(NATHANIEL) “Ohh~ Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh~ I don’t know why I’m no one… So, get away~ Another way to feel what you didn’t want yourself to know And let yourself goooooo…” While walking, I sang softly, my hand held tightly onto a small pack of the famous cuisine called Rat Packs!
Ones that come with a lavish feast of synthpaste, crackers that are as dry as sand, and a canteen of water.
And with these rat packs, the last of our funds was gone.
There was only enough for this, so in the interest of our survival, I was forced to buy them.
This last bit of rations could keep us fed for another two days, and that was stretching it as far as humanly possible.
Sighing heavily, I cleared my dry throat and continued to sing.
“You know you didn’t lose your self-control~ Let’s start at the rainbow~ Turn away~ Another way to be where you didn’t want yourself to go~ And let yourself go~ Is that a comp…
compromise, right?” I stopped for a moment and tried to recall the rest of the song.
Thinking for a few moments, I decided to simply stop singing and continued to make my way to our ‘home’.
On my little journey, I did see a couple of people that were either sleeping or dead, and well, what surprised me was that I didn’t even bat an eye.
Sure, death was a normal thing in the outskirts…
hell, the entire world, but still.
They were humans that still had their own lives.
Then again, I said it myself a little while ago ‘I don’t care about people I don’t know’.
That, in a way, was a bit of a defense mechanism, but it was getting the job done.
“Hmmmm…
I still got like two minutes till I get back home.” I looked at the terrible and putrid sky, breathing in the horrible air.
‘Ohhh…’ Clearing my throat, I sang a more familiar song.
“Love me!
Love me!
Hate me!
Hate me!
Love me!
Love me!
Kill me!
Kill me!…
OWWWW!” Pumping myself up, I continued to sing and, in turn, continued to get a couple of strange looks, some that seemed more hostile than others as well, so I hastened my walk a little.
When I made it to our little camp, I smiled in relief to see that it wasn’t completely destroyed…
well, at least not yet.
Sammy was standing guard outside, looking at the fire in the large bin with tired eyes.
As he heard my footsteps, he grasped the pipe that was leaning on the bin, and once he saw me he sighed and loosened up a bit.
Smiling slightly, I cooed in a teasing voice.
“What a good little guard dog.” He frowned instantly and grabbed the pipe again.
“Want a prostate exam with this rusty pipe?” He wagged the pipe threateningly towards me and I simply backed away and went a little around him.
“Relax, just kiddin’.” I placed the frail bag containing the rations down and looked around.
“Where are the others?” Sammy looked at the bag with a mix of dark anticipation and primal hunger but shook his head violently.
“Steven and Amy were feeling tired, so they went to sleep.” Sammy yawned and put the pipe down before returning to warming his hands by the fire.
“Right…
want some?” I took out the tube containing the synthpaste and the bag that held those damn crackers within.
Sammy looked at it with a calculating look and turned to the makeshift house.
“Have you eaten?” I shook my head in response, and to that he sighed heavily.
“They haven’t either…
I’m a lot more well-fed than you three, so I should be fine…
for a bit.
But leave me at least a little synthpaste and a cracker.” Widening my eyes slightly, I looked at him suspiciously.
He frowned and glared at me in annoyance “What?
I’m being generous, aren’t I!” he exclaimed with unhidden frustration.
Taking a step back, I balled my hands into fists, as the same frustration began to dwell within me.
The frustration of everything that was happening to us was clearly reaching its boiling point, and I had inadvertently just added more coals to the fire.
Sammy opened his mouth slightly and put a hand over his face with a terrible sigh.
“Sorry…
I…
sorry…” Shaking my head, I approached him and put a hand over his shoulder.
“All good…
for a moment there, I thought you were replaced by someone else.
Sorry…
that was just mean-spirited.” Sammy smiled faintly and exhaled.
“You never change, huh…
are you gonna wake those two up or leave them sleep?” “Nahhh…
I think you should go take a nap as well.
You’re looking worse for wear…
I’ll wake you after the other two wake up.” Sammy frowned slightly.
His eyelids were slipping, but he still fought against the sleep.
“Alright…
wake me up if anything happens…” Standing up, he went and removed the alloy plate that acted as the door.
Before entering, he looked back at me and smiled devilishly.
“Scream six seven or maybe some other brainrot if anything urgent comes up.” “Just sleep already, dumbass.” He chuckled and went inside.
He returned the door to its previous position and I soon heard the movement of sheets.
Sitting on the makeshift stool, I sighed.
Turning my gaze to the rations, I contemplated it for a moment but decided against it.
Only a bit after I sat down, I felt the exhaustion that was building up slowly swell.
The fire crackled before me and sparks flew out every now and again.
While looking at the fire, my mind wandered to things that could distract me from exhaustion.
‘How can we make money?
It’s been five days and there looks to be no way for us to make money, unless we joined a gang at least…
even then things could only get worse.’ From the boy’s memories, those who joined a gang and were new would be stomped on by the higher-ranking members.
‘And the things they would do to Amy…’ Digging my fingernails into my palms, I let go after a slight pang of pain brought me out of those thoughts.
‘Damn it…
why the hell are we in this sort of situation…
and how the hell do we get out of it…
we can no longer even get out of the outskirts…
maybe it would’ve been better if me and Sammy had stayed in NQSC…
no, don’t think like that, idiot…’ While pondering, I felt a slight chill run down my spine.
Looking back, I gazed at the makeshift house silently…
And while I looked, I listened intently…
There was no snoring whatsoever in there.
Chills ran down my spine as I sprinted out of my chair, and once I took a step, a little too abruptly, I slipped and fell face-first onto the ground.
“Noo…” Digging my fingernails into the dirt, I rushed up and almost fell over again.
Grasping the door with all my might, I feverishly nudged and nudged the alloy door.
‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…’ My mind continued to spiral, and with each bit of movement my head began to ache more and more.
After finally managing to dislodge the door, I hurriedly rushed to Sammy’s unmoving body.
“Hey!
Wake the hell up!” My hands brushed across his shirt as I shook him violently.
Grappling onto his body, I shook his upper half with all my might.
“Come on!
Come ON!
You can’t SLEEP!
Damn IT!” My hands continued to fruitlessly shake him, and with each motion it only confirmed his lack of movement and lack of anything that a normal human would normally show while sleeping.
“…haaaa… haaaaa…” My voice grew weaker as I dug my nails further into his shirt, making it more rugged and torn than before.
“You… you can’t leave me… please… I’m begging you, wake up… PLEASE!” And his body only continued to not listen, laying perfectly still.
Standing upright, I felt my eyes quiver as my lungs beagn to burn.
Looking at the other two, the last bits of hope I had vanished when I saw them also unresponsive.
‘How… how could I have failed to notice this… why didn’t I catch on sooner… Idiot, you blubbering self-indulgent moron… you no-good idiot…’ Falling to the ground with a shrill thud, I looked at them for a moment before putting a hand over my mouth.
‘What now… what in the Spell can I do now… what do I do…’ Panic set over me more and more as I looked at the three of them, each of them now undergoing the First Nightmare.
Hundreds of thoughts continued to fly through my head without ceasing.
‘Should I leave…’ The moment such a thought settled in my mind, I snarled and slapped myself, ‘You selfish cowardly bastard…’ Snarling furiously, I barely managed to keep my mind steady.
After a short bit of focused breathing in and out, I calmed down just slightly.
‘What do you do… you get them to the police station… the police station is only five minutes away from here… and the guards are there as well… so if I tell them the situation everything should be fine, right?’ My eyelids now began to flutter slightly, given that I had calmed down, it was only natural.
‘Can I make it… will I exhaust myself too much and maybe not even reach the guards… if I fall asleep halfway there… maybe some desperate idiot will kill me when he sees that I’m infected…’ Grasping my head with both hands, I scratched my scalp furiously.
‘What if, while I’m carrying them, one of them dies in the Nightmare and the resulting creature kills all of us…’ “…haaaaa… I’m dead either way…” Gritting my teeth, I tried my best to come up with some way to deliver all of us to the station, but I was drawing a blank.
‘…Adrenaline…’ The moment that thought surfaced in my mind, I instantly recalled an obscure anime called Kaiji.
In it, the main character is playing cards with a guy that can basically read his moves by monitoring his heartbeat.
…So to counter that, he slams his head against glass and gets a pump of adrenaline to get his blood pumping in a way that would confuse the device reading his moves.
A vicious smile formed on my face as I berated myself for such a plan, that was a fictional anime, but then again, I was now in a fictional world as well.
“Ahhh, what the HELL!” Standing up and heading over to the closest wall, I heaved a heavy sigh.
“Haaa… think about kittens and puppies… yeah, kittens and pu—” As I felt a slight wave of exhaustion hit, I smashed my head against the wall.
*SMACK* The pain instantly traveled through my entire body like a shock, but I gritted my teeth.
“Kittens… and cuddly… PUPPIES!” *SMACK* I hit my head again and held in a scream.
“PUPPIES!” (ASCENDED JET) Taking slow and steady steps through the all-too-familiar outskirts, I sighed heavily at the sights before me.
It hadn’t changed a bit, just breathing in the air was enough to bring me back to the old days of trying to survive on synthpaste and other slop.
‘How refreshingly bitter.’ The putrid air itself was like nostalgia incarnate.
While walking, I saw that one of the shops I had used to frequent while living here was now closed, and the old gruff man that used to sit there drinking and complaining about his life to everyone ready to listen was gone as well.
“Wow… what a way to make me feel old…” I whistled slightly and continued to make my way to the police station.
Apparently, four people infected by the Spell had come and turned themselves in on the same day.
And thankfully, they had managed to hold on long enough for me to come.
‘Is the amount of infections going to increase again…’ While pondering on the matter, I turned my head to a bit of commotion that was happening behind me.
“WATCH YOURSELF, YOU LITTLE CUNT!” An old lady yelled at a boy that was running feverishly through the street.
The boy simply yelled a sorry and continued to run forward with a maddeningly determined expression.
His brown hair was smeared with blood and his eyes were bloodshot.
‘Is he running away?’ I thought as i examined his wounds.
And as he continued to run, it seemed that he had managed to spot me.
As he looked at me, his eyes seemed to glimmer slightly, tilting my head, I opened my mouth to say something, but he instantly dashed forward.
I didn’t really consider him a threat, but I still put up my guard.
“…M… Ms… are you by chance… Master Jet?” He stopped a few paces away from me and breathed heavily.
Raising a brow, I narrowed my eyes at his condition, it was clear that he was extremely distressed and likely even a little mad.
“Ohhh, am I that popular?
Well, that’s a surprise.” I looked at him and then in the general direction of the station.
If I didn’t hurry, who knew what sort of carnage would occur.
“Look, I’m sorry, but I mu—” Before I could finish, I was interrupted by the boy’s loud cheer of absolute victory and relief.
“YEEESSS!
FUCK YOU, FATE!
SCREW YOU WEAVER!
YOU ARE JUST A CHEAP VERSION OF KARN!” I widened my eyes slightly and saw that we were drawing quite a bit of attention, before I could speak, he held up a finger and looked at me with a smile.
“Master Jet… three of my friends are currently undergoing their First Nightmare.
It just happened, and that’s why I’m running like this, i’m… looking for help.” My eyes widened again, but he wasn’t finished yet.
“Please, help us.
I’m also infected by the Spell and I don’t think I’ll be able to stay awake for too long.
Please follow me and help us.” He bowed and then raised his head towards me with a hopeful look in his eyes.
I was… a little shocked, to say the least.
Not just at the fact that even while exhausted and bleeding this boy still wanted to look after his friends, but also at the camaraderie that seeped from him.
I didn’t need to consider it for long and smiled slightly.
“Oh, well lead the way then.” ___________ Author’s Note: Don’t know how i feel about this chapter, but ohh well.
I feel like it could’ve been a bit more tense, anyway leave a comment as usual and give your opinions.
Next chapter is on Wednesday and The Nightmare Begins.
Get Excited!