As if he shifted places in a dream, Clyde found himself in a dark, small room. His surroundings looked unfamiliar. He gazed up and saw strange markings in the sky.
1 leveL
What is that?He thought. He surveyed the room, which had only one small door. Others stood with him. Their complexions appeared different from his orange tone; one blue and one pink. They looked just as confused as Clyde. The pink one nearest him spoke first.
“You must be new. Hi, I’m Pinky. What’s your name?” Clyde hesitated to answer at first. Something about the strange place made him feel uncomfortable.
“I’m…I’m Clyde. Do you know where we are?”
“We’re about to start the mission. Special Ops stuff. You’ll get the hang of it. Just stick with Inky over here. He’ll show you the ropes.” Pinky gestured to the blue fellow behind him. Inky seemed too nervous to speak and averted his eyes when Clyde looked at him.
The main door opened and another person, this one colored red, entered the small room. He looked angry and hardened from something that Clyde did not know. He had never seen anyone look so mean.
“I see you’ve all met the new recruit, Clyde. Welcome Private! I’m Blinky your Commanding Officer. You’ve met Pinky, my Lieutenant, and Inky, my Sergeant and your trainer for today. We’re starting light for this exercise for the new guy’s sake. Just remember one thing Clyde. KILL THE YELLOW BASTARD!”
Blinky opened the door and ran off. The others followed and Clyde waited a moment. Who or what is the Yellow Bastard? He walked out slowly. He did not see anyone but he could hear Blinky shouting.
“THERE HE IS! CHARGE!”
Clyde could only see a corridor. He turned to the right. There were several yellow pellets floating in the air at Clyde’s eye level. What are these puck things? Every turn Clyde made only brought him more questions than answers. He saw a large cherry float by and decided to go back to the room he came from. I don’t want to know what’s going on, this shit is too weird for me.
At that moment, he turned blue and started racing back towards the room. He could not understand why he changed or why he moved so fast. He began to enter the room when he saw a pair of eyes coming around the corner. They blinked and darted into the room. Clyde followed. Once in the room, the eyes grew a body around them. Inky, breathing fast and heavy. Clyde’s body flashed white and blue than went back to his orange color.
“What the hell is going on?” Clyde asked getting very agitated.
“There’s a giant yellow creature that eats the yellow pellets. If he eats the big ones than he can eat us too but only for a short time. We have to kill him before he can eat us.” Inky said still catching his breath.
“How are we supposed to do that?” Clyde seemed more confused now.
“Just follow me.”
Inky led Clyde out into the corridor again. There were heading to the left when Clyde saw the Yellow Bastard running down the other corridor. A giant ball with a huge mouth, sharp teeth protruding with slime and spit dripping off them and tiny, beady black eyes. Blinky was right behind the monster shouting.
“PINKY!? FLANK HIM AT THE RIGHT!”
Shortly after, Clyde rounded the corner and saw where Pinky had hit the monster and it looked like the Yellow Bastard imploded. I’m glad that’s over. Clyde thought.
“Get ready for the next one kid.” Blinky said as they all moved back to the room with one door.
“What next one?” Clyde asked. He looked up in the sky and saw the strange marking again. They looked a little different this time.
2 leveL
“LET’S GO!” Blinky shouted and they all hurried out of the room again. Again, Clyde hesitated. He heard everyone shouting again. He rounded the corner at the end of the corridor. The Yellow Bastard charged towards him. He froze. Shit!
From the short fiction collection “Dollar Tales From the Morbid Museum: Flash Fiction.” Available for free on Kindle on March 22, 2019 only.
James Pack 