CYOA Wednesday 2025 #20 [Beyond the Woods 20]

This fantasy CYOA story continues today. Synopsis below:

When Derek, Jade, and Clara go camping, they stumble upon a portal to another dimension filled with strange creatures and sexy seductresses.

With Aethera wounded, it’s time for our main trio to try to activate the portal. Now what? You decide.

Read the twentieth segment below:

20 – It’s Now or Never

Derek’s muscles coiled in a lightning-fast reflex. His hand shot toward Jade, fingers stretching desperately. Their eyes locked – hers wild with terror, his burning with determination. But momentum betrayed them both.

Her grip shattered and Jade plummeted into the darkness, screaming a fleeting silhouette against the fractured metallic walls. Gravity seized her, pulling her down with merciless acceleration. Death seemed certain – a swift and impersonal conclusion to her unexpected journey across the galaxy.

Suddenly, an immense shadow moved. The Wanderbeast’s massive form jumped and twisted, its prehistoric reflexes defying physics. One enormous limb swept through the chaotic space. It caught Jade mid-fall, absorbing her momentum with shocking precision.

She landed within his grip, shocked. A low, resonant sound emerged – not quite a growl, not quite a greeting, but something in between the young woman understood even without Aethera’s connection to it.

“Fuck!” Jade muttered, her body trembling from the near-death experience. It had been too close. A few more seconds and her brains would be splattered all over the Undercroft.

The Wanderbeast controlled its descent this time around, carrying her like a protective mechanism had been triggered deep within its genetic programming.

Whatever ancient protocols governed its existence had just deemed her as something to preserve, not destroy.

Clara’s voice echoed from above: “Jade? Are you alive?”

Before anyone could respond, another violent tremor ripped through the environment. The generator’s defensive systems were in overdrive and their chances of survival dwindled with every passing second.

Meanwhile, Aethera lay on the ground, her molecule structure scattered, her adaptive form struggling. The energy weapon’s precision strike had caused more damage than it appeared at first glance, and her shapeshifting abilities were impaired.

Pain. An unfamiliar sensation coursed through her fractured consciousness. Normally, pain was just a brief nuisance – an anomalous signal to be analyzed and responded to. Now it was visceral, consuming. Her molecules fought to realign, to reconstruct, but each attempt resulted in partial failure.

A thin stream of iridescent fluid similar to blood leaked from the open wound. Without being able to transform instantaneously, she couldn’t trigger any regenerative processes either. The situation was dire for her.

The chamber’s ambient electromagnetic field fluctuated and gravity returned to normal parameters. She tried to stand up but her strength was waning. Still, she had managed to compromise the generator’s basic functions, giving the humans a chance to interact with it. She only hoped they could eek out a win before she lost consciousness.

High above her, the tunnel Clara and Jade were in began to shake, hairline fractures spreading like spider webs across the surface. Derek’s survival instincts kicked in. He grabbed Clara’s arm, pulling her close as chinks of the infrastructure began raining down on them.

“We need to move,” he muttered, scanning for potential routes downward. Each section of the tunnel looked increasingly unstable, with support struts bending and twisting under invisible pressures.

Clara’s hand traced along the wall, feeling the microscopic vibrations. “Yes, this looks like it can collapse at any moment.”

They moved as fast as they could, Derek leading with his muscular frame to absorb potential impacts and Clara using her lighter build to slip through narrowing passages. Sections of the tunnel groaned between their feet, the treacherous terrain becoming more and more dangerous.

A massive section of the ceiling suddenly buckled, forcing them to duck and roll. Derek’s shoulder slammed into Clara, pushing her out of the way of a massive rock that crashed where she’d been standing moments before.

“Thank you,” she gasped.

“Thank me later,” he urged. “Run!”

The tunnel’s structural integrity collapsed without warning. One moment they were running, the next the floor simply disintegrated beneath their feet. Derek grabbed Clara’s hand reflexively as they plummeted through a jagged opening, tumbling down a secondary shaft that spiraled at a steep angle.

Rock and metal fragments whirled around them like deadly confetti. Clara caught glimpses of exposed conduits and fractured support beams as they dropped, her body instinctively twisting to minimize impact. Derek remained tense, preparing for the worst.

They crashed into a narrow secondary passage that branched tangentially from the main generator chamber. Twisted pipes and exposed circuitry lined the walls, creating a labyrinthine network of energy.

Derek recovered first, pulling Clara upright. “You okay?”

“A little bruised but I can handle it,” she replied. “We’re closer to the ground, at least. Let’s continue.”

A faint metallic echo guided them forward. The new passageway twisted and narrowed, forcing them to move single file.

Suddenly, a sliver of light pierced the path ahead. Derek pushed forward, breaking through a rusted maintenance panel. A bright glow flooded their vision, momentarily blinding them.

They found themselves back in the main chamber. Jade stood nearby, the Wanderbeast’s massive form casting a protective shadow around her.

“There you are,” she called out, relieved.

The Wanderbeast rumbled, a sound that seemed to vibrate through the ground itself. Its massive head turned, acknowledging their emergence while simultaneously scanning the surrounding terrain for potential threats.

Derek helped Clara down from the opening. “Where’s Aethera?” he asked.

“Over there. She seems wounded,” Jade replied.

“We need to help her!” Clara exclaimed.

“Yes, we do,” Derek cracked her knuckles as he looked at the generator. “Is it me or is that thing malfunctioning now?”

“It appears that way. This could be our chance to trigger the portal too,” Jade intervened.

“Except none of us know how to do that.”

“Still, we need to try.”

“What do you want to do then?”

“There’s three of us, so let’s split up and give that thing a run for its money. One serves as decoy, the other goes to get Aethera out of harm’s way and the last person tries to interact with the generator.”

“That’s risky as fuck, Jade!” Derek concluded.

“I know it is, but do you have a better idea?”

No, he didn’t, and it was worth trying. Getting the portal online was their only chance to return home and they had come so far already. With Aethera possibly on death’s door, it really was now or never. They would never survive in that hostile world without her help.

“I’m with Jade,” Clara nodded. “Yes, it’s a risky plan, but we’ve got no other choice.”

“Okay,” Derek said.

It was their last stand. Either they would make it or die trying.

To decide what happens next, head over to my Patreon (you can join for free), and vote on the poll there until next Sunday. 

If you’re new to these CYOA stories, here are the basic rules:

1) You can only choose one option;

2) If there’s a tie at the end of the poll, and the competing options can be combined somehow, I’ll do that. If not, I get the deciding vote to keep the tale going.

3) The process continues every Wednesday until the story runs its natural course.

Have fun.