In the Belly of the Beast :: Choose Your Own Adventure

[Sanara]

[> Run from the creature before it can scent you!]

You begin to hyperventilate as the thrill of fear strikes you. The predator must have heard the panicked squeals of the rats and scented their fear! You turn away from the flashing light, and know, just know that the beast is already clawing it’s way into the sewers, ready to hunt down and collect any creature still stupid enough to hang around.

You bolt, keeping your paws one step ahead. The grimy concrete is slick under your paws but you can’t stop! With each slip it’s gaining ground! You hear a roar, and feel the wind huff against your fur.

The beast’s huff. It’s found you

You turn as you run, trying to figure out how much time you have left until it catches you. Unfortunately you don’t see the slick spot ahead, or notice when your paw looses traction. One second your running, the next your paw slips out from under you and sends you toppling out into nothingness.

You squeal as you fall and crash into the dingy waters below. It’s cold envelopes you and unseeing stuff touches you as you flail to break the surface. This is it for you. All at once you remember.



[> Game over.]

[Sanara]

[> Keep moving ahead, turn right, investigate the light...]

You feel strange as you begin to move on. The red light is dull and gives little to no light in this dark, depressing pipe-scape, but still its presence reminds you of the old horror stories the rats would tell at sundown before bed. You fear you are the main character in one of these stories. Like all you’ve managed in your meager little life is mute up to this point.

Your dread is mounting as you head towards the turn and- careful, there was a slick spot on the concrete you’d never have noticed- and slowly peer around. The long corridor is unmarked aside from smaller, corroded looking pipes, a levee turner, and what looks to be an opening with solid iron bars across. The red light is higher up on the wall, and was simply just sitting there... blinking... probably to help two-letters through the dark? What does it matter?

You continue, and approach the scene. The entire floor is dry here except for the not so uncommon trench through the floor. The only thing spectacular about it was the small dribble of water pouring into it from a hole in the wall. The hole was impossibly dark, giving you the feeling of a gaping emptiness. You fear the idea of crawling into it, for you don’t know what could be at the other end.

Quickly you turn back to the objects in front of you. No need to worry yourself about something you refuse to do. But, you feel it’s emptiness behind you. It sends your fur on end but, as you go to turn the knob. It squeals harshly- you stop as the sound of pawsteps echoing towards you. A body slams against the barred opening and you yelp in fear, only to have sandy kitten hissing for your silence.

“Hussshhh hush they’ll hear you!” She hisses.

Who would hear you? You open your maw to ask, and stop, as words continue to tumble out of her.

“Oh! I thought I’d never see you again! I’m so glad you’re safe!” You give her a smile, and are certainly glad she’s safe from whatever could hear them. Obviously she had noticed the wheel, and could tell it was sort of stuck?

“Will that open these bars? Is it stuck? There’s a thingy on this side of the bars- maybe try it?” Carefully she funnels a heavy rusted two-legger object towards you. Would the rats describe this as the two-legger tool; a wrench?

Who knows. All you know is that the wheel could be important, and the wrench could open it. But it was turning for you earlier, even if it was a bit loud...

[> Use the wrench...]
[> Keep on turning without the wrench...]

[Sanara]

[> Sandy Kitten.]

You hold your head up with pride as you stomp along with the rats down the path you chose. The right pipe. Your little voice inside urges you on, after all, it is the correct pipe. You slow and look around, hearing more than noticing that the largest part of the horde had passed. All rats that were left were a few stragglers wheeling and squealing around your paws and struggling through the waters. No big deal...

You look around and realize for the first time just how cold and lonely things were without your sibling beside you. The concrete ground had large soggy sections of grime along the walk ways, with one large section of dark moving water cutting the area in half long ways. On the walls around you, the concrete is a dull murky grey. You begin to feel small and insignificant in this huge expanse, and a part of your chest begins to clutch up. You feel the urge to cry and look for dark kit.

[> Sit down and cry...]
[> Call out for Dark Kit...]
[> Sit down and pout quietly...]

[Sanara]

[> Sit down and pout quietly...]

The gut-wrenching feeling is just too much to bare. You plop down in a particularly dirty puddle and began to sniffle. You must look absolutely pitiful right now. Your lip begins to quiver, and sticks out in a really obvious pouty face.

In the darkness you sit, eyes swelling with tears, sniffling into the chilly air around you, the puddle you’re sitting in wavers every time you move to look around, but nothing changes. The dark kitten doesn’t come running to comfort you, no rats come to see if you’re okay. They may never do so again...

The gut wrenching feeling grows and you know you’re close to a total melt down...

[> Give in and cry...]
[> Call out for Dark Kit...]

[Sanara]

[> Give in and cry...]

And the meltdown did indeed come. The tears spill over your fluffy cheeks and you build up a wail in your throat. At once the pipe is filled with your noise. Your sadness that had welled up in you over the last few moments poured out as desperate, pitiful sobs wrecked your body, and the puddle below you echoed your sobs in time.

If only you hadn’t spent the last few minutes pouting into the darkness. If only you had taken a breath in the last few moments to sit and listen. But you didn’t.

Instead, you wasted your time pouting as three much larger cats strolled menacingly into view. They said nothing as they sat behind you, watching your pitiful little form squeal and whine, warring with your echos to be heard. All at once, they became fed up with your blithering and gave you a hard poke, sending you squealing with surprise into the puddle.

“My, my, my. What a pair of lungs you have,” sneered the leader. Your chest ached, but you got the meaning almost instantly. These weren’t friends. As quickly as you could, you struggled to get up and run away, but you had no breath after screaming and crying. You couldn’t get enough breath in to make yourself move fast enough, and the three larger cats caught up to you with one pounce. The pain didn’t last as long as the echos of your earlier cry.

[> Game over.]

[Sanara]

[> Sit down and cry...]

The gut-wrenching feeling is just too much to bare. You plop down in a particularly dirty puddle and began to sniffle. You must look absolutely pitiful right now. Your lip begins to quiver, and you feel the tears begin to spill over.

In the darkness you sit, eyes swelling with tears, sniffling into the chilly air around you, the puddle you’re sitting in wavers with every sob that begin to clutch hold of your small body. You know the wails are coming next, and as you go to take a breath to start really playing into the acoustics, you hear something incredibly particular- another cats voice.

“It came from down this way,” called one of the strangers to an unknown accomplice. This had to be what caused the rats to go into flight mode. And if the rats were afraid, you know well enough that there’s reason to be afraid.

Far down into the darkness you see a cream outline stroll into view as though it had no care in the world. A shadowy figure waltzed with it, along with a patchy pelt on the other side. “Hey, what’s that,” one of the others said, and now you know they’ve seen you.

[> Run before they can catch up to you...]

[Sanara]

[> Call out for dark kit...]

You take a deep breath to steady yourself- there’s no need to get worked worked up when dark kit’s ‘left’ side could simply link up with this one, you don’t know. So you go to move on, mewling out for your sibling. The sound vibrates endlessly against the dull grey of the corridor. You feel a small flash of hope stir in your thin chest, and you trot a little faster. If your call goes far enough, surely your sibling would hear it and call back! You let out another mew, this time much louder, hardly considering that something else may hear you.

That thought struck you stiff, and you stop right in your tracks. Along your spine you feel an ice cold trickle of fear slide down your spine sending waves of fur up in shock. Why hadn’t you thought about that before? When you where calling out seconds ago, you never once considered that whatever scared the rats might still be around here....

You turn slowly, eyes scanning where they might- sliding pointlessly over the run off pipes that were blocked by bars, having nothing to do with the view of the flowing waters a ways below you, and ending on the opening of the pipe you entered through. Already, curious shapes far off were just beginning to pace into the mouth of the pipe.

These were the creatures responsible for upsetting your ratty friends, and sending everyone scattering to the ends of the pipes. They were the ones who messed up your day and caused the fight that led you to be all alone. They were responsible for separating you and your sibling. And they knew exactly where you were standing.

[> Run before they can catch up to you...]

[Sanara]

[> Run before they can catch up to you...]

The option is clear as the nose on your face. You turn tail and take off, trying to keep yourself from making too much noise but there’s no way to help it. If they didn’t know where you were, they do now, as your soggy paws make a loud slapping sound every step. No matter, as you turn a corner you feel a rush of relief- there’s an opening in the side of the wall! Red light filtered through and although there was a loud squeal echoing off the walls, it had to be better than being tracked down by three cats. Heck, she might even find your sibling!

“Come back here, Twig!!” You had never heard the word before, but you knew good and well that the growled snark was aimed at you. Was Twig your name? Did other cats have names like that? It felt odd to you; you never had a name before. But you decided it was for naught when you turned to run through the opening in the corridor wall-

Only to be cut short by the bars that were across it. They had blended in thanks to the flashing red light, but as you look through them, dazed and disappointed, you realize a familiar face is looking back.

“Hey!” You smile widely, relief flooding through you as you recognize your sibling through the bars, bathed in a soft red glow. “I thought I’d never see you again. I’m so glad you’re safe,” you breath, your voice almost hitching. You fight against the tears threatening to overflow, but loose the battle, and feel them begin to burn against your cheeks

“You too,” they purr, but you know you don’t have long for this reunion. Instead, you had to find a way to get through these bars to them- maybe the wheel they were gripping was the key?

“Will that open the bars? Is it stuck?” You look around without waiting for an answer. Already you can hear the paws of the strange cats splashing through the puddles in pursuit. In a panic you grab the nearest thing- a two legger tool the rats called a ‘wrench-‘ and you funnel it through to them. You pull away to look around again, and see the first cat coming around the corner.

You have to run leave dark kit

[> Leave dark kit and run...]

[Sanara]

[> Leave dark kit and run...]

Without thinking, you back up and start running with the question dying on Dark Kit’s maw. Hopefully your panic was enough to make them understand as you go dashing away into darkness and leaving your sibling behind bathed in red light. At least they had the bars to protect them as long as they left that wheel alone.

Unfortunately, as you run you hear a loud clang and a squeal of fear ring out. You have no time to turn and see the water flooding into your pipe. No time to see the large cats with murder in their eyes reach into the opposite pipe. But you hear the words hissed with venom. “Looks like we found ourselves a Rat!” You had no time to think whether your siblings name was Rat or not. You simply took it as gospel as you turn the corner and loose sight of the red glow all together.

Here, the world was shifted. The middle of the pipe rounded out to become a straight pipe floor, with a small stream of water flowing unhindered into the darkness. You see several offshoots of pipes and some rather large stones having fallen from the ceiling from age. You couldn’t reach the roof if you tried, but perhaps...

[> Try to hide in one of the offshoot pipes...]
[> Try to hide in the fallen rocks...]
[> Keep running. There’s nothing for you here...]

[Sanara]

[> Try to hide in one of the offshoot pipes...]

Your pipe begins running with water long before you hear the splashy footsteps running towards you. You know well enough that, whether they got Rat or not they were coming for you next. You choose to hide. You turn in frantic circles trying to find anywhere to hide. The once-dried grime on the concrete floor was already beginning to slick as you stopped with your eyes on the closest pipe opening.

You have to hide, you decide as you descend into the pipe- only to have your paws slip right out from under you and you land in the pipe with an audible splash! You thank your lucky stars that you can swim, and breath the surface of the water at the bottom of the pipe.

All too late you notice the dull green muck that had settled along this diagonal pipe, and you groan. A steady stream of water was filling into the pipe and you had no choice except to bob there hoping the feral cats hadn’t heard you. Seconds go by and and you think you may have made it... that is until three malicious shadows filled the pipe opening.

“Nice to finally meet you, Twig,” one of the shadows purred sending shudders through you. You look around frantically but it’s no use, and the larger cats know it. All you can do now is make them wait for their meal as you bob-along in time with the water flooding into the hole, bringing you ever closer to the top of the pipe, and the waiting claws.

[> Game Over...]