The surface floor was very rocky and wet. I kept my hood up from the pouring rain that wouldn't let up. There was a brief moment of greyness that came over me.
I kept walking until in the far distance I could see something that caught my eye. My eyes focused on a bright orange dot… A person? A vehicle?
Without hesitation I started to speed up towards this dark mass and from closer inspection it was a little more horrific than what I was anticipating.
A progressive vehicle unit (PVU) was knocked over a rock with flames starting to arise from the hood. I looked around and wondered if there was anyone around to see this.
The flames were so strong that even the rain couldn't put out the fire. Without a second thought I ran towards the burning vehicle carelessly as I heard the words 'Help' escape out of a desperate man's voice.
Around the side of the PVU I noticed that there was a man being almost crushed by the PVU. He was wedged between a large rock formation and above him was the PVU.
"Sir-!"
I then tried to lift the heavy vehicle up with all my strength but It wasn't enough. I felt like I could pop a blood vessel if I wasn't too careful with what I was doing. He was in a tight hole that needed big machinery to pull him out of. But I didn't have that, so instead I used my might against the machine.
I then dropped backwards from the PVU with utter exhaustion. "Argh!" My head pounds with a slight but growing headache.
"Please help! I don't want to die!" The man looks very pale as if he's about to lose oxygen.
In another attempt I put my entire body weight against the PVU trying to haul it onto the other side of the rock formations. It doesn't work. But I press on over and over with all my might but It doesn't budge.
"Fuck" I huff out with frustration. My forehead is dripping with sweat. My labourer's breathing doesn't stop. I kneel to the ground to the man under the vehicle. "I'm trying to push it!"
"Oh god, I don't know what happened. I don't want to die! Please!" the man helplessly screams out.
I step back and look around the crash site. The flames within the PVU start to ignite even bigger. The flames are starting to rise and black smoke enlarges to an uncomfortable size.
"Hey! Hey!" A shout coming from the other side of the vehicle. I moved around to see who it is.
It's a youngish boy, early twenties with dusty pink hair. "That's my dad under there!"
We both stood square ready to push the vehicle off the rocks and onto the soft surface. It took some time but after trial and error we had got the man from under the vehicle out.
"You need to get as far away from this as we can!" I shouted at the two of them.
"My father can't walk!" The son replied and he was right. I ran to the other side of the man and helped him to walk alongside his son.
As we made distance I couldn't help but look back at the vehicle and the mass of flames consuming it looked like.
We were edging near a river where rock formations and plants would grow and some other creatures would scuttle around here and there.
We then dropped the man on the floor and took a moment to try and breath. I turned around to see a large smoke in the distance. Then a large explosion causes a large glow of light almost blinding to appear. Shrapnel fell everywhere except from where we were standing.
"Oh gosh!" The son said. "What were you thinking travelling alone dad? You could have died before even entering the Bliptic City?!"
The dad rested on the side on a patch of grass. "I'm so sorry for doing that-" his voice was croaky and shaky. "I- I just thought that, you know, maybe if I could collect some Tephlir I could eventually use it to recover Janice!"
I had seen Tephlir around the Exploration Zone. They were blue glowing flowers that often contained healing abilities to animals or creatures. I'm assuming that he was out here trying to look for some and then ended up getting stuck in some rocks. But that doesn't explain where the fire came from.
"I really don't want Janice to die!" He sobbed hard, his face red. "If she dies, then I would be a terrible rabbit owner! And Penelope will never come back!" The father had cried out.
The son looked at me pensively. "Sorry about this, my name is August. I hope I haven't been an inconvenience to you for helping us, but it probably has been though." He scratched his head nervously.
The dad started to calm down and introduced himself also. "Well, if we're introducing ourselves, my name is Arlo." He turned to August, "That's my son. If you haven't noticed."
"I noticed. My name is Marie."
"Nice to meet you Marie." Answered August. "Man, it's been some time since we've met someone new. I'm assuming you're from the villages, 72V projects?"
I nodded in response.
"Gosh, it feels like there's a whole nother world out there! I didn't think we'd find anyone who would help my Dad over here with his predicament. To find someone as strong as you was a miracle haha!" August said.
"You guys were looking for Tephlir?"
"I wasn't, but he was. I just happened to be in the area on the ground looking out. It gets real tricky when you have Blips walking around this area. You never know what you might encounter. I have a bunch of gear on me if we ever encounter one, but luckily I haven't seen one."
"I think it would be best to try and wait it out until tomorrow. The storms are coming in fast and Blips like to roam especially within this weather condition." I replied.
"I wish we could but we have a slight dilemma." As I guessed, they had an animal that they needed healing. A rabbit. "Janice is on the verge of dying. And the doctors had told us that we need to gather Tephlir quickly before the virus grows any faster." August said with sadness behind his words.
His dad spoke, "Janice was my wife's rabbit of 6 years. If something bad happened to Janice. I would have lost the most important thing to the most important person I once had."
"I hope you can find what you're looking for." I replied coldly.
"I know this might seem like a bit," August spoke, "but we're not that familiar with the Exploration Zone. We've travelled everywhere except to this part so we didn't know how rocky the cliffs edges or if Blips would show up"
That was clear from the incident they had occurred themselves in. I paused to think about what I should do.
"Hmm, I see."
"Would you mind helping us find Tephlir for our pet, please we really need help." August pleaded. I sighed and thought, 'why not.'
"Sure, I'll help you. I'm familiar with these landscapes and they can be tricky to navigate especially for a first timer." I spoke.
"Our Progressive Vehicle Unit that we used wasn't suitable for elevated rocky landscapes It appears." Arlo said.
"I think it was designed for rocky landscapes. It just so happens you didn't put it into ranger mode instead of casual mode. The car needs to extend its wheels out for ranger mode or it'll be a stiff journey that can cause accidents." I added.
"You're right!" August burst in, "See you should have read the manual for that thing. Gosh dammit, you could have died if it wasn't for her."
"Hey, don't take away the credit for yourself, you also helped out." I added.
"Yeah, I suppose".
"Are you able to stand yet?" I asked Arlo.
"I think…" he stood up, barely but it was enough to keep him standing. "Jesus, I feel like I'm about to buckle over." His legs started shaking, and we soon caught him before his descent.
"I don't think so old man." August said.
"Go ahead guys, just leave me under the tree over there, I'll call for an ambulance to pick me up." Arlo said.
"The services are down now, the emergency vehicles have been deployed, but there's not enough for everyone." August added.
"Dammit! If only there was a way."
"How about this, I'll go and find your flowers for your animal and some other materials to help you out?"
"You're a legend Marie, how could I even thank you for this?" August exclaimed in joy.
"No need, just trying to help people in need."
I guess it gives me time to do something in hopes the storm might pass within a couple of hours.
"Man, the storm isn't letting up I suppose. It's gonna be a real hard time traversing while Blips roam around here." August sighed.
"I'm sure I don't have to go too far to get some plants here and there."
"You're right, but the Fractal Metre is around the orange scale." The fractal metre was the measuring system of how much Bliptic volume there was in an area. For the Exploration Zone, it was usually around green or yellow for safety. But orange or red showed signs of danger which wasn't usual especially in the EZ.
"Orange?" I replied. "Storms don't usually push out the Blips past the EZ?"
"Well, recently especially with the volume of Alternates and Blips working together the rangers have been having a tough time keeping them at bay." August said.
"What's the number now?"
"It was around 20k population but it recently skyrocketed to around 82k blips."
Holy shit, that many people? How the fuck did this even occur?
"I had told my old father not to go here due to the high density of Blips, but the supplies in the patrol unit haven't been enough for us, so we had no choice but to actively search out for stuff ourselves."
Same as me.
"The storm is not getting any better, I'll try and tend to my father's injuries. Best to go and search for those flowers." August said.
I gave him a quick nod and turned towards the large broken up fields and landscapes that were crawling with all sorts of mysteries. But I was only in the Exploration Zone so I should be fine is what I had hoped for.