So help me Discord, sickness and vomiting will not stop me from updating Bloody Vengence! So, yeah. Sorry for the wait, details on my DeviantArt journal entry (DJShifty366, for those of you curious to hear the tale of how I vomited my guts out over the past month), now let's just hope I get better soon enough to update something.

Chapter 25: Dead Reckoning

"I guess I'll see you in a little bit." DJ grinned, before lowering his head once more. He patted the limp wrist of Fluffee once, before getting up to leave. He cast a final look at his fallen friend, one final glance at the now-relaxed, now-peaceful look on Fluffee's face, lingering for only a second longer, then exited the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

DJ let out a sigh, closing his eyes as he leant back on the door. DJ didn't have many friends in life, to be honest. He had trouble trusting others, a lot. And in return, others had trouble trusting him. But Fluffee was different: Fluffee didn't judge DJ for what he was. Fluffee was always on hand with a good joke or a laugh. It was still hard to believe that the closest thing DJ had to a friend was now lying dead in the other room, back broken and throat slashed beyond recognition, and DJ was sorely tempted to go back in.

Instead, he pushed himself up, and began walking down the hallway of the hospital, pausing at the large glass double doors. No-one was out there. Ruffy and Rager must've still been talking to Flippy. DJ pushed through the doors, stepping outside, and noted with distaste that there was a storm brewing, if the dark black clouds above were any indication. The wind was picking up too, a light yet forceful breeze that felt like it could pick up at any second. DJ shivered once, heading towards the parked police car, and waited.

It was about fifteen minutes later Ruffy of the Broadshore Island police force exited the hospital, an expression of surprise crossing his face as he saw DJ, waiting for him. DJ waved a hand slightly in greeting, and Ruffy grinned. "Ha, Rager owes me $20 bucks now! I knew you'd still be here!"

"Where else am I gonna go, Narnia?" DJ replied, stepping into the back passenger seat as Ruffy stepped into the drivers. "Where's Rager?"

"Hmm? Oh, we figured one of us should stay with the main group at all times. I'll get to accompany you back to the jail cells, then I'll call him on the walkie-talkie and decide what happens next."

"Ah." DJ nodded, pausing for a moment before leaning back in his seat, retreating into his thoughts. Ruffy glance din the rearview mirror, but said nothing, opting to leave the cat to his thoughts.

About ten minutes later, DJ spoke up. "Say, Ruffy, any luck finding someone to fix the satellite?"

Ruffy shook his head as he ignited the engine. "Nope. Their handyman hasn't been seen since six, and ours is… well, you know."

"I see. Well, what would you say if I told you I know someone who could be able to help you out?"

"Who?"

"Me."

Ruffy glanced in the rearview mirror. "You?"

"I read a lot, sometimes in mechanical and technical repairs. I think I can figure out how to fix it, with enough time and supplies."

"No offense, DJ, but you gotta admit, you're not exactly the most trustworthy guy around here."

"You're damn right, Ruffy." DJ admitted. "I'm one of the most untrustworthy bastards you'll ever meet. And I'm also your best chance at fixing that damned thing and getting some help. Our time is running out, and if we don't do something to get outside help, we'll all be dead by tomorrow. Besides… I kinda want to do something good before I die."

Ruffy paused, considering and weighing his options. He was silent for a full minute, before breaking into a grin and reaching for his walkie talkie. "Rager? It's Ruffy. I think we may have a breakthrough with our satellite problem."

As the rain began to pour, Niki shivered. She had followed Shifty as Shifty ran after some noises, but as the cold rain struck her, hard droplets of water, she began to reconsider. She'd do anything for her friends, but jeez it was cold. And she didn't exactly have an umbrella or anything to ward off the rain, while Shifty at the very least had his fancy fedora. But Shifty was barely noticing the rain, too preoccupied with finding out where the voices were.

Were there any voices, though? Niki silently wondered as she continued following her raccoon friend. Shifty claimed to hear footsteps and voices a way off a few minutes ago, and maybe Niki did too, but it's also just as likely it was her imagination.

It was raining heavily now, storm clouds having arrived quicker than expected. A dense mist began to form, a creepy dense mist that could've been lifted straight outta Silent Hill. Niki hurried to keep up with Shifty, not wanting to get lost in the forest, in the dark, alone. If there was one thing she did not like, it was being alone. Friendship is a bright beacon of light to her, the warm fuzzy glow of being with those she was close to a feeling that could cheer her up at any time.

Lost in her thoughts, Niki bumped into Shifty, very nearly knocking herself to the ground. Shifty had stopped in a clearing, looking around in all directions, squinting through the fog.

"What is it?" Niki asked, her voice barely audible above the heavy downpour.

"They're gone!" Shifty shouted back.

"Who's gone?"

"The voices!"

Niki raised an eyebrow at that. Looks like Shifty may have gone off the deep end moreso than originally suspected. The green raccoon continued to look around desperately, his eyes a notable shine of hopelessness, before deciding on a direction and marching towards it.

"Shifty!"

"This way!" Shifty bellowed back, beginning to disappear into the fog, before his figure suddenly disappeared.

Niki's eyebrows shot into the air. "Shifty?"

No response.

"Shifty?" Niki shouted, as the horrible feeling of loneliness began to descend upon her. With the dense fog swishing and blowing, it was hard to tell which direction Shifty had disappeared in. It seemed like the arena was slowly spinning around her. Niki's lip trembled, her fear skyrocketing.

"Over here!" A voice suddenly shouted back.

Niki dashed to the sound of the voice, the fear slowly dissolving as the voice of one of her friends rang through her ears. As the approached, the fog split, revealing Shifty's figure crouched on the murky forest floor.

"Oh, thank god." Niki breathed a sigh of relief, crouching beside Shifty.

"I tripped over something." Shifty replied, brushing the dirt beneath him curiously.

"I think we should head back." Niki said. "It's getting dark and wet, and the others-"

CLANG.

Niki stopped as Shifty's fist pounded against the ground, a metallic clanging sound echoing. Smirking in victory, Shifty brushed more of the dirt away, revealing a dull-grey sheet of steel.

"What is that?"

Shifty didn't answer, merely continuing to brush the dirt and leaves away, before his hand gripped around something and pulled. With a horrible creaking sound, the door in the ground squeaked open, revealing a small flight of steps that descended into darkness.

Niki stared into the dark tunnel apprehensively. "You've got to be kidding me."

Shifty, once again silent, peered into the corridor, before slowly approaching the steps and walking down them, his footsteps echoing in the tunnel.

"Shifty!" Niki said. "What are you doing?"

Like a man possessed, Shifty again made no response as he slowly, methodically, creepily, climbed down the steps.

Niki paused, and glanced around. Be alone in the spooky forest, or with one of her friends in an equally spooky tunnel?

Niki nervously shook her head, before scrambling after Shifty into the corridor.

Spades held his sister tightly, brushing her hair with a comforting hand, whispering reassurances to her. In time, her sobs had lessened to gradual sniffles, and finally to glorious silence. Spades continued to comfort her, silently wondering what HE had done to her. After a short while, Spades broke the embrace, looking his sister in the eyes.

"Laces, what happened?" Spades asked. "How did you get here from HT Town?"

Laces breathed in and out slowly, her chest heaving. Spades waited patiently, as he always did when it came to Laces, letting her work up the words before beginning. "It… It was about twenty minutes after you had left for the boat. I-I was watching TV, when someone knocked on the door. I… I thought it was you, but…"

Laces shook her head.

"Buuut?" Spades gently prodded. He could put the pieces together himself, but he wanted to hear it straight from his sister's mouth.

"But when I opened the door, two people were there. They came in before I could stop them, shut the door behind them, and then… Then…"

"Woah, woah, wait. Two people? You sure?" Spades quirked an eyebrow. Two people? Two killers? This was bad. Very bad.

"Yeah…"

"Okay. Okay. Then what happened?"

"They… They hurt me. When I woke up, I was here. Every few hours, one of them would come in… give me food, water, and… He'd talk to me."

Spade's other eyebrow shot up into his fringe to join the other. "Talk to you?"

"I didn't like it when he did. I begged him to stop, but he'd smile and keep talking…"

"What did he say?"

"He… He…"

"Laces, what did he tell you?"

"He… said he was proud of you, Spades."

A knocking on the door interrupted their thoughts, before the door was pushed open.

I sat back in an old swivel chair, watching the monitors with dull interest. There didn't seem to be a lot going on at the moment, which was always a disappointment. I crave entertainment. But these damned survivors seemed more focused on not letting anyone else die than amusing me, even if they didn't know it. Oh, well. I suppose I couldn't blame them that much. The will to survive can be a tough thing at times.

The highlight of the hour was that English cat breaking down over the loss of his friend, which came as a surprise to me. I was unaware that snob had any friends. Moreso, it was surprising to see the normally-stoic cat show an emotion other than sarcasm, mockery, annoyance, or general disdain for his fellow being.

But now, something was happening. Something almost right outside my door, in fact.

I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. 5:30. I got to my feet, giving the monitors a quick glance again, before turning to the large metal door a few steps away. I could hear Spades consoling his sister, again, reassuring her, and inwardly gagged.

I knocked on the heavy door once, then pushed it open. "Not interrupting anything, am I?" I asked, seeing Spades and Laces both glare at me, both for different reasons.

"Who are you?" Laces whispered. "Why are you doing this to us?"

I raised an eyebrow, and took a second to think. "Mostly because it's fun, Laces. Spades? May I have a word with you?"

Spades glanced at his clearly terrified sister, giving her a quick hug before getting to his feet. "I'll be back in a minute." He promised. "I'll be fine."

Laces gingerly nodded, cuddling herself as Spades stepped out of the room. After he exited, I shut the door behind him and turned to him. "Spades, I-"

"What did you say to her?" Spades demanded.

"Pardon?"

"What did you say to my sister, you asshole?" And suddenly Spade's fists were wrapped around the collar of my shirt, and he had pushed me back against a wall. "I swear to god, if you said any-"

I punched Spades full-flush in the jaw while he was ranting. Spade's grip on my collar loosened as Spades fell back, one hand clutching at his jawbone.

"You seriously need to calm down." I said, brushing my front as Spades gave me such a withering glare. "Now, we can stand here all day discussing the finer points of chatting with your sibling, but there's more important things to do." I tossed a piece of paper towards Spades, landing it at his feet. "There's your instructions. You have a choice this time. Any questions?"

Spades's eyes glossed over the paper for a few seconds, before glancing at the closed room in which Laces was within. "One. Did you do anything to Laces to get her here?"

"Oh, she didn't want to go with us. So I… persuaded her to come."

"You bastard." Spade's teeth clenched. "If I come back and so much as one hair on her head is harmed, so help me god I will-"

"Beat me within an inch of my life?" I snarked. "Trust me when I tell you, as long as you do as I say Laces will not be harmed. I don't know how many times I've said it now, but there you go. Satisfied? Good. Now off you go, before the rain gets any worse. You'd better take the side entrance. We're getting some visitors in a few minutes, and I don't think you should be here when I meet them."

Spades shivered. He knew what I meant when I said meet them. "Okay. Fine. Where's the side entrance?"

I pointed at a hallway, past the monitor collection and the hall of booby traps. "Down that hallway, there's a hidden door that opens up to the beach. Follow the map afterwards, and you'll be fine."

With a final suspicious glance at me, Spades ducked through the hallway, quickly disappearing from sight. The area was silent, the sound only my footsteps as I stepped back to the grid of monitors, and switched some dials. Now, instead of playing the current events around the island, each of the monitors played a different death replay.

I heard the far side door opening, the hatch creaking open. That'd be our new guests, right on time. I'd better get ready to welcome them.

After Rager had sent Ruffy on his way, he turned to the remaining four in the room, five including himself. The army vet and unofficial leader of the group, Flippy, was chatting to the timid red porcupine, Flaky. Rager couldn't see how those two could be a couple. They were fucking polar opposites, for Christ's sake. What on earth did they have in common?

He switched his view to Giggles and Petunia, the pink chipmunk and blue skunk, respectively. They seemed to be deep into a discussion about… shoes? Seriously? Well if it kept their mind off their possible deaths, sure.

Rager frowned. That was no way for an officer to speak. No-one would be dying on his watch! Well, no-one else, anyway…

"Hey, um, Mister Rager?"

Rager perked an eyebrow. 'Mister Rager'? Boy, did that remark make him feel old. He glanced at the source of the question, the porcupine Flaky. "Yes, Flaky?"

Flaky glanced at Flippy behind her, who nodded encouragingly. "Who… What kind of person would do this sort of thing? Purposefully kill others?"

Okay, Rager had to admit, he wasn't expecting that question. But he maintained his composure, merely sitting down on a seat as he thought about it. "Well… It varies each time, but it all usually boils down to one of three things…
Revenge: The killer feels as though they've been wronged somehow, and make up for it in the form of taking other's lives,
Money: Some people do this for a living, taking in tens of thousands of dollars for each ordered kill, or, Power: It's been known that people can grow weary of the droll of everyday life, and some attempt to… liven it up, so to speak. It's been said that the feeling one gets after taking someone's life is a sense of power, so people who lead otherwise unimportant lives have been known to do this."

Rager paused, his mind flashing back. "But there's a small percentage who don't fit in either of the three categories. Whether they are desensitized to death and violence, suffered some severe psychological trauma again at an early age… Or think differently from the rest of us, not having the emotional captivity for caring about others as much as normal people do. These people you can't figure out."

Though he didn't say any names, Flippy knew he was talking about DJ.

"So… So do you think that… Anyone, could be a killer?" Flaky asked.

"Well… Yes, anyone can be a killer. Through normal accidents or one-time bursts of anger, one can kill another. Killing many people throughout a large timespan, however, is an entirely different matter."

"One more thing, Mister Rager. Have you killed someone before?"

Rager froze. His mind flashed back to a short while ago, himself crouched above junior officer Oscar's body as he bled out, thanks to a bullet shot to the gut by Rager. It was an accident, Rager had kept saying. A loss of control, the result of letting paranoia drive him.

He sighed. "Once. It was… unpleasant."

Flaky got the hint to drop it, and returned to silence.

"Rager? It's Ruffy."

Rager scrambled for his walkie-talkie, the sudden sound of Ruffy's voice making everyone in the room, even those who were listening to Rager's speech, jump. He grabbed the talkie and put it to his mouth. "Rager here. What is it?"

"I think we may have a breakthrough with our satellite problem."

"… I'm listening."

How on earth could he be sleeping at a time like this?

Toothy shook his head as he watched the form of Nutty sleep peacefully, curled up underneath the hospital-issue blanket. A light snore could be heard from somewhere in Nutty's being. Toothy mentally wondered how no-one else had heard Nutty's snoring, before glancing down into a paper bag by his side, just checking once more that he had everything he needed.

Then he poked Nutty in the belly.

"Zzzzzzzz…"

Toothy poked Nutty again.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz…"

Toothy rolled his eyes, leant over, and smacked Nutty on the side of his face.

"Son of a-"

"Sssh!" Toothy hurriedly whispered, putting a hand against Nutty's mouth. "Be quite, or they'll hear you."

Toothy kept that pose for a few seconds, checking to make sure none of the others were making their way towards Nutty's room, before finally letting go once Nutty began licking his palm. "Ew." Toothy shook his hand dry, turning to face Nutty.

"Hi, Toothy! What's happening?" Nutty asked.

"Something bad, Nutty." Toothy gravely spoke. "Get up."

"Wh-"

"Get up." Toothy forcefully repeated, and at his urging Nutty sat up in bed, swung onto his feet, and wiped his eyes.

"Okay, I'm up, bro. Now, what's going on?"

"First things first." Toothy nodded his head over at the window overlooking the ocean. "Go close the blinds. What I'm about to show you is extremely valuable and could save us all."

"Is it candy?"

"… Yes, Nutty. It is candy. Candy will save us all."

"How?"

"Nutty, go close the damned blinds!" Toothy snapped. How could that sugar-freak not get the hint? Jeez. He wouldn't be able to find his ass with both hands tied behind his back and a map.

Sensing the urgency in Toothy's words Nutty approached the window took a quick glance outside, before messily closing the blinds. "There. Now wha-" He cut himself off as he turned around, and saw Toothy.

Toothy was now wearing a gas mask. Toothy dropped something to the floor – a now-empty brown paper bag – and held a canister in his hand. He waved it in the air, before gripping the pin and pulling it off.

Instantly an audible hissing filled the air, and Toothy dropped the canister to the ground. A thin cloud of smoke began to emit from the canister, already burning Nutty's lungs. Nutty gagged, putting a hand against his mouth and nose, before emitting a hacking cough. A small drip of blood fell on the ground. Seeing the red liquid charged Nutty up. Still gasping for air, Nutty slowly approached Toothy, before diving forward, knocking the unsuspecting Toothy down. Nutty weakly batted at Toothy's gas mask, trying to knock it off, leaving a thin handprint on the plexiglass. Toothy merely had to push Nutty's hands away. Suddenly Nutty coughed once again, this time harder, more forcefully. A bucket of blood landed on Toothy's visor, blinding him, and Toothy heard Nutty cough gutturally twice more, before his body collapsed atop of Toothy's.

Toothy wiggled out from under Nutty's body, and leant back against a wall, wiping the blood off his visor. Ew. Trust Nutty to be as disgusting as possible in his final moments. Several minutes later, the sound of the canister's poison spraying in the air eventually died down. Toothy waited a few more minutes for the poison to disperse, before getting to his feet. He took a breath, and unclasped the gas mask.

Nutty's body laid on the floor, in a pool of his own vomited up blood. Toothy carefully approached the body, kicking it onto it's back. Nutty's face stared back at him, fresh blood stemming from his mouth, nose, and even his godamned eyes.

Toothy kicked the body a final time, just for vomiting blood on his a minute ago, before turning to leave.

Review if you want to. It makes me happy when you do. A happy DJ Shifty is a slightly-less sick DJ Shifty, and a slightly-less sick DJ Shifty is someone who'll more likely get off his contaminated ass and update something.

Love, DJ Shifty.

~ Jake.