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This had never happened before.
As far as Jimmy could remember, whatever was happening to him, whatever strange things were going on did not usually happen to red players during these sorts of games. Jimmy knew that these sorts of things didn’t happen to red players. But now he wasn’t so sure. Surely Grian would’ve mentioned at the start of the game that this could happen when you began to run out of time.
Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him? It had been a while since he’d taken time to rest properly, recharge and get up to speed with Grian and Joel at the Bread Bridge. Mind you, there wasn’t exactly time to take things slow during one of these games of life and death.
But this had never happened before.
And Jimmy was beginning to get a bit nervous.
Not that he would admit that though. All he needed was to get a kill or two, gain some time back, spend some time with his Bad Boys and he’d be just fine.
First, he’d have to actually find his way back to Bread Bridge.
Limited Life was another one of Grian’s ingenious games, where all players started with exactly 24 days to live, and dying or being killed lost a player 24 hours of time, while killing a player gained you 12 hours. Everyone in the group was buzzing with excitement as Grian explained the rules at the very start of their game, particularly as the Boogeyman was being reintroduced for this game. As always, Jimmy had been eagerly anticipating this instalment of Grian’s amazing death games, along with his friends.
But Grian hadn’t explained this part.
Jimmy wasn’t the first to become red. He wasn’t even first to become yellow. But time was slipping away from him quickly; he was down to just 3 days left to live. Jimmy glanced at the specially crafted, little clock attached to his belt loop, signifying his remaining time in the game. It ticked steadily, a reminder of the little time he had left, mocking him.
But it provided no answers.
See, Jimmy was used to being red first, being out first. As a red name, it was typical to feel a bit more worn than usual, with the weight of several deaths and chaotic events of whatever death game was currently in session taking its toll. However, this time, Jimmy felt absolutely dreadful, worse than if he had the worst flu imaginable. At first, he thought it might have been that it was because he was dying and respawning more due to the nature of Limited Life, but this was different. Jimmy felt more than unwell. It was as if he was rotting.
His joints felt weak and sore; his fingers were beginning to shake a little, his muscles were aching and weary and were struggling to hold him upright; even breathing and blinking felt like a colossal effort that he just couldn’t exert. Everything hurt. It was too hard to think. He was at a point past exhaustion.
After dying for what felt like the millionth time, Jimmy had woken up, respawned in the middle of some random forest. And so he was currently trying to navigate his way back to Bread Bridge to meet up with Grian and Joel so that they could make their plans for him to kill a yellow player to get some extra time.
[Smallishbeans] jimmy someone must have broken your bed fella
[Smallishbeans] couldnt’ve been me tho
[Smallishbeans] my guess is cleo
[Grian] tim get back here quickly so we can plot some revenge!
Jimmy cracked a small smile at his communicator.
[Solidarity] joel did you break my bed!?
[Smallishbeans] how dare you! i would never do something so stupid
[Smallishbeans] if you dont get back to bread bridge fast then you smell
Jimmy steeled himself for the journey back to Bread Bridge, but in this current state of… aching? exhaustion?? rot??? he didn’t imagine that it would be that quick. But the sun was going to set soon, in about an hour or so, so he had to get back before monsters started appearing.
About half an hour in, Jimmy knew things were not going well. He was only getting more unsteady on his feet and his hairline was damp with sweat, yet he felt a bone deep chill that made his fingers hurt and shake even more. Jimmy was really starting to freak out now. Sure, he wasn’t the best player on the server, but he couldn’t handle a few respawns? This was all part of the game, after all. Why did nobody else seem to have this problem? Skizz and Scar hadn’t complained of this once, and they’d been red for the longest.
Jimmy felt his communicator buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and attempted to read the messages, but no words were jumping out; his eyes were unfocussed and blurry and not a single thing on the screen was legible. What?
Jimmy rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, then tried again. Emphasis on tried. Rubbing his eyes made his vision go black, then turn to shapes and colours for a few moments. This was getting really, really odd. Still, the new chat messages were unreadable to him. Jimmy hoped that they weren’t too important and turned his attention back to returning to Bread Bridge.
As the sun began to slip lower in the sky, casting its warm hues over the world, Jimmy began to slip over the moss on the forest floor, stumbling over his stiff feet and struggling to keep himself together. Monsters were going to begin spawning in the shadows soon, and Jimmy was in no fit state to defend himself. He really didn’t want to die again. It was at this point that his panic truly began to set in. He really didn’t want to die again.
He tried to call out to someone, but Jimmy wasn’t even sure that a single word he said was coherent. His throat was dry and scratchy; his voice was husky from lack of use that day; and his breaths were only becoming more ragged and shallow as time went on. He tried again, to shout for help from someone, anyone.
But his pleas got caught in his airways and he began to cough. Violently.
Each cough felt like a punch to the ribs, and wracked through his entire body. His futile attempts to gasp for air in between his coughs brought him to the forest floor. He coughed for what felt like hours, and taking a breath became a harder challenge each time he tried. When his coughing had finally subsided, darkness was creeping in quickly and Jimmy realised that Grian and Joel would be wondering where he was. The map they were on was not that big, it shouldn’t be taking him this long to find his way back.
Jimmy got up slowly, yet his head spun wildly and his knees protested. His breaths were more like strangled wheezes than anything else. Once he got some sleep and water he’d feel better. So he kept going.
Out of nowhere, Jimmy heard the sound of a skeleton’s bones clicking. It slashed through the fog that had been obscuring his thoughts for the past few hours and a fresh wave of realisation hit him.
He was going to die. And he did not want to die again.
He knew it was the point of these games, but it still hurt. It still found its way into his dreams and left him waking up gasping, fighting against nothing. It was still death.
He was going to die if he did not run.
Jimmy started to run. Fast. Faster than he had run all day. If the pain coursing through his entire body wasn’t reminding him that he was definitely still real and awake, Jimmy might’ve thought this was some weird dream. Maybe it was. Maybe he’d wake up in the Bad Boys’ Bread Bridge Bakery, warmer and safer and with his friends. That thought was shattered by an arrow striking his arm, tearing straight through his clothes and ripping into his flesh.
Jimmy let out a strangled cry of pain, but he didn’t hear it. He was too concentrated on running and getting out of this stupid forest and back to his bed. His lungs began to betray him again, as his breathing became more and more laboured and required more and more of his attention.
In fact, Jimmy became so preoccupied with breathing and not dying that he didn’t even realise that he’d made it out of the forest. He hadn’t realised that Grian and Joel had been out looking for him for the past hour and were shouting his name. He hadn’t realised that so many of the others - even people not in his alliance - had come out to look for him too (or Joel had forced them).
He was so preoccupied, vision so blurry, thoughts so overwhelming, body so overcome with pain that he didn’t see Tango right in front of him-
“Hey, Jimmy! There you are! Everyone’s been looking for you, Grian and Joel- hey, are you okay? Jim-”
and went barrelling straight into his side. Tango managed to jump out the way slightly and remain standing, if a little confused. The same couldn’t be said for Jimmy. He was on the ground, gasping desperately for air, whether because of panic or his coughing fit earlier, or both, it was unclear.
“Jimmy, can you hear me?? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Tango asked frantically, trying to work out what on earth was going on.
But his words fell on deaf ears. Jimmy was still entirely panicking; his eyes were beginning to water. Tango wasn’t sure if it was pain or emotional or something else. He dropped to the ground as well, to try and figure out what was actually going on.
“Jimmy, if you can hear me, you need to try and take slower breaths. You’re breathing way too fast right now and I don’t want you to pass out.” Tango pulled out his communicator and sent a message quickly before diverting his concern back to Jimmy.
[Tango] guys i found jimmy
[Grian] where??
[Grian] is he okay
[Smallishbeans] where are you
[Tango] just outside the forest south east of ties tower
[Tango] seems out of it and his breathing sounds kind of laboured
[Grian] oh no
[Smallishbeans] on our way now
“Hey, Jimmy, come on, you’re safe here, it’s me Tango, your rancher buddy. I need you to try and take slower breaths,” Tango placed his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder to try and reassure him but he flinched away from Tango and tried to pick himself up, but to no avail.
His body was too worn, too run down, too sore to lift itself up any more, Jimmy was at the mercy of the Watchers now. He could feel blood from the arrow he’d sustained earlier dripping down his arm and his chest was growing only tighter, his body growing only weaker and sorer. The sudden feeling of a hand? on his shoulder was too much to bear. Someone’s hand? Something’s hand? Maybe it was a zombie ready to take a bite out of his shoulder. He really didn’t want to die again.
“Please,” he whispered, “don’t kill me. Don’t let me die. I don’t want to die again. Not yet. I’m not ready. I need-” a gasp “-more time. Please.”
Jimmy could’ve sworn he heard Tango’s voice saying something to him, but sounds were too confusing and too indecipherable at the moment. It couldn’t have been him anyway. His mind was playing tricks on him because of the pain. Yeah. That was it.
“-Jimmy?? Can … hear me? You … take deep breaths. …s Tango- my hand … shoulder-”
Wait, what? That was Tango? Something about a shoulder… his did hurt because of that arrow from earlier- That was Tango’s hand on his shoulder? He might not be dying this time. He needed to breathe. Or at least try. That’s what Tango said at least, and in this situation, he trusts anyone but his own judgement. Okay, deep breaths, easy. Jimmy did his best to steady his breathing as much as possible, which proved to be quite difficult. But he was clearly doing something right because he heard Tango’s voice again, “Yeah, good job, just keep breathing like that, stay calm Jimmy, you’re safe, it’s okay.”
After a few more minutes of Jimmy slowly calming down his breathing and Tango affirming him every so often, letting him know that he was safe and keeping him as present as possible, Jimmy could think a little more clearly. “What happened?” Tango asked the moment Jimmy took a more relaxed breath, “you don’t have to say anything if you can’t but I need to know how you’re doing.”
“After I respawned, everything hurt, still hurts. But it’s like, more than normal sore or normal sick. It’s worse times a hundred. Couldn’t find my way back. Didn’t want to die. I don’t want to die again.”
“Well, you’re not going to die now, don’t worry. Do you think all the deaths and respawns in a short time are what’s causing you the pain and stuff?” Tango asked, slightly worriedly.
“Not sure. Everything was so blurry. I’m thinking a bit clearer now. Just kind of freaked out a bit before.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” Tango laughed uneasily, “I think we’ll have to ask Grian about the respawn mechanics. Speaking of Grian, Joel and Grian are on their way here right now.”
“Hmm,” Jimmy hummed in acknowledgment, too tired to add anything else to the conversation.
He tried to move and lie down, but was reminded of the arrow still stuck in his arm. He let out a hiss of pain and his hand instantly went to his injury.
“How did I not notice that!? Jimmy, why didn’t you mention this? The fact there is an arrow sticking out of you is not something we can just overlook,” worry filled Tango’s voice, but before either of them could say anything, two new voices cut through the edge of the forest.
“Tango! Jimmy! Oh- there they are! Grian, they’re over here,” Joel’s voice called out to them.
“What- Tim, we were so worried about you!” Grian and Joel ran over to where Tango was kneeling and Jimmy was lying on the grass, voices overlapping as they tried to work out what was going on.
“I’m still not sure exactly what happened,” Tango told them, “he was running out the forest and I called him over but he just kept running, it was like I wasn’t there, and he looked terrified. He ran straight into me and wasn’t breathing properly, like gasping. His breathing isn’t great but it is better now than it was five minutes ago. He also got an arrow to the arm, from a skeleton I’m guessing. Also,” Tango cast a glance over at Jimmy, “I don’t think Jimmy’s fully here at the moment. He keeps spacing out and was saying stuff about ‘not wanting to die again’ earlier.”
“That’s not great,” Grian agreed, looking over at Joel to see him talking at Jimmy, who was only nodding in response. “We were pretty worried when he didn’t reply to any of our messages.”
“I’m just glad we’ve found him; he’s my rancher, I still worry about him, you know?”
Grian rolled his eyes but smiled fondly. “Thanks, Tango.”