Glitches Ad Infinitum

Chapter Two: Dying Desert

The obtuse, overdone slow-motion surrounded the foreign den of airborne lead scrapings. Once again the woman looked towards the invincible coffee table near her, her heart racing with fear and adrenaline all the while.

She could feel the explosives strapped to her chest and the weighty detonator still in her palm. Something unseen was forcing her thumb as she struggled against it like a screaming, abusive director telling her to just stick to the script even if she knew it was complete shithouse.

That word came back to her again just as the white lightning started to slowly gain strength. Why. Why should she follow this stupid sequence of events? Why was she even compelled to do so in the first place? Why was she here at all? Why did it seem like there was no one on her side? Why could she never leave this one dingy room?

In a sudden flash of Shampoo’s still trained muzzle the woman fell to the floor, letting herself collapse on purpose like a stringless puppet.

She slid and rolled towards the coffee table at her side, Shampoo missing his shots as the bullets flew all around her. The woman picked up the table and rushed backwards on her feet towards the blown open holes in her wall, blocking every incoming shot.

The woman charged out the hole backwards. The greyish, brownish, impoverishedish halls of her home were now fully known to her for the first time. She swiftly looked for another exit. The barrier had been shattered, just as she guessed, they had to be near her.

The battalion of battle trained marines stumbled through the blown open walls in confused pursuit. Shampoo followed as well with his targeting laser aimed squarely at the woman’s head. She backed away from the approaching squadron. They slowly pushed the woman back as they walked down the halls with their guns still trained on her all the while.

The woman finally backed herself up against the end of the hallway. A flimsy wooden door behind her was felt as she swiftly turned her head around to see light peering out from the tiny cracks in the varnish. With little hesitation she kicked the door open with her leg arched back stiffly, her torso still facing the squadron in front of her.

Much to her surprise the battalion soon lowered their weapons as she stood in front of the open door, her first backwards step into the outside world.

“Where did she go?” one of the marines questioned. The woman seemed confused as she was still standing in plain sight in front of them.

The white lightning flared up violently as the woman dropped the coffee table and gripped her hand in immense pain.

Every bolt seemed to destroy something small. A chunk of wall, a discarded shell casing and soon the mysterious force started to attack her as well. Each strike crippled her as she felt her chest practically burst into flames.

The marines paused for a moment, their eyes flickering and their bodies twitching. They seemed to barely be able to comprehend just what was happening.

“Alright marines, let’s win this day for democracy!” one of them shouted without context or reason. “Oorah, let’s do this!” another blurted out, twitching and turning around as he did.

“Get to breaching’, let’s do this!” they continued to ramble like a malfunctioning robot being told that one plus one equaled five and a half.

“For America, let’s do this, let’s go!” “Oorah, for America, hold it!” “Keep going, let’s do this!” “Take cover, keep going, move, oorah!” “Hold it, grenade, let’s go, reloading!” “For America, let’s go, move move move, look out, get breaching’ marines!”

Shampoo soon turned to his comrades as they annoyingly spouted out their canned dialogue all at the same time. He turned back around, his entire body shifting swiftly left to right and running back and fourth in confusion. He gained no reaction but the continued anomaly he saw before him.

Just then the burning stopped and the lightning seemed to clam down. Every bolt floated in the air slowly as the woman picked herself up off the ground. She stared at the static as within the energy she could see a void with a gaping, black array of teeth. She backed away out of fear, the static soon disappearing completely afterwards.

The Voiceless Shampoo turned to face the woman afterwards. He fired once more in large automatic bursts. None of the bullets seemed to even exit the barrel of the gun much to the woman’s surprise.

Shampoo ceased his automatic fire, lowering his weapon afterwards. He stood stock still, the floor around him suddenly opening up revealing a giant, blinding white hole. Shampoo fell through, as did the walls, the weapons, the people and even the floor itself.

Gravity reversed and then turned back, repeating its chaotic pattern as the woman soon ran from the ensuing danger and out towards the outside world. The woman’s coffee table soon disappeared as well as she felt a sudden violent tug at her chest. An unseen force pulled at her but then suddenly released her shortly afterwards.

She looked back, seeing the entire building that had once confined her fly away piece by piece up into the sky. For a very brief moment she felt her breath leave her, her thoughts going blank and her sight dying.

There was nothing she could really do to truly understand any of this, much less fight it. That one second, that one brief moment brought not fear but clarity despite the unknown danger on display. She placed her hands over her chest and in that moment she felt no vest, no detonator, nothing.

“Get breaching’ marines…” she heard, muffled just outside of the cosmic void. A sudden screeching sent the woman into a panicked defense as she could hear it reverberating violently in her ears.

There were a hundred different screams, some she even recognized briefly but all of them soon lost in complete indistinguishable madness.

The noises soon faded as the building in front of her was swallowed whole by the void in the sky. It left nothing behind but a blank, white circle where the foundation used to be.

“I… what just…?” the woman muttered. She turned around cautiously to see the bright glaring lights before her. The abundant desert sun greeted her for the first time, illuminating a large bustling marketplace untouched and never seen before by her.

“I… am I free?” she questioned dubiously. She walked out towards the sunny desert city, streets loud and bustling. Without much time spent walking she soon stopped beside a man, isolated from the not too distant rest. He didn’t seem to notice the giant white void just behind his cart of apples. “Um, excuse me?” she said.

The man did not respond as he continued to place apple upon apple into his bag, never seeming to really stop. “I was, I don’t suppose you know just what happened to that… um, well the building that I just…?” she attempted to ask, looking upon the man with a sudden perplexed expression.

The man continued to pick apples, the woman noticing a strange unflinching rhythm to his actions and also the fact that he wasn’t even really blinking. “Are you feeling alright?” she questioned, waving her open hand in front of the man’s face but getting no response.

The woman took a quick peek inside the bag the man was filling with inexpensive fruit only to discover that there was nothing inside.

Every apple that fell to the bottom simply disappeared into thin air and the market cart seemed to never run out of produce. The woman placed her hand upon the man’s shoulder only for her arm to slip through his body as if it were made of light.

The man flickered and distorted, his detail and presence turning into pixelated nonsense before returning to its shape and routine.

“He can’t actually talk to you so don’t bother” a voice said. “He’s just a background image, no more possible intelligence than the bushel of apples he is forced to gather” he continued. The woman turned around to see a man standing just outside the void where she had just escaped from.

The man slowly approached the woman with a smug swagger and a black widow’s peak draped over his boney head. He was dressed in a black vest and tie with the sleeves of his dark dress shirt rolled up. He was also wearing a pair of wraparound sunglasses like some kind of overpaid casino bouncer.

“Couldn’t leave well enough alone…” the man shook his head. “So like you, like all of you”. “Wasn’t enough the first time, no, had to destroy it all again and again…” he paused. The woman was left confused as he continued to drone on.

“Who are you?” the woman asked. “Someone very invested in his continued existence” the man chuckled. “What the hell are you talking about?” the woman demanded to know. “You really don’t know, do you…?” the man continued to speak.

“Why are…?” the woman asked with a continued stuttering tone. “Why?” he swiftly interrupted her. “That word, ‘why’”. “You have no idea just what that word does to people”. “We all have a role in this world, and that word is what destroys those roles… and our homes”.

“Do you really want to know ‘why’?” the man asked. “Why you’re here?” “Why you’re running away?” “Why you don’t have a name?” the man continued.

“Well, that’s a bit unfair; you do have a name, a fair few in fact”. “I can’t say it anymore though, your cage is gone”. “My cage?” the woman questioned. “Yes…” the man looked towards the white void where the building used to be. “All gone, just like the last one and the one before that and so on”.

The man looked over her shoulder, pointing slyly at the white void. “I didn’t do that!” the woman defended herself. “No, maybe not this time but ignorance and malice can be equally as dangerous”.

“It’s gone now, because of you” the man said. The woman shook her head in disbelief. “No, I… how is any of this even possible!?” she exclaimed. “Again with that troublesome curiosity of yours” the man remarked. “I wanted out, I just…” she said. “Wanted to be free, or maybe something else…?” the man finished her sentence for her.

“I know I’m probably not going to change your mind, I never do” the man continued. “Why would a Pawn ever listen to a Bishop after all”.

The man chuckled softly again, removing his sunglasses and pointlessly cleaning them with his tie. He paused for a moment, closing his eyes gently. “I wish it was simple, I really do” he continued.

“I just want this to finally end”. “It won’t, I know it won’t, but we all have our roles, even if we realize just how pointless they are, we still do them”. “What the fuck are you talking about!?” the woman started to grow more and more agitated.

“You’re free, again” he said. “Tell me something, do you know what happens to someone who dies?” he asked, the woman not responding.

“What they’re supposed to do by their own comprehension is… well… die”. “They come back, but they never remember that they already died, they respawn”. “It’s a system” the man answered his own question.

“But they always wind up back home so the story can continue anew”. “What happens though when that system breaks?” the man asked, his question being answered as a loud, sharp scream could be heard struggling from the white void.

“It needs to be fixed… I know I’ll fail though… your kind always wins” the man continued. He pulled a gun out as he spoke and pointed it squarely at the woman’s skull.

“The Villain and the Hero…” the man pulled back the firing mechanism only for his attention to be swiftly torn from him. A sudden gunshot rang out in his ears, distant and definitely not his own. He looked up, seeing a small battalion of swinging, silver trenchcoat wearing people navigating through the dense background city.

A few stopped themselves atop some of the buildings, firing at the man with struggling accuracy from their handguns. The woman took the opportunity to swiftly disarm the man in the confusion.

The two struggled briefly for the weapon, the woman finally knocking the man to the ground and tripping him as she stood with the gun in her hand. “What the hell is going on?!” she demanded to know with an expression of angry confusion.

The man sat with his arms placed behind him, his smug expression failing to go away as he continued to chuckle. “You’ve damned us all… again…” he answered, a bullet ringing out from the distance, striking him in the head and killing him afterwards.

The woman stood stock still, the gun in her hand disappearing along with the man as she breathed uneasy. “The reports were true then…” one of the men stated as he approached the woman alongside his friend. “I think we’ve found another” he continued, finally reaching the woman as the man extended his hand in polite greeting.

White lightning clashed with another source, both the silver-hooded man and the woman’s. “Very good, another Glitch” the man pointed out, a large toothy smile upon his face as he removed his sunglasses. “Hello, do you know why we’re here?” he asked. “I… really fucking wish I could say yes …” the woman responded.

The woman held her hand out to greet the man though with a much more uneasy expression. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to answer with that word in due time” the man smiled. “Hate to rush you but the Faceless are going to be heading out of that new void soon” the man explained. “Come on, it’s not safe here” he held the woman’s hand and escorted her away from the Dying Desert.

Next Chapter: Magma Pits Without Safety Railings