Mable: I was inspired by this from news of the new Oddworld game… Along with some cryptic clues circling online. It's a bit different from my normal stuff and, goodness me, my first step back into Oddworld in ages! Though I hope you still enjoy. A note as well, this was written in the span of one night so it might not be perfectly polished. I don't own Oddworld, Enjoy!

Not Even One

He was just a little stressed. It was the same thing that drove the others to the bottle. The sanctuary in the glass of cool, bubbly fluid, feeling pleasure and excitement. They had been hungry, scared, didn't know how to survive being free, and the gift of the brew had secured something even better than they expected. Then the Glukkons offered them an agreement; if they wanted to drink they would have to work for it. None of them said no and Abe didn't know why. He couldn't stop them, he couldn't let himself be seen, and now he feared he was all that was left.

He was just a little stressed, and the bottle felt good in his hands. Abe closed his orange eyes sadly and tightened his grip on the bottle. There was such an urge that he couldn't help but pop open the bottle. The cap fell off and the smell filled the room; sort of a fruity smell mixed with something else. He shivered and shifted on the grass. He held it as though in a threat. A silent threat that he would drink the liquid if the others didn't suddenly appear. Though he knew this wouldn't happen. They weren't coming back.

Abe knew that most likely he would have to break in and save them… Somehow. Yet first he needed something to ease his shaking, to ease his mind. Nobody was forcing him to drink the liquid, nobody even suggesting it anymore, and yet he felt like he had to. "Come on, Abe! Join us! It all tastes great!" He remembered them coaxing him and then ignoring him when he desperately tried to get them to stop. Finally he lifts the bottle and closes his eyes tightly. Slowly he raised the bottle and sipped the liquid down.

It almost immediately ensnared him; the taste was delicious and left a soothing burn down his throat that felt more pleasant than anything else. He tilted back the bottle and drank more. Suddenly Abe realized that he was incredibly thirsty and that the brew soothed everything. The bottle was soon empty and Abe lingered there with a delighted feeling. All of his troubles were soothed, all of his cares gone, and he suddenly forgot why he was so against drinking the brew. Unfortunately he didn't have any more to indulge with.

Abe got enough of his senses back to set the bottle in the grass and try to wait it out. The fuzziness on his vision was wonderful and all, but he still wasn't ready to go sprinting to the Brewery. Maybe he needed to drink more to hit that point. He suddenly wished that he had gotten more. Abe laid down on the grass and stared at the night sky above. The moon, the stars, which grew in colors and lights, seemingly brighter than ever before. Abe smiled wider and allowed his orange eyes to close as he took in the night air. It was so peaceful.

Then came the urge for more, a bit stronger, and a strange tingling feeling through his hands and feet. It was noticeable, but not necessarily a good feeling. He suddenly felt tiredness sink in as though he would pass out. A normal Mudokon would, but Abe panicked, and sat upwards unsteadily. He felt unsafe sitting in the open and looked around in confusion as he noticed something was strange. He looked back to the sky and flinched back as he noticed that the stars and the moon were all missing. Clouds couldn't have moved in.

Suddenly a low tap, tap, tap echoed through the area and Abe's head twisted and turned. He looked around in paranoia as he tried to register where the tapping was coming from. Then there came a pained groan from nearby and Abe leapt to his feet, stumbling around in the grass. "Hello? Is anyone- Hello?" The buzz was replaced with a low throbbing in his head and he began to grow frantic. His footsteps were awkward and he stumbled over his own feet. "Hello?!" A Mudokon voice spoke back, "Hello."

Abe looked around desperately, but he couldn't see well through the darkness and fuzziness in his vision. "Where are you?" he asked and the voice quipped back. "Right here. I've always been here. Right here. I'm here." The blue skinned Mudokon started to walk aimlessly in wider circles as his hands began to burn and shake more. "I can't see you," he pointed out. Then he heard the voice a little closer, "I've always been here." He looked around, clutching himself closer, and hearing a rapid repetition of tapping. A soft pattering that grew louder until it was booming.

Then everything went silent. Abe stopped still, only barely noticing how numb his feet felt. Looking down he noticed that he was wading in water to his ankles. It was fruity scented and thick; he realized it was Soulstorm brew that he was wading in. He couldn't imagine why there was so much. The soft pattering continued and he peered ahead, barely seeing a light in the distance. He continued to wade, passing tall machines on either side of him as though they led him. The first few were empty, but then the next have Mudokons in there.

The bodies lay limp, hanging upside-down and presented before him. None of them faced him; their faces were all obscured. "Any of you? Guys?" Abe asked softly and he was answered with a voice. "You can't save everybody. Eventually someone will be missed." It was casual at first, but the end dropped an octave in the last word. It sent a shiver along Abe's spin and he came to a stop. His throat burned and he craved more Soulstorm brew. Looking to the water he wondered if he should drink from it, then started to crouch.

He reached his numb and burning hands forwards into the water. He thrust them in and tried to rid them of the pain, hissing as the blue Mudokon felt a tug at his hands. "Drink! That's the stuff!" It was exactly what a Mudokon had said earlier, perhaps Alf, and hearing it again uneased Abe to know end. Finally he lifted his hands and stared at them. His fingers were stitched together with thick, leather twine. Panic set in as Abe tried to separate his fingers, frantically trying to ease the burning and losing his balance. He fell into the small amount of the fluid.

It started to smell a bit stronger and he briefly noted it before he froze. After he splashed into the water there was another small splash, like something moved nearby. He tried to look around but his vision was so limited that he couldn't see anything. "Is that you?!" He started to raise to his feet when he heard a voice from nearby. It was quiet and weak, "I'm here… Get me out of here…" Abe spun in the direction and started to cross over. "I-I'm coming! Don't worry, I'll get you out of here!... Wherever we are."

Abe was shaking so hard that he could barely function at all. His eyes were burning and fear was working its way along his sides. "Are you okay to follow me? I-I can take you somewhere…" He babbled and now the voice spoke, "I don't know. Where are the others? Did they leave me here?" Abe shook his head desperately and reached his hands out, "No, no! It's… Maybe I freed them already? I don't remember, but I'm here to get you out!" Then he faced the light, one last machine, illuminated with electricity.

He watched in horror as the Mudokon body hanging alit in the volts. It shrieked in a distorted, static cry before it stopped. The Mudokon then lay limp, groaning in pain before beginning to weep at the suffering it had just dealt with. Tears leaked along its face and fell to the pool below, making the soft pattering. It didn't sound right; the metallic noise didn't seem to fit the water and tears, but it all made a horrific sense. The brew was made from thick tears. "It can't…" Abe trailed off as all the sound got sucked out of the immediate area.

Slowly the Mudokon lifted, or lowered as it was hanging by its ankles, and stared at Abe with an empty look. It smiled a wide smile with an empty mouth of black as tears poured out of its eyes and down its face. Its eyes seemed to deflate along with it, draining out with the fluid as they became black holes. "It's good, isn't it? More pain, more gain." Its voice was hollow, as though being spoken through a speaker from a distance away. Abe started to back away as he shook his head, grabbing it with his stitched fingers.

The stitches now led along his arms in zigzag patterns, like a new set of tattoos decorating his body. He took a step back only to notice ripples in the water beneath him. Something else was moving from behind, he just couldn't hear it. Abe spun around and saw at least a dozen Mudokons standing behind him, all with the same empty grins and eyes. They had climbed down from the machines and Abe took a step back. "No… No, no, wait!" He tried to get something out as his body started to go rigid. That's when the cold hands grasped his head from behind.

"Can't you see?" There was a tightening in his eyes and suddenly Abe realized that the stitches had to be on his eyes as well. Slowly they cinched closed as the Mudokons moved in. The second Abe couldn't see anything his ears were blasted with sudden sound. The sound of sobbing and shrieking was deafening. A single Mudokon screaming and begging, seeking help. "Somebody, anybody! Help! Come back! Please!" The frantic crying got quieter and more weak, followed by coughing and choking, continued sobbing.

Stitches started to spread along Abe's chest and he went wild. He tore at his hands, ripping the stitches apart until his fingers were free. He then went to his eyes and managed to slip the stitches free. Yet right as he was about to pull the leather twine out he heard a soft voice. It was his own. "Don't look. You don't want to see. You already know." The chill was still there and for a moment Abe actually considered doing as his voice said and keeping his eyes shut. Yet he knew he couldn't. Slowly he opened them and saw what was waiting.

There, in the nook of what looked to be a hallway of some kind, trapped by a metal beam, laid a Mudokon. Its body was shriveled from its time there and its face was frozen in a look of total fear and sadness. It lay limp, dried out, with empty eyes from the natural state of decay. It was no more than the body of a Mudokon worker. Abe didn't know his name, he didn't recognize his face, he just saw him as an unfortunate victim. It had been trapped under debris and left to die alone from either blood loss or something worse.

Then a voice inside his head softly asked in a hushed tone, as though checking to make certain in a simplistic question, "Are you sure you counted them all?"

What came next was a shriek. Not from a Mudokon body, an empty husk, but from Abe himself. He screamed in the sudden overwhelming terror and covered his eyes with his palms, stumbling back until something caught his foot and he collapsed to the ground. There was no attempt to stand again; he simply pulled his legs against his chest and rode out the rest of his horror. His body pulsed with a sort of unbelievable agony as he rocked and tried to block out the sight of the body. His voice couldn't block out the memory of the question.

At some point he broke down into a fit of sobbing and just laid there crying. His throat burned, his eyes burned, he felt dry and thirsty, but he couldn't even handle his emotions. After a couple of hours, though he couldn't actually tell or not, he moved his hands away from his face. They were sticky with dried tears but the tingling that had affected them started to die down. He could see light through his eyelids, so he slowly, cautiously, dared to open them and see what waited for him outside of his thin protection.

Abe was laying underneath a grove of thick and short trees. The roots stuck out from underneath the dirt and he suspected he tripped on one. After scanning the immediate area he soon realized what had happened. In his state, whatever it was, he had ran around in the grass and must have entered into a shallow pond nearby. Then he ended under the trees. The entire time, the entire night, he had been here running around as he saw what he saw. He wondered if the brew caused it, as it certainly seemed to make sense.

But there was no comfort, because Abe knew that it wasn't just a hallucination. He clamped his eyes tightly closed as the thought crossed his mind, "I didn't count." His hands were still shaking as he dragged himself to his feet and stumbled over to the pond. Once in the sunlight he could see what he had done to his body. Scratches and nicks covered his hands and a few trailed along his arms. If this was what the brew caused then he didn't even want to imagine what would happen to the others.

Staring in the reflection of the water he could see his tired, frightened face looking back. "Is that why they didn't stop drinking?... Or was it just me?" He shuddered at the thought and scooped some of the water to drink. His body wanted the brew badly, but he choked down the water regardless and it somewhat soothed his throat. He had to go after the others and he didn't know what to expect. He had a hunch, a horrible and frightening hunch, but after that there was no possible way he could leave the others to suffer. Not even one.

Even if he was scared Abe knew what to do. He stood on shaky legs, faced the general direction of where he thought the brewery was, and then started a slow and shaky journey. With every step he got closer to his destination and he knew, this time, he had to be certain. He couldn't fail even one.

EnD

Mable: Now you make the call; was Abe's a vision of what will happen if he slips, or was it a reminder of when he did?