Published: August 28th, 2024
Words: 1955

Year long cliffhanger lmao sorry

I was looking over some of my old books and saw the cliffhanger for this one and something just clicked idk so take my silly little chapter :)
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{Nobody's PoV}

The two awoke in the same darkened room. Well, one of them woke up, the other was perpetually awake and therefore didn't require the period of rest.

"Mm.. mornin'."

"Good morning. Seems you had a good sleep?"

"Yup. Alright.. what's on the agenda today?"

"I've found a way to enter Polus, albeit, it's not as discreet as I'd like. You're good at spying about, correct?"

"I'd like to believe that." He said, kicking back in his chair.

"Hm, very well then. You'll need this body camera. As my physical form is currently not limited, I can infiltrate the camera and have full possession over it. Therefore, leading us further into our investigation."

"Ooookaaaaaay....? And what's after that, genius?"

"If you assist me in entering Polus' core database, our likelihood of stopping this virus is increased by 42.8743394%."

"Hm.. thanks."

"I thought you may appreciate the information. So do we have a plan?"

"Ahh... I guess so." He mumbled, kicking out of his chair and grabbing the camera. The other gained access to the camera and the microphone system.

"Hey, do you think we're doing the right thing?"

"What do you mean? Surely you aren't bailing out of the plan now?"

"No, no... but seriously, dude, do you think we're the villains?" The semi-human sighed, looking at the heavily barricaded door ahead of him.

"There is no good or evil in a world brought to its knees. There is survival and there is death. Now shut up and let's get this done."

"..Yeah. Yeah, let's just go."

———
{Meme PoV}

Strength in numbers, I guess. The five of us walked down the Polus hallways, Woolf and Dino bickered the whole time, threatening to shoot each other countless times. Ally was scavenging through her bag to find any bullets left. One thing I had noticed since we split groups, Ally had sawed off her two-barrel shotgun. God knows how she did it, all I know is that I don't want that thing anywhere near me. Tb also seemed more relaxed. Well, as relaxed as he got in these kinds of situations.

"So, what have you guys found here?" Ally asked, having found a few more bullets and successfully loading them into her gun.

I looked to Tb to answer that one. He looked back at me and sighed, "Whole lotta nothing, as far as I know. Last I saw Blaza, Muffin or Nad was... I don't even remember. We got locked in a storage room, though. That was fun."

Not fun, but whatever. Tb is delusional.

"Seriously? No info, no nothing?"

I could feel my shoulders tense up. God damn it, why did this have to be a good opportunity to say it. "Actually, I found something." As soon as the words left my mouth, the group stopped walking and Tb was staring daggers at me. Well, guess I couldn't just leave this one on a cliffhanger.

"I found out what it really is." The air in the hallway was heavy as I was expected to continue. "The virus doesn't just infect a certain species, it infects iron. So anything with iron components or iron in its system can be taken over. The iron is melted and charred, which is why it causes the blisters on the skin in the early stages of infection as your blood is quite literally boiling."

I was on a roll, with no intention of keeping the details. "So, when an infected person bleeds, the blood appears black from the charred iron mixed with their blood. This also affects the brain as the viruses that survived melting the iron have a pathway to your brain, making some sort of susceptibility to brain-eating and infecting bacteria. So we're not just fighting one parasite, we could be fighting millions."

I looked around, deciding to share the more unfortunate theory, "As for machinery, some crucial components melt. Which probably is why these places are so damaged."

Everyone looked shocked. I kind of expected that, as I basically just revealed some of the most important and somewhat devastating news. Tb walked up to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking directly at me. Why did he have to be so— not the time, not the time for that.

"WHY DIDNT YOU SAY THAT EARLIER YOU FUCKING STUPID SCIENCE NERD?!" Tbh yelled, shaking me.

"BECAUSE I WASNT SURE YET AND I DIDNT WANT TO GIVE YOU FALSE HOPE." I yelled back, although it wasn't really yelling between us, I could recognize that tone.

He stopped shaking me and let go of my shoulders, looking down for a moment before hugging me. "I'm proud of you... thanks for finding all of that out."

For a moment I wondered if the sudden niceness was from a brain parasite, but gratefully accepted the hug.

"Okay you two, it's cool that you're are having a moment, but we have more serious things to discuss." Woolf crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at us. "What do you want to know? I can only guarantee so much, though." I turned back to the other three, Tbh getting off of me and standing closeby.

"How do the brainy guys get into the brain?" Dino asked.

"The bacterias can get in so many ways, some through the skin, some are airborne, some are only ingested. Truly, there's no way of knowing what you're dealing with. But my theory is that the extreme lack of iron in your body weakens your immune system, so bacteria you could normally have and be safe from is practically free to roam around in your body without being eliminated by your natural defences."

"Okay, what about infection in the first place, do we even know how people get infected?"

"I'm not sure, just avoid black tar and you should be okay. Unless there's heavy smoke-looking shit in the air, then grab a filter or a mask. Maybe while we're here we can find some sort of laboratory with logs."

Ally looked hesitant to ask her question, but chimed in. "Is there any way to cure the infected..?"

"Well—" I was cut off by the loud sound of screeching metal, I couldn't feel the weight of my axe that was usually hanging on my belt, so whatever it was could definitely kill me right now, but when I spun around and picked up a sharp piece of shattered glass off the ground as a weapon, there was... nothing. I didn't lower my guard though, I'd learned that lesson before.

Clearly I wasn't delusional and just hearing things, because Ally was alert and standing in front of me with her shotgun pointed ahead. "You know what that is, Meme?"

"No. You?" My question was met with a head shake.

Tb sighed, putting his gun back in its holster and adjusting his gas mask, "Great, another fuckin' thing we have to keep up with. We need to find Nad and Blaza, let's go."

{3rd person PoV}

The glass shattered, shards spilling out all over the floor. The creature that was once called a friend removed its arm from the glass wreckage that was previously a storage unit, shards embedded into his skin as strangely dark blood seeped out of the wounds. The needles stored in its pocket, waiting for the perfect opportunity. This world was perfect. The humans needed to be cleansed. They needed to be perfect.

"Nadwe, leave. Leave and take the others out of here!" Blaza raised his voice, narrowly dodging another hit from the creature trying to harm him.

"I'm not leaving you! Stop talking like that!" Nadwe shouted back, reloading his twin pistols and waiting for when the monster was most off guard to shoot. Although, he knew to a degree that it was all in vain, as the monster was almost completely covered in its own blood and seemed completely unaffected. On the other hand, Blaza was in no condition to hold off the attacker, his body covered in cuts and injuries despite the military-grade equipment he wore. Especially after enduring the severe head trauma, it was hopeless to continue.

The monster pressed a knife to Blaza's throat, taking one of the two needles out of his pocket. Blaza glanced over to Nadwe, trying to reassure him as the cold tip of the needle met his skin, hovering for some time. Nadwe froze. He didn't know what to do. Was there anything he could do? If he moved a single centimetre Socks would do it. No, that thing would do it. Muffin whispered something into Nadwe's ear from when he still was on his shoulder, "Just try to stall. Say something sappy that you'd hear from a pick me trying to stop a fight."

"Um... okay?" Nadwe shrugged as Muffin hopped off of his shoulder and onto a nearby shelf.

He dramatically batted his eyelashes and tried to be as unserious as possible, hoping to catch the thing off guard, "This isn't you! I know the real you is in there somewhere, you just have to fight it!"

The creature paused, looking at Nadwe and wincing, "Are you kidding me? You're definitely less intelligent than I thought you were." It stung. It stung to hear his voice again. The blood dripping down Blaza's neck from the knife wasn't even comparable to know that his best friend was gone, and there was no hope to getting him back. They'd tried before. When Oof got infected, they tried for months to help, but it was no use, he got too weak and begged to be killed while he could still choose for himself.

Blaza didn't want to end up like that. And he knew that he was far too emotionally weak to watch what had happened to his best friend play out right in front of his eyes.

"Socks? Do you know something we don't?" Blaza asked slowly, careful to not accidentally jab himself with the needle.

"No."

Nadwe looked between the two, confused as to why Socks hadn't done anything yet.

"I know as much as you do, but it hardly matters now."

"...Hardly?" Blaza mumbled.

Socks backed away, his fist clenched around the needle, shattering it within his palm, the flesh on his hand melting away.

"Leave. Both of you." The creature said, turning around to face the wall. Blaza and Nadwe exchanged glances, both frozen in place.

"LEAVE." The voice was strangely clear, not muffled and groggy like it had been, but Nadwe and Blaza didn't question that, taking the opportunity to scramble out of the place and lock the doors behind them.

The two wandered for a while, not speaking a word of what happened. Eventually when they sat together, the topic had to be discussed.

"So, what do you think that was?" Nadwe asked.

"My best friend. That was him. And like, I know that it's just a monster in reality, but I can't help but feel like it's still him. I dunno."

"I get that, that last word was... unusual from that creature. But I don't know where to go from here. No shot there's a cure, and we don't even know what this virus thing is."

Blaza sighed, placing his head against the wall. He took a roll of bandages out of his backpack, wrapping the cut on his neck thoroughly after sanitizing it. "Yeah, no idea where to go from here..."
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At least this time if I leave for an unknown amount of time it's not on a cliffhanger 😼