Isla loosened his muscles and let out all the air in his lungs.
He took a deep breath as the fluid started to fill the fish creatures stomach.
*HHHHH*
He closed his eyes.
Then it all came at him like a wave.
The old tattered shirt and jeans that he had always resurrected with where the first to go.
‘AAAAAA…FUUCK!!’
The only thoughts that filled his mind were those of pain.
His hair was next.
Agony.
Isla felt a blistering throbbing pain all over, but he knew not to scream.
That would only let out all the air in his lungs and lead to a quick and comparably painless death to what he was experiencing.
Yet this wasn’t his goal.
He was determined to survive as long as possible.
So that all his previous and current pains wouldn’t be in vain.
After those thoughts something inside him clicked, he stopped moving completely to save every last ounce of air in his body.
…
His eyelids burnt through.
Shortly after his eyes.
He lost his vision completely.
This was a completely new experience to him, but just as he was about to panic he steeled his resolve and chanted in his mind.
‘I… Need… To… Get… Stronger…’
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…
Although the pain had lessened since his first contact with the acidic fluid he had been under its influence for nearly a full minute and so his body looked like something out of a horror movie.
Flesh was coming off of him in chunks and in certain places you could see bone.
He resembled a zombie.
Not one of those ‘I turned recently and still resemble a human’ kind of zombies.
But a ‘I turned due to being hit by nuclear weapon and tons o radiation’ kind of zombie, something that looked like hell-spawn, a demon of the plague god.
He was slowly starting to lose consciousness.
The pain stopped.
In an instant his soft brain tissue was vaporised by the acid.
If Isla could throw up in his soul form his stomach juices would have already left his body.
The view of his semi-liquified corpse and the immense torture his body had experienced left him with PTSD.
Yet this feeling was gradually pushed into the back of his mind as the Mental Fortitude passive started to work it’s magic.
It was slowly nullifying the pain and filling his very being with a sprout of determination and hope.
“Wow… that was… something… else…”
*SILENCE*
*BADABOOM*
…
A chilling breeze blew through the air.
It was dark.
Very dark.
And cold.
The tattered suit that Isla was wearing did little to keep the cold from seeking into his body.
He was laying what he deemed to be a cold rocky surface.
He was extremely uncomfortable.
The outcrops in the ground digging into his back, but he couldn’t get up.
He didn’t know where he was and it was so dark that when he put his hand in front of his eyes he couldn’t even see a faint outline.
The AI chimed.
‘You have got to be fucking kidding me’
‘Actually… I don’t need you, all you have done hasn’t actually helped me much anywa-’
Isla started to badmouth the AI but was interrupted by it’s sudden report.
“Great I heard you the first ti-!…”
Isla quickly clasped his hands over his mouth and stilled his breathing, listening out for any sounds that might signify a predator that had heard him.
He realised the mistake he made by shouting.
Even after he waited for what felt like an hour the darkness didn’t produce a single sound but that of the soft wind.
His muscle’s relaxed as he released a soft sigh.
He then shivered uncontrollably, while he had been trying to listen out for danger his body had produce a reasonable amount of sweat that now covered his whole body.
Yet he still couldn’t do anything about his predicament, so he just laid there shivering and twitching every few seconds, waiting for something to change.
…
Change came in the form of a faint light coming from his far left.
Isla could now barely make out his surroundings.
He got up and started making his way towards the light’s source.
He discerned that he was in what appeared to be a natural cave, with grey blue walls and a ceiling that measured about two Isla’s (yes I shall now be using Isla as a unit of measurement, he is around 5’11 just like me :) .) in height.
The light got brighter the closer he got to it.
“wow…”
He looked out of the cave’s mouth and was greeted with a breath-taking view.
His vision was filled with trees and meadows, he heard the chirps of birds and the faint sound of a babbling brook some distance away.
It was any hiker’s version of heaven.
The nature around so vibrant that it looked like living, breathing organism.
…
