Take one

My head feels like a broken net, riddled with too many holes.
Some things catch, but it all gets tangled. Most things slip through, though. Maybe getting caught for just a second before twisting free. It can almost be felt, the memories slipping away. You ever feel like you've lost everything, but you can't seem to remember what it all consisted of?

I feel empty.
Hollow.
Broken.

Eyes open to a cloudy blue sky. Certain things come to me. The template of my existence. I remember me, and what I am. I remember details about the world, but that is all. My name comes to me in a flash. My purpose has yet to be defined.

Is this coming to, or is this slipping away?
Have I been born again, or is this the bitter end?

It can be difficult to tell where things begin, and when things are over. You can never be sure that you missed the boat without a working timepiece. My head hurts. It becomes hard to think. Or was it always this way?
It almost feels like that.

Get up.
God…?
I told you to get up.
Instinctively follow his directions. My joints ache like they've never been used as I manage to collect myself to my feet. Dizziness. Am I supposed to be feeling this?
I know you're confused right now. As you very well should be. You had a terrible accident, child.
What kind of accident?
It matters not. The important thing is that you're okay.
I guess.
I have a job for you.
A job? What kind of job?
Listen to my instructions very carefully.

A light whirring in my head, and it starts to get loud. My top row of teeth is grinding against the bottom. White noise, as static fades through the world I see before me. The field before me turns white and everything fades away.

Record.

He's giving me instructions, but I can't focus on his words. They register by themselves. Everything seems to click into place. I'm a gadget that's too complicated to understand. God is programming me. My body acts on its own.

Gliding. Feels like I'm running on an automatic track. Knowing the way without the slightest clue of the destination. The vibrant colors of the vivid forest around me blend and blur together as I race passed trees and over streams.

Feet don't even touch the ground. Something's pounding away inside my chest. My brain no longer controls me. My body runs on auto-pilot.

-

The silhouette of an island hangs, suspended in thin air. A gigantic black splotch, sitting in front of a blue canvas, clouds smeared in pink and top of the sky tinted orange. Rays peek brightly around the giant formation.

Squint. The edge of my hand meets my eyebrow as I look off into the distance.
Everything is calm. Quiet.

Not a bird so much as chirps in the distance. Make my way back to the tree line and pick a shady spot to sit down. Lean my back against a thick trunk. Wait for sunset to come.

A snap from above breaks through the atmospheric tranquility.
Something catches the edge of my eye, falling down beside me.
A faint thud as the object disappears into the tall grass to my left.
Eyes dart after the source of disruption. Eyes quickly scan the tall grass.
Red catches my eye in a sea of green. Fingers clasp around it through the long blades.

In my palm rests a bright apple. Shiny and perfect. Roll it into my right hand to notice a bruise on the opposite side. A large brown stain somewhere near the center. My thumb slides down the side of the apple, and stops on the brown, soft surface. Thumb gently pushes down, causing the skin to stretch and break.
Cloth soaked with its yellow juices.

Grip loosens and the apple drops. To the ground it falls again.

A feast for the worms.

-

A flash of red and white.
He swoops towards me quickly. He's fast, but not fast enough.
Sidestep and barely manage to duck beneath his giant swinging fist. Weight shifts to left leg, and I launch myself to the right. Right fist meets left palm and presses against my chest. Protruding elbow slams into his side and knocks the wind out of him.
One hundred and eighty degree turn to catch him falling to his knees.
A strained attempt to breath in as a string of spittle ejaculates forth from his mouth.

He's struggling not to fall. Both forearms wrapped around his stomach. He doubles over and gags.

"You… can't" he wheezes, fighting just to speak "win"
I can and I will.

Left foot meets his neck. A snap and crunch as his throat caves in. The force sending his limp body head first into the soil. Step on the side of his head and gently grind his face into the ground. Blood spills out of his oral cavity onto the luscious grass. Bright green spattered with dark red.
Lift my foot to just hovering above his head.

He tries to speak, but this only evokes more suffering out of the poor thing. Sputtering, blood dribbling down his chin. He wears scarlet on his face like crude makeup.

He rolls over to his back, expending great effort.
His eyes wide and glistening with tears. He reaches out for me.

He reaches out for darkness.

What a fool.

Jets on the bottom of my shoes power on, and works as a torch on his mouth and neck. Black eating its way through red skin and thin lips. Gums melting, teeth sinking in. He tries to scream, but he can't.
Flame eats a black hole into his neck. Red and black pit.
Blood collecting and clotting. Flesh melting and burning away. Singeing.

I bring my fire spewing foot down onto his face, crushing in the bottom half of his head. Flame extinguishes.

-

Surrounded by them.
Not sure how many, but I can hear them closing in.

All of them want my blood.

It strikes me odd that they don't make a move. They just stand around me in all directions and stare at me. Studying me from just beyond the tree line. Trying to figure out what I am.

One of them, he looks like the leader, he starts pointing his spear at me threateningly and speaks. He demands to know why I'm here. He demands to know what I think I'm doing. He demands to know what I am.

I don't know, I tell him.
Don't speak god says don't say a word to the likes of them.

He tells me not to listen. Says I don't need to communicate.

I have my instructions.

The echidna jabs the spear in my direction to scare me.
All that does is put the weapon within reach.
Snatch the spear just passed the crudely fashioned blade and snatch the weapon from his grip.

The handle is wrenched from his hands, and sent right back into his face. Nose caves in and two separate fountains of blood erupt from its black nostrils as the idiot falls back and hits the dirt.

Swing the spear with a loosened grip, making my gloved hand slide down the wooden handle. Grip tightens and it stops. He rolls over to get up. Flip the spear around and stick the blade into the dead center of his back, snapping his spine.
Footsteps.
Their reaction time isfar too slow.

An arch of blood follows the blade as its forcefully ripped from the fallen mobian's back and plunged into another's face. Limp feet swept from under him hick me as he falls to my feet.
A blade flies at me from my left. Turn to meet the warrior while bringing up the horizontal spear with both hands. The blade just misses my right hand and hits the wood, cracking it and sending splinters flying into the air. The tip of the blade grazes my forehead, slowly digging into my brow. Cuts through the side of my right eye and through my cheek. Metal scrapes my teeth as an imperfection in the blade mangles my face, and tears off more than it should. Blood fills up my right eye, and it closes. Step back and duck. Move back in. Left hand jabs the broken wood through the rough skin covering the echidna's throat. He coughs and gargles; spitting and coughing up blood. My hand snatches the falling sword from his hands.
Another blade wedges between my neck and left shoulder. A quick turn as the blade snaps from the handle. Something cracks inside me, and my left arm is dead, hanging limply off the left side of my body. The broken blade's tip protruding out an inch or so above my armpit line. Right arm brings the blade vertically down into his neck. The blade is dull. Instead of a clean cut, it gets stuck halfway through, and I have to use my foot to pry the sword free.

Left eye scans the area to discover I've taken out all the minions. Sad. I would have thought there were more than that. Stagger forward, out of the clearing and passed the tree line. Can't open my right eye. Dried blood acts as glue on my lids. I'm sure I can no longer see out of the eye anyway.

An unknown force pulls me the direction I think I'm supposed to go. My head hurts. My face stings. Constant throbbing pain from the cut tendons and sliced muscle in my shoulder. I think I've bled too much. Feeling lightheaded. Woozy, even.

World seems to be spinning as I approach the cave.
The mouth is nothing but shadow. Complete darkness. Walk through and follow the curves like I've been here before. Like there aren't any surprises at the end of this.

The deeper I get, the more apparent the green glow emanating from the end of the tunnel becomes. It beckons me.
It's calling me.

-

There it is.

The master emerald.

My objective is nearly complete. All I have to do is pick it up.

But suddenly

something cracks down on my head with great force

and

it brings me down with it.

I can feel my

head denting in

as another blow \\

cracks against my skull

and another

my head caves in and

breaks into a million pieces.

-

I've failed you, father. Please forgive me.