April 21, 2032 Freelands, Old Texas
Michael looked around in confusion.
Where are the others? Where am I?
Then he realized he had died again. He had seen the same blackness, the feeling that he did not exist before suddenly appearing again. One moment he was in Joey's car and then poof, he was somewhere else. He could hear gunshots in the distance and realized that he had not respawned very far away from the others. He was still in the desert with its sandy dunes and dusty, red cliffs.
Elena, the others, the thought suddenly hit him. They're in trouble.
He ran towards the sounds having to upscale a steep dune of loose sand. Covering his eyes from the blazing overhead sun, he gazed into the distance. He could see black dots slowly moving towards him. As they got closer, he realized that they were jeeps and buggies heading towards him. The lightning. They've must've seen it. They know where I am.
He slid down the dune and ran back towards where he had respawned. He realized he was at the cliffs he had caught sight of as he had slipped into the blackness of death. He couldn't die, of course, instead reappearing with the burst of lightning. Good as new. He wasn't sure he could ever quite get used to the feeling.
There were openings at the bottom of the cliff that looked like natural corridors for him to comfortably fit through. He ran through one as fast as he could. The dusty-red walls of the cliff ran up high to the sky and its shadow fell on him. He tripped a few times barely managing to keep his balance and continued to run. It was an entirely different world here and he wanted to get out as soon as he could. Breathing was becoming difficult as the dust choked Michael's tired, raspy breaths. He was starting to feel claustrophobic, starting to feel that the walls would close down on him and trap him. That was how he had felt ever since the respawner attack at the Peak City. That everything and everyone was out there to get him.
He was finally out of the shadowy corridor and into a circular patch of open ground that was flanked on all sides by cliffs. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. There were many openings in the cliffs and ran up to one of them. This was even narrower than the previous path he had taken and it was getting narrower until at one point the cliffs at the top joined together completely shutting out the light. His vision was still getting used to the lack of light when the ground disappeared from underneath him and fell down.
He landed hard on his arms with his chin bumping into the ground. Groaning, he turned on his back and looked up. He was in a tunnel which was pitch black save for the light that shone through the opening he had fallen through.
He lay there for a few minutes to regain his breath until he heard the sounds of faint voices in the distance. Their search had led them nearby. He had to move. He groaned as he stood up, his scrapped arms and legs throbbing with pain. His eyes had grown used to the dark but he still found a hard time navigating through.
Michael thought he was in a cavern at first and the thought of being trapped inside here forever filled him with dread. But after a few minutes he spotted an upturned mine cart. A few minutes later he found a rusted track that went through a shaft which was held up by wooden beams. He realized this was an abandoned mineshaft. He would know, of course, because he had worked in one not so long ago.
That meant there must be an exit. Unless, of course they blocked it… He let the thought die away quickly. This was a good sign and he was going to try his best to cling on to the hope.
He moved through the mineshaft with no notion of where he was heading. He saw a few signs mostly consisting of warnings which he tried to follow as best he could. There was lots of rusty mining equipment still inside that consisted of pickaxes, helmets with cracked lights attached to them, mine carts and much more. He stumbled plenty of times on the uneven floors and ran through scores of cobwebs.
Faint voices could now be heard in the distance behind him and he was sure that it was from the people who were looking for him. They must've found the opening.
Of course, they would. I'm so screwed.
He looked around for somewhere to hide and noticed an upturned mine cart in the corner. Quickly, he crouched behind it and waited as the voices got closer. He figured they would have to leave eventually if they didn't find him.
Soon enough, a faint light appeared which gradually got brighter. It came from a couple of torches whose bright rays he could make out as he peeped out. He held his breath.
"That's the last time that fat fuck messes with us," said one of them. "Maybe we shoulda just killed him?" suggested the other.
"Nah, that would've been too kind…"
Michael did not understand their conversation at all. They walked at a leisurely pace too and he realized that these men were not looking for him at all. But what are they doing here?
When the men's voices could not be heard anymore, Michael stood up from his hiding spot and let out a sigh of a relief. But the relief did not last long as his thoughts drifted to Elena and the others. He hoped that the bullets fired at them had not found their marks. He wished they had escaped but judging by the scene he had seen, it did not seem likely. I just hope that they're alive, he thought.