My System has a Glitch

"William!" Chris screamed as the vine effortlessly pulled her away. William turned, the gases were around him and without a second thought he leaped after her, knowing fully well that the maneater could pull them both.

William wrapped his arms around her hip and held on tightly, he had no idea,he just wanted to survive.

The vine pulled them away from the red gas and up in the tall trees. Half way through William began to slip due to the downward pull, he held on as best as he could but still..

'She's going to hate me for this,' he thought as he had his head pressed against her hip. It was an inappropriate position for him to be in but still he was a man fighting to survive.

The maneater swung them upwards, pulled them down and consumed them whole. With her being in the better position, she reached down and to stop it from spewing its digestive fluids.

"Which one is it?" She asked.

"The one to the left. Just rip it out, don't squeeze it, if it pops you're gonna get hurt whether you've got your shields on or not."

She followed his instructions and successfully stopped the man eater.

Now they were seated side by side, resting their bodies on the walls of the cocoon. "Sorry about that," William said, feeling even more embarrassed.

"Oh it's nothing, I'm just glad I saved your life again."

"Oh, I didn't know you were keeping count."

"How could I not, you owe me."

"I owe you?"

"Yes and very much. "

"What! Really? How much?"

"Well, I've been mugged, beaten, trapped, shot at, eaten… twice."

"Hey, that's not on me!"

"Well I've also been harassed as well."

"Oh"

"Twice!"

"Oh," William went silent for a moment but not willing to lose the argument, he erupted again. "Well I saved you from the deadliest snakes in the whole jungle, how about that? also, I stopped you from falling off the ladder."

"You threw me on the ladder!"

"Yeah that was because the branch was breaking! See, I saved you from that too."

"So the snake broke the branch?"

"No, that was actually me."

"That was a big branch, you used boosters?"

"No, it was something else actually."

All William could remember was the feeling of it, the rest of it seemed like a fever dream in his mind.

"Like a special ability?" Ingrid asked.

"Yes, something like that, but I don't remember ever having one."

"Show me your guide," Ingrid said.

William activated his guide and then touched her hand.

[GUIDE HOME]

[BROAD Status]

[NAME: WILLIAM CHANDLER]

[CLASS: MASTERMIND]

[PHYSICAL: (F)]

[TIME LEFT : 24:00]

...

...

[Sp. ABILITIES: NONE (GLITCH: 10:45)]

She chuckled and said, "It says you've got nothing here."

"Yeah but in the bracket, there is the word, glitch."

"Glitch?"

"Yes, it spells glitch?"

" I can't see anything."

"You mean you can't see that, Ben could see it before."

" There's nothing there, but I guess if you see it then it must be something very personal or you're having really severe jungle fever."

William chucked and said, "you might be right."

As she looked through his guide, something caught her eye that surprised her and she said, "Oh my god!" her face turned fierce and she punched William on the shoulder.

"What is that for?" He cried.

"What the hell did you do that took so much time from you!?"

"What?" For a moment William had no idea what she was talking about, then he remembered. He remembered the system notice had distracted him when he was about to make the jump off the branch.

"Yes! That's it, that was because of the glitch."

"Really it took that much."

"Yeah."

"Thats a really pricey ability, it's a problem even, just try not to use it, till you understand what it is, this will barely take you through the night."

"Let's hope the fog lifts for the next section to open before I run out of time."

It just doesn't make sense to leave everyone like this," Ingrid said. "Not everyone's favored to win, will excel at the first section, it makes no sense to just leave them with twenty four hours."

"They're weeding us out."

"That could be true, I'm starting to notice a pattern of the kinds of people around here."

"Yeah."

"What kind of job did you do in your old life?"

William paused for a moment, and quickly said, "sales."

Then she leaned in and said, "William Chandler, you are a liar." She laid back on the wall but still kept her eyes on him. William didn't care to deny, he just smiled.

"I was a bootlegger," she said andWilliam Raised his brows. "Family business you know, that amongst other thing as well. We even got here via execution, me and my brother."

Oh, William thought about it for a moment, in a way he too had gotten here via execution, although not as formal as hers must have been.

"I was a crook," William said. "A common thief."

She smiled and said, "well at least you're not a confidence-man."

William burst out laughing and said, "no I would never stoop that low."

"Why not? You've got the face for it."

They laughed for a couple seconds and she said, "we're the kinds of people here, bad people, horrible people. There's not a pure soul here."

William chuckled and said, "well it's purgatory."

"I'm saying it for your sake."

William realized she had gotten quite serious. "They're all horrible people you've got to expect that."

"I know, I know."

"You're nice, William, too nice, you got along with the old man,with Ben and us, without any idea who we were, you dropped your guard, they'll use that against you here."

"You're worrying too much," William said.

She dropped her head and sighed then she said, "I wonder how my brother is doing."

"Me too, I wonder how the old man's holding up."

******

After a while they both fell asleep and on multiple occasions William was woken up by the snake slithering through the trees and on every occasion he reached out and covered her ears so the noise wouldn't wake her up.

Later on he felt something beep in his head and a system notice came up,

××[RECESS]××

[TIME PAUSED FOR – 5:59:59]

William chuckled and said to himself, well it looks like things are looking up. He laid back and dreamt of the train again.

*******

In the morning the sharp sun beams pierced their way through the three and eben made their way into the maneater.

Ingrid squinted her eyes as the sun beam struck her from the pin hole at the tip of the flowerbud and for a moment she acted like just anyone would in a warm morning.

She yawned as she woke up and even tried to stretch her arms but couldn't as she realized the space was far too small.

Suddenly she was back in reality, cooped up inside the belly of a carnivorous plant. She jolted awake and all the fog in her eyes cleared, she hadn't planned to sleep this long.

She wanted them to move on early, she wondered how she could have overslept, then she felt something in her ears and when she pulled them out she saw that they were smaller pieces do black cloth.

She looked at Williams sleeve and saw the tear in them that matched the pieces she held in her hand.

'He plugged my ears shut, he's such a big softy.'

She smiled as she watched him sleep, completely distracted by his charming act then she remembered, 'Time!'

He's running out of time, she shocked him but he didn't respond. 'Am I too late?Could he have run out already?' She thought as her fears doubled in an instant then William moved his sleepy head and she breath a sigh of relief.

She shook him again and screamed in his ear, Wake up, Mr Chandler!.

Willain sluggishly opened his eyes, expecting the smell of fresh coffee but everything inside the man eater smelt of acid and mucus.

"We've got to go."

"I read you, captain. I read you."

Then he closed his eyes and stole a couple more seconds of sleep. She smiled as she watched him and couldn't help but feel sorry she had to wake him up.

*******

They set out and quickly reunited with old man and Nod. The plan of the day was first to find a Loot and then to get to a safe house.

If only they had any idea what horrors the day would bring.