Caught-Part 4
A.K.A-'My Better Than Life'
Hello! Sorry for the LONG wait! I dunno what's wrong! Okay...erm. Here it is! And did you notice how creative my title is! sarcastically rolls eyes Anyway...that doesn't matter. I should have named it 'Caught' or something. Well, too late now! Be warned...next chapter will be under the name of 'Caught'. So, basically, I'm changing the name of this fic, but don't be alarmed. Okay, stop listening to my rant and go read! (Revised AN: And I DID!)
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Rimmer painful rippled into existence on the sandy paradise beach that he had been before. Only instead of a bright sunny day, it was like being in the middle of a hurricane. The palm trees were leaning heavily to one side as the wind pushed hard against them. Rain was pouring down, feeling almost like tiny bullets. The 'sand' he was standing on was nothing more than mud, as far as the eye could see. The gentle waves that had been there before had turned into great monsters, that grew bigger by the second, then slammed down onto the land. Storm clouds were crashing in, with great rolls of deep thunder and flashing lightening.
Suddenly, one of the palm trees snapped, and the top part of it came whooshing towards him. He heard a shout from somewhere else, then ducked. He slipped, then fell flat on his face in the mush. He shook his head, then glanced back up. A great mother of a wave was looming over him, getting ready to let go all of its anger.
He saw a blur in the corner of his eye, then felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Prettier than even Yvonne McGruder. She had a round cheery face, her cheeks deep red from the force of the wind, and her shoulder length hair whipped around her head. A few strands of chocolate brown hair slapped into his face, as he stared open mouthed.
"Come on!" She yelled over the howling of the wind, as she tugged at his arm. He scrambled up, and followed her as they both ran away from the center of the storm. Looking back, he saw that the golden door that had been the entrance to BTL, had been ripped from the sand, and was now soaring in the air. The wind carried most of it towards a small shelter 10 yards away, that just happened to be where they were going. It reached there before them, and flew through the roof of the shack. The roof caved in from the impact, until it was just a pile of wood and glittering gold.
"Smeg!" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. Rimmer vaguely wondered why he hadn't arrived within the doors like he had last time, but didn't have time to speculate. The storm clouds fully covered the overcast sun, until the land was shrouded in darkness. It was midnight black, which surprised both of them. The girl tripped, and slammed into the ground. Rimmer heard a sickening crunch, and a gasp of pain. He didn't know what to do. Slowly, he sank down onto the ground next to her fallen body. He reached out a hand, to see if she was alright, but was met with a sticky, gooey substance, he had a feeling was blood.
"Are you alright!" He sighed over the deafening wind. "Ughn..." was all she answered back.
Then, the storm was upon them. The wind was strong enough to push even a quarterback across a football field. The rain came down so thick that it was like a sheet of ice cold water. Lightening lit the sky right next to them. In that second, he looked over at her. Her pain-filled eyes caught his, as thunder erupted right above them. Then, another round of lightening flashed right at them, and Rimmer had the strange feeling of conducting electricity.
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Rimmer came around on hard frozen dirt. He groaned, and only then did he notice that he had passed out. He looked around for the girl that had been there with him, and found her huddled in a ball a few feet away. They were in a cave, fog obscuring the opening. He heard distant rumbling, and knew they were safe from harm at the moment.
He sat up, and felt a prickling in his right leg. He looked down, and saw blood pumping out of his torn pant leg. He was fine everywhere else except there. He looked up at the girl, who had her head in her hands. "Are you okay?" his raspy voice asked quietly.
She jerked awake, her hands thrashing out as if in a defensive position. "You're awake! I'm so glad. I'm fine. Are you okay; how do you feel!"
Rimmer shrugged. "Just my right leg. Its throbbing and it hurts." She nodded, reaching out her hand slowly, until it was gently placed on his leg. He winced in pain. "Well, you're lucky. This place is crazy. Lightening went right through your leg and into the ground."
Rimmer's mouth popped open as she said this. She got up, and hissed in pain as she put pressure on her left foot. Rimmer used a cave wall to help himself up, then he lent an arm for her to hold on to.
"I'm Arnold Rimmer, by the way."
"Laurie Hillurberry. I'm American. And I can hear you're British."
"Yeah. What happened?"
"Well, I tried out the new Total Immersion Video Game, Better Than Life. It had just been given out to the public. Next thing I know, I'm in the middle of a storm, and stuck in this game."
Rimmer scratched his head, trying to make sense of it. He had played it with Lister and Cat, and it had worked perfectly.
"I don't get it. I've played this once before, and nothing bad happened...well. None of this nature-is-trying-to-kill-us."
"I got my game used. I think that it's a design fault. After you have played it once, it starts to break down."
"Wait. Did you say you played it once it came out! Over three million years ago!"
Laurie gasped, and watched him in disbelief. "Three million years! I've been stuck in here a long time, but not THAT long!"
"That means that even if we do find a way out of here, you won't have a body to go back to!"
"Oh, smeg."
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Okay, I just wanted to tell you that time in the real world is longer than time in Better Than Life.