Chapter Text
Zac's pov
Fuck im out of coal and food.
That's the last thing i needed to happen.
Zac grumbled as he left his little house to gather supplies, there was his cows in the pen but.. He liked them too much to slaughter them so violently. Not a problem tho, there was enough animals in the wild to cover for that.
The other problem was coal, which, sure, he could get in his mine. But in all honesty zac didn't feel like going back down and getting harassed by swarms of zombies and spider. He'll have to resort to the mountain top, he'd noticed a few days prior, it'll do too.
With that, Zac got started on his task, starting off by walking around, dragging his sword behind him as he made his way toward a herd of sheeps with one goal in mind. The herd of sheep, having heard him getting closer, looked up and scooted closer to eachother, as they always did when threatened. Zac didnt care much and swung his sword at them anyway as he "put down" a few sheeps of the heard, redirecting himself toward the mountains.
Zac dragged himself up the rocks, being careful of his grip as to not fall down and possibly get injuried, the mountain rocks were rough, thanks for that, but the snow that melted under his cooled fingers was not helping the climbing. In the end it'd be worth it right? He'd get his coal to cook his food. Just as he was lost in his thoughts, his hand slipped under melted,watery snow, resulting in him losing his balance and grip on the rocky surface.
THUD . . . CRACK.
The sickening noise echoed in the mountain as Zac groaned and bit the inside of his cheek to try and stiffle a scream, which half worked. He took a deep breath as tears threatened to run down his cheeks from just the sheer pain of falling.
As he tried to sit up to asses the damage, he froze in the spot as he looked at his left arm, which had been impaled on a sharp rock, such a NICE coincidence it had to happen to him. Zac took a shaky breath and pulled his arm up toward his chest to free himself, which was very painful but it was better than to stay impaled and to die hungry on a snowy mountain.
Zac took his hoodie and shirt off, making a makeshift bandage out of his shirt as best as he could before putting his hoodie back on, he'd have to keep an eye on the wound to make sure it wouldnt get worse. His mind was swirling and hurting, he still had to find coal to cook up his food. After struggling a bit, Zac got back up to his feets, he had to find coal and get home fast, his arm was hurting like hell and he was getting hungry. . . Zac couldn't possibly manage to climb in this state, so the best he could was to hug the walls and pray he'd find coal fast enough to be able to go back home to rest up.
The wind had started to pick up, making the mountain even colder than it was before, leaving zac shivering from both pain and being awfully cold. Like it couldn't get worse obviously, first getting injuried then the temperature dropping and no coal in sight. The path he was following was starting to narrow, and soon he'd have nowhere to go, or so he thought. in a close distance that was fogged up by snow falling, he could make out what seemed to be a door. . . Odd placement for one but his swirling mind didn't seem to care about that detail. He made his way to the door as carefully as he could on his wobbly feets. The door seemed somewhat old, although he never saw it around before. With all his remaining strenght, he pushed the door open, only to be met with a flight of stairs going down, maybe he could finally find coal down there.
His head was pounding and spinning, Zac felt horribly dizzy and like the world might crumble under his feets. Which honestly? Wasn't so far from reality as he had collapsed and fell down the flight of said stairs. He stayed down on the cold hard floor for a bit, just resting his eyes for a bit until the dizzyness went away. When it did, Zac pulled himself up with the support of the stairs.
What the hell even was this place? All there was were more doors scattered along a neverending looking hallway. Zac dragged himself up and leaned against the wall for support as he made his way to one of the door, the sign over it read was unreadable. Its not like it mattered much, all he wanted was to be able to rest as the ache spread through his weakened body. He pushed the door open and collapsed onto a weird pattern tile, which semeed to shift him, and before he knew it, it had transported him to a whole other area, much further than he's ever wandered to. The whole process of "teleportation" had made him even more dizzy than beforehand and added some motion sickness. being transported from one place to another was a weird thing to experience. He tried to get back up with the help of the wall, but ended up just collapsing back down, too much had happened in such a short timespan and his body was struggling to keep up. Zac desperately wanted to assess his surroundings, get up and find out where he was bu
After staying sat against the wall for a bit, Zac managed to finally pull himself up and drag himself around, the walls were made of white grid like tiles, as for the lighting it'll do for now. Zac leaned against the wall as he continued walking through the singular corridor that seemed like it'd never end. Where was he even going? the only thing that coated the walls were, well, more doors. All with a different numver over them. If he stayed here he'd lose his mind from the repetitive hallway. He went up to one of the door, the sign read '26'. He didn't bother tyring to understand anything from the number and pushed the door open, being met with the same weird pattern tile after it. Zac hesitated for a few second before stepping onto it, feeling the still unfamiliar shift of being teleported around. The dizziness from being transported was still overwhelmingly painful, which didnt help the growing migraine he had. The place he was sent to looked like a perfect replica of the first corridor he saw in his wor
. . .
Well, it wasn't as bad as falling down at least, all Zac had done was climb up on all four until he had reached the door to outside, and to his surprise, it was raining, very different from the weather back at his cozy little home. He missed his home. But in this state, Zac had to focus on finding somewhere he could rest and heal up for the night. He wasn't even sure on if he could manage to pull himself up and walk from how much pain he was in and how much his head spun. Was that his problem tho? No, probably not, he couldn't just give up before even trying. And so he did, and well — he fell back down. Guess he'd have to drag himself around.
And so he did. Zac didnt know how long he'd been roaming for, he was getting exhausted; his vision was blurring, his head pounding and his entire body was numb. Zac pulled himself under a tree and leaned against the log, breathing heavily as his body gave way to exhaustion and had him pass out on the spot.
. . .
Zac felt himself come back to his sense slowly, a throbbing migraine wracking his mind as he felt the numbness easing away. His mind was a mess, he couldn't remember where he was before everything nor how he got to the forest he was in. Talking about the forest, the tree felt a little too soft and warm. He opened his eyes slowly, blinded by a warm light source for a few second before he got used to it. Zac took in his surrounding as best as he coud, he was still lightheaded and his vision still troubled to fully go back clear, the only thing he could be sure of was that he was NOT in the forest he found himself in before blacking out, he was inside something, a building; wooden wall and floors, scattered stuff there and there.. a few storage chests pushed messily against the walls and torches displayed on the walls to light the place up. He sat up as best as he could, using his elbow to support himself up, wincing in pain as his arm shot another wave of the unbearable ache through his nervous system.
'Oh, you're awake gumball?'
It took a second for Zac to realise he wasn't alone like he thought.
'Was starting to think you were dead and that bringing you back here was a bad idea.'
Zac turned his head to look at who could've been speaking to him, his eyes meeting the one of a taller man in a raincoat.
'Ah what, gonna give me the silent treatment? That's not too nice for a guest.'
Zac's voice came out gruff and low, strained from the pain.
"Who.. What..?? Where am i...?"
'One question at a time, gumball.'
"Zac.. Not.. Not gumball."
'Whatever you say uh, Zac.'
There was an awkward pause of silence between the two of them as they stared at eachother for a long minute before the man with the raincoat cleared his throat.
'So.. You introduced yourself i guess i should return so favor, it'd only be fair right? The name's Collin.'
"Uhm.. Well it's nice to meet you Collin.. But my other question still stand.. Where am i exactly..?"
'Wdym? You're in my world, I found you passed out under a tree.'
"Your world.. Yeah well that doesn't give me any better idea of where i could be.."
'Man what else am i supposed to tell you, I don't fucking know either. You think I'm gonna have every answer? I'm about just as confused as you on why and how you're here in the first place and, well, in that state.'
That state.. Was he really that badly injuried? Sure his arm was hurting like hell, but it wasn't the worst he had gone through.
"..Right. Well it's.. Complicated to say the least.."
'Uhuh.'
"Don't 'uhuh' me. I'm serious.. It's hard to explain tho.. And it would take a while.."
'I've got all the time in the world.. Zac right?.'
Zac sighed and thought for a minute, trying to recall everything that had happened as much as he could.
"Yeah.. Where do i start with this.. Well I was gonna get coal to cook myself some food since i had ran out, so I went to the mountain nearby and climbed, since most of the time in 'my world' it's up on the mountain.. Then just my luck but my hand lose grip and next thing i know i fell and my arm is impaled in a rock.. so then after doing a basic bandage to try and slow the bleeding to a stop i just hugged the wall and prayed id just find coal and go home, but instead i found an iron door stuffed in a corner.. Curiosity kills but i went in and.. God that's embarassing but i fell down.. And guess what there were more iron doors, I went through one of them and suddenly I'm in a whole new environment, which im guessing is from those weird tiles after the door, some kind of teleporters.. I ended up in a weird looking facility, the walls were funny looking tho it reminded me of a game i like.. Sorry im getting off subject.. The whole thing was just a neverending hallway with more labeled doors.. I picked one rand
The silence that hung after the explaining was heavy, Zac still felt somewhat dizzy and Collin seemed like he was thinking. Collin leaned against the closest wall before looking up at Zac.
'So.. You got here by accident just trying to find coal but instead found a whole facility?'
"That's roughly it.. I was also looking for somewhere safe to rest up considering my injury.."
'This isn't exactly the safest spot you know? this place is infested of entities that want you dead, well, want me dead if that even matters.'