I finally got this chapter done! I probably would have finished it last week but I did a lot of procrastinating. I'm also a slow writer. And that's pretty much my excuse. And thank you Flowers-0f-Wit for the review, I'm happy you enjoyed the first chapter. ^^
By the way, I don't own any of the characters or Homestuck.
Also, sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes. And any OOC. But I guess OOC doesn't matter because this is my story so ha.
Enjoy.
A sharp breeze swept through the morning air, sending a chill down Karkat's spine and causing him to stir. He heard the sound of people talking, but their voices were blurred and he couldn't make out what they were saying. The brunet squeezed his eyes tight together in hopes to get more sleep, but it was useless. He groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Good morning, princess." Vriska mocked with a smirk on her face.
"Fuck you." he growled in response. Karkat turned to look at the rest of the group. They were sitting in a semicircle and had stopped their conversing to look at him.
"We saved you the last pack of trail mix, your highness." Dave smirked, tossing the small bag to the grouchy teenager. Karkat caught it as it flew towards him. The bag made crinkling sounds as he opened it and took a handful of the food.
"Fuck you, too." He muttered as he stuffed the handful into his mouth. He quickly finished the trail mix and set the empty bag aside. Karkat joined the rest of the group, who turned their gazes to him.
"So, were you dumb fucks talking about anything important, or were you just running your mouths about useless crap?" Karkat asked as he sat down.
"No. And by 'no' I mean yes." Dave said. "Me and Aradia are going to scope out the store and see if there's anything else that could be important."
Karkat sighed and brought a hand to his head. "And how long will that fucking take? The more time you use up the less time there is to find new shelter by sundown. We can't keep our asses parked up here forever and I don't want to spend another night on this roof."
"Don't worry it'll only take ten minutes or somethin'. Then we can tiptoe our way outta here and find some other place to camp out at." Dave assured Karkat.
"And before you ask," Aradia piped in. "I have all of the weapons right here." She pointed at the ground to her left, where the guns and knives were neatly placed. "Of course, Dave and I can't take all of them, nor leave you all without protection, so we need to divide them between us." She spread the dangerous objects out in front of her so everyone could see them.
After a few minutes of discussion, everyone had a weapon or two in their hands. Jade got one of the guns and a small knife, Vriska and Karkat both got large knives, Dave acquired two small knives, and Aradia equipped herself with the last pistol and small knife. The blades of the large knives were about eleven inches while the small blades were a shorter eight inches. The guns remained unloaded to save the box of bullets for later.
Standing up, Aradia did the best she could to fasten her weapons to the belt around her waist while Dave stuck his blades in the belt loops of his dirty jeans.
"I guess we're off." Dave looked towards the large metal door at the other side of the roof. He started to walk towards it.
"You better be fucking careful." Karkat looked at Aradia and Dave. Dave didn't look back, he just gave the brunet a thumbs-up as he kept walking.
"We'll be careful don't worry." Aradia gave a reassuring smile. "And you three better stay safe as well." She waved a finger to everyone in the trio on the floor.
Karkat watched Aradia run over to Dave. They exchanged a few words as they walked and stopped at the door that led inside the building. They said more words that Karkat couldn't hear and the door opened. Once it was shut Karkat turned to the others.
"What do we do now?" Jade wondered aloud. She brought a hand to her face and swiped her long bangs out of her eyes.
"I guess we wait."
"And you three better stay safe as well." Aradia pointed her finger to everyone in the group. She didn't want them to think there was no danger at all just because they were on top of a building. She turned away from everyone and walked briskly to catch up to Dave.
Once she reached him, she slowed her pace so they were walking in almost perfect sync. "Why such a hurry?" Aradia asked.
"I'm not really in a rush," Dave responded. "Just wanted to get outta there before Karkat starts spewing crap like, 'If you fucking die I'll blah blah blah stupid shit blah blah.' because that'll take too much time."
Aradia chuckled slightly and the two continued their walk in silence. A few yards later they reached the exit of the roof. They stopped in front of it and Dave looked at the lock. It didn't need a key, instead a type of switch above the door handle; one turn of the switch and the door would be unlocked.
"What building has this type of lock anyway? A vandal could sneak up here and barge right into this dump." Dave said. He stretched an arm out and started fumbling with the lock until there was a small click.
"I guess this place didn't have good security." Aradia watched Dave open the door. It made an eerie creaking sound and light flooded in the black darkness of the empty building. The pair cautiously stepped in and Aradia closed the door shut behind them.
The space would be pitch black if it weren't for a very small window near the exit. It didn't provide much light, but allowed the teenagers to see where they were supposed to go. Unfortunately, it was on the floor beneath the level they were on.
Now all we have to do is get down the stairs. Aradia thought. Ugh why didn't I leave it open and ask someone to close it once we got down? She sighed at her mistake. Very carefully, she maneuvered her way through the dark to find the staircase. She could hear Dave's footsteps somewhere near her.
"Damn it's so dark!" Aradia heard Dave yell behind her. "Aradia where are you?" She could faintly see his figure behind her with the small amount of light and wondered why he couldn't see her. Then she remembered he was wearing shades, and they would prevent the minimal light from entering his eyes.
"I'm right in front of you. Here, I'm reaching out to you." She stretched an arm out towards him and he fumbled his arms through the dark until he felt her skin. He grabbed onto Aradia's arm and guided himself to a spot next to her. "Okay, I think the stairs are over here." With great caution, she walked a few steps. She made sure there was ground beneath her feet before applying full weight to her step so she wouldn't plummet down the stairs.
After a little while of stepping Aradia finally reached a slope in the ground. "Dave, I found the stairs. Be really careful, but go as fast as you can." She didn't know if there was anything in the room that could kill them, so she wanted to get out as soon as possible.
After wobbling down stairs in the dark, Aradia and Dave reached the bottom. The light from the window was getting closer and closer until they reached the exit.
Dave put a hand on the door handle and opened it slowly. A wave of light rushed into the building and momentarily blinded Aradia and Dave until their eyes adjusted to the sudden burst of light.
They stepped out into the sunlight. The sky was a bright blue with puffy clouds scattered around. A one-lane asphalt road stretched across the ground and on the other side was a lightly dense forest.
Aradia led Dave to the building left of the one they were standing in front of. While walking, she had her hand placed on her knife just in case. Once they reached the store, they stopped. There was no door on the hinges, instead just a hole where it once stood. A large window allowed light to flow in and brighten the interior of the store.
"Were the hell is the door?" Dave asked, confused.
"I don't know," Aradia answered. "It wasn't there last night either. That's how I got in and out so easily."
"Let me get this straight. You went into a dark building that was left wide open for whatever the fuck to go in there, had no protection, and went alone?" Aradia nodded. "Man, that takes guts."
"Thanks," she smiled. "Now let's go." They walked into the store slowly, and made as little noise as possible. Once they entered, they looked around their surroundings.
"This is like one of those horror movies where the stupid characters ponder weather they should go into the basement or not, while the audience is saying, 'No you fools! Get out of there!' But what do they do? They go in the basement. Then the poor souls get themselves killed. The crowd shake their heads saying, 'I told you not to go in there.'" Dave said, shaking his head at the last part of his speech like he was audience member saying that statement.
Aradia rolled her eyes. "That kind of thing is only in movies for entertainment. But keep your guard up anyway." She told him. "I can't remember the layout so I'm just going to go that way." Aradia pointed a hand to the right side of the store. "Be careful and only take what will be useful."
"Yeah, you be careful too. I guess I'll go that way." He turned to the left side. They split up and started walking to search their side of the building.
Aradia walked slowly, looking at every shelf for anything that the group could use. Her brown eyes lit up once she spotted something on a shelf. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a backpack that looked like it could fit a fair amount of things inside it. She took three, putting two on her back and carrying the third.
Eventually, she found a pack of water bottles. Even though they were warm she stuffed a bunch into the bag. She also grabbed a box of fruit snacks that were on a shelf a few feet away. She opened the box and dumped the pouches into the bag with the water bottles. She unfolded the box so that it was flat and tore it in half. She placed it into the backpack as well. They could use it for fire later.
There was no more room in the bag, so she grabbed a new one off her back and put the full one in its place.
She walked to a shelf near the back and started rummaging through the contents. She heard a noise behind her and she perked up.
"Dave don't sneak up on someone like that. In this situation someone could accidentally kill you." Aradia said with a twinge of fear in her voice. There was no response, but the noise sounded like footsteps, and they were getting closer and closer. She started pulling her knife out from her belt. "Dave…" She said slowly, her voice cracked with fear from the lack of a response. She started to turn around cautiously to see what was behind her.
The sound of a metal knife hitting the ground echoed throughout the room.
Dun dun dun cliffhanger. I was going to switch to another POV but that would take me about two more days. So I'll put it in the next chapter. It's sad because I know what's going to happen but I can't tell you ughh. This chapter is also longer than the first one, which I guess is a good thing. I'll try to make the chapters a little less than 2,000 words, or that much because I don't want them to be short.
Hope you enjoyed, and I'll try to get the next chapter out faster than this one.