I'm driving along some mountain road, on my way to who knows where, when I come across an old mining town. I decide to stop for the night. Once there, everyone's looking at me funny. After some conversations, I learn that I can't leave until AFTER the UFIs come. If I wanted to leave early, I had to challenge Big Man in something called the Main Street Contest. In an attempt to try and avoid this 'contest', I tried to find out what the UFIs were, but nobody would talk. A bit paranoid, I return to my crappy hotel room. In the lobby, who do I find other than Heather. Apparently, she's been stuck there for some time, unable to leave. She did tell me, however, that in her time there she learned what the UFIs were. This small town was on a lake, and supposedly, in this lake, was a species of bottom-feeders affectionately named UFIs. UFI stood for something, but that even Heather didn't know. They spend all year down there, eating the flesh of the dead, but once a year, they come to the surface in search of something fresh. Not wanting to die at the hands of some freakish bottom feeder, I decided to challenge Big Man in the Main Street Contest. Heather told me she's seen it a couple times, and that Big Man was indeed the local giant, a man of extraordinary size the people simply called "Big Man". I walked into the more popular bar in town, and announced loudly, "I challenge Big Man!" People were stunned, but then instantly burst into a wail fo cheers and applause. Within minutes, I find myself dragged onto main street. Main Street was just a dirt road that went stright through town. Down the center of Main Street was a stripe of dark soil, just barely wide enough for a man to stand with his further apart than his shoulders. Quite simply, I have to charge from my end of the soil, and Big Man has to charge from the other end. We collide in the middle, and whomever dies, dies. Whomever leaves the dirt, well, takes his chances with the UFIs. But if I won, I could leave at will, PLUS decide the fate of Big Man. Standing at my end, Heather stands by my side, quickly telling me everything she's ever seen or heard about this contest in her time here. Telling me everything she can before I die. She told me that everyone that's ever challenged Big Man has died, for they neveer charged him - simply cowered in fear. I took off my shirt, thinking that for whatever reason, it might help me run faster. A bizzarre horn sounded, and Big Man charged. Scared, stunned, my body just reacted and I stampeded as best I could at Big Man. We got closer to eachother very quickly, and then Big Man lowered his head as if to ram me. He actually managed to get so low, that when collision was immenent, I jumped over him. Since I expected to jump over him, when I landed, I was able to quickly regain my barings, turn around, and charged again. Big Man was a bit more stunned at the fact that what he planned on hitting wasn't there, and when he finally turned around to see where I was, I was already charging at top speed about two feet away from him. I hit, I knocked him down on his back, and rolled him onto his stomach, off the dark soil. People couldn't believe I won. But I didn't care. I won, and I ran back to my hotel to get my things. People wouldn't let me leave until I decided what to do with an unconscious Big Man. Kill him or let the UFIs decide. I chose UFIs, and ran back to my room to get my things. While in my room, frantically getting my things toghether, Heather was in my doorway. She was telling me that nobody has ever left before, and that nobody ever will. I told her that I won and that I was leaving. She refused. Instead, she closed my door, and I heard it lock from the outside. Just then, my room began to flood, and flood quickly. I used the water level to get me up to a small window near the ceiling, which I kicked out. I left, and fell pretty far into tree branches and bushes. Banged and bruised, I made it to my car which was, surprisingly, right where I left it, and took off. As I was leaving, I looked back and saw that the water in the lake had begun to boil. That's it, and that's all. Benjamin kicked Big Man's ass, and escaped the buffet from which the UFIs were about to dine. The end. |
