My System has a Glitch

William reached down and punched his hand through the hole at the center of the man eater.

William felt an instant pain in his hand as the temperature there was a lot hotter but still he stuck his hand deeper into it, hoping and praying he'll find something, anything vital to the plant.

His mind was fading fast, his face was beet red from suffocation, he was practically strangling his own self and it seemed at any moment now he would pass-out then he touched something.

Something round like a ball, it felt like a balloon full of water but William didn't care what it was, he squeezed it and popped it.

Instantly he felt an intense burn wrap around his hand and fingers. He squeezed his face and the pain forced him to gasp and as he did the water surged into his throat.

[Internal Damage -6mins]

'Damn it!' he thought but then the lights inside the plant died out and the petals fell and the liquid drained away freeing him.

He had killed it but he too was scarred, whatever he had popped was corrosive enough to badly burn his hand.

William slumped over and slid off the slippery petals and fell off the tree directly towards the pool of snakes.

He was unconscious and could do nothing to help himself but lucky for him he got caught up in a series of tangled vines that kept him from falling.

A couple hours passed and two people crawled towards him on a sprawled out ladder. It was Nod and Ingrid.

"See I told you he'll be here," Ingrid said. "And you didn't want to come after him."

"No, it's just that it's too dangerous out in the open like this," Nod said. "and we've already made enemies."

"When haven't we had enemies?"

"He looks injured,now how do we get him out of here?"

Chris suddenly turned like she had sensed something in that direction then she said, "There's four of them headed our way, it's probably those guys."

"Damn it, we won fair and square, I guess we'll just have to win again."

"No, William is too hurt for us to play around like that, we've already got the loot, you'll just have to lead them away."

Nod rubbed his chin and thought it over for a second.

"Hurry up already!" Ingrid cried. "Get out of here!"

"Why do I feel like you're trying to cheat me?"

"What advantage would I cheat you out of? I'll have to go down and get your retarded friend and anyone of these vines could be evil."

"You may have a point."

"And you may have a smooth brain."

"Alright," Nod said. "Just don't cheat me out of the loot."

Nod turned and ran across the rope ladder laid like a bridge across two distant trees, he ran so expertly it frightened her a bit.

"I hope he comes back okay," she said.

She had never really shown much affection for him and that's how they were brought up in a strict and unfeeling house and unfortunately for them they weren't yet free from past, they still lived in that house and so they would never consciously show their love for each other unless it was usually hidden behind tricks, bets, gambles and mischief.

She looked down at the unconscious William and sighed as the weight of her immense job dawned on her. She grabbed a vine beside her and slid down towards him.

She stopped by his head and slapped him across the face but he didn't wake up, so she slapped him again and again but still nothing.

I thought that would do it.

She sighed and looked down at the pool of slithering snakes and shuddered as she slid down a bit more so she'd be able to grab him.

She paused for a moment and looked around and at the left end she saw a branch low enough and she thought about swinging him there.

She tied one of the vines firmly around his arm and pulled out a tree bark that she had sharpened into a shank and began cutting the vines with it.

She cut through one and William's body sagged a little bit then she went to work on the other vines, hoping that her calculations were indeed correct.

Just like they had always been, her family trade had been bootlegging and when their father had passed away via assassination they took over at the ripe age of nineteen and with that came an immense pressure like sitting on a boiling cauldron.

All that saved and sustained them well until their late seventies were their calculative abilities but even with all her fine and refined experience she was still worried.

She looked at the unconscious William as she cut through the final rope that would send him swinging towards the low branch.

"Hmmm.. What do you know, William, you're kind of handsome when you're not talking."

She cut through the vine and William began swinging away from her and she threw herself and him, grabbing onto the vine and leading him towards the tree.

Her calculations were precise. She grabbed onto the branch and pulled William on top of it then she cut the vine off him and properly placed him so he wouldn't fall off from any sudden movements.

She sat on the branch, resting her back on the body of the tree. She pulled out her guide and activated her special tool.

She had gotten a special tool after her and Nod found one of the first loot boxes but they weren't without competition. They had escaped with their lives but were still being pursued.

When she activated her special too it showed her the numbers of players scattered around with in range of her but the other feature it had was a more specific tracking but it was limited since she had to have an item of the person she wished to track but it was through this means they had been able to fine William using the brass knuckle he had been generous enough to give Nod.

It had cost her a total of thirty minutes to track him. There was no one in range but still she remained vigilant as some players had rifles.

The idea of scarce resources had kicked in and it seemed clear to her that everyone had read the section of the encyclopedia on how to steal time to stay alive and now they were all after each other, hunting each other in a wild dance of prey and predator, with each player left to decide what they were.

She caught a glimpse of William's hand and gasped.

"How didn't I see that before?"

One hand was burnt badly by the strange chemical but the other was much worse, it was swollen with the snake's venom.

She grabbed his hand and instantly her Guide scanned the wound and gave her the little information it had on the possible type of snake.

It gave her the four most likely plants here in the jungle that could substitute as antivenom.

She quickly cut off a vine and tied William to the tree and went out crawling on the rope ladders and swinging through the vines to get around much quicker.

Usually she'd be more careful and look more closely before she grabbed onto a vine but she was in a hurry and blinded by the urgency she grabbed onto the wrong vine.

It pulled her up and as it did she saw one of the plants she was looking for, it was growing out of the side of a great black tree.

She quickly pulled out the sharpened bark and it was about to swing her upwards when she cut the vine and began her descent downwards.

******

Nod on the other hand was hiding in a hollow tree, with bugs crawling all over his face.

"Where are you, pretty boy!" a shrewd voice called out to him. "Come out and play."

His assailants began shooting everything they could see and even directly at the hollow tree but Nod stayed still.

"I'm going to give you the count of three and if you don't come out I'll light you up. You hear me boy! I'll start throwing grenades!"