Solar Singularity

Somewhere In the Everfree Forest

You began to stir from your well-deserved sleep, the feeling of your muscles being completely relaxed and not ready to jump at a moment's notice was a foreign but welcome change. Gosh, you don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve slept this well. You must’ve been pretty exhausted to be reduced to such a state of vulnerability. You smiled underneath your ski mask and let out a happy sigh, the pleasant warmth that was spread evenly across your body made it hard for you to even think of opening your eyes. It was as if you were-

A sudden rush of panic and adrenaline hit you as your eyes snapped open, and your vision swam with light from the SUN! You screamed, held your arms in front of your face, and shut your eyes as if it would protect you from what would inevitably happen next. This was it. You were outside. They got you. It was only a matter of waiting for you to melt before they absorbed you into their ever-growing blob of melted flesh and conjoined faces.

Except, nothing happened. You waited and waited for the feeling of your body slowly melting like candle wax to hit you, but nothing happened. Hesitantly, you slowly opened your eyes to see your arms held out in front of you, still covered in their thick outer layer of clothing with three layers of fuzzy, thick gloves covering your hands. Seeing that you were still wearing your protective clothing, you jumped to your feet and began frantically looking around for any sign of them.

To your utter befuddlement, you're surrounded by trees on all sides. A forest? How the hell are you in a forest? You were in a city, there shouldn’t be a forest around for miles! You take in a shaky breath as you back yourself into a tree, its shade providing you with a minuscule sense of comfort.

How are you here? Why are you here? Did they bring you here? For what purpose?

Questions you didn’t have answers to raced through your mind as the growing feeling of panic continued to choke you. Your heart pounded against your chest as your lungs refused to let you take a proper breath. Your body trembled, and sweat escaped your pores in droves, leaving you with your thick clothing sticking uncomfortably to your skin. Your pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and your vision began to blur as tears slipped out of your eyes.

Before you could fall deeper into your crazed panic, you were interrupted by the sound of chirping coming from above you. You flinched, before slowly tilting your head up to see what was making the sound. Up above you, sitting on a branch, were two of the most beautiful birds you have ever seen in your entire life.

One was small with a plump belly, its plumage a vibrant shade of green that reminded you of a pear alongside a short, blunt beak.

The other was taller than the green one. It was sleeker with a yellow plumage and a long beak, like a woodpecker.

You stood transfixed on the two birds as they continued to sing their melody. Just how long has it been since you’ve heard something so beautiful? The tears that were already trailing down your cheeks continued in full force as you stared at the two birds as if they were angels who came down from the heavens to bless your soul with their holy choir. Eventually, the two birds stopped, and they chirped to each other for a moment before spreading their wings and taking flight.

Your breath hitched as you watched the two birds fly, “Wait! Stop! You can’t!”

You leaped at the birds to try and grab them before they could ignorantly fly into the sun’s rays, but it was all for naught.

“NO!” you exclaimed as you saw them fly out from the shade of the tree and into the light of the sun.

You collapsed to your hands and knees and resumed your crying as a torrent of loss and helplessness flooded your senses anew.

Why!?

Hasn’t it taken enough away from you!? Haven’t you suffered enough!? Even now you could still hear them chirping in what sounds like… concern? You didn’t know birds could sound concerned. You felt something peck you on your arm, making you jump back in fear before opening your eyes to see the yellow woodpecker-like bird staring back at you.

“Huh?” you mutter, not believing your eyes.

You slowly reached a hand out to touch the magnificent bird, but it jumped back with a squawk before unfurling its wings and taking flight once more. You followed the bird with your eyes and saw it meet up with the chubby green bird in the air, both birds spared you one final glance before flying away to a location unknown to you.

You lay there dumbfounded by what you had just witnessed. It shouldn’t have been possible for them to step into the sun’s light without melting, and yet, they did it. With newfound curiosity, you slowly got to your feet and walked to the edge of the tree’s shade. Despite wearing multiple layers of clothing, you were still reluctant to step into the light. But you swallowed the lump in your throat and stepped out of the tree's shade. Taking a deep breath, you looked up…

And found yourself staring into a sea of magnificent blue.

You don’t know how long you stood there just… staring. The grin that made your cheeks hurt never seemed to fade as you continued to stare at such perfection. Unfortunately, your bodily needs made themselves known in the form of your stomach gurgling painfully, reminding you that it’s been quite some time since you’ve last eaten.

Stepping back into the safety of the tree's shade, you took off the large rucksack that was hanging from your shoulders and began rummaging through it for any semblance of food. Unsurprisingly, you didn’t have any. So instead, you decided to take stock of the items you had on you.

You had your phone with one of those bulky, solar-powered charging banks you managed to snag during one of your supply runs. Your phone was dead unfortunately, and it also seemed like your charging bank didn’t have any charge at the moment, so it was going to be a while before you were going to use your phone.

With a sigh, you checked for your other items which included a med kit, a pocket knife, a flashlight with a lot of spare double A batteries, a silver flask that was half full with water, an Uno deck, a pair of white earphones, a journal that you both draw and write in, a pack of pencils, some worthless cash and coins you’ve been miscellaneously collecting (you were currently $5,121.68 rich), a Wall-E plush, a Freddy Fazbear plush, and a plush of the pokemon Venipede; finally, you had a gun which had been stuffed under all the other items.

You stared silently at the gun for a moment before taking it out and examining it. It used to be your father’s 1911 which had been passed down from your great-grandfather, but now it was yours.

It was completely useless to you despite having a full magazine of .45 ACP. It’s too noisy for you to use and would only bring attention to you.

Even if you did manage to isolate one of those lumps of flesh, you were pretty sure the bullets would do nothing to harm them. It served no purpose other than sentimental value and… when you ran out of the will to live.

Shaking your head, you made sure the safety was still on before shoving it into the deepest part of your rucksack. No need to dwell on those thoughts right now. Zipping up your rucksack, you put it back on before picking a random direction and wandering into the forest in search of something edible.

You don’t know how long it’s been since you began your aimless lumbering through the unknown forest. It was hard to tell since it didn’t look like the sun had moved at all from its position in the middle of the sky. Its burning rays, combined with the humidity of what must’ve been a recent storm, made wearing your multiple layers of clothes unbearable.

But no matter how powerful the urge to take a layer of clothes off was, you never dared to follow up with it. Despite evidence of a thriving ecosystem around you, you didn’t trust the sun at all. Hell, for all you know the sun suddenly decided to have mercy on wild animals but still turned humans into red blobs.

You looked around, taking in the sights. There were birds chirping on trees, bunnies popping their cute little heads out of burrows they’d dug, and a snake or two slithering across the ground; it was amazing. You don’t think you’ve seen so many animals in one place before.

Not only that, but it seems as if the very color of the world was restored. No longer was there a sickening shade of red coating every surface you see. Instead, there was green grass, brown trees, gray rocks, white clouds, and even these weird-looking but beautiful blue flowers that you would often see.

However, the novelty of the forest quickly started to wear off as your feet began to hurt and your stomach continued to rumble painfully. You occasionally came across many foreign-looking berry bushes, but you never grabbed any for fear of accidentally poisoning yourself. You could try to hunt something down, the keyword being “try” since you had zero experience in hunting whatsoever.

The possibility of starvation rang heavier in your mind with each rumble of your stomach. Was this how it was going to end? Aimlessly wandering this forest until you fall over and die? Would one of them find you? You shudder at the thought.

Passing through a thick brush, your thoughts were halted by the sight of a dirt trail. Looking left and right, you see that the trail extends for an unknown distance. The thick trees and canopy obscured most of what you could see, so you hoped that it didn’t take a while to find any kind of abandoned piece of civilization.

Now, the real problem came with having a 50/50 chance of picking the correct direction to go in. However, in a situation like this, there is only ever one real answer. You chose to go right. Why? Because right is always right.

“Man, I’m a genius.”

Yeah, you sure hoped you were.

It took another hour of painfully slow walking before you finally exited the forest. Your legs were aching, and your stomach was in the process of eating itself out. But, at least you had one less problem to worry about.

In the distance, you could see what looked to be a rural village. You grin under your mask but you don’t get your hopes up just yet. All because you found a village doesn’t mean you’ll find anything edible.

Approaching the village, you begin to see a variety of different colors and shades moving about. You brush the strange colors off, assuming them to be some kind of hunger-induced hallucination. You take note that some of the buildings have suffered some form of damage. One of the larger ones even had its thatch(???) roof collapse.

Speaking of thatch, this entire place looks like it got ripped out of the Middle Ages. Just how separated from the rest of society was this place to remain the way it is now? There were no paved roads, no abandoned cars, no power lines, and no street lights to name a few things.

But, despite the strange setting, it wasn’t what weirded you out the most.

No, the thing that threw your food-deprived head for a loop was the large number of small, multicolor horses staring at you with their eyes wide and mouths agape.

You stared back with the same expression (not that they could see it), and you all stood frozen in place while waiting for someone to do something.

The longer you stood there, the more awkward and vulnerable you felt. So you did something you thought a nice and sensible person would do in this situation. You slowly raised a hand and waved at the small horses.

“H-Hello?”

A beat passed by.

Then they all screamed.