Day 50

I walked for a while, still at an accelerated pace, and before long reached the fork in the road, having essentially slid down the 45-degree slope all the way to the bottom. I decided to take a nap at the bottom of the slide and found that there was little change. I was making great progress, I had moved more than four days worth of cave in one, and I still had a fair amount of food and considerably more strength, I felt like I could easily take care of a rattipede now, and Lupe could take care of another.

I had meditated and started falling asleep when something woke me up, a feeling maybe or some sort of smell, but my eyes shot open after what felt like only a couple of hours. I couldn't hear anything, but I could smell something, a putrid scent, familiar, but unknown. I slowly got to my feet, waking up quickly, all sleep leaving my body as I got ready for... something.

Lupe slowly got to his feet with me, sniffing the air and cringing back, so I wasn't crazy, he could smell it too. I stretched my left hand, hoping the light would illuminate the surroundings just a little more, but to no luck. I waited another minute before relaxing, I could take it, whatever it was, yeah, I got this, is what I told myself, not hearing the chuckles of a prankster god.

I slammed my left fist into the wall, and shouted “COME ON ALREADY!” and got a knife ready in each hand. Then I heard a skittering of epic proportions, more like a million legs then the usual 100 of a rattipede, “shit, shit shit shit shit, Lupe, go, you'll find a hole in the wall if you run long enough.”

“bur?” he turned his head questioning me with a look like he had no idea what the fuck I meant. “should have expected that, fine, stay and fight with me, it'll be fine.”

“Bark!”

“well at least one of us is excited.” I turned back, the skittering reaching a crescendo, and around the bend of the left tunnel came a horde of rattipede's, all about the same size as Lupe, and not nearly as cute. I threw a handful of paste stew at them, and it worked, five of them stopped to eat it in five seconds. “cool cool cool.” I rolled my shoulders and got ready for a fight, when the rattipede's passed right by me, circling around us and kept running, passing me in a rush, going up the right split, up the 45-degree. “Oh no, no, nooo, fuck!” I picked Lupe up and started running down the path towards my car, the stampede not giving me a second glance. I started rushing forward, because if these angry bastards were running, then I had no chance against whatever was making that awful smell.

I ran for a solid hour before the smell completely subsided, not bothering me anymore. I slowed down to a walk, setting Lupe down next to me, and we kept moving, our walk turning into a jog, and we soon came to the next real landmark of my travels, the hole in the wall! I decided then that I could take a break, I mean, it's not like I had a deadline to get back, and my bag wasn't even half empty. I got on my stomach and looked into the hole, seeing nothing, I crawled in, left hand forward, and met no resistance. Soon enough I came out the other side, the stream still flowing along, and I sat back, feeling oddly comfortable, I sat back, and closed my eyes, wanting to rest comfortably for a bit, and without realizing it I passed out.