Chapter Nine - 009Felix plummeted into a raging river.
He tumbled, ass over teakettle, the water surging around him violently. He briefly saw the surface, but was so disoriented that he couldn't tell which way he had to swim. The water around him was murky, churned into a swirling froth of bubbles. It was absolutely frigid, and his skin quickly turned numb. Felix kicked, straining against the current to orient himself, pushing toward the bright light that flashed across his eyes. Bursting back to the surface, Felix reoriented himself just as the Skinks zipped to the edge of the embankment.
Then they buzzed toward him.
"Oh what the hell," Felix gasped. He had no choice. Unfortunately, his guess had been correct: the river was wide, too wide to swim across before the lizards took him out. He took several quick breaths before inhaling as large a lungful as he could. He dove beneath the surface just as the first Skink slashed its razor sharp wings at him.
Below the water, the world was suddenly quiet. A faint rumble he could feel in his chest was all that remained of the surface noise. Felix pushed down toward the bottom of the river, a good six or seven feet below. Straining, even as the current pulled him along, he was able to grab onto the edge of a mossy rock. Clinging with all his strength, Felix pulled himself down toward the bottom of the river and he waited.
And waited.
From this vantage he could see everything. The water wasn't murky here so much as roiling; once he was deep enough it was like a strange other world. Weeds and moss grew all around him, filling in the spaces between large river-round boulders. From his angle he could just barely look up and behind himself, and could see the blurry shapes of the lizards zipping to and fro above the surface, like obese dragonflies.
C'mon. Leave already.
His lungs were starting to burn. He wasn't entirely sure how long he had been down here, but it was definitely a couple minutes. His enhanced body was apparently better at holding its breath than Felix had ever been, but even so, he was pushing the limits of his Endurance. He tried to close his eyes, focusing only on controlling the burning ache in his chest.
Of course, that's when he slipped.
Felix's hands, one then the other, slipped away from the rock beneath him. He flailed, trying to latch onto another, even as the strong current ripped him off and away. His lungs screamed, his urge to inhale almost impossible to resist. Felix was spun about, arms spread as he careened off of one boulder after another. He smashed his elbow into one, then his ribs bashed against several upright rocks. The pain was like hot lava in his bones, burning him from the inside out.
Then, for one beautiful moment, all of the rocks around him disappeared. He floated, free, unimpeded. Consciousness dimming, his vision dark except for occasional flares of bright yellow and blue at the edges, Felix barely had time to register the sudden shape of the rushing water. He zoomed along, pulled at speed toward an edge where all the foaming water rocketed away.
Oh, he managed, a waterfall.
Felix started awake, slamming into something.
Laughter, muffled by cubicle walls. Bright fluorescent lighting smeared his eyesight, and he rubbed the heel of his hand against them, attempting to clear it.
He was at his desk at work, standing on a rubber mat in front of a chest high desk. This standing desk is what he had slammed into. His keyboard was askew, and the mouse was dangling by it's cord off the edge of the sliding tray. He righted them both and took a step back.
Why was he...?
"Felix~!"
A voice slithered across the cubicles, and the clip-clop of heels sounded on the hard linoleum flooring. Felix turned, just in time to see a woman with sandy brown hair step into his space, arms akimbo.
"Felix, what are you doing? The big meeting is starting in five minutes!"
Felix blinked several times, his vision still oddly blurry. "Uh, meeting?"
The woman rolled her eyes at him, a beautiful pair of blue-green eyes framed by thick lashes. "Yes, a meeting. This is your big chance! Designing the main attraction! You can't tell me you're getting cold feet?" She arched a perfect eyebrow at him.
"My--" This wasn't making sense. He was--he had been--
Then he remembered. A water park. Yes, of course.
At some point the woman had guided him out of his cubicle and into the aisle. They were halfway to a large picture window looking out over the city skyline. Bright, beautiful sun filled the office. Felix found it blinding.
The water park. He was working on it. Right? The main attraction, called--
"Roaring Waterfall, right?" The woman prompted, nudging his ribs. Felix flinched, his chest aching for some reason.
Must have hit it on the desk....
"Crazy what you engineers come up with," she continued, her hands never stopping moving. She mimed someone going down a slide, then off a sharp edge. "I mean, sending a man off a waterfall would be death in your world. Good thing this isn't, yeah?"
"Hm? Yeah. Ah--" Felix's head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. He was fuzzy and the light from the window was so bright. What was she saying?
Hands grabbed his shoulders and soft blue-green eyes stared into his dull brown ones. Felix couldn't quite make out her face, but she was...she was...words were spoken. He couldn't make them out.
"what?"
"You've got a long way to go, Felix. I can't have you giving up yet."
"What? What do you mean?" Felix's head spun, but her words were like fire. He felt like he was burning up. "Why are you calling me--?"
Then, in an instant, the fog burned away. His eyes cleared, his mind sharpened. They stood at the end of the aisle, the view of the city spread out beneath them.
Where am I? Im not an engineer... He looked at the woman, but could only make out her vivid blue-green eyes. The rest of her was blurry, occluded by a floater in his vision. She smiled and her teeth..."Who are you?"
"Felix, Felix, Felix," the stranger sighed. "If I told you that, this wouldn't be any fun."
Then she pushed him out of the window.
"WAKE UP."
"GHAAAAAAAAH!"
Gasping like a fish, Felix emerged from the calm blue waters like a breaching whale. Splashing frantically, he flailed until he felt soft, yielding ground beneath his feet, half walking through the water until he fell, exhausted on the shore.
"Still...alive," he breathed.
Felix's pants were waterlogged, and his acid-raw chest was turning blue. The water was damn cold, far colder than the summer-like weather would suggest. He felt himself begin to shake, muscles contracting rapidly against his will. Two icons were flashing in his vision, a blue snowflake and a head silhouette with a jagged line through it. Teeth beginning to chatter, he toggled them.
Status Condition: Exposure (Mild)
Status Condition: Concussion (Mild)
"O-oh, c-cool," he managed. "N-n-new ways t-to die." Felix felt the warm air against his freezing skin like a Brillo pad, scraping him raw. Everything was too bright, and the ground wouldn't stay in place. It kept squirming around. Forcing himself to breath deeply, Felix clawed his way up the shore, pulling himself onto a large flat rock after a few minutes.
He must have passed out again. When he opened his eyes, the shadows all looked different and it wasn't as bright. More worryingly, the blue snowflake icon had turned red and was pulsing. And he was freezing.
Status Condition: Exposure (Severe)
Don't panic.
Felix could feel the warmth seeping into him from the rock he laid on, but it wasn't enough. His guts felt like ice, and his arms and legs were numb clubs. His breath hitched in his chest, coming out in stuttering gasps. This was it. After everything, he was gonna die. Not because he was sliced apart by a lizard or melted by acid or even because he fell down a huge waterfall.