User blog:GuacamoleCCXR/Guac's fanfic thing - CHAPTER 4

''Author’s notes: Listening to extremely loud drumstep while writing this is the stuff. No, seriously. Also, we just passed 5k words, gentlemen! ''

As I covered my ears from Starscream’s engines’ noise and watched him blast off, the newcomers Rollins had been speaking off came close enough to be distinguishable. They appeared to be two teenagers, both wearing clothes that looked like something you’d sleep in; one of them, additionally, had a pair of headphones loosely hanging around his neck, which, after taking a closer look, I could identify as Beats, as well as a rather dapper looking Pikachu hat. LED, who seemed to have made the same discovery, slapped me on the back.

“What about my thesis about LMBWians being wrong now, huh? I don’t know how the other guy is, but I bet you my hats the one on the left is Rio.”

He was correct; when they got close enough, we introduced ourselves to Rio and Skull, who the other boy turned out to be. As expected, both of them were quite surprised.

“Hey Marcy, can you do me a favour and fill them in on the situation real quick?” I asked, after a few comments regarding their apparel have been dropped. “In the meantime, we should finally take the time to think off what to do next. Getting an overview of our supplies would great, for a start.” Having said that, I moved over to my suitcase, which contained our company’s only comestibles. While Rollins and LED were following, I opened the lock and flung open the lid.

Now seems to be an appropriate moment to describe the geographic scenario we found ourselves in more closely. To start off, the temperature was much more convenient than what I usually associated with savannas. I estimated it to be around 25° Celsius, which, to me is very close to being perfect. The air humidity didn’t seem to be all too high either, and overall, the plains appeared to be a decently habitable zone. The only clouds in sight drifted past rather quickly at high altitudes and only seldom obscured the reddish sun, which, for its part, has hardly moved across the sky during the time I was actively awake, indicating that the planet was rotating around its own axle at a slower pace than Earth.

The rocks, which protruded from the sandy ground all across the area with no detectable pattern, were polished from being exposed to erosion for thousands of years and seemed to be deeply covered, rather than lying on top, similar to icebergs in water. As for the vegetation, trees and bushes seemed to be condensing towards the horizon to the south (if terrestrial cardinal points could be applied on this planet), maybe 5-10 kilometres from our position, which suggested a water source.

“We should go check out the rest of the stuff that’s lying around here, maybe we can find some more useful things,” Rollins said, while I was distributing the several bags of crisps.

“Sounds like a plan. And hey, try eating them a little more sparingly. They might be the only thing we’ve got left. Because I’m keeping these,” I pointed at a 10-pack of Snickers, “in case someone here gets cabin fever.”

“After this,” LED said, after he chewed up the handful of crisps he had stuffed in his mouth, “we should really go look out for a new base.” Then he added, raising the bag in his hand a little, “And water. I can predict we all will be dying of thirst in half an hour ‘cos of these.” Everyone seemed to agree with that.

After we split up into groups, deciding we’d meet up at the starting point in three hours, we all headed in different directions. While Rollins and I went to check out the suggested oasis, LED and Noodle (which is what I’m going to call Rio from now on, I don’t really care if you as the reader have objections to that) went in the opposite direction to have a closer look at some suspiciously shaped rocks whereas Marcel and Skull started to search the debris in the area for loot.

As expected, we didn’t find anything striking right away. All the irregularities we stumbled upon during our journey towards the green were just piles of rubble and a few rocks, although the increase of herbs on the ground was definitely noticeable, even as we were still rather far away from the centre of the vegetation. We didn’t talk a lot, mostly because there was nothing particular for us to discuss and Rollins wasn’t too keen on having a small talk going at all times. To be fair, neither was I, especially under these circumstances. This rather dull walk continued for a while; to be precise, it was maybe half an hour until we passed by a mossy bolder of remarkably larger size than the others and I heard something. If I was not mistaken, it sounded like a female voice, and one that I could faintly recall hearing somewhere before at that. Rollins flipped the safety switch on his rifle, but I raised my hand, giving him the sign that it wasn’t necessary.

“Hey, get out of there again! What do you think you’re doing…” Funny enough, the voice seemed to be coming from behind the rock, except I didn’t see anyone there before; plus it was echoing in a way that suggested some sort of cave. As we carefully stepped around it, generating as little noise as possible, I found out what was causing the acoustic effect. On the side of the rock that was precisely opposite to the one we could see from our path, there was a rather large hole in the bolder: the entrance so some sort of cavern. The sound of feet as well as something softer scrap along the rocks could be heard.

“Would you look at that,” I whispered in surprise. Since my eyes were too used to the bright light of the open plains to see anything inside the cave, I, moving over into the centre of the entrance, decided now was the time to let whoever the people inside were know about our presence. “Hello?” The footsteps I’ve been hearing so far suddenly stopped. Instead, I heard some undistinguishable noise (which reminded me of how none of us encountered any wildlife on this planet so far – rather unsettling!), before the footsteps could be heard once again, this time however, they were moving towards me. I decided to descend underground in case anyone down there needed help. Assuring Rollins I wouldn’t do anything stupid, I took a few steps downward when I saw someone coming towards me and stopped in my tracks. It turned out to be a teenage girl with rather long blonde hair who was carrying something; something rather large and furry.

“Hey there,” I greeted her. She let go of whatever she was holding, it jumped on the floor and settled down next to her feet. Upon closer examination I identified it despite the scarce light (the fluff and the small blue face really gave it away): “Don’t tell me that’s a golden ape.”

“That’s exactly what he is,” she replied, not without a hint of surprise upon hearing what I called the monkey. I smirked. There was no doubt left anymore at this point.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Welcome to LMBW planet, Aravis.” Her eyes widened a little. “Only you’d pick up one of these.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wha- Who are you even?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why, I’m Guac. There’s more people back on the surface though who you’d might want to meet,” I replied. “This isn’t actually any of our doing, we all ended up here by some sort of accident,” then I added: “Or so I think.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I was instictively drawing parallels between my story and this, but… I didn’t really expect anything like that.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’d almost dare to say this is freakier, except for the lack of genderbending.” The monkey was moving around restlessly.

<p class="MsoNormal">“He’s been like that since I found him on that cut of branch in the middle of the plain,” Aravis explained, “I’m confident he doesn’t belong here either.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah, I figure. There’s plenty more things from Earth here and…” I thought of Starscream for a moment, “probably other universes as well.” Noticing the scepticism in her eyes, I added, apologising: “Welp, it’s hard to explain.” The ape, who was trying nuzzle up to Aravis’ feet, suddenly cringed as Rollins’ voice echoed down the cavern.

<p class="MsoNormal">“While you’re chatting down there, we’re basically sitting ducks for anyone who’d want to pin us down!” With either of us not being too keen on staying in this hole any longer, we gladly followed his implied order and started to work our way upwards up the steep, stony ground.