A/N Okay, I feel like things are getting back on track... finally... again, I can't apologize enough for my late uploads but I've got good feelings about the future now. Enjoy the (for once, not late) chapter!
Chapter 26: Wandering hands
They didn't know how long they were exploring the ship. Well, exploring as an overstatement, but nobody wanted to admit that they had no idea where they were or where to go. They had a few more run-ins with the leeches again, but it wasn't anything they couldnt handle, there was also an incident with a shoe monster... but it wasn't too much of a hassle and not worth mentioning... their current and most pressing problem was the janitor. See, they had found an obvious trap while exploring the guts of the ship, which they only found because Six's appetit started acting up. He nose led her to a cage full of dead meat, but the others managed to slake her hunger with some of the food they had brought with them. Her hunger contained, she realized just how obvious the trap was and frankly felt bad about it. However, a nearby rat wasn't so lucky as it devoured the flesh and was then immediately caught by the janitor. They watched as the janitor, who thought he captured a kid, dragged it away to areas unknown. Curiosity peaked, the kids decided to follow the janitor. They realized earlier that carpet, or any other soft material, muffled their footsteps allowing them to stay close to the janitor without alerting him. Once the janitor finally stopped and dropped off the rat... they beheld a truly traumatic sight: turns out, the janitor had been busy. As far as the eye could see there were children in cages, some weeping, some crying, some who's eyes stared into the void, their emotions long since dead and hope all but totally gone."This... This is barbaric..." Frisk mumbled. Six could only solemnly nod in response.
"We can't just leave them here. Help me out." Mono said as he started messing with the locks in the cages. Mike assisted him while the others looked for a key or something to break the locks. Neither ventures yielded much fruit, the locks couldn't be picked and anything that could break the locks were too heavy to lift. However, their problems only got worse once they heard the loud metallic sound of a door opening and heavy footsteps coming towards them. They all scattered and found a spot to hide as the lumbering janitor came in, feeling all surfaces as he went. Eventually, his hands grazed one of the cages and he latched on. He then began to drag the cage with a kid inside away to who knows where. The kid in the cage looked at the others who were hiding with pleading eyes.
"What do we do?" Six asked.
"I don't know... If we alert him he'll try to get us and if he catches us it'll all be for nothing." Mono replied.
"So what? We just let him take them and do who-knows-what?" Frisk added. Chara grumbled and thought hard while looking around. Her mind ran a mile a minute as she weighed her options. In the end, only one option was obvious to her. She jumped out of her hiding spot, much to the other's dismay, and sneered at the janitor. She then took a deep breath and...
"HEY! COME AND GET ME YOU BIG DUMB LONG ARMED FREAK!" Her shouts echoed throughout the room. The janitor's attention was got and he looked back at her and gave her his best glare, which wasn't much but it's the thought that counts. The janitor dropped the cage hard enough to break the lock and allow the kid to run free, then charged at Chara, who began to run behind the cages. Her plan was going off without a hitch. Just as she wanted, the janitor tore through cages, knocking them over and freeing the children inside. After a few dozen were free, she figured that was enough to free the others. She shouted to her friends to run, and they did so without much more prompting. The janitor did not enjoy being made fun of, so he chased them down with angry vigor. He rushed through obsticals and pushed down any barrier in his way with reckless abandon. He was clearly not going to give up any time soon, so hiding somewhere was out of the question. They'd have to go somewhere he could not physically reach, fortunately, there were more than enough vents on this ship to slip away easily. The hard part, however, was getting to one before being captured or cut off by the janitor. It was tricky to do, mostly because where the janitor would normally reach through shelves or high placed when they gave him the slip, he instead was so angry he just broke them all down and rushed through it all. He was truly a difficult foe to shake. It took them a while, but they finally managed to find an unguarded vent and jump inside immediately. This time, Chara, Frisk, Six, and Mike all made it inside just fine... But Mono got captured just before he could get inside. Mono tried to bite the janitors fingers like Chara did, but he would not fall for that again. The janitor held Mono with both hands and refused to let go. The janitor, smug that he caught one of them, started to walk away to... do whatever he was going to do to Mono.
"Run guys! I'll find a way out of this! Don't risk yourself for me-" But before Mono could finish his selfless sentence, Chara pounced on the janitor and stabbed him in the leg. This caused the janitor to shout and let go of Mono with one of his hands and swat at Chara, but that's exactly what she wanted. She grabbed into the janitor's hand and drove her knife deep into one of his fingers. He howled in rage and pain and tried to shake her off, but she just kept stabbing and cutting at his finger until bloody chunks covered both of them. The pain caused the janitor to drop Mono so that he could strike Chara, but she was one step ahead of him, she jumped off just as his fist came down on his injured hand. Unbeknownst to the janitor, his finger was hanging on only by some bits of bone and skin by the time Chara was done with it, this added force completly separated the digit from the rest of the hand. The janitor let out another scream as he felt around for his lost finger, giving Mono and Chara more than enough time to get to the vent and get away. They took only a moment to pause and look at Chara, who was breathing heavily and angrily.
"What?! I wasn't just going to let him get taken away!" She said in a half-shout. The others wanted to say something, but they heard the janitor coming their way. Whatever they had to say, it was going to have to wait for later. As they ran, Mike couldn't help but think... This time... This time he was sure he saw something in her eyes... a deep, fiery red tinge... something was happening to his sister, and he wasn't sure what he was doing to do about it...