8-Bit's Inside Story

Chapter 6: The Swarm

Rico, unaware of her sarcasm, returned a chipper, "Affirmative."

The RETRO drone flew away with a little hum. Leaving Bibi alone with Tara again.

"Mmhm mhmmhmhm?"

Bibi took a deep breath. Tara had to be doing this on purpose. But rather than beat a dead horse Bibi thought on her feet. She ran over to one of the electronic trees. This digital environment mimicked reality rather well as there were hundreds of sticks conglomerated beneath its trunk.

Bibi returned with a stick about a foot long. Shuddering as she had accidentally grabbed a stick bug the size of a crowbar beforehand. She returned and kindly said, "Write whatever you're saying."

With an apprehensive jolt Tara crouched down. Her baggy pants scrunching up as she buried the tip of her stick into the glowing dirt. Bibi silently watched on for a moment before growing bored with the number of words Tara was transcribing.

She instead looked up in hopes of finding the strange Retroversion of Peep floating about. Somehow the drone had disappeared beyond her line of sight.

"Mhmh."

Bibi followed Tara to the spot she had begun writing at. It took her a second to get in the right spot but when she saw the words she wanted to faint. Tara had written in the glowing dirt, "Mh mhh mmhmm mh'mm mhm mhmmh? Mhhmh H'm mhm mhmmh mhm... mhm H mhm mmhm mh mhmmm mhm mmhm."

Bibi stared slack-jawed at the ground. She couldn't stop blinking. Maybe it was just the shock from being teleported but there was no way she was seeing what she thought she saw. She looked back up at Tara and realized she had never seen Tara write before. With a shaky voice she said, "How do you function?"

"BIBI!"

"Agh!" Bibi angrily turned on her earpiece. "Stop that!"

Tara jumped back. Her eye looked hurt by her friend's sudden outburst. Bibi quickly apologized, "No, not you."

Rico, again failing to read the room, chimed in, "Oh that rage-induced verbal jab was not directed at me?"

"No, it was directed at you." Again, Tara seemed hurt. With a frustrated groan Bibi radioed in, "Rico, what did you find?"

The RETRO flew down with the grace of a hummingbird. The three dots that represented its emotions multiplied indefinitely until it created a pixelated scene on its small spherical screen. Bibi and Tara drew closer to observe the show. It looked like the massive plateau that lay in their path but with an aerial view.

Rico explained that for as far as the drone could spot this range of glowing rocks had no end. There was however a small crevice visible just ahead. And from what RETRO found, it was a straight shot to the other side of this roadblock.

Bibi brushed aside her pigtails, "So you're saying we just walk through this valley?"

"Affirmative."

Bibi peaked ahead. She looked up seeing how flat the top of the range was. "The valley that conveniently sits between two mountains?"

"Affirmative."

"Which would give our enemies the high ground?"

Rico was silent for a second. The two girls looked to RETRO expectantly.

"Affirmative."

Bibi pinched the bridge of her nose. "This reeks of bad idea."

As she tried to argue out an alternative solution with Rico, she felt a stiff tugging on her rosy-red hood. Tara pushed ahead with Bibi reluctantly in tow. She caught Bibi's side of the discussion with Rico and figured that there was no point in arguing. The cheerful sputtering of The RETRO drone followed along from above.