(Episode VII) (Act 3)

“What are the chances?!” Tracy agreed.

“They’re actually terrifyingly closer than you think…” River added.

“This is awful… Maybe… Maybe somehow, she taught about this place or something as well teleported…? Maybe siVis…?”

“Noooo!” Maddie protested. “There’s no fucking way, otherwise there would’ve been a report or something! Diana fucking set us up, and that’s the sole reason!”

“But to set us up and choose this location when she had no history or files on us…?” River questioned.

Maddie sighed. “Yeah…”

“It’s like she said…” River continued. “We’re getting to that point… Where this shit is just a hotbed, able to conjure up things and respond to things… Just cause.”

Tracy looked over to Jackie and Aiko, and then back to Maddie, “We have to comfort her… Or else she’s a ticking bomb ready to come undone—and we don’t know how to defend ourselves!”

“She already feels shit!” Maddie shouted, causing the other two to jump. “Handling her with kid gloves and patting her back will only make her fucking worse! It makes everyone feel worse, because you feel like you’re failing to be happy!”

“Have you guys ever—” Maddie cut herself off to empathize her point, “Evvvveeeer, actually took that positive crack someone made for you and actually accepted it, for like, a whole day?!”

Tracy and River looked at each other, then lowered their heads a bit.

“So there,” Maddie had nothing but resolve in her tone. “We’ll badger her and apologize later, Jackson’s a big and smart girl, so she gets why we’re throwing away the kids’ gloves. It’s the only way.”

It was weird, being so direct—no jokes, no segways. And the weird part in all of this was the mild epiphany within Maddie that said; “why the surprise? You were always like this”.

It was siVis or herself or whatever, it continues to clear her mind. Find the things that are useful, sweep away at the useless shit. All this talk about supernatural powers; Maddie might as well call it the weirdest fucking way to actually concentrate.

“Here’s the problem,” River began. “We have a clear out in all of this: we just cross the whole town to get to the boarder, and there’s going to be an Extant something there. And I think the chances of them having, y’know, actual PATH-OS teleporters is also good. But we’re in Terminsys City, baby, and it ain’t always a straight line—”

“I’m going to ignore…Parts of that last sentence—” Maddie said.

“Meme humor’s my clutch during these sad times…” River explained.

“But yeah, is it really that bad?”

“It can be, like everything dealing with this nightmare world,” River answered. “And that’s definitely the danger here. And… It’s not like we’re in a position to ask Jackie for directions…”

Maddie rubbed her chin. Sucked on her teeth.

Thankfully, what she was going to say next, was going to come true.

“I’ll do it…” Jackie, with Aiko in tow, came from behind, croaking still as she looked mostly normal again. She breathed heavily, as if there was a brick hung from her neck, as her pieces weren’t completely back in place across her face. “I’ll do it because… T-this is more than me… I need to help you all, keep you safe…”

Maddie smirked, and then crossed her arms. “Like I said: she’s a big girl.”

Jackie even did an eyeroll. Maddie was assured that she was back in control. But for how long…

“So, that’s what we’re running with…?” Jackie’s voice still wrought and wrecked from emotion. “High tail it to the boarder…?”

“Unless you have something else in mind, fearless leader…” Maddie said.

It took careful yet effortful motion to shake her head, as if Jackie was questioning every move she was going to make. “Let’s. We ARE going to get something good out of this day.”

Maddie withheld a sigh, glancing at Tracy and River in succession. She knew that this false hope is going to get them hurt.

But maybe it’d be the wake up call they needed. Provided, if they fucking survive it too.

“Main Street…” Jackie began. “It’s not too far from here. Like Steppe Avenue, it’ll lead us to the other road we need.”

“Main Street huh—” Maddie put her hands on her hips. “Really? Like Disneyland--?”

“Maddie, I get that you’re trying to keep me here, but I think you’re doing too good of a job now.”

“Oh no, this is just me questioning how vanilla the States are—”

“Well sorry that we focused on making the streets just streets and not focus on how our ‘plant’ theme will work,” Jackie snipped back—again the pain lingering in her voice undercut the fact she was joking, that she moved on.

Maddie propped up her imaginary glasses, and became cartoony in her delivery, “Actually, it’s based on growth—”

She laughed, genuinely. Good. Everything’s a gamble at the moment, so Maddie and everyone should be focusing on easing, defusing.

The girls gathered, to face the new obstacle before them.

What was once a street, it was curved and pitched upwards. Not even in a neat fashion, it was smudged to the right, was string up towards the left. It was less of a steep, straight line and more of a spill from a liquid across a surface.

Maddie flinched, was caught off guard, because her mind allowed her to see something she has no access to. She remembered that she recently had to scale an upward street.

And as she looked to the others, it seemed like they were remembering to.

Jackie shook her head. “We went through this. We got through this. And we can do it again.”

She pointed to the near top, where a smear twisted to the far left.

“I can see the street sign: Bowing Road. We take that and we’d be halfway there.”

And with that, Jackie took the lead, with the rest following after.

Her legs instantly flared with siVis, without Maddie’s input… Or conscious input, she figured. Maybe Jackson was on the money; they had done this before in a sense. Their bodies did learn.

Their legs locked against the gravity of the ramp, then popped forward to scale it. Repeated again and again until they were dashing up the street as the incline only got steeper and steeper.

It hurt Maddie like hell, she can feel her back aching up again as her legs also started screaming—she only applied siVis to her spine as well, just to hold herself together as she kicked up the dust, pebble and loose asphalt chucks behind her.

It wasn’t until Aiko nearly slipped that Maddie noticed the street’s surface was trying to cause problems.

It was like harden magma: the street was warped—settled within it’s distortion, but was still slowly moving, still extremely dangerous.

Basically, as they climbed, the mountain decided to have an avalanche when they were halfway there.

It was amazing to Maddie how Jackie didn’t tell them to change tactics, to do some leader thing to achieve the plan. Almost like a step team, they went into motion.

Leaning in on their left leg, popping up, land and leaning in with their right, rinse and repeat.

They were practically jumping up a street and Maddie wished that she could laugh at the sheer stupidity that they’re in. But this was life now, doing Middle School Fitness Test moves to climb a landsliding street.

Hopefully they’ll survive, so they can do it later.

As they scaled to the top, the more of a slope the place was becoming. Maddie couldn’t focus on her surroundings, even with the physical effort she’s doing, as the street and what would’ve been buildings… Stores… Maybe even some old house with a stubborn senior in it that may or may not have eaten snails because Johnny from down the street saw it—All of it was white and warped. Gone. Removed.

The fucking idea… Everything that Maddie knew—the only things she truly known. Gone, just like that.

She knew she was going to shiver and preemptively stopped it. Forget Jackson needing to meditate, she had to join her if that means getting a damn hold of herself.

They made it to the street corner, with either Jackie or River shouting, “EXPECT THE WORSE!”, at everyone. Galloping over the last bit of blown up hill, putting their feet together and hopping in a bound, they made it.

There was no way they could’ve expected it to be as worse as it was.

The whole street, the whole neighborhood, was twisted into a downward spiral. And due to the momentum, the girls started to slide down.

Maddie instantly tried to anchor herself, shooting siVis control over her legs to remain uprooted, and got a horrible shot of pain for her troubles.

She instinctively tried to grab a leg, or at her knee, and despite her jerking still, she couldn’t save herself.

She tumbled forward, feeling someone try to grasp at her, but she fell forward regardless.

The physics of it, the pull, was truly something else. Maddie couldn’t have moved as she twirled around, yanked side-to-side, all due to each of the corkstrewed areas having their own since of logic on how things fall or not.

Being twisted, almost as the surrounding areas doing this to her, made her already tired muscles scream from being pulled, made her bones ring out for being contorted, and her mind hazy.

She quickly scanned her hell, trying to find something—anything, expanding her eyesight just to see what’s coming for her.

Good thing that she did.

Maddie guarded her face using her arms, and felt the razor sharp leaves pelt against them. She shouted, she screamed, but she refused to wince, to be paralyzed again.

She passed the unusual debris, and quickly looked up again to gauge the exact fresh hell she’s in.

Bushes, that probably once belonged to a mini park or something—uprooted and suspended in a way where they hover along the totaled and bended space.

But no time to remark, Maddie glanced down, seeing that she was speeding towards a warped mailbox, and used everything in her power to dodge, twist out of the way.

She felt things pop, she felt herself reach her limits of her siVis, but she managed to do it.

And landed side first onto a stretched apart car for her troubles, with a thud.

She grunted loudly, holding back the scream her body begged her to do—it was called for, it was okay. She refused, and tried to get out of the impressive dent she made.

But she couldn’t move. Or rather, she tried to move and she felt her hand suddenly weigh a ton.

She watched her hand try to struggle under this weight, it was practically twitching—shaking because Maddie was working against what is right now. Gravity, physics, what is up and down—is telling her to be pressed against this car.

And the dent she made, she was getting pushed into it more and more as she struggled.

Maddie was reaaaaaaally hoping for her bullshit power to kick in right about now…

But she didn’t need her power. Before she knew it, she was flipped over and began to fall forward back down again.

She was confused, she looked around, and saw a fast falling Jackson—clutching her arm as her eyes were glazed over again.

It was hard, trying not to yell at her, given that she wasn’t awake.

But Maddie started to gravitate, twisting and turning towards the rolled up sidewalk at a pleasant speed.

She really wanted to yell at Jackson, now.

She tried to brace herself, tuck into herself, as she rolled onto the ground, still being jerked about while being dribbled.

Up, down, left, right, down, left, left, right, down, up, up.

At some point, she finally came to a stop, rolling onto her shoulder as she rested on the concrete.

Maddie coughed, then held her stomach, “Hoow… The fuck… Are we alive still…?”

She heard a thud, and heard an unrelated groan. She thinks it was River’s voice…

“Y’know… Maybe that’s the catch…”

Maddie lifted herself up, gritting her teeth—that feeling more complete and together versus her other motions.

Aiko was on her back, reeling and covered in leaves and twigs. River and Jackie, the latter on her belly struggling to get up and the former sitting up, were banged up but not on the level of Aiko… And Tracy. Who’s hair frizzled, blown up, with bits of dirt and crumbs in it, while covered in dirt.

“We just had a shooooowaaa…” she groaned out.

Maddie put her face in her hands.

“Now… We only have to keep doing that again and again until we get close out of town… And we could end up here again if we take a wrong turn…” River croaked out.

“Good… Great… Awesome…” Maddie rubbed her face. “We’ll break our bones by mid-day.” She looked to the glazed over sky. “Oh wait.”

“You say that, but the only reason why we aren’t instantly dead from whiplash alone is because of siVis…”

“And even then… We still got fucked up,” Maddie mused. “Even then, it’s not enough…”

She shook her head. Looked over to Jackson, who was on her knees, looking around with a vacant face.

“…Jackie?” Maddie instantly turned her gears. “Do you recognize this place…?”

“…Well, River was right about us jumping all over the place,” she began. “It just happened now…”

Maddie scanned the area, just to gain any context clues, something.

But… It was a normal street. Filled with boring and dull colors—but color none the less. It was a typical suburban neighborhood, lined with houses—that used to have the typical wife and kids with dogs and dad’s on the lawn.

“…Don’t tell me,” Maddie said. “Is this your place…?”

“Not too far, actually…” Jackie then pointed down the long street. “Just down the street.”

“Well, that’s great!” Tracy exclaimed. Maybe we can crash there, rest! Have running water or something possibly-?”

Jackie smiled, trying not to be overwhelmed by the possibility. “Yeah. Yeah.”

“…I don’t mean this to be… A dick or something,” River began, as Jackie shot a look at her.

“River, there’s no way that it’s been warped—We’re practically there now!”

“A lot can happen,” River reasoned. “We’re dealing with things that doesn’t subscribe to logic. We JUST got done dealing with that.”

“Yes, but--!” Jackie pleaded desperately.

“Jackie,” Maddie said firm. “Either way, it’s a bad idea. We might risk you exploding if you find your house. I think River’s right.”

Tracy was helping Aiko now, both watching on instead of helping.

“But…! It’s there! Just right there! I can handle this!”

“I don’t think you can.”

She stood up, and instantly, her pieces began to pop open, crackle. “We could end this! We could call this a day! We could’ve saved this day, made it good!”

“I’m going to say this and hopefully you’ll start to get ahold of yourself again—” Maddie tried to say, reason.

Jackie crumpled over, grabbing her head, screaming out. She started to glow from her widening and crumbling cracks along her body, unleashing unhealthy blue light and inhumane hum.

“SOMETIMES SHIT IS JUST SHIT!” Maddie screamed over here. “AND LOOKING THROUGH SHIT WILL COVER YOU IN MORE OF IT! Bad days will always exist! Bad shit will always exist! THE THING WE HAVE TO DO IS DEAL—DEAL AND NOT LET IT FUCKING GET TO US! IGNORE THE PAIN—NEVER LET IT FUCKING RULE YOU!”

It was too late.