NetherWorld by Daniel Pagan (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📕

asked another of the Tainted.
“I bet we can. Sure. Sure. Why not eat it?”
“Yes. Yes. He might tasty good. His bloods. Let’s tasty his bloods,” said Jak, his tubes squirreling around while he spoke.
“We pully him apart. Grabby da limb. Grabby da limb,” ordered Jak.
They formed a circle around Nick. He had no chance to escape. He was at their mercy, which appeared to be in short supply. Their inflamed tubes snaked towards Nick. Faster and faster, they spun in their haphazard manner.
The globes closed in on him. Each time one their pulsing tubes wiggled near him, the strong smell of road kill wafted in its wake. Not just your everyday road kill. This was the foul odor of baked entrails splayed out on blacktop on a hot humid day. He had no escape from the odious assault. As they closed, they chanted some crazed vespers.

“Submit to Ether
Tasty our taint
Drinky da data
Tasty our taint
Greeny you get
Tasty our taint”

Nowhere to run, Nick looked around for any escape from the crazed, and apparently bloodthirsty balloons. The green globes chanted louder and faster. They reached a feverish pitch while their snaking orange tubes reached out to Nick. Inches away, they slithered around his neck, caressing him.
“What are you? Can’t you just let me go?” he asked trying to remove the strangling tubes. Sticky snot like tendrils narrowed as he pulled them from his neck. As soon as he pulled on tube, another slid in its place. Each Tainted one had at least eight tubes. At least forty orange cobras competed for real estate under Nick’s head. Still searching around, he saw no way past the tainted circle.
All the globes spoke in unison, “We Tainted. You da doomed. You da doomed fo sure. Yes, Karbon must die. Karbon filthy tingy. Tasty our taint,” said Jak.
“Look guys, or whatever you are. I am not sure what is going on here. Can’t you just let me go? I got nothin’ against you. Really! So, just back away. Please!” pleaded Nick.
The Tainted were unmoved by his request. They pressed on. Closer. Closer. Their tubes were now fully wrapped around his head and neck, choking him. All he could muster was a gargle of desperation. Things began spinning for Nick. He could barely stand. He wobbled in synch with the unsteady globes.
One the tubes latched onto his head. What felt like a tepid wet tongue, wiggled into his ear. It swirled and whirled, a sticky appendage slithering in and around his lobe. The same thing began in his other ear. This auditory invasion made him wretch. Bile, once resting in his belly, shot up into his mouth, blanketing his tongue with bitter vomit taste.
As the circle of globes strangled Nick, the entire forest shook with a violent series of tremors. This quake sent Nick back into the frothy lime stream. A few of the more entangled Tainted Ones joined him in the muck. Most of the spinning Tainted Ones were unaffected from the shaking forest floor.
After a few scary ticks, the movement ceased. Nick’s slip dislodged him from the grip of the Tainted Ones. He slid under the orbit of the nasty globes. Nick realizing his opportunity to flee, trudged along the bottom of the stream, following the current.
“Karbon escaping. Catch Karbon before he gone. We get you. We find you,” shouted Jak.
“Yes. Yes. Catch da Karbon. Filthy ting he is!” echoed another diseased globe.
The Tainted Ones turned to chase him when shadows on the forest floor swirled up from the swamp bottom. The flat black shapes morphed into a large amebic cloud. The blob-like shadow drifted above him and hovered. The Globes backed away.
“Murks! Murks!” screamed one of the infected Taints.
“Murks eat Tainted. Tainted hatey Murks,” shouted another Tainted in that high pitched helium voice.
“Spin! Spin away! Away from hatey Murks!” ordered Jak.
Their orange tubes stood straight up and shivered. Whatever, the Murks were, they terrified the Tainted Ones. They spun away and sped back, in their own wobbly way, into the darker sections of the forest. Their oranges tresses trailed, bouncing in the humid air. The hovering dark amoeba pursued the green globes. Seconds later the dark mist grew into a massive black blanket. The blanket trapped the globes and sealed them off from everything. Horrific sounds like nails on a chalkboard screeched throughout the forest.
Once the sounds subsided, the mist spiraled down to the forest floor, retaking the flat black form that patrolled the forest floor. Nothing remained of the Tainted Ones. They were gone. Evaporated. Not even a single drop of gooey tube snot was left. Looking around, he decided to leave the forest before more nasty creatures found him.
“That was too close a call me. I need to get out of this freaky forest,” Nick said to himself. A few ticks later, a new insect army began another vigorous assault on his body.
Pulling his gelled feet from their spot, he marched towards the edge. Each step was an effort, like trudging through eight inches of olive oil. All the while he continued to swat the pesky bugs busy stinging his now bite riddled body. His footprints remained long after his feet departed. Slowly, gelled jaba collapsed into his footfalls. A clumpy slow slurp sounded each collapse. Nick grew weary before long, had place to rest given the buggy cloud that followed him.
A few ticks later, the forest shook and shimmied to and fro once again. Nick did his best to maintain his balance as the ground beneath him growled and grumbled. The Silver Forest sat atop an active subsuction zone. Just beyond the forest was a band of ether mist at the foot of a massive mountain range. Craggy escarpments carved a menacing shadow overlooking the low lying fog.
According to the legend, a massive ocean of jaba was on the other side of the mountain range. Scattered throughout the jaba sea, were barely explored islands. Any Byte who ventured beyond the band of Ether never returned. Most fell prey to the Tainted Ones who lurked in the Ether. The few who scaled the pale jagged peaks journeyed to these outer islands in search of answers.
Land masses in the outer ROM were created by Silicate lava flows born from massive volcanic eruptions along major fault lines. All of NetherWorld floated on molten hot Cores which created plate TechSonics similar to plate tectonics on Karbonon. The Silver Forest was a particularly active area. On one side was the Nether metropolis; on the other was the mist and mountains. Most Silicates never ventured beyond the walled city.
Most of the outer land masses were sparsely populated and largely unexplored. Tales of strange Silicate creatures were spun to entertain impressionable young Bytes. Once they reach maturity they dismissed the stories as legend. In truth, very few really knew what went on in the Outer ROM. Speculation about the mystical beings and magical land were blogged about throughout the Nether metropolis.
By the time he reached the edge of the silver forest, he was exhausted. Fortunately the insects preferred the dank forest over the field he now faced. The bevy of bugs thinned to a handful of stubborn stingers.
Hands on his knees, he tried to catch his breath. After a minute or two of heavy breathing, he was able to stand and survey the clearing. Before him was a vast grassy field followed by a collection of what appeared to be skyscrapers wrapped by a massive stone wall. The stream began at the forest edge and travelled directly to the walled city. Murky green and freckled with dark triangle leaves, the grimy stream frothed along the edges. A bubbly lime beard framed the tortured tributary. The buildings were too far out to determine what they were. There were a lot of dark spots scattered throughout the field. It looked like the field was dying. The tarnished grasses appeared brittle. As he walked through the grass, the dark stalks crumbled when touched. The field was indeed dying.
Exiting the forest, Nick noticed that the rain stopped as soon as he entered the field. It appeared that the rain only occurred in the Silver Forest. The field smelled of sulfur. Dead grasses decomposed in the damp fields creating the sharp odor. Nick tried not to breathe in the offensive odor as he trudged through the muck of the field. Whatever this place was, it sure stunk. Most of the field had already rotted away. Only a few healthy silver stalks stood in the fallow field.
The field encircled the massive Walled City. It was a fair distance from the forest edge. He could clearly see the spectacular skyline as he approached. A bright light emanated from what appeared to be the center. Maybe someone in the city could explain things to him. No sense in dallying in a grassy necropolis.
Nick made his way towards the walled metropolis. With no idea where he was or what this world is, he figured maybe someone in those buildings can provide some answers. His bites began to itch quite a bit. Hopefully, they will have something for that as well, he thought.
As he approached the great wall, he noticed the bright cloudy sky still contained no sun. How can this be? The light has to be coming from somewhere. Ambient blue hues domed this world much the way the sky appears in Karbonon, sans the sun.
“This is just too freaky,” he said while scratching all over his body. Nick was getting tired of talking to himself. “Where are all the people? Well let’s see if we can figure out what the hell is going on.”
Nick could see a large moat of vibrant lime liquid surrounding it. The moat was fed by the stream that came from the forest. The smell was unbearable. Tears welled up in his eyes. Holding his nose did not help fight the overpowering sulfur sewage smell. Viscous jaba gel gurgled as it collected in the moat. It sounded like a small dog on the verge of regurgitating something he wasn’t supposed to eat.
Families of the flat black amoebas he saw in the forest slid freely atop the green moat. They looked like the Murks from the Silver Forest. There were so many of them. Nick, having already witnessed the power of these shape; back away from the two dimensional predators.
Now that he was out of the forest he could see the encroaching dark section of trees had nearly consumed the forest. There were trees with no leaves and some of the trees had fallen into the sticky swamp. The desiccated forest appeared beyond rescue. This was one unhealthy other world, he mused.
The massive wall surrounding the city appeared to be made of white fish scales. A large brown drawbridge, almost as high as the wall, was the only visible