was from this Hannah. A message appeared in the chat making me realize it must be something like a group chat or text, or whatever. All this stuff was so complicated.
Tyson: Hey! I'm one of the others too! It's Tyson!
Mary: Okay cool let's all meet somewhere in the middle of us. Another dot turned on in equal distance to me. It was a turquoise green dot and another message came from the chat.
Maddie: Hey I'm Maddie! Do U guys know if U can download apps on this thing? I wanna get Pinterest again since my phone turned into this weird watch thing. Hmmm… so I wasn't the only one who thought it was a watch. Another ping. This time Light Purple.
Bryan: Bryan. Wait. Why is mine purple? That's stupid. Can't I change this in my settings or something?
Hannah: Not that I know of. Another ping. This was the sixth, and since there were only six names on the app that were listed I was pretty sure this was the last one. The dot was Light Gray.
Jaxson: Jaxson here. I'll meet you guys too. It looks like were all in a circle so far, lets head 4 the middle of the circle then.
Mary: K I looked at the digimon who was staring curiously at me but so far hadn't said anything.
"Hey whatever your name is, I need to go now so I guess maybe I'll see you again?" I said in an awkward tone. The digimon looked shocked.
"But were partners! We have to stick together so I can protect you. I just have to. I know it! Wherever you go I'll go with you! No matter the cost or whatever the direction is! And plus I have a good sense of smell so I'll just follow your trail if you try to run and hide," he said. I had a relaxed half smile on my face and silently giggled. He sure was loyal wasn't he?
"Alright then. Oh that reminds me. What's your name?" I asked. The digimon looked like he could cry with joy but seemed to try and copy my relaxed, cool face.
Calmly he said, "I'm Boemon. But instead of spelling it B-O-W. Its B-O-E."
I smiled. "Well Boemon with an E, I just talked to the others you told me about, and were going to meet up with each other. I would love to find out some information on what's going on. So lets head…" I looked around and pressed buttons till I pressed M and a giant map appeared. And not just on my screen, it was a hologram and it showed a black and white three dimensional grid type of graph shooting from my screen itself. Not even a camera or anything. That is high tech.
I stared at the terrain. It wasn't anything I was familiar with back home in Idaho.
"Hey where exactly is this place?" I asked. Boemon looked at me like I had asked him how to breathe.
"The Digital World of course." World… Did he say world? It would make sense. The unfamiliar trees and vines. The faint smell of different types of trees. But world? A whole new world? I didn't understand but I didn't have time to ask Boemon right now, I needed to find out where I needed to go to get to the others.
I found the direction we should be going by moving in certain directions and watching the map. It must be either a small map, or it only showed part of it because the map ended right where the others dots were.
Boemon and I started walking and I could see the others on the map doing the same thing. It was almost five minutes when Boemon was panting very loud and he was far behind me when he called out to me saying,
"Mary! Wait up! You have longer legs than I do!" I laughed, wondering how long it would take him to admit it. He sure was stubborn.
"Alright Boemon you want me to carry you?" I said while laughing. Boemon looked away and pondered for a minute. Wow he's more stubborn than I thought! Shouldn't he just accept help when it's offered? Eh oh well. I sighed and looked at Boemon with my eyebrow raised.
"Well?" I said.
"Fine… but just for a little while. I want to make a good first impression on the others."
Laughing again, I said, "And you made such a good first impression on me."
"Hey!" He said while laughing himself. I picked up Boemon, and he was surprisingly heavier than I initially thought for something the size of a fat cat.
It was ten more minutes when Boemon suddenly raised his floppy ears straight up.
"Wait. I hear something." I stopped to listen as well. I thought I could faintly hear the sound of something stepping. I got a little excited. Another human finally!
It was almost an entire minute before someone came the thick bushes and trees and stared at me. It was a girl with honey blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her tanned skin and smiling face told me everything I needed to know. California Valley Girl. Once the girl saw me she brightened up even more and ran towards me right away embraced me with a hug.
"Hey! I'm Maddie! Are you Hannah? Or Mary? Oh I don't care! I'm just glad I'm not alone in this creepy place anymore!" Maddie bellowed very loudly might I add. I smiled and laughed.
"Hey! You're not alone Maddie! You have me remember!" said a small, girl childlike voice from down below. I looked down to see another digimon. It almost looked like Boemon, except smaller, like the size of a kitten if I'm being precise. The digimon was all white like Boemon too, except it had pointy ears that jutted out the sides of its head instead of Boemons floppy ears. Her stubby round tail was even cuter than Boemons, but I wouldn't tell him that. He would probably get jealous.
"Hey!" said Maddie. "Where are your manners?" The small digimon's ears flattened against her head, probably from embarrassment.
"Sorry!" she said. "I'm Nekomon! Pleased to meet you!" Boemon jumped out of my arms and ran down to Nekomon.
"I'm Boemon! Yay! Finally someone my size!" Nekomon giggled and started playfully swiping at Boemon. Boemon laughed and swiped back. Maddie and I laughed then sat down in the dirt next to each other.
"I'm Mary. So do you have any idea how we got here?"
"Nope" she said very cheerfully. I was shocked at bubbly she was in a situation like this.
"Then do you have any idea why we're here?"
"Nope" she said cheerfully again. I was about to ask another question but then Maddie stopped me before I began. "Listen. I don't have any more idea of what's going on than you do. I'm just trying my best to stay positive so I can keep going". I nodded and smiled slightly. She was right. At least we weren't alone anymore.
Another rustle came from the bushes and a reddish brown haired, blue eyed, tall, thin boy stepped out carrying something under his arm. It was a head the size of a football. A literal light gray head. It looked almost like a rabbit head because it had rabbit ears standing straight up but something looked different. It must be the eyes, they were big and round and much larger than rabbit eyes would actually be. It must be another digimon.
The boy smiled when he saw us. "Hey I thought you guys were somewhere around here. I'm Jaxson, and this is Usamon" he said. Boemon and Nekomon ran over to Usamon, who wiggled out of Jaxson's grip and started playing with the other digimon. I guess digimon can make quick friends.
Maddie and I walked over to Jaxson and introduced ourselves as well. I had to say, Jaxson was quite the looker, but I wasn't really into looks in the first place. I did notice however that Jaxson was really built, but that was hidden by all the scars all over his arms. I would say they were slitting their wrists cuts but they looked different. They looked like fight cuts, and plus I saw scabs on his knuckles which was a dead giveaway that he was a fighter, and a dangerous one at that. I would have to watch him carefully from now on. I started zoning in on the conversation Maddie and Jaxson were having.
"Yea and then this like, giant hurricane blew in out of nowhere making the palm trees sway and look like it could break through our windows!"
"That's almost like what happened with me! I was outside when a locust storm happened, and I live in New York. I know I'm not that good at geography but I'm pretty sure there's no locust in New York City." Maddie laughed. It sounded angelic and cute. Oh boy I hope she doesn't flirt with every guy she meets, or else she could get into some big trouble someday.
"That's just like what happened to me!" I said. "I was inside and it was bright and sunny, and all of a sudden, a tornado popped out of nowhere!" Out of habit, I pushed my dark brown hair out of my face with my fingers again. Dang it I have to stop that.
Someone came from behind us and we all turned around suddenly, and so did the digimon. It was another tall boy with jet black hair and hard cold, hazel eyes. He was also built, might I add. He kind of looked like Jacob off of twilight, but with a type of face. He walked in with a stone cold glare on his face and stared at us all.
"Which ones are you guys?" he said.
"Jaxson"
"Maddie"
I refused to tell him my name. I knew his type. Sure, call me prejudice I've been around so many like him you just know one when you see one. He was an, I'm too cool for everyone guy. The guy that was arrogant, would ditch school, didn't care about his grades, and disrespected teachers. Oh how I hated him already. I glared right back at him. I was about to give him a sly remark but something caught my eye.
"Uh… hello there…" said a very small, shy girl's voice. I looked down and saw something hiding behind the boys legs. It looked like a light pink earthworm with a face. It also had six legs on each side that didn't seem to do much good to pull it around. I hope this jerk carried her.
"Um… I'm Kemushimon… I didn't mean to barge in, I just wanted… to meet you all…" she said. My heart melted immediately and I was about to say aww and hug her, when jerk face over here scowled at Kemushimon and said,
"Stop it. Your shy act isn't cute its just annoying." Okay I'm going to beat him up. I don't care who he thinks he is, he has no right to talk to anyone, much less a digimon like that.
"I'm sorry, Bryan…" she said. Boemon, Nekomon, and Usamon bounded over to Kemushimon. Well, Usamon kind of bounced over. They started talking softly to her and then Nekomon nudged her and then they all ran and started playing. Again, Usamon bounced.
I glared at this Bryan and I didn't even try to hide my loathing toward him. He had a calm, hard gaze and stared straight back at me. After what seemed like over thirty seconds, I looked away and looked back at Maddie and Jaxson. They were laughing and having a great time flirting. I smiled and rolled my eyes.
Another person appeared out from the bushes. This time it was a girl with braided blond hair, so blond it looked almost white. She was kind of small, with pale skin and icy blue eyes that were hidden by silver round glasses. She looked at us with a blank expression and had her digivice in hand. Hers was white and the symbol on hers was three different swirls that touched each other at their ends. Kind of like a three leaf clover if you ask me. It looked oddly familiar but before I could try to figure anything out, she spoke.
"I'm Hannah," was all she said. I walked over to her and smiled.
"Mary. You're the one who first contacted right? How did you even know you could contact anyone else? Do you know anything else that's going on?" I asked briskly. I was tired of no one knowing anything.
Hannah stared at me and her cheeks went redder the more I stood there. She bit her lip and spoke quietly.
"I just figured since we have a keyboard there must be a logical reason for that. So I typed a message and the radar message popped up. Then I turned on the radar and my white dot appeared. Pretty soon more messages appeared and that's how it happened… And as for anything else going on. I don't know anything…" As she said this last sentence, her brow furrowed in frustration.
"Hey! Lay off her! She's already been through a rough time as it is!" said a girl childlike voice from below. I looked down to see another head. It was a snowy white head same size as Usamon but this time it had dog like ears coming out the sides of its body. The digimon glared at me with protective pride for Hannah.
"It's okay Duncmon. She just wants answers like the rest of us." Duncmon still glared at me, but relaxed slightly. I tried to find something else to say to Hannah so it wouldn't be awkward, but nothing came. #mylife
I was saved from even more awkwardness because someone came rampaging through the brush. It was another boy, with shaggy dirty blond hair. He was slightly on the heavy side but pretty normal for a guy. He was kind of short though, with a pudgy baby face. Cute… ish. When he saw all of us, he laughed and smiled sheepishly while scratching behind his head.
"Hey I'm Tyson. Sorry, were late. We kind of got lost… a bit…" Then another head bounced behind him. Why am I not surprised? The head was a light pink with four big black spikes on the back of him where a spine would be… if he had one I guess. The head had another little boy's voice.
"And I'm Supaikimon. Sorry about my companion here. He has the navigation skills of a Monochromon." All the digimon laughed, and everyone else just stared at the digimon.
"This is the part where you laugh guys." He added. Tyson giggled a little and everyone else just rolled their eyes.
Jaxson stood in front of everyone right then and there and all the digimon went to stand by their partners. I guess they were done playing. Jaxson started to address everyone like a leader. I was down with that, as long as I didn't have to make a speech as well.
"Since we're all here, we don't we all introduce ourselves properly. Oh and what natural occurrence happened in our city. Apparently something happened to all of us." Jaxson looked at Maddie who nodded. "I'll go first. I'm Jaxson, and I'm from New York City. A giant locust storm came through town yesterday. At least I think it was yesterday…" Jaxson looked up at the bright morning sky trying to think.
"I'm Maddie, and I'm from San Francisco, California. We had like, a huge hurricane. And I mean like enormous! The palm trees were swaying so much, I thought they were like going to fly out of the ground and hit the school!"
"Hey guys. I'm Mary." I stopped for a second not knowing what to say, then remembered. "I'm from Boise, Idaho, and we had a tornado come through town."
"Bryan. New Orleans, Florida. It snowed." It got quiet for a bit before Hannah spoke.
"I'm Hannah… I'm from Topeka Kansas, and… a mudslide came through town. When it wasn't even raining outside. None of this makes sense…" Hannah frowned at the ground, deep in thought.
"Well, I guess that leaves me." Tyson laughed. "I'm Tyson and I'm from Dallas, Texas. An earthquake happened and it was something big like a magnitude of 10! Well… probably not, because not a lot of houses were destroyed… but it felt like it!"
Jaxson nodded at Tyson and looked around at everyone. "Alright, does anyone have any sort of clue as to what the heck is going on?" No one answered. Then suddenly a thought came to me.
"Wait a minute! Boemon, you said something about knowing my name, and how we were supposed to find the others, and what a digivice was. How did you know that stuff?"
Maddie looked at her digimon. "Nekomon said the same thing!" Everyone looked at their own digimon, most likely because they too had said the same thing. Then they all looked at Boemon who had shyly hid behind me with his cheeks red. Oh great, of all the times to become bashful.
"Uh… I don't really know. I just did. I don't know how, I just did…" he said.
"Duncmon how did you end up next to me when I woke up. Hannah asked. Duncmon blinked and stared at her with wide scared eyes.
"I don't know! I don't remember anything before meeting you! I just knew who you were, and knew that we needed to find everyone. Everything else… is just a blur…"
Everyone got silent and looked scared. Even Bryan had a less cold look, and kicked at the ground with his bare foot. Which kind of made me realize we were all in pajamas. Which would have made sense, since we were all sleeping when we got here I presume.
Jaxson seemed to notice everyone scared and spoke up. "Hey guys it's going to be fine! We're gonna get back home so fast, no one will even miss breakfast! Okay?"
"How do you know that?" I asked. Jaxson looked at me then seemed to be thinking. "You don't. Exactly."
"Your right, I don't know if we'll get back home. I don't even know where we are. But one thing I do know for certain is that we have to stick to together. All of us. Separating won't do us any good. So for right know we need to find shelter, food and water. Then we can talk about finding our way out of here and getting back home. Sound good?" Everyone nodded and looked more hopeful. I guess he does get some brownie points for making a good speech, I'll give him that.
"Now let's get going" he said. We all nodded and started to head out to the unknown.
