Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Level Six - Snake Bite

She sniffed, rubbing the side of her face with her hand. "Do you really think that Moe's gonna be okay?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Heyyy, hey," Karan said softly, walking up to her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned into him. He rubbed her shoulders as she buried her face in his sweater. "I wasn't lying when I said that Moe's a strong guy," he told her.

"But is he gonna be okay?" she choked out, sniffing again.

A long, tired sigh escaped from him. He stroked her hair as he thought of an answer. That question had kept him up the whole night before.

"Is he?"

Karan looked down at his little sister. "Yeah. It's just... It's just going to take some time. And I don't know how long."

She tugged at his sweater, taking a shuddering breath, and he gave her comforting squeeze as she cried quietly.

****

Andrew sat in the chair that they had pulled up next to the bed and night desk, and set his laptop on the desk. He let out a breath, pulling the chair forward to get closer to the desk. Leaning back in the seat and pushing his glasses higher up onto the bridge of his nose, he turned to look at his friend.

Sweat plastered shaggy, dark brown bangs to Moe's forehead, and his left hand kept twitching. He mumbled words in his sleep, breath a little unsteady. He was paler than usual, his eyes moved rapidly beneath his eyelids, and he kept frowning and wincing as he muttered.

The teenager sighed, and pulled his glasses off to rub his eyes. This was his own fault, he knew. If he hadn't let him run around the woods by the gas station, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Perhaps Mira was right. They should take him to the hospital. The wound beneath the bandage hadn't shown any signs of infection yet, but Andrew knew they couldn't be sure. Moe had only been bitten last night.

Andrew shook his head, and flipped open his laptop whilst setting his glasses back onto his face—he was a bit far-sighted. It wasn't horrible, but it was enough for him to want to wear glasses while doing computer work or reading, lest he got a headache from the effort. He pressed the On button, and waited for it to power up. The screen flashed into life, and Andrew typed in his password. At the home screen, he clicked on a browser, and clicked the search bar. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, not sure what to type. Search for signs of snake bite infections?

"Coily...." Moe murmured, panting slightly.

Andrew paused, then typed into the keyboard.

🔍 coily snakes

After a moment, the search results popped up. "So that's where I remembered seeing that..." Then he stopped, and, remembering the reason for the search, he frowned. "Hang on." Andrew stared at the screen. He checked his spelling. He double-checked it. Was this what he was really searching for? It didn't make any sense.

"Down, respawn..... ugg... wrongway...." Moe whispered, pressing his head into the pillow.

Andrew's frown deepened. "Wrongway? I've heard that... But that doesn't..." He thought to himself, going back in his memories.

"Maybe..." he mouthed silently. He read the other links, and clicked one. He read the screen. Then, his suspicions confirmed, he looked at Moe, puzzled. Why was Moe talking about characters from a video game? And, even stranger, a game that Andrew was positive that Moe hadn't even heard of before?

"Slick.... hop.... respawn... snake..."

Andrew stared at Moe. "'Snake?'" he asked.

"Coily... bite... snake.... coily....... snake bite," Moe muttered, wincing as his left hand twitched.

"Snake bite," Andrew whispered. His brows furrowed, and he looked back at the screen. It showed a cartoon picture of a snake hissing, wound up like a coil. Coily. A character in a game called Q*Bert.

Moe groaned, tossing his head to one side, wincing. "Bite... purple...."

"Huh?" Andrew turned to him.

"Purple.... brown...." Moe murmured.

Moe was changing the topic. Not that he was really talking about anything specific earlier, but this was different.

"Moe? What do colors have to do with anything?" Andrew asked, puzzled. He didn't really expect for Moe to answer him, so he moved to turn back to the screen.

"Purple..... brown.... brown.... fangs...." Moe moaned, panting.

Andrew snapped his head to Moe at the new word. "Fangs?" he asked.

"Purple....... scales... brown...... eyes..."

Andrew was confused. "Purple scales? Brown eye—" Andrew stopped short. His eyes turned to the laptop. Moe was describing something. More than that, he was describing Coily. He stared at the screen. The snake in the picture stared past him blankly. This didn't make any sense. First Moe was naming the characters in Q*Bert, next he was listing the moves made in the game. Then he talks about his snake bite, and then—

Something clicked in Andrew's head.

Andrew turned to Moe. "Moe?"

Moe didn't respond, breathing heavily, sweat rolling down his face.

Andrew went on anyway.

"Was.... was Coily the snake that bit you?"

Silence filled the room. After a couple seconds, Andrew scrunched his nose. "What?" he asked. He quickly shook his head, and then pushed his glasses back up on his nose. "Don't be silly, Andrew," he scolded himself with a half-hearted chuckle. He looked back to the screen and went back to typing in the keyboard to continue his investigation. "Just keep your wild imagination to yourself," he told himself under his breath, "and stick to what's real."

He paused, and took a second out of his work to look at his bedridden friend. "Pshh." With a last shake of his head, he turned back to his computer. "Coily biting Moe," he scoffed. "Inconceivable."