1006 Days, 5:43 Hours

So, maybe blindly toppling mass amounts of shelves was a bad idea after all. Karkat had moved his spot a bit, but for the most part still spent his time sitting down. John did the legwork. Even though they had the same stupid idea, Karkat was pleased this time he didn't have to clean up the giant mess immediately.

Once John had toppled all the shelves, effectively blackening the floor and caking his own shoes in debris, nothing had happened. Which hadn't particularly surprised either of them. Despite the headache from all that damn light, Karkat had helped the idiot come up with the idea that maybe randomly toppling shelves didn't knock over all the pieces.

Thankfully, he had been right. Over the past few days, John had walked around and through the mess of shelves, finding quite the number of figures who had not been disturbed enough to disappear. While this didn't really make sense to either of them, it at least helped to explain why nothing happened.

So John puttered around, finding people, and Karkat focused on trying to walk sometimes and trying not to aggravate the injury. It seemed like it had started to heal, at the very least. Damn, he had been an idiot to let it happen in the first place, not that he had much of a choice.

Still, Karkat was a bit on edge. Last time they had finished something, those ghosts had come outta nowhere and actually attacked them. If that kept up, they were in a deep pile of musclebeast shit. Karkat could barely fight, though he could step up if he had to. John would be their best bet. Besides an exit. But knowing the game, it would keep that hidden for a while.

He glanced at the clock and scowled. He had taken to wondering why exactly they had been given one in the first place. Probably for torture. It hardly mattered.

A flash of light and a sigh. Seemed like John had found another figure.

"It going okay?" Karkat shouted.

"Yeah, I see two more, but I'll have to take a break after getting them."

Karkat gave a nod, stretching out his legs slightly in his sitting position. A few flashes of light later, and John was seated beside him.

The boy lifted the corner of Karkat's shirt, and with a scowl, the troll let him look. It was a gross bubble of red against his grey skin, and from John's face it was obvious the kid didn't really like looking at it.

"Can trolls get infections?" he asked, pulling the shirt down lightly. Karkat made sure it wasn't resting too hard on the cut.

"I guess so. Lowbloods more I think. I've heard stories."

A small silence enveloped the two. John silently played with the black crust on his faded shoes. Karkat squinted his eyes, scanning for anything John may have missed that he could see from his spot.

"Do you want me to look with you? I can probably manage to walk around," Karkat asked. "Can't baby myself or I won't make it back home."

John eyed him up and down before giving a slight nod. "Just remember not to touch them. Shake the shelf or hit them."

"I'm not stupid."

John muttered something under his breath. Karkat shrugged it off. It was probably some slur against him, but fuck, he was doing the guy's job for him. He deserved some respect. Slowly, Karkat rose to his feet, standing shaking for a few moments before he set off. John jumped to his feet, following the troll to the rows.

Karkat found it difficult to walk. The shelves lay haphazardly, sporadically spaced along the ashen floor. He spent most of the time with his eyes down, looking where his feet were going as well as keeping his eyes out for pieces leftover. The more he scanned, the more it seemed John had done a damn good job in this section, at least. The pace was painfully slow. He shifted shelves with his feet and one arm, clutching his side with the other. The movement wasn't really helping, but he liked doing something. Even something he didn't want to have to do.

Time dragged on as they both looked. John found another piece, and even Karkat found a missed human in the third row of shelves. But still, they kept looking. They couldn't be sure there weren't any more weird, glowing, burning things to set free or kill off or something. Everything about the situation was a bit off, but they didn't have much of a choice. John found another one, and a streak of light shot off.

The shaking began again. Karkat wasn't sure whether to scowl or smile at that. It at least meant something was happening in the room. He glanced to John, who was a row away. His expression was a mix of serious with a slight smile underneath.

At least this time it had gone pretty fast. Again, the door appeared on the far wall, the same stupid red and blue marker above it. Shaking off some ash from his foot, Karkat staggered his way over, John close behind. The boy stepped forward, nodded, and opened the door wide. Karkat closed his eyes. It was a bit weird, doing all this moving. He could still see the planets in his mind's eye. John grabbed his wrist and dragged forward, and together they entered the next room.

"Holy shit," John shouted. Karkat opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything besides white. John threw him to the side and he hit the ground with a skid, hissing at the pain in his side. Through half closed eyes, he watched a blurry figure come after John.

Thoughts clicked into place. Karkat drew his sickle, standing slowly, trying to will his vision to clear. Who the fuck was there? Was it the ghosts again?

A sharp blow to the back of his head. He was fast enough to stash the sickle before he slammed back to the ground, eyes fading to black.