Cherreads

Chapter 4 - Strangers

"Aarav..."

"Iam I... Aarav"

He raised his right hand to touch the screen.

When his fingers touch the screen a headache which feels like his head might break in two.

"AAAAHHH..."

Then some visions come in front of his eyes.

He is in a small bin filled with warm water. He looks at his boy, it was that of an newborn's

'I... I can't move my body!'

At that the baby moved its arms and legs, crying.

Then an arm picks up the infant, the person's face, unclear a blur image of his face.

The person spoke in a glitched and broken voice.

"Welcom to Th... son... your name... Aarav."

'Aarav?'

'Aarav, Aarav, Aarav.'

The name repeated in his head.

In real time he clenched, screaming.

"AAAaa!"

A few seconds later it stopped, the headache and vision was gone.

They caught his breath.

"What was that? That... that vision, my past? Was that my parent?"

"What is going on and why am I here?"

He finally realised that he was to die the movement he got shot by that robot. But how? How was he alive?

Then something entered the screen. Aarav looked and it showed another set of symbols.

"x5505418..."

The text erased and another text appeared.

Failure to connect to server.

Initiating memory altering and erasing...

"Erasing? Wait! Erasing my memory? Stop it! Stop it now!"

A green thin sheet of light appeared out of one of the three small circle things on the screen.(one of them looked like fiber while the other two was like a screen.)

The green light went up and down his forehead.

"Hey! What are you going to do? I said to stop it!"

But it was too late to finish...

Failed...

Could not alter or erase the user's memory...

Protocols broken...

Unidentified entry to the system...

Initiating fire walls...

As he finished reading the text he started to sweat. The place was becoming warmer, not hot, hotter.

Aarav's breathing grew and he felt suffocated, hard for him to breathe.

Kicking the intruder...

Error... system over heat...

Sending users to a new world...

Error... unable to generate a new world...

Using backup worlds...

Sending four users to one world...

...

_____

The screen turned off.

And Aarav fell unconscious as the heat got to his head.

=====================

It felt cold, his hands were numb, his body shivered in the cold, the warm blood flowing through his veins.

Slowly, the numbness faded, the shivering stopped, he opened his eyes slowly, and saw the ceiling.

The same old ceiling of the museum. Plants dangling from the roof.

"I am here again?"

He got off the pedestal, everything looked the same as the first time he was here but, this time the other three ice which surrounded the beast trapped in the ice along his was not there now.

Instead there was a puddle of water.

He got near one of the pedestals and touched the water.

'It's still cold. Whoever got out of it must have been released just now.'

Now he looked at the ice in which the beast was now trapped in.

"So, you were the one who was trapped in this ice." He said looking at the beast in the ice.

"What are you? I know that it is in your blood to eat when you are hungry, but why are you so..."

He stammered as he tried to put the beast's behavior into words.

"Smart, no animal, even a human , would not be as clever as you."

As he was talking to the beast, someone in the background walked closer to Aarav.

The person steps on the puddle, Aarav hears and notices someone else behind him.

He continued talking nonsense to the beast, so the person does not get alerted.

'Is it a beast or that robot? Not it can't be either, the robot would not be this quiet, it would have slammed its old rusted metal left on the ground every step.'

'It can't even be the beast, it is right in front of me so to find out who or what it is I will wait until it reaches my arms.'

As the person got to his arms, Aarav took his chance and spun and kicked the person.

Even though he aimed for the head he kicked the person in the abdomen.

Then only he noticed that it was not a robot or beast, it was a human, a teen (the same age as him).

"Ouch! Hey man, I am not an enemy!" The person exclaimed.

"You are not an enemy?!" Aarav saw the person.

He looked the same age as him, he wore a green t-shirt which had many holes and looked old, the pants he wore were exactly the copy of what Aarav was wearing.

His hair was like a jungle, a curly mess of hair which a bird might miss took it for a nest. His eyes were an amber-gold color.

He had a Hamer as a pendant on his neck.

"What a kick! I feel like I might vomit my insides!" The boy exclaimed.

"Well.." Aarav hesitated and said "I aimed for the head, but thank god I missed and kicked you in the abdomen."

"Yeah, if you had kicked my head, I might have been decapitated." He joked and growled in a low tone in pain.

"Hey! Are you alright? Can you stand on your own or should I help?" Aarav asked the boy in concern.

"No, I am fine, it just hurts a little. It will go away in a few minutes. By the way my name is Sameer." The boy said

"Iam Aarav"

"Alright Aarav, a name I will not forget after this." He sighed as the pain slowly faded.

"Hey! Do you know what place this is?" Aarav asked Sameer in hopes of getting an answer.

Sameer replied "No, I don't know this place. I just woke up on one of the pedestals. I got off the pedestal and looked around to see if I could find anyone. And I found one!"

"You found one! Where is he! Does he know about this place!" Aarav was expectedly asked him.

"Right here." Sameer replied.

Aarav looked around and saw no one.

"What! here!? Then why can't I see that person!?"

"You could if you see yourself in a reflection."

"Wait! You mean you found me only!? Not anybody else!?(Sigh) don't get my hopes up man." He then looked at the beast.

He noticed a few cracks appearing on the surface of the ice.

"Ho no!"

"Ho no no no! Quick! We need to get out of this place! And now!" He shouted not letting his sight off the ice.

Sameer looked at Aarav, confused as to why he was suddenly shouting to get out of this place?

"What? Why?" He asked Aarav who was watching the giant ice now.

"The beast inside the ice might get out of the ice at any moment now! So run! Let's get out of this place! Now" Aarav shouted to make Sameer understand the situation they are in.

While Sameer was about to ask

"Wha..." The ice broke and the giant hyena got free and looked at both of them.

"Oh God! What is that!" He exclaimed and the beast lunged at both of them.

"AAAaaa!"

Aarav grabbed Sameer's hair and ducked down, and saved him from the beast.

He beast had not stuck it's landing and hit a wall, as it tried to get itself study from the impact. Aarav found it to be the right timing for them to run away from here and shouted to Sameer. "Qick! Run! Before it gets itself steady."

They both ran in opposite directions to the beast. They got steady and chased both of them.

Aarav looked back and the beast was right on their tail. "Quick, we need to run faster!"

"Aaaa! Noo I can't!.. I can't go any faster!.. my legs!.. My legs hurt!" Sameer said even though he was almost out of breath.

"Don't speak! Save your breath and energy to run a bit more! It will not let us go until we run out of energy! So quit complaining and run with me!" Aarav said the whole sentence in one breath.

Witnessing what Aarav had done Sameer in his head

'Man! Does this guy have an air tank supplying air or something? How did he say the entire sentence in one breath while running! I am almost out of breath! No quit thinking and run faster! Save your energy Sameer!'

Sameer slowly began to run faster. Even Aarav looked at Sameer in shock.

'How did the guy who was almost out of breath run even faster than me! Never mind that!'

Aarav looked behind and he saw the hyena's figure a bit far away.

'Ho! So you finally began to lay your trap. Alright this time I will not fall for it.'

At that moment Sameer said out of breath, but still running.

"Hey! It seems the beast is out of reach! Should we take a turn and lose its trail!"

Aarav replied with a big

"No!"

Startled by his tone Sameer asked him. "Why not? We are about to lose its trail and I feel my legs about to give out at any movement!"

"No! You don't get it! It's a trap it is setting for us! We have to smart it out and hide somewhere it cannot get us!" Aarav said.

"Come on! Why does this happen to me god!" They both ran with all they have.

Almost out of breath they took a corner and ran a bit more and took another two corners and finally stopped.

They let out a huge sigh of relief. "I hope... this is... enough to... lose its track..." Aarav said out of breath.

Sameer asked, catching his breath "Why.. so... much precautions?..."

"You don't get it... it's too smart for a hyena..."

At that moment they heard many metals banging on the tile floors.

"Hey! Did you hear it?" Sameer asked.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I don't know, but it is getting louder." Sameer replied.

"No! Not louder! It is getting closer!"

Sameer went next to the corner and tried to looked what was heading their way,

Something came rushing towards Sameer and then.

Crash!

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