Chapter 6
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
- Helen Keller
Spikemon opened his eyes. He was in a narrow space, stretched out on a towel, and the light was dim. He sniffed, wondering where he was and why his arm hurt. Gradually he remembered that he was in Zach's room behind the bed, and his arm was sore from Hissmon's bites. He licked his swollen, feverish skin, then rested his head on the towel. Zach must have already gone to school. Spikemon could hear Zach's mother tidying up the house. He listened to her movements, too ill to care.
After a while he heard her close and lock the front door, and knew she was gone. He heaved himself to his feet and dragged himself through the house, looking for water. His questing nose guided him to the bathroom, where he found a tall porcelain well of water. He slaked his thirst and returned to Zach's room, dizzy and feverish, and climbed up on the bed. He burrowed under the covers and fell asleep for the rest of the day, comforted by Zach's smell.
Zach was overtired, and could not focus on his classes. He had slept poorly that night, constantly waking up to check Spikemon, who kept whimpering in his sleep. When he did drop off, he dreamed of Loricamon evaporating into data fragments.
"Zacheriah!" snapped his history teacher.
Zach looked up to find the eyes of the whole class on him.
"What year did the Civil War begin?"
He was aware she had asked him the question once already. He dredged his mind for a pertinent date, turned up nothing, and ventured, "1776?"
The class guffawed, and the teacher fixed him with an irritated stare. "The answer is 1861, Holling. Pay attention next time!"
Zach looked down, furiously embarrassed, aware that Rick Sterling was leering at him. He tried to pay attention for the remainder of the class, but his mind kept wandering back to Spikemon.
The bell rang, and Zach joined the crowd swarming into the hall. PE was next, he remembered with an inner groan. Why they had it on Friday was beyond him. Maybe they wanted to make their victims sore all weekend.
He deposited his books in his locker, then hurried out to the football field behind the school. He knew he had phys-ed with Rick and his buddies, and felt a stony resentment building up in him. They would pick on him and push him around and--no, don't think about that. Think about how strong you need to be to survive in the Digital World.
But it was lousy. They ran fifteen laps around the field, with Rick pelting him with dirty words and bits of gravel. Then they played a vicious game of dodgeball, and Rick kicked the ball into Zach's stomach and winded him.
After that was lunch, and Zach sat with Savannah in the cafeteria, staring at his plate and knowing he would throw up if he took a bite. He slumped in his chair and closed his eyes.
"Hey," Savannah said in a low voice, "how's Spikemon?"
"Pretty sick," Zach mumbled. "He whined all night, and he was asleep when I left."
"Hissmon's bad off, too," said Savannah, drawing patterns on her tray with her fork. "I told Mom he's a boa constrictor from school who got hurt and they need me to nurse him. I put him in an old fish tank. He just sleeps."
Zach folded his arms over his aching stomach and shut his eyes again. "I wish we could go live in the Digital World."
"I've been trying to think of a way to spend the weekend there," said Savannah. "Maybe if I told Mom I was staying at your house, and you told your mom you were staying at my house..." She paused.
Zach opened his eyes. The freshman girl with her hair in braids was standing at their table, gazing at Zach. As he looked at her, she murmured, "Have you done any more dinosaur drawings?"
"No," he said. "I don't draw dinosaurs."
"Oh." She looked down and walked away, so inconspicuous she blended into the background at once.
Savannah peered after her. "She's in my music appreciation class. I never noticed her before."
The bell rang and the two parted ways until three-thirty, when they met in the parking lot and walked home together. Zach was feeling better by this time, and was worrying about Spikemon. "If they're both so sick they can't fight, what's the point of having a Digimon?" he said. "Do you think they have Digimon doctors?"
"Doctormon," said Savannah, and laughed. "We could try looking."
"That's another thing," said Zach, shifting his backpack. "Every time we enter the Digital World, we enter at the same point. So we could travel as far as we'd like, but if we leave we have to come back to the starting point. Which makes the whole thing pointless."
"We'd have to stay there and not leave," said Savannah. "Like I said, if we could spend the weekend..."
They managed it in the end. They told their parents they would be at each other's houses all weekend, and Zach secretly collected his old camping gear from the garage and stashed it in his room. It seemed so impossibly easy that Zach was certain something would go wrong, but so far nothing had happened.
Spikemon was quite ill, but he dragged himself out of Zach's bed and sniffed at the sleeping bags, rolled up tent, and box of assorted campfire cookware. "What's this for, Zach?"
"We're gonna stay in the Digital World all weekend," said Zach in a low voice, so his mother wouldn't overhear. "We're going to find a doctor for you and Hissmon."
"Oh," said Spikemon, his eyes lighting. "There's doctors in Gigaterra. It's a three day walk from Digiforum, but a Railmon track runs near there."
"What, like a train?"
"Like a Railmon. But they're hard to catch."
Savannah arrived at Zach's window a little after seven that evening. He opened the window and helped her climb in, for she was lugging a full backpack, and had Hissmon looped around her neck.
"You got the food?" he asked as she sat on his bed, puffing.
"Yeah," she said. "I cleaned out the pantry." She looked at his camping gear. "Can you carry that?"
"Sure." Zach loaded the cookware into his backpack, and stuffed the sleeping bags in the top. Then he heaved his fifteen-pound burden onto his back and pulled out his digivice.
Spikemon emerged from under the bed with Zach's baseball bat in his teeth. He held it as the portal opened. The bat had reverted to its original inanimate state upon returning to the real world, which Zach had been happy about, but Spikemon thought it was a shame.
"Digiport open," said Zach.
A few minutes later Zach, Savannah, their digimon and their gear were in the Digital World, surrounded by tranquil blue evening. Added to their party was Base, for the baseball bat had reawakened upon his conversion to data.
"Digiforum first," said Zach, drawing a deep breath of the fresh air.
"Sure, right, good idea," said Base. "And stop chewing on my handle, lizardface!"
Spikemon dropped Base in the grass. "I wasn't chewing on your--"
"I know what chewing feels like," said the bat, his beady eyes indignant. "That was chewing."
"Shut up," said Zach. He picked up the bat and shoved him into his backpack, 'head' first. Base's protests were muffled by the sleeping bags.
The group set out toward Digiforum, traveling slowly to allow Spikemon to keep up. Savannah glanced at the baseball bat protruding from Zach's pack. "You don't think he'll smother?"
"He's just a baseball bat," said Zach with a shrug. But he reached back and pulled Base out of confinement.
The bat gasped. "I couldn't breathe! Gah! When was the last time that stuff was washed?"
Zach carefully turned him around and stuck him back in his pack, this time with his tiny face showing.
"Wait a minute, I'm upside down," exclaimed Base. "I can't ride like this! I'll get motion sickness!"
"I need my hands free," said Zach. "And if I put you in right side up, you can't breathe."
"So you'd rather I puke all over your neck," retorted the bat. "Hey, that's fine with me. I can't complain. I like it up here."
"Shut up!" chorused Savannah, Zach, Spikemon and Hissmon.
"Sorry I told you to take him out," muttered Savannah.
"Me too," said Zach, glancing back at Spikemon. "I wonder if we can get a cart or something for Spikemon in Digiforum."
"Maybe, if it hasn't all burned down." Savannah fell silent until they reached the hilltop above Digiforum. It was no longer burning, but a smoky smell hung in the hair, and a few gloomy torches illuminated the blackened walls.
"Zach, what if our families find out we're gone?" said Savannah as they walked down the hill.
Zach shrugged, unwilling to think about it. "We'll go back Sunday night. It's not like we'll be gone all week or something."
The digimon in Digiforum were ash-stained, weary, and suspicious of the humans.
"Go away," said Geckomon. "If not for you, everything wouldn't have burned down. Go away before someone takes your data!"
The digidestined found themselves shut out of the town with the gates barred in their faces.
"Some thanks!" spat Zach. "We saved their worthless butts, and they blame us for the fires!" He stalked off around the side of the town. Savannah shook her head and waited for him. Spikemon stayed with her, too weary and sick to follow Zach.
Hissmon's head lifted on his sinuous neck, and wove out into the air, tongue flickering. "What's that?" he whispered. "Do you smell that?"
Savannah sniffed, but her human nose was weaker than Hissmon's tongue.
Spikemon sniffed, too. "Yeah, something's out here," he said with disinterest. "Rookie, whatever it is."
"A rookie out alone at night?" said Hissmon, weaving back and forth. "I don't like it." He continued to taste the air. As he did, Savannah thought she saw movement near the trees fifty feet away. She gazed at the spot, but saw nothing else.
A soft rumble drew their attention back to the town's walls, and they saw Zach returning, pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him. "Look what I found," he called. "It was out on a trash heap because one handle's broken." The wheelbarrow was made of a green plastic-like substance, and one handle was broken in two. But it would do.
Zach lifted Spikemon into the barrow, and he and Savannah deposited their packs in it. Then they pushed it out into the field behind Digiforum, Hissmon still hanging from Savannah's shoulders, his tongue flicking in and out.
They made camp against the eaves of the forest to the north of Digiforum. When Zach cursed himself for forgetting to pack matches, Spikemon took careful aim at their pile of sticks and unleashed a Spark Blast attack. The fire caught at once.
Zach made a bed for Spikemon in the wheelbarrow, for the little dinosaur had taken a fancy to this new vehicle. Zach unrolled his sleeping bag nearby, and stared as Savannah lay down with Hissmon coiled under her head as a pillow. "You're going to sleep with a snake?"
"I resent that," said Hissmon.
"He says he's keeping watch," said Savannah. "He thinks something's following us."
Spikemon lifted his head, and vowed to himself that he would keep watch, too.
Zach shook his head and lay down, too tired to care. He watched the digital stars for a while, and dozed off listening to the breathing of his four companions.
Morning came, slow and quiet. Zach was awakened by the call of a strange bird. He opened his eyes and saw a creature like a blue cat with wings glide over their camp and land far out in the field. After a moment its mate flew out to it. Watching this, Zach was sharply reminded that he was in a strange world, and knew nothing about it.
Savannah was asleep with her head pillowed on Hissmon's coils. Zach could hear twin snores rising from Spikemon and Base in the wheelbarrow, and smirked. So much for anyone keeping a lookout. He sat up and stretched. His internal clock told him it was 5:26 AM. He had not awakened so early in years.
He pulled on his shoes and took a walk along the forest rim. Birds were singing, some familiar and some alien. Zach felt a thrill; two whole days of excitement stretched before them.
As he walked back to camp, he remembered Spikemon's digivolution, and the data stick that had appeared in the nick of time. He recalled putting it in his pocket. He slapped his pockets, remembered he was wearing a different pair of pants, and then discovered the stick in his pocket after all. Maybe it appeared on his person only while he was in the Digital World. He pulled it out and examined it.
It was a millimeter thick, three inches long, and made of white plastic. Engraved on the top was an abstract emblem that could have been a tongue of flame, and it was the same shade of red as his digivice.
Zach pulled out his digivice from around his neck, and looked at the two input slots. "I wonder what the second one does," he thought. As he slipped the stick back in his pocket, he was struck again by his vast ignorance of the Digital World.
He sat down on his sleeping bag and cycled through the menus on his digivice, looking for a map function. He didn't find one, but ran across a submenu that allowed for Digital World downloads. He opened it, and watched as his digivice made a remote connection to the Digital World matrix, and requested today's available downloads. Zach grinned. Available downloads were News, Weather, Games, and Modify Patches.
Under Weather he found a radar map with Digiforum marked by a small black dot. There were a few other black dots: Gigaterra, Chipset, Rom, and Vinegarden. There was even a piece of land visible off the coast called File Island. He also noted that the weather forecast called for sun and light wind today and tomorrow. A paragraph at the bottom informed him that Digital World weather was based on a fractal chaos model and was 50% predictable 50% of the time.
He looked up as Spikemon yawned. "Hi," whispered the dinosaur, blinking.
"Morning," whispered Zach. "Want breakfast?"
"Heck yeah." Spikemon stood up in the wheelbarrow and handed Zach Savannah's food-stuffed backpack. His bitten forearm was curled and stiff, but he seemed better than he had the previous day.
Savannah awoke as Zach was warming a foil-wrapped package of leftovers over the fire. She pushed aside the sleeping Hissmon and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "You're making meatloaf for breakfast?"
"Why not?" said Zach. "You ought to check out your digivice downloads, they rock."
Savannah first retreated behind a bush to dress herself, then brushed her hair with one hand while she examined her digivice with the other. Zach served her breakfast, and she ate it without noticing. "Zach, listen to this! 'Hydramon has taken credit for the latest attacks on Binary Plateau. These attacks left 30 deleted and 50 damaged. There is a demand for vaccines in adjoining areas.'"
Spikemon looked out of the wheelbarrow. "Cool! I could help!"
"Me too," Base chimed in. "I'm a sport-type, right? I could cheer up the survivors by holding baseball games!"
"Dream on," said Hissmon, who was basking in the heat from the campfire. "They want warriors, not entertainment."
"Entertainment is good," said Base.
"So they're having a war?" said Zach, chewing. "Bummer."
"More like an Ultimate got too big for his britches," said Spikemon. "Say, that stuff smells good, gimme some."
"You mean this kind of stuff happens?" Savannah asked in outrage. "Big digimon just attack towns and kill people for fun?"
"There's usually a reason," said Hissmon, lifting his scaly head off the grass. "Maybe he wanted their data. Or he wanted to test his power. Or he wanted slaves."
"How would you know?" snapped Spikemon. "I'll bet you virus-types think about it all the time."
"Knock it off," said Zach, handing Spikemon a plate of warmed-over meatloaf.
"Food!" said Spikemon, and ate everything in four bites.
Savannah fed Hissmon and asked Base if he wanted anything, but the baseball bat had no stomach and could not eat. "Besides, you're just a weapon-type," said Zach, scanning the baseball bat with his digivice. "Technically you're not supposed to be able to talk."
"But I'm from the real world, so I'm the exception to every rule," said Base smugly.
They broke camp shortly afterward and traveled on, Zach pushing the wheelbarrow, and Savannah absorbed in digivice newscasts. The sun climbed above the trees to their left, throwing long bands of light across the meadow. If he hadn't been worried about Spikemon, Zach would have been perfectly happy.
Following Spikemon's instructions, they found a trail through the trees eastwards. "After a mile or so is a Railmon station," said the green dinosaur, lying in the wheelbarrow like a king in a litter. "Hopefully one will pick us up."
"You mean you have to talk them into it?" said Zach. He imagined a sort of long-legged creature pulling a cart along train rails, and only stopping when someone flagged it down.
Spikemon nodded. "We'll have to buy tickets, but yeah."
The land became rolling, and the trail wandered over wooded hills, never quite straight.
"Who made this path?" said Savannah, tiring of Digital World News and noticing her surroundings.
"The trees, of course," said Hissmon. "All roadmaking is managed by the tree-types. If they didn't see to the roads, there would be no passing through."
Savannah saw Zach was tiring and offered to push the wheelbarrow. He gave it up in relief. He was developing a headache, probably from forgetting to bring his medication.
As they walked, the birdsong around them slowly fell silent. Zach paid no attention, but Savannah peered up at the trees. "Zach, listen. It's so quiet."
Zach looked around. "Maybe they don't like humans."
Hissmon and Spikemon sniffed, heads turning. "I don't smell any digimon," muttered Spikemon.
After a moment, Hissmon agreed, "Me neither."
"How odd," said Savannah.
Suddenly a new sound echoed through the quiet woods; the unmistakable shriek of a train whistle. "Hurry, we're gonna miss it!" exclaimed Spikemon. Zach resumed pushing the wheelbarrow, and they sprinted up the path.
Two bends later they came to a wooden platform beside a single rail that stretched into the east and west. Chugging up to the platform was a great hairy engine, puffing steam from bulldog-like jaws. Where a headlight should have been was a pair of yellow eyes, which rolled at them as they pounded up the platform steps.
The engine-digimon was towing three passenger cars. As he stopped, the doors opened and a small group of Geckomon disembarked, carrying packages of food for their friends in Digiforum. They eyed the Digidestined suspiciously and swarmed away down the trail, muttering and honking the horns around their necks.
"We need tickets to get on," said Spikemon. He placed eight gold coins in Zach's hand and pointed to a ticket booth on a corner of the platform. Zach walked up and deposited the coins in a slot, and four tickets appeared through a hole in the window, although he could see no one inside.
"Well? Get on!" thundered the Railmon. Startled, Savannah stepped into the first car and helped Zach lift the wheelbarrow inside. They didn't know what to expect from the inside of a living train, but the passenger cars had ordinary leather seats and glass windows.
They had scarcely sat down when their tickets dissolved in their hands, the doors slapped shut, and Railmon leaped out of the station. Savannah and Zach gripped the sides of their seats as the train accelerated. Spikemon, unperturbed by their speed, climbed out of the wheelbarrow and sprawled across two seats. Across from him, Hissmon lifted his rope-like neck to look out the window. Noticing the humans' discomfort, he said, "There's handgrips on the ceiling."
There were leather straps fastened above their heads, and Zach and Savannah grabbed them.
"What's the matter, never rode a train before?" asked Spikemon, amused.
"Not really," said Zach, watching the trees fly by his window. "Just airplanes."
"Oh, we have some Jetmon," said Spikemon. "I've never rode one before, though. They're Mega-level robot-type, and they don't like passengers."
Behind them, looming above the trees like a monstrous statue, sat Condormon, his weight cracking the branch beneath him. He watched as the train vanished from sight, then beat his wings and soared into the blue sky. As he departed, birds burst into fresh song in the forest.
On the ground, a rookie-level digimon watched Condormon's flight through narrowed eyes. Then he set off at a lope along the track, following the train.