Chapter 1 Nothing like you thought. 思ったよりちがうんだ。

        Nothing is ever like what you think it will be. Maybe it’s watching things on the tube. Maybe it our hyperactive imagination. Or maybe it’s just the fact that we just don’t know enough about anything. I wonder if it’s only an American problem. But if we don’t experience it for ourselves we really don’t know what something will be like. For example walking around in a giant tank of a suit is no picnic. Especially if you are stuck in it. It’s not the smell that bothers you. You don’t really smell yourself because it’s something that you get used to real quick. It’s the blackness. The hum of machinery goes away real quick too unless you are paying attention to it. It’s almost hypnotic. Not everybody has experience in a sensory deprivation tank. But I am 90 percent sure this is what a sensory deprivation tank is like. Minus the virtual reality head piece and the 3D reaction suit that my body is wrapped around. So not like a sensory deprivation tank. It replicates every move I make. Thank God that I can walk and stand.  Every step I take I feel the vibration of the suit. Not unpleasant but certainly something noticeable. A muffled thunk echoes within the suit with every step the suit takes. All the while my headset sends a clear thunk less than a tenth of a second later, I’m guessing about the time bit. It’s not noticeable unless you are really trying to listen for it. At the moment I am not. I am concentrating on the screen that is set before my eyes. It’s a pretty big cave. Well, big if you were just by yourself. But again, I am in a giant tank of a robot suit. So it’s probably more like standing in an empty boxing arena except with lots and lots of rocks. It feels like there is enough space until you are cornered. Then there isn’t enough. I’m trying not be stuck in a corner.

Infrared is pretty neat but there is limit to how much one can see. Laser Detection and Ranger helps show depth. Like those old Playstation games. You can only see things pop up once you are close enough. But only with much better graphics. But the same heads up display you would see in most 1st person shooters. But also add the extra stuff from most mass multiplayer online role playing game. My left arm is outstretched as I continue. My right arm held up close like a boxer, ready to switch. Because holding your arm out is very tiring after a few minutes.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. That’s all I hear. Along with the hum of the machinery. It also makes it very warm. People forget that electronics give off heat. I would put on the ventilation but being in a cave, people also forget that it is warm in a cave. So all I would be doing is recycling warm air for warm air. I can’t wait to get outside. At least I can create some airflow. Or at least some better airflow. I keep moving forward. Constantly switching my arms so they don’t tire out. Slowly, cautiously moving forward. One of the worse things you can do is try to rush things. I see a bend in the cavern. It is turning right. Slowly I am reaching closer to the corner. Don’t rush. I keep telling myself. Don’t rush. I am about 30 feet away. 25. 20. 15. 10. 5. I hold my breath and I turn the corner.

Nothing. Just another long tunnel with a small light at the end of it. Almost like a star. I take a quick look around. And again I see nothing. I let the air out of my lungs. Into the recycled tank I am in. I keep moving forward. Tha-thunk. Tha-thunk. Tha-thunk. Tha-thunk. I am moving a bit faster. The less time I’m in this cave, the better. Tha-thunk. Tha-thunk. Tha-thunk. I’m moving about as fast as I can running. Which is probably why my body took a pretty big fall when something hit me from behind.

Most people don’t remember the last time they fall flat on their face. That sudden impact makes the brief flash of light go right before your eyes because your nose took the impact first. I open my eyes immediately and try to see through my watery eyes. I see words on a red background but it is very blurry. I hear scrapping coming from behind me. There is ring that goes with that scratching. Thank god I am in a tank. But no armor isn’t impenetrable. Luckily I landed with my arms out in front of me. I put my palms down as fast as I can. The scratching noise is getting faster. I push up and roll over. There is a brief pause of scratching noise. And then it started again. I swing my arm in front of me and the noise goes away. I sit up and I get a quick glance at what knocked me down. It was somewhat hairy but the spiky coarse kind and sparse. It looked like a scorpion and a wolf had a monstrosity baby. A big ugly baby. It bared its teeth. Or I think it is teeth with a screech. Like a fox except more shrill with a bass tone dissonance. And it jump straight at me again. It was heavy because it knocked me straight back down on my back. It’s tail stabbing the top of my suit. It rung with a clang every time. It was barely audible over the alarm that was going on. I swing my arms again and off it goes. I barely sit up and start crab walking backwards. Not that I’m going anywhere fast. I keep looking around. The creature jumps from side to side. And lunges forward again. It’s fast. And being in a tank of a suit. Speed isn’t exactly in the specs. So I am on my back again. I move my arms again to try and swat it off. It easily dodges and fades back into the darkness. I look at my little radar on the lower left corner of my screen. There is no blip. Now it could be that I simply just tripped and fell and my mind’s playing tricks on me and I am hallucinating. I keep backing towards the light. Which is still pretty far away. I am looking around in front. I try going through different vision modes: x-ray, night vision, thermals. Nothing. I switch to my normal vision mode and add some lights to try and increase the visibility. I don’t see anything. And because of the way the suit is, I can’t look down to see if there are any scratch marks.  It’s one of those problems you don’t realize until you actually try it practically. Design oversight you can say. I slowly try to get to my feet. I have one arm raised just in case it wasn’t in my head. And then it pops out again from above and I am back on my back again. For some reason the Shakespeare line from Romeo and Juliet. Something about Juliet’s housemaid talking about lying on one’s back and saying aye.

“God Damn it!” I yell. Swinging my arm yet again. But this time it just ducks under it and continues its scratching. Ka-Thunk! It’s tail found a weak point in my suit. Like I said before, no armor is impenetrable. This time it’s using it’s teeth along with it’s claws to open my suit. Along with the scratching noise it has an accompanying clomping noise of teeth. I know I should be cautious. But when one is under lots of stress, caution is thrown into the wind. And I know that I said that speed wasn’t in the specs of this suit. But the rocket boosters attached to the suit on the other hand makes going in a straight line pretty fast. Especially when one is lying on their back. Ever sat on the back of a jet plane when they are just starting to take off? The sound of the rocket boosters sounded like that but more high pitched. I immediately veer to the left. And shift everything over towards my left side. If that thing could get away it would have. But I guess I was lucky that thing tail got stuck. I hear the ground scraping on my left side. I use my right arm to try and hold the creature in place. I feel the vibration on the front side of my suit.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” I keep yelling as I am scraping along the cave floor at some high speed that I am not keeping track of. One thing I should mention about the 3D reaction suit is that it also puts in input from the environment. So it isn’t as if I just feel vibrations. Small electroshocks accompanying the vibrations aren’t pleasant at all. Like those joke shock pens. Except over a larger area besides your thumb. The creature yells are overloading my sound system. Then almost as soon as I started I feel a big crunch and then me rolling over several times with a very loud noise. And again I am on my back. I get up slowly. Not out of caution. But more out of pain. Luckily my camera wasn’t too damaged. The lens is scratched but nothing the computer can’t reconfigure. I get to my feet slowly. I put my left arm up and look around as I get up. I see the creature lying on its side. It is slowly trying to go back in the darkness. I slowly go after it. I see that the tail has been torn. I am guessing the pointy end is still stuck in my suit. Two of its legs seemed to be bent in a way that isn’t natural. I say that because it was twitching as it was dragging itself back into the dark cave. My suit’s boot landed on the end part of the tail. The yell was ear splitting. My camera focuses closer. I see that some of the claws have been ripped off. And it looked like its mouth was barely hanging on to whatever flesh held it together.  It certainly wasn’t helping that it was writhing around. Trying to hack at the air around it.  I took my arm and pointed it at it. A part of the hand unit is two barrels. The auto guidance on my screen shows the weak spots. One in the head and one in the center of its mass. The screeching continues. It was one of desperation. That loud screech of desperation. The blast from my gauntlet echoed. Just twice. And then it was back to the silence that was before. The only sound coming from the hum of the machinery, The thunks of the footsteps on gravel. And now the creaking of joints and rattling of loose parts. And the slight echoes of all of that in the cave. Your eyes get used to the dark. Which is why when I got outside the light was blinding. Even though it was cloudy. But at least the air smelled good.