How Was The Fall?

… I have no words. That's technically a lie, I can still sorta comprehend what's going on. After… whatever just happened, I passed out and now I'm on the side of a mountain. I am simply laying down in the sky… or on a rope.

There is a rock climber above me. There is a rope attached to his waist, that I assume is keeping me from falling down this… giant rock.

"I feel like I am… missing… something." I choose my words carefully as the rock climber keeps moving up the mountain.

"Oh," The rock climber stops climbing and looks down. "Uh… guten morgen. Ich… llamo eine… Bobo."

I took a moment to translate what he said. I think he's speaking German, I know some German. Although, I don't know what "yamo" means. Is that… korean?

"Ich bin… nicht…" I try to talk to the man in German. "Viel deutsch."

"Hold on." The man digs in his shirt before pulling out a book that says Idiomas de Europa Occidental. "Ich… that means… I."

"You speak english?" I stare at him with an increased amount of confusion.

"The real question is YOU speak english!?" The man almost drops his book before putting it back in his shirt. "That's a plus, I know that language."

"Yeah…" I look around to remember that I am on the side of a mountain. "What is this?"

"That's a rope." He (sarcastically?) answers the wrong question.

"Not the rope." I take more time to consider the words that come out of my mouth. "Where am I? What is... happening?"

"You are in Nocilcft." The man finally gives me a useful answer as he starts to climb again. "A place made by &%#$%*^%$$%^%$ to #$%^&^%$#@#$... I guess he doesn't want you to know."

"Continue." I stare up into the sky

"I wasn't going to stop." The man says humorously. "I was about to introduce myself. My name is... Zackary. I thought you spoke German because of your… very German name tag."

"Name Tag?" I slowly start rotating, seeing as Zackary doesn't seem to be being weighed down by my weight, which is strange.

"Yeah," Zackary responds. "It's like Team College but with a K instead of a C. Maybe it isn't German..?"

"I think it's German." I say as I look at my shirt, trying to find the nametag. I now see the name tag, but I can't really read upside down. "But I don't know much German."

"That's... strange." Zackary takes a couple big breaths (that's the correct way to say it, right?) "Because… the name tags usually have to do with language spoken. It's a way for #$%^%$#$%^ to think he's #$%^&^%$."

"What?" I notice the odd absence of certain words.

"He's at it again." Zackary vaguely states before continuing his… talk. "I'd guess that he's switching up the name tags, but why? And with what?"

"Who is he?" I reasonably ask.

"He is the guy who put you here." Zackary reaches for another piece of the mountain. "Can't say his name because he's being a %@#$%^& $%$. We could give him a nickname, but I don't think we have the time for it."

"So this… person put me here?" I summarize the information I'm learning. "And he… thinks I'm German?"

"Are you German?" Zackary asks me.

"I'm Austrian." I… I don't know what word to use here. Correct? I'm correcting him? Or is it something else? Correcting is kinda rude in this context. "Not German."

"Austrian?" Zackary keeps on climbing. "That's neat."

We both go quiet as Zackary just climbs and climbs. I'm surprised that he can climb this high, for this long, with me dangling on a rope, while I don't really see any climbing equipment. He either knows what he's doing, or we are both going to die.

"Where exactly are you climbing to?" I start up another conversation.

"The top of the mountain." Zackary exhales. "I know from las-#$%#@ that the top of the mountain is our key out of here."

"I guess that's a good reason." I nod as I start to feel the circulation in my head go all wonky. "I'm guessing some magical stuff is gonna get me- us… back home?"

"You are probably correct." Zackarry vaguely answers.

"That's… good." I yawn. "Are we close to the top of this... mountain… anytime soon."

"Uh…" Zackary pauses to think, which is a completely reasonable thing to do. It takes me some time to think about the proper… terminology and… logistics when talking about things. "Sure. I hope so."

"That doesn't inspire much confidence in me." I say before reconsidering my talk. "Hold on, let me rephrase. I… don't feel like you know what you're doing."

"I've been climbing for almost a full day, nonstop." Zackary explains. "I can only hope that we're close."

"I've been knocked out for a DAY?!" My eyes widened.

"About a day and a half." Zackary verbally shrugs. "It's odd because the others woke up wayyyy earlier, yet we have a head start."

I take a moment to process what he just said. "Okay, that's reasonable." I lied. I have no idea what's going on and the more I try to figure out, the more confused I get. So you know what? I think I'm done talking for now.

After what felt like an… infinite amount of time, it was probably an hour, maybe 20 minutes, we actually made it to the top of the mountains. It wasn't that exciting for me (I'm just glad that I'm no longer dangling over the side of a mountain) Zackary however, seemed to be in a celebratory mood. A short lived, celebratory mood because after celebrating for a couple of seconds, he sat next to a small tree and simply looked at the horizon.

"And would you look at that?" Zackary pants. "It's still day. That's perfect!"

"Perfect for ya to get to work." A man in a suit appears on the top of the tree. I don't know how he got there, but he gives off bad vibes. Maybe because I was going to say something. "Null, lift our pal up."

Another person appears directly in front of me. They don't seem to be a person actually, they're more like some sort of tall, humanoid robot that would be completely dark blue if it weren't for a gray triangle at the top of it's head. The thing grabs Zackary's hand and forces him to stand up.

"Wha-" Zackary confirms to me that he doesn't know what's going on either. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Name's Nunya," The man pulled a card out of his pocket and showed it to Zackary before showing it to me. It has a picture of him in it with the words "NUNYA BUSINESS: CEO of The Business Group". He puts his card away and starts shaking Zackary's hand rapidly. "Lovely day to meet ya, but you're gonna be talkin' with Null ova' there." He points at the robot, who stands motionless.

"Wait," I try to understand why this Nunya guy is even relevant. "Why are you guy even-"

"Mia!" Nunya pushes Zackary out of the way. "I've been lookin for ya!"

"Wait a minute." I start to put everything together. "I'm supposed to kill you, aren't I? That card is like a… name tag?"

"I see…" Nunya stares into my eyes before turning towards Null. "I'm not one ta judge, but maybe Nean shoulda considered choosin' a less retarded people for da next round." He chuckles to himself before looking back at me.

"You could've just said no." I try to keep my composure.

"I suppose e' coulda." Nunya shrugs. "But dats beside da point! I wanna talk to ya cause of a lil' grievance ya been havin'."

"What are you-" I try to have a two way conversation with this narcissist before he cuts me off.

"I have places to be, kid!" Nunya nubs his nose. "So I'll tell ya what, I've got yaself a new name tag that yous can understand. DATS ROIGHT, we heard ya complaints. You don't speak any goddamn German, dats understandable. I can't speak a single lick of German either. So ya new stage name is Dependant."

"Do I get a say in the name?" I attempt to talk, knowing that Nunya will just ignore me. "Dependant doesn't seem-"

"NOPE!" Nunya slaps what I assume is a name tag on my back. "That's all for now! Don't disappoint."

Before I could react, Nunya was gone without a trace. The whole situation was confusing and slightly anger inducing, so I hope never to see that man again.

The robot appears to still be here. They are conversing with Zackary… I think I'm gonna listen to what they are saying.

"As much as I'm being told this is a gift for you," Null stares at an object that looks like a sci-fi teleportation mat. "You know why he gave you this. Your attempt to skip out is annoying for Neon. If you are so confident in your abilities to do things quickly, then you should help the others come up here as well."

"That's a lot of vague wording." I allow myself into the talk.

"I don't know what this dude is talking about, to be honest." Zackary shrugs towards me.

"Don't lie to me, Clown." Null puts their hand on Zackary's head. "You aren't part of the main group, we can afford to lose you right now."

"Very interesting." Zackary scratches his chin. "But I won't kill anyone."

"You don't have to." Null removes their hand from Zackary. "But I'm sure you wouldn't like to go out late again?"

"I'm saying that I'm willing to go down there by myself." Zackary gets more serious. "I'm not going to have climbed up here for nothing. Don't drag her into this."

"Whatever is happening." I object. "I'm willing to go with him. Teamwork makes the dreamwork."

"I rather you not." Zackary looks at me with a negative expression (give me a break, I can't really read faces). "Your position can get both of us out of here. Although, the real question is, are you willing to take the life of another human being?"

"Yeah, you can go on your own." I made up my mind. Also, Zackary is a fucking MURDERER?! I'm sorry? Would he like to say that AGAIN?

"Great." Null looks away. "You should know what to do here. Go ahead and bring us some action."

"Of course." Zackary nods before turning towards me. "Team, you're okay with me calling you that, right?"

"As long as you don't call me Dependent." I answer.

Zackary nods again. He seems stressed. "You stay up here. As long as you're on the top of this mountain, you should be fine." He takes out a spear from seemingly nowhere. "I'm off to confront some other people in your position. If I'm not back by night, assume I'm dead."

"Okay." I try to think of something interesting to say. I can't.

"Already." Zackary gives me a thumbs up before stepping on the mat and teleporting away somewhere.

"As for you." Null turns their head towards me. "Check your pockets."

Null looks like they can terminate me in a matter of seconds, so I comply and reach into my pocket. I feel a cold metal object that is definitely not pocket sized. Once the object emerges from my pocket, I can clearly see that it is a metal pole.

"Mmmmm." I admire the big metal stick. "This is supposed to be… a weapon? Because I personally couldn't hurt a fly… with this."

"You, realistically, shouldn't be able to hold that pole with one hand." Null comments on the fact that- wait. I am holding this metal pole with one hand. Neat. "That is because of reasons I cannot explain here. But, I must give you something to complete your weapon."

Null pulls out a scythe head and tosses it to me, expecting me to catch this flying blade. And surprisingly, I do catch it. … I don't know what to think.

"That should be good enough." Null turns away from me. "No more aid will be provided here. I wish you a neutral bye."

Null starts to fade into nothingness. I'm still confused, but at least I have a harvesting tool made out of metal now… I don't think that that is a very good idea. If a storm rolls by, I'd have to abandon this… large sickle.

And another thing, I am now alone on the top of a mountain. That doesn't seem like a very good thing. I was told to wait up here for something, but I'm bored. You can't just give me a tool and leave me alone with nothing to do. I've gotta do something!

I walk towards the tree and stare at it. It's unmoving, quiet, and inactive (inactive and unmoving are the same thing, idiot). I don't like it. It's very unproductive and uncooperative. I'm sure it'll just leech off of any other tree's life… work. That's the difference between me and a tree. Trees are idiotic and insufferable, while I am cooperative when I need to be.

Although trees do give us oxygen and stuff, we have to deal with them for this reason. I'm sure we'll find a way to make trees better in the future. I'm not scientifically informed enough to know, however.

I'm bored. More importantly, I feel unproductive. What can I do up here? Look at rocks? Look at TREES?! "Wow, this bark is really interesting-" it's not. I've been transported into a strange world with teleporting robots and unrealistic super strength. Who knows what else is here! And I'm FUCKING just sitting here on a fucking mountain, doing nothing.

I try to take out my phone to- it's not there. It's not fucking there. I only wanted to blind myself with the fucking built in flashlight.

"I heard you're bored." I hear a new voice say from right behind me. I turn around to a man dressed up as a Biker. The type you would see in the movies.

"Who… are you?" I get (admittedly) frightened by this man appearing from nowhere. "Are you- were you with Nunya?"

"Nunya's with me." The biker explained. "The wording is very important, as you know." The biker stared off into the distance for a couple of seconds before looking back at me. "I would love to talk with you, but some shit's about to go down. Have fun!"

"What do you mean by-" I attempted to get a clearer statement from the biker before noticing that he was no longer there. I'm just… all this unnecessary stuff is making me tired. I want to sleep, but I slept for a long time before this… did I? Was I asleep? I feel like my brain isn't working right now. I might just need to rest without sleeping.

I look at the unproductive tree and reconsider what I was thinking about it. The tree is more like an office worker, I guess. They do a lot without looking like they do anything. I don't know, I'm mentally exhausted and I've never worked in an office environment. Either way, I think a great way to start my little break from thinking is to sit with my back against the tree and stare into the distance.

...

While I enjoy myself for… once in a good while, I hear something happen that's not too far away. I can't be bothered to see what or who it is, so I'll just keep looking at the view.

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