DISCLAIMER: (See Prologue)
SHOUTOUTS:
m-e lee12 - haha... it's not davey. sowwie. but you'll be finding that out soon. (so you didn't hear it from me) but... mrs. hotze definitely had some big-ass knife... sadly i missed it, tho... but bengtson can verify, fudgehead
Brownie/Melody - I got freakin' SOAKED when the rain came... had to walk the 1/2 block (oh wow) or whatever home... but i was like a drowned rat... but.... i stole dutchy's crack, sorry... he was about to OD. sadly.... then i would cry b/c there'd be no mouse-dutchy
Chapter Two
I staggered over to the doorway and leaned against it, the handle digging into my spine, but I was too busy trying to spit that sour taste out of my mouth without being sick again to care. Looking up, that stinking pitch black tunnel mocked me. I turned and pushed open the door until it got caught on something on the other side. Squeezing through, I found the stairwell was not an escape either; I could make out two vague shadowy figures humped on the stairs, and the thing blocking the door made three of them. A grotesque claw-like hand clutched stiffly at the handle. A moan escaped my throat as I slumped into the corner, head between my knees. What had I done to deserve this torture? I couldn't even escape from my own apartment to get a bowl o cereal without wading through dead bodies.
I grabbed the railing and pulled myself up, shaking as I made my way down the steps, skirting the outreaching hands and avoiding their glassy-eyed stares. The silence was deafening, pressing in on my ears. But as I got further down, I could hear someone crying loudly.
I figured it was me.
But I couldn't feel my breath being wasted on those sobs. And it wasn't my eyes blurring with tears. Someone else had to be doing it.
Someone else had to be alive.
"Hello?!"
The crying cut off, but I could still hear sniffling at the bottom of the stairs. I started taking the steps two at a time; I had to find the person. The other person that lived.
"Hello?!?"
"...hello...?"
The answer was quiet and hesitant, in a familiar voice, but because of the tone I almost didn't recognize it. Almost. But I recognized the person who stood up at the bottom of the stairs.
"Dutchy!!"
The blonde boy stared at me numbly, eyes red and puffy, telltale signs of crying. I couldn't believe it- for once I was just a bit lucky. I found someone, someone who wasn't dead at that, and it was Dutchy, who I'd known my entire life. We grew up in the same orphanage, for Christ's sake.
"Skittery?"
Wow. Now there was a name I hadn't heard in a long time. I guess I hadn't called him anything but Ivan or Ive for the past few years. We must have been really desperate. How sad. But Dutchy looked about as miserable as I felt.
"Yeah... hey, Dutch... you didn't get Trips?"
Well duh he didn't... what a stupid question, Skitts. But I had to say something.
Dutchy swallowed and nodded, but I could see the tears welling up in his eyes again. "Yeah, but Mark..."
Oh no. Not Mark. Mark. Specs. Another orphanage escapee, and Dutchy's boyfriend since they were like, eleven. Losing Christine was bad for me, but I'd only been with her for a year, and to be honest, I wasn't all that faithful... but Dutchy and Specs were inseparable. They could barely function without each other.
Dutchy was crying again, and it was awkward, but I put an arm around his shoulders and he immediately leaned into my shoulder, whimpering.
"Dutchy... Dutchy, man, I'm sorry..."
"He was fine!" he sobbed, hard enough to shake both of us. "He was fine 'til yesterday... and then he jus' got so sick so fast..." Trips. What a bastard good old Captain Trips was. Perfect for killing off your enemies and you and breaking apart everyone's favorite gay couple. "...and I was gonna bury him, Skittery, but I just couldn't!! I feel so bad foah it, but I can't go back dere not now..."
Poor guy. What had he ever done to deserve this? What had Specs done? Nice how the government doesn't think about us little guys when it shows off its special new technology, eh?
"C'mon, Dutchy... we'll go back to my apartment..."
Another trip through the stinking, pitch-black hellhole. What a bastard Captain Trips was...