Episode 2: Fun in the Sun
I hit the water, hard. Amazingly, I remembered to grab my glasses and hold them tight before I thought to get a deep breath. I guess I was too busy screaming while falling. I gagged on a mouthful of water and flailed. In a brief moment of clarity, I cursed my inability to swim. If only I'd bugged Mom to take me to the pool for lessons when she was better, or irritated Shin or Shuu into teaching me. But nothing would have helped me, I'm sure, because all I ever did was sink like a rock.
"Marching Fishes!"
The increasingly familiar voice was dull through the water, but within moments, I felt something wriggling and jumping push me up, breaking me through the surface. I coughed and gagged, spitting up water, hoping to refill my lungs with air. I shook my head dry and looked around as bodies fell from the sky to land on... Fish?
Sure enough, as each of the others and their monsters fell, they were quickly caught by a rainbow of fish so closely grouped together that I was actually making a puddle on them. My not-so-little-anymore Bukamon was grinning at me and he said, "See, told you I had it covered."
"Where are we going?" Matt asked, being answered suddenly as we were flung onto the riverbank by a giant wave. The big beetle had fallen in after we did and the shock wave had finally reached us.
"What happened here?" I asked, upending my emergency bag. The rations were safe, thank God for plastic wrap, as was the first aid kid, my penknife, and my emergency glasses. My homework and textbooks, however, were ruined. I tried not to think of what my father would do when he found out I had to redo all of it. Despite their dripping, I stuffed them back in the bag and slung it around my shoulder. My back wasn't aching right now, but I'm sure that was just the adrenalin. I'd be feeling it again soon.
"Those are my friends," Bukamon said, happy as a lark. "I can call on them if I ever need any help."
"Shoo Shoobeedoo," I hear Mimi singsong.
Tai laughed, a breathless noise that let me know he was just as glad to be alive as the rest of us and he, well, I can't really say he sang – more like the noise a cat would make when it got ran over by a bike: "Call upon the Sea Ponies when you're in distress!"
That noise certainly brought down his cuteness factor.
Mimi squealed, bouncing in her boots. I realized then that I was the only one who had actually fallen in the water. Lucky jerks. "I knew I wasn't the only one who was thinking that!"
I tuned them out as the giant plant Tanemon had turned into began questioning Mimi. Sora, in no mood for any of their childishness, looked at her bird-Yokomon and asked it, "So, what happened to you?"
"We evolved," answered the dinosaur who had been Koromon.
The Digimon attempted to explain what had happened to them, something called Digivolving. Not only had they changed physically, but their names were different too. My Bukamon was now Gomamon.
Motimon to Tentomon. Tokomon to Patamon. Koromon to Agumon. Tsunomon to Gabumon. Tanemon to Palmon. And Yokomon to Biyomon.
Apparently there was something about us specifically that made these guys bigger way faster than any others. I looked at Gomamon and thought, 'There's no way I did that. Anything from me would only make you weaker...' It was probably something from one of the others that had helped him.
"So what are we going to do?" Matt was asking. "We can't just stand around and wait for something to come kill us, like bug-brain."
Kill us?! I can't let these kids get killed! If they do, I'll be the one blamed and then who knows what'll happen when my father finds out. It'll already be a huge mess when he hears that I was cliff diving with odd creatures.
"If only we could find other humans." I didn't want to admit that I didn't think we'd find any. Not with Godzilla-bug somewhere behind us. Then I remembered Mrs. Toriyumi. "O-or a phone. We could call for help. I'm sure we're just off the trail." That sounded believable, right?
"We're in another world, Joe," Matt snapped at me. I gave him a sudden look and swallowed hard. Why was it so difficult to say anything resembling sensible when I was around him? He made a face at me and turned away to start arguing with Tai.
Another world? No way, that can't be! This had to be some elaborate joke the camp was playing on us. Haha, look at the nerdy kid with the overbearing father squirm. Let's throw more bugs at him and see if he wets his pants before the five-year-old does.
"Let's explore around here," Matt was almost yelling at Tai.
"No!" I yelped. "We should wait for someone to come rescue us." Surely the counselors wouldn't keep up this charade all night?
"Noone's coming for us," Matt hissed with an all too real malice. It was like I'd suggested we find that bug and ask him for a pony ride. It actually kind of hurt that I'd offended him so easily. I wanted to apologize, but the Digimon were talking again and he wasn't paying attention to me anymore.
"There's never been anyone like you guys before. Only Digimon exist here."
I looked at Gomamon, to see if he was just as informative as Agumon. The little seal was yawning in boredom and looking at a yellow flower in the grass. Even in such a serious air, he couldn't be bothered to care! He must have noticed me looking at him because he grabbed the flower in his teeth and happily waddled over to me, spitting it on my shoe. He wiggled his tail like a proud puppy and I absently reached down to muss his ears. He reminded me of Mom's old chihuahua Princess, always yapping and happy to see anyone at all.
I missed that poor mutt...
"... What are we going to do if it gets dark?" Izzy asked in that same soft voice. He sounded like he wanted to be stuck here even less than I did.
"Who says it does?" Matt spat, just as angrily. It was my fault he was so mad, he didn't have to take it out on the poor kid...
I looked at Gomamon, telling him, "What we need to do, is find a cave to hide in. We'll stay there until Mr. Fujiyama, or Mrs. Toriyumi even, comes to find us." Even if this was some screwed up other world, wouldn't the whole camp have come with us?
Gomamon tilted his head. "What's a Misterfujiyama?"
I wasn't even going to dignify that with a response.
"We need to stay in one place and -"
"I saw the ocean when I was falling."
"- just wait to see if help will come for us." I closed my eyes and nodded. That sounded like a definite plan, and if any of the others had any respect for my "leader" armband, they would be listening.
"Joe!" Gomamon called from a distance. "The others are going to leave you behind!"
I yelped and looked around. Sure enough, the other kids were already disappearing into the forest, completely ignoring me! Oh, come on! I don't need this on top of everything else!
"W-wait!"
As it turned out, they weren't too far. Tai had found a pathway that ran right along the edge of the river and, for some reason, we'd all fallen in line behind him and Agumon. Gomamon made a happy murmur and leaped headfirst into the river, swimming alongside me- well, us. Apparently he wasn't terrified of the beetle monster rising up from his watery grave to take vengeance upon us. Wanting to make sure I wasn't about to lose any of them, lest we do find anyone to answer to, I took up the last spot in line. Sora and Izzy were talking about the trees and, as I slowly dried out from my unexpected bath, I felt a tickle in the base of my lungs. My asthma was behaving so oddly, that I didn't want to take a chance at it crippling me.
"I don't recognize the species," Izzy was saying, more to himself, though Sora nodded at him.
It must be these weird trees! These things that looked real, but had an interesting plastic shine to them, with fabric leaves drooping in huge clumps! They must have some stupid pollen that was attacking my bronchi.
"Whatever it is, I can't breathe so well," I grumbled, hearing the tell-tale wheeze. Despite it, I was still amazed at how in control of my breathing I was. Noone ahead of me seemed to care. "This entire place gets on my nerves."
"Your complaining is getting old," came a cold voice suddenly. I adjusted my glasses and looked up. Matt was glaring at me, mouth twisted into some grimace of a smile. Was he still mad at me? I grabbed the strap of my bag, blinking and trying to get my thick mouth to make any kind of noise. He kept glancing over his shoulder at me, as though expecting me to respond. As quickly and as quietly as I could, I grabbed my inhaler and breathed in the disgusting mist.
Nothing turned guys off more than seeing someone chained to a puffer. I think. I'm not too sure what turns guys on or off...
"Why are you way back here, anyway?" Matt asked me.
Why was he so determined to attempt conversation with me? Some twisted pity? An attempt to make me so tongue-tied I could only babble? I knew he could tell I was blushing every time he looked at me – I was pale enough to show it.
He blinked expectantly at me and I said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, I'm the oldest one here, so I should make sure I can keep everyone in my sight."
Great, real smooth. It sounded like I was covering up checking out the girls – well, boys, but he wouldn't know that.
"What does that have to do with anything?" He laughed, a warm, deep noise that my chest feel funny in a way that wasn't related to my asthma. "Everyone can fend for themselves."
Of course he'd say that. Someone like him, sharp eyed and bleached blonde – he was obviously some yakuza-wannabe punk. He probably knew how to make a shiv out of a candle, or whatever it is hoodlums do in their spare time. He probably didn't know the first thing about responsibility for others, or trying so hard to stay on the straight and narrow that things like friends, or dates, or even his own sexuality weren't even under his control. It made me mad all of a sudden, and I mumbled, "Everyone? Or you?"
That did it. He frowned, almost snarled, and turned away sharply. He stormed forward, hunching over TK, and doing his best to ignore me.
Way to go, Joe, you succeeded in pissing off the cutest boy you'd ever seen! At least I still had Tai to crush on for the moment, even if he did have a singing voice like a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards.
I sighed and looked at my shoes. How was I ever going to get out of this mess? I had to make sure all these other kids got back to camp safely, but there was nothing I could say to make them listen to me. The best I could do was make sure they all stayed together. A quick glance at Gomamon in the water beside us made me feel even worse. Not only did I have these kids to look after, now we each had some kind of Digital Pet, or whatever they called themselves, to looks after. Six was hard enough to deal with, and thirteen was downright ridiculous!
Besides, what would we do with them once we got back to camp? Mr. Fujiyama might think they were cute, but Mrs. Toriyumi would certainly never let them stay with us. She'd call animal control and they'd go straight to the pound, like a bunch of diseased dogs!
It was easier, I decided, to just let Gomamon swim alongside me and, when the time came, I'd tell him goodbye and good luck with that Digivolving stuff.
And whatever that ache in my chest was, well, it certainly wasn't because of having to let him go. It was probably just my asthma trying to get to me again.
"I smell salt water," Gabumon announced suddenly, and I heard Gomamon cheer and splash happily.
"The ocean!" Tai cried.
Bring. Bring.
"A telephone?" I heard Matt ask.
Wonderful! Despite what Tai said, we surely had just found our campsite! I was certain that was Mrs. Toriyumi's phone, and we'd be away from this weird place!
"Told you that was all we needed!" I yelped. I couldn't help but look at Matt, as though to tell him 'Other world, my foot!' He made a face at me, but I wasn't going to let that get me down. We'd be back to where we were supposed to be, I could get to my group, and hopefully I wouldn't get more than a few bruises once my father found out I'd wandered away!
We ran toward the sound as one, and I didn't even blink at the sight of the beach. The only thing that mattered were those odd phone booths. It wasn't Mrs. Toriyumi like I'd expected, but a phone was a phone! I heard Tai ask to borrow change and Izzy offer his phone card, but I rushed past them to an empty booth as far from the others as I could.
"He wants you to call every morning to ensure you're taking your responsibilities seriously."
Dread filled my stomach,but I found myself dialing home anyway. I didn't know the number to the campsite, and I couldn't think of what else to do. Hopefully, he was somewhere public and couldn't scream at me.
I felt Gomamon press against my leg and I looked down into his wide emerald eyes as he asked, "Hey, what's a 'parents'?"
The phone rang and rang.
I could hear the others getting frustrated, saying something about nothing being right. But I couldn't let that happen. I had to call my father, and let him know where I was. If he called the camp and they couldn't find me, he would go ballistic. Oh, God, he might even hurt Mom again! I couldn't live with myself if something I did made him hurt her.
The phone clicked to life and I yelped into the receive, "Hello? Father?" It was rude of me to speak first, but I had to make sure he knew what was going on.
"I'm sorry, but the cat you have dialed is up a tree. Leave a message at the scream. Eeeyaaahh!"
I yelped and threw the phone back on the cradle. Great, mom was on the phone! That meant my father was already at work, and I was not looking forward to having to interrupt him. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd called him at the hospital even though the number was written neatly next to the phone cradle. He always told me, "Only call in case of an emergency" while leaving off the "or else."
Well, I would think that waking up in a jungle next to a beach would constitute an emergency.
I begged and pleaded with whatever god was listening, though I wasn't sure if I wanted my father to pick up, or not be there. The receiver clicked, and once again I cautiously asked for my father, only to be told by that same voice, "To leave a message, press 1 now. To leave a fingerprint, press 2 now. $15 for the next 3 minutes."
There was no way that was mom. But it did sound like the stupid stuff she would say on one of her highs. Could her medication have possibly pulled her out of her depression so fast? But why would she answer at the hospital, when she'd already answered at home?
That's it! If no sane person will answer the phone at home or at the hospital, then I'll just have to call the school! Surely someone there will care that a group of their students is missing!
It took me three tires to remember the school's number, but still that strange voice yammered at me, "On the phone again, oh, I can't wait to get on the phone again. Please try again."
I slammed the receiver down and Gomamon gave me a funny look. I tried to hide the way my hands shook, or the way I felt like I just wanted to cry. I couldn't risk letting the other kids know how frustrated I was, or else I would never be able to be seen as the one in charge.
"Jyou, you jerk!" Great, there was no use hiding it now. Tai must have seen me throwing the stupid phone. "Bring that bag over here."
Bag?
The emergency bag?
That's right, this thing was Mimi's responsibility! Maybe if I could get her to listen to me, the rest would fall in line! I looked behind me where the rest of the kids were relaxing in the sand, like we were on some twisted vacation. Well, that didn't matter! I'd show them all that I mean business!
I did my best to storm over to them, though my shoes kept slipping in the sand, leading me to more or less shuffle. Wonderful, the all intimidating shuffle. I felt like a nerd.
I shoved the bag at Mimi, and she gave me a look like I was handing her a dead cat. "Well," I explained, trying not to snap. "Mimi was supposed to be carrying it!"
Please, Mimi, help me out here. I don't need this on top of everything else right now.
"It's too heavy for a girl like me," she pouted. Damnit! "You're a man, you carry it."
I closed my eyes and sighed. It was barely past noon, and already my blood pressure was through the roof. I knelt in the sand along with the rest of the lazy bums, and opened the bag. It felt nice to not have it's weight pulling on my bruise, and I wasn't sure if it was frustration or exhaustion making my hands shake as I pulled open the flap. Tai suddenly poked his head over my shoulder and I tried to yelp, but being so close to a cute boy made my throat close and it came out as more of a coughing hiccup. Could I be any more pathetic?
I counted out the emergency rations we'd been provided by the camp. I guess they'd expected that some of us would burn our first few meals but get the hang of it quickly because there were only a few small packages. High calorie, small portion things that would probably only make us hungrier, but I counted them out.
"With seven of us, three meals a day, we have..." I moved them around in front of me, trying to visualize what it would be. It didn't look good.
"Enough for three days," Izzy said before I'd finished the piles. He didn't sound too happy.
Three days? Surely we'd find the campsite before that! Or at least other people!
"But if you count in the Digimon, we really only have enough for about a half hour," Sora said, just as miserably.
I'd almost forgotten about them. Gomamon looked like he could eat a horse if he got hungry enough. At least a small one. Plus all the other creatures, and I only realized just how big they'd all gotten. Some of them were taller than TK!
"Don't worry about us," Gabumon said politely, though I could see him eying the heat-treated tuna sandwich. "We Digimon can forage for ourselves."
The other creatures mumbled in agreement. I guess that would work. At least that would leave us humans with enough food to reach some kind of civilization. I was actually starting to feel a little optimistic about this strange place we'd found ourselves in.
Until I heard the sound of plastic ripping, and Agumon's happy munching.
"H-Hey!" I yelped. Tai looked over at me, munching on the cracker that was hanging out of his mouth. Oh no, there was no way he was going to cute himself out of this! "We need to save that! Who knows when we'll find food again?!"
Tai just stuck his tongue out at me, half chewed food falling into the sand. He just kept getting less and less cute as time went by. I was starting to think this was a good thing. I had just opened my mouth to tell him off, to make myself heard for once in my life, when suddenly...
Panic! Something big under me! Have to get out of the water! Warn the others!
I heard Gomamon cry out wordlessly from where he'd been floating in the ocean, and in a moment I knew. That had been his terror I'd felt, that somehow his anxiety had come through directly to me. I looked out to the sea, watching his small white body suddenly vanish into the waves and there was an odd sensation, like my lungs were filling with water even though I could breath just fine.
"Something's coming," one of the Digimon cried right as the phone booths began exploding into watery pillars of death! Oh God, what now?!
A creature emerged from the sea, a large pink thing attached to a blue shell larger than some busses I'd seen. One of the Digimon hissed it's name in terror: Shellmon. The thing screamed an odd noise ("Shell-rururu"? Seriously? It's like some kind of TV monster!) and began approaching us, the ground shaking with it's every step.
It was going to attack, and we were all sitting ducks out here in the dunes!
"Come on!" I cried. "We'll be safe on higher ground!" Surely the other kids were behind me as I scrambled up the sand. They knew how to listen to reason, right?
I was suddenly hit with an ice cold blast, a stream of water slamming into my back and onto my bruise. I tried to gasp for air as I tumbled, but the pain was so intense I felt like I was about to black out. I was aware that I'd hit the sand, and I was blinking away the stars in my vision when I was grabbed gently, helped to turn over onto my side where at least I wasn't leaning on my injury.
"Joe, you alright?" I heard someone ask and I looked around, locking onto blue eyes so filled with concern it would have made me swoon, if I didn't feel like puking.
"Yeah..." I could blame being breathless on falling. "Thanks for helping me."
"We have to take care of one another," Sora said next to me, and I looked at her. She was smiling at him and I tried not to make a face. Why shouldn't she smile at him? I'm sure if I looked up, he would be smiling back at her. Like a boy should to a pretty girl.
"Tai!" I heard Izzy cry. Even in desperation and fear, the kid was quiet as a mouse. But it was enough to draw our attention to Shellmon, who was still screaming that dumb kid's show roar as it grabbed Tai with green tentacles that were growing out of it's head.
Seriously, that's gross.
Matt and TK were beside me still, the child whispering something fearfully as Tai gave a strangled scream, and I heard Sora say softly, "Only Agumon can help him."
The small dinosaur, pinned under one of Shellmon's feet or hands or whatever it is Digimon have cried out, glowing with that same light we'd all seen before. The Shellmon made a confused noise, flinging Tai across the beach and stepping back as Agumon grew huge, towering over all of us to match the pink creature's size. He'd become a giant orange and blue striped T-Rex, with a helmet that looked like it was made from a hollowed out tree or something.
"Woah," I heard myself mumble, in awe of the sheer size of the thing. I thought the Digimon were big before, how would we ever get enough food to feed him now?
He growled, a deep rumbled that sounded like, "Greymon!" and shot a blast of fire from his mouth. It slammed into Shellmon and the creature fell back, screeching and retreating to the sea. Tai picked himself up out of the sand and ran over to Agumon, or Greymon or whatever, cheering as he glowed and turned back into the compact dinosaur that was much easier to feed. He explained that he couldn't keep up the energy needed to stay as Greymon, and we all volunteered to let the Digimon dig into our rations. Better that they go to them that could protect us, I figured.
The other kids surrounded their Digimon, and even Gomamon had managed to haul himself out of the sea to steal a plastic wrapped meal, and I saw what remained of the phone booths. Yeah, they were busted up, but maybe the wires were still connected? I slipped away as quietly as I could and crouched near the most intact phone I could find. If I could just get a hold of my father, to tell him that everything was ok, then maybe this dread that had been welling up in my stomach since I'd left that morning would finally vanish.