It’s Nix the birdy! We should talk a little more about Echoville. I don’t know about you, but it seems a lot more… irrelevant to the other worlds. The strange thing is that all of these worlds should have some relation to each other. If Echoville was thrown into the timeline, you would notice that Echoville is somewhere in between Olympia and El Monte – a little after the prehistoric times when humans began to dominate. There were humans and half-humans called Halflings! They were like elves! These Halflings have a long history for despising humans. The strange thing about Echoville is that there are Halflings yet there are none in El Monte’s present time. What ever happened to all of the Halflings that once existed in the past?
The junkyard was amazingly widespread between West Bridge and Enheizer. From the West Bridge, there lie two pathways, the north end and the south end. Actually, there was only one path before Venus and Alex crashed into a large surrounded junk area to the south, creating a second path for them. Matt and Yessenia reached the north end of the junkyard at last. Yessenia dropped her rake and headed for the junk beside her.
“Oh wow, look at all of these!” exclaimed Yessenia. Matt only stood there while trying to catch his breath. “Do you think these weapons could come in handy?” Matt said nothing. Yessenia carried a rusty long sword. “Maybe this? Although it’s not like what I was used to…” She was only used to using large blunt swords the same size as herself. “Mm…” She slashed into midair with her long sword. It was much thinner than her usual blunt sword but luckily, it was lighter and easy to wield. “That rake really helped actually.” Matt still stood without saying a word. “Are you alright, Matt?”
“I’m tired already.” He did not really say much, nor did he even feel like saying anything at all. He sat down with his shovel. “It’s pointless.”
“What is up with you all of the sudden?” Yessenia was searching for a sheath within the junk in front of her. Of course, if there were swords, then there must have been some sheaths left over. Matt did not reply. “Hey. What is wrong with you? You seemed okay at the concentration camp.”
“That’s because I had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do!!” Matt said angrily. Yessenia was surprised to see Matt’s sudden burst. He began to fall into tears. It took one whole month to finally get into the aftermath of what last happened in the previous fictional world. He did not sense the isolation without one of his closest friend due to the summer. After all that had happen, summer school ended and Matt and the others did not see each other often. They were at home or having other personal family business.
Now that it is time for Matt to go back to school, he would have to see all of his friends again, except the two friends he had adventured with throughout the whole previous school year. Just the thought of them being gone forever really went through his mind once he reached Wisteria, the West Bridge, and the junkyard. At this point, he was now able to focus on the tragedies that happened before.
Matt was shaking. He held tightly onto his head with both of his hands and his knees close to his chin. His nose burnt and his tears flowed even faster. Yessenia knelt down and she held tightly onto both of his arms. “Matt, you had to say goodbye to them one day or another. I guess it was just an early moment for them.”
“Now I know… Now I know how it feels to lose a special friend. When Danny lost Mariel, he couldn’t even control himself! Now that Santi is gone, what am I going to do? He helped me- us, so many times with his time powers. Without him, how are we going to survive?! Don’t you get it? He was the biggest source of survival for all of us. Look at us. Our cellphones were taken away and now we can’t even go back to our school!-…”
Yessenia slapped him on the cheek. Matt became silent. Yessenia had a serious face this time but she did not yell. “You need to understand that there is always still hope.” She stood up. “Every time something bad happens, you need to think about the better outcome. Also, there are always people out there who have it worse than us. I would rather have the option to get through my day surviving from such an adventure that we have never been through before, than to starve every single day.”
Matt looked up at her in realization. Yessenia continued on with her statement. “Even I am terrified sometimes, Matt. That is the truth. But, if we were able to escape from the camp, then we might as well make use of it and continue trying. We should not be moping around all the time.” She picked up the perfect sheath for her rusty long sword. “Now come on, let us get you your weapon.”
Matt closed his eyes. He continued to believe that Yessenia was wrong. Evidentially, Santi was the one who saved them countless of times. He was getting a bit hungry anyway. He had to continue on by force, but he will never let such tragic moments of the past out of his memory. Yessenia held onto a strange weapon which was stuck within the pile. “This is weird… it looks like my sword but a little more complicated.” She pulled out the rest of the weapon and out came the same end as the end she was holding onto. “A double-edged kind of sword?”
Matt walked over to her and then he grabbed onto the weapon. “Both ends have pointy tips. What is it called?”
Yessenia shrugged. “Beats me. Do you like it?”
Matt examined both ends closely, “It is kind of like your ‘long sword’, just with both ends having the same pointy tip, right?”
“I see where you are going with this.”
“So I get two times the protection from enemies, right?”
Yessenia rolled her eyes. “Never mind. You know what, for now we should call it a double-edged sword. This is out of my knowledge.”
Matt saw a stack of sheaths on the floor. “I’ll take one from here then.”
Yessenia jumped. “What?! Were these sheaths here all this time?” She blushed.
Matt had his weapon behind him now. “I guess we both have these crappy rusty weapons but they are better than the shovel and rake.” Matt and Yessenia slightly chuckled together - the moment when things were actually progressing for them. Although they do not have their powers anymore, they could at least make their way out of the World of Elsiya by surviving through actual weapons. Only Yessenia and Santi were able to wield weapons from the previous year. The others had no experience at all.
Matt decided to walk on ahead, calling for Yessenia. Of course, she agreed to go with him. After all, without one another, there is no telling how they could survive.
Throughout Matt’s and Yessenia’s short travels through the dark junkyard, they have jumped over piles of rubble, climbed countless of broken pipelines, and they even had to press certain switches for some machines to move away from the only path that was right in front of them. They both reached a small dirt river filled with sewage water. Luckily, there was a bridge nearby that supported the river which was only about ten feet from one side to the other. Yessenia stepped on first. She noticed that Matt was always in the back of the group whenever they would walk. She suspected that something was still in Matt’s mind.
“Are you still worrying about something?” Yessenia asked.
Matt was playing with his fingers which he would usually do when he feels guilty about something. “Well… Still thinking about one of my closest friend…” At that moment, Yessenia understood that Matt was still not over the fact that Santi had to sacrifice himself in order to save all of his friends. Yessenai sighed, but she smiled this time.
She walked back towards Matt. “I cannot force you to forget about him, Matt. I mean, he was special to all of us after all. You know what, you just need some time to sail away those feelings. At some point, you will slowly forget about him. I know that you do not want to; none of us wants to. But… what can we do about it?”
Matt stomped onto the floor. “I seriously want to forget about all of that. It’s just hard to!” He held onto his head with both of his hands.
“Do not force yourself.” Yessenia grinned. She was concerned about Matt’s level of weakness at this point without that many friends who could help him. Evidentially, throughout the whole previous year, Matt gained help from many of his friends. At this time, he only has Yessenia and hopes that he gains more friends to help him along the way. “It is scary too.” Matt commented. “That this world actually has a lot of people compared to last year’s worlds. The only world that had regular people was Edmund but we barely talked to any of them…”
“What are you implying about this world?”
Matt answered her. “Doesn’t it bother you that we are back in some other world, with an even worse situation than before? This time, we don’t even have our cellphones. It is like Santi’s death was a waste because it was meant for all of us to have a peaceful high school life! Look at us now, back into trouble at the start of our second year. Remember how it all began?”
“I do not want to think about that!” Yessenia interrupted him with anger.
Matt took a step back in confusion. What he did not know about Yessenia was how she arrived into the World of Elsiya. Matt looked away. “Me too… You know what? Let’s just get through this place. We might find something at the next place wherever it is.”
“You are right.” Yessenia agreed. She pointed up at the top hill of junk, “Past that area is more roads, but once we get through there, we will reach some place called Enheizer. Sounds kind of dangerous so you might need to stay alert.”
Matt shook his head. “It sounds like it but we’ll see.”
Upon crossing the bridge, two strange-looking digicells appeared in front of them. Both of them were in the shape of a mechanical spider, each about two feet tall. They made a strange screeching noise like all spiders would make. Matt fell on his behind above the bridge. Yessenia stood in front of him. “Keep it together, Matt! This is the first time you will have to test your attacks with real weapons.”
Matt got up and he took a few steps away from Yessenia. “B-But…!” He turned around to find two more mechanical spider digicells from behind. “Oh… We’re trapped.” He took out his double-edged sword from his sheath. His hands began shaking. “L-Let’s go!”
Yessenia examined his hands over her right shoulder. She thought in her mind, “(Why is he shaking? He was surely braver last year.)”
Matt tried to stab one of the mechanical spiders but he missed. The spider had jumped away from him about a foot back. Matt became frustrated. “Matt!” Yessenia called. “Do not forget what the lieutenant taught you!”
Matt remembered this time. He should not stab straight into the center as it is an expected move. The other spider jumped in front of him and Matt tried to avoid by examining which side the spider was aiming for. While Matt was struggling, Yessenia slashed each of the spiders on her side one by one. It took her a few stabs in order to completely cause the spiders to vanish. Matt cut one of the spiders on his own side but the other was about to pounce. It was quick enough to stab Matt’s left arm with one of its legs. Matt knelt down in pain. Yessenia ran in front of Matt and she took care of the last remaining spider. All four of the mechanical digicells had vanished completely.
Yessenia knelt down to check on his arm. “This does not look so good. Here, come on.” She helped him get dragged over to one of the broken junk walls ahead nearest to the bridge.
They both sat next to each other in silence. Yessenia could not find any paper wrappings for Matt’s stung arm but Matt told her to give it up. They both looked up into the sky, wondering how to get out of the mysterious world. Yessenia asked him, “I wonder how those digicells appeared? Who knows when more will come?”
“It’s a good thing we only encountered one for a while now.”
“Hey… can I ask you a question?”
“Uh, sure.” Matt replied.
“Back there, when we were fighting those spiders… you looked afraid. Last year, you were glad to fight as long as it served the world.” Matt opened his eyes wide for a moment and then he looked away. He did not want to answer her. “It is okay for you to not answer that. I was just curious. All of the sudden, a large piece of junk fell from the top of a pile in front of them. Yessenia quickly stood up and she readied her long sword. “Watch out. There could be another digicell hiding somewhere.”
Matt sighed. “Whatever… It’s probably nothing.”
“Maybe you are right…” Yessenia said. She was trying her best to keep herself and Matt through the survival in this world that they are not familiar with. Yessenia sat down and they began to go back into silence. Yessenia really wanted to move on ahead through the junkyard but with the pain on Matt’s left arm, it was difficult for him to move on. She decided to wait for him.
Meanwhile, a strange essence was really nearby Matt and Yessenia. The pile of junk was not just any pile. Something was nearby it and it must have caused the ruckus of the large piece which fell not too long ago…
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Yessenia: Who goes there?!Guard: Me! Don’t you remember?
Yessenia: Damn… I was hoping it was someone more useful.
Guard: Aw, you didn’t need to tell me that. Now I’m sad.
Yessenia: Get real. What are you doing here?
Matt: To save me from this poison sting!
Guard: Newbie. I’ll take you two to the next town.
Matt: [Trying to pick a fight with the guard but Yessenia is holding him by the collar] You callin’ me a newbie?!
Yessenia: Anyway, take us there. But I am watching you. Next time on episode 123, Suspicious Shades of Fury, Yessenia Fights on Her Own!
Guard: Don’t worry! I won’t do anything.
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