174
Fear. It was the only thing he knew for a while, and for a long time it froze him. The island stood in front of him, he had only gotten off the boat, and already he knew not why he was there. He suffered from a poorly written backstory, and the writer, in an attempt to cover it up, gave him amnesia. He walked down the beach. It was not sand; it felt different, much harder and less soft. There was a lone lighthouse, old and abandoned, leaning on the cliffs of the island. There were cliffs all around him with a single cave leading deeper into the island.
He did not want to go, but he had no choice. Behind him a creature seized the boat, snapping it up in its appendages. The leviathan was not a normal one, possessing a rather blobby body with long shuriken-shaped appendages that clinged onto the boat. The creature’s face was not really a face but a giant spiked surface that absorbed the nutrients of the animal it ate, leaving nothing but a withered husk.
The man ran into the cave, afraid that he would die. He slipped, falling deeper into the cavern and into a puddle of sorts. He got up, afraid that something would come and eat him, and ran around, desperately trying to find a way out. He could still see the way he got in, and as he got closer to it, the creature entered the cavern. He covered his head as the creature attacked, expecting to die, but there was a loud noise and the thing dropped dead.
“Darn that doctor Huccor,” a voice said, and the man felt someone tug at his arm. “This way, the irgiles will be coming soon.” The voice led the man out of the cave and out into . . . well, it was hard to say. Two cliffs bordered the area, made out of some sort of shifting but hard material. On the sides and on the ground several cylindrical tubes came out of the ground and went back in, almost seeming like a series of rotating rings. The region was filled with a metallic-plant-like creature, which grew underneath the surface and then shot up with a piece of the ground on it. The stalks resembled a bamboo, but it grew and moved much faster than one. One of these things had thrown off the piece of land and bent over, rooting its top in the ground and bringing its bottom up. From there it branched out, the stalks disassembling the main trunk and spreading out, snatching a few corpses and sucking them into the center. It then proceeded to reassemble the trunk around those bodies, dissolving them with acids.
“The name is Welmecher. My place is just past this forest. We don’t have a lot of time so just follow me,” the person leading him said. “I’m scared,” the man said, looking at the forest with horror. “We can fix that.” Welmecher said and ran through the forest of creatures. The man followed, dodging a few dangling stalks which were attempting to grab him and finally arrived at the other side. They walked up a path in the cliff, finally arriving at something resembling a hut full of vials of all sorts.
“What is this place?” asked the man, fiddling with some of the vials.
“It’s an island constructed by Dr. Huccor. Do you remember anything?”
“No, nothing.”
“Darn it! Dr. Huccor’s using another strategy.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to try and explain this as best I can, but we don’t have a great deal of time. Everyone who comes to this island is sent by Dr. Huccor, he designed this island to test his new creations (those creations being the creatures you have seen). Most of the people coming here have died because of fear; paranoia drives most insane. That is why I’ve created a solution.” Welmecher then pulled out a few vials from a cupboard. “I’ve experimented with these things; they should take away our ability to feel fear. Should make us invisible from the irgiles.”
Another person came into the hut and exclaimed, ”Again with the fearless potions!? You do know that won’t work right?” The man looked at Welmecher, expecting an explanation, which was given. ”Oh! Almost forgot! This is the other person besides I who have survived, say hello, Hurnin.” Hurnin greeted the man and proceeded to reprimand Welmecher. “Fear is the only thing that keeps you alive. How do you expect to stand a chance against anything if you do not fear?”
“Fear paralyzes; they can smell fear we have. The only way we CAN survive is by removing it.”
“You mentioned Dr. Huccor using a different strategy,” the man said, interrupting the argument. “What do you mean Welmecher?” asked Hurnin, as he didn’t know either. “The newest person coming here is you. You do not remember anything, and you have a strange amount of fear already. In the past Dr. Huccor told his subjects about a sort of system; as long as you were connected to it he could use you but could also revive you. That was so the subjects stayed in line. You, on the other hand, do not know about it, which means he’s trying something new. He is using the fear of the unknown to make you unable to survive for long.”
“Were you guys subjects?” asked the man; they both confirmed. “We disconnected from the system, however, so once WE die, there is no other chance.” Hurnin said, ”On the other hand, you can die an unlimited amount of times.”
“For us the decision to use the solution is life or death, but it doesn’t really matter for you a whole lot,” said Welmecher. “How’d you get disconnected?” asked the man. “We went underwater several feet. Apparently the system can’t reach underneath water, so once you go under you get out,” Welmecher replied. He then drank from the vial, and so did the man, as he disliked to feel fear.
Welmecher took out a weapon of sorts, a hand-held device that resembled a donut. “We have to go; this island isn’t normal. It doesn’t stay still and constantly changes. Chances are that Dr. Huccor will be itching to kill me. Last time the island changed he said he’d be coming for me in person.” Welmecher and Hurnin lead the man out of the shack as the island shuddered and began to change once again. Below them the land shifted, raising up and turning upside down; the cliff sides came in, filling the empty area. Pieces of the land broke off, turning into long gelatinous but metallic stalks growing and creating a sort of netting. Several of the carved stone tubes came out from the ground and then drove back in, creating what seemed like several revolving rings all over the island. The hut had the luck of being on the top, and while it was once several feet above the terrain, it was now at ground level.
There was a loud roar, sounding reptilian in nature, and snappings of the trunk creatures being stepped on. “You cannot feel fear; the Irgil shouldn’t be ab-” Welmecher began, but the fearless man had gotten close to an edge of the cliff and had fallen to his death. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Welmecher said, throwing his donut shaped weapon at the man. It stuck onto him and pulled the man back up onto the cliff. ”I told you Welmecher! Fearlessness is what killed him,” concluded Hurnin. Welmecher searched for a button on the man’s head and failing to find one simply slapped his head and triggered a restart. The man got up, dusted himself off, and then looked at the area where the noise had come from.
The Irgil had revealed itself at last and was hungry for something more than a trunk-creature. The monster was a sort of finned reptile, having a tail that spanned several feet with several spikes protruding from it. The creature had a body, with three appendages sticking out from it on the bottom. The appendages resembled metallic vines, and dug into the ground. The head had no eyes, mouth, or ears, and it was full of pores that served as a nose for it. The creature had several fins on the sides, most of which seemed stationary. It extended its head. The ball made of pores inflated as it took in air and exhaled, trying to smell fear in the air.
Hurnin became nervous; he knew that it could smell his fear. The more he became afraid, the more he knew the creature could smell him, making him even more scared. It was a never-ending cycle that he had become stuck in, and the Irgile took note. It screamed, for it had found its victim and began to charge at Hurnin, who tried in a futile attempt to get away. Welmecher did not seem to care that the creature did not see him, nor that it was headed straight towards him. He was not afraid; it didn’t matter to him a great deal.
The beast plowed over Welmecher, and as soon as it realized there was another human, grabbed Welmecher with its appendages. Welmecher got out his donut-shaped device and activated it. Instantly the vine-like parts that made up the appendages were sucked through the middle part, coming out from the other end and separating into individual strands. Those strands were then coiled around the donut shape, causing the creature much agony. It grabbed Welmecher, and slung him off the island as the man slid down the cliffside and onto the shore.
Hurnin was paralyzed with fear. The monster stood right in front of him, breathing in heavily much like a person would when smelling a delicious dessert. It then snatched up Hurnin with its appendages, wrapping the tentacle-like things around Hurnin’s body. Having Hurnin captured in one of its tentacles, it then headed for the other target.
The creature ran towards the man but slipped, and fell past him as he clambered down the cliff. It lay dying below him, wheezing out a final groan until it finally breathed its last breath. The man looked at the creature. It seemed familiar somehow, but he could not recall where he had seen the thing before. He got down onto the shore, using the netting to lower himself down safely. He tried to pry Hurnin free from the tentacles, but it was of no use, as the creature’s death had caused the muscles to contract. It was then that the island shuddered. It was changing once again.
The island cliffs became flat, and the netting and tubes merged back with the island itself. It was then that the island dropped, falling down into the ocean so quickly that the water had little time to respond. The island was big enough to the point where it would take the water a minute to close in, but a minute would not be enough time for most to get to safety. There was no high-ground, nothing for the man to hide under, just the boat several yards away. He knew that if the water came over him, he would be disconnected from the system, and he would permanently die.The man was terrified, and this fear began to paralyze him. He looked on the ground, and there happened to lie a vial full of the fluid that would make him fearless.
He looked upon what he had experienced as the walls of water began to close in. Welmecher had gotten himself killed because he had taken away his fear; he no longer feared the beast that took his life. Hurnin had gotten himself trapped because he had chosen to feel fear; it had controlled him. Although they had escaped control from Dr. Huccor, they were still controlled by fear. He looked at the vial, took a few steps forward and picked it up. It could be the answer to all his problems. He dashed it into the ground. Unlike Welmecher he had chosen fear, but unlike Hurnin he decided to not let it control him.
He ran to the boat, doing his best to not let it get the best of him. He jumped in as a first wave buffeted the boat against the rocks nearby. Although panic did seize him at first, he started the engine of the boat, heading for the center of the island. Another wave came crashing in, increasing the water level by several feet and nearly tipping the boat over. The final wave came crashing in, covering the remaining feet with several gallons of water. He angled the boat to run parallel with the wave so it wouldn’t take the blow as hard. After nearly toppling over again, the boat finally rested above the several feet of water separating it and the island below. The man’s heart pounded. He was relieved though, for finally he would be safe. He still felt sad that Welmecher had been lost to the ocean, but never wanted to see the island again.
Something had been annoying him since he first came to the island; he could not remember his past, yet several things seemed familiar to him. On the boat there was a small journal that he had somehow overlooked when he first came to the island. He picked up the journal, and flipped through it in hopes of being able to gather more information. There was a single written page, and it read,
“March 17th, 12,563; I have created an experiment far greater than I thought it would be. I have sent several people in hopes of them discovering something. I gave them fear. I gave them fear because it is the one emotion I have yet to figure out. I wanted them to figure out how to deal with the fear they felt for me. And they have proved to be good at discovering this. By simply giving them creatures that could smell fear they have been able to discover it by themselves. It is not the fear that is your enemy, it is simply your resistance to fear that is your enemy. I have concluded from my studies that to survive one must feel fear, but not be discouraged by it.
One resistant subject has disconnected from the system. He no longer has the ability to restart, and has removed the button from his head. I have decided to personally seek this subject and annihilate him myself. I am taking a boat to the island, I need all my subjects to understand that I am not to be dealt with. That is all for now, as it seems to grow late.
-Dr. Huccor”
The man sat himself down in the boat, letting the waves rock him slowly to sleep. It had been a rather tiring day for him, and he needed rest. His future was uncertain, and he knew that, but he no longer let it affect him negatively. The man closed his eyes, blissfully unaware that the date was March 18th, 12,563. The man fell asleep, also unaware that Dr. Huccor had won in the end. Dr. Huccor was not in his lab looking over the island, nor was he heading to kill the already dead Welmecher. He was in his boat, asleep, with still no idea of who he was.
He did not want to go, but he had no choice. Behind him a creature seized the boat, snapping it up in its appendages. The leviathan was not a normal one, possessing a rather blobby body with long shuriken-shaped appendages that clinged onto the boat. The creature’s face was not really a face but a giant spiked surface that absorbed the nutrients of the animal it ate, leaving nothing but a withered husk.
The man ran into the cave, afraid that he would die. He slipped, falling deeper into the cavern and into a puddle of sorts. He got up, afraid that something would come and eat him, and ran around, desperately trying to find a way out. He could still see the way he got in, and as he got closer to it, the creature entered the cavern. He covered his head as the creature attacked, expecting to die, but there was a loud noise and the thing dropped dead.
“Darn that doctor Huccor,” a voice said, and the man felt someone tug at his arm. “This way, the irgiles will be coming soon.” The voice led the man out of the cave and out into . . . well, it was hard to say. Two cliffs bordered the area, made out of some sort of shifting but hard material. On the sides and on the ground several cylindrical tubes came out of the ground and went back in, almost seeming like a series of rotating rings. The region was filled with a metallic-plant-like creature, which grew underneath the surface and then shot up with a piece of the ground on it. The stalks resembled a bamboo, but it grew and moved much faster than one. One of these things had thrown off the piece of land and bent over, rooting its top in the ground and bringing its bottom up. From there it branched out, the stalks disassembling the main trunk and spreading out, snatching a few corpses and sucking them into the center. It then proceeded to reassemble the trunk around those bodies, dissolving them with acids.
“The name is Welmecher. My place is just past this forest. We don’t have a lot of time so just follow me,” the person leading him said. “I’m scared,” the man said, looking at the forest with horror. “We can fix that.” Welmecher said and ran through the forest of creatures. The man followed, dodging a few dangling stalks which were attempting to grab him and finally arrived at the other side. They walked up a path in the cliff, finally arriving at something resembling a hut full of vials of all sorts.
“What is this place?” asked the man, fiddling with some of the vials.
“It’s an island constructed by Dr. Huccor. Do you remember anything?”
“No, nothing.”
“Darn it! Dr. Huccor’s using another strategy.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to try and explain this as best I can, but we don’t have a great deal of time. Everyone who comes to this island is sent by Dr. Huccor, he designed this island to test his new creations (those creations being the creatures you have seen). Most of the people coming here have died because of fear; paranoia drives most insane. That is why I’ve created a solution.” Welmecher then pulled out a few vials from a cupboard. “I’ve experimented with these things; they should take away our ability to feel fear. Should make us invisible from the irgiles.”
Another person came into the hut and exclaimed, ”Again with the fearless potions!? You do know that won’t work right?” The man looked at Welmecher, expecting an explanation, which was given. ”Oh! Almost forgot! This is the other person besides I who have survived, say hello, Hurnin.” Hurnin greeted the man and proceeded to reprimand Welmecher. “Fear is the only thing that keeps you alive. How do you expect to stand a chance against anything if you do not fear?”
“Fear paralyzes; they can smell fear we have. The only way we CAN survive is by removing it.”
“You mentioned Dr. Huccor using a different strategy,” the man said, interrupting the argument. “What do you mean Welmecher?” asked Hurnin, as he didn’t know either. “The newest person coming here is you. You do not remember anything, and you have a strange amount of fear already. In the past Dr. Huccor told his subjects about a sort of system; as long as you were connected to it he could use you but could also revive you. That was so the subjects stayed in line. You, on the other hand, do not know about it, which means he’s trying something new. He is using the fear of the unknown to make you unable to survive for long.”
“Were you guys subjects?” asked the man; they both confirmed. “We disconnected from the system, however, so once WE die, there is no other chance.” Hurnin said, ”On the other hand, you can die an unlimited amount of times.”
“For us the decision to use the solution is life or death, but it doesn’t really matter for you a whole lot,” said Welmecher. “How’d you get disconnected?” asked the man. “We went underwater several feet. Apparently the system can’t reach underneath water, so once you go under you get out,” Welmecher replied. He then drank from the vial, and so did the man, as he disliked to feel fear.
Welmecher took out a weapon of sorts, a hand-held device that resembled a donut. “We have to go; this island isn’t normal. It doesn’t stay still and constantly changes. Chances are that Dr. Huccor will be itching to kill me. Last time the island changed he said he’d be coming for me in person.” Welmecher and Hurnin lead the man out of the shack as the island shuddered and began to change once again. Below them the land shifted, raising up and turning upside down; the cliff sides came in, filling the empty area. Pieces of the land broke off, turning into long gelatinous but metallic stalks growing and creating a sort of netting. Several of the carved stone tubes came out from the ground and then drove back in, creating what seemed like several revolving rings all over the island. The hut had the luck of being on the top, and while it was once several feet above the terrain, it was now at ground level.
There was a loud roar, sounding reptilian in nature, and snappings of the trunk creatures being stepped on. “You cannot feel fear; the Irgil shouldn’t be ab-” Welmecher began, but the fearless man had gotten close to an edge of the cliff and had fallen to his death. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Welmecher said, throwing his donut shaped weapon at the man. It stuck onto him and pulled the man back up onto the cliff. ”I told you Welmecher! Fearlessness is what killed him,” concluded Hurnin. Welmecher searched for a button on the man’s head and failing to find one simply slapped his head and triggered a restart. The man got up, dusted himself off, and then looked at the area where the noise had come from.
The Irgil had revealed itself at last and was hungry for something more than a trunk-creature. The monster was a sort of finned reptile, having a tail that spanned several feet with several spikes protruding from it. The creature had a body, with three appendages sticking out from it on the bottom. The appendages resembled metallic vines, and dug into the ground. The head had no eyes, mouth, or ears, and it was full of pores that served as a nose for it. The creature had several fins on the sides, most of which seemed stationary. It extended its head. The ball made of pores inflated as it took in air and exhaled, trying to smell fear in the air.
Hurnin became nervous; he knew that it could smell his fear. The more he became afraid, the more he knew the creature could smell him, making him even more scared. It was a never-ending cycle that he had become stuck in, and the Irgile took note. It screamed, for it had found its victim and began to charge at Hurnin, who tried in a futile attempt to get away. Welmecher did not seem to care that the creature did not see him, nor that it was headed straight towards him. He was not afraid; it didn’t matter to him a great deal.
The beast plowed over Welmecher, and as soon as it realized there was another human, grabbed Welmecher with its appendages. Welmecher got out his donut-shaped device and activated it. Instantly the vine-like parts that made up the appendages were sucked through the middle part, coming out from the other end and separating into individual strands. Those strands were then coiled around the donut shape, causing the creature much agony. It grabbed Welmecher, and slung him off the island as the man slid down the cliffside and onto the shore.
Hurnin was paralyzed with fear. The monster stood right in front of him, breathing in heavily much like a person would when smelling a delicious dessert. It then snatched up Hurnin with its appendages, wrapping the tentacle-like things around Hurnin’s body. Having Hurnin captured in one of its tentacles, it then headed for the other target.
The creature ran towards the man but slipped, and fell past him as he clambered down the cliff. It lay dying below him, wheezing out a final groan until it finally breathed its last breath. The man looked at the creature. It seemed familiar somehow, but he could not recall where he had seen the thing before. He got down onto the shore, using the netting to lower himself down safely. He tried to pry Hurnin free from the tentacles, but it was of no use, as the creature’s death had caused the muscles to contract. It was then that the island shuddered. It was changing once again.
The island cliffs became flat, and the netting and tubes merged back with the island itself. It was then that the island dropped, falling down into the ocean so quickly that the water had little time to respond. The island was big enough to the point where it would take the water a minute to close in, but a minute would not be enough time for most to get to safety. There was no high-ground, nothing for the man to hide under, just the boat several yards away. He knew that if the water came over him, he would be disconnected from the system, and he would permanently die.The man was terrified, and this fear began to paralyze him. He looked on the ground, and there happened to lie a vial full of the fluid that would make him fearless.
He looked upon what he had experienced as the walls of water began to close in. Welmecher had gotten himself killed because he had taken away his fear; he no longer feared the beast that took his life. Hurnin had gotten himself trapped because he had chosen to feel fear; it had controlled him. Although they had escaped control from Dr. Huccor, they were still controlled by fear. He looked at the vial, took a few steps forward and picked it up. It could be the answer to all his problems. He dashed it into the ground. Unlike Welmecher he had chosen fear, but unlike Hurnin he decided to not let it control him.
He ran to the boat, doing his best to not let it get the best of him. He jumped in as a first wave buffeted the boat against the rocks nearby. Although panic did seize him at first, he started the engine of the boat, heading for the center of the island. Another wave came crashing in, increasing the water level by several feet and nearly tipping the boat over. The final wave came crashing in, covering the remaining feet with several gallons of water. He angled the boat to run parallel with the wave so it wouldn’t take the blow as hard. After nearly toppling over again, the boat finally rested above the several feet of water separating it and the island below. The man’s heart pounded. He was relieved though, for finally he would be safe. He still felt sad that Welmecher had been lost to the ocean, but never wanted to see the island again.
Something had been annoying him since he first came to the island; he could not remember his past, yet several things seemed familiar to him. On the boat there was a small journal that he had somehow overlooked when he first came to the island. He picked up the journal, and flipped through it in hopes of being able to gather more information. There was a single written page, and it read,
“March 17th, 12,563; I have created an experiment far greater than I thought it would be. I have sent several people in hopes of them discovering something. I gave them fear. I gave them fear because it is the one emotion I have yet to figure out. I wanted them to figure out how to deal with the fear they felt for me. And they have proved to be good at discovering this. By simply giving them creatures that could smell fear they have been able to discover it by themselves. It is not the fear that is your enemy, it is simply your resistance to fear that is your enemy. I have concluded from my studies that to survive one must feel fear, but not be discouraged by it.
One resistant subject has disconnected from the system. He no longer has the ability to restart, and has removed the button from his head. I have decided to personally seek this subject and annihilate him myself. I am taking a boat to the island, I need all my subjects to understand that I am not to be dealt with. That is all for now, as it seems to grow late.
-Dr. Huccor”
The man sat himself down in the boat, letting the waves rock him slowly to sleep. It had been a rather tiring day for him, and he needed rest. His future was uncertain, and he knew that, but he no longer let it affect him negatively. The man closed his eyes, blissfully unaware that the date was March 18th, 12,563. The man fell asleep, also unaware that Dr. Huccor had won in the end. Dr. Huccor was not in his lab looking over the island, nor was he heading to kill the already dead Welmecher. He was in his boat, asleep, with still no idea of who he was.
| Credit | Thanks to Autumn Fyre for correcting my punctuation. Seriously, my commas, were, all over, the, place. |
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Anyways, good luck! I hope you win... x3