Chapter 12 – The Road to Nowhere
Although at first glance the hills had seemed like a warm, inviting place, they quickly shaped up to be exactly the opposite. Steep, harsh terrain. Cold, threatening winds. The first hour or so of the journey was unbearable. After a while, I began to adjust to the nature of my surroundings, but even then they were highly unpleasant, at best. The sun appeared tiny in the sky, most of it's light blocked out by a thick cloud layer, high above the ground. Nevertheless, it was still quite light, and we could roughly predict the time to within a couple of hours. When it seemed about midday, we stopped for a break.
After looking around for a short while, Abe and I found shelter in a small opening in the face of a vast, rocky cliff. Heading in, I was relieved, to say the least. Warmth suddenly washed over me, and my aching body collapsed, emancipated from the hours of treachery and pain I had just endured. I lay motionless on the floor for several minutes, soaking up the coziness of the cave. Eventually, Abe shook me awake. I got to my feet and looked around to properly take in our shelter. A narrow passage with a low ceiling, cast almost completely into darkness. Yet for our purposes, it was perfect.
"What now?" Abe questioned. He sat at the entrance to the cave, staring out into the bleak and barren hills.
"Well, perhaps food and water for a start." I remarked. Abe gave me a look that said 'you're and idiot', so I gave him one back that said 'I think you'll find you're the idiot'. Then I pointed up to the top of a rocky cliff on a hill opposite us. The cliff itself was not very wide, but it morphed into a steep hill at either side, and the plateau that lay on top of it actually spanned for what looked like miles in both directions.
"Look up there." I said, as Abe followed my outstretched finger towards the cliff. "That's grass, right?" He simply nodded, but still looked confused, so I continued.
"My point is there's plant life here. And if there are plants, there must be water." Abe looked as if he was beginning to understand. "And it seems quite likely that if there's vegetation, as well as water, there'll be animal life up there, too." Now Abe understood. He smiled and nodded to acknowledge this fact. Then he got to his feet and traced the hillside with his finger.
"There." He said, pointing at some point off in the distance. "We should be able to climb up over there." And with that, he was off. I hurried to follow him out into the sandy dunes. I could now see the area he was talking about. Roughly half a mile or so away from where we were, the grass plateau began to sink down towards the sand. Another half a mile and it was practically level with the ground. That was where we'd climb up. It only took a short period of time to reach this location, however it wasn't until we got to it that we realised the scale of our mistake. Although from a distance it appeared as if the hill completely disappeared, the grass cliff top was still several hundred feet above the sandy ground on which we stood.
"You idiot!" Abe retorted as he took in the height of the cliff before us.
"Me?" I returned. "You were the one who said we could climb it, weren't you?"
"Yes, but since when have you taken my word for it?" He had a point there. I should probably have judged the size of the hill myself before we'd even left the cave. But now wasn't the time for putting the blame on each other. We had a hill to climb. Putting my best foot forward (my right, in case you were wondering), I attempted to begin the ascent of the rock face. The first few tries did indeed fail, as the metal legs I'd grown so used to in recent weeks were not designed particularly well for mountaineering. But soon I had successfully begun to scale the cliff, and within minutes, so had Abe.
The wind continued to strike the side of the cliff as we climbed. The bitter cold had no effect on the lower half of my body, but my arms ached with the stress, and Abe looked fit to collapse. I desperately struggled on through the pain, the top of the cliff beginning to come into sight. I encouraged myself, and Abe, to continue by imagining the kind of wonder we would find atop this oddforsaken rock. 'Luscious green grass', I thought to myself, 'with flowers in every colour. Vibrant wildlife, beautiful creatures of unimaginable majesty.' This visualization of perfection seemed to help as we pushed on up the hillside.
After what seemed like hours, the grassy brow of the hill was now close enough to touch. I reached out with one arm and placed it firmly on the grass, hoisting myself up onto the flat surface. I turned to help Abe to his feet before daring to look at the world we had discovered up in the clouds, high above the unforgiving desert. It was everything I had pictured and more. The grass was fresh and cool; the trees were thick and green. The sun which had once been shadowed by cloud was now clear and huge in the sky. All around where we stood, bushes sprouted from the earth, covered with colourful flowers and plump berries. Insects roamed around everywhere; Bolamites and Thudslugs, Stingbees and Zapflies. This sanctuary in the clouds was a literal heaven on Earth. Or Oddworld, in this instance.
"Once again," I said, turning to Abe, who was beaming with delight at the wonder before him, "This place never ceases to amaze me." I ran out towards the trees, soaking up the sunlight as I went. A pure stream of crystal clear water ran through the sparse woodland and out into the meadow. I would have dived right in if I hadn't been wearing so much rustable material, but instead I simply fell to my knees before the ice cold water, and plunged my head deep into it's inviting flow. Abe, meanwhile, was running from bush to bush, picking and tasting every berry he could. Perhaps he hadn't considered the potential for these berries to be poisonous, but then again, perhaps life for a Mudokon was too short to worry about anything like that anyway.
Soon, I pulled my head up from the flowing water of the stream, and regrouped with Abe under the shade of a large tree. He still had his hands filled with berries of absolutely every colour possible, and was stuffing them into his mouth as we talked.
"Ok, Abe." I said, although he was too busy eating to answer. "So we might have discovered what is potentially the most beautiful location in Mudos, if not Oddworld as a whole, but that doesn't mean we're here to stay. We still have a duty to fulfill."
Abe swallowed his mouthful of berries and replied. "Come on, Alan. We're on the road to nowhere right now. We might as well enjoy this while we can." He held out a handful of berries, which, after careful thought, I took.
"You're right, Abe." I said. "Maybe we can take a break from this whole sorry affair, just for one day." And if that was true, perhaps that could have been it, and we could have stayed there for weeks, just enjoying life. Unfortunately, it wasn't true, as we were about to find out.
"Alan…" Abe began, his face suddenly stricken with shock. He pointed over my shoulder, into the woods behind us, so I turned around to look. I was… surprised by what I saw next, for want of a better word. Nestled beneath a bed of soft, warm grass under the shelter of those magnificent trees, was a creature which I'd never even seen before. It was huge, long and thin, but muscular all the same. Several rows of teeth were visible in the creature's mouth, and a line of no less than four eyes ran along it's face. It appeared to be asleep at first, which was good news for us.
"Abe," I began, "Just back away, slowly. Very slowly." The Mudokon obeyed, gently shifting away from the grotesque creature before us. It was all going so well. Then- SNAP! The unmistakable sound of a twig being broken echoed through the air. The creature heard it instantly, it's four huge eyes flung wide open. The ground beneath our feet shook as the giant animal rose from it's slumber. As it began to come towards us, I gave Abe a look of sheer disappointment.
"What?" He said jokingly, despite our current situation. "It was just a twig."