Chapter 25: A Ruined Life
Simon’s first thought was to panic, but his second thought was to do it quietly. He didn’t know what his situation was, or how much worse it would be if he screamed, so instead he flexed and shifted to gauge the strength of his bonds and looked around.
Nothing he found made the situation any better. Not only was he tied up so tightly that it was hard to breathe, but he seemed to be being dragged slowly in the direction of his feet. He also couldn’t see who had done this to him, but with the tropical theme he was thinking it had to be lizard men.
He was starting to give up hope, when he remembered the dagger. He’d held onto it while he slept, and even now it was clutched against his chest.
Working it free without stabbing himself was another problem, but at least it was a problem he could try to solve. It took almost two minutes to get the blade exposed, and even when he started sawing, he wasn’t able to apply much leverage.
His only hope was that he would at least be able to cut through the thing without anyone noticing, and for half a minute he made some progress, cutting first through one vine as thick as his thumb, and then another. Those cuts had made all the difference in the world, and he actually had enough room to work now. He was sure he’d cut himself free in another half a minute.
Then he heard something roar. It was a strange wheezing thing that sounded like a particularly ill Tyrannosaurus Rex. Simon drew a complete blank as to what could possibly make a noise like that, in or out of a video game, but one thing was for sure. He’d been noticed. At that point he gave up all pretense at trying to be subtle and started cutting as fast as he could.
His hand shook with adrenalin as he worked his way through one vine, and then another, and another. It confused him that nothing had come to stomp him or skewer him yet, but he wasn’t about to let that gift go to waste. The only thing that had happened is that they had started dragging him slightly faster. He had no idea what that meant.
Perhaps they were Lilliputians, or pygmies, and they only stood a chance against him as long as he remained bound. He smiled at that thought. Did that mean that he was in a desperate race to get free before they could drag him off a cliff or sacrifice him to their volcano god, he wondered, as he cut the last few vines off of him and was able to crawl free.
What he saw terrified him.