Monolith World 13 First Encounter

Once again, my grandiose plan to ignore everything fell backwards and cracked its head open. As I approached the final street to exit the neighborhood, I witnessed a complete s.h.i.+ft in scenery.

*And I thought the neighbors' yards were a little overgrown...*

Unfortunately, I had no doubt remaining that I was in a new world. On Earth, the small street which exited the neighborhood should have lead to a larger street funneled in from multiple smaller streets, all from which lead from neighborhoods like mine. A typical suburb, in other words.

However, there was nothing but an open field as far as the eye could see. I must say, though. This field looked better than most I've seen. Most wild fields tended to be brown or a light tan. However, this one was nearly dark green. Although it was only gra.s.s, thus relatively monochrome, it was still pleasing to look at.

*Well, now that this world really isn't the same one that I know, looks like I won't be reaching the school any time soon.*

I heaved a sigh and turned around.

*So... what should I do now?*

I looked up at the sky. Only to notice something strange.

*What?*

This was odd. The sun was already well past the halfway point in the sky. In fact, it might even be setting soon. I had a good sense of time, but I didn't even need one to know there was absolutely no way that even an hour had pa.s.sed yet.

*I may have lost track of time, but this is impossible. What's going on?*

I once again pulled the smartphone out of my shorts' pocket and looked at the time. 07:41.

I didn't know exactly what time I left the house, but it should've only been 15 minutes ago at most.

Which meant that the clock on my phone, and most likely the one on my computer as well, didn't show the correct time.

*What a pain. So circadian rhythm is the only useful clock here.*

I put the phone back in my pocket and sighed again due to the lack of useful information available. Maybe my headache was brewing again, too.

*What should I do now?*

Obviously, going to school was out of the question. The neighborhood was my only familiar territory. And even then, it looked very different from the one I used to live in. Anything outside was virtually unknown. 'Unknown' means possible danger.

*Although that green field doesn't look particularly dangerous... I don't feel like going over there right now.*

So the only other option was to turn around and head back home. I didn't see any people or animals throughout any of this, by the way. The area was still completely desolate. That was until I sensed very quick and quiet steps headed towards me. After not hearing or seeing any living creature for over thirty minutes in a place where there should have been, there was no way sudden movement like this wouldn't spook me.

I jumped at first, then turned around as quickly as I could. Only to notice a singular rabbit das.h.i.+ng towards me.

*It's been a while since I've seen anything move, so even a rabbit was able to scare me? Pathetic.*

I was ashamed to show signs of fear in the vicinity of a single rabbit. At least I was able to tell it was coming. But it was odd. What was it doing here? If it was running that fast, it had probably seen a predator. This is what I told myself for the brief moment before I noticed it was running straight towards me. Despite this, I chose to turn back around and ignore it. This was a mistake.

The footsteps of the das.h.i.+ng rabbit got closer and closer until they disappeared completely. Obviously, I had to turn around and see why it had stopped. But it hadn't. It was going the same speed it was earlier. It had jumped and was closing in quickly. But before I could make a significant reaction, the rabbit had already bit my left s.h.i.+n.

"Ow! What the f.u.c.k?"

This was beyond common sense. Rabbits don't eat people! Why do I even need to mention this fact? I tried to shake it off with my leg, but the d.a.m.n thing wouldn't let go. Its teeth were firmly planted under my skin. Blood had already began oozing out the moment it touched me.

"Let go you piece of s.h.i.+t!"

I was already in a poor mood before this, and my mental state was unstable as well. This incident did not help at all.

With the little sanity I had remaining, I tore the rabbit off my leg with my hands, making sure to not make the wound any bigger than it already was. I grabbed its jaws with both of my hands and started prying them apart. As soon as its teeth retracted, blood burst forth from my wound like a hole at the bottom of a water tank. There was only one thing I needed to do in that moment, but I hesitated. The rabbit was still squirming in my grasp, attempting to clamp its mouth shut.

*I have to kill this thing.*

I had never killed anything before. But this was self defense! I had to do it, otherwise this rabbit, no, this *thing* would probably try to kill me. This was ridiculous. I could hear others mocking me already.

"You killed a rabbit in self defense? Who would believe that?"

*n.o.body! Not even myself!*

But others didn't matter now. I was already kind of a weirdo, so it should be okay to keep heading down that path, right? Not to mention there's literally no one here...

Seeing a rabbit acting like a predator trying to break free from my grasp was so unnatural that it was a bit easier than normal to gather my resolve.

I killed it in the dumbest way possible.

I threw it up in the air. The rabbit really wasn't used to the sensation, as it continued to flail around even though it was in free fall. After two seconds, it began its plummet towards the earth. But I wasn't done yet. I had to confirm its death. As soon as it was about to reach the ground, I kicked it away as hard as my wounded leg would allow me. Pain coursed through my left side for a moment, and I heard a satisfying(?) high-pitched crunch, similar to the sound of crinkling plastic. It soared over the roof of a house, doing cartwheels all the way.

I let out a sigh of relief. After briefly checking my wound, I confirmed the crunch had been the breaking of bones in the rabbit, not me. I would seriously die of shame if I broke my leg kicking a rabbit.

After confirming my safety, the sensation of pain returned to my consciousness. I looked down towards the wound again. Unsurprisingly, I was still bleeding.

*Looks like I'm gonna have to stop this somehow...*

I took off my hooded sweater and tossed it on the ground, along with my backpack. Then I took off my short sleeved t-s.h.i.+rt. Since the weather was warm, being s.h.i.+rtless wasn't uncomfortable in the least. The sun wasn't intense enough for me to eat sunburn, either. This was the least of my problems. I wrapped the s.h.i.+rt around the wound and tied a secure knot.

*This will have to do for now, I hope I don't get rabies.*

I was bitten by a hostile mammal which happened to be a herbivore. Of course I was paranoid about catching some G.o.dforsaken disease. After making sure I wasn't bleeding too much, I stuffed the sweater in my backpack and began the trek home.

I was walking with a slight limp, but the wound wasn't unmanageable. It would take way more than that to take me out of commission. I was pretty good at taking a beating, although I'm not sure if that's a good talent to have.

After limping along the beaten path for a few minutes, I wondered what that thing seriously was. No rabbit I'd seen on Earth really looked like that. In terms of appearance, sure it was very similar. Similar, not the same. The color of its eyes was dark red. Other than that, it looked relatively ordinary. I guess it was a bit muscular as well. But it wasn't foaming at the mouth or anything, so by my diagnosis it was a healthy rabbit.

*But I'm not a doctor, so...*

All of a sudden, I noticed my stamina was uncharacteristically drained. If I hadn't been paying too much attention to my body's movements, I may have even fainted on the spot.

*I'm tired already?*

Indeed, even though I'd only been walking around outside for a little bit, I was super fatigued. And I'm also sure this wasn't due to blood loss, as I was familiar with the sensation due to donating blood. So why?

*I'm not going to think about these things anymore.*

There were already too many strange occurrences today. Not to mention I wasn't in a shape to think about anything. My goal was simple now. Get home and get to bed. Tomorrow's problems can be dealt with by tomorrow's me. At least tomorrow will always come.