Chapter 52: Nightmare Part 1
The Easter bunny nudged me awake from my short nap. I sat up rubbing my eyes sleepily. I had been sleeping for only ten minutes, but my body felt refreshed and ready to go.
"Ready to start your work? You will need to fix a couple of stuff before the undead comes." The Easter bunny hopped its way towards the desk and pulled open the lower drawer. It revealed a small box, the size of someone's head. It shut the drawer back and hopped merrily towards me. He thrusts the box at me, but I took a look at the label. It says Equipments.
"What is this for?" I asked confused.
"Since you can't hide, you will have to fight them. This will help." He nudged it at my tummy. I nodded and grabbed the side of the box. I dug my fingernails at the edge of the box and pulled open the lid. In it contained: Five flares, torchlight, a matchbox and an envelope opener. I looked at the bunny with a raised eyebrow.
"How can an envelope opener defend me?" I asked, covering the lid back on top of the box.
"I'm not entirely sure, but you as a hero might think of something up." It said and hopped its way towards the blue front door.
"But, I'm not a hero…yet." I said taking a step forward.
"Not yet, but you will be." It said grabbing the doorknob.
"How can you be so sure?" I asked again. The Easter bunny frowned and took a long deep sigh.
"I am the Easter bunny ya know?" It said and opened the door. The loud sound of pistons and mechanical buzzing filled the once quiet room. The Easter bunny pushed me out and shut the door behind me. I was left alone with a couple of squirrels, imps and robots. I looked around not knowing what to do. The same squirrel (Brown fur with a white line running down its tail) ran up to my leg and climbed on my left shoulder. It groomed its face for a few seconds before speaking.
"So the boss send ya to fix a couple of stuff?" It said. I nodded silently. "Okay, well we need to fix the egg thrower, the watch tower and the chocolate blender. The egg thrower acts as our main defense from the undead. See that climb up there? That is where all the egg throwers are. The watch tower is our guard tower. Helps keep a look out from far distance, and the last one is the chocolate blender. It just helps to blend the chocolate. Let's go find the imp that works at the egg thrower." It suggested. I let it scurry off ahead of me before I start following.
I was keeping my pace until I started to loose my breath. Up and in front of me lay a high climb, around forty meters high. There was a wooden ladder fixed on the rock wall. The squirrel took a different path while I had to climb my butt off.
The moment I was in the center of the wall, I began to shake. My arms and legs were tired from the constant climb. I looked up and the squirrel was already there, waiting for me. I sucked in a lungful of air and pressed onward. Feet, hands, feet, hands, feet, hands until I finally reached to the top of the climb. I began breathing hard, coughing out the pain in my lungs. Sweat running down the side of my face as if I had ran all the way from Falador to Al-Kharid. I had never felt this tired before and it made me wonder how did I get tired that easily in the first place. I walked around, not wanting any cramps in my legs.
"Hey, we have brought you this fixer here. He will help you fix the egg thrower." The squirrel squeaked. The imp looked at me from bottom to top, inspecting me.
"Okay, I will hand him back to you when I am done." The imp responded. Something held me firmly to the ground. It was my own will. I don't know how to fix a catapult and I hope I don't have to fix it alone.
"Okay, fixing this is simple. See that crank? It snapped some time ago while we were fighting the undead, I hope you can fix that. The gears are out of place, and the stabilizer is loose. Fix all of those that I had informed for you and you can go." The imp pointed at the pile of equipments. Gears, levers, clutch, all sorts of catapult parts were laying in the corner.
I began inspecting the broken down catapult. The gears were indeed out of place, making shooting hard. The crank handle seemed to have snapped off by squirrel force and the stabilizer was truly loose. A shot from this catapult and it would roll backwards, falling into the pit of innocent squirrel workers. I picked up a few stuff. Some gears, a new crank handle and a tight stabilizer. Grease and sweat stained my flesh. I removed the greasy gears and replaced new ones. The old crank handle had been forcefully yanked out and carefully replaced by a new one, and the stabilizer was the hardest part. A small nudge and it would be over for the factory. My hands were shaky (really shaky). I removed the loosed stabilizer, slowly and carefully fixed a new one. The catapult began to move back slowly. My heart stopped and I was squatting in fear. The catapult stopped an inch away from my nose. I began to breath and quickly activated the stabilizer. I heaved a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off of my forehead. The imp came back looking mighty impressed with my work.
"Good job, now we can begin pushing this catapult forward." The imp said ticking a paper on a clipboard. I began to clamber down the ladder, but a quarter way there, I gripped the side of the ladder with both hands and lifted one of my feet so it could touch the side of the ladder. If I remove my left foot off the ladder, I will be in a free fall. I prayed hard and reluctantly removed my left foot of off the ladder to meet the side of it. I began sliding down with great speed. My palms were burning and my flesh was slowly ripping off. I came into a crash with the floor below. I didn't seemed to notice how far away I was from the ground. I butt crashed landed and lay on the floor tired and greasy. I sat up and looked at my palms. They were bloody red and the pain was unbearable. Shouldn't had done that even if my life depended on it. I got up trying hard not to use my palm as an assist. I looked around, looking for that squirrel.
"This way!" I heard it yelled. I began to notice it, near a big tank filled with chocolate. I ran and caught up with the squirrel. "This is my machine. I can't seem make it work anymore. Can you fix it?" It asked. There was a big, inactive beater in the tank. The smell of chocolate warmth nose and soothed my mind. I took a look at the control panel.
There were three levers and four colored lights. Red, blue, yellow and green. There was a start button at the bottom. I pushed it and the green color light lit up. My guess would be pulling the right lever as the green light was at the right. So I squeezed the handle with my palm, enduring the pain and pulled the lever down. There was a loud buzzing sound and the lever quickly shot back up. I was stunned and confused about this machine and its puzzle. The green light was still lit. I placed my finger on my chin, thinking hard. My body slowly took over me. I began to pull the left lever without any warning. The green light lit off and the yellow colored light lit up. The yellow light was located above the center lever, just to the left of it. I squeezed my grip on the handle and pulled the middle lever. The yellow light shut off and the blue light lit up. The blue light was located above the center lever, but just to the right of it. This got me rather confused and thinking. I scratched my head and looked at the squirrel. The squirrel looked back at me and shrugged. I placed my grip on the center lever, hoping it was correct, but a loud ding sound out and the blue light disappeared. The last light was the red. It was located above the left lever. This was rather easy. I took a deep breath and pulled the last lever down, the right lever. The whole machine sprang back to life, and the beater began to turn, mixing the chocolate. I licked my lips in hunger. I snapped back to my senses and needed to finish the last task.
The squirrel left its post for a while, leading me to the chocolate tower. There was this cave that the squirrel lead me to. It was dark and musty. I had to shimmy my way through the entrance before the path way became clear. There was this circular staircase made entirely out of stone. I felt for its texture, running my finger on it. It was smooth and rigid at the same time. The squirrel scurried up the stairs all the way to the top. I took two steps at a time, running my way to the top. I nearly tripped once when I was running, but I got my balance back. When I reached to the top, I was filled with awe and amazement as I could see the cave very clearly from this angle. The squirrels looked like ants and the imps looked like flies. Behind me lay a field of rocks and...I squinted my eyes...corpses! I saw the dead corpses of zombies and skeletons. Cold air brushed my skin and my hair raised on end. I shivered and thought of horrible things that had happened. My head began pounding, smashing my skull. My head throbbed in pain as I clutched the side of it, yelling and screaming in confusion and agony. The squirrel quickly ran off calling for help as I was beyond help alone. I knelt down gritting my teeth, shutting my eyes and screaming uncontrollably. My body stiffened itself and I lay on the floor. The air was cold and it began prickling my flesh like thousand needles. I was breathing irregularly and my breath became a cold mist. My skin turned white slowly and I could feel the cold. So...cold. I lay on the floor, numbly and heard the siren from a distance. My eyes were wide opened, the throbbing stopped but my body was numb from the cold. What was happening?
The place grew dark and quiet. The cold air ran around my body. I could feel it prancing around like a leprechaun, laughing joyfully at me. I moved my arm and the ice cracked away. I forced my way back up to my feet, breathing the cold air. My breath has become a mist. Singlet and black long trousers didn't help at all. I dug into my bag and took out the equipment box. I lift of the lid, easier this time and took out the match box. I lit the match up shakily and it died out a few seconds after. I looked out into the dark field and noticed a lone figure, walking its way towards the tower. The handle bar was covered in ice and a long, mini stalactite formed under itself. The handle bar creaked and it gave way. My body was cold, so my reaction was slow. I began to fall off the tower and crashed on a few stuff before falling on my back. I coughed hard and my lungs began to hurt. I swallowed nothing and sat up. My back screamed at me silently, cursing at me.
"Get stuffed." I groaned and stiffly got to my feet. I staggered around for awhile as my vision was throbbing. The lone figure walked up to me. The equipment box dropped beside me. What a coincidence. A single flare rolled up to my boot and I grabbed it. I pulled the string that was hanging on the back of the flare and it lit up with a red smoke. Red light emitted from the front of the flare, followed by the red smoke. The lone figure turned out to be the girl that I met with the candy in her hand. I backed away, feeling uneasy and anxious. The girl had a sick grin plastered on her face. It was terrifying and horrible at the same time. I backed away quicker and seemed to stumble on the equipment box. My hand pricked itself on the envelope opener. Blood slowly oozed out from my thumb and ring finger. I grabbed the handle, feeling the stinging pain of the cold metal on my flesh and wound. I brought it up to our eye level and swung it around threateningly. She still continued to pursue forward, only this time more amused as ever. I came to a dead end. I felt the cold stone wall of the tower. I looked up and saw the mess I made while falling. This is now or never. If I never attack, I may end up dead, but I suck at sword fighting!
"Whatever." I moaned and quickly thrusts the envelope opener forward. For a while, the sound of a deep wound filled my head, but soon, the silent filled in. I opened my eyes and noticed that my face and fingers were caked in blood. Right before my eyes, lay nothing. The envelope opener was all bloodied and dented. Could it be my imagination? Or was she really gone. I took a deep breath and exhaled. I looked up and screamed in terror as her face was inches from mine. She grabbed my neck and lifted me off the ground. The tip of my boots were scratching the surface of the floor. She was sucking the air out of me, slowly. Darkness filled up inside of me like wild fire. I was slowly loosing my strength to fight on, but something inside of me never gave up. She was laughing, her skin was rotten and horrible. I was quickly filled with panic and fear. It punched her face a couple of times, but it did no good. Only strands of blood dripped over my face. I shut my eyes and breath as hard as I could.
I opened my eyes and I was laying on the cold floor. I quickly stumbled to my feet and looked around. The girl was there, she smiled at me, a smile that calmed me down. Was it a crazy dream? My heart was pounding and my body was all shaken up. I fell to my knees and buried my face onto my hands, feeling safer than before. I slowly brought my hands down and noticed the envelope opener. It was bloodied and dented. A sharp sickening pain let loose around my gut. I slowly, -not wanting to see it- looked down at my gut and blood darken itself on my gray singlet.
"Ugh.." I can't seem to say anything as I was in pain. My lips were red from the blood. The girl quickly ran up to me and assisted me up, but I quickly pushed her back. The dream felt so real. She was there, I was there and she was trying to kill me. "Stay...barck..." I couldn't speak properly as my mouth was filled with blood. I spit out the blood and got up. I clenched the wound, failing miserably at stopping the blood. I heard loud groans and moans of the undead. They are here, and I can't seem to go anywhere in this position I'm in. I trotted forward tightening my face every step I took. This Easter has been one hell of a mine cart ride to hell and heaven. As I was nearing the edge of the climb I fell to my knees and couldn't move. The ice around me began to stiffen and it crawled its way to my feet. I was jammed to the ground by ice and it slowly made its way to my waist. I began to breath short and quickly. More mist from my breath. A loud siren would be great right now, but it won't happen anytime soon. I'm as good as...
"Get up!" The girl smashed the ice with a piece of rock. It shattered around me. She got my arm and gently got me to my feet. "If you want to live, you better start running. You can't fight them, you have to run!" The girl whispered to me. She healed the wound by gently running her finger on it. The flesh closed the wound and fixed itself. I nodded and climbed down the ladder, escaping this nightmare. I was halfway down until the bottom part of the ladder was missing. I cursed under my own breath and looked down. It was dark and ominous. I dug into my pocket and took out another flare which I had taken from the equipment box. I lit it up and tossed it down. It seemed to go down and down until it stopped. I could jump down, but it could hurt my legs. I didn't care though as the moaning and groaning seemed to sound as though as they are just right above me. I jumped and spotted my landing. As my feet touched the ground, I bent my knees no more than ninety degrees and rolled forward, keeping my running momentum going. I heard drops of the undead from behind. I picked up the flare and began to run. The cold seemed to disappear as I ran further. I kept on running, glancing back from time to time. I stopped to take a breather. Looks like they had lost me. A loud siren boomed the area and the dark lifted itself. Lights flickered on and off before forcing themselves alive. I was rather glad to see the chocolate factory again, but, an unsuspecting voice rattled my inside. I spun around and what met my eyes was truly shocking...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See Ya!
