A blink.
A blink again.
Yet another.
Two blurry cameras trying to remember how to be useful. With each snap of the shutters, focus slowly waded back into his mind.
The brain was already racing with what power it had left, demanding the body vacuum air. Deep, fast breaths express-shipping oxygen to neurons that desperately needed it.
As his eyes sputtered into function, what he saw were his arms. Strewn about in disarray. How did I-
Mario recalled the last memories he could.
Car.
Cliff.
Pauline.
Move. California.
Portal. Gorilla. Big.
It attacked.
We fell off the cliff.
Streaks of blood ran from his head, flowing down his face to the tip of his nose, and he laid there and watched them drop down. Down. Down. Down...
Down. He was looking down.
As the blood hit the floor with a rather uneasy splat, Mario snapped to attention, realizing what was wrong.
My feet should be on the floor...
That..that looks like roof...but...
He turned his head to the side window. The glass has shattered into a million pieces, but the frame...the frame was upside down. The car was upside down. He was upside down.
Fuck.
He reached up with his left arm and undid the seatbelt. Thank God that hadn't gotten crushed. He had to get out of the car, who knows how long it would be before help came. Since the glass in the window was broken, crawling through it would be-
"AAAAAURGH!"
He shot his head down. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. My leg. My-my fucking ankle.
Nothing had pierced it, but the radiating pain in his foot was still there. Probably got banged against the fucking car when we crashed. Grabbing the back of his leg, Mario lifted his foot off the ground. A small sway of his leg, dangling his foot in the air, was enough to elicit a scream.
So he screamed.
Already starting to sweat, Mario held on to his injured leg. Focus on getting out the window. Don't even fucking look at it. No time to panic. Why would you panic? Why are you even surprised? You fell off a cliff. Just gotta get out of here. Just. Get. Out.
He lifted it up just enough for his other leg to slide under it. Pushing his legs up and carefully holding them in the air, he turned on his back. Perpendicular with the window. Now to get out of here. Pushing off of his back, Mario shuffled his shoulders and squirmed out the car headfirst. The icy snow ran down his back more and more as he inched his out of the Ferrari. He kept his eyes on his busted ankle. It was already hurting now, but if he let bang down n anything while getting out of the car, it would really sting like a bitch. As his foot came from out the car, Mario let it rest in the snow. Ice is good for a bum ankle, right?
Pushing his upper body out of the snow, Mario sat up to look around. A landmark. A road sign. A building. Anything.
Nothing. Way too dark to see far off. He could make out a scatter of trees around him. Nothing else. Trees and snow.
And a leg.
What the- Mario looked down. The 328's headlights were still on, and Mario saw a gigantic hairy leg sticking out from underneath the car. He followed his eyes up and saw a hand, just a few feet from the window he just escaped from.
"Holy shit," he whispered. "It really was a...a...a fucking gorilla. Holy shit."
He put his hand on his hat. "Fucking Christ. That really happened. This is really fucking happening. Holy fuck. What do I do now?"
He looked around one more time, the headlights illuminating more broken glass and scraps of metal he hadn't noticed before. "The Turbo's toast. Don't even know where the fuck...we are. Shit, I'm gonna freeze if I don't do something fast."
He quickly planted his feet to get up.
He regretted it even faster.
"FUUUUUUUUCK!" He rolled over on his stomach, hands already grabbing at his ankle. "SHIT, THAT AINT HAPPENING!...FUCK!"
On his hands and knees, he crawled towards the car. He had to move. He had to move. This is about survival now. I can use the car to get back on my feet. Foot. Fuck.
As he waved his hand to look for something to grab-
Sssssssssssss...
Mario froze. Something was making a noise.
Sssssssssssss... He swung his head around. Oh fuck. He was in no condition to deal with a wild animal. Even more so a pack.
Sssssssssssss...
"Wait..." It was coming from the car. That's...steam."
He shot his hand down. The headlights are still on. Something else in the care probably still on too. Shit, I.. almost burned myself reaching around blind.
There had to be something he could use to prop himself up. Hold on...maybe the tire's cold enough.
The headlight clearly showed where the tire was. Mario crawled a few feet close and grabbed the tire spoke. He hoisted himself up while pushing off of his good foot and letting his bad ankle hang just an inch or two off the ground. Back to a vertical base. He leaned against the car, resting. He took a few swipes at the snow on his body to knock it off him. The less snow on him, the longer he could last.
He looked down on the gorilla's hand, barely poking out from under the car. It hadn't moved an inch since Mario got out of the car. It seems like the Ferrari landed right on the primate's head when they fell off the cliff. Dead. Definitely dead.
"Good riddance you overgrown circus ape." Mario spat. "You ain't taking me with you. Hell naw. Not tonight."
Mario looked around again. The area seemed as empty as before. He could wander in any direction for who knows how long. Until he froze, probably. Still, staying here wasn't an option. "That gorilla took us through a portal right?" Mario recalled. Yeah. The hell was that shit about. We might not even be in Brooklyn right now. Please, let me be in a place where they speak English.
He looked up at the sky. "Where are you Polaris you son of a bitch? You gotta be somewhere...right? He turned his head around slowly. Just gotta find the constellations. Big Dipper...Little Dipper...there we go. North Star. Gotcha. Now at least I know what directions are where. Just gotta pick which one to go in. He looked around. Huh. More trees in the east and west directions. There ain't really too much snow this way either...is this a road? Mario kicked the ice under his foot until he felt something much harder hit his shoe. The headlight showed white stripe on a black surface and. This is a road. And it was salted. Maybe I didn't get transported that far.
He slid his finger over his lip. A patch of blood stained his glove. No time to focus on that. Now I gotta pick. North or South. I could try walking in both directions for 10 minutes. On this ankle, I couldn't get too far though. Better than staying here. At least I know where to double back to.
Mario walked around the car. North it is.
A flash of light appeared as he rounded the totaled vehicle. Right in the middle of the road. Just lying there in the snow.
Is that another chunk of the car? Mario peered closer. No...It wasn't like all the other scraps of metal laid about. Instead of glinting from the moonlight or the headlight, it seemed to be, creating its own light? A glowy, shimmering light...
What is that thing? He took a step forward.
Once you use the Bit, you will start anew. And you will be in the game.
Mario spun around. "WHO THE FUCK-"
As he planted his bad foot, he fell back into the snow. He only felt the frost for a moment. Head moving in every direction as his heart pounded against his chest. Far too focused on the voice he just heard to feel the ice. Desperately trying to place it where the voice had come. Where. There? Over There? Maybe There?
No.
"Who are you?" The words shook as they emerged from his lips. Just as much as his body. A feeble cry into the pitch black night. Only the freezing winter winds responded with icy lashes at his body.
Chilling silence.
His fingers grew rigid, slowly balling up into fists. Fuck. This. He turned over on his stomach. With a stamp of his hands, he pushed himself off of the ground. As his feet hit the ground, his bad ankle gave out. He stumbled for a second before quickly catching himself.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" He shouted, turning his head. He was no one's toy. Even now as he stood in a frozen wasteland hobbled on one foot. He wasn't just gonna lie down and act pathetic. As no answer seemed to come to greet him, he down at the object. The...Bit?
"Seems you care about this." Mario bent over and scooped it up. "You want it? Come take it."
Use the Bit? Are you sure you wish to start anew in the game?
"Now that I know that you're here, you're gonna answer my questions." Mario looked around, slowly turning his head to scan the area around him. "Who, the absolute hell, are you?" Where the hell is that voice coming from? "What game are you talking about?" Shouldn't I be hearing an echo since I'm outside? I don't see anyone close by.
Warning: If you do not use the Bit, you are in danger of losing your life.
"What?!" Mario paused. "You saying I'm gonna freeze out here?"
A challenger will approach.
"A challenger? Regaining consciousnesses?" Puzzled, Mario looked at the Bi-
"NO..." He turned his head to the car in realization. Eyes glued at the gorilla underneath.
It's finger twitched.
"That thing's alive?! It fell off a cliff and got crushed by Pauline's car. PAULINE!" His eyes went wide. Holy fuck, he forgot about Pauline. The best girl he ever met. She was smart, funny, beautiful, kind, caring, everything.
And he'd left her in a car wreck with a fucking gorilla he'd THOUGHT was dead.
He ran back to the car, taking only a few steps before stumbling, dropping to a knee. I can't save Pauline on a fucked ankle. Even if I was fine, how could I protect her from an APE? If it's getting up soon, we need to be gone. We can't get far running. No doubt it could hunt us down."
His mind went back to the portal the gorilla used to get to the point, and the one it the car into. "It made those portals with this Bit, didn't it? Tell me how to use it! I'll use the bits! I'll join your game, just help me save Pauline!"
Are you sure you wish to continue?
"YES!"
