And here we are, Chapter 6.

It's been a little while to get here, and frankly I think I made good pace. let me check... 31k? Oh...

A shorter chapter for this one, as I managed to get to a fairly good send off point rather quickly. I could have stretched it out, but the fact is that it would have been STRETCHING not NORMALLY BE says enough I think.

And given a lot of the other stories for this game, 31k just to get to a properly different point? Shit.

Ahhhh well, I did warn you.

Annnnyway, See you on the opposite side!

Chapter 6

Mono stepped briskly, being sure to keep his pace. The forest was dark, and despite the hunter's light, the easiest way to find them would be through the sounds of them running. He settled on a quick step, moving as fast as possible while also having the sounds of his movement hidden by the ambient noise of the forest. His breathing was quick and sharp, and his eyes kept darting about. It was the best way to do something like this, or so he found, as the sooner you escaped a creature's grounds, the better it was for you.

His eyes slipped from their darting, and he found them falling on the girl behind him. She was taking in great gasps of air, and every now and again she would stumble, slowing him down to help her up and keep moving.

Six's eyes weren't like his, and she was so focussed on moving forward that he was the one left to be alert. The girl was not much of a runner it seemed, as she was gasping and panting even after only a short while of moving at his pace. He felt some slight annoyance creep up, but he could easily rationalise the situation. She was kept locked up for a long time, and being unable to move about freely would heavily degrade you. She couldn't be blamed for it. It was not fair.

But it was slowing them.

The beast knew they were moving, and was actively searching for them. The sounds of its distant tracking, that heavy breathing audible on the wind. They had to get out of its territory before it could find them. It wasn't close, as the sounds it made were distant and frustrated. Mono hoped internally that the creature was making more noise due to its anger, and was much further away than he thought it was.

But the sound of distant shuffling bushes made it clear that was far from the case.

Still, the closer it was the fast they needed to move. He gave the hand in his care a small tug, and the girl's desperate panting stilled for a second as she swallowed a mouth full of air before moving faster. He pushed as fast as he could, and the girl was being dragged along behind him.

"Please…" She gasped between heavy breaths, and Mono caught the word and ignored it. The girl pleaded again, nearly stumbling multiple times. "Slow down…"

Looking over his shoulder, he stopped his run, and pulled her into some cover offered by a tree. He hid amongst the roots, with Six nestling herself in the cracks of the trunk and resting herself against them.

Annoyance flared again, this time not at her inability but at her requirement to rest. He looked at her, and saw the sweat rolling down her face. "Hunting us, can't slow down." She looked up from her perch, and shook her head at him.

"Running around is more dangerous, upsets animals." She tried to catch his eyes, but his mask hid them, instead she settled on staring at his mask instead. Her fingers rubbed her legs, soothing the sore muscles. "He'll notice, and come for us. Sneak through. Longer, but safer." She stopped for a moment, breathing, but as he went to speak she spoke again. "I've tried running, never had the chance to sneak. Can't outrun him, he'd shoot us."

She stared him down, and he had to admit that she made sense… Of course she'd know more about the hunter, and the best way to approach him. At least, the approaches that didn't work. If she had attempted multiple attempts to flee from the man, then it would at least let her know what she wasn't supposed to do.

But in another way, how could he trust her words there? She only knew what failed, but if she made mistakes, and then failed because of them, then running from the thing was still a possibility. And, not to mention, She wasn't on a time limit.

He was.

That tower was always calling to him, and he had a distant thought about the dangers that it called to it. He had to destroy it, or kill the signal, and as soon as possible. Even through the adrenaline, and the pain in his shoulder and hand, the Tower was still present in his thoughts.

"How do you know sneaking will work? Won't it be too slow?" She looked at him again, and tilted her head.

"I've got plenty of time."

Her words confused him. Plenty of time? What does that mean? She had a link to the tower, she said as much, and it had caused that tiny flicker of hope in him regarding his own feelings. Was she on the same kind of mission?

Still…

No. He should listen to her, if she thought of a better method than his own. He knew running was inherently risky, and he should try and minimise that where he could.

He nodded to her, and let a quiet apology slip his lips. She heard it, and took his hand again and pulled him along. Her fingers tightened around his palm, and she was sure to keep him rather close as she led them. He didn't think much about it, not really, but instead found her patience fairly impressive. It made him feel more alert, in a weird way, as she spent her time less focussed on her feet and more on the world around them.

It encouraged him when he was doing the same, it made him feel safe.

But that feeling, the ever so distant feeling of betrayal came back again.

He couldn't explain it. It was an instinctive feeling… Although that didn't make enough sense. Something was telling him not to trust, although he figured it was an inherent distrust to anyone, not just her. Six hadn't caused him to not have trust in her, she hadn't hurt him… Well, not intentionally anyway, and even then it was because she was helping him.

It would take time, he figured. It was probably due to being alone so much, he had grown so confident in himself that he saw other people as a nuisance. At least, not himself, but that bit of himself he couldn't control. That Other him, the one that was fuelled by instinct… Maybe there was a word for it, but he didn't know it.

The terrain wasn't like before, and he wasn't sure if it was a sign of the Tower's corruption or the normal terrain of the area. Likely the later, as the Tower liked having everything smooth and easy to see, that constant watch being important to it. Like some kind of ever watching big brother that wanted nothing more than to watch you as you go about your life.

The area was covered in brushes, and rocky outcrops would spring up at unusual points. It was so radically different to the other area, that he couldn't help but think that that place was engineered intentionally.

But in that case, why does Six seem uncomfortable?

She was far more alert than he realised, and the girl was focussing on every single noise she heard. She trusted no sounds, and was alert constantly. She wasn't breathing too quickly was she? That'd get her if she was.

But she wasn't, instead he could only think of it as a form of hyper-awareness. She was looking at every sound, and given how sometimes her head would turn to look at a direction repeatedly, she could pick up sounds he couldn't hear. Still, if she knew the area, would she really be as alert as this?

Her behaviour did make him feel worried though, she seemed scared but trying not to show it. The hunter might not be any kind of terror to him, He'd seen things like that before, but he hadn't been trapped by that thing. He didn't know what he had done to her, or how long she had been there, only assumed.

Fortunately, they weren't moving quickly, so all he had to do was whisper. "Are you okay?"

She snapped around, and put a finger to her mouth. He frowned, but she jabbed towards a nearby tree. Her gesture pointed directly at a bundle of torn up roots which seemed to dangle down from the base. She pulled him towards it, and he realised that the roots were covering an underground space. The two of them pushed aside the roots, and he found his shoulder protesting even that simple action.

She poked her head out, and listened for a moment, and he turned to look deeper into the crawl-space. Despite the smell of earth, and the distant sign of twisted, warped light, it seemed fairly comfortable in this little space.

The whole crawl space looked like it was a tunnel, given the distant light, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to explore it. The hunter could have trapped further up the tunnel, and he might not even notice before the trap triggered and killed him. He turned his eyes to her, and she settled herself down before stretching out. She was perfectly happy sleeping there it seemed, and he turned to face her. "You need rest?"

The girl leant back and closed her bloodshot eyes, and nodded. "I'm tired."

Tired? We've only been moving for a little while, she shouldn't be tiring so quickly. He watched her intently, and the nagging desire to keep moving pushed him to get her up and keep moving. This is a waste of time, we should keep going... All I need to do is tell her that.

He cleared his throat, and she turned to look at him. "We need to keep moving, we don't know when that thing will find us." She did her best attempt at looking unconcerned about that fact, and it wasn't for a few moments until Mono realised her attempt was anything but that. She was genuinely unphased about the Monster.

"He doesn't check the tree roots. We're safe, we can sleep for a bit." The girl shrugged to herself before turning over. He stared at her, mouth agape.

Sleep? Sleep?! A prey animal doesn't sleep when a larger one was hunting, that was to invite death. And he needed to move on quickly. The Tower, He had to get to the tower! If she felt the pull of it, then why didn't she try like he did. How come she could accept this, to sleep at a time like this, when things were so close to going wrong. He opened his mouth, but struggled to find the right words.

How could he phrase it? That she simply didn't understand the stakes and was wrong? It didn't fit. That he had it all figured out? That sounded far too arrogant. He wasn't sure how to talk to her about it, or what he could say to her.

But perhaps that was it? Maybe he was thinking about this wrong.

If she was perfectly happy to admit she felt drawn to the tower in some way, then maybe he was looking at the situation wrong. He was awkward about it, while she was confident to admit it bluntly. Maybe she knew more about the thing than he did, maybe her connection with the Tower, or her understanding, was far deeper than his own.

Her chest was rising slowly, and he realised that she was asleep. It felt wrong to wake her, given he knew how bloodshot her eyes were, and how heavy the bags had looked under them. She needed the rest, he knew that… It wouldn't be right to disturb her. And if she was so tired that she couldn't really run, then it was probably for the best.

It also made him think.

She had that connection with the Tower, and if she was under the impression that the world was perfectly fine, and that they weren't under any major rush, then should he doubt that? In truth, he wasn't one-hundred percent sure why he felt so rushed about it. It was instinctual, as opposed to something he knew. He felt like he needed to rush, to get this all over and to get to the Tower as quickly as he could.

But… Was that right?

Did he truly need to be so hasty?

He looked at Six again, and found himself feeling fatigued. He moved from his crawl, and sat himself down, before leaning on the wall a little bit away from her. She was probably right, about the need for rest and sleep. He couldn't tell if he needed any, but it had been a while since he last slept… But that was probably more down to him not getting much and becoming somewhat accustomed to it, instead of him genuinely not being tired.

Maybe…

No, She did have the right idea.

He settled himself down, and curled himself up. It felt better that way. Safer, more hidden or secretive.

It was more comfortable to hide.

It didn't take long for the dreams to claim him.

The snow was heavy, and he found himself having to provide shelter for the smaller person with him, using his coat as a form of shield from the frigid downpour. The girl was clinging to him, and he could feel her shivers against his shirt. He felt sympathy for her, and knew that she was at risk when against the elements.

Between the ice, the chill and her injuries, he knew he'd need to get her to safety soon.

But the constant expanse of white was impenetrable, and he could barely see ten feet in front of him. He couldn't trust her to last as long as she would need to, he needed to find somewhere for her to stay.

She stumbled; His arms caught her.

Her gaze was hazy, and he knew that he would need to keep her going. She was struggling with her leg, so he resolved to pull her properly so he was basically carrying her. He let her arms wrap around him, and support herself a bit better, but it was difficult. They hadn't eaten in days, and they both felt weak. His arms burned like fire, and his stomach gnawed at his focus and stubbornness.

But he couldn't accept stopping. Not now.

He looked around again, but his sight was completely blocked by the wall of freezing death. He only had his feeling for the beacon to go by, and that was the only viable option here. Smell, sight, hearing? All lost to the wind and chill.

"Don't give up yet…"

He nodded at her words, close enough to be audible, and kept trudging onwards.

His boots kept some of the sting away from his feet and he hoped that some of his own body heat was keeping her warm.

The howling wind really had come from no-where. What had been a wide open field on their journey to the Beacon had suddenly become submerged in the streak of a billion snowflakes. They hadn't expected it, as there had been no sign of the coming storm, so they found themselves completely unprepared.

His thoughts wandered, and he found himself thinking back on things. It helped him keep moving, to ignore the situation and press on irrespective of the situation.

How long had it been since the world had gone to hell? Honestly, he couldn't remember.

It was a weird sensation, since you never knew when the world started to lose its attention. People just stopped caring, started focusing more and more on their own lives and decided that everyone outside of it was not as important as their own. Self-absorption, or so he thought at the time.

Then again, he never felt the same addiction the rest of them did.

His parents hadn't even noticed when he had slipped out into the night, and since there was never any interest in him going about the place as a small boy, they never cared.

A gust buffeted him, and he turned to keep himself between the wind and her. He felt something shift on his head, so he brought his hand up and caught his hat before it was ripped off by the whipping wind. He held it on, and looked back, eyes squeezed shut to protect them from the snow.

He could see it, that small beacon in the sky.

His skin crawled, and he shook away that whispering in his mind. When did it take so much effort to clear it from his thoughts?

He figured that it was due to his closeness to the thing that called to him. That the power of the mind grew in strength and its ceaseless calls only grew louder the closer he got. His fingers tingle whenever he raised his hand to it, and the beacon grew quieter, if not less determined. He felt that sensation too, a tingle of lightning in the nerves, and he always felt like he could lean into it.

But he never did.

He wasn't sure, but if doing so would lead to the same fate as everything else in the world then it wasn't worth the risk.

He felt something shift, and he looked back to his companion. She'd planted her feet again on the ground, and she lightened in his grasp. She nodded to him, and he let her carry on her own. She wasn't okay, it was visible, but she was determined to go on regardless.

But she really wasn't dressed for this weather… Her clothes were fairly thin, and she lacked a jacket of any kind. Pretty much just left with train-errs, or what she called them. Her trousers were too thin, and her jumper was probably the only thing keeping her alive. And that was saying nothing of the damage to her clothes, which had been battered and scarred over the long journey, with the jumper being intact. But given it was the newest addition, that didn't say much.

Something slipped from her pocket, and the girl went scrambling for it before it had even touched the thick snow beneath them. It hit the blanket and disappeared beneath it, and her hands punched straight through the layer after it.

She let out a relieved sigh as she pulled the small black object back out of the cold depths.

Her fingers were blue and near frigid, but she clung so tightly to the object that they turned white. A small, black, smooth device that had never worked in the entire time they had travelled. The girl had promised that it was just dead, and it would work again later. It never made sense to him, and he let her keep her little oddities without a second thought.

She knew it was important, that it would help her, and yet she never fixed it.

The girl stood up again, and smiled, but he didn't look at her. Something had changed, and he turned back to the massive mental point in the sky. He froze, and took a deep breath, before steeling himself.

The snow storm parted, and the beacon was glaring down at him. The baleful light seemed to shine directly on him, and he felt its attention. His fingers tingled again, and he flexed them reflexively. He could see it now, clearer than ever.

A monumental tower of concrete and steel, built upon the foundation of lies and mental exhaustion. The beacon was a crimson focus, and he could feel its static thoughts on the wind. It was watching him, expecting him, calling him. It wanted him.

And it wanted her.

He looked down at her, and she fell to one knee. He caught her arm, and she tried to look up at him, those soft eyes full of fatigue. He didn't get the chance to catch her. She had collapsed so quickly after trying to look up, he barely had the chance to move before her face was in the snow.

His head burst into pain, and he collapsed with her. It was dominating and oppressive, and he felt the vomit pass his lips. That acrid taste of bile and acid burnt his tongue and throat, and the snow melted under the pungent mess. His head pounded like a drum, and a rapid rhythmic strain was pushing down on him.

He tried to push his hands against the snow, to lift himself up. His muscles ached, and his heart and mind stung with lightning, and he could only make a few inches before collapsing back into the snow and sick.

A pressure built in his skull, a broad all encompassing pain.

It pushed outwards, like his skull was trying to split open, his body felt numb while his brain crushed itself. On top of that, his ears rang to the screaming static noise that suffocated his senses, and bit into every nerve in his body.

A hand shot up to his nose, as thick red blood leaked out of his ears and nostrils in veritable rivers. The smell of iron stuck to him, and his vision darkened and distorted.

The tower warped itself before his eyes.

The simple concrete became long tendrils of twisting flesh, bulging and distorting, reaching out into the sky. It was the vine fingers of a twisted abomination. Eyes, hundreds or thousands or millions blinked open and locked on to him. He couldn't tell how many, as they seemed to flow over each other in a ceaseless shifting mass.

Thoughts that weren't his own, alien voices cackling maddened script, forced themselves upon him. With a simple flick of his eyes to his friend, A million screaming demanding dominating words were shoved into his head.

Killpreyfoodhungertoylessonexperimentinvestigatedevourutilizereformcreatepettoyintruderpreyvictimoptimalsuffercomfortbelongalienkill…

The words and meaning flooded his head and it alone caused more caustic bile to be ejected from his lips.

The girl herself was still, completely unmoving against the tainted snow.

Was she dead, was she unconscious? No?

He struggled to tell, his thoughts weren't coherent enough.

Resistrefusereturnobeyobjectfightlovekillmurderproveproveprove

He couldn't think, he couldn't focus, he couldn't even tell if his head was his own.

Proveproveproverevealshowsustainresistproveproveprove

He tried again, to rise but

CEASEOBEYLISTENLISTENPROVERESISTPROVEPOWEROBEY

He grit his teeth, and ground his fist against the gro

LISTENLISTENLISTENDIEABANDONKILLLEAVESUFFERRESISTFIGHT

He couldn't blo

CEASERETURNOBEYACTPROVEACTPROVEFIGHTREVEAL

Think! He Coul

SILENCETHINKFIGHT!

Dn't think from-

REVEALFORCEPOWER!

All this-

POWERSIGNALRESIST!

Bloody!

PROVENOWRESIST!

NOISE!

PROVEPROVEPRO-

"SHUT UP!"

Fingers coated in static lightning snapped up, and the voices ceased.

His breathing slowed, and everything changed. The pain, the pressure, the noise, the EVERYTHING. It all ceased like a switch flicked. The only feeling was of the physical, of the blood and vomit. He could still feel it on his body and lips, could still taste that bile and the blood that had entered his mouth.

And he could feel the lightning that buzzed through his veins.

He didn't move his hand, and he looked up.

The Tower twisted and writhed like the death throes of a stubborn maggot. The concrete and steel was glitched and broken, elongating like spaghetti, and the sky visible past the shorn structure, and it twisted in protest of the grip that held it. The surface was righted, and there were no signs of the dozens of fleshy tendrils that reached out into the sky.

Even the snow storm had ceased, the influence of that alien creature contained within whatever power he was using to harm that thing. The snow on the air had vanished, as if it was never there, and the only sign there had been one were the blankets on the ground.

He ignored that and turned back to his friend.

She was passed out, and with the screaming in his head silenced, he could clearly tell the ragged breathing that was escaping her. She looked pale and ill, as she had, but she wasn't the target. Blood wasn't leaking from her, and she looked all the parts of a sleeping, if battered, young woman.

That helped unwind the strain in his chest, and he sighed in relief.

Mono let his eyes drift back to the Tower. The whole thing was responsible, not just that small attention seeking light on top. That's what it was? A tower made of flesh and hiding under the guise of a normal radio tower?

He tightened his grip, both literally and with whatever power he was using to contain it. The air rippled around it, and Mono could see the shockwave as it approached, a shifting wall of air that cleared out everything as it approached. The clouds themselves were parted by it.

It hit him like a truck, and rang his near deafened ears like a great bell.

Screaming, in a million tongues echoed outwards, and a deep throbbing bass-filled roar of pain leaked from the tower itself.

He mounted the pressure, letting his anger and hatred and his sheer determination try to crush the thing under the sheer power of the distortions.

It continued its stubbornness, and he felt its resistance. It was like strangling something, and he kept mounting upon it. He could feel it, could taste it, the thing was in pain. It's suffering travelled back to him, and he revelled in the pleasure it gave him, and he ramped it more and more.

Tighter, Harder, more painful.

It felt better and more satisfying than anything else in the world.

He was killing it! He was choking it of its life! He was-

Suitable

The feeling of lightning ended, and his hand became like stone, and dropped to his side. He watched it hang limply there no matter how much force he put on it. It was like the strings of a puppet cut, and he had no control over the limb itself. He dropped to his knees, and he found his legs were empty and drained..

He looked up at the endless Tower, and it eclipsed the sky.

It spread itself out and forward, as rolling flesh split into uncountable numbers of individual tendrils that blacked out the peaking sun. The sky and world peeled away from it, and he realised what he was witnessing.

He was so outmatched, so outclassed, that it was an impossibility to think he could win. Not against this creature.

It blacked out the world itself with its presence, and the millions of tendrils came for him.

A tidal wave of flesh and eyes, each one a screaming dominating voice, the oppressive feeling of inability. It all came at him, and he could do nothing against the oncoming tide.

It pushed aside mountains, moving with such speed the air before it distorted, and the sound of rolling thunder was so utterly deafening that he shouldn't have been able to hear it at all.

The screaming grew, the pressure returned, his thoughts ceased.

And Mono woke with a jerk.

He stood up as quickly as he could, his fingers scoured his body, and his head pounded like a drum.

After a few tense minutes, of his stomach feeling like fire and his body feeling numb, he finally sat down.

He rested his head on the cool ground before sneaking a peek outside the tendril-like mass of roots. The moon was still high in the sky, now beyond the clouds, and the air was still cool and blowing. He ignored that static feeling that was still touching his bones, or that pounding drum on his head. They didn't matter compared to that nightmare.

He drilled into his eyes with his fists, and he breathed the last of his nightmare from his body.

"What was that?"

Huh, Wonder why that happened?

You might have noticed that Mono and Six don't carry on from what they think. Mono's always coming up with other reasons for rushing her, and she will change what she says. Again, intentional. Last chapter Six admitted that she KNOWS of the Tower's influence, but she then doesn't rationalise it or use it as a justification.

It's clunky and awkward, and they keep coming up with new things to make their points. It's who they are at the moment, and I wanted Mono being conflicted and yoyo-ing on the matter.

Anyway, enjoy that half chapter of Mono's mind. It wasn't actually meant to crop up until the next chapter, but I hit the point a little sooner and had it at the end of this one. Originally they would have been going through a lot more hassle and traps before hitting it, but it was a lot of nothing for no reason. So I cut it.

Gotta do that sometimes.

Oh, I also noticed some spelling errors in my last Author's notes. Real dumb ones too, so I've been throwing them into word to check them, hopefully that'll make me look less of a fool.

Anyway, I'll see you guys on the 18th. Chao!