My Predator System

Browsing through my system

[You've got to be kidding me] He could feel precisely where the bird was stepping on. He burrowed deeper until his mouth was full.

Gulp* He swallowed and laid there in the wet grounds rubbing some on himself for hydration. [Survive puh!]

He scoffed then panicked at the thumps on the earth, chips of soil fell on his head.

He shrieked at the large eye poking through the hole. Then he shrunk when the bird started scraping the burrow wide open. It clamped its beak inside screeching.

It nearly clipped off his head, he slugged on the other side away from it.

[ Ahhh! ]

[What do I do, what do I do?] He tunneled into the soil and groaned when he hit rock and turned back.

The digging grew intense and there was sand spraying everywhere.

[Do you really have to eat me?!]

It was getting closer and clipping its beak.

The swallow shrieked flapping back when he popped up.

He inched away. It was a good thing he could breathe out of his skin because crawling was too much work.

He looked back. The swallow was still recovering. It hopped tilting its head shaking it violently. Then it hopped over and he wormed away faster.

It flew after him and he touched on the grass, it missed, but he was too lenient to even hide on a tree bark until then.

Consequently, it turned back and Maks realized that he was going to be gobbled up and regurgitated back to feed other birds.

He slithered under a blade of grass with dew and hid under the shroud, then darkness came over him, it appeared to be the bird's shadow. He relaxed when it hopped across the field.

It returned to pecking again.

[Give me a reason to poke you in the eye again, squirt!]

Victor ran to the spot near the tree where Maks had been laid.

"Maks? Maks!" He crawled around and found a worm on the bird's mouth.

"No no no no." He leaped with his whole body to the bird and missed by a hair's breadth.

"Oh god! Come back!"

He held up his hand and the swallow looked at him curiously from the tree and flew off. Then he dropped head in shock.

Irma stopped by with the horse named Star and she puffed while Irma climbed down.

"Hey."

"I killed it." He whispered and she knelt and grimaced at the mud on his hand. Wiping his hand with the napkin.

"It's okay, Victor...the world will forgive you for that." She quirked an eyebrow.

Given the circumstances, Victor was acting like a real oddball but then she looked shocked when he broke down.

"Victor_"

"Hey, over here, doofus." Maks stood akimbo leaning on the tree doing his best pokerface and Irma smiled.

Victor snuffed at him and his jaw unclamped. He wiped his eyes. "I knew that. I'll get another...test subject."

Her eyes rounded patting his shoulder. "Okay?"

***

[ 20 hours to go]

Maks was getting used to being a worm_literally.

His little worm eyes blinked as Victor paced about in his home. Resting inside a small house plant. He overlooked the fine carpet and black upholstery chairs. Indifferently he watched the timer on the system tick and sighed.

He was beginning to appreciate being a worm more often which was much he could say for being human.

Life was too hard and the place was too big to be taking a 360 degree look at everything.

Maks had nothing to do but think to himself, he needed to escape reality for a while.

He crawled over the wet soil of Victor's miniature garden plant to Victor while he sat on the floor.

He tilted his head [What is he doing?]

Victor's phone rang and he withered closing his eyes tightly trying to meditate, the airflow around him increased and Maks' eyes sparkled.

[Whoa] He shrunk at the lights and hid behind a leaf.

The phone was ringing intensely and he grabbed it. "Ni hao?" He looked frightened.

"He won't be available right now, he's studying...yes."

[I am?] Maks thought then crouched,

[Oh my god, I completely forgot!]

He squirted coelomic fluid in response to the stress and curled up, irritated at himself.

[ Okay, maybe I'm not used to it yet. ]

His head pulsed when Victor called her name.

"I'm sorry Mrs Doreen." Victor turned to the plant "He won't be coming back anytime soon. Ah yes."

Maks had morning shifts before school at a fine restaurant and he just missed a day.

He needed to rest from all the stress.

"I got a buzz from his supervisor at work, it's been over twenty-four hours." She sounded overwrought and rubbed her neck. "I'm starting to get a little worried."

Jessica pulled at her shirt to hear him speak on the phone.

"He'll be back," Victor said dead calm.

...

For half the time, Victor was studying and activating his system, he growled. "I need a new vision!" He said and he read the options that appeared.

Each panel had a different kind of fruit and he spent well over 360 points trying to get further insight.

He spotted a carrot worth +450 points to see into the next week and glanced at his scoreboard +550 points which brought him down to +50.

"Next week's Tech magazine bill renewal? Useless!" He slammed down on the floor like a chimp and Maks snickered.

He switched for anything cheaper and negotiable then went back to the carrot begrudged.

"Will this be enough?"

[Oh oh]

He picked the fruit and it materialized flickering.

Ding* You have successfully obtained a voyant booster.

He grabbed it and consumed it. The energy from him was glowing yellow, the light spiralled before his eyes and he saw Kirsta Lee stepping into his room.

"Have you seen my azaleas?" She asks.

His dad slapped him on the cheek and he winced.

"Really dad?"

Everything else flashed by but nothing about Maks, it was like his fortune was undecided.

The part about his dad, Marshall baffled him, he was already injured at that point too which meant he did more harm beforehand.

"Oh no."

He wiped his eyes, frightened, falling back on his knees, what will he do to get battered up like that?

[Everything's so darn hard to look at. ] Maks thought-feeling indifferent about life, than his usual self.

I love being a worm!

He wanted to laugh. Did worms laugh?

+15 points

[Yeah, I know] He meant dryly.

***

His eyes were on the hologram, the whole time like a mobile device. Hee checked his score panel.

+2085 points.

The system looked like an online superstore, he wondered what he could purchase here, he watched the blue panel scroll down, some animals on the top of the food chain were harder to get.

He would have to work harder.

[What a rip-off man. ] He checked the next critter that had a more than decent price and groaned.

[Wait] It only showed the profile of the animal with a lock icon.

[What language is this?]