When Time Stopped

Chapter 2

"Going down in a blaze of glory!" I chuckle to myself, "And a wonderful insult-" 

I'm glad, sure, I might've been able to survive, get an extra 30 minutes off of Tango. But this is what I wanted. That time is better with them and not with The Clockers, Nosey Neighbours or Bad Boys 2.

As I reach for the respawn button, it disappears, I assume I clicked it as I close my eyes and stretch. No matter what happens I'll be rooting for TIE. My buddies are sure to make it to the final three. 

Finally opening my eyes, I realise I'm not floating above spawn. I'm still at where I died. 

Glancing around I notice a couple of things;
1) the guys are already halfway down the track, chatting and most likely plotting their next move.
2) There's a weird zero on my hand.
3) I have a hand.
Could I still be alive? No, that's not possible, I definitely ran out of time... oh well- I guess I could mess around with this until Grian fixes this bug. 

Heading off the side I jump down into the water bellow. Instead of the painless rush of adrenalin, I'm met with a prickling sensation that jolts up my leg. Pins and needles spread across my body as I'm submerged into the water. Yelping in surprise I forget I can't breath underwater, and surface as quickly as possible. 

"Now that was unexpected-" I cough as I keep myself afloat with rapid movement of my arms and legs, "Better get to shore before I become aware of something even more unexpecting."

As swim I notice at the Mean Gill's half-destroyed base, Martyn and Scott are having a chat. Aha! Maybe I could do some sneaky eavesdropping. It's not like it'll change anything. 

With every stroke of my arms, and kick of my legs, they start to get tired. Thankfully I don't need to worry as I reach their isolated base and stand tall, body soaked from head to toe. What an odd feeling.

"We've got to have some plan." that sounds like Scott's voice. 

"I know I know," and from my amazing powers of deduction, that's got to be Martyn, "I'm just saying, TIES would be a better target."

"You mean TIE?" 

Martyn chuckles, "Yes. TIE-" 

They continue to chat between themselves, having a couple jokes mixed in with their plots and schemes. The feeling of being a drenched rat starts to fade as I approach them, my feet make an awkward squelching sound against the grass. 

Then Martyn turns around. 

Staring right at me he seems to lock eyes with me before he adverts his gaze to the ground. He can see me?

Scott tilts his head to the side, also looking at me, but his stares seems to be less focused. 

"What are you looking at?" He questions.

"Huh? Uh-" Martyn takes a quick look back at me before turning his whole body towards Scott, "Nothing, it seems like the wind's coral has me entranced." 

"Oh my goodness." Scott mumbles, face planted in his hand.

"What? I couldn't kelp myself!" 

"Martyn! I can't be-leaf you." Scott returns, hand holding a bamboo leaf.

Partially cringing at this exchange I back off as the two of them continue to exchange questionable puns. 

Could they see me? Definitely not Scott, but Martyn? I ponder, hand quizzically placed on my chin as I stroll up to the shattered hourglass that's spilling out purple tainted red sand. 

"He couldn't have..." I mutter, looking into the glass besides me. 

Eyes shooting wide I jump back, nearly slipping into the water. Taking a double take I glance back into the glass... it's gone. 

What was that?

Who was that?

Was that a mask?

Why was-

"Skizz!!" 

I swirl my head around. A smile plasters my face as I see Jimmy on the shoreline waving both hands at me.

"Jimmy! What a shocker! I thought you would've left the server by now!" I yell, glad to see the dead can still communicate. 

"Well- about that..." He starts yelling before looking around, "How about you come over here?" 

I nod, taking few steps back I do a quick run and dive into the freezing water. After that refreshing swim comes to a close, I squeeze out the remaining water in my clothes as I approach Jimmy who's also drenched in water. 

"How you been bud? Shame that Cannery Curse of yours is still in play-" I joke, hi-fiving him.

"Hah Hah, very funny. I'll let you know I'm just so insanely skilled that I have to go first, otherwise I'd be winning each season."

We both laugh at that response, it would definitely be a surprise if he won one, but a nice surprise at that.

"Anyway," Jimmy speaks, the tone in his voice shifting to one I've not heard before, "Something is wrong." 

"Yeah, this is probably one of the weirdest bugs I've seen." I claim, besides being able to milk a squid, this has to be the weirdest one. 

"I don't think it's a bug." Jimmy quickly cuts in, "Try to bring up chat."

I give him a confused look before he prompts me to do so again. 

I raise my left arm and swipe up.

Nothing.

"Try open your inventory." 

I do so... nothing.

"I bet you know where I'm going with this."

I look at him before I hesitantly try to bring up the menu... nothing.

"We can't leave." I quietly mutter.

Jimmy nods, staying silent as I look at the absent space where options were supposed to appear. You can hear the screams of joy and fear as more plans, plots, traps and other mischievous schemes are put to action in the background, yet, the overwhelming sound of wind is brushing against my ears, making the silence more deafening...

This feeling... it's not something I've felt before, at least not in this world.

It's... despair...

Taking a deep breath in I let the cold air refresh my mind. No. It'll be fine. There's two of us, we'll get the attention of someone.

"Alright, here's the plan." I announce, making him jump, "I am assuming that blocks don't work in the same way, so, if the two of us are able to create a sign of sorts, something written in the sand, or on the battle field, someone will notice and will think someone's pranking them, but that's when we pull one on them and place a block out of nowhere!" 

"I- Well- we could try, keeping in mind those blocks are really heavy. If we did it in the battle field, what would happen if we die?" 

"We have no way of knowing, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it-" 

"What-"

"Onwards! We can steal stuff from The Clockers, they won't mind a couple missing items."

"Skizz-" 

Chuckling to myself I start to head off, Jimmy yelling at me to explain. The longer you give yourself to think about the what-ifs and maybes, the easier it'll be to land yourself in a spiral of despair.  

There's always hope.

And I will always push for the hope we all deserve.