== Wake Up

You awaken sometime in the day. You can tell because there is comforting golden sunlight streaming in through cracks in the cave walls. The Earth's sun is much farther away than Alternia's sun, and the light doesn't hurt at all. You sit up, and your body protests. Your headache is worse than yesterday, and sitting up is no longer an option. You take the overcoat off and unwrap the fresh bandage on your arm. You almost faint at the sight of it.

It's swollen at least three times more than yesterday, and more indigo lines have spread across your arm. The skin has swollen so much, that the bone has been pushed out farther and indigo blood sluggishly seeps out of the wound. You look to where Nepeta had been sleeping, and she is gone. You cover the wound again, determined to hide it.

After resting for awhile you hear some rustling in the cave. Nepeta must be back. "Nepeta? Are you back?" You ask. There is no answer. She must not have heard you properly. "Chica, you there?" Still, no answer. You're worried now. And fear begins gnawing at the back of your mind. There is a crash in the cave, and now you sit up. You're woozy but focused on the sound. You hear it again, and draw your deuce clubs from your strife. You see a shadow sneak across the cave and ready yourself for the worst.

You are embarrassed that the sound was simply a small gnawbeast (rat or mouse). You set your clubs down, and watch the gnawbeast skitter around the cave floor. Something isn't right though, it moves oddly, and it's eyes look feverish. A reddish substance is dripping from it's mouth, probably blood or saliva. It hisses at you and starts stalking towards you. You pull one club behind your back and as soon as the creature comes in range- THWACK! You smash it into the ground. You fling the creature away with your club and make sure not to touch the blood on the club.

After a few more moments of waiting Nepeta returns, carrying a sack that sloshes when it moves. "Hey sister." You greet her as she throws herself to the ground and guzzles down something from the sack. "What in the motherfuck is that thing?

She wipes her mouth and says, "It's a water-skin, humans used to use them to store water. It's filled with water, want some?"

You didn't even notice how parched you are until she mentions water. You grab the skin and drink. It's warm from the sun outside, but quenching none-the-less. Nepeta notices the dead gnawbeast, "Ugh! What's this dead gnawbeast doing here?"

"It all up and tried biting me when you were gone. The only thing I could do was kill it."

"Well you made the right decision, one bite from this and you can say goodbye to living." She wrinkles her nose and picks the carcass up with a leaf, she throws it outside of the cave and walks back over to you.

"How are you holding up? Does your arm feel better?" She asks and moves to pull the bandage away.

You grab her hand and push it back, "It feels motherfucking fine, a lot better." She raises her eyebrows, and purses her lips. "Mhhmm. Then you wouldn't mind if I just, took a look at it?" She taunts.

"Oh well, I don't see why you'd want to. It's still pretty motherfucking freaky."

Without a word she rips the bandages off, and gasps. "Oh Gamzee it looks pawful! You have to tell me if it looks this bad! Ugh look at all those purple veins, you purrobably have blood poisoning."

"You wouldn't be able to do much anyway, I didn't think there was a point to making you worry. And what the motherfuck is blood poisoning?"

She rolls her eyes but her look is quickly replaced by concern. "It's when your blood gets infected, and it spreads throughout your veins. It can make you hallucinate, feverish, and dehydrates you very quickly. There's only one thing I can think of that might help, but it will be painful."

". . .What's that?"

"Well, I'll have to pop the bone back in place, and hope your immune system fights the infection off."

"Do you have to?"

"If you ever want your arm to heal, yes. I'll do it now so we can get it over with."

"What, wait, not right this min- She cuts you off there by grabbing your arm. You gasp and wince unwillingly in surprise.

She gulps and drags you closer. She grabs hold of the bone, and of your forearm. Pain is shooting up through your arm and your grit your teeth, trying not to yell. You bite your lip, and grit your teeth. Blood vessels pop and closed arteries get reopened. Tears are pricking your eyes, and when you wonder when you'll black out there is a satisfying

-POP-

and the pain begins to ebb away from the affliction.

Relief flows from Nepeta and she timidly gives you an encouraging smile. You're too tired to really say anything, and instead lazily give her a nod. She collapses on the ground next to you, arms spread out in a mock snow-angel position. She stares at the ceiling for awhile, and after some time she rolls over to face you.

"Does your arm feel any better?" She asks.

"It actually does, thanks Chica." You reply wearily. You're exhausted, and having your sleep schedule thrown off hasn't helped. Since you got to Earth and realized the sun was no longer a threat, you'd been going to sleep at night instead of day. It seems the same with the other trolls as well. The humans say it's perfectly normal to sleep at night, but to the trolls that idea was absurd and silly.

She stretches like a cat might, and kneads the floor of the cave with her paws. She purrs, the sound surprisingly identical to that of a meowbeast. Nepeta curls up, arms tucked under her chest and continues to purr. She looked like a cozy meowbeast, content and sleepy. She peeks one eye open at you, and playfully paps your leg. You smirk and pet her on the hand. She giggles, and then pretends to hunt something invisible. Or maybe only she can see it, Nepeta has always had the best night vision out of everyone. Her innocence, for a short time, makes you forget the hardships of this new world. She grins at you and demands that you try roleplaying with her.

You agree, you know she'd beg you again later anyway, and she quickly starts sketching a character for you with a burnt stick. You're character is now a creature known as a chimera, a goat like being that can breathe fire and is very poisonous. She explains that in roleplaying, you have to forget about yourself and believe the character you're playing is completely real. That makes the best roleplay scenario.

She sets up a plot, she is a two-mouthed meowbeast that has been stealing prey from a deadly dragon. You're her new apprentice, and have to learn how to steal prey without waking the deadly dragon up.

"It would be a lot more fun if Equius, or Terezi, were here to play the deadly dragon. Equius refuses to roleplay with me, but I bet you could get him to change his mind!"

You remember how Equius had devotedly obeyed anything you said, even if you were joking. Something in the back of your mind tells you he would feel differently now.

She uses the leftover antlerbeast as the prey killed by the dragon, and she begins sneaking up on it. Her head snaps in a direction every once in awhile, as if she can hear the "dragon" snoring. You still can't walk, but you army crawl in with her, pretending your arm doesn't bother you.

After a few hours of friendly roleplaying you begin nodding off. Nepeta must've noticed and kindly lead you back to the little corner of the cave both of you referred to as your recuperacoons. Though the sand of the floor of a cave was possibly the farthest thing from your hive, let alone recuperacoon, Nepeta was quite accustomed to living in a cave.

You slump down, and pull the remnants of Nepeta's overcoat over you. She throws herself down onto a patch of sand and grass and kneads the area a few times before shutting her eyes. After a few minutes, her breathing becomes slower and softer letting you know she's asleep. You sink into unconsciousness not long after.


I apologize for lack of updates, I've been quite busy with school work! And as an fyi - I'll be posting a FAQ for answers to your questions.

Kurotaka Naoka - thank you!

Anonymous - thanks! and nope! all of the characters are alive. since this was going to be a Left 4 Dead crossover, the initial infection took place around 2 weeks ago. though, up until then the majority of them have been trying to conserve power as best as they can

Blah - gosh yeah this pair is adorable. is weird with their formatting, wait 10-30 minutes and the next chapter should be up. if not, keep waiting it will be up eventually

Kyroma - wow i didnt expect it to be that bad! maybe i start putting warnings on these chapters HHMM.

HoNk hOnK - oh gOSh darnit i keep forgetting the little stuff like that. thank you for reminding me! ill be careful with the later chapters and be sure to edit them

BurnTheHotelEllis - please read the first chapter carefully, Vriska has alreday been introduced! if you mean 'where' and in where specifically, she's in a large wooded area, probably something like an old forest reserve. the other characters will be introduced, be patient! oh and of course id love to add you on pesterchum! unfortunately, it doesn't work properly on my PC. id be willing to share my Skype with you though.

Flipspring - goodness you're my favourite reviewer! you have been such a help lately UoU

as for what you said about the light, that is a great idea, and i actually imagined the light filtering in when i was making a mental image of the island. yes, that'd probably be the sensible thing to do, but that would ruin all the fun! nah, there's actually a reason. im not sure if i actually wrote this out, but you have to climb a ladder to get on the boat, i don't think Gamzee'd be able to do that with a broken arm UoU thank you so much!

Anonymous - i've decided to limit the powers of the god-tiers, as Sburb/SGrub has ended, they don't really much use for their powers. for example, since John is the Heir of Breath his wind powers have been limited, and he has trouble flying for long distances now. Jade can teleport, but only herself. same goes for Bec.

muteCarplayer - haha, thank you! i will.