C'est La Vie (Worm/MTG/Jurassic World) #01.4

Squatting on the overturned jeeps partially uncovered driver's side door, I was trying to get the bolt cutter blades into place around the side mirror when a wet drop hit my stump. Jumping, I fumbled the cutters and shivered as the bead of rain ran down the rounded end. Then I looked up to the cloudy sky just in time to feel a couple more land on my face. The rain. Shit.

With no small amount of urgency, I repositioned my pilfered bolt cutters so that the mirror post — bent from my initial attempts to break it off — was between the blades with the bottom handle against the body of the vehicle. Half standing, I positioned the handles of between my thighs and squeezed.

A few drops hit my hair, and then even more splattered on the exposed car as my thighs began burning from the strain. As if I didn't already have an excuse to get this done as fast as possible.

It was working through, the handles were slowly closing. Grunting, I squeezed just a little harder and-

The cutters sheared through the old metal and the mirror dropped onto the door. But the metal suddenly giving way meant I was unbalanced, and when my hip hit the door the mirror bounced.

Landing on the bottom edge of the door, it started tilting over the edge.

Shit, shit, shit! I scrambled and grabbed for it, but missing by a mile I was only able to watch it land on one corner and wince at the sharp crunch of breaking glass before it fell on its face.

Shit.

Awkwardly jumping down, I picked up the mirror and turned it over to see a corner of the - too dirty to be reflective - reflective glass had been all but crushed into little fragments with one long crack running through the middle to the other corner. Just my luck.

"Well, it could've been worse." Shaking my head, I tucked the mirror under my right armpit, grabbed the bolt cutters and walked back to my shelter. Simultaneously, my swarm poured out of the jeep with most of the crawlers dispersing into the jungle while the fliers headed toward the tunnel.

There might have been a few more things in the jeep, useful things I could use, but at the moment the time it would take to extricate them wasn't worth the effort. It wouldn't be going anywhere, though, so if need be I could always come back and salvage later.

Also, there were just a few problems with staying to dig around in it for too long. For one, getting caught in the rain wasn't my idea of fun despite likely needing it. I hadn't checked, but I'm sure I was quite ripe under my suit.

There were also the issues in that I'd literally need to dig through the thing in order to reach them and that I was already somewhat over encumbered.

Those were problems, but minor ones. The real issue, however, was that - surprise, surprise - the T-Rex was lurking around just up the road. Well, not up the road, more where the road went. It had been in the Triceratops area, standing in a little lake with its head under a waterfall… and the entire time I'd been out I hadn't had a clue.

Oh, how lovely it had been to find out that little tidbit. Go up the road, see what's there, nothing can go wrong because I have my swarm to give me some forewarning about whatever is out there… except for the enormous predator, which I hadn't noticed because it was outside my range.

I grimaced and kicked a rock in my way. My range, that seemed to be a recurring issue, hadn't it? Even when I could know every inch of everything within hundreds of feet it was never enough. Regardless, being out in the open wasn't going to work, at least not for long. Maybe I could find somewhere out of the way?

An idea, but that was something I could worry about when I was far away from the T-Rex.

At any rate, going up the road wasn't going to work. Not to say going down the road would necessarily be better, but at least it wasn't likely to have a T-Rex at the other end and I was pretty sure the tunnel ceiling was too low for it.

Of course, the smart thing would be to just stay in the shelter; wait it out like I did after our first encounter. But then what? Stay holed up in there, worrying that it was just outside my range and not setting foot outside?

What about food, though? Or water? And what about when I ultimately did need to go outside…

No… no that wouldn't work, better to just get out of the area while I had an idea of where it was and take advantage of the rain to wipe out any trail it might be able to follow.

Besides, even if the 'Rex wasn't there, I hadn't seen a way around the cliff the waterfall was coming off of. So all the left was going down the road.

Slipping into the shelter I dropped the bolt cutters and setting the mirror on the shelf got to work gathering up my things as it began to rain outside.

With pockets bulging and compartments stuffed to the point of bursting, I re-slung my silk cord across my chest and began attaching things with simple cinch loops. Thermos jug, claw hammer, bolt cutters, hypodermic dart case, mirror, and finally the jury-rigged cardboard tube holding my berries that I'd cut from a box and wrapped in electrical tape. By the time I'd finished, it was as if I was carrying a cinder block around from how the cord dug into my collarbone.

But it worked, that's what mattered. And so long as I didn't need to do anything more than walk I'd be fine. If I did have to, however… I looked down at the dead weight on my hip. "What the hell am I doing?"

Shaking my head, I adjusted the cord as much I could and tightened the straps to my flight pack: something I hoped I wouldn't need. Nevertheless, the bugs to control it were in place and ready to send me airborne at a moment's notice. Even if using it shortened the lifespan of the tinker tech, I wasn't getting chased through a jungle again. Nope, that wasn't happening again.

Alternatively though, even if I refrained from using it, I was still going to lose it. Not a pleasant thought. The flight pack was useful, very useful, and too useful to just let it sit and eventually break from disrepair. But Defiant wasn't around to maintain it, so who knew how long it would last. Or hell, what would happen when it actually broke.

...Was this supposed to be what Prince Caspian felt? To use it, or not to use it?

I sighed and double checked that I had everything, and scanning over the shelves one last time slipped out into the pattering rain to put my shoulder against the door. The hinges, oiled but still old, screeched as I pushed it shut before heading for the tunnel.

Passing through the blocky concrete portal and out of the rain as it started coming down more heavily, I ran my fingers back through my now damp hair, combing it back and setting the orb weavers to finish cleaning it up while I walked. It didn't take long, though the tunnel wasn't exactly short, to reach the other end and in that time the rain had picked up to a downpour. And standing there at the mouth of the tunnel, staring out into the driving rain as it turned the road to mud, I realized I might have miscalculated.

I'd known the storm might be bad, yes, but I'd underestimated just how bad.

Save for during Leviathan's attack, the conditions were already nearing some of the worst I'd seen growing up in Brockton. Not even Chicago, the 'windy city', had had anything like this at any point in my two years there. This wasn't something coming off the lakes or a system brought in on the jet stream, though. No, this was a tropical storm, with thousands of miles of warm ocean water to keep it fueled.

Yes, the golden orb weaver and the climate had indicated I was somewhere close to the equator, but this… well, the idea had been to try and get a little further, but this was a bit much.

Squinting, I tried to look through the rain. Hell, I could see maybe… what, ten feet out?

I swallowed. Turn back and try to make it back to the shelter, or wait it out right here?

I had no doubt I could open the door again, but what about the 'Rex? It had been by the waterfall but where was it now? With this weather I would be all but blind outside. Though with how bad it was getting, what were the chances that something else might come to the tunnels for shelter?

Staring into the rain my teeth caught my lower lip and began to gnaw. Can't go forward, and can't go back.

"Fuck."

Untying the thermos, I forced the bottom into the mud to keep in place as it collected rain and turned on my heel to retreat a bit further into the tunnel. If I was going to stay here, I may as well not be completely out in the open.

Stopping some hundred feet into the tunnel, I slung off my cord wrapped load and laid it out on the ground before settling down myself. Not even an hour ago I was in a hurry, and now I was waiting for the rain to ease up… I sighed and shuffled back against the tunnel wall.

Girl, Hero, Villain, Warlord, Hero, Monster; so many masks and titles, but for what?

The first had had so many hopes and dreams for the future, but the second hadn't lasted a single night before being cast aside for the third… and even when re-donned, in the end, it'd ultimately been the least effective of the lot.

"Now look at me," I muttered while the orb weavers crawled out of my hair and a few sacrificial moths landed in front of me. Closing my eyes, the 'weavers went to work while a couple bound and prepared the moths. "Stopped by a bit of rain and uncertainty."

C'est La Vie

I opened my eyes as a deep, resonating call echoed somewhere in the distance. Looking down the tunnel, I watched the light drizzle splatter in the muddy road until a cloud moved overhead and the sun shone down.

Finally. The storm was finally winding down after however many hours of waiting, three jugs of rainwater, two trips to relieve myself, and one impromptu rain bath.

Stretching, I grabbed my toes before twisting to loosen up. The left side of my torso throbbed with each twist and pull and turn, but I did it anyway. After getting a good look at my ribs while cleaning up... Well, it hurt, but it was for my own good and I'd rather it not come back to bite me in my nonexistent ass.

Eventually, though, after I finished torturing myself, I pulled my boots on and started packing; pockets and compartments were filled, silk cord and equipment was slung across my chest, and the orb weavers crawled back into my hair while I picked up the grey-yellow cloth they'd been working on.

My first costume, my original 'wow you look like a villain' costume, had taken thousands of black widows a few days (spread over several weeks admittedly) to spin. A simple satchel though, that would only take a day or so at the rate the significantly larger orb weavers could work.

Folding and carefully tucking it into the compartment at the small of my back, I reached the mouth of the tunnel and looked up to the sky.

While the majority of the view was the clear blue sky I'd first woken to, it was still a bit cloudy with more than a few dark thunderheads scattered about. But didn't look like it would turn into anything too awful and the warmth of the sun felt wondrous.

I breathed in, filling my lungs with the scents of the clean air, drenched jungle, and lingering ozone. It was... clean. Although the road...

Looking down I stared at the wet, mushy re-brown mess that had become of the road. Once hardpack, it was now little more than pure mud with little bits of subsumed gravel poking through in places.

Good thing there was a path through it all, though. Side stepping onto the rail running through the center of the road I put one foot in front of the other, and walking out into the open looked around to see there were a few options open to me.

To the left and the right the railed road continued; clear, with little vegetation growing along it and pure mud. In contrast, however, the path between the two roads was little more than a dirt path. Whatever it'd been, a service road or unfinished railed road, it hadn't held up nearly as well as the tracked road had and the jungle was already reclaiming it.

My greater swarm was still recovering from the storm and it would take a bit longer for their wings to dry. Having the jungle that close and with my swarm still somewhat limited… Lisa's snark wasn't necessary for me to know that would've been stupid. Moreover, I wanted to go up, and wherever that led it wasn't anywhere high up.

And left… seeing it turn left again a mile or so down the road made me think that it led back the direction I'd come, back to the T-Rex. Even if in a roundabout way, it was still going back toward the T-Rex… and that wasn't happening.

I looked right and past the waist-high concrete base, rusted inward facing posts and cables of the tall fence to the jungle and steep mountain slope beyond. Mmm.

Glancing down the road ahead, I could just make out the blocky concrete entrance to another tunnel at the end of a bend in the road. Between the two options, the mountain didn't look very appealing. It might be doable, but there was also the likelihood that I might have need of my flight pack somewhere along the line.

Well, I was trying to get a lay of the land. If it was worse down the road I could just come back. Worse than the T-Rex though. Huh. Or I could just keep walking… yeah, walking would work.

What fliers were ready took to the air and my feet carried me down the road. Quickly enough, the tunnel came into view and looking above its concrete arch my eyes traced over the steep rocky mountain it ran beneath. Then, to the even taller mountain beyond that covered in dense jungle.

My lips turned up and I continued along the rail; a small smile on my lips and a spring in my step. Things were looking up, and so far going rather smoothly.

Although, the same couldn't be said about whatever had happened to this place. Rounding the bend my eyes skimmed across the rusted wreckage of the fencing strewn across the road, then to the white of a ceramic toilet peeking out from amongst the encroaching vegetation.

Interesting. But didn't stop. With the state of this place, I had little doubt I'd see more of the same if I kept following the road.

Making my way through the tunnel without issue, I emerged on the other side and found the fencing arrangement had changed; the tall fence was now on my left, and a smaller six-foot fence - like back at the shelter - on the right.

My attention lingered on the tall fence, however; It was unfinished? The base was in place and the posts sunk into the concrete with a blue and orange light assembly at the top, but there were no cables in place for as far as I could see. More interesting.

So maybe this place hadn't actually been finished when whatever had happened, happened? If it happened quick enough that the place was still being built… Well, a lot of stuff went into construction, a lot of supplies and equipment and tools, and if any of that had been abandoned when whatever happened… then that bode well for future scavenging opportunities.

I glanced at the thick jungle on either side of me despite my swarm inundating the vegetation. Rather surprised, though, that nothing had tried to attack me yet. With all this space, I would've thought there would be more dinosaurs than what I'd seen. But nothing.

Naturally, it was just a few minutes later that I became aware of three person sized figures stalking through the jungle. And in my direction. Dammit. I kept walking to see how they would react while tracking them through my swarm as they pushed through several ferns to change direction.

Yup, they were coming for me. Awesome. It was almost funny though, as my swarm gathered to a critical number I managed to get a better look at them and was reminded of how Bastard and a few of Rachel's dogs hunted wild rabbits… except I was the rabbit in this story.

A high pitched call, almost like a warbling hoot, rang out from the jungle and my lips pressed together. I stopped, and triangulating the source looked at a section of the six-foot fence that'd been all but crushed into the dirt. It also just so happened to be where the three dinosaurs were lurking, just out of sight.

"Sorry," I called out. "I'm not anyone's lunch." Unleashing the bulk of my swarm on the three dinosaurs, I kept walking down the road while they fled.

Fortunately, the trio either no longer seemed interested in what they had likely considered easy prey or run off to lick their wounds. Either way, I was able to continue down the road uninterrupted, just walking and listening to the sounds of the jungle around me when my swarm found an irregularity in the tall fence; a clearly delineated gap in the base.

Coming around a gentle curve in the road, I caught sight of the gap a short ways further down the road; a section where more red than brown dirt intersected the darker main road. At the same time, I began getting some interesting information back from my fliers and worms; in particular, the picture of a winding road that led up the mountain.

Stopping alongside the gap, I looked through to see a deformed swing gate hanging on a metal post on the left side of the opening with a particularly overgrown road leading into the jungle beyond.

I glanced to the right of the gap, to another of the white and green signs; this one showing the archetypical clipart of a transmitting radio tower set in a circle over the silhouette of the island.

I glanced up to the mountaintop and tried to gauge the slope through the trees. But there was apparently a road so whatever the slope was somewhat irrelevant. And a radio tower, weren't those usually set up at high points for better line of sight?

Lips turning up a bit, I stepped off the rail to follow the overgrown road.

I quickly found the route to be… unpleasant, not far up the mountain it started getting steep and not long after that that I began sweating in earnest.

Jogging was one thing, but hiking… thinking back I'm afraid my use of the flight pack over the past few years has really spoiled me somewhat. Of course, it could all be over in an instant. Just a thought and I could soar straight up to the top of the mountain without having to sweat through my suit anymore than I already had.

But I held back… why again? I stopped to lean against a small green tree for a moment and kneaded my aching calves and thighs.

Why… oh yes, because it was going to inevitably break, and that it would undoubtedly break sooner rather than later. But fuck if it wasn't tempting.

Taking a moment more to sip from the thermos I started walking again.

Gripping aside, though, it wasn't terrible.

The road - or rather what was left of it - wasn't anything close to dry, but it wasn't a sopping mess like the railed road. And sure, several sections had been washed out - recently and in the past going by the plant growth - and that had forced me to climb through the jungle to get around, but those areas were few and far between.

That said, what it was was tedious. Due to how the road looped back and forth around the mountain with steep, back to back switchbacks in places, and long sections of gradual incline in others.

It was a trek. And in some areas, I skipped the road entirely in favor of hiking through the jungle to get to the next length rather than go the long way around.

It was nonsensical... well, almost. While looking up the mountain from the main road I hadn't been able to see a trace of the road, and probably wouldn't've known it existed at all if not for the gate. And that was almost certainly the point. Taking into account that this place was supposedly supposed to be some sort of safari park, it stood to reason that the builders wouldn't want it to be visible from the railed road- especially if this intended to be within an enclosure.

Glancing up at the leafy canopy above and appreciating the merciful shade it provided, I kept putting one foot in front of the other. Hell, it probably wouldn't be visible from the air either.

Peking up I looked to the left and stared through the jungle as several basement spiders came back into range. Shouldn't be much longer now.

Taking control of the spiders I put them back on the path's they'd been on and set them to finish mapping the dimensions of the cool, dark, well-ventilated room they were in. A basement or something. Whatever the room was, it wasn't out above ground as far as I could tell.

I'd yet to get my swarm into it, but from what I could see it was big. Well, not big, but it was a good size room and much larger than the shelter.

Through a gap in the jungle, I glimpsed a small, off white high voltage sign dangling sideways on rust encrusted cables bound with vines. Some of my fliers, swarming around at the edge of my shifting range, suddenly encountered a grated cupola rising out of the ground and they poured down it like a flood.

Cool, dark, well ventilated.

Smiling, I picked up the pace regardless of what it was doing to my legs. If only it wasn't such a damn pain to- no, wait, dumb thought. The trip up here being hard is exactly what I'd want.

My swarm found a short hall leading out of the room and a small pool of stagnant water with mosquito larvae in it that had come in from somewhere.

Rounding a steep switchback, I looked up the road and saw an open set of gates. No, rather a pair of gates that likely worked as a sort of airlock. Open one set, go in, close, open the other gate, go. It probably would have been an effective system for keeping unwanted things out if not for the tall fence post and cables right next to it being a mangled mess.

The buzz of my fliers filled the air as I drew closer and closer to the gate, my swarm fleshing out an image of the underground room and the double doors and wide barred window at the entrance. Passing through the airlock gates I… Ideas of safety and security, of having a place to sleep without worrying about being eaten, went by the wayside as I walked right past the overgrown, concrete building reminiscent of an ammo bunker set into a slope leading to further up the mountain.

Instead, I focused on the verdant mountains, dense jungle, grassy plain, and the deep blue ocean.

Setting my swarm to scour the mountaintop I crossed the muddy, overgrown lot and not even the half collapsed wreckage of a red and white, overgrown radio tower drew more than a passing glance I stopped before a weathered guardrail and looked out over the treetops with my head on a pivot.

Focusing on the fog-shrouded mountains at the end of the island and following them back as they formed a steep, ribbed ridge that created a valley between them and the mountain I was on. I nearly couldn't say for certain whether I was on an island or not though, as the opposing mountains were just tall enough that I was unable to see beyond. But looking back the way I'd come, and despite the jungle blocking my immediate view of the road below, I was could see the more ocean through another valley where the ribbed mountain ridge ended and a more sloping mountain began.

My eyes traced back and forth over the jungle, catching momentarily on little details and following faint lines just barely visible throughout the foliage— roads, no doubt. And further in, both toward the opposing mountain and back the way I'd come, a pair of large rivers that intersected a few miles inland ran out to a marshy delta intersecting a long strip of white beach the ran the edge of the island for as far as I could see.

I was on an island paradise, an island paradise with dinosaurs.

While taking in the picturesque view, though, I almost didn't notice the touch; warm, light and airy, but violent and un- I spun and grabbed for the presence, my fingers locking around…My breath caught and I stared at the empty air past my extended stump, at where my hand should be, and where I knew I'd grabbed something.

The presence writhed in my grip and in streamers between my fingers, something insubstantial but very much there. It fought, but refusing to let it go I held it all the tighter; trying to figure out what the hell I this thing— It vanished. My missing fingers clenched into a fist from its sudden absence and in the next moment … I became aware of something. An… impression?

The impression smelt, sounded, and felt like the Jungle; from the tallest trees to the smallest fern. Ancient, and dangerous and deadly, yet teeming with life that's managed to endure in its hidden depths.

"...What?"

So there we go, she's got her first land and wow #4 took way longer than the outline indicated and ended up way longer than I thought itd be. Probably should have just split it into two snips but the first portion seemed a little too slow for that.

But anyway, thats that for chapter one. Now... I think Im going to go back to 1-3 and fix a few screwups before I start work on #2.1 and digging into MtG to figure out how Im going to convert more of the mechanics for use in a story setting. (much appreciated if anyone can help with this(card suggestions, lore, etc)