ADDITIONAL NOTE: Sorry this is late folks! I went dip-netting on Sunday and got back later than expected. And then I got sun poisoning, like the near albino pleb I am. But here it is.
So yeah. This isn't going to be pleasant. Just that little heads-up. We are getting into the meat of zone 3, so things are not pretty here. Some harsh realities of the zone are going to come to light.
WARNING: Rated M for combat, substance abuse, disturbing themes, language, mental instability, and possibly disturbing imagery. Reader Discretion is HIGHLY Advised.
As they reentered the factory floor, it became immediately apparent what Zacharie had meant. The Elsen were moving around erratically, twitching at any sound or movement.
"Hhhhh…" One spotted them from its spot scratching the wall, and abandoned the bloody mess it had made to begin stumbling toward them. The Batter lifted his bat as the Elsen shambled forward, its eyes glazed and panicked. "There's too much white in my head…" It rasped, suddenly lunging at them. The Batter swung, the impact of his bat tearing the Elsen's head off its body, soot and ink bubbling up from the neck. He began pummeling the bat in the soft body until it stopped twitching and began to melt. "So much of it spilled, so much…" the head wheezed, drawing the attention of the other Elsen in the room.
The Batter lifted his bat, ready to fight, but Dedan interrupted. "Hey fuckwad, while I know that you can take them all on, I think we should be going." The Batter turned to look at the former Guardian, who had picked up the Player. That was right. While he could take them all on, that would leave his Player unprotected, with only those worthless parasites to guard her. He gave a reluctant nod, and followed after Dedan.
Every Elsen in the factory had gone mad, screaming and lashing out at whatever moved. Including themselves and each other. Dedan tucked the Player's head against his chest as he ran, preventing her from seeing. It was grim. The Batter smacked an Elsen away from the front entrance, leaving the path open for them to run through. As they left the factory, the Batter could see several Elsen make to follow, moving faster and faster as they lost their minds. In fact, he realized with muted shock, they were catching up rather quickly. He slid to a stop as he made a decision.
"Get to the metro line and wait in the car, doors closed." Dedan didn't stop moving, carrying her off as he tch-ed. Running grated against him. He had sworn he wouldn't run again, not after… He shook himself out of those thoughts as he skid down the stairs. Not the time.
The Batter swung his bat, smacking one of the Elsen clean into the plastic, as another took its place. There were so many, all Sugared and Burnt. Soon a congealed pile of sludge had spread across the path, dripping into the plastic sea, the black spreading slowly through the grey waves. Fucking filth, worthless pieces of trash.He shouldered his bat and sprinted off toward the metro. It was quiet here, the madness that had affected the Elsen in the factory not having spread out here. Seeing the empty area, and the metro car with his Player inside, the Batter relaxed.
He had taken a major gamble. The parasite couldn't interact with the world outside of the Player and himself, and even that was limited. If they had encountered any threats, his Player would have been unprotected. As the Player opened the doors, he stepped in and began examining her. No injuries. He refrained from slumping in his relief. As the car began moving toward Area 3, he kept hold of his Player. His pure, precious Player.
He would go mad if he lost her, though he may have already done so.
The metro car trundled along the tracks, leaving the group plenty of time to think about what had just happened. Actually, what had just happened? The Elsen had been docile when they entered the factory, but swiftly had become manic aggressive when they were leaving. That wasn't normal behavior in any sense, even for an individual going through substance withdrawals.
"So," the Player spoke up first. "What was that?"
"A chain reaction, I think. One of the Elsen on the floor must have Sugar Burnt—like the ones in the storage room—and it may have set the others off as well." Japhet postulated, clicking his beak. To be honest, it didn't explain how it spread to the other rooms, but it was the best he had. No one said otherwise, accepting the explanation. They really didn't want to think about it anyway.
The silence was broken by the screeching of the brakes as they pulled into the Area 3 station, and they all piled out on to the quiet platform. Stepping out of the station, the Player blinked. It was empty. Not just of Elsen—which the other Areas had been as well—but of entrances. The only progress-able point she could see was a long ladder stretching up the length of an enormous smoke stack.
"Oh, fucking hell. We have to climb up all that shit?" The Player sighed in response to Dedan's incredulous question and looked up the ladder. She couldn't see the top. The Batter looked as well. There was no way his Player would be able to climb all the way to the top, he realized. He put his hand on her shoulder, preventing her from grabbing the ladder. He turned away from her and crouched down.
"On," he said shortly. The Player didn't move for a moment, before she slowly climbed onto his back, her face red. The Batter shivered at the feeling of her body pressed against his back, skin rippling in waves. He steeled himself against the sensation—a pleasurable burning on his back—and began to climb the ladder.
Japhet fluttered off to the top without a word, leaving Dedan the only one still at the bottom. "Well, fuck you too." He began climbing after them, the climb no actual problem due to how fit he was. He just liked to complain. It seemed an eternity before they reached the top, made no shorter by Dedan's near constant muttered curses about the climb.
There was nothing at the top but the opening of the smokestack. The Player carefully looked over the edge of the thin lip, still on the Batter's back as swift winds whipped around them. There was a faint light at the bottom of the shaft, but it was way down there. Dedan crossed his arms, looking down as well.
"Well shit, now what?" The Player didn't know. Certainly they weren't meant to jump down the smokestack, were they? The impact would kill them. She looked around again. There was nothing but them up there.
She swallowed. Great, now to pitch this idea without sound suicidal. "We need to jump." That probably hadn't been the best way to say that. Dedan whipped his head toward her, glowing white eyes emoting incredulity.
"Say what now?" However, the Player never got to respond, as the Batter leapt off the edge into the smokestack. He trusted her. She knew what she was doing. Dedan stood there for a moment alone, Japhet perched next to him. "And he didn't even question it." He thought for a moment. "Fuck it." And so Dedan leapt after the pair.
As they hurtled toward the ground, Alpha and Omega slipped off the Batter's wrist. Omega fell back toward Dedan, while Alpha spread wide. The space inside the Add On glowed, thickening the air. The Batter fell through, feeling himself decelerate and instantly understood as Alpha shot down below them and spread out again. The Add On's would slow their descent, making it so the landing would be more of just that, a landing, instead of an impact.
He put his arms out, slowing their descent and allowing himself more time to line up with Alpha. It took ten repetitions before he felt they were moving slow enough for it to be safe. With a light tap, the Batter landed on the grating at the bottom of the stack, Alpha slipping back onto his wrist. Dedan landed a moment later, followed by Japhet—who had just flown down. As Dedan breathed heavily, the Batter preened.
The fool had doubted the Player, and had been worried about the fall. He had known his knowledgeable Player knew what to do. After all, she was never wrong. She had planned for the Add Ons to slow their descent, ensuring their safe landing. How clever his Player was, to so easily figure out such an ingenious way to move forward with their quest. Speaking of, his Player slipped down off his back, stepping down onto the grating.
She breathed a sigh of relief, noting that even through her gas mask she could still smell how sweet the air was here. Thank goodness she had been right. That could have been painful. And deadly. Taking a look around, she saw piles of speckled Sugar, an Elsen scooping them up with a shovel and tossing it down a large hole. Next to it was a set of stairs leading down, most likely into the factory proper. Ignoring how Dedan still hadn't calmed down—and was staring at her like she was out of her mind—she moved to go speak with the Elsen.
The Batter pulled her back. "Don't get close." He didn't want her around regular Elsen, the filthy trash that they were, and ticking time-bombs of Elsen, just waiting to go violent were to be kept far away. He didn't even care about disobeying her in this instance, if she ordered him to let her go. As he had said in zone 1, her life and safety over her happiness. He could only hope she could find it in her pure heart to forgive him.
The Player thought for a moment, before nodding. She didn't move any closer, but she did speak to the Elsen. "Um hey," she called, garnering no reaction from the Elsen. Its eyes were wide, teeth clenched hard as it stared at its task.
"The… Su…" It wheezed out through its clenched jaw. "The… Sug… The Sugar…" It shook, movements speeding up as it began to frantically shovel. The Batter tensed, ready for it if it attacked. "Put the sugar in the tube, the sugar in the tube!" The Elsen screamed this. "…in the tube." It kept shoveling at a rapid pace, taking no notice of the group. Dedan finally shook off the shock and moved up next to them.
"We should move past before it notices us." The Batter nodded, pulling the Player along after him. The Elsen never noticed them pass by, focused on its task. However, downstairs was a horrific sight. The Player stopped on the stairs, choking back her bile. Piles of Elsen lay scattered around the room, blood soaking the floor. Another Elsen was dragging a body, which it tossed into the furnace. A wave of sweet smoke poured from the opening of the furnace, causing Dedan to cough.
"Oh God, it's a Soylent Green* situation." She could barely whisper this, her throat locking up. Dedan and Japhet were just as shocked. This… this wasn't right, was it? Enoch, he wouldn't have… right? But they themselves had done things that they once would have never considered, and they retracted that thought. He could. He would.
Dedan took a deep breath. He was shocked, but deep down he wasn't surprised. That incident… it had really fucked Enoch up. He had become unstable, but Dedan had never thought that he would do this. He was the Guardian of the zone, for fuck's sake! He was meant to up keep it, to guard it and its inhabitants. Though they were just Elsen, and they weren't… they were still alive, they could still feel. Then again, hadn't Japhet also tried to kill his citizens? Had he been the last to hold on to his sanity in the face of all this time?
"You… What…" The shocked, wheezing tones of the Elsen dragged Dedan out of his dark contemplation. "Where did you come from?" It stood between them and the bodies, almost protectively, its eyes fixed upon them with precision. The Batter moved to stand between the Elsen and the Player, hiding her from view.
"I'm the Batter, and I jumped down the chimney." He looked at the bodies. If Elsen were burned, they turned into Sugar. He didn't like Sugar, but he would eat Elsen. He cut his eyes to the jittery Elsen. Guess he liked his meals undercooked. "What is this place?"
The Elsen didn't respond for a long while. "…You're here in the Sugar ovens of Vesper, the northern part of zone 3." The Elsen gestured at the room they were in. "Here, we burn the corpses of people who have died, and, thanks to an ingenious sewer system, transform the vapour into sugar." So it was the vaporous smoke that came off the bodies that was the Sugar, not the Elsen themselves. That made more sense than a cooking preference as to why he would eat Elsen but not Sugared Elsen. "The tubes which traverse the factory walls direct it to the Treatment Rooms, where it is washed and purified from the remaining ashes. Then the Sugar is distributed to all employees as a reward for the work they do every day."
The Elsen paused, giving a gasping wheeze. "It's a secret element… The fifth element… The most important element… Because without Sugar, people could no longer bear reality, and they would go mad." Dedan snorted. As fucked as the logic was, it rung slightly with a truth.
The Batter clenched his hand. This was the height of degradation, of how truly disgusting these tainted beings had become. So filthy with sin, they could not even see the wrong in what they were doing. Not that Elsen really mattered, being what they were, but he could see how the murder of their own had steeped these creatures in sin, so deep and thick it nearly poured from their skins. "Who's responsible for this?" Who was the master of this zone, the one who had fallen so far?
The Elsen tilted its head, eyes wavy. "Are you… you bringing me Sugar?" The question was not in line with the conversation, but the Batter answered anyway. Who knew how convoluted this Sugar-addled Elsen's thinking was? Normal Elsen were bad enough, but drugged ones?
"No."
"The director is responsible. He… He's in Area 4." With that, the Elsen turned back to its duties, dismissing them. It grabbed another body, and tossed it into the furnace, releasing more smoke. "Hee hee," it giggled. The group went back upstairs. The Player was silent, head down as they moved back up the stairs.
The Batter was worried. She was too pure to know of sure depravity. It was weighing on her, dragging her down and hurting her. He could just remove her knowledge of it—no. He stopped himself. No, this would drive her, push her to help him purify this zone as quickly as possible. So he would let her remember this even if she tasted so good.
The only way out of the chimney was the tube to the sewer. "Parasite, go down first. The Player will follow after you." Dedan sneered, but started to climb into the tube. He understood what the Batter was doing, but the fuck just grated on his nerves, what with being a monster and all.
"Stop call'n me parasite, damn it." He disappeared into the tube, Japhet with him. The Batter lifted the near unresponsive Player up to the hole and sent her down with a push. He watched as she vanished, waiting until he was sure she was further down before grabbing the Elsen next to him and ripping its head off. He dropped the carcass, unwilling to eat something so sweetened.
He was soooooo hungry.
The bottom of the sewer pipe somehow lead to the metro station platform. The Player was curled up, her knees pulled to her chest as she sat against the wall of the station. The Batter didn't question how they had gotten here, simply scooping up his precious, innocent Player and sitting down, cradling her to his chest. A small hiccup came from the Player.
"God," she said quietly. "How bad does your life have to be to turn to drugs to escape? Drugs made from the bodies of your friends, your family?" Japhet turned his head away, resting himself on the top of the metro. It was Dedan who responded.
"That's just a reality here, sweetheart. Maybe not the escaping through drugs—that's just this zone—but life ain't sweet. It's fucked up, and brutal, and cruel." He lit a cigar, relishing in the deep drag he pulled from it. "These little shits took the easy way out of dealing with it, refusing to look at how life is. They rationalize what they are doing, they make it so they are in the right. They went down a slippery slope, until they were at the very bottom and none the wiser." He crouched down in front of where she sat on the Batter's lap, meeting her eyes. His voice was gentler when he spoke again. "It ain't gotta be that way, though. All it takes is for one person to stop and take a good look at what they are doing, and realize it ain't right." He brushed his hand over her head, petting back her hair.
The Batter didn't react, seeing the self-loathing in Dedan's eyes. It was the same that he knew were in his own. They had both done truly awful things, had rationalized it away only to look back and regret. The two were more similar than the Batter would like to admit.
Difference between them was that he was working to fix his mistakes, not just atone.
Ugh, sometimes I depress myself. Anywho, next chapter is the reveal. LAST CHANCE TO GUESS WHAT ELSEN AREN'T IS THIS CHAPTER. Next chapter it will be revealed, and that OMAKE may vanish forever.
*Soylent Green is an older movie, in which a miracle product, Soylent Green, was found to have been produced by processing humans into it. Good movie, I'm not going into details. Go watch it for more info.
FUN FACT: All my chapters are posted in a format that I use that optimizes them for mobile devices. It ends up looking pretty thin on regular computers.
