My System has a Glitch

The kite came right at her, straight at her eyes. She side stepped to dodge it but before she could tell the little man was swinging a metal bat at her and when she saw it, it already was already too late

It hit the side of her head and she couldn't stop herself from falling off the bridge there was nothing to hang onto.

'Damn it, how could I be so foolish.'

As she fell she forced her foot into the narrow gap between the wooden bars of the bridge and cleverly got her foot stuck between them.

She fell but with her foot caught up in the bridge it stopped her from falling off but in the process it tilted the rope bridge so quickly it almost knocked off the crazed little man.

But he quickly dissolved his bat and grabbed hold of the bridge.

"Clever girl, I wasn't expecting you to keep fighting. You're such a genius aren't you? Such a lovely, lovely doll."

She was hanging upside down, bleeding from her head and visibly unconscious but he was lying on the bridge and had a grin on his face.

Then he began crawling towards her, he chuckled and chuckled with every step forwards. His eyes were trained on her foot sticking out through the bars, was he going to let her loose?

i don't like to see you like this birdie, is it okay if I call you birdie? Birdie you're all caught up, he shouted, you're stuck, you're in a rot birdie, let me set you free.

********

William was up on his feet again, his poisoned hand was pulsing, his mind was shaky, his vision dizzy but still he was standing and looking at a vine with bloodshot eyes.

He looked drained and shrunken and after a bout of pain, he looked at his hand.

'Oh no!' he thought.

He saw the blackened veins, the yellow goo seeping out of the wounds.

'I've gotta find an antidote, the shrubs, the encyclopedia, there's something in there.'

He saw the nearest rope bridge to him,it was about ten feet down, so he let him fall. He landed on the bridge and it dipped down and he grabbed onto the ropes before the force could knock him off.

William began crawling on the bridge. 'I can't die here, she's waiting for me.'

William hadn't even noticed he was covered in blood, his mind had blocked out so much to keep him. In survival mode and that was all that kept him going.

William got through the next bridge, though he was a bit more sluggish but through all this he had no idea he was being watched.

Suddenly he heard whistling. He was exhausted, he had no idea where to run or even if he could.

'Maybe it was a bird,'he thought.

Then he stopped crawling and got on his feet. He stood on the rope bridge and just as his stalkers had planned he placed his hand on the tree beside him.

Immediately he touched the tree, he heard a beeping sound coming from underneath his hand, he turned and saw the faint glow of red neon lights between his fingers.

Suddenly it felt like his hand was on cold iron, he could see now, he could feel it when only a moment ago it hadn't been there, it had been camouflaged.

Before he knew it another one popped up beside it and reminded him of an old job he did eighteen years ago.

Seeing what it really was and realizing the grave danger he was in wiped out whatever fog he had in his mind.

He remembered he had read about them in the tools section of the encyclopedia, they were called "chameleon mines" and they were cheap to come by but deadly none the less.

He was in deep trouble, his whole body knew it and whatever physical and mental strain he had were postponed till further notice.

William shuddered, "what in the..." Before he could complete his words ten more popped up on the body of the tree.

What the hell is this?

"Hey!" A voice cried out from above then it whistled as William turned and followed the sound.

'It was that whistling that got in this mess in the first place. So it was all planned but by who?'

All he could see were the branches and the narrow beams of light that made it through the thick canopies.

Then he heard a voice again but this time it was feminine and it said, "Hey! Catch!"

"Huh?"

Before he could make sense of what he had heard she saw something tumbling down towards him from the tree tops.

He couldn't quite make out what it was as it was just a falling silhouette but then it went through one of the beams of light and he saw what it was.

It was a human head, he gasped and almost took his hand off the landmine. Then he heard two people laughing from the tree tops.

"Did you see him move? That really scared him," the woman said.

'These people are no joke,' William thought as he watched the head sink into the pool of snakes.

"Hey!" She cried and oddly enough it sounded like she was hurt by something or at least faking it. "Where's my thank you?"

"Thank you?"

"That guy was gonna kill you, you know. We were hoping to get a better catch with you as bait while we waited for that handsome boy to come back but those guys weren't even worth the time but what you did to that other guy was too scary even for me."

'What in the world is talking about?'

"Don't move around too much!"someone else screamed but this time it sounded like a man. "If you move you'll explode, I haven't had my fun yet so stay still."

'Fun? I don't like the sound of that.'

"So I saved you," the woman said. "He was gonna shoot your head off and I saved you, so as payment you have to do something for….."

William sighed and cut her off by saying, "thank you very much, I really appreciate it, now, if you'll kindly deactivate these mines, I'm sure we could all go our separate ways?"

"He cut me off? She sounded in disbelief. "Did he just cut me off, son?"

"He did mom, I heard him, he really did it."

'What in the world have I gotten myself into?'

"I've gotta calm down!"

"Yeah calm down mom, you don't wanna lose your temper again."

William could hear her fuming from the trees and he was certain he wanted to deal with just any kind of murderers, these were the unpredictable kind, you'd never really know what they'd do next.

Somehow he'd been caught up in their crosshairs. Were these the kinds of people that populated this world, criminals and psychopaths?

"Its too late,"she screamed. "You're going to play whether you like it or not, cause starting now you don't have a choice anymore."

"Now the game we'll be playing is called sitting duck. Is it really simple all you've to do is stay still while my son here practices his aim? Is that clear? "

"What?" William screamed. "You must be ma….

Bang!

William paused as the bullet hit the tree he had his hand on. It took every ounce of willpower he had to stop himself from taking his hand off the landmine.

"Idiot!" The woman screamed. "You're not supposed to shoot yet."

"I'm sorry ma, I got really excited."

William's eyes were frozen on where the bullet had struck, it was a bad shot, it was far away from hitting any of his vital organs but still it was so close to hitting a mine.

"Now just stay still and let him shoot you, okay! He's a really bad shot, so we're teaching him every chance we get."

William activated his shield and they could see the blue aura surrounding him.

"That won't do you any good, it's a special bullet."

"Special bullet? I'm so dead!"

William looked down and saw a rope bridge. 'Now how do I make this jump without setting off….

Before he could finish that thought he heard gun fire, his heart stopped as he heard a CLINK sound, like something had struck iron.

He looked at the mines and saw that one had been hit by the bullet….